Just an Ordinary Day in U.S. Politics

On November 7, Ohio will vote on an anti-abortion citizens’ initiative to eliminate the six-weeks’ deadline for the procedure. Supporters of the measure have forced the state to give a clear description of the initiative, but the state now has an official government website describing “abortion on demand” or “dismemberment of fully conscious children” if voters approve it. The “On the Record” state blog supposedly presents “the views the news excludes” with attacks on Ohio news outlets countered by GOP state senators’ op-ed columns and their communications staff. It claims to have “facts, values, and reason” after Ohio voters successfully opposed the GOP attempt to make passing constitutional amendments more difficult.  Law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law, Mary Ruth Ziegler, said the blog legally “crosses a line” because people would believe that an official government website provides neutral information.

The state’s GOP governor, Mike Dewine, is trying to keep people from voting for the measure by pledging that he will add the rape and incest exceptions added to the state’s current six-week abortion ban, currently in the courts. He waited to make the promise until a recent poll found 55 percent support for the initiative. He added that people have the opportunity to “come up with something that is acceptable to the majority of Ohioans” if they vote against he measure.   

Other states are working toward democracy:

The GOP-controlled Wisconsin Senate can’t fire the state’s nonpartisan top elections official, according to the state Supreme Court. Meagan Wolfe had been the subject of conspiracy theories that she took part in rigging the 2020 election to favor legally elected Joe Biden who received 21,000 votes more than opponent Dictator Donald Trump (DDT).

A federal judge will decide the legality of 250,000 Georgia voters after Republicans accused them of voter fraud. The question is whether a 2020 campaign to unmask illegal voters was intended to intimidate legal ones. True the Vote, a right-wing group, offered $1 million bounties for evidence of “election malfeasance” and recruited poll watchers for the close vote in 2023 for Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats. The liberal political action committee Fair Fight Inc. accused the Republicans of violating the Voting Rights Act intimidation clause. Helping to produce the film 2,000 Mules purporting now-debunked charges of ballot-stuffing, True the Vote planned to challenge 364,000 voter registrations in Georgia.

Bypassing a state appeals court, the Oregon Supreme Court will hear a case from five state GOP Senators prevented from running for re-election after they violated Measure, 113, a new constitutional amendment. They were half the ten GOP senators who walked out of the legislature to block it from doing any business for six weeks. Republican Tim Knopp claims that the new law referred not to the next term but to the one after that. The filing deadline to run for the next legislative term is March 12. Two of the defendants, Dennis Linthicum and Art Robinson, have a contingency plan: their relatives filed to run in their places. Oral arguments begin on December 14.

Japan’s Supreme Court declared a mandatory sterilization surgery for transgender people to officially change their gender, a 2003 law, is unconstitutional. The religious Alliance Defending Freedom, former employer of the new House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) supports this mandatory sterilization, a practice not required in most of the approximately 50 European and central Asian countries allow people to change their gender on official documents.

After tentatively settling with Ford last Thursday, members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) may also have an agreement with Stellantis (Chrysler, Jeep, and Ram) on Saturday. The union called it “a record contract” after striking since September 15. General Motors, the third of Detroit’s Big Three, may also have agreed to a tentative deal on Monday; GM was motivated by a strike action at its Spring Hill (TN) battery plant.  According to GM, the strike was costing the company $200 million a week, not counting the Spring Hill plant and the Arlington Assembly plant in Texas where GM builds its big SUVs, also suffering from the UAW strike.

The union used two strategies for this strike, going after all three auto companies and phasing in strikers from 13,000 to 40,000 of the 146,000 members. Another winning tactic was UAW’s President Shawn Fain talking about fighting back against “corporate greed” after workers sacrificed to help the car companies survive.

After DDT filed an appeal to keep his daughter Ivanka from testifying in the civil business fraud case in New York, the Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that she must take the witness stand. He stated that she continued to have businesses in New York and owns Manhattan apartments. DDT’s children are scheduled to testify this week.  

On the flip side of democracy:

MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) began his term as Speaker to attack President Joe Biden’s $105 billion plan to provide aid for the border, Israel, and Ukraine. The House bill proposes $14.3 emergency aid to Israel, funding taken from cutting IRS funds, thereby protecting Republicans’ wealthy friends. The measure going to the House Rules Committee on Wednesday has no assistance for Ukraine.

The White House accused Republicans of trying to “help the wealthy and big corporations cheat on their taxes” with a proposal that would grow the deficit. The Inflation Reduction Act included $80 billion for the IRS that would “increase revenues by approximately $200 billion” over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. In the past, each dollar spent auditing the top 1 percent of wage earners brought in $3.18, $6.29 for the top 0.1 percent. Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) said Johnson’s plan is “horrifying” and “a non-starter” in the Senate.

Ranking minority member on the House Appropriations Committee, Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), said the bill sets a “dangerous precedent,” making “protecting national security or responding to natural disasters … contingent upon cuts to other programs.” She added that the bill also has no funding for humanitarian aid.

On Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee will have a hearing on the White House’s $105 billion national security supplemental funding request. Senators plan to finish its first three-bill spending package, delayed since September 30, with funding for Military Construction/VA, Agriculture, and Transportation-HUD. Before final passage, the chamber has several more amendment votes.

The House has passed five of its 12 individual spending bills: Energy-Water, Defense, Homeland Security, Military Construction-VA and State-Foreign Operations. All these, however, contain poison culture-war amendments making them unacceptable in the Senate. Johnson said multiple votes on Wednesday will be on Legislative, Interior-EPA and Transportation-HUD appropriations bills. The remaining appropriation bills in the House to be passed are the most difficult ones: Labor, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science and Financial Services. Passing the bills in the House is only the first step; from there, all measures must be reconciled with votes in the Senate. Tuesday may also see a vote to advance Jack Lew’s appointment as ambassador to Israel.

The House’s Wednesday agenda is cluttered with other business: an expulsion motion against George Santos (R-NY), a resolution from Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to censure Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Becca Balint’s (D-VT) censure motion against MTG, a censure motion by Lisa McClain (R-MI.) to censure Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) for accidentally pulling a fire alarm during last month’s vote for a funding bill, and Max Miller’s (R-OH) attempt to change the motion to vacate. To gain votes for his Speaker campaign, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) allowed one person to initiate a vote to remove the Speaker. Since Matt Gaetz (R-FL) used that to remove McCarthy from Speaker, Miller wants to force 112 members, either majority or minority, to sign a resolution before a vote could be taken.

Although Johnson has said he wants a continuing resolution to prevent a shutdown in 16 days, the reason used for ousting McCarthy, the announced schedule doesn’t seem to cover it. Some conservative House members say they could be amenable to a CR, but the Senate has started a pushback against operating a CR through the end of 2023.

Far-right hardliners in the House admit they were wrong in their strategy in pressuring McCarthy for lower spending levels and conservative policy riders, but their solution is not to put back the ousted Speaker. Instead they plan to be more lenient with the new guy. Former objectors to the CR causing McCarthy to leave such as Ralph Norman (SC), Chip Roy (TX), and Dan Bishop (NC) say they will support a stopgap measure. Not all right-wing House members are convinced. Andy Biggs (AZ) said he had voted for a “stinker” but doesn’t know how many more he “can vote for.” Bob Good (VA) however, said he has “trust” in Johnson because he’s “honest.”

Meanwhile, “honest” MAGA Mike is trying to hide his beliefs by scrubbing all 69 podcasts from his personal website. Also gone are references to his wife’s business website, Onward Christian Counseling. According to HuffPost, Kelly Johnson “runs a counseling business that advocates the belief that homosexuality is comparable to bestiality and incest.” Johnson is both a far-right Christian nationalist and Christian dominionist, believing that Christians should control an anti-civil rights and anti-human rights U.S. government.  

More DDT Setbacks

The 2024 GOP presidential candidate race has one fewer competitor. Unable to find enough donors, former VP Mike Pence gave his farewell speech in Las Vegas to the Republican Jewish Coalition citing his inability to rise over the popularity of Deposed Donald Trump (DDT). Pence was fifth in the polling and had not qualified for the November 8 debate. Even his extreme evangelical ideology didn’t help him rise above Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy. 

While campaigning for president in 2016, DDT promised he would “surround myself only with the best and most serious people … top of the line professionals.” Many people he picked have been indicted—like himself—and sometimes convicted.

Indictment may contribute to his mind’s deterioration, demonstrated in his rallies and posts. 

• In New Hampshire, he called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán the leader of Turkey and “one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world.”
• He thought he was the first person to refer to us as “U.S.” when talking to French president Emmanuel Macron.
• He confused the Bush brothers by saying that Jeb deployed troops to the Middle East when George W. made that a presidential act.
• He accused Joe Biden of starting World War II.
• Several times, DDT he bragged about defeating Barack Obama or George W. Bush in 2016 when he ran against Hillary Clinton.
• Also in New Hampshire, he told his audience he had never been indicted and added, “Practically never heard the word. It wasn’t a word that registered.” He has been arraigned for four different indictments with 91 felony charges, 44 federal and 47 state, in three separate jurisdictions. Georgia’s arraignment included his mug shot.
• In Iowa, he gave a hearty welcome to Sioux Falls, a city in South Dakota 80 miles away from his rally at Iowa’s Sioux City.   

Sidney Powell’s plea deal in the Georgia RICO case may being to light another DDT illegal act. On November 14, 2020, DDT tweeted that Powell was “added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives,” but she was also representing Mike Flynn about lying to the FBI, the grand jury, and a judge—a conflict of interest. Powell was still representing Flynn on December 18, 2020. DDT pardoned Mike Flynn on November 25, 2020, possibly in exchange for Flynn promoting election denial claims and helping to incite the January 6 insurrection. The DOJ stated that a presidential pardon as part of a quid pro quo is unlawful and Powell would have been conflicted from being DDT’s lawyer because she was working for Flynn. DDT has now posted on Truth Social that “MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS.”

DDT told his rally audiences that they don’t need to vote and directed them to watch others voters. Fueling anger at Black poll workers, he shared an image on Truth Social captioned, “Start arresting the poll workers and watch how fast they tell you who told them to cheat.” The accusation is reminiscent of two Black poll workers in Georgia targeted by DDT and his allies with racist lies after the 2020 election. DDT and other Republicans are recruiting MAGA members along with neo-Nazis and Klan members as poll watchers, and DDT-pardoned Roger Stone is sending volunteers to nine Democratic cities with large minority populations.

In his history of the Mississippi Ku Klux Klan, Michael Newton writes about Klansmen in the early 1900s serving as poll watchers to “make the negroes vote ‘right.’” A 1982 consent decree restricted the RNC’s ability to use poll watchers after it used armed off-duty officers to intimidate Black and Hispanic voters in New Jersey. A federal judge allowed the consent decree to expire in 2018, and Republicans began to build poll-watching activities and fuel vigilantism. In 2022, reports of armed people watching ballot drop boxes in the Phoenix area raised concerns about voter intimidation, but RNC chair Ronna McDaniel said, “Poll watching is not intimidating.”

New York:

DDT is scheduled to testify on November 6 In New York’s civil trial regarding his alleged business fraud. Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka are set for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. An appeals court dismissed Ivanka as a defendant because the claims against her are too old. Furious, DDT again attacked Judge Arthur Engoron for requiring Ivanka to testify, adding “nut job” and “unhinged” to past pejoratives. Engoron has ruled that the fraud occurred; the current trial determines damages. $250 million and a ban on operating businesses in New York requested by prosecutors. DDT could also lose some of his corporate holdings and properties such as the Trump Tower.

Lawyer Chris Kise asked Engoron to revisit the second sanction, $10,000, but the judge reaffirmed his penalty, saying, “I am going to protect my staff.” Lawyers now plan to appeal the fine. DDT kept attacking Engoron over the weekend.

Washington:

 Judge Tanya Chutkan reinstated her gag order on DDT, on hold for nine days, against his intimidating statements against witnesses and prosecutors in the case about his allegedly overturning the 2020 presidential election. The order is in effect until the Washington D.C. Circuit Court reviews it. DDT had accused prosecutors of pressuring his former chief of staff Mark Meadows to lie and stated that those who cooperate with prosecutors should be seen as “weaklings and cowards.”  

Lawyers are arguing to dismiss the case with a multitude of reasons, most of them used several times before. The filing about double jeopardy claims that DDT couldn’t be tried again because he was acquitted in the Senate impeachment trial. A bipartisan majority impeached him in the House, and a bipartisan majority found him guilty in the Senate trial. In remarks after the trial, Senate leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stated:

“President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office, as an ordinary citizen. He didn’t get away with anything yet—yet. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one.”

With no courtroom, Senate proceedings weren’t an actual trial, and the process didn’t follow criminal procedure, especially “jurors” routinely seen communicating with the defense team. Unlike criminal trials, impeachment ones are political and have no standard such as “beyond a reasonable doubt.” The only result of an impeachment trial is removal from office.  A judge previously ruled against the “double jeopardy” argument in a civil suit. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) told his biographer McKay Coppins that many elected Republicans wanted to impeach or convict DDT but didn’t after threats of physical violence.

DDT will almost surely appeal a denial of dismissal to the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court, arguing that his actions on and around January 6 were connected to presidential duties. If the motion to dismiss goes to the Supreme Court, DDT’s legal team must persuade five justices that he is immune to prosecution for crimes while he was in office. A successful appeal can postpone the trial, set for March 2024. Arguments from both sides are here.

Chutkan asked DDT if he wants his March 2024 trial in Washington to be televised and gave him until November 10 to decide. NBC and a coalition of 19 media organizations and press advocacy groups argue for broadcasting the unprecedented trial of a former U.S. president and frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination. Opposing the televising, prosecutors have until November 3 to file arguments. Chutkan said that she might allow the broadcast if it occurred after the New York civil trial.

Georgia:

Guilty plea deals from four co-defendants in the RICO case thus far can provide more information and narrow the prosecutors’ focus:

Sidney Powell: Met with DDT about seizing voting machines; worked with DDT’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and might know about his role in the Coffee County data breach as well as the roles of two other defendants involved in the data breach, defendants elections supervisor Misty Hampton and former GOP Chair Cathy Latham.

Kenneth Chesebro: Wrote the plan to make DDT the winner in Georgia and other swing states; worked with defendant John Eastman on the strategy; communicated with defendants Giuliani in trying to convince state legislators to overturn the election, DDT campaign official Michael Roman who helped organize the fake electors, and then-Georgia GOP Chair David Shafer who organized Georgia’s fake electors. 

Jenna Ellis: Worked with Giuliani to lobby state legislators; extensively communicated with defendant Meadows; wrote memos, one to DDT, justifying his attempts to have VP Mike Pence and Congress overturn the election.

Scott Hall: Talked with defendant Bob Cheeley, perhaps a driving force behind the Coffee County breach; communicate with Cheeley and others charged with harassing two Fulton County election workers; called defendant DOJ attorney Jeffrey Clark, charged with urging Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and other Georgia officials to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, lying about DOJ’s “significant concerns” about voting fraud.

Judge Scott McAfee scheduled a November 3 hearing on motions to quash subpoenas from defendant Harrison Floyd.

Florida: 

Nothing because DDT-appointed Aileen Cannon is the judge.

E. Jean Carroll:

DDT’s lawyer gave the 2^nd Circuit Court the same argument of presidential immunity to save his client from paying the jury-mandated $5 million and a possible additional $10 million in the civil defamation case for additional defamatory comments. He claims presidents can make personal defamatory statements. 

Colorado: A trial to determine whether DDT will be excluded from the state primary ballot because of his insurrection participation begins on October 30.

Speaker Johnson Seems Nice But …

On the first day of being Speaker, Mike Johnson (R-LA) was fairly unknown. Googling “Mike Johnson” before he became Speaker highlighted famous people shows him largely invisible. Hehad no enemies because he had no power. Learning about his ultra-extremist ideology, “moderate” GOP congressional members resorted to calling him “decent” and “a Christian.” They must defend their choice to their constituents, however, a serious problem for 18 Republicans elected in districts supporting President Joe Biden.  

Asked about continuing the House’s newfound unity to elect Johnson, former acting Speaker Patrick McHenry (R-NC) said, “We’ll see” and added, “I have not talked to Speaker Johnson at all.” In nominating Johnson for Speaker, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) referred to him as a “friend to all and enemy to none.” That description has changed since articles and comedians brought his extremism into the light, adding information to this October 25, 2023 blog post.

(Cartoon: Johnson wants trillions of dollars in Social Security/Medicare reduction, maintaining that forced births will replace the money with “able-bodied workers.”)

The newly-anointed speaker is not only one of the most conservative members of the House but also one of the most inexperienced, having no background in federal leadership. He thinks that the fractured House will pass “all twelve of our appropriation measures … to rein in wasteful spending” before either January or April of next year. Johnson plans to work on eight of these bills before the government shutdown deadline on November 17, 13 days when the House is in session because Johnson declared a five-day weekend. 

Because Republicans fell into place for his election, Johnson thinks that he can pass two of these bills each month, but two of the biggest bills still haven’t passed out of committee. Bills must also be passed with no Democratic votes because of the GOP rule—until imminent disaster. Johnson has one advantage over former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA): Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) promised to give the new guy some slack that he denied McCarthy. Yet McCarthy supporters will be resentful, and the intro-GOP culture war fights about appropriation bills’ amendments can grind the House to a halt.

Johnson has more “pie-in-the-sky” dreams with “consensus for a legislative blueprint through the end of the 118th Congress” and “effectively messaging on our top issues and priorities.” He also threatenesno “break for district work period unless all 12 appropriations bills have passed the House.” The House scheduled lists three weeks out of session before the end of 2023 and the average one- to two-week absences in 2024 with the typical six weeks off in summer.   

Johnson’s baggage:

Overturning the 2020 presidential election: Johnson obtained 126 signatures on his amicus brief to the Supreme Court, requesting the elimination of all votes in swing states, by threatening representatives with DDT’s retribution if they didn’t sign. He bragged about the frequent phone calls between him and DDT, making him the point person for DDT’s attempted coup, not a typical position for legislators. Johnson’s speaker position raises the question that if he continued into 2025 with a GOP majority in the House, would he be stronger in his actions to overturn a presidential election that DDT loses.

Rule by smell: “If in fact all the evidence leads to where we believe it will, that’s very likely impeachable offenses,” Johnson said. “It looks and smells a lot like [bribery]. … The evidence is coming together. We’ll see where it leads.” Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) wants no more impeachment inquiry hearings started by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), accusations that led nowhere, but newbie Johnson wants the inquisition to continue.

Johnson’s vanishing memory about his anti-LGBTQ+ positions: Johnson doesn’t answer most questions at press conferences, but Sean Hannity interviewed him on Fox. Asked about his comments while an attorney defending far-right Christian advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) calling homosexuality “sinful” and “destructive” while pushing for criminalization of LGBGQ+ sex, he said, “I don’t even remember some of them.” Then he said it was his job. In an op-ed for a Shreveport (LA) newspaper, he called homosexual relationships “unnatural,” “harmful,” and “dangerous.” His “job” included defending Louisiana’s same-gender marriage ban before the Supreme Court in 2004 and again in 2014.

In op-eds, Johnson also declared that marriage equality could lead to letting people marry their pets and “the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy … could doom even the strongest republic.” While in the Louisiana legislature, he introduced his version of a “religious freedom” bill to legalize discrimination against married same-gender couples.

In 2018, Johnson was scheduled to deliver the keynote speech at a Bible conference hosted by “Kill the Gays” Pastor Kevin Swanson who supported Uganda’s bill calling for the execution of LGBTQ people. After an article in the New Civil Rights Movement, Johnson’s office stated he was “unaware of Mr. Swanson’s participation and “denounced” his “comments.” Johnson, however, never denounced extremist anti-LGBTQ hate and praised Kyle Duncan’s confirmation to the 5^th Circuit Court. Lambda Legal calls Duncan, “a lawyer who has built his career around pursuing extreme positions that target members of the LGBTQ community.”

Hannity gave Johnson an out by saying some of these statements were over 15 years old, but Johnson continues his opposition for any LGBTQ+ rights.

Evangelical Christianity: Leaving ADL in 2010, Johnson became dean at a newly-created Baptist law school that never graduated any students and was never accredited. His official bio doesn’t list this job. In a September 2022 episode of his weekly podcast with his wife, “Truth Be Told With Mike and Kelly Johnson,” Johnson claims the constitution has no wall to separate church and state; instead the wall protects religious people from the state, “a shield for people of faith.” 

Creationism: School shootings are caused by the teaching of evolution—plus legal abortion, “radical feminism,” and no-fault divorce, according to Johnson. Before he was elected to Congress, Johnson founded a Christian legal firm and represented Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham’s creationist ministry that built a “life-sized” Noah’s Ark replica and sued the state to be included in a tax rebate program, getting Ham $18 million. 

Nationalism: Johnson voted against state law enforcement and government agencies from working with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights organization. The “shield for people of faith,” to Johnson doesn’t extend to any outside his evangelical Christianity. In 2017, he followed his Christian nationalism when supporting DDT’s “Muslim Ban” executive order, restricting travel to the U.S. from seven predominantly Muslim countries. He calls DDT an “institutionalist,” but not “in the same way that some old constitutional-law nerds would [articulate it].” As newly weds, Johnson and his wife took in a Black 14-year-old boy but did not adopt him or release any public family photos of him. 

Healthcare: Voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Johnson led the GOP study committee to roll back its assistancewhile opposing Medicaid. So-called “Obamacare” has become so popular that the GOP attempt helped Democrats take the House in 2018 and the presidency and Senate in 2020.  

No aid for Ukraine: “We can’t allow [Russian president] Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don’t believe he would stop there,” Johnson said, but he regularly voted against any aid for Ukraine and belongs to the hard right with the same position. Biden asked for a $105 billion package including $61.4 billion as well as assistance for Israel, yet Johnson wants to split out the funding for Ukraine in a separate bill, the better to erase Ukrainian help. Only 35 percent of Republicans want to help Ukraine although its defeat would give Russia even more latitude to join Iran against Israel.

Gun safety: After praying in the aftermath of mass shootings, Johnson uses the tired meme that immediately after the tragedy is not “the time” to talk about gun legislation. The first 299 days of 2023 saw 565 mass shootings—never allowing a “time” to address the crisis—although Johnson said now is the time to address the Israel/Hamas crisis. In his interview with Sean Hannity, he said he would not consider any gun legislation, that gun safety laws would be worthless because the U.S. still has cars.  (Sean Hannity has a solution to mass shootings: he “train[s] in mixed martial arts.”)

Eighteenth-century values: Johnson said that people in the U.S. should live by “18^th-century values” in morality and religion to Louisiana Right to Life, yet abortion was accepted in 18^th-century America. As role models, he cited George Washington, a deist, and John Adams, a Unitarian, both supporting separation of church and state. Barack Obama was president during the time of the speech which Johnson claimed was “defined by the absence of truth.”

Other:

Johnson opposes the legalization of marijuana, even medical marijuana, calling it a “gateway drug.”

He earned a 0 percent pro-retiree score for last year from the Alliance of Retired Americans with a lifetime voting record score of 5 percent. This last year’s vote was based on ten AFRA-supported initiatives including Meals on Wheels. The failing score, which includes Social Security and Medicare, is likely to lose Republicans votes among its base of 4.4 members.  

Democracy: Explaining how he rules, John said the U.S. is not a democracy. It’s a “biblical” republic. MAGA Mike,” his nickname, tells people how they can find out what he thinks about the issues:

“Go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.”

Unless his view follows that of his other god—the immoral, law-breaking, lying, opportunist, twice-divorced, adulterous groper GOP presidential candidate Deposed Donald Trump.

October 27 – World, Domestic News

When great news about the economy was released, some media accused Republicans of silence about it, but that’s not quite true. Several of them flat-out lied. Despite what the “stellar” news that the media reported, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told Sean Hannity that he believes the U.S. economy “is in the tank.” The RNC issued a statement that “Bidenomics is a failure.” They’re wrong.

Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza in the pitch black with no resources have now erased internet nor phone access, removing all connections between Gaza and the outside world in preparation for its ground invasion. The three-week onslaught has killed over 7,000 people, and Israel continues its denial of basic necessities—food, water, fuel, etc. Hamas reported that Israeli strikes in Gaza killed about 50 hostages. Only 29 percent of Israelis support the invasion while 49 percent want “to wait,” a change from 65 percent approval a week ago.

The complete approval of Israel displayed by President Joe Biden and his administration is shifting to their stating the need to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza after the rising Palestinian death toll and the increasingly vocal outcry from Arab nations, European allies, and many U.S. residents. Biden’s approach supports a humanitarian pause to Israel’s attacks and aid for those trapped in Gaza. He questioned the estimates of the death toll in Gaza so Hamas released a list of 6,747 identities of people killed there.

Biden criticized the actions of “extremist settlers” on the West Bank, meaning the Jewish people that Israel moved there, and accused them of pouring gasoline on a fire. He called for a “concentrated effort” after the crisis to develop a way that Israelis and Palestinians could peacefully live side by side. Israel is also privately expressing concern about the growing world focus on the death and destruction caused by the Israeli assault on Gaza. Former President Obama has warned that Israel’s cutting off food and water to Gaza could “harden Palestinian attitudes for generations.”

Free speech is disappearing in Israel as Jewish and Arab Israelis are detained, fired from jobs, and attacked for any statements that could be considered pro-Hamas, ordered by Prime Minister Bejamin Yataynahu. Two activists from a Jewish-Arab peace movement were arrested for posters with the message, “Jews and Arabs, we will get through this together.” Their signs and T-shirts with peace slogans in Hebrew and Arabic were confiscated.

Another statement considered offensive is sympathy for Palestinian trapped in Gaza. The director of a hospital cardiac intensive care unit for 15 years was suspended because of his year-long profile picture on social media, a dove carrying an olive twig and a green flag emblazoned with the shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith: “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.” A mob attacked ultra-orthodox leftwing journalist Israel Frey for his video saying Kaddish (the Jewish prayer for the dead) for the victims of the Hamas slaughter and Palestinian civilians under fire in Gaza.

Georgia lost its GOP gerrymandered redistricting maps after a federal judge in Atlanta ruled that legislators violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the power of Black voters. Judge Steve Jones ordered that new maps must be drawn in time for the 2024 elections and wrote that the court “will not allow another election cycle on redistricting plans” found to be unlawful. Gov. Brian Kemp called a special session of the General Assembly for November 29, giving lawmakers ten days to meet the December 8 deadline. The decision follows the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in Alabama. Republicans will likely appeal Judge Jones’ decision.

North Carolina Republican legislature finished its redistricting map, predicted to flip three or four U.S. House seats and retain the state veto-proof GOP legislative majority. This state voting 50 percent for each party will have 80 percent of its congressional members from the GOP. A scholar at Duke University who researched the map determined that the new district lines “essentially negate the need to have elections for the U.S. House of Representatives.” It also guarantees that Republicans will make every decision in the state legislature.

Florida faces a state appeals court next week, trying to overturn a lower court ruling that the GOP legislature gerrymandered its redistricting map in violation of the state constitution. Attorneys ask for a ruling by November 22.

Senate Democrats hope they have found a way to work around self-proclaimed military expert Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) eight-month blockade on all military officials’ promotions, now over 360. Working with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and a few Republicans, Democrats could use a standing order resolution to move over 300 nonpolitical military nominees in a group through the end of 2023. Exceptions would be officers nominated on the Joint Chiefs of Staff or leaders of a Combatant Command. About nine of the holds are top officers who would command forces in the Middle East.

The plan begins with the Senate Rules Committee next week but not change any rules. Sinema developed the idea in September and began working with both parties. The resolution requires nine GOP votes for the necessary 60 to overcome any filibuster. No Republican openly supports the resolution, and those who might be in favor prefer to resolve the impasse in another way. Conservatives promise the usual backlash if Republicans support Democrats against one of their own. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) wants the 360 nominations to come to the floor separately, requiring almost 1,000 hours that they couldn’t spend on governing. That’s almost an entire year just to clean up Tuberville’s mess.

Tuberville claims the Pentagon is paying for abortions if women must leave the state because of the law, but federal law permits per diem or travel expenses for healthcare. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) does not support Tuberville’s hold while other GOP Senators try to avoid giving their opinion. Doing away with the filibuster could move the resolution forward, but several Democrats don’t want to make this “nuclear option.” Tuberville blames Democrats for wars started by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Hamas terrorists. 

Kari Lake, who thinks she’s Arizona’s governor despite losing by 17,000 votes, had another failure in court, this one from the 9^th Circuit Court. A three-judge panel, one appointed by DDT, dismissed a case from Kari Lake and Mark Finchem, loser for the Secretary of State, challenging the vote tabulation machines because they had no evidence that their constitutional rights were violated and have no standing. Both Lake and Finchem “conceded that their arguments were limited to potential future hacking, and not based on any past harm.”

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Iyer Julian sanctioned Finchem, who lost his race by over 120,000 votes, for bringing a “groundless” case before her court. Lake was sanctioned in May for making “false factual statements” before the court about her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs, specifically that 35,000 ballots were improperly added to the total in Maricopa County. They both continue to claim that DDT won the 2020 election. Lake hasn’t yet conceded, but she’s running for the U.S. Senate.

On the first anniversary of Elon Musk purchasing the once-respected Twitter, now renamed X, several “verified” accounts—meaning that the owner pays $8 a month—are declaring the Maine mass shooting killing at least 18 people is a “false flag,” planned by the government. Anti-Muslim bigot Laura Loomer, close ally of DDT, raised doubts about the shooting on her account, reinstated by Musk, with 630,000 followers. Others called the suspect a “far-left lunatic,” although he posted anti-LGBTQ+ content on social media, and said he had been arrested for disseminating sexually explicit material, although that was a different Robert Card. The suspect’s own X profile was filled with conspiracy theories about trans mass shooters and pro-MAGA content; he liked two posts from DDT and far-right personality Dinesh D’Souza about opposition to gun control.

[The body of Robert Card was found; he apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.]

On X, Musk: 

• Spread disinformation about the violent attack on then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband at their San Francisco home.
• Failed to find evidence that the platform previously suppressed conservative voices and engaged in election interference with the federal government.
• Suspended the accounts of journalists who cover the platform.
• Helped foreign governments, including Turkey and India, censor content.
• Oversaw a spike in hate speech, pretending that he’s a “free speech absolutist.”
• Overturned DDT’s suspension after he tried an insurrection on January 6, 2021.
• Helped promote a once-banned parody account impersonating Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
• Considered the banning of the Jewish-led Anti-Defamation League from the platform, threatening to sue the group for “trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic” and said he lost revenue for the site.
• Sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which monitors hate speech on social media.
• Gutted his platform’s election integrity team, which devises ways to combat election-related misinformation, ahead of crucial elections around the world in 2024.
• Lost 30 over 30 percent of Twitter members, 14 percent of its global web traffic, and over half of its advertising revenue.
• Displaced the mainstream media from a position of authority by restricting its traffic and stopped displays of headlines while highlighting posts with a “pay to play” for $8 a month with no human vetting.
• Fired the majority of his workforce.
• Reduced his purchase price of $44 billion by $15 billion.
• Said he would make decisions based polling but sometimes ignored them.

Musk thought that offensive conservative content would increase his social platform’s popularity. It didn’t.

Good News, Revelations

Good news for striking auto workers: the UAW announced a tentative labor agreement with Ford Motor Co., one of the Big Three targets for simultaneous strikes. The next move is for a union vote. The deal has an 11 percent wage increase the first year, totaling 25 percent over a 4.5-year contract. With a 20 percent loss over the past few years, that arrangement gives workers an average of 1 percent a year for the contract. It would also provide a $5,000 ratification bonus and cost-of-living adjustments. It is also advantageous to the lowest-paid workers and reinstating major benefits lost during the Great Recession, almost 15 years ago. Other parts of the agreement are here. General Motors and Stellantis have yet to make any agreements.

The media reported a “stellar” pace for the U.S. economy during the summer, faster than in any quarter from the first three years of former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) and the strongest growth since the fourth quarter of 2021. Expectations had been high for the most recent economy report, and it’s “even faster than expected” in the third quarter, according to NBC. GDP grew at 4.9 percent annualized pace, up from 2.1 percent in the second quarter. The increase in the growth came from strong consumer spending, businesses’ building inventories, exports, residential investment, and government spending.

The National Labor Relations Board has closed a loophole related to companies’ classification of “joint employers.” Under a DDT rule, two employers of a group of employees narrowed to both of them having “immediate control” over at least one part of the employment, allowing the use of temp agencies and contractors for dodging workplace violations and blocking worker organizing. The new rule defines joint employers as both having employment relationship with the workers. Franchisees such as McDonalds and companies hiring workers through contracting companies such as Amazon will need to negotiate with a union formed at a franchise or contractor if they jointly employ the unionized workers.

After Wednesday’s mass shooting in Lewiston (ME), some people question the lax gun laws in the state although Democratic Gov. Janet Mills didn’t mention the word “gun” in her press conference. Instead, she wants to concentrate on capturing the suspect, Robert Card, a 20-year Army member with experience in firearms training. In the past three years, the U.S. has seen over 2,000 mass shootings, defined as at least four people shot not including the perpetrator, but Maine has had only two mass shooting in that time, one last April and one this week. In Bowdoin, Robert Card’s home, a man confessed to killing four people, including his parents, and then firing on motorists on Interstate 295, wounding three people, four days after he was released from prison on April 14.

Shortly before the Maine mass shooting on October 25, the U.S. Senate approved an amendment to the annual VA spending bill permitting veterans found mentally unfit to be allowed access to guns by 54-45. The House has not yet passed the bill. The VA opposed the vote, saying that taking guns away protects veterans from suicides. The amendment to allow guns to mentally unfit veterans came from Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) who had stalled the VA spending bill until approval of giving veterans access to guns. One criteria of being mentally unfit was the inability to manage their finances because the VA had statistics showing a correlation between suicidal ideation and financial issues. All GOP senators plus four Democrats voted in favor of the mentally unfit veterans having weapons: Joe Manchin (WV), Jacky Rosen (NV), Krysten Sinema (AZ), and Jon Tester (MT). Angus King (I-ME), who represents the state where the biggest mass shooting of 2023 so far), voted in favor of the amendment that overturns 30 years of practice.

Jared Golden, one of the two Democratic House members from Maine, reversed his position on assault weapons, now in favor of their ban. The representative of a largely rural area, he said he regretted his past opposition:

“The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles…. To the victims and their families, I ask for your forgiveness and support as I seek to put an end to these terrible shootings.”

Golden said he didn’t think a mass killing like the one in his hometown could happen in Maine, which has the lowest violent crime rate in the nation. He added, “I had the false confidence that our community was above this.” Last year, Golden voted against the first assault weapons ban measure passed out of the Democratic House in 30 years, but the Senate didn’t address the legislation.

When Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) was asked if she would support an assault weapons ban, she said it is “more important” and more effective to ban “very high-capacity magazines.”

One of Maine’s most famous residents, author Stephen King, said about the lack of gun safety restrictions:

“It’s the rapid-fire killing machines, people. This is madness in the name of freedom. Stop electing apologists for murder.”

On his first full day as House Speaker, Mike Johnson (R-LA) offered prayer in response to the mass shooter and called it a “horrific tragedy.” He said:

“This is a dark time in America. We have a lot of problems, and we are hopeful and prayerful. Prayer is appropriate at a time like this, that this senseless violence can stop.”

Johnson’s strong opposition to any gun safety laws may keep any bills from a vote. Last year, he opposed a measure passed into law with criminal background checks for those under 21, grants for state crisis intervention laws, and several billion dollars in mental health and school security funding.

Traumatized by the possibility of people testifying against Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), MAGA members want to block plea deals after four co-defendants weakened his defense by flipping. They claim that co-defendants such as Jenna Ellis are lying to face lesser punishment. Another six co-defendants are considering deals. On X, one person posted:

“What the media wants more than anything is to destroy conservative America. They want to orchestrate division, sew mistrust, cause people to turn on each other, and destroy people’s lives. They have only one job- aid and abet the evil dealings of the Democrat Party.”

“The rule of law” is one of the seven core principles of conservatism, according to the new MAGA Speaker, and plea deals are part of the law.

DDT is saving money with his lawyers copying arguments from his co-defendants in the RICO case. At least nine of his recent defense motions trying to block the indictment from Fulton County (GA) DA Fani Willis are short, taking his co-defendants’ arguments. Watching the proceedings for the next few months will also give him a preview of Willis’ evidence and strategy. His problem, however, may be that his co-defendants are rapidly taking plea deals, which DDT claims he will never do.

GOP presidential candidates, except for DDT, are gearing up for the next debate on November 8, the day after the 2023 election and moderators have been announced: NBC News’ Lester Hold and Kristen Welker plus Salem Radio’s far-right Hugh Hewitt. The event is scheduled for 8:00-10:00 pm EST at the Adrianne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami-Dade County. CNN’s Oliver Darcy criticized NBC for working with Salem that has featured far-right people such as Charlie Kirk, Dinesh D’Souza, Sebastian Gorka, and Jenna Ellis “who have espoused incendiary views, pushed dangerous conspiracy theories, and told outright lies about the 2020 election.”

As usual DDT is holding a competing event, this one a rally at Hialeah, about 15 miles from Miami. Earlier, he had called for the RNC to cancel all remaining debates to rally behind him. As of two days ago, only Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Chris Christie had qualified for the third debate, but others have almost two weeks to complete the obligations. Mike Pence and Asa Hutchinson lack the donations, and Tim Scott and Doug Burgum, along with Hutchinson, don’t have a high enough polling.

Several months ago, the media reported that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ wealthy friend, Anthony Welters, loaned him $267,230 to buy a 40-foot luxury recreational vehicle in 1999 with no money down. Principal wouldn’t come due for another five years while Thomas paid interest only. In 2004, Welters granted Thomas a 10-year extension with the same terms. Welters made his money in the healthcare industry.

Thomas didn’t report the loan, but Welters later said “the loan was satisfied” in 2008. He didn’t. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) has now reported that Thomas’ complete loan was forgiven although he never reported it on his tax returns or his ethics forms. Wyden has called on Thomas to pay all the taxes owed for the loan forgiveness. Thomas’ lawyer claimed that the justice made all the payments to Welters “until the terms of the agreement were satisfied in full” but didn’t respond when asked to reconcile his statement with documents obtained by the Senate committee, including a 2008 letter from Welters to Thomas stating he would not seek further payments on the loan despite his being entitled to them. The lawyer also wouldn’t say whether “satisfied” meant that Thomas had paid the full sum for the RV and the interest. The Supreme Court repeatedly refuses to declare an ethics code that they would follow.

October 25: A Day of Disasters

Last year, 29 people were killed in Maine; today 22 people were killed on one day, October 25, in Lewiston (ME). Thus far, 50 to 60 people have also been injured in the shootings at Schemengees Bar and Sparetime Recreation. About 30 miles north of Portland, Lewiston has a population of 37,000. People in Lewiston and Auburn, population 26,000, sheltered in place during a hunt for a man with a semi-automatic rifle. 

The police are searching for Robert Card, 40, who recently threatened to shoot up the Maine National Guard base. Card, a trained firearms instructor and U.S. Army reservist, recently reported mental health issues, including hearing voices. A retired military officer, he was arrested in the past for domestic violence and may have recently lost his job. A notice from the Maine Information & Analysis Center reported:

“Card was also reported to have been committed to mental health facility for two weeks during summer 2023 and subsequently released.”

Maine has no independent background check system gun for purchases, no red flag law to identify those at extreme risk for gun violence, no requirement that convicted domestic abusers turn in their guns, and no permit requirements for concealed weapons.

The shooting occurred at approximately 7:00 pm EST. Before then, the following was my post for the day:

October 25 may be remembered for two dramatic events. One of them was the second sanction against Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) in the New York civil suit regarding his business fraud. After DDT again attacked a a law clerk despite a gag order, Judge Arthur Engoron fined him double from the first time, $10,000. During a break in the trial, DDT told reporters that the “person sitting next to the judge” was “even much more partisan” than the judge. Engoron cleared the court and demanded that DDT testify under oath. To DDT’s claim that he was talking about witness Michael Cohen and not the clerk, the judge said that he found DDT’s “is not credible.” Under oath, DDT continued by claiming that the clerk is “very biased against us.” DDT’s legal team has also continued to make critical comments about the clerk as recently as the day before by Alina Habba.  

The other news for the day was the election of Mike Johnson (LA), one of the most conservative House members, for the new Speaker with a unanimous GOP vote of 220. One GOP House member, Derrick Van Orden, is in Israel. The vote for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY) was also unanimous by Democrats at 209 with three members of the party absent.

So-called “moderate” Republicans caved in, possibly because of exhaustion or ignorance about his beliefs. Conservative Ken Buck (CO), a determined opponent to election deniers, epitomized the surrender when asked if he inquired about Johnson’s opinion on the legality of the 2020 election. He was “hopeful” Johnson would answer the question appropriately, according to Buck, but found too many issues after the ten-hour meeting for him to ask.  

Johnson has more baggage than Jim Jordan (OH), who was rejected for his extremist views, but may have better hidden them in the closet until he was elected. Now he’s called Jordan with a “jacket and a smile” and Jordan in drag. Johnson was elected Speaker for the same charges considered criminal in the Georgia RICO case. In his six years serving in Congress, Johnson’s record is three bills—one to name a post office and two others for local Louisiana benefit.

Tom Emmer (MN) had more GOP votes than Johnson in the GOP secret ballot but withdrew because a small far-right group, wagging the dog, absolutely refused to compromise. The hammer dropped when DDT smeared Emmer, perhaps because Emmer wants the president elected on a popular vote instead of through the faulty Electoral College process. DDT lost the 2016 election to Hillary Clinton by almost three million votes but won the Electoral College. In 2020, DDT lost both of these votes, the popular vote by seven million.

Johnson’s positions regarding these issues:

Biden family: A member of Jordan’s weaponization committee, Johnson posted on X that “the evidence of corruption against Joe Biden and his family is political scandal much larger than Watergate.” At a hearing, he attacked AG Merrick Garland with the conspiracy theory that the DOJ had protected Hunter Biden, the president’s son, from any investigation. Both with no evidence.

Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid: When Johnson chaired the Republican Study Committee from 2019 to 2021, the group issued a report calling for trillions of dollars in cuts as a top congressional priority. Other cuts would be in the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Affordable Care Act subsidies. One of the proposals was forced-births with a national anti-abortion law to fund the programs, providing more “able-bodied” workers. (Johnson’s premise could fail: not including self-managed abortions, the number of abortions increased in the 12 months after Roe was overturned and may have been later in pregnancies.)

Abortion: Johnson co-sponsored three bills to restrict abortion on a nationwide basis and one giving pregnant women child support for their fetuses. He wants to imprison doctors who perform abortions and sentence them to hard labor, believes life begins at fertilization, and aims to defund Planned Parenthood plus championing the near-total abortion ban in Louisiana. To Johnson, the Supreme Court’s overturning the right to abortion was “a historic and joyful day.”

Contraception:  Johnson voted against the Right to Contraception Act, protecting a person’s ability to access contraceptives and engage in contraception as well as a health care provider’s ability to provide contraceptives, contraception, and information related to contraception.

Covenant marriage: Advocating the practice, Johnson and his wife have a marriage that restricts divorce. Legally endorsed in Louisiana, Arizona, and Arkansas, the Christian traditional practice permits divorce only in limited situations such as adultery, felony, or physical or sexual abuse. Right-wing politicians protest no-fault divorce, accepted in all states since New York legally accepted it in 2010.

2020 presidential election: Also known as the key architect of his party’s objections to certifying President Biden’s victory, Johnson supports DDT’s lie about voter fraud, DDT’s conspiracy theory of rigged voting machines, and authored an amicus brief to the Supreme Court to reject swing-state votes. The House GOP lawyer called Johnson’s brief unconstitutional, but he persuaded 125 colleagues to sign it, sometimes using heavy-handed techniques. The conservative Supreme Court refused to take the case. When a reporter asked Johnson about this issue at the press conference after the Speaker election, Republicans gathered around Johnson and shouted “Boo” and “Shut up!” Three-fourths of the 139 House Republicans used his false claim that expansion of vote by mail was unconstitutiona to vote against certifying the election. Johnson also spread lies about Venezuelan interference with the election.

Law: In citing “seven core principles or principles,” Johnson listed the “rule of law” as a foundation of the United States. A staunch ally of DDT, he minimized the 91 charges against DDT and was on DDT’s defense team for both of his impeachments. He also used lies to protect DDT.

Extremist connections: Before elected to the Louisiana legislature, Johnson worked for the hate group Alliance Defending Freedom pushing the criminalization of any non-heterosexual acts, state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad, and belief in LGBTQ+ pedophilia. ADF also led a campaign to oppose GLSEN’s annual anti-bullying Day of Silence. He received an award from Ralph Reed’s far-fight Faith and Freedom Coalition and the “True Blue” award from Tony Perkins, head of the hate group Family Research Council.

LGBTQ+ rights: Johnson led the charge for a national “don’t say gay” bill against teaching these issues in school and opposition to gender-affirming care for youth. While in the Louisiana state legislature from 2015 to 2017, he introduced a “religious freedom” bill removing funding for any governmental entity, including libraries and schools that provided any events or books about gender identify.

Undocumented immigrants: In opposing “illegal immigrants” (Johnson’s words), he announced that “the Biden administration is turning a blind eye to the crisis at the southern border because it wants to turn the migrants crossing the border into Democrat voters.”

Climate: His writings deny human role in climate change, and he opposes a Green New Deal. The rightwing group defending fossil fuel use, American Energy Alliance, named him an “energy champion.”

Fundraising: Johnson knows nothing about doing this major job for the Speaker, but Rep. Tom Cole (R-LA) said that fundraising was “real simple.” Time will tell.

Religion: Fixated on his conservative religion, Johnson declared in his acceptance speech that God “ordained” House members. He rejected Maxism and Socialism as philosophies because they state “there is no God.” Evangelical Christians in the U.S. comprise about one-fourth of the population, meaning tyranny of the minority.

In 22 days, the government will shut down on November 17 if another continuing resolution to the budget doesn’t pass Congress. Voting against the recent one, Johnson claims he now wants one, although opposed by the far right, until January, avoiding the holiday season, or April, trying to pass the remaining 11 fiscal appropriations. He plans to reign in spending, block funding to Ukraine, and bring down inflation, the latter already done, with a bipartisan debt commission.

Most Senators lack familiarity with Johnson or try to separate themselves from him. At least two conservatives said they have “met” him but “don’t know” him. Another one, Mike Rounds (R-SD), said he hadn’t heard Johnson’s name until this week.

DCCC spokesperson Viet Shelton summarized the vote:

“Electing him as Speaker would represent how the Republican conference has completely given in to the most extreme fringes of their party and embraced an agenda that promotes a total, nationwide abortion ban, espouses conspiracy theories, and cutting Social Security and Medicare.”

And he’s a MAGA Christian nationalist and claims he supports democracy while trying to eliminate legal votes and most people’s rights. 

Dysfunction – House Speaker, DDT Plus More

Trouble for House Speaker:

Rep. Tom Emmer (MN) was the GOP choice to run for House Speaker—for four hours and ten minutes before he quit, the third person to resign as candidate since eight Republicans dumped Kevin McCarthy (CA) three weeks ago. Now, Mike Johnson (LA), a former radio host, has been chosen for the latest nominee. Emmer may have withdrawn after attacks by Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) who maintains an iron grip on the GOP. Following several ballots among the 221 House Republicans, Emmer managed to get 117 votes, but over two dozen Republicans said they would never vote for him. A candidate for Speaker can afford to lose only four GOP votes. Following the radio host for the position of second in line to be president is Byron McDonalds (R-FL), who hasn’t even served an entire term in the House.

Taxpayers have paid House members $2.2 million for doing nothing for the past three weeks.

With 128 votes of 221 Republicans, Johnson said that he will try for the House floor vote at noon on October 25. Twenty-nine Republicans voted for Donalds, and 44 for “other.” Ken Buck (CO) said that 43 of those votes were for deposed Speaker McCarthy and one for former nominee Jim Jordan (OH). Mark Green (TN) and Roger Williams (TX) were eliminated in the second round. 

In the voting process, the person receiving the fewest votes in the first round was dropped. The Republicans continued voting, dropping one candidate each time. The last person with a majority became the Speaker designate even with votes for others. All the candidates signed the unity pledge to abide by these guidelines and support the nominee for the foot vote. Members, however, didn’t agree, which is why Emmer withdrew his name. Williams is not in the chart because he signed up on the day of voting after another Texan, Pete Sessions was the first Republican to be voted out.

Of the original GOP nine men—eight of them white—running for Speaker, seven of them voted to overturn the election. Six of the finalists are from the South and two from the Midwest.One of them, Dan Meuser (PA), dropped out of the race on Monday. Six of the finalists are from the South and two from the Midwest. Only two of them, Emmer and Austin Scott (GA), didn’t try to overturn the election at the January 6 insurrection, and none of them voted to impeach DDT. These charts show their other positions about providing aid to Ukraine, women’s reproductive rights and protection from violence, government shutdown, etc.

 

Because Democrats voted against him, McCarthy blamed Democrats for the dysfunction in the House when they couldn’t decide on a speaker. Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (R-NY) received 212 votes in the Speaker vote; five GOP votes for Jeffries would solve the problem. The GOP nominee hasn’t yet received more than 200 votes out of the necessary 217. Michelle Cottle wrote about “The People Who Broke the House”—and none of them is a Democrat.

The big struggle in finding a Speaker is that the far-right has declared they want someone who tries to overturn the presidential election, and many of the others—now called moderates because of the way that the far-right has become ultra-radical—won’t agree.

Trouble for DDT:

Usually Sunday is devoted to DDT’s disasters, but October 24 was special: in one day he heard his former lawyer Michael Cohen testify that DDT is a fraud, a former lawyer Jenna Ellis flipping on him in the Georgia RICO case, and his former chief of staff at the White House Mark Meadows agreeing to testify against DDT for immunity.

Michael Cohen: DDT got so upset during the testimony of his former lawyer/fixer that his lawyers had to calm him down in court. In the civil suit about DDT’s business fraud that could cost him $250 million, Cohen first confessed his past crimes while employed by DDT and then testified about how DDT told him to manipulate financial statements to match DDT’s figures, a “reverse engineering,” along with involvement by former CFO of the Trump Organization Allen Weisselberg and DDT’s children Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka. The company falsified values of DDT’s properties and assets to obtain favorable loan terms and increase DDT’s wealth, according to Cohen. A criminal case by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg has also indicted DDT in 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Jenna Ellis: In the RICO case, she became the fourth co-defendant of nineteen to turn over documents and testify in exchange for a plea deal. The defense against co-defendant DDT has just become stronger. After she pled guilty, she tearfully read an apology to the judge, declaring “deep remorse” and admitting she lied about thousands of ballots illegally counted, thousands of felons illegally voting, and thousands of underage people illegally registered in the 2020 election. In the 2016 campaign, Ellis called DDT an “idiot” and an “unethical, corrupt, lying, criminal, dirtbag.” Then he hired her for his legal team to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and she enthusiastically supported him. Now she refers to his “malignant narcissistic tendency to simply say that he’s never done anything wrong.”

Mark Meadows:  Granted immunity, he told special counsel Jack Smith and a grand jury under oath that he repeatedly warned DDT that his claims about winning the 2020 presidential election were lies and that DDT was being “dishonest.” Meadows even said that he doesn’t believe some of the statements in his own book. Under penalty of perjury, he refuted other comments he made to right-wing media. Meadows is still a co-defendant in the RICO case. Meadows’ deal to plead guilty to Smith doesn’t save him from the charges in the Georgia RICO case. Smith can’t grant him for immunity in the state case unless the Georgia DA also signs off on the deal.  

Other Bits:

Virginia Republicans have a slim majority in the state House, and Democrats have the narrow majority in the state Senate. Gov. Glenn Youngkin wants majorities in both chambers to promote his provocative policies, especially in a year when he’s considering a run for the White House. The GOP has tried to keep the abortion issue tamped down, but Youngkin has decided to use the subject for the state legislature election on November 7, 2023.

Democrats opposes the GOP proposed 15-week ban, and Youngkin has brought it out in the open with his lie that Democrats are such extremists that they have no restrictions. He also states that the Republicans have no “bans”; they just want a “reasonable 15-week restriction.” Youngkin’s PAC has a 30-second commercial accusing Democrats of “disinformation,” falsely claiming that “there is no ban.” Democrats say that the GOP has changed from the 20-week ban that the party has pushed in previous years.

Steve Benen points out the type of “rebranding” attempted by Republicans. They don’t want bans, just restrictions. Privatizing education with school voucher schemes are only “school choices.” And the GOP doesn’t want to privatize Social Security; they just want “private personal accounts.”

Nobody ever accused of Rep. George Santos (R-NY), facing indictments with 23 charges, of not being inventive. The latest one is that his five-year-old niece may have been kidnapped by Chinese Communists for 40 minutes trying to silence his harsh line against China. A police investigation reported, “We found nothing at all to suggest it’s true.”

House Oversight Committee James Comer (R-KY) decided he has proof of President Joe Biden’s accepting bribes because his bank account shows a $200,000 deposit in 2018. The probe found that Joe Biden’s brother James paid him back for a loan. The check states “Loan repayment.” The latest accusation shows how desperate Comer is.

Far-right billionaire Peter Thiel, who bankrolled GOP senatorial races for failed Blake Masters (AZ) and winning J.D. Vance (OH), has been outed as an FBI informant, according to alt-right activist Charles Johnson and FBI informant. Johnson thinks that Thiel is primarily informing on foreign governments’ attempts to be involved with Silicon Valley tech companies. He was told not to inform on DDT or other U.S. political figures. Thiel paid $1.25 million to elect DDT in 2016 and then served on his transition team. After Vance received $10 million from Thiel, he attacked the FBI, falsely accusing agents of wiretapping his phone. Masters got $15 million.

The RNC has struggled to find problems with President Joe Biden since he became president, usually looking foolish. The latest criticism of him as a president is that he’s not on the front line in Israel attacking Hamas. Instead, he’s on the beach for a short walk after he got home from the Middle East to coordinate with Israeli leaders. Someone needs to tell Republicans that presidents don’t personally participate in elite hostage-rescue operations—no photographs of Ronald Reagan or DDT pulling a pin on a live grenade to throw through a window. Fox who showed the image of Biden on the beach also explained the calls and decisions he made that morning. Biden told Israel he appreciated help for releasing two U.S. hostages and talked with his national security team, Pope Francis, and leaders of Germany, France, Italy, UK, and Canada. [Imagine if DDT had taken time out of his White House schedule to play golf?]

DDT Faces Multiple Trials

Commander-in-chief whiner, Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), complains about his trials interfering with his presidential campaigning. Last Wednesday, he left his New York business fraud trial to hold a short press conference about his unfair treatment, how he has to be at the courthouse instead of in “Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and lots of other great places.” A reporter asked him if he would return to the trial, and DDT responded:

“Probably not. I probably will have a very big tournament professional golf tournament at Doral, so probably not.”

DDT is not required to attending his eight civil proceedings, but he wants to look pitiful and perform before TV cameras on his way in and out of the courthouse while delivering inflammatory statements about his adversaries. Unlike most other defendants, he can skip pre-trial proceedings for criminal cases, but he must sit in court for the trials. Of his six trials scheduled in the next seven months, three are criminal, located in Washington, D.C., New York, and Florida.

DDT had two minor successes this past week: special counsel Jack Smith withdrew a subpoena for records about the PAC Save America fundraising that used the lie of a stolen election. Smith’s case can be revived later. Still unsettled is whether Smith will seek indictments of six alleged co-conspirators plotting with DDT to overturn the election. No names are provided, but information indicates five are Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Jeffrey Clark, and Kenneth Chesebro, all indicted in the Georgia RICO case.

The Federal Election Commission ruled that a candidate’s campaign funds cannot be used for legal fees but can be paid by a PAC. In late September, the PAC had only $4 million after paying $101 million for DDT and his allies since the beginning of 2022. Small donors keep sending him money because of he claims he’s attacked. In another success, a federal judge in Manhattan rejected a class action in a five-year-old suit against DDT for fraud in marketing a business-services company, ACN, limiting damages that DDT will need to pay.

Although not a defendant in the civil lawsuits brought by former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page about their firing, DDT sat for a two-hour deposition last Tuesday in New York. Both Strzok and Page allege that DDT’s unrelenting pressure was the cause.  

An extensive overview of his trials. 

DDT’s trials:

The New York civil suit for business fraud continues in New York.

A Colorado trial is scheduled for October 30 after a state judge killed three more attempts from DDT to dismiss a lawsuit to remove his name from the GOP primary ballot based on the 14^th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban.” She quoted a ruling from Neil Gorsuch before he became a Supreme Court justice that states can “exclude from the ballot candidates who are constitutionally prohibited from assuming office.”

A second civil trial from in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case is scheduled in New York on January 15.

The Florida criminal case regarding his illegal possession of classified documents begins on May 20.

Timing for the Georgia criminal RICO case is uncertain.

In England, DDT is also trying to sue Christopher Steele and the company Orbis for the “dossier” investigating DDT’s connections to Russia. Steele stated that DDT’s declassification of the documentation led several Russian sources to be exposed and suffer “varying consequences.” Two of them disappeared. He added that DDT’s publication of the classified information was an “egregious and reckless act” that “served no purpose other than to expose me and Orbis [Steele’s company], our sources and our methods.” Steele said that DDT’s discovery of his friendship with DDT’s daughter Ivanka “deepened his animus towards me.” The judge will decide whether DDT’s case can go to trial.

New York:

In DDT’s civil business fraud suit, Judge Arthur Engoron fined DDT $5,000 for violating his gag order. DDT failed to remove his attacks on a court staff member from his website after the order. Engoron warned him that future violations could result in “far more severe sanctions” including imprisonment.

Engoron also warned DDT and his lawyers to keep their voices down “particularly if [comments are] meant to influence the testimony.” DDT threw up his hands in frustration and spoke aloud to the attorneys while real estate appraiser Doug Larson testified against him. Larson was responding to questions from DDT’s lawyer Lazaro Fields, accusing him of undershooting the projected 2015 value of a DDT-owned Wall Street office building. Another lawyer, Christopher Kise, suggested Larson might be perjuring himself.

Eric Trump, DDT’s son, has moved into the hot seat after appraiser David McArdle testified that he envisioned a “lofty” value for the Trump National Golf Club and was actively involved in other appraisals Eric claims not to remember. For an estate called Seven Springs, McArdle gave a high appraisal of $50 million, but DDT’s financial statements valued it at over $160 million.

An internal document prepared by lender Ladder Capital listing “deal strengths” gave DDT’s stated net worth at almost $5.8 billion per his 2014 financial statement. The lender’s executive witness, Jack Weisselberg, is the son of DDT’s former CFO Allen Weisselberg.

According to a Forbes report, Allen Weisselberg’s abrupt end to his testimony in the second week of the trial suggests he might have perjured himself. On October 10, Weisselberg testified that he was not involved in or focused on the valuation of DDT’s Manhattan apartment in Trump Tower. Forbes wrote that he “played a key role” in persuading the publication “that it was worth more than it really was.” Documents show that Weisselberg misled investors and insurers before he “lied in sworn testimony” and that he and DDT were present in DDT’s apartment and represented its size to Forbes reporters. Weisselberg’s perjury could violate his probation agreement.

Engoron’s gag order didn’t cover New York AG Letitia James so DDT posted her home address on Truth Social. He has also repeatedly called the Black woman a “racist.”

Florida:

In the criminal case about DDT’s illegal possession of classified documents, DDT’s lawyers and special counsel Jack Smith are arguing about discovery, the process of exchanging records about witnesses and their evidence to be presented at trial. DDT’s attorneys claim Smith’s office has not provided them about 2,400 pages of classified discovery material for review and asked Judge Aileen Cannon for a ten-day extension to compel discovery. Prosecutors gave the defense over 1.3 million pages of unclassified records and said they had “fully complied with its unclassified discovery obligations.” Cannon, appointed by DDT and historically favoring DDT, gave the ten days to help DDT stall.

Cannon also permitted DDT’s codefendant Walt Nauta to keep his lawyer, paid by DDT, despite conflicts of interest with witnesses. The lawyer previously represented another DDT employee now testifying against Nauta. Cannon also ruled that the classified documents can be stored in Florida instead of Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.:

Judge Tanya Chutkan temporarily lifted her gag order in the case about DDT attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election. His lawyers will have time to prove why his comments should not be restricted. The order barred him from making public statements targeting prosecutors, court staff, and potential witnesses. Jack Smith’s team has until Wednesday to file opposition to a longer pause on the gag order pending appeal. Chutkan said that smearing prosecutors and likely witnesses crossed a line and would cause his supporters to threaten or harass his targets. DDT’s lawyers also filed an objection to protect prospective jurors’ identities based on DDT’s “continued use of social media as a weapon of intimidation in court proceedings.”

DDT claimed “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution because he is a former president. Jack Smith response cited Aaron Burr’s prosecution, Richard Nixon’s pardon, Bill Clinton’s civil lawsuits, and DDT’s comments on his impeachment as well as Chutkan’s 2021 rejection of shielding DDT’s presidential papers from the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection: “Presidents are not kings.”

More evidence, tapes of conversation, shows DDT’s revealing classified information to Mar-a-Lago member Anthony Pratt who gave an interview to Smith. According to Pratt, DDT provided sensitive information about U.S. nuclear submarines to him and increased Pratt’s personal wealth by $2 billion with his 2017 tax bill. Pratt also bragged on tape about his relationship with Rudy Giuliani, under indictment in Georgia for conspiring with DDT and others to overturn the 2020 election results.  

Chutkan will preside over a second case against DDT, this one alleging that he, his campaign, and the RNC tried to disenfranchise Black voters during the 2020 election.

Georgia:

Guilty pleas from DDT’s Georgia RICO co-defendants Sidney Powell and Ken Chesebro immediately before their trial is a problem for DDT because they may testify against him and cause other co-defendants to do the same. Chesebro’s emails show he considered politics in his strategy to overturn the election instead of the laws and facts. He wrote that legal filings could produce a “political payoff” so that the public would believe in a rigged election.

DDT claimed that Sidney Powell was “never” his attorney.

DDT’s strong supporter, Russian President Vladimir Putin, called the indictments against DDT political “persecution” that exposes U.S. weakness. Putin also said the indictments show “the whole rottenness of the American political system, which cannot claim to teach others about democracy.” DDT used the comments to attack Biden.

Backlash   to DDT’s criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and praise for Hezbolla caused him to reverse his position at a later campaign event. Even DDT sycophant Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) admitted DDT’s admiring words for Hezbollah were “a huge mistake.”

Political News from the Past Few Days

Twenty trucks of food, water, and medicine crossed from Egypt into Gaza after a night of Israeli bombing. No fuel was included, and the aid was three percent of what formerly went to Gaza, an open-air prison because Gazans have not been permitted to freely travel into Egypt and Israel. UN officials stated that the area needs at least 100 trucks every day; before the conflict an average of 450 aid trucks arrived daily. Israel increased its airstrikes, declaring it will annihilate the Palestinians. Israeli strikes have killed at least 4,385 Palestinians, including hundreds of children.

Representatives from several Arab and Western countries, including Russia, attended a “peace” summit in Egypt, but Israel and the U.S. were absent. The summit was considered a failure because it ended with no resolution.  

Disinformation dominates X “news” about the Israel-Hamas war, outpacing credible mainstream news outlets, according to an analysis. The highest-performing accounts on X, the “new elites,” include Visegrád 24, run by a right-wing Polish social media marketing agency; Mario Nawfal, focus of an NBC News investigation; @spectatorindex operated by Australian-Muslim medical doctor; @CollinRugg, a co-founder of the conservative site Trending Politics; and @CensoredMen, formerly posting in support of the misogynist internet influencer Andrew Tate. All the high-performing “new elites” have blue verified badges provided to anyone who pays $8 per month.

A flaw in X allowed people to impersonate the CIA. A security researcher discovered the information by hijacking a Telegram link meant to securely direct information in contacting the CIA. The researcher stated that the bugs came from X, not the CIA.

Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was voted out of his leadership position 19 days ago, but the sign over his former office, where he has stayed, still lists him as “Speaker of the House.” Many of his effects have been moved out, but he’s working in the suite with two large conference rooms, a kitchenette, a fireplace, and a balcony overlooking the National Mall. It is a few steps away from the House chamber. No one has seen McCarthy in his new office on the fourth floor of the Rayburn building, a long way from the House floor even with an underground tram. In a vindictive move, acting Speaker Patrick McHenry (R-NC) immediately exiled former Democratic House leaders Nancy Pelosi (CA) and Steny Hoyer (MD). No one has yet moved into Pelosi’s former office.

Because of conspiracy theories, red states have increasingly rejected using a verified cross-state partnership, Electronic Registration Information States (ERIC), to monitor voting lists and are now creating their own system. ERIC searches for voters who move, die, or illegally vote in two different states in the same election. The latest home-grown system, Alabama Voter Integrity Database (AVID), lacks the detail of ERIC which cost millions of dollars and used a decade of experience from a partnership between Democratic- and Republican-led states.

Missing from AVID is a driver’s license number, considered necessary for unique identifiable information and available in ERIC. Non-ERIC software is similar to the unsuccessful Kansas Crosscheck which provided a large number of false positives and security concerns. The GOP replacement for ERIC appears to recreate a verification system aligning with their political interests.

Individuals are also creating unreliable verification software such as EagleAI Network, comparing state voter lists to newspaper obituaries, property records, and rooftop and street pictures. Yet far-right influencers are pushing GOP-led states to use the program. Another program, Fractal, was started by a frequent contributor to the fringe conservative website The Gateway Pundit, instrumental in spreading false narratives about ERIC. Texas Republicans, believing in the myth of the “stolen” election, are interested in Fractal which received funding from MyPillow founder Mike Lindell.

Lindell’s pillow company lost tens of millions while he gave tens of millions of dollars to elect DDT. Now he’s trying to sell Wi-Fi monitoring devices for about $500 after he claimed that signals at the polls tamper with voting results. Northern Kentucky election officials have declared these devices illegal, probably a felony, and told poll workers not to allow them. The devices, however, are small enough to sneak into polls and illegally identify voters. Lindell is already banned from X—difficult for far-right influencers—for his election fraud conspiracies.

While House Republicans slogged through the mire to find a Speaker, its Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education met to examine the banning of “explicit” content from school libraries. Technically, a hearing is to examine issues, but in this case, the Republicans already have their conclusion. Subcommittee chair Rep. Aaron Bean (R-FL) made that clear with his opening statement:

 “Today, the Committee will set the record straight for the American people: inappropriate books are in school libraries, and local communities are within their rights to remove them.”

The hour-long session, called “Protecting Kids: Combatting Graphic, Explicit Content in School Libraries,” paraded conservative witnesses trying to deny that removal of “inappropriate” material from school library is “book-banning.” They argued that books are available elsewhere online and in stores, which cost money, and in public libraries, which also remove these books. Another false denial was that LGBTQ+ books aren’t being purged: libraries are banning books by an author whose name is “Gay” but whose works don’t fit the “explicit” content.

One witness complained that the Bible was removed from schools in 1963. Abington School District v. Schempp, however, rules that school-sponsored Bible readings were unconstitutional under the First Amendment but did not ban the Bible from schools, a book with far more “explicit” content than the censored books. Ranking committee member Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) was able to refute some of the lies, including her explanation that 41 percent of banned content focuses on LGBTQ+ themes and characters while 40 percent focuses on characters of color. Pen America’s Dr. Jonathan Friedman testified that removal of books from shelves, often by only one parent, “restrict[s] access to information and ideas, implicating students’ First Amendment rights.”

Iowa may be the king of book banning with a new law excluding any book that contains a “sex act.” Hundreds of removed books include 1984 (George Orwell), Brave New World (Aldous Huxley), Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut), and Forrest Gump (Winston Groom). The vague law has no guidelines but permits the Bible filled with lusting, defiling, prostitution, nakedness, promiscuity, breast caressing, and genitals like donkeys. And that’s just in Ezekiel 23:16-21.

Montana had the first law in the nation to ban drag queens from reading to children in libraries, and a federal judge now upheld a temporarily injunction on the law saying that it is likely unconstitutional. According to his ruling, the law infringes on free speech and expression plus showing “anti-LGBTQ+ animus.”

Scholastic, long known as a premier publisher of books for youth, is enabling the book banning in conservative areas, supporting schools and parents barring young people from reading and learning about topics such as race and gender. For its renowned annual book fairs, a fundraiser for many schools where students and parents can purchase books, Scholastic pulled out 64 titles for an optional collection, “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice,” books including race, gender, and sexuality that have been banned in some conservative towns, counties, and states. Two books listed are The ABCs of Black History, a biography of Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to be a Supreme Court Justice, and one of a series by JoJo Siwa, a celebrity who came out to the public about her LGBTQ+ identity. Books fairs can easily exclude (censor) these books.

To answer the backlash, Scholastic explained that the new collection focuses only on targeted books, “mostly LGBTQIA+ titles and books that engage with the presence of racism in our country.” Pen America, a nonprofit supporting free expression protection, stated that Scholastic’s optional collection is “an accessory to government censorship.” A progressive “mom’s” political group, Red Wine and Blue, is circulating a petition stating that the separation of these books “is sending a message that the books are problematic and should be avoided. They’re taking the most extreme policies from the most extreme state legislatures and applying them to everyone.”

United Auto Workers union members have ended a nearly month-long walkout at Mercedes-supplier ZF’s plant in Alabama after the 190-worker union ratified a tentative agreement. Another 34,000 UAW members are still on strike at the Detroit Big Three automakers—Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler parent Stellantis which has put 1,520 on furlough. Ford has another 2,730 furloughed workers and GM, 2,300. UAW president Shawn Fain said that the union will no longer give advance warnings for future walkouts.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams calls himself a Democrat, but many of his actions since his election in 2021 have been questionable. For at least 18 months, he has been making audio deepfakes of himself to use different languages when robocalling New Yorkers without notifying anyone they use artificial intelligence. A state bill would mandate AI disclosure in political ads but doesn’t mention government communication. QAnon members on 4chan have been generating voices of Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, and Emma Watson making racist and transphobic comments. Adams has pushed the “ethical” use of AI and described himself as embracing exciting new technologies.

Wars: U.S. Government, Abroad

Day 18, House Speaker Race: Jim Jordan’s (R-OH) failure to obtain votes for Speaker increased in the third vote on October 20 as 25 representatives voted against him. The second vote was 22 anti-Jordan and the first, 20. Four representatives, two from each party were absent. Short 21 votes to win the election, Jordan also lost a secret vote later in a GOP-only closed-door meeting, receiving 86 votes with 112 Republicans opposed. Twenty-three Republicans didn’t attend.

Acting Speaker Patrick McHenry (NC) said the GOP conference will have a candidate forum at 6:30 pm on Monday, Day 21 of no House Speaker and vote Tuesday morning at 9:00 am for its choice. Immediately after Jordan’s removal as candidate, at least ten, all former Jordan supporters, expressed interest. Jack Bergman (MI), Byron Donalds (FL), Kevin Hern (OK), Austin Scott (GA), and Pete Sessions (TX) are running, Tom Emmer (MN) and Mike Johnson (LA) are making calls, Jodey Arrington (TX) is praying about the decision, and Roger Williams (TX) is talking to his family. Dan Meuser (PA) is also considering a run.

The GOP—and the world—barely dodged a bullet in Jordan’s failure and become second in line for the president. A devotee of Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), he has no legislation in his 16 years, no ability to build bipartisan coalitions or work with his adversaries, no governing experience, and no interest in compromising, even with his own party. Basically, Jordan doesn’t play well with others. He plans to cause a government shutdown, block all aid to Ukraine, and cut funding to a vast majority of people in the U.S.—including Social Security and Medicare recipients. Congress has faced gridlock throughout the 21^st century because of the GOP rejection of Democratic involvement.

Worst of all, Jordan is a bully, proved again by the hardline intimidation tactics used to try for Speaker votes. His meeting with the holdouts only resulted in more holdouts. Jordan tried to overturn Biden’s election for president. After a legal election in which Biden received 74 more electoral votes and over 7 million popular votes than DDT, Jordan worked with DDT’s administration to set aside the results. He pushed MAGA members to flood Washington and led a conference call on January 2, 2021, telling Republicans how to derail the typically pro forma electoral vote election. Three days later, he texted a White House aide to give directions for VP Mike Pence on stopping the vote on the next day. Jordan was one of 146 other GOP congressional members voting to reject the electoral vote results and later refused to comply a subpoena from the House January 6 investigative committee for his testimony.  

Hamas has released two U.S. hostages, a mother and daughter from Evanston (IL) who are dual U.S./Israeli citizens, for humanitarian reasons. They originally went to celebrate a relative’s 85^th birthday and the Jewish holiday season. State Department Secretary Antony Blinken is still working for the release of almost a dozen other U.S. hostages taken by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or random Gaza citizens.

Biden sent aid for Gaza to be transported through the Rafah Crossing in Egypt on Friday, but the 20 trucks are held up by verification proceedings.  A few miles away, two million people are without water, food, medicine, fuel—everything needed for survival. Meanwhile, supplies arriving from United Arab Emirates and Jordan at the Egyptian El Arish airport, an hour away from Gaza, cannot cross the border. The continuing Israel airstrikes inside Gaza will cause great harm for people trying to get supplies, even in the southern Gaza area that Israel calls a safe zone while still bombing it. In Gaza, seven hospitals and 21 medical centers have been closed because of shelling and lack of fuel.

Although the media published news that almost 500 people were killed at a Gaza hospital because of an errant Palestinian rocket, journalists are doing a more in depth investigation. Heavy bombardment kept them from collecting evidence on the ground. Video footage, however, shows a bright light rising in the sky and flashing twice before changing direction and exploding before a blast on the ground, followed by a second much larger explosion closer to the camera. The detailed review concluded the flash that Israel attributed to a misfire is consistent with Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepting a missile fired from the Gaza Strip and destroying it in midair.

According to the investigation, there was “no proof that the midair and ground explosions are necessarily linked.” Evidence doesn’t show any missile fragments. The crater left by the explosion is not compatible with Israel’s typical weapons, but a different type of artillery cannot be ruled out, possibly an airburst munition. Analysis also shows that the projectile was fired from the northeast, the direction of Israel, not from the southwest as Israel claimed. The Israeli army’s video of a conversation between supposed Hamas officials appearing to talk about the misfired rocket causing the hospital explosion was edited from two separate channels, negating its credibility. Reporters also questioned the syntax, accent, and tone of voice.

Intelligence reveals that the Israel-Hamas war could escalate regionally after a series of attacks on U.S. forces and Israel by Iran proxies. Hezbollah has conducted almost daily small-scale attacks on Israel’s militarized northern border, and Yemen’s Houthi movement and Iraqi militias, loyal to Iran, attacked U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria, even attempting to attack Israel. In the northern Red Sea, a U.S. warship shot down several missiles and drones fired from Yemen possibly directed at Israel. Small drone attacks on U.S. bases at al Assad, Iraq, Erbil, Kurdistan, and Tanif, Syria were likely the work of Iraqi militant groups working with Iran. All the drones were intercepted with no damage to U.S. forces or facilities.

Biden is asking Congress for a foreign aid package:

• $14.3 billion – Israel for air and missile defense support plus replenishing stocks already provided.
• $61.4 billion – Ukraine for a year.
• $13.6 billion – immigration priorities including border security and refugee assistance.
• $9.15 billion – humanitarian aid and funding to counter China’s influence in Asia and the developing world.

While expressing concern about the border, Congress ignored Biden’s request last August for $4 billion to help border security.  

Insiders of Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) were shocked by Sidney Powell’s defection after she pled guilty in the Georgia RICO case, and now another brick has dropped on DDT. Just as they were trying to understand what that means for DDT’s indictments, Ken Chesebro has pled guilty. The second lawyer for DDT was scheduled to go to trial on October 23; Chesebro is the third of 19 co-defendants to plead guilty and avoid prison time. He was charged with organizing fake pro-DDT electors in seven states that Joe Biden won in the 2020 presidential election. If he abides by the terms of his five-year probation, the charge will be expunged from his record. The day before his plea, Chesebro lost two motions, one of them to exclude all his communications because of attorney-client privilege.

In Michigan, a prosecutor has reached a cooperation agreement with one of 16 Republicans who signed the fake, official-looking paperwork claiming DDT had won the state. The other 15 are still being prosecuted for eight felony counts each, including forgery and conspiracy to commit forgery.

The Supreme Court giveth….  In Murthy v. Missouri, the high court temporarily permits the Biden administration to urge social media companies to remove disinformation about public health and elections from their posts. The conservative 5^th Circuit Court had, however, narrowed a lower court’s ruling by limiting the restrictions to the White House, surgeon general’s office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the FBI plus later adding the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The new order stays in effect until justices issue a ruling in June. Conservative Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., Clarence Thomas, and Neil M. Gorsuch dissented.

Justices will also consider two other cases about removing controversial material on social media platforms from Texas and Florida. A Texas law may bar companies from taking down posts based on political ideology; another court blocked a similar law in Florida.

In another decision about Missouri, the Supreme Court left in place a lower court order blocking the state law that invalidates federal gun restrictions in the state and bars officials from enforcing any law that would “infringe” on the right to “bear arms.” “Any person” can sue state law-enforcement agencies who don’t comply with state law. A federal judge ruled that the law unconstitutionally usurped federal law, and the 8ith Circuit Court upheld the decision. Thomas disagreed with the high court decision.

Ukraine is making good use of the longer-range missile system with a range of 100 miles. The U.S. provided this with the agreement that Ukraine would use it only within Ukrainian borders. Ukraine also received the 31 battle tanks, and the trained personnel have returned. Russia’s Black Sea fleet has been pushed out of its Sevastopol (Crimea) port, and airfield attacks will force Russia’s aircraft to be pulled out. Ammunition depots must also be fortified or disbanded.  

A federal bankruptcy judge ruled that Alex Jones must pay families of Sandy Hook shooting victims winning a civil defamation case despite his bankruptcy proceedings.