The Lettuce Wins Again  ✡️ 🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Iceberg Ahead:  Once again, the head of lettuce 🥬 🥬 has won, tossing rotten tomatoes 🍅 🍅 at Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise’ speaker aspirations. Naturally since it’s Trump’s party, the lettuce got some help from the mango maniac who while adding Hezbollah’s leaders to his smart list, an ignominious group that already includes such luminaries as Putin, Duterte, Xi and Kim Jong un, added fuel to concerns about Scalise’s health troubles not that Trump cares one whit about Scalise’s cancer fight.  Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna who’d extracted commitments from Scalise in exchange for her support quickly reneged on their deal, shifting her allegiance to his competitor Jim “Gym” Jordan as did a number of others who took Trump’s Scalise health concerns as a not-so-subtle order.  Moreover, the jacketless Gymbo who publicly said he’d back Scalise and nominate him on the floor, privately told Scalise that in exchange he’d need a promise of support for his run if Scalise couldn’t garner the required 217 votes.  Scalise wasn’t interested in that deal and as the day wore on, facing the reality that McCarthy had faced and unwilling to make all the commitments McCarthy had made to the far right, he threw in the towel, dropping out of the race. What’s next?  With Scalise out of the way, Gym Jordan is trying to lock up votes and he will pick some up, but he’ll have a hard time finding 217 which isn’t to say that he won’t play hardball, twisting wrists, and using all of Trump’s resources as he tries. Should Jordan fail, and most pundits, excluding his fans at Fox and in the rest of the right-wing media, believe he will fall short too, House Republicans could:  try to find a consensus candidate;  could ask Democrats to help them temporarily add to the limited powers of the little bow tie guy, Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry; or could reach all the way across the aisle to seek a power sharing arrangement with Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and his crowd.  Don’t raise your expectations for inter-party cooperation, although some quiet low-level conversations between Democrats and Republicans are reported to be taking place and Hakeem has publicly said he’d welcome it, the likelihood of the “burn it all down” Republicans reaching a long-term deal with Hakeem and his crowd remains low, though the odds have grown just a smidge.  That said, agreeing to grant additional powers to McHenry, fueled by a bipartisan desire to get iron dome funding to Israel, is a real possibility. As to Trump saying that those nice Hezbollah guys are smart, he’s gotten lots of criticism from both sides of the aisle and from Israel. It would be nice to think that any of that mattered, but we’ve been down this road before and at least to date, nothing has managed to pierce his Teflon armor. Republicans are in disarray, the clock is ticking, Israel needs money, Ukraine needs money, and the US government will close on November 17 if another continuing resolution or budget isn’t passed.      

 

Friday the Thirteenth:  Former Hamas leader Khaled Mashal wants today to be a global day of rage and anger, calling for demonstrations to send a “message to Zionists (i.e., Jews) and to America.” Virtually, every Jewish house of worship, school and community has received messages warning them of the threat.  Police, in NYC and in communities across the country are ramping up protection, at Jewish facilities and in case of retaliatory attacks at Muslim ones too.  Though most synagogues plan to go ahead with services tonight, a number of schools, particularly those with pre-school programs are remaining closed today. Probably not a Kristallnacht, but it’s hard to miss the similar sentiment. Over in the Middle East, Israel appears determined to eliminate Hamas and has told 1.1 million Gazan civilians to leave their homes, not that they have anywhere to go as their other neighbor Egypt doesn’t seem all that interested in allowing them to pass through its border.  The consequences of last weekend’s attack are growing increasingly deadly with little end in sight.  Somewhere on earth two there’s a peaceful solution to this impending catastrophe, sadly here on earth one not so much.

 

Stay safe.       

Babies and Toddlers, WTF ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Both Sides:  A shout out to the Democratic Socialists and far too many university students and groups, including at least one really foolish, now jobless NYU law student leader, for reminding us that being hateful and callous in the face of horror is not unique to the right.  Who could have guessed that advocating for Palestinian rights while holding up swastikas as news about the decapitation of infants and toddlers by Hamas terrorists was coming to light wasn’t, to borrow a phrase from Martha Stewart, “a good thing?”  Doubling down by saying that some of the children were just killed by Hamas terrorists rather than decapitated also not so good, to say the least. Not all members of the Democratic Socialists contingent, a group that includes the so-called Democratic Squad, are backing away from their “blame Israel for everything” position, though a few have walked back some of their undying adoration for all things Palestinian with wishy washy heavily word-smithed statements that acknowledge Hamas’ depravity.  Some like Representative Shri Thanedar have had it though, the Michigan Congressman is revoking his Democratic Socialist membership over its promotion of what he called the “anti-Semitic rally” in New York City and NY Congressman Jamaal Bowman, who earlier came under criticism from the group for traveling to Israel and who is currently best known for pulling a House fire alarm, quietly let his membership lapse a while ago. Naturally, Trump who popularized the “both sides” philosophy with his response to the Charlottesville’s tiki torch hate rally, is now going after Bibi Netanyahu, not for his right wing positions nor his efforts to limit Supreme Court powers, but in an odd word salad where he drudged up the past to say that Bibi failed him for not helping the US with the 2020 drome strike that killed Suleimani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp as if that’s what anyone sane is focused on right now. So basically, since Bibi, who closely aligned himself with Trump, is deservedly in hot water for the intelligence failures that led up to last weekend’s attacks not to mention some of those other things, Trump is distancing himself from his one-time friend because that’s what Trump does. As to Bibi, yesterday he agreed to form a unity government to deal with Israel’s unprecedented crisis. And the saddest thing is that nothing can be done to undo what’s happened.  The suffering will continue, yes on both sides, because war sucks.  Hamas didn’t just attack Israel, by focusing on hate and destruction, the terrorists have failed their own people, bigly.   

Déjà vu:  Yesterday by a vote of 113 to 99, House Republicans voted to nominate Louisiana’s Steve Scalise rather than Ohio’s Jim “Gym” Jordan as their Speaker candidate.  Unfortunately for Scalise, he needs 217 votes to win and at the current time he doesn’t have near that many.  Though Jordan says he’ll support Scalise, quite a few of Gym’s supporters say they won’t vote for Scalise, and a significant number of others say they won’t support either candidate. Scalise is now facing the same dilemma that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy faced last January and no surprise, it appears that he’s following Kevin’s “promise everything to everyone” playbook.  Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna says that he won her over by promising that he’ll meet her demands which include nothing for her district but do include defunding Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, holding a House floor impeachment vote on Biden and issuing a subpoena for son Hunter. Margie Q says that she adores Scalise but won’t vote for him because of her concern that serving as Speaker will impede his cancer recovery, her way of saying that she’s taking orders from a higher authority: Trump, Putin, or both.  Lauren Boebert is still in the Jordan camp because she won’t support anyone who was previously in leadership. Colorado’s Ken Buck says that he won’t support Scalise or Jordan because neither is willing to say that Biden won the 2020 election.  Then there’s South Carolina Nancy Mace, who says she voted to oust McCarthy because he failed to take her concerns about victims of sex crimes seriously. Mace says that she won’t vote for Scalise because of his KKK affinity.  That’s nice but she voted for Jim Jordan and would still vote for him despite the accusations that he failed to stand up for the members of his wrestling team even though according to those team members he knew they were being sexually attacked by an Ohio State doctor. In a party of not serious people, Mace may be one of the most unserious.  That list is just the tip of the iceberg, Scalise is short far more votes which is why no floor vote was held yesterday. There are some suggestions that a dark horse could still emerge, someone like the current Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry or even less likely, McCarthy. Despite the fact that the Democratic caucus runs the gamut from blue dog to socialist, Hakeem Jeffries won all their votes and will be the party’s candidate for Speaker which is nice but means little unless some of the vulnerable so-called moderate, but not really, Republicans cross the aisle and they most likely won’t. And because having a House in disarray has consequences, both Ukraine and Israel funding which may or may not be tied together is up in the air and the government budget deadline and a possible shutdown loom.   

🤡 🚗: Kari Lake who still hasn’t conceded the Arizona gubernatorial race that she lost announced that she’s running for Senate for the seat currently held by former Democrat/now Independent Kyrsten Sinema.  Lake was immediately endorsed by Trump.  Sinema who’s swimming in campaign cash hasn’t announced her intentions.  Congressman Ruben Gallego is likely to be the Democratic candidate in what could turn out to be a three-way race.  The pile of 💩 surrounding George of many names Santos stinks and is growing. In a superseding indictment made public on Tuesday, federal prosecutors charged him with stealing the identities of family members and using donors’ credit cards. The mendacious Santos asserts he’s totally innocent and would never enter into a plea agreement but there are reports that he is currently in discussions with prosecutors about such an agreement.  A group of New York freshman Republican Congressman, including Esposito, Lawler, Molinaro, LaLota and Langworthy, all except Langworthy in swing districts, say they plan to introduce a resolution to have Santos expelled from Congress but it’s hard to believe that Republican leadership will do that because they can ill afford to lose Santos’ vote.  Then there’s Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s former press secretary who is now the Governor of Arkansas.  She’s apparently involved in a “podium gate” scandal, something that involves spending state funds on a bespoke expensive podium while also paying for her friends to accompany her on a trip to Paris. Bedbugs anyone?     

 

Broken  ✡️✡️✡️

Pearl Harbor + 9.11: Kidnapping and murder of old people, babies, concert goers, tearing families from their homes.  Disgusting and deplorable. There are no words to describe what happened over the weekend, not that the absence of coherent thought has stopped many from weighing in, some trying to justify the carnage.  To be clear, there is no justification.  My heart is broken, I’ll leave it at that.

Politics Unusual:  There’s never a good time for a region of the world to unravel but right now is a particularly bad time.  We don’t have a Speaker of the House and due to one Senator’s idiocy and obstinacy our military is missing confirmed leaders when and where we need them most and due to another group of Senators making ambassador confirmations extraordinarily difficult, we don’t have confirmed ambassadors in either Israel or Egypt.  Alabama’s footballer Tommy Tuberville, the Senator holding up the military confirmations, says that despite the events in Israel and Gaza, he plans to continue to block military promotions.  The Senators blocking or stalling ambassador confirmations include Rand Paul, JD Vance and Ted Cruz. Their reasons differ, Paul’s issue has to do with getting more “documents” about the origins of coronavirus, the other two are just doing their usual obstreperous thing, but the results are the same.  As to the Speaker situation, acting Speaker Patrick McHenry is only a space filler with limited powers, so at least for now he’s not considered a member of the Gang of Eight, the group that gets crucial security briefings. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who has called for the Republicans “to get their act together” because being rudderless isn’t a good look nor at this time a good thing, was provided with an update this weekend, but no Speaker was with him.  Before the Hamas attack took place there were suggestions that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was considering leaving Congress before the end of his term but that doesn’t appear to be happening.  In fact, there are reports that he’s trying to wiggle himself back into the Speaker spot.  That’s probably not going to happen but really, who knows for sure because at least so far, neither Trump endorsed Jim “Gym” Jordan nor Steve Scalise, who only appears more palatable because his alternative is the insurrectionist Gym guy, have the support they’ll need to become Speaker. When not blaming President Biden for the Gaza attack, the two Republican Speaker candidates spent the weekend working the phones trying to drum up support for their respective candidacies.  Their Housemates held their first group grope last night with the plan of coming-up with a consensus candidate in time to start open floor voting on Wednesday or maybe Thursday or with this crowd maybe never. Democrats remain united behind Hakeem Jeffries but united as they are, they don’t have the votes to take the Speakership.  The Democrats would only need a few of those so-called moderates from swing districts to help elect Jeffries, but that happening is a pipedream and, anyway, those are the same Republicans who are trying to get Kevin back, another thing that’s highly unlikely.

The Peanut Gallery:  Chief nut, Trump insists that the Hamas attack wouldn’t have happened on his watch and judging by Facebook, X and Threads, a large number of his fans agree.  RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel said the Hamas attack was a “great opportunity for Republican candidates” because apparently all that death and heartache is okay if it’s good for Republicans? Virtually all of the Republican politicians who have weighed in, have blamed the attack on Biden’s decision to free up the $6 billion of Iranian assets frozen in South Korean accounts in exchange for the release of five American hostages even though that money is now unspent in Qatari hands. To the extent that Iran helped Hamas, and though the facts remain murky right now, they probably did, this weekend’s attack which not so coincidentally took place on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war, was planned in advance of the hostage release, but blaming Biden makes for a good talking point and a potential vote generator. Because bad takes are a both sides thing, a number of prominent Democrats, mostly “Squad” members have also weighed in on the Hamas attack, holding Israel responsible.  Note to all, shifting blame for death, the kidnapping of children and Holocaust survivors and the killing of concert goers, many of whom were sympathetic to the plight of the Gazans, is bad, period.  Moving on to other nuts, RFK Jr has announced what everyone kind of knew he was going to announce.  He’s running for president as an independent.  He says he wants to disrupt the race and hopes that his polling will earn him a spot on the debate stage, not that it’s clear that there will be debates as who know if Trump will ever participate. Nepo-RFK’s family isn’t happy about his run.  Last night, four of them including former Maryland Lt Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Representative Joseph Kennedy II, Rory Kennedy ,and Kerry Kennedy issued a statement denouncing his run, calling it perilous for the country. Then there’s that other nut, George of many names Santos, who is still in Congress because Republicans need his vote. It turns out that the reason that the “real” source of the $500,000 or so that he claimed to have lent himself has been so difficult to track is because it doesn’t it exist.  As part of her plea deal, his former treasurer, revealed that the loan was fabricated, a fake book entry created to convince the National Republican Congressional Committee that he had raised enough funds to qualify for financial assistance from their special partnership program for promising candidates. Apparently being a liar and a scammer makes you a promising candidate if you have a certain amount of money on hand.  

And: On Friday, a NY appeals court judge declined to halt Trump’s civil fraud trial while he fights the pretrial ruling that stripped him of control of lots of his assets but did agree to leave the control of the assets in his hands during the appeal process. Unfortunately Judge Eileen “loose” Cannon continues to slow walk the Mar a Lago purloined documents case. She’s paused litigation as she considers a request from Trump to extend deadlines, as in to stall the case at least until after the election or preferably into the next century.

Am Yisrael Chai

 

 
Oust, Oust Damn Spot 🌻🌻🌻

Speaker Race 🏃‍♂️ 🏃‍♂️ 🏃‍♂️:  Despite hinting that he might, Trump is not running for Speaker, at least for now, but has thrown his considerable heft behind Ohio Congressman Jim “Gym” Jordan, the bombastic, jacket eschewing House Judiciary and Weaponization of the Government Committees Chair whose main challenger at this point is Louisiana’s Steve Scalise who had been second in command under ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Despite their connection, McCarthy is not supporting Scalise because he’s not happy that his “second” failed to step up to help him keep his seat.  As awful as Jordan is, and he is, and though Scalise is thought to be far more skilled in the ways of the House, Scalise is hardly a charmer.  He’s known for being KKK adjacent, in fact he has referred to himself as David Duke without the baggage. To summarize, Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz who’s been accused of having inappropriate relations with underage girls and who Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin says called South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem a fine bitch while sharing pictures of his conquests with House members and bragging about his mixing of Viagra with Red Bull to enhance his prowess triggered McCarthy’s ouster and one of the leading candidates to replace McCarthy who has been endorsed by a multiply indicted sexual predator has been accused by six of the wrestlers he coached at Ohio State of turning a blind eye to the sexual abuse they endured at the hands of a university doctor and the other thinks that bragging about being like the former Grand Wizard of the KKK is a good thing.  Also, no one should be surprised to learn that Steve Bannon helped stoke the McCarthy ouster and that both Matt Gaetz and Nancy Mace who infuriated many by voting to dethrone Kevin after he contributed bigly to her campaign to hold her South Carolina seat, both appeared on Bannon’s podcast right after Kevin was forced to step down.  One more thing on the Kevin front, it turns out that he was behind both former Speaker Pelosi and Steny Hoyer evictions from their privileged “hideaway” offices. Word is that he plans to take over Nancy’s former digs, no report yet on who gets Steny’s. The Republican Party’s best?  The votes for Speaker are scheduled to start on Wednesday, must see TV assuming that watching trainwrecks is your thing.

Trump Trials:  Turning to the crime a minute, much indicted former guy, yesterday ABC News broke a story about how shortly after he left the White House, he shared secrets about the US submarine fleet with an Australian businessman who then shared those secrets with “scores” of his besties and some random acquaintances.  Notably the Aussie joined Mar a Lago in 2017 because he correctly calculated that that for a mere $200k he’d get access to Trump which would help him advance his personal business interests. As to all those impending trials getting in the way of Trump’s dictatorial aspirations, yesterday his lawyers went on the offensive in an attempt to extract him from and/or delay his various legal cases. To that end, they asked a Manhattan judge to throw out the criminal charges related to the hush money porn star payments, arguing that the case is interfering with Trump’s presidential campaign. They asked Judge Eileen “loose” Cannon to postpone the Mar a Lago purloined documents case until after the 2024 presidential election asserting that since they haven’t yet gotten access to all of the super-secret documents they need to peruse, they can’t possibly defend him now, and why should they since their plan is to get rid of all the federal cases against him if he or another Republican wins the 2024 election.  Along those lines expected to end up in the Supreme Court, they asked a federal judge to throw out the indictment accusing Trump of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, claiming that because those charges related to actions he took while still president he should be “absolutely immune from prosecution” because apparently staging a coup while in office is okay?  Trump’s lawyers also told NY fraud case Judge Engoron that they plan to seek a stay of his trial as well as a stay of his order to dissolve Trump’s corporate entities while they appeal all of his rulings.  Not all that surprising that they’re trying to do so since the NY fraud case threatens Trump’s livelihood and Judge Engoron, who Trump attacked mercilessly yesterday, has requested that a list of all of the investors in his properties be turned over ASAP.  Also, probably because he was due to be deposed momentarily, Trump has “temporarily” dismissed his retaliatory lawsuit against Michael Cohen, who he was suing for $500 million.     

🤡 🤡 🤡 Update:  Rudy Giuliani who hasn’t been paying his lawyers also owes the IRS around $500k so they’ve put a lien on an apartment he owns in Florida not to be confused with the $6 million apartment he’s selling in NYC which probably also has several liens on it.  George of many names Santos is still in Congress where Republicans want him to stay since they desperately need his vote to maintain the Speakership.  However, his life just got a little more complicated as Nancy Marks, his one-time campaign treasurer who served in the same role for former Congressman/gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin and a spate of other NYS Republicans pleaded guilty yesterday, admitting her role in fraudulently reporting a fictional $500k loan that Santos claimed to have made to his campaign. Pillow guy Mike Lindell has lost his lawyers, something about having no money to pay them.  And proving that Democrats can be sleazes too, we’ve learned a little more about NJ Senator Menendez and his wife, Nadine, none of it good.  It turns out that back when she was the Senator’s fiancée, Nadine totaled her car when she ran over and lethally injured a pedestrian. Not to worry, though the pedestrian is dead all’s good for Nadine because her car was quickly replaced with a Mercedes gifted to her by one of Menendez’s friends.  

And:  Biden is trying to clean up the mess at the border by building some wall!  He’s also looking for ways to fund weaponry for Ukraine through State Department grants since the mess in the House is likely to stall more traditional funding for a while. Cornell West, one of the potential spoiler candidates running for president, is no longer running on the Green Party ticket but instead says that he’ll go the independent route, a path that RFK Jr is expected to follow. Elon Musk, who is currently being investigated by the SEC not that he’s cooperating may be one of nepobaby RFK’s funders.  That’s Elon, whose X (formerly Twitter)  has been caught placing ads for mainstream companies such as Amazon, Samsung, the Denver Broncos, Cox Communications, STARZ, the WSJ, the Michael J Fox Foundation, the University of Missouri, Axios, Puck, and a few others on posts from VDARE a well-known, admittedly white supremacist organization. Musk and his so-called CEO Linda Yaccarino promised companies they would never ever display their ads next to hatemongers and some of them have now stopped advertising. How long before Musk blames the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for this too?  As to blaming the ADL, NBC media guy Ben Collins reports that since acquiring Twitter, Musk has been following a right-wing playbook written before he even bid for the company that not only detailed how one could run the “liberal woke platform” into the ground but also called for blaming the ADL for its failure.  Hmmm.              

 

Chaos Caucus🌻 🌻 🌻

Republicans in Disarray:  By a vote of 216 to 210, Kevin McCarthy was kicked to the curb yesterday.  Though he blamed his demise on the failure of Democrats to give him a lifeline, make no mistake, this is on him, his speakership was doomed from the start because that’s when he made the decision to give just one member of his caucus the right to call for his removal through a motion to vacate. As former Speakers Newt Gingrich, Paul Boehner and Paul Ryan all learned the hard way, House Republicans are virtually impossible to satisfy and suck at legislating but are really good at eating their own.  Moreover, it certainly didn’t help that Kevin burnt bridges on both sides of the aisle by reneging on deals and promises, including the budget agreement he made with President Biden to raise the debt ceiling. As promised, Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz led the effort to oust McCarthy.  He was joined by Arizona’s Andy Biggs, Colorado’s Ken Buck, Tennessee’s Tim Burchett, Arizona’s Eli Crane, Virginia’s Bob Good, South Carolina’s Nancy Mace and Montana’s Matt Rosendale. Sure, Democrats could have saved McCarthy’s butt, but that never all that steady ship sailed when he told a few Sunday news hosts that it was their fault that the government nearly shut down last week, a particularly disingenuous claim given that more Democrats than Republicans voted to pass the continuing resolution that kept the government open. It also didn’t help that he facilitated the opening of the inquiry into a Biden impeachment.

What’s Next:  The short answer is that it’s anybody’s guess.  For now, North Carolina Representative Patrick McHenry, one of McCarthy’s top lieutenants, is serving as Speaker Pro Tempore. McHenry says that he doesn’t plan to run for the Speaker position and has scheduled what is likely to be a challenging Speaker vote for next Wednesday.  About all you need to know about McHenry can be summed up by his first move.  Before scheduling the vote and putting the House into a one-week recess, he ordered Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi to vacate the special hideaway office she occupies by tradition as a former Speaker.  Even worse, he demanded that she do so by today, telling her the office was being rekeyed and that her belongings would be tossed to the curb, maybe even gifted to some January insurrectionists, if she didn’t remove them ASAP.  That’s vindictive and also unnecessarily cruel as Pelosi, who didn’t vote yesterday, isn’t even in Washington.  Well before the vote to dethrone McCarthy, she accompanied Senator Dianne Feinstein’s body back to San Francisco and has been there ever since, preparing for tomorrow’s memorial service. Several Republicans names are being bandied about as possible replacements for McCarthy.  The list of possibilities includes Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana who is currently being treated for multiple myeloma;  bombastic Ohioan, Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan;  Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota; Rules Committee Chair Tom Cole of Oklahoma; and New York’s Trump fangirl Elise Stefanik. Since the Speaker doesn’t have to be a member of Congress, a few, including Margie Q want Trump to run and a few others, mostly not currently sitting in Congress would love to see former Representative Liz Cheney throw her hat in the ring.  All of the candidates, with the possible exception of Trump whose policy positions have more to do with retribution and personal aggrandizement than anything else, fall to the right of McCarthy on most issues.  Remember, that though Liz deserves praise for standing up to Trump she voted with him on almost everything and still insists that Democrats support abortion after birth. She would need all of those Democrats plus a bunch of Republicans to support her and that’s very unlikely.  As to Trump, hard to contemplate but we should all take solace knowing that he’d hate the job because Speakers actually have to work and anyway his plate is full given his presidential run, he’s busy with all of those court cases and the Speaker’s aircraft is smaller than his.

Shut Up Already! As to Trump, at least one judge has had it with his intentionally threatening, intimidating and dangerous social media posts.  Yesterday Trump attacked Arthur Engoron’s clerk,  posting on Truth Social that “Schumer’s girlfriend, Allison R. Greenfield, is running this case against me. How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately.” His post included a link to Greenfield’s Instagram profile. To be clear, Greenfield is not and has never been Schumer’s girlfriend. In response to the post, a really angry Judge Engoron ordered Trump to take it down.  Trump did but not before it was widely shared.  The Judge went on to say that “Personal attacks of any member of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them.” He followed up with a gag order, forbidding all parties involved in the fraud case from “posting, emailing, or speaking publicly about any members of my staff.  Adding, “failure to abide by this will result in serious sanctions.” Bigly bucks or an orange jumpsuit? That jumpsuit thing is probably just wishcasting but still. Though neither Special Counsel Jack Smith nor Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan are involved in Trump’s NY fraud case, it’s fair to assume that both are aware of Trump’s post and Engoran’s order.  Not good for Trump but maybe good for the rest of us.

  

The Witching Hour 🌻 🌻 🌻 🧙‍♀️ 🧙‍♀️ 🧙‍♀️

The Trump Show:  Mistakes happen, that’s my excuse for the higher than usual number of typos in yesterday’s blog.  Still, it’s hard to believe that Trump’s legal team really “forgot” to ask for his business crushing New York fraud case to be heard in front of a jury rather than as a bench trial in front of only a judge. In response to Trump’s complaint that it was “very unfair that he didn’t have a jury presiding” Judge Arthur Engoran said that there wasn’t a jury because “nobody asked for one.”  To be fair, most of co-defense counsel Alina Habba’s trial experience has had far more to do with fighting speeding tickets and COVID restrictions than mega civil fraud cases so maybe she really did forget to check the “jury” box.  In any case, Trump who sat through yesterday’s proceedings, mostly quietly steaming but becoming obviously agitated when his former accountant testified, appears to understand that things aren’t going well for him in court. Evidence of that is that even for him, his performance outside the court, in front of the cameras, was unusually wacko. He called Judge Engoran deranged, called for him to be kicked out of office and quoting one or more of his imaginary friends, perhaps Jim from Paris, added that “this is a judge that some people say could be charged criminally for what he’s doing.” He also dismissed the suit against him and his sons as a “witch 🧙‍♀️ 🧙‍♀️ 🧙‍♀️ hunt,” not unusual for him but at least this time seasonally appropriate.  None of those statements are intended to win over the “deranged” judge, they’re directed at his base and anyone else who’s ever felt mistreated by the powers that be and if we’ve learned anything by now, it’s that Trump’s rants can be effective and dangerous. If Judge Engoran’s security hasn’t been increased, it should be because though few of Trump’s fans were hanging outside court, as Paul Pelosi learned, it only takes one nut to do lots of damage.

Vacating: For a moment it appeared that Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz was holding his “motion to vacate” in reserve but then last night he went for it.  As a result, later this week Speaker McCarthy is expected to face a vote that could result in him being ousted from his perch atop the House. Gaetz says that he has enough Republican votes to ensure that one of two things will happen, either McCarthy won’t be the Speaker of the House or “he’ll be the Speaker working at the pleasure of the Democrats.”  Assuming Gaetz has the requisite votes, given the Republican’s slim House margin he doesn’t need more than a handful, McCarthy may have to strike some kind of deal with Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries to hold on to his Speakership. It wouldn’t be normal for Democrats to vote for a Republican Speaker but we’re in unchartered waters and at least at this point there doesn’t appear to be another Republican who could get the votes to assume the speakership, it doesn’t help that second in Republican leadership Steve Scalise is currently undergoing chemo treatments.  Leader Jeffries could direct his caucus, or at least a few members of his caucus to vote for Kevin or he could direct enough of them to vote “present” to allow Kevin to win another slim majority. Jeffries won’t help McCarthy out of his mess without extracting something significant in exchange.  Stay tuned.        

A Bit Late: One time Trump Chief of Staff Kelly, who is known for his taciturn ways has finally spoken. Perhaps he was influenced by Trump’s call for former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milly to be shot for treason, but whatever triggered him to open up he went all out confirming that Trump really did say all the horrible things he’s reported to have said including: “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France….A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason – in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law…..There is nothing more that can be said, G-d help us.”  It’s nice that Kelly has finally spoken but where was he when he was Chief of Staff? Or during the impeachment hearings? Or the 2020 election? 

And:  Hunter Biden is due in court today for the gun charges that typically only hardened criminals get indicted for.  And Jamaal Bowman, the New York Democrat who either intentionally or accidentally pulled a House fire alarm on Saturday is now apologizing for an “unapproved” statement put out by a member of his staff.  In that statement he called House Republicans “GOP Nazis.” Bowman needs to read up on Godwin’s Law and take a vow of silence before he digs himself into a hole he can’t get out of.   

The Seinfeld Effect 🌻 🌻 🌻

Stopgap: Good news, planes are still being guided by paid air controllers as the government closing about nothing hasn’t happened, as least so far.  After 21 members of the chaos caucus, including usual nihilists Matt Gaetz, Margie Q, Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar, Matt Rosendale, and Nancy Mace, who occasionally pretends to be normal, voted against a Republican continuing funding resolution (CR) that included drastic cuts, mostly targeting social services, health care and education programs as well as the usual anti-woke signaling, Speaker McCarthy reached across the aisle to Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries to enlist his help in passing a 45 day stopgap funding alternative that doesn’t include any of those cuts or the anti-woke stuff but also doesn’t provide Ukraine funding.  To be clear, the crazies who voted against the Republican plan liked the funding cuts but said they were offended by the process, code for Trump told them to vote no. All but one of Leader Jeffries’ Democrats voted for the “compromise” CR after extracting a promise from McCarthy that Ukraine funding will be brought up for a House vote shortly. Though a number of Republicans will vote against funding Ukraine, the majority in both the House and Senate are actually in support of Ukraine so the challenge is getting Kevin to honor his promise, assuming that he doesn’t get ousted before he can. Illinois’ Mike Quigley was the one Democratic outlier to vote against the CR only because he doesn’t trust that McCarthy will follow through on funding Ukraine. Ninety House Republicans, the usual nihilists plus a bunch more voted against the “bipartisan” CR which was subsequently passed by the Senate with only nine Republican Senators, Marsha Blackburn, Mike Braun, Ted Cruz, Bill Haggerty, Roger Marshall, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Eric Schmitt and JD Vance voting against it. President Biden signed the CR so for now, the government remains open but absent the passage of any budget, the whole “will they or won’t they” close down exercise will be repeated right before Thanksgiving.

Winning? The consensus is that the passage of the CR was a win for Democrats and proof that Hakeem Jeffries was paying attention when Nancy Pelosi was the Democratic leader.  That said, there was one wrinkle. For a variety of reasons, including a lack of trust in McCarthy, Democrats stalled the vote while their staffs read through the text of the CR that McCarthy gave them at the last minute. Part of that stall involved Jeffries delivering a lengthy floor speech but unfortunately it also included NY Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s intentional or accidental pulling of a fire alarm.  Not good, but a “crime” that pales in comparison to Trump’s 90 plus indictments and George of many names Santos crime spree but just because they can, a number of Republicans, including the reliably awful third in command Elise Stefanik and her mentor Trump are calling for Bowman to be tossed from the House.  For his part Bowman has apologized and is cooperating with an investigation into his misdeed. Now, back to Republican intrigue, Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz hit the Sunday morning talk show circuit where he promised to file a motion to vacate to oust Speaker McCarthy this week.  Gaetz acknowledges that he doesn’t have a viable Republican alternative but doesn’t seem to care because disruption is his brand. Many believe that Gaetz is just positioning himself for a run for Governor once DeSantis terms out and/or trying to land a right-wing cable news hosting gig. A number of House Republicans are now threatening to oust Gaetz from Congress to stop him from ousting McCarthy so that cable news slot could happen sooner rather than later.  Should Gaetz move forward with the motion to vacate, McCarthy’s survival might hinge on Democrat Hakeem Jeffries providing him with “survival” votes, something Jeffries will only do if he gets something bigly in exchange. Some possibilities include a power sharing arrangement, ending the Biden impeachment inquiry, and ousting Santos. Ousting Santos would be easy, the others not so much but these are unusual times.      

RIP Dianne Feinstein: Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein passed away early Friday morning. The 90-year-old Feinstein was a trailblazer in so many ways.  She was committed to environmental protection, reproductive rights and gun control and was known to be an effective legislator particularly adept at reaching across the aisle to get things done. She was also on the Senate Judiciary Committee, one of the reasons that despite her obvious frailty she stuck it out until the end as Republican leader Mitch McConnell had made it clear that he wouldn’t allow Democrats to appoint anyone to the Committee if she resigned early, something that would have impeded Biden’s judicial confirmations. Republicans now say that they will “allow” Democrats to fill her committee slot. As to Feinstein’s Senate seat, California Governor Gavin Newsom, who after one time California Senator Kamala Harris became VP, promised to appoint a Black woman to replace Feinstein when she departed, will stand by his promise.  He is expected to appoint Laphonza Butler, the President of Emily’s List, to serve out DiFi’s term. Butler’s appointment allows Newsom to avoid weighing in on the competitive battle between Adam Schiff, Barbara Lee, and Katie Porter, the three Democratic members of Congress seeking the seat.  May Feinstein’s memory be for a blessing.  

 

Trump Court:  For better or really for worse, Trump is still among us.  He’ll be taking a brief break from sh-t posting threatening messages on Truth Social to appear in a New York Court this week.  It’s not clear that he’ll actually be called to testify, but he does plan to attend the opening of his civil fraud trial.  Though presiding Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled that Trump committed business fraud by grossly overvaluing his assets, several charges remain outstanding as does the determination of penalties.  In other legal news, on Friday Trump agreed to stop trying to move his Fulton County case to federal court which means that his trial will be held in Fulton County where it will be televised as will the trial of former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark’s, as he along with three of the fake electors lost their bids to have their trial moved to federal court. Also on Friday, District Attorney Fani Willis achieved her first victory after Scott Hall, one of the 19 defendants in her election interference RICO case became the first defendant to reach a plea deal.  Hall’s deal requires him to be a cooperating witness, which could be a real problem for some of the other co-defendants particularly his phone buddy kraken lawyer Sidney Powell whose trial is scheduled to begin this month.  Shifting to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s turf, Judge Tanya Chutkan will be hearing arguments on the request to curb Trump’s continuing “pattern of incendiary and intimidating statements” on October 26.  

 

Mad, Mad World:   RFJ Jr, who according to a recent Vanity Fair article written by Joe Hagan and entitled RFK Jr’s Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World takes what the scion/nepo-baby calls “natural steroid supplements” to pump up his body and maybe also fuel his noted demons, is planning to leave the Democratic party to run for president as an independent. That’s not all that surprising given that RFK’s backers include the likes of Steve Bannon and Trump super PAC donor Timothy Mellon. It’s not clear who RFK would take more votes from, Trump or Biden.  Weird how someone who opposes vaccines has no problem ingesting questionable, unregulated supplements.  As to some of the vaccines that RFK Jr opposes, this morning the Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman for their work on mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.  Though there’s no indication that NJ’s Democratic Senator Robert Menendez takes steroids, maybe he should start because that would give him something to blame his irrational risk-taking, law-breaking behavior on.  Though more than half of his Democratic colleagues have called for him to step down, Menendez appears determined to stay put, well at least until he strikes a deal with prosecutors.  And lastly, though he’s doesn’t belong among this cohort, it looks like Senator John Fetterman will have to start wearing suits on the Senate floor as his colleagues have voted to reimpose dressing standards because when you can’t accomplish much else go for ties.  Fetterman, whose sense of humor appears to have fully returned tweeted out a picture of himself looking dapper in a suit while saying he can live with that.