Debt Ceiling Talks, Elections

The immediate problem in the nation is the GOP resistance in increasing the nation’s debt ceiling, one-fourth of it caused by former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) and his Republicans. The same four political leaders of Congress met with President Joe Biden at the White House on May 16. He said there is “still work to do” and that staff will continue to meet daily. Biden frequently says he won’t make spending cuts in exchange for increasing the debt ceiling to pay prior U.S. debts but will discuss spending levels because they are two separate issues.

After the meeting, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told reporters that the “structure” of the negotiations had improved, but Republicans and Democrats are far apart on a potential deal. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) took comfort in McCarthy’s acknowledgement that default was “the worst outcome” and a bipartisan bill was necessary.  Top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries (NY) told members that he considered any additional work requirements a nonstarter in the debt ceiling negotiations. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that “we’re not going to default, but we’re running out of time.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen still gives June 1 as the absolute deadline before default. By that date, congressional leaders must negotiate a deal to raise the ceiling and persuade their caucuses to vote in favor of the same bill with Biden also approving the measure. Before Congress’s looming departure from Washington for Memorial Day, the House will be in session only six days and the Senate only five. Biden will be out of the country for the next five days.

To call the debt ceiling talks a negotiation is a farce: negotiations require a give and take—and McCarthy is intent only on taking. Before the meeting, McCarthy complained that President Joe Biden didn’t want a “deal,” but McCarthy isn’t offering anything. He said he wouldn’t compromise on work requirements and refused to close tax loopholes for more revenue—in short, no compromise. Democrats have rejected the GOP’s proposal to cut non-defense discretionary spending by 27 percent across the board and resisted efforts to impose such caps for more than two years. If the veterans funding is removed from cuts, as McCarthy maintains, the cut for all discretionary spending would be 33 percent.

McCarthy claims he wants austerity, but Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) tweeted that 275 of the 317 pages of McCarthy’s debt limit bill are “giveaways to the fossil fuel industry.” Just the reduction of royalty rates for drilling on federal land costs $430 million. Taking back $71 billion from the $80 billion for the IRS in last year’s climate bill costs an additional $115 billion in lost revenue. These additions to the national debt don’t match McCarthy’s meme of “we owe it to our children.”

The GOP proposed default can push the unemployment rate near or beyond ten percent in the next quarter along with a drop in GDP of over 6 percent. Even a brief default could lower the yield on Treasury bills by $750 billion over the next decade, and the default threat is driving down stocks, damaging retirement accounts. DDT, who wants another term in the White House, has no idea of the seriousness of a default saying, “Maybe it’s—you have a bad week or a bad day.”

The government is already losing revenue from “extraordinary measures” forced on the administration since January. The same accounting maneuvers cost the federal government $260 million in 2011 and $230 million in 2013 from rising yields on Treasury bills. The average of these sums plus inflation brings the current estimate to $328 million loss added to the $115.4 billion McCarthy’s bill costs the government. Saving this amount would be big news if Republicans mentioned it but kept quiet if they spend it.

Civics classes teach the process for passing a bill: write a bill, send it to committee, hold hearings, work on changes, hold debates, and try to pass it before it might move to the other chamber. House Republicans changed the system:

• Meet in secret to put together a list of far-right desires.
• Skip committee hearings, debates, policy analysis, and pass it on the House floor without committee hearings, scrutiny, policy analysis, and permission to add amendments.
• Order the Senate to support it, even with voters opposition, with the threat of an economic catastrophe.

Success with this measure can lead to a federal abortion ban, a pardon for insurrectionists, etc. The GOP could use extortion to chop Social Security and Medicare. And civics books will need to be rewritten.

A Democratic proposal put McCarthy between the proverbial rock and hard place. He promised his far-right caucus he would strip people of benefits to cut back on the U.S. debt—at least until the next GOP president—but moderate Democratic congressional members offered to protect him as Speaker if he doesn’t default on the debts. Just one House member can call for a vote to select the Speaker, and Democratic support could keep him as Speaker. In the 2013 debt ceiling fight, Democrats made the same offer to then-Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) who later chose to resign instead of counting on his opponents. If McCarthy doesn’t reach a deal with Biden, which looks unlikely, Democrats also have the discharge petition as an option, but it requires support from some Republicans.

In a survey, only 37 percent realized that a default on the debt ceiling would cause significant rate increases, a serious fall in the stock market, and an unstable financial system. After an explanation of the problems, only 30 percent agreed the ceiling should not be increased. Forty percent say they will blame Republicans for a default, and 76 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll agree that a default would add financial stress on families like theirs—including 77 percent of self-described Republicans.

To continue discussions, Biden cut short a long-planned foreign trip. He still leaves on May 17 for a G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, but returns on May 21, skipping stops in Papua New Guinea, which would have been the first for a U.S. president, and Australia.

Across the U.S., states are holding elections on May 16, 2023, some of them primaries for lawmakers and judges along with special elections for state legislators.

Pennsylvania:

Democrats kept their narrow hold on the state House when Heather Boyd was kept her seat, replacing Democratic state Rep. Mike Zabel, who resigned after allegations of sexual harassment. A GOP majority might have passed an abortion ban.

Cherelle Parker will likely become the first Black female mayor of Philadelphia in the heavily Democratic city after she defeated eight opponents in a competitive primary to be the Democratic candidate for the general election in November. Billionaire Jeffrey Yass, Pennsylvania’s wealthiest man and a charter school advocate, gave $1 million to a group opposing another candidate, progressive Helen Gym. She came in ten points below Parker who received one-third of the Democratic votes.

In a primary, Judge Carolyn Carluccio defeated a judge who stopped the certification of the 2020 election results in support of DDT. She faces Democrat Dan McCaffery for the seat in the November general election in a court with a Democratic majority of 4-2 after the death last fall of Democrat Chief Justice Max Baer. Current court issues are the use of public funds to help women get abortions, restrictions in the sale and possession of guns, and permission to count mail-in ballots delayed by the pandemic disruptions.  

Kentucky:

Attorney General Daniel Cameron, the DDT-endorsed candidate, won the GOP gubernatorial nomination defeating 11 rivals, including Kelly Craft, who served as DDT’s ambassador to the UN and Canada. In the November general election, the Black candidate opposes Gov. Andy Beshear (D) who has a 63 percent approval rating.

Incumbent Secretary of State Michael Adams fended off two challengers who cast doubts on the state’s election system. Adams, praised for running fair elections, has spoken against election deniers, calling the trend “demagoguery.”

Florida:

In a big upset, Democrat Donna Deegan flipped the Jacksonville mayor from Republican to Democratic with 52 percent of the vote in a one-third turnout. The 12^th largest city in the U.S., Jacksonville was the largest city with a GOP mayor until the current one became term limited. State Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsed the GOP candidate; DeSantis’ endorsement for Kentucky’s gubernatorial candidate Kelly Craft lost to DDT’s preference.

In Thailand, a youthful democratic movement may have defeated the military control in power since a 2014 coup. The progressive Move Forward Party, led by 42-year-old Ivy League-educated business executive Pita Limjaroenrat, came in first with a predicted 152 seats in the 500-seat lower house. In second place with 141 seats was Pheu Thai, the main opposition party, led by Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the 36-year-old daughter of exiled populist former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, former miliary leader who seized office and renewed his position in a 2019 controversial election, had only 36 elected seats.

The alliance among Move Forward, Phew Thai, and smaller parties could hold 60 percent of Thailand’s lower house but perhaps not enough to oust Prayuth and his allies. Control is determined by a majority of both the 500 seats of the lower house and the 250 members of the unelected Senate, full of establishment boosters appointed by the country’s military leaders. Exact vote counts must be finished in 60 days.

Pita’s party campaigned on lessening the military and the monarchy and a faster economic growth by diversifying Thailand’s tourism-dependent economy to spread it beyond the capital of Bangkok. Ending military conscription would also improve the economy. Another aim is decriminalizing criticism of the monarchy, laws used to target and persecute political opponents. Weary of being controlled “by generals and kings,” protesters flooded the streets in 2020.

Democracy Has a Great Day

April 4 presented a trifecta of victories for democracy in the U.S.: the Wisconsin elected a Democrat for the state Supreme Court, Brandon Johnson will be Chicago’s new mayor, and Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) was arranged in Manhattan after a half century of committing crimes.

Wisconsin:

DDT’s arraignment took all the media energy today, but the defeat of a far-right candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court may set the trajectory of the U.S. in the 2024 election. Running for the position he lost in 2020, Dan Kelly is an election denier who worked for the state GOP to send fake electors overthrowing the popular vote in the state. He lost the case in the state Supreme Court by only one vote. Kelly also opposes marriage equality, Social Security, Medicare, and gun sense laws. After his loss, Kelly refused to concede to his opponent, Janet Protasiewicz, instead smearing her in a concession speech to his supporters.  

With Protasiewicz, a Democrat elected for a ten-year term, the state high court will have a majority (4-3) for the first time in 16 years. She won by at least 11 points and over 200,000 votes in a race spending $45 million, with over $5 million coming from the far-right couple Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein.

Issues before the Wisconsin high court:

 After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned abortion federally, Wisconsin Republicans reverted to an 1849 state anti-abortion law making it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion on a woman. The only exception is if the pregnant woman’s life is endangered.

The GOP legislature redrew the districts to favor Republicans for both the state legislature and representatives Wisconsin sends to the U.S. House, giving electoral votes to a presidential candidate in 2024. Wisconsin has struggled with gerrymandering since the Koch brothers elected GOP legislators and Scott Walker in 2010.  With the system, Democratic legislators get more votes but don’t take the majority. Republicans passed at least 33 laws to make it harder to vote. In 2020, 82 percent Wisconsin voters passed initiatives for reasonable districting, but Republicans ignored their vote and created more GOP districts, giving themselves 63 of 99 seats in the assembly and 22 of 23 in the state senate. Republicans blocked bills for 300 days and refused to even hear 98 percent of Democratic-sponsored bills; GOP legislators refused to confirm the Democratic governor’s nominations.

The legislature also has a case coming to the state high court in which the GOP argues state legislatures should sole power to draw redistricting maps and pass voting rules.

Protasiewicz’s win gives the Supreme Court an opportunity to readdress the districting issue under the state constitution. Dan Knodl, a Republican elected on April 4 to the state Senate who gives the GOP a two-thirds super-majority, contemplates impeaching the new judge and Milwaukee officials. Before January 6, he wrote former VP Mike Pence asking him not to certify Wisconsin’s electoral votes. 

Chicago:

In the mayoral runoff against conservative Democrat Paul Vallas, Brandon Johnson took the seat with almost 52 percent of the vote. The Columbus Chronicle said that Vallas’ business approach to education treats it as “one-size-fits-all,” ignoring diversity, equity, and systemic reform. Vallas’ style of leadership covers other areas such as crime and public safety with an endorsement from the right-wing Fraternal Order of Police. Johnson has a “community-based background and prioritization of the people’s needs, particularly the needs of marginalized groups.”

In a debate, Johnson said Vallas, linked to the GOP that believed the pandemic was not real, was backed by DDT’s supporters. Vallas campaigned on conservative media, ridiculing both Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and employing the message that progressive Democratic policies make U.S. cities dangerous. He also opposes teaching Black history, in a city that has almost 50 percent Black students, because learning about past oppression turns Black children into “criminals.

New York:

For a large part of April 4, eyes were on DDT’s movements as he went to the Manhattan court house, spent an hour being arraigned, and flew back to Mar-a-Lago where he gave his usual hate-filled speech.  

In the arraignment, the 34 felony counts were for payments to DDT’s former lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen with false entries in the Trump Organization general ledger that the checks were for legal services. After consultation with DDT and the Trump Organization CEO Allen Weisselberg, Cohen received $420,000 for $130,000 to Stormy Daniels, $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal from AMI, and $30,000 to a Trump Tower doorman, according to the New Yorker. The doorman supposedly had information about a child DDT fathered out of wedlock. The remainder of the money covered the increase in Cohen’s federal income tax.

The misdemeanor charges for falsifying business records changed to felonies because they were to cover up other crimes. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg outlined how Cohen and David Pecker, former CEO of American Media, Inc. (AMI), allegedly worked with DDT to orchestrate payments to multiple parties. DDT thanked Pecker for helping him with his campaign. With no legitimate retainer agreement, Cohen received 11 payments from February 2017 to December 2017, recorded on the check and in ledgers as a retainer payment. The agreement has documentary evidence from DDT in the Oval Office.

Referring to the latter two payments, Bragg said that the state outlaws a scheme “to promote a candidacy by unlawful means.” He also cited other “unlawful means” such as false statements, some planned for tax authorities, and “the federal election-law cap on contribution limits.” The judge has not issued any gag orders—yet—but DDT expanded his verbal attacks on the judge to those on his wife and daughter, crying “corruption.”    

Anti-DDT protesters outnumbered his supporters on the courthouse steps, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was forced to flee. Her comments into a bullhorn were drowned out by demonstrators blowing whistles that one of DDT’s supporters distributed. Rep. George Santos (R-NY) also made a brief appearance.

DDT’s team has until August 8 to file any motions, and the prosecution will respond by September 19. The judge said he will rule on any motions at the next in-person hearing, scheduled for December 4. The government asked for a January 16, 2024 trial date, two weeks before the 2020 presidential primary in New Hampshire. It’s DDT: there will be delays.

Meanwhile, Special Counsel Jack Smith continues his investigation in DDT’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, including the January 6 insurrection, and his hiding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Fulton County (GA) continues DDT’s demands for state officials to “find” votes,” and the DOJ and SEC pursues alleged illegalities of DDT’s Truth Social initial public offering. E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuits against DDT for sexual assault and defamation are still on-going.

The media has repeatedly stated that the charges are unprecedented, but Siven Watt and Norman Eisen wrote that “third-party payments covertly made to benefit a candidate are routinely and successfully prosecuted as campaign finance violations in New York and elsewhere under a variety of state and federal statutes.” Since Bragg took office in 2022, his prosecutors filed 117 felony counts of falsifying business records against 29 individuals and companies.

DDT’s family is split in response to DDT’s indictment: Donald Jr. and Eric are furious, but Ivanka is simply “pained,” and DDT’s angry wife Melania has been silent. Jr. said DDT’s charges were much worse than those of Mao, Stalin, and Pol Pot who had killed tens of millions of people.

Fox did cover the arraignment, but it focused on Twitter’s fixation on the “hot blonde cop” in addition to other sexist comments about the female police officer helping to guard the door at the courthouse. Otherwise, Fox delivered the typical laudatory comments (lies?) protecting DDT.

After his arraignment in New York, DDT retreated to his lair at Mar-a-Lago, ranting lies against prosecutors, the judge, law enforcement officials, the Manhattan DA and his family, the DOJ special counsel, and anyone else who opposed him. He ate dinner on the club’s patio surrounded by adoring followers such as Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

Sixty percent of respondents to a CNN poll approve of DDT’s indictment, including 62 percent of independents who DDT needs for an election. Over 90 percent of people have heard at least a little about the indictment, and 51 percent have heard a lot. The poll was taken before the actual arraignment.

On this day, Fox network’s Rupert Murdoch, 92, is no longer engaged to 66-year-old Ann Lesley Smith. Sources say it’s either Murdoch’s discomfort with her extremely evangelical views or her not wanting to be “in the public eye.” Did she return the 11-carat diamond worth $2.5 million?

News Catchup – December 17, 2022

When I looked at my blog, I found that my last entry was on Thanksgiving Day. Three weeks and one day later, my beloved Sue, my partner in all things for 53 years, 50 weeks, and one day, died of bone cancer. Not diagnosed until a PET scan on December 7, she was admitted to the hospital on the same day. Two days later, she was put on “comfort care” which means almost unlimited medication including morphine and sedation. On December 14, she was brought home and breathed her last at 8:30 am, December 16. [Left: Sue and our dear Coco who died December 7.]

I am grateful that she is no longer in pain and now creating a new pattern of life that still includes researching and writing about progressive politics which begins with going through almost 700 emails of news for the past two weeks. What an amazing time it’s been! When Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) was no longer elected, I had hopes that the news would settle down. Instead it accelerated! Where to begin? Just start writing about whatever catches my interest.

The day before Sue died, President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act, legalizing marriage equality for same-gender and biracial couples. States aren’t required to marry these couples, but they must recognize them. In the House 169 Republicans were in opposition, and 36 senators voted against the law. The bill was inspired by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who stated that the Supreme Court ruling for marriage equality might not hold up. Married to a White woman, the Black justice didn’t object to biracial marriages. About 700,000 same-gender couples are married in the U.S. According to the new law, religious institutions won’t lose their tax-exempt status if they refuse to recognize same-gender marriages. In the U.S., 71 percent of the population support marriage equality.

The ”funniest” thing that recently happened, at least to my black sense of humor, is the extension of the funding bill, due last October 1. Without another continuing resolution, the government would have shut down yesterday. Now? Any possibility of shutdown is December 23—one week! Republicans are salivating to close down the government, which would result in dire circumstances, to prove how powerful they are. In the Senate, 19 Republicans wanted to shut down the government as did 201 House GOP members. A long term budget bill until the annual deadline of October 1 is in the works, but Republicans want to block its passage until they have control after January 1.  They did get an eight-percent increase in the military budget with $45 million more than the White House request and rescinded the Covid vaccine requirement.

Struggling Republicans facing an election for the House speaker with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) so desperate to win that he panders to crazies such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). Despite the “O.K.” campaign for “Only Kevin,” he still doesn’t have the 218 votes of 222 GOP representatives. His failure would be the first speaker election chaos in a century. Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) said “if we stumble out of the gate” their votes “will revolt over that and they will feel let down.” Conservatives in the Freedom Caucus oppose McCarthy and demand a weakening of the Speaker’s office who want legislation drafted from the ground up and ability to amend bills during floor debates as well as the requirement of 72 hours for bills presented for reviewing because voting.

McCarthy has admitted that he can’t persuade the five GOP House members opposing his becoming speaker to support him. Reps. Andy Biggs (AZ), Matt Gaetz (FL), Bob Good (VA), Ralph Norman (SC), and Matthew Rosendale (MT) are adamantly against him and declare they will vote as a bloc, keeping party leaders from picking them off. Others may also not vote for McCarthy. The January 3 vote for Speaker operates in a House without rules not set until after the chamber establishes rules for the 118^th Congress. Not selecting a leader delays the approval of the operating rules until a speaker is chosen. McCarthy also delayed conference races for committee leadership positions until after January 3 because disappointment representatives may cause him to lose more votes.

A MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT from Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) declares himself as a SUPERHERO in America. All those sycophants and DDT-haters can get digital crypto art NFT (non-fungible tokens) trading cards, featuring himself—and only for $99 each. And in the first day, 45,000 were snapped up in 12 hours for $4.5 million with ten percent, $450,000, supposedly going into DDT’s personal account, nothing for any campaign. Anyone can copy the images and share online. Within the first day, the cards’ value had more than doubled.

Ridiculed buyers complaining about gas prices and inflation are spending almost one hundred dollars for an NFT image. Phillipp Kennicott describes the product as “clumsy Photoshop pictures of the former president’s face grafted onto reasonably fit male bodies, clad in various costumes of masculine bravado, including sporting garb, a sheriff’s duster and lots of blue suits.” DDT claims that the fake images of him as boxer, wrestler, astronaut, race-car driver, football player, etc. illustrate his “Life & Career.”

After four years, the House Ways and Means Committee received details of DDT’s taxes, and Democrats plan to reveal some information. Every other person elected to president within the past half century has make their taxes available to the public so this revelation follows former protocol except for DDT to fight the process since he was elected. Although Republicans say that the only purpose to release the information is to embarrass DDT, but they gave out protected tax information about groups during the Obama administration.

At the same time, DDT declares himself as a SUPERHERO, special counsel Jack Smith is moving quickly forward in his probe of DDT’s removal (theft?) of highly-sensitive government documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago and DDT’s illegal attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential win in 2020. Legal experts hope—and expect—charges will be filed in early 2023. Smith’s staff is almost double that of Robert Mueller’s legal team, and Smith inherited a trove of damning materials against DDT and his cohorts. In the month since Smith was appointed on November 18, he has subpoenaed officials from six states for a grand jury, sought testimony and communications with DDT and his campaign and 19 associates, and achieved the annulment of DDT’s special master to review documents from Mar-a-Lago which would have concealed them. Thus Smith is free to use the FBI Mar-a-Lago search in his prosecution.

New Twitter owner, Elon Musk, is creating almost as much media attention as DDT. After tremendous First Amendment global backlash, he reinstated accounts of several journalists after suspending them from the social media platform. He said it came from a Twitter poll, dominated by bots, about whether he should wait seven days. Musk lost. Suspended journalists were from major respected U.S. media outlets supposedly because journalists wrote about @elonjet, a former Twitter account tracking the movements of Musk’s private plane. The occupants were not tracked. 

Musk claimed he took over Twitter to promote free speech, something that he has consistently destroyed. He regulates only when he feels threatened; i.e., telling impersonators that they will be permanently banned. Musk has brought together a collection of right-wingers and bots to use for his supposed polls as determination of policies. He also blocked links to rival Mastodon and calls bios of users listing Mastodon “malware” with no evidence. Hundreds of thousands of users flocked to Mastodon in November as Twitter users sought alternative platforms. BBC’s technology editor was able to tweet a Mastodon reference with zsk@mastodonapp.uk because it is not a clickable link. The Twitter account @joinmastodon, which advertised the site and its features, was suspended two days ago when Musk suspended the preeminent tech journalists. The European Union threatened the journalists’ suspensions with sanctions.

Twitter is wooing QAnon advocates by Musk sending a tweet to his 120 million followers: “Follow 🐰.” QAnon members use “follow the white rabbit” as references to Alice in Wonderland and The Matrix. Many Musk tweets recently use QAnon myths relating to child sexual exploitation and the child-pedophile, Satan-worshipping ring run by a cabal of Hollywood and political global elites, lies believed by QAnon folk. Musk insinuated that Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, was in favor of child sexual exploitation. Roth and his family were forced to flee their home and hide. This week, Musk dissolved Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council former in 2016 of over 100 civil and human rights organizations working with the company to make Twitter a safer place for users.

Musk’s enthusiasm for his own definition of “free speech” led to his suspending left-learning Twitter accounts if he disagrees with them and reinstating far-right accounts breaking former Twitter rules. As CEO, he can personally silence any dissent. Instead of blocking Covid vaccine misinformation (lies), he permits it in the name of “transparency.” Twitter has also become a haven for neo-Nazis, reinstating their accounts, videos, alt-right memes, and sharing their praise for Hitler. In an argument with retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, Musk called him “both puppet & puppeteer,” perpetuating anti-Semitic tropes for a Jewish person. Musk also posted a Pepe the Frog meme, a character co-opted as a hate symbol in racist and anti-Semitic memes. A new white supremacist account, “Day of the Rope,” comes from The Turner Diaries, a fictionalized blueprint for a white supremacist revolution written in 1978 by neo-Nazi leader William Pierce.

Enough for one day; more tomorrow!

DDT Unpopular, Facing Serious Legal Problems

Sad to say, the media cannot avoid covering Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) with his corruption and lust for the limelight. The last two melded together in his announcement for another run at the presidency in two years during a party at Mar-a-Lago on November 15. Security had to keep people from leaving his speech.

DDT had thought the grand success of GOP elections a week before would give him a triumphant lead-in to his campaign, but it miserably fizzled. Republicans lost the Senate—again—and the GOP has a majority of one in the House while five races are still undecided. Furious with his many losses, DDT attacked House Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), convinced weak Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) he could be Speaker and manage all the crazies turned loose, and failed to destroy Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for winning because of his gerrymandering House districts.

The crazies are the only ones left to support DDT; reasonable parts of the right wing have turned against him. National Review’s Dan McLaughlin tweeted, “This is delusional, mental-breakdown stuff.” Fox News contributor Joe Concha called it “unhinged, sophomoric stuff that is completely unprovoked.” From the conservative Wall Street Journal came “Trump Is the Republican Party’s Biggest Loser.” Featuring DDT in its Humpty Dumpty cover visual, the New York Post defined him as “perhaps the most profound vote-repellant in modern American history.”

A lead group of GOP politicians trying to oust DDT are the 2024 wannabe presidential candidates.

DeSantis has bragged about all the members he sent to the Congress (not mentioning it’s because of his gerrymandering); he’s edging out DDT in the polls.

Two-term New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said that Republicans “keep losing and losing and losing and that “the reason we’re losing is because Donald Trump has put himself before everybody else.” He continued by saying DDT’s refusal to leave his 2022 defeat is “not what this party stands for” and that “it’s not what it should stand for in the future, and we’ve got to stop it now.”

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said that “candidate quality matters. I got a great policy for the Republican Party: Let’s stop supporting crazy, unelectable candidates in our primaries and start getting behind winners that can close the deal in November.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and DDT’s choice to replace McConnell for Minority Leader, complained that “the current strategy of most Republicans in Washington is to only be against the crazy Democrats—and they’re crazy—and never outline any plan what we are for and what we will do. That is a mistake.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who was against DDT until he was for DDT accused Republicans of spending far too much time preaching to the choir when they talk to the same 2.6 million people watching Fox network every night.” He also complained, “Republicans in the Senate don’t fight” and told GOP senators to “pick two or three or four things that matter and say, ‘We believe in it.’”

Mike Pompeo, CIA director and secretary of State under Trump who is considering a presidential run, agreed that he’s “tired of losing.”

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem called for new leadership.

Outgoing Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, one of the most reasonable governors in his party, argued the GOP is “desperately in need of a course correction” and DDT’s overselling of bad candidates caused significant damage. Like others, he ridiculed DDT’s earlier claim that people will get tired of winning after his election. 

Only one GOP senator, Tommy Tuberville (AL) says he will support DDT; no others openly spoke up for him.

Lindsey Graham (SC), supposedly DDT’s good friend, only said DDT will be “hard to beat.”

Sen. Mitt Romney (UT) said no one raised a hand in a private GOP senators’ meeting when asked if they want DDT to announce he’s running for president. A second senator agreed.

Kevin Cramer (ND) likes Mike Pompeo for a candidate.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) refused to commit, saying that DDT as a candidate is a “theoretical.”

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) identified DeSantis as the de facto leader of the Republican Party. 

Wealthy donors also bailed on DDT. Hedge fund manager Ken Griffin also plans to support DeSantis, calling DDT a “three-time loser.” Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of private equity giant Blackstone, plans to support DDT’s challenger because “America does better when its leaders are rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday.”

Political committees controlled by or closely affiliated with Trump have a total of nearly $112 million in the bank, but only $13.5 million can legally be used for DDT’s campaign. Most of the money was raised by a PAC and committees not officially part of DDT’s presidential campaign. To dodge restrictions, DDT’s PAC transferred $20 million to a new super PAC, MAGA, run by DDT aides although super PACs are legally bound to be independent of candidates. A complaint has been filed for violation of federal law in this transfer.

Before his grand candidacy announcement, DDT called GOP elected officials and demanded they endorse him. He said “those who waited too long” were “not gonna like” their fate when he wins. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was the only congressional member to attend. Even daughter Ivanka wasn’t available despite DDT begging her to come. 

DeSantis also violated state-level fundraising records for this year’s gubernatorial election with about $90 million remaining. Moving that money to a super PAC for his candidacy would also violate federal law.

New special counsel Jack Smith, appointed by DOJ AG Merrick Garland, will investigate DDT, including his likely criminality in Georgia attempting to pressure officials into overturn the state’s vote for Joe Biden in 2020 and DDT’s mishandling of sensitive government documents at Mar-a-Lago. Both these cases have a number of charges. Smith will also focus on “whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power” on January 6, 2021.

One of the classified documents DDT squirreled away at Mar-a-Lago proves he tweeted a classified image when he sent the detailed photo of the Iranian launch pad where officials failed to launch a purported satellite. The image was photographed by an important U.S. intelligence asset, a classified spacecraft called USA 224 believed to be a multibillion-dollar KH-11 reconnaissance satellite. The image has now been declassified, but DDT lied by saying he declassified the image and had the authority to do so. DDT frequently mishandled national secrets, as shown by a TOP 10 list, and proved himself to be reckless and irresponsible with sensitive information, his accusation against Hillary Clinton regarding her emails during the 2016 campaign and since then.

The prosecution has rested in the Trump Organization tax avoidance fraud trial. Longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg testified for the prosecution to keep his prison sentence shorter. The criminal case implicated DDT and his children, Don Jr. and Eric, because they all signed checks to avoid taxes. DDT authorized the scheme to reduce Weisselberg’s taxable income—and the IRS taxes owned by the company. He is still being paid $640,000 a year, including a $200,000 increase from Eric and Jr. in 2017 after they discovered his tax fraud, plus a $500,000 bonus. 

Alvin Bragg, Manhattan DA, is jump-starting its criminal investigation into DDT regarding his hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels who said she had an affair with DDT. As in all other cases, DDT claims innocence.

Ivanka failed to escape having a court-appointed monitor watch over her financial activity so that she wouldn’t shift assets before legal actions against the Trump Organization. She remains a defendant in the case regarding the shell company haven, Trump Organization II, set up in Delaware on the same day that a $250 million lawsuit against DDT and his businesses.

DDT’s former chief of staff John Kelly refused to use government agencies to investigate or harass individuals DDT identified as enemies such as former FBI Director James Comey, former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, former CIA Director John Brennan, two FBI employees Trump targeted for their involvement in the probe of Russian election manipulation, etc. After Kelly left, Comey was a target of extensive IRS audits, two of 5,000 audits out of 153 million returns filed, a 0.0033 percent chance. McCabe was one of 8,000 audits the next year when 154 million people filed, a 0.0052 percent chance. The “random” claim doesn’t wash.

The Department of Homeland Security ensnared hundreds, if not thousands, of U.S. protesters, in a scam before the 2020 election to push DDT’s false claims about the “terrorist organization” he accused Democrats of supporting. The report, released by Sen. Ron Wyden (R-OR), showed orders given to “senior leadership” requiring them to broadly apply the label “violent antifa anarchists inspired” to Portland protesters unless they had intel showing “something different.” DHS’s acting chief intelligence officer ordered all violence in Portland (OR) to falsely be the work of “Antifa,” and the media went along. The project cost $1.5 billion.

DDT had a grand plan for winning the 2024 presidential election. He would install election deniers in swing states as secretaries of state, and they would declare the election for him even if the majority of people in the state didn’t vote for DDT. After they won the election on November 8, he would declare his presidency after all his candidates won the 2022 midterms. His candidates suffered a rout, and the plan failed. Only four election denying secretaries of state—Alabama, Indiana, South Dakota, and Wyoming—defeated ethical opponents in the red states.

Dems Take Senate; Snowflake GOP Whines

Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) has been become the 50^th senator, making the Walker/Warnock election in Georgia on December 6 a non-factor in possible losses of GOP bills and votes. Her election follows Sen. Mark Kelly’s (D-AZ) earlier win. His opponent, Black Masters, blames House Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for his loss because Masters wanted more funding. Masters already received $15 million from gay billionaire Peter Thiel.

As can be expected, GOP sour grapes prevailed. After DDT accused the voting system in Clark County (NV), the state’s most populous county, of being corrupt, county officials fought back to refute his lies. As in 2020, DDT and his allies are attacking any states with Democratic winners of election fraud if their votes weren’t counted by midnight of Election Day—even if the law permitted states to accept ballots several days after Election Day as 18 states do. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) echoed DDT on a Republican conference call hosted by Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), chair of the Senate fundraising committee by falsely claiming that there was no “mathematical way” Adam Laxalt could lose to Cortez Masto.

National media finally declared Tina Kotek Oregon’s governor-elect, and her GOP candidate finally managed to concede. Nevada’s GOP candidate Joe Lombardo beat his opponent, but the GOP election denier candidate for secretary of state, Jim Marchant, lost. He had said he would certify the 2024 election for Deposed Donald Trump (DDT. In Arizona, Kari Lake trails Katie Hobbs for governor by 34,000 votes after the last drop from a GOP area of Maricopa County failed to give her a big boost. Another 190,000 ballots with possibly Democratic emphasis are waiting in the wings.

Lake has cried voter fraud because the vote wasn’t completed within a few hours of the end of voting. She called Arizona “a banana republic,” and Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts told Lake to “grow up”:

“Kari Lake was vowing to call the Arizona Legislature into a special session because she didn’t get a balloon drop on election night. Do you need a timeout? That’s what I used to ask my toddler sons when they’d throw themselves onto the floor, kicking and screaming, because they didn’t get their way.”

Lake even promises she would “call the Arizona Legislature into a special session because she didn’t get a balloon drop on election night,” according to Roberts. MSNBC reporter Vaughn Hilliard said Lake alleges fraud but refuses to name what it is or or report anyone to authorities.  

The best satire, close to fact, came from the New Yorker’s Andy Borowitz. It begins:

“The United States of America has become the envy of the world after a ten-billion-dollar expenditure on political advertising changed virtually nothing. People around the globe marvelled at a democracy so robust it could withstand an outlay of cash greater than the gross domestic product of nations such as Tajikistan, Montenegro, and Somalia…

“’When you imagine what you could do with ten billion dollars, you immediately think of building new roads or schools,’ a citizen of Montenegro said. ‘But America’s roads and schools must be in excellent shape, if they can afford to spend ten billion dollars on elections instead.’

“’Ten billion dollars could pay for a lot of solar panels, wind farms, and other measures to mitigate climate change,’ a resident of Somalia said. ‘Thank heavens Americans realized that political advertising is the thing that makes them No. 1 in the world and decided to spend it on that.’”

The Republicans are traumatized by their loss, and DDT faces unprecedented attacks from many in the GOP. Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal called him the GOP’s “biggest lower” and former House Speaker Paul Ryan begged Republicans to move forward in a non-DDT direction. “Trump is a loser,” right-wing pundit Eli Lake on Daily Beast wrote on Twitter. “He’s an albatross, a boat anchor on the party. For three straight elections, he has been a liability for Republicans.” Commentary magazine’s John Podhoretz called DDT a “pathological loser narcissist who has now been humiliated by the American electorate in three separate national contests.” Even DDT’s former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said, “Between being Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis tonight, you want to be Ron DeSantis. Trump is not doing very well.”

Even conservative tabloid New York Post ridiculed DDT. 

While DDT’s inner circle tried to talk him out of declaring a candidacy within the next couple of months or longer, he unleashed his venom on heir apparent Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had a really good night. His gerrymandering of districts in opposition to both Republicans and Democrats in legislature created a number of GOP congressional winners, maybe responsible for the U.S. House win if it happens.

DDT called DeSantis an “average” governor with “great public relations.” In a statement, DDT asserted:

“Ron came to me in desperate shape in 2017—he was politically dead, losing in a landslide. Ron had low approval, bad polls, and no money, but he said that if I would Endorse him, he could win. … When I Endorsed him, it was as though, to use a bad term, a nuclear weapon went off.”

DDT went even farther when he  claimed he “sent in the FBI and U.S. Attorneys” to stop “ballot theft … just prior to them running out of the votes necessary to win” for DeSantis’ 2018 election. In the same Truth Social post, DDT wrote, “I also fixed his campaign.” A legal expert called the action “fraud.” DeSantis’ defeated opponent, Andrew Gillum is already using DDT’s statements in a court filing. 

NBC News senior reporter Ben Collins tweeted:

“Am I losing my mind? Is this not a gigantic deal? He’s either casually admitting to using federal agents to interfere in a state election or lying about it for some equally inexplicable reason, right? Am I reading this wrong or is this a five-alarmer for the DOJ?”

DDT followed his attacks on DeSantis with rants and slurs against Virginia’s Gov. Glenn Youngkin, another possible presidential candidate in 2024. In a racist comment, DDT said that “Young kin … sounds Chinese” before he took credit for Youngkin’s win. During the election, the governor had tried to separate himself from DDT.

In more tantrums, DDT blames Fox’s Sean Hannity, his former BFF, and casino mogul Steve Wynn for the Election Day losses of his hand-picked candidates. Trying to cover for his failures, DDT insisted he “did a great job” in the midterms and concluded, “Remember, I am a ‘Stable Genius.’” He sticks to his declaration on Election night, “I should get all the credit. If they lose, I should not be blamed at all.” Like all the other whining Republicans, is melting like snowflakes.

The U.S. House is still not a done deal for the GOP. A projection gives Republican a one-person lead over the Democrats, but 19 elections still haven’t been called for the chamber. No matter which way it goes, the GOP is in for a “Bloodbath!” the term Donald Trump Jr. tweeted about Election Day. Republicans have two major issues: what to do about “loser” DDT and who should have the GOP leadership in Congress.    

Republicans are blaming McConnell for not worshipping DDT and for not approving some of his candidates. Conservative senators pushing for Ron Johnson’s (WI) leadership are asking colleagues to postpone votes for GOP leadership elections next week, but the vote is still on schedule. No matter who wins, that person will be Minority Leader.  

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), desperately trying to become the party leader in the House is catering to the collection of crazies who have been elected. As of yesterday, at least 150 election deniers were elected to the House with a few other undecided races such as the queen loonie Lauren Boebert from Colorado. A newbie is gay election-denier George Santos from Long Island who attended DDT’s January 6 “Stop the Steal” rally and said he wrote a “nice check” to help cover the legal fees of some of the rioters. To Santos, abortion is comparable to slavery. McCarthy will do anything to get votes for House Speaker; he already promised Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) banned from committee membership for the past two years, that she can have any committee position she wants.

The far-right House members are campaigning to block McCarthy from leadership. A strategy from the Freedom Caucus is to create an easier process to call for a vote ousting a sitting speaker. The conservatives also wants more representation on selecting committee assignments and aims to delay the legislative by taking more time to review even non-controversial bills. Other demands are launching investigations and impeachments of President Joe Biden and his Cabinet members.

A huge problem of selecting any GOP House leadership is the slim majority, even if Republicans take the House. McCarthy is also in DDT’s pocket, making serious problems for anyone else running for president in 2024.

Inflation was a concern for 31 percent of voters, but democracy was far above at 44 percent. Abortion was also not far behind inflation at 27 percent. Voters over 65 years old preferred Republicans over Democrats by 55 percent to 43 percent, meaning 55 percent of them voted against keeping their benefits. Maybe they think that saving a few dollars on gas will make up for these losses. Pew Research exit polls shows a lengthy selection of other descriptors about how people voted this month—a great read for political junkies.

U.S. Democracy Hangs by a Thread After Non-existent ‘Red Wave’

On November 8, 2022, Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) lost. He wasn’t on the ballot, but hundreds of his faithful, election-denying followers were. On the eve of Election Day, he claimed he would make a big announcement on November 15, probably a presidential candidacy for 2024. The grand party at Mar-a-Lago rapidly fizzled, and DDT called the night an “interesting evening.” One of his pets, Ohio’s Senate candidate J.D. Vance, won, but many others went down in flames, especially Pennsylvania’s senatorial candidate Mehmet Oz who lost to John Fetterman despite Tucker Carlson’s (Fox network) vicious, lying claims about the winner’s mental ability.

One GOP insider told Fox News, “If it wasn’t clear before, it should be now: We have a Trump problem.” Fox reported that the GOP should “move on from Trump” because of his “outlandish candidates who turned easy victories into close races, and close races into losses.”

After blindly following DDT during the campaigns leading up to the 2022 midterms, the GOP may openly face the disaster of DDT controlling their party. Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said DDT is “in the rearview mirror” of the GOP and used Gov. Brian Kemp’s re-election as an example after DDT turned on him. Duncan added that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “knew what he’s talking about about [bad] candidate quality” and said, “It’s time to move on with the party.” GOP commentator Erick Erickson agreed, and conservative podcaster Ian Haworth went farther by declaring DDT “politically toxic.” Former Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro tweeted:

“Trump picked bad candidates, spent almost no money on his hand-picked candidates, and then proceeded to crap on the Republicans who lost and didn’t sufficiently bend the knee. This will have 2024 impact.”

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott (FL) had bragged about a 55-seat GOP majority, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who hopes to be House Speaker, expected 60 more Republicans. If the GOP takes the House, it might be lucky to get an additional six. Since World War II, first-term Democratic presidents have traditionally lost 40 House seats and 5 Senate seats in the midterms with an increase since President Carter in 1978 but not in 2022. Karen Tumlty wrote that the supposed “red wave” turned out to be “a messy puddle.” HuffPost pundits called it a “whimper.”

Far-right columnist Henry Olson ate crow for his mistakes, but DDT blames the losing candidates and refuses to take any responsibility for his hand-picked candidates losing. Journalists reported that DDT was furious and screaming about the losses. He even went farther when he blamed his wife, Melania Trump, for making him pick Mehmet Oz who lost the U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania.

The brightest spots:

Pennsylvania – GOP gubernatorial and evangelical white nationalist Doug Mastriano lost to Josh Shapiro, and Dem John Fetterman beat Mehmet Oz. (After Oprah Winfrey endorsed Fetterman, he tweeted his #NewProfilePic. Oz’s appearance on Winfrey’s show had made him a celebrity.) Mastriano had worn his Confederate uniform for a faculty photo; the South lost again almost 160 years after the North won at Gettysburg during the Civil War. Oz can take his ignorance about his newly “adopted” state back to New Jersey, that does have an Atlantic Ocean beach. (Oz thinks that Pennsylvania is on the ocean; a map shows how far off he is.)

Abortion rights – Many anti-abortion candidates—Mastriano, Oz, lieutenant governor candidate Carrie DelRosso (PA), Michigan’s gubernatorial Tudor Dixon, and NC’s House Bo Hines—lost. Anti-abortion winners—Govs. DeSantis, Greg Abbott (TX), and Brian Kemp (GA) plus Sen. Ron Johnson (WI) and Sen-elect Vance (OH)—won’t make the same emphasis on removing women’s rights as a “red wave” would have done.

Anti-abortion initiatives in five states all failed. California and Vermont put abortion rights into their constitutions, and Kentucky voted against an amendment blocking the path to overturning its zero-week abortion ban. Despite vicious lies in Michigan, voters enshrined “reproductive freedom” beyond abortion rights to residents’ decisions regarding prenatal care, contraception, sterilization, and miscarriage management. That amendment blocks the 1931 anti-abortion ban. Montana voters rejected increases on doctors not performing aggressive medical interventions on infants, and Alaska refused to open a constitutional convention which could have added anti-abortion amendments.

More Democratic legislatures – Michigan, Minnesota, and possibly Pennsylvania legislatures flipped from Republican—Michigan for the first time in 40 years. In Minnesota, the one GOP legislative chamber blocked the expenditures of a $12 billion budget surplus through gridlock. Arizona is waiting to see if Democrats pick up the two seat majorities in both the state’s House and Senate. All states will be trifectas with Democratic governors; at this time Republicans have 23 trifectas.

Progressives in the House – The outspoken progressive who were elected in the past two terms will be joined by more, including Florida gun violence GenZ activist Maxwell Frost (FL), Democratic Socialists of America member Greg Casar (TX), and three left wing representatives from Illinois, Texas, and Pennsylvania.

Election deniers admitting defeat – Michigan’s Tudor Dixon and Matthew DePerno, secretary of state candidate; Wisconsin’s GOP gubernatorial candidate, Tim Michels; and Pennsylvania’s Oz conceded. (Mastriano, Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial loser, stays mum.) 

Young people voting – As many as 27 percent of GenZ, ages 18-29, may have voted. They comprised over 12 percent of the electorate, and 63 percent preferred Democratic House candidates with only 35 percent backing Republicans. “Don’t underestimate the power of a pissed off generation,” tweeted NextGen America. 

Waiting in the wings – Georgia candidates for the U.S. Senate, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and Herschel Walker will face off on December 6 for the seat. With 98 percent of the vote reported, Warnock had 35,000 more votes than Walker, but he has only 49.4 percent of the vote. State law requires the winner to achieve a majority. One theory for the winner is that Republicans will come out to vote for Walker because he could be the key to control of the Senate, but others say that Walker’s votes came on the coattails for Gov. Kemp, who has already won. If the latter idea is correct, Walker may have fewer votes than in the general election.

Midterms 2022 marked several historic firsts:

• LGBTQ+ candidates ran for office in all 50 states, with an increase of these candidates by 18 percent from 2020. Thus far at least 340 out LGBTQ candidates have won in the midterms, breaking the 2020 record of 336.
• First women governors elected in Arkansas (Sarah Huckabee Sanders), Massachusetts (Maura Healey), and New York (Kathy Hochul).
• Democrat Healey, the first elected lesbian government and closely followed by Oregon’s Tina Kotek.
• Democrat Wes Moore, Maryland’s first Black governor, the only Black governor in the U.S. and the third elected since Reconstruction after the Civil War.
• Democrat Anthony Brown, Maryland’s first Black attorney general. a longtime political figure in Maryland, will be the state’s first Black attorney general.
• GOP Markwayne Mullin, the first Native American senator in almost two decades and first Native American senator from Oklahoma in a century.
• Youngest congressional member and first member of GenZ (ages 18-29), 25-year-old Maxwell Frost from Florida.
• Becca Balint, first openly LGBTQ person Vermont elected to the House of Representatives and first woman from Vermont sent to the House. Vermont was the last state to send a woman to Washington, behind Mississippi who sent a woman in 2018.
• Katie Britt, first female senator elected from Alabama.
• Summer Lee, the first Black woman Pennsylvania elected to the U.S. House.
• Delia Ramirez, the first Latina elected to Congress from Illinois.
• Robert Garcia (CA), the first out LGBTQ immigrant elected to Congress and the second out Latino to serve in Congress.
• Republican Anna Paulina Luna, Florida’s first Mexican-American woman elected to Congress after she flipped a House seat. She joins a dozen Latinx congressional members from Florida.
• James Roesener (NH), the first openly trans man, and Zooey Zephyr (MT), and the first trans woman to be elected to state legislatures.

Republicans are searching for reasons why the red tsunami didn’t hit the U.S. Fox network hosts during the election breakdown have a simple answer for why Oz lost his race: Fetterman won. Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) complaint sounded like a compliment for Democrats. He agreed with President Joe Biden’s list of successes: “rebuilding America’s roads and bridges,” “lowering prescription drug costs”; “tackling the climate crisis,” and making sure that large corporations begin to pay their fair share in taxes.” Cruz asked, “Why did Democrats do better than expected?” and answered his own question, “Because they have governed as liberals.” Republicans want to destroy government that works for the people’s benefit.

In the aftermath of the election, former VP Mike Pence has finally broken up with DDT. With her usual humor, Bess Levin tells the story for Vanity Fair. Maybe Pence is getting ready to announce his own presidential campaign for 2024. (Right: a discouraged “toxic Trump” waves at all the big names he invited to his Mar-a-Lago party before he left early.)  

More election perceptions—and new wins, if possible—tomorrow.

One Day to the End of Democracy

Tomorrow will be the turning point for democracy in the United States when ballots are due for the 2022 midterm election. Results will trickle in with slow counts where ballots haven’t been touched until the polls close on November 8, causing conservatives to begin suing for fraud. A few other decisions may dribble on as states requiring a majority have runoffs, maybe the U.S. Senate race from Georgia. The question is whether people are willing to give up their rights and their benefits—like Social Security and Medicare—to get a dollar or two off their gas and hand off democracy to power-hungry Republicans and greedy corporations.

One lie about elections has already been clarified. For six years, Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) railed about the “witch hoax” surrounding the Russian interference in elections that helped him win. With a declaration from Russian president Vladimir Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, the “hoax” has been eliminated and the “witch” exposed. The oligarch’s admission, revoking his denial of participation:

“Gentlemen, we have interfered, are interfering and will interfere. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do.”

Known as “Putin’s chef” because he caters for the president, Prigozhin earlier revoked his denial about running the Wagner Group mercenary force to claiming he was behind the forces and bragged about its involvement in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Russian law prevents private military contractors, but state media openly reports on Wagner’s forces in Ukraine. In 2018, the U.S. charged Prigozhin, a dozen other Russian nationals, and three Russian companies with operating a covert social media campaign aimed at fomenting discord and dividing American public opinion ahead of DDT’s winning 2016 presidential election as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference.

Election deniers still have no evidence of fraud for a “stolen election,” and a judge in the Third Judicial Circuit Court of Michigan concurs by dismissing a lawsuit from Kristina Karamo. The DDT-endorsed nominee for secretary of state, who claims that elites drink blood from abortions tried to disqualify over 60,000 mail-in ballots from Detroit. The plaintiffs had no evidence and couldn’t explain what relief they wanted, the first time in the judge’s 26-year experience. He also blasted the plaintiffs for waiting months after the alleged violations in August to file their suit. He said that disenfranchisement “cannot be permitted.”

Karamo has company: organized groups in Michigan are disputing voters who requested or cast absentee ballots, promising future litigation. Pennsylvania ruled that mail-in ballots without voter-written dates won’t be counted even if they come before Election Day. A court ruling in Wisconsin blocks ballots if the required witness address is incomplete. Earlier this year, the 3^rd Circuit Court ruled failure to count undated mail ballots violates federal civil rights law, but the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the decision as moot because the election was over. Philadelphia voters can cast a replacement ballot at city hall which doesn’t work for disabled voters; they mail in their ballots because they aren’t mobile.

Democrats are suing to count undated or incorrectly dated mail-in ballots be counted in Pennsylvania. The lawsuit maintains that the date requirement is immaterial and enforcing it violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The filing states that the date “has no bearing on a voter’s qualifications and serves no purpose other than to erect barriers to qualified voters exercising their fundamental constitutional right to vote.” Last Friday, civil rights groups filed a similar complaint. The Supreme Court ruled these undated ballots should be counted in a June decision.

A judge in Wisconsin has refused a lawsuit from a Republican state legislator to block all military mail-in ballots to be blocked from the state’s vote because he considered disenfranchising over 1,400 service members a “drastic remedy.” Rep. Janet Brandtjen brought her suit with the conservative Thomas More Society and Michael Gableman, a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who failed to find election fraud in a year-long review of the 2020 election for GOP lawmakers. Gableman requested trying to rescind the state’s election results.

The problem began with Milwaukee’s deputy elections director’s stunt when she sent multiple fake names for military members’ ballots to state GOP Rep. Janel Brandtjen as proof of election fraud. Promoter of lies about elections, Brandtgen received three military ballots under fake names, gave them to the Waukesha County sheriff’s office, and released the information in a news release. The election official has been fired and charged with a felony and three misdemeanors.

Unlike almost all other states, Wisconsin does not require service members to register to vote for casting their ballots, and a state website permits people to order military ballots without providing proof of residency. Election officials have seen no other evidence of ordering absentee fake names, and the problem with three of them was quickly identified.

Last summer, another Republican requested ballots in others’ names to be sent to his home in his attempt to prove problems in Wisconsin’s voting system. He faces criminal charges.

The DOJ will monitor polls in 64 communities within two dozen states on Election Day to protect voters’ rights. In addition, the Civil Rights Division will take complaints regarding alleged violations of voting rights laws at 800-253-3931. Two years ago, the DOJ focused on 44 jurisdictions in 28 states. Attorneys at the agency’s National Security Division, overseeing cases related to foreign interference in elections and violent extremist threats to elections, will work with the FBI and U.S. attorneys’ offices to counter any potential threats.

Priority elections in 2022 will include Florida (GOP Sen. Marco Rubio against Dem. Val Demings for U.S. Senate) and Georgia (Dem. Raphael Warnock against Herschel Walker for U.S. Senate). Other areas are Nevada’s Clark County (Las Vegas) and Arizona’s Pinal County (a bellweather district). In other monitored areas, Yavapai County (AZ) have self-proclaimed militia groups monitoring drop boxes in the past, and Berks County (PA), sheriff’s deputies staffing ballot drop boxes are told to question voters about whether they are returning their own ballot. Five monitored counties in North Carolina have sizable Black populations, two of them experiencing recent racial controversies. Ten of the state’s counties have experienced intimidated or harassed voters and poll workers. In Texas, Harris County (Houston) has been added to the monitoring list. List of locations. 

Missouri Secretary of State John R. Ashcroft (R) is refusing the monitoring because the federal presence would “bully a local election authority” and could “intimidate and suppress the vote.”

In an amazing move, the Supreme Court refused a GOP challenge to Michigan’s congressional district maps for the 2022 election because the election is underway. A three-judge panel had already upheld the maps last April. Georgia Cobb County’s is also facing an investigation because over 1,000 voters failed to receive absentee ballots requested weeks ago. State law mandates they be sent within three business days of processing applications. A lawsuit also sues for the absentee ballots to be sent overnight.

A Georgia judge extended until November 14 the deadline for election officials receiving absentee ballots and ordered replacement ballots to be sent overnight who haven’t already been sent them. Affected voters can also vote in person or with a federal write-in absentee ballot. The county supported Joe Biden by 14 points in 2020.

The 2020 election will likely set the pattern for culture in the U.S. with the 2022 midterms blowing up into massive violence. The GOP position is that every election in which Republicans lose—even some of those when they win—should be litigated and then followed with violence if the judge doesn’t give Republicans what they want. This ideology can move into all parts of people’s lives. Lost school games from football to speech debates should create lawsuits if the conservative side loses. If the judge disagrees, the losers can buy guns and kill people in mass shootings. In the U.S., everyone must always hold a gun in their hands as losers are excused for violence—just like Republicans claimed that the January 6 insurrectionists at the Capitol were “tourists.”

Conservatives will blame every victim for all violence they experience. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) blamed Paul Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for being beaten up in his own home. He was sleeping in his San Francisco home while his wife was in Washington, D.C. A radicalized MAGA-supporter broke into his home and caused possibly irreparable physical damage by striking him with a hammer. Pelosi may never completely heal from head fractures and injuries to his arm and hand. Instead of sleeping, Pelosi should have “shot his attacker,” according to Greene at a GOP rally. Greene also blames Democrats for every victim in the U.S.

That will be life under Republican authoritarianism because legislators like Greene will be running all the committees, according to wannabe House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

2022 Election: Suppression, Money, Lies

Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) is between a rock and a hard place. He hopes that announcing a 2024 presidential candidacy will block any legal problems, but RNC chair said the GOP will stop paying his legal bills when he declares a run for president. Donations to the party have shelled out DDT’s defense money for probes and lawsuits by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. (D) and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D). The RNC also plans to remain neutral in the 2024 GOP nominating contest.

Only two more days until the United States decides whether it goes forward into a democracy or turns into a full-bloom autocracy. To intimidate voters and suppress their votes, 42 states have attempted to pass 130 laws since 2020 creating new election investigation agencies, establish criminal penalties for election offenses, or further empower law enforcement officials to investigate such crimes. In 20 states, 28 of these130 bills have been passed in these states to increase the law enforcement, including prevention of handing food or water to Georgia voters as they stand up to eight hours in lines. The 35 percent of bills introduced by Democrats criminalized election interference and block harassment and threats. The 65 percent of bills from Republicans came after extensive studies show no widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Results of the extensive study is here.

The right wing is already planning for violence and a coup to overturn to legal elections. Ordinary voter suppression laws hasn’t been enough for Republicans; they have moved to sabotage, vigilantism, violence, and extreme suppression. It’s all a preparation for 2024. A few of the strategies to stop people voting have been slightly controlled, such as the courts slightly restricting Arizona vigilantes who are trying to intimate people from putting their ballots in drop boxes.

Almost two weeks before the election, over 100 lawsuits had been filed, targeting mail-in voting, early voting, voter access, voting machines, voting registration, mismarked absentee ballots, and access for partisan poll watchers. DDT is gearing up in Pennsylvania to play the same game he did in 2020—yell fraud and claim victory of his chosen candidates.

In Nevada, armed saboteurs with anti-Semitic conspiracies have driven election officials from office. Four counties insist on counting ballots by hand, despite judicial rulings. The result will take far more time and cause far more errors. Esmeralda County, Esmeralda, used hand-counting to certify its primary results in June when officials spent more than seven hours counting 317 ballots. Volunteer hand counters require over 30 minutes per ballot—about 15 ballots a day. In one group with mismatched tallies for eight candidates led to different outcomes again in another recount. Reading candidate names aloud while public observers are listening also constitutes “a release of election results in violation of Nevada law.” GOP secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant, in charge of elections if he’s elected, wants hand-counting mandated for all counties for all 3+ million population.

Poll watchers will inundate voting areas, pushed by DDT’s minions including convicted felon Steve Bannon, and used the illegal canvas to raise objections to voters. InfoWars, owned by Alex Jones who owns almost $1.5 billion for lying about the Sandy Hook massacre of children, promotes the stolen election myth. Election workers are fleeing almost everywhere because of intimidation.

Other vigilantes are going door-to-door, harassing possible Democratic voters. Pro-DDT canvassers in Shasta County (CA) wore reflective orange vests and badges reading “Voter Taskforce.” They grilled people in the homes on their voting history and lists of residents in the homes. Michigan door-to-door intimidators intend to use their data to challenge votes. Reuters found similar efforts in at least 23 states with state-wide or local efforts to intimidate voters where some of the door knockers were armed. In all cases, they gave the impression that they worked for the government. In at least one case, local GOP officials were involved: GOP leader of the GOP in Lane County (OR) accused officials of ignored their canvas.  

Twelve years ago, SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts said about the conservative Supremes permitted almost unlimited dark money to political campaigns, in which donors can be hidden, in its ruling of Citizens United that their permission wouldn’t make any difference. In 2022, 465 billionaires gave $881,000,000 to win the 2022 elections—27 times more than before the Citizens United decision. The full report is here. Roberts was wrong.

Three-fourths of that money came from 20 billionaire households, 14 of them Republican, and 62 percent of the donations went to GOP PACs and candidates. Billionaires represent 0.000002% of the U.S. population but account for 7.4% of all political donations so far this cycle. At least 59 Percent went to Republicans. For past donations they get a return. For example:

• $20 million to get a special tax break provided by Sen. Ron Johnson (WI-R) brought them $80 million in taxes in just 2018.
• The richest Pennsylvania man got $1 billion in taxes in recent years.
• In Illinois, $50 million to defeat a ballot initiative making the wealthy pay more than of their fair share in taxes brought one man $51 million a year. He donated $66 million to GOP PACs and candidates thus far this year.
• And more.

This year’s $881 million thus far is already a 44 percent increase over billionaire contributions of $611 million for the 2018 midterm cycle. Donations to single-candidate super PACs rose from $127.5 million in 2018 to $323.2 million by November 1, 2022, a 150 percent increase. Funding for these PACS, benefitting about 75 percent of all single-candidate super-PACs, comes almost entirely from billionaires. Some of those receiving these funds are Johnson, Blake Masters running for senator from Arizona (Peter Thiel), JD Vance for senator from Ohio (Peter Thiel), and Herschel Walker running for senator from Georgia. Over one-fourth of the billionaire contributions, $243 million, have gone to four congressional super PACs of both parties.

“What Trump showed was that the bigger the jerk you could be, the more the hardcore GOP base would love you.”

This quote from S.V. Dáte, author and senior White House correspondent, applies to almost 300 Republicans running for congressional and state offices who are election deniers. Sixty percent of voters will have at least one election denier on their ballots for the November 8, 2022 midterms. Even without denying that Joe Biden is the legally elected president, candidates are lying with repetitive conspiracy theories.

The National Republican Congressional Committee accused Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) of giving money to criminals, including the Boston Marathon bomber, by voting to send pandemic relief checks. Not true. And Congress voted to do the same thing—twice—while the GOP controlled the executive branch.

The opponent of Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) accused her of voting to hire “87,000 new IRS agents to audit middle-income families and small businesses.” Been debunked; not true.

Arizona’s gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake, accused her opponent, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, of being “endorsed by radical groups that want to defund our police.” Not true. Hobbs called for “boosting funding for sheriffs and local law enforcement.” Lake also accused Hobbs of being “a twice convicted racist.” Not true. Hobbs wasn’t been charged or convicted, and she hasn’t been a racist.

Republicans in Pennsylvania spent over $800,000 on TV ads claiming Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Senate, “stands with the far left who want to defund our police.” Not true.

GOP Senate candidate J.D. Vance of Ohio accused his opponent, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) of trying to increase immigration to the U.S. so that he can spend government money on “gender reassignment surgeries” for these migrants. The man made wealthy by his book Hillbilly Elegy and received $15 million from Peter Thiel for his campaign called Ryan “the poster board for oligarcy.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, running for re-election, went straight to the top: his wife played decades-old Paul Harvey clips to explain that God has picked DeSantis for another four years—or until he runs for president.

GOP secretary of state candidate in Michigan, Kristina Karamo, has repeated the QAnon conspiracy that abortion is “child sacrifice” and elites drink the blood and “sell body parts” after abortions. She also thinks that insurrectionists at the Capitol on January 6, 2022 were antifa and not DDT supporters.

In New Hampshire, master liar Don Bolduc, another GOP U.S. Senate candidate, deployed his lies despite campaigning claims of the governor, Chris Sununu, that his state is the poster child for perfection in the U.S. with booming economy and business. Everything is going so well that Sununu wants to replace the three Democrats, a U.S. senator and two House members, with Republicans. Don Bolduc tweeted:

“you can’t even buy a house, you can’t even rent property, you can’t even feed your children, you can’t even heat your home.”

Oh yes, and according to Bolduc there’s the serious problem of kitty-litter boxes in schools for all the students who are licking themselves and others. Right-wing activist Joe Rogan said he spread the conspiracy theory about the kitty litter boxes in school when he knew it was a lie. Bolduc also asks if people are better now than they were two years ago—October 2020 with people dying, no COVID vaccine, the stock market 6,000 points lower than now, unemployment rate almost double the current 3.4 percent, jobs down over 10 million from now, etc.  

DDT’s Gubernatorial Endorsements Dangerous

Thirty-six states will elect governors in November, 20 of them held by Republicans. All nine states are currently held by women, and eight of the races are open. Seven states have only women candidates, and another four have female incumbents.

In Alaska, ranked choice voting voting means races can have four candidates, and Charlie Pierce, a Republican running against the GOP incumbent Mike Dunleavy, has been credibly charged with sexual harassment including unwanted physical touching. The other two candidates are a Democrat and an unaffiliated.

In Maryland, Dan Cox, DDT’s endorsement against existing Gov. Larry Hogan’s preference, was filmed accepting a gift from the Proud Boys, a group storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Cox organized buses to take people to Washington, D.C. on January 6. His website erased prominent references to DDT who held a fundraiser for Cox at Mar-a-Lago. The campaign for Cox’s opponent Wes Moore, has outraised Cox 10-to-1 in the state where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans 2-to-1. In early October, Moore was ahead, 60 percent to 28 percent. 

Two other DDT-endorsed gubernatorial candidates are more frightening.

In Arizona, Kari Lake displays the polish she gained as a TV news personality, and the state may provide enough MAGA crazies to vote her in, with a polling one percent ahead of her opponent, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. She describes her lies as facts, including the falsehood that Joe Biden lost the 2020 presidential election. Despite Arizona Republicans claiming “election integrity” by passing “one of the worst voter suppression laws in the nation” for the purported purpose of “election integrity,” Lake still declares election outcomes should be doubted, and she declines to accept a loss.

Lake also:

• Threatens to cancel the Super Bowl if the NFL disagree with her immigration policies. She said, “I’m not going to be taking marching orders from the NFL.”
• Accused China of poisoning people in Arizona with fentanyl in an attempt to “take down civilization,” apparently a reference to the 19^th-century opium wars when Great Britain smuggled opium from India into China.
• Told people not to take any precautions against COVID because “hydroxychloroquine works” and sells a t-shirt with the image of a burning mask.
• Said that her opponent would be in jail by Election Day and promised she would criminally prosecute journalists who “dupe the public.”
• Approved an ad from from an anti-Islam and anti-LGBTQ pastor who preaches the “submission of the wife.” 
•  Thinks low majority votes for President Joe Biden should all be decertified to overturn his 2020 election.
• Endorsed Oklahoma candidate Jarrin Jackson, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ nationalist extremist saying “Jews will go to hell” and LGBTQ is a “gateway to pedophilia.”
• Announced her “team is triple-confirming … some really painful hurtful news” about her opponent that would shake up the race. The new, which turned out to be wrong, was that Hobbs fought to keep the Pledge of Allegiance, the national anthem, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution out of Arizona’s public school classrooms. The 2018 law added the state motto to Lake’s cited documents already permitted to be read or posted in classrooms. Lake and her team can’t read a state statute, and she’s never held any elected office.
• Used footage of Russian troops marching in a “victory parade” in her political ad when she says she will “stand with Arizona’s border sheriffs.”
• Said Arizona’s strict anti-abortion1864 law will put more rapists in jail but didn’t explain how.
• Accepted hundreds in donations from people convicted of serious sex offenses while accusing LGBTQ people of “grooming” children.
• Worried academicians with threats of “cleaning up show” at Arizona State University.

On Indigenous People’s Day, Lake’s campaign manager compared all Native Americans to bloodthirsty savages who engage in human sacrifice in a tweet with an image of human sacrifice by an ancient Mesoamerican civilization thousands of miles from Arizona.

Arizonans are filing complaints about voter harassment. Two armed and masked men wearing tactical gear staked out a drop box in Maricopa County and left only after the police were called. Local sheriffs tried to intervene in a standoff between the armed men and people observing the watchers, and several voters reported being intimidated at the same location. Mark Finchem, candidate for secretary of state, sent people to “watch all drop boxes” and repeated the lie that voters dropping off ballots were “ballot mules,” from the lies in the movie 2000 Mules, and covering their license plates. People are doing so for personal safety, and the men in masks also covered up their license plates. Writing about Clean Elections USA run by QAnon election conspiracist Melody Jennings, Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans and Voto Latino filed complaints that that “vigilante groups have already turned away voters.”

Lies about election fraud led to anonymous violent threats using vile obscene language targeting Arizona’s election officials. Threatening letters to the Democratic party stated that judges not fully sentencing election fraud will be “dealt with” as a traitor. Letters also threaten to publish personal details of judges and sheriffs. The state is at the top for threats against these officials and poll workers which includes photographing them and following them.

In North Carolina, election officials in at least 15 counties have reported violations of poll watchers harassing voters and trying to get into restricted areas to view confidential voting records.

In Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano could be even more dangerous as governor because he also selects the secretary of state, in charge of elections. He promised to pick one who would certify DDT. Mastriano is so scary that GOP leaders support his Democratic opponent, Josh Shapiro, and a GOP organization is posting billboards asking people to vote for Shapiro.

Mastriano:

• Wants to prosecute women for murder if they have abortions.
• Claims that banning books is “not a book ban.”
• Calls any book mentioning LGBTQ people “pornographic.”
• Promises to ban “pole dancing” in the schools “on day one” but can’t name any school teaching pole dancing—because there aren’t any.
• Plans to fund private schools with public school funding and eliminate school property taxes.
• Hopes to de-register all approximately nine million registered voters in Pennsylvania and require them to register again.
• Registered to vote in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania for 11 years.
• Led a crowd at a rally in a “liberty oath,” swearing they would fight like in the Civil war to experience a “new birth” in Pennsylvania. Days before the January 6 insurrection, he called on fellow DDT supporters to “rise up” and overthrow the government.
• Sued the House January 6 investigative committee for interviewing him.
• Asked for “40 days of fasting and prayer” to support his campaign. The Christian nationalist averages 8.6 points behind Shapiro.

At the University of New Brunswick, a U.S. history professor declared Mastriano’s Ph.D. was undeserved and his dissertation about World War II soldier Alvin York atrocious academic work—dishonest, sloppy, fanatical, and tinged with religious zealotry. During his “research,” Mastriano ruined an archeological site in France and then used his degree to deflect criticism for his wearing a Confederate uniform in a faculty photo at the Army War College. The professor said the fanaticism and indifference to facts are apparent in the candidate’s public life. The university hid Mastriano’s 2013 dissertation, even its title, until last August. Some of the “fraudulent” fabrications.

Mastriano holds mostly closed events, keeps reporters away from him at public events, and hires the Christian militia and former Oath Keepers for his security team. Several of them from the Lifegate Church in Elizabethtown (PA) may not have received the training requiring by state law. His church’s mission is to control government by electing their Christians, and the property has political yard signs. Members gained seven seats on the local GOP committee which some describe as “a hostile takeover.” Three days before the January 6 insurrection, a social media post connected to the Pennsylvania Oath Keepers, split from the national group in 2015, alluded to armed veterans violently resisting election results.

“Prophet” Julie Green, head of Green Ministries who receives direct prophecies from God, says she has a “special relation” with Mastriano. Some of her other claims: Biden is not alive, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) drinks “children’s blood”; God will execute political figures; Rep. Ilhan Omar is “a spy”; and several prominent lawmakers who failed DDT will soon die. Green promises not to “forsake” Mastriano.

Back in Georgia, a second woman claims anti-abortion Herschel Walker, the GOP U.S. Senate candidate from Georgia, pressured her to get an abortion. As in the first case, Walker denied the allegation from his ex-girlfriend. He had a six-year relationship with her while he was married. Despite his anti-Christian actions, evangelical voters support him because they only want to take the Senate. Walker, GOP also sent his supporters a flyer urging early voting—with the wrong date. His one debate with opponent Sen. Raphael Warnock showed he is trainable: his comments were less garbled.

Walker has company carrying a fake police badge: MyPillow Chief Executive Officer Mike Lindell brandished his own badge at DDT’s October 21 rally in Texas when he told people not to vote before Election Day. If anyone is accused of already voting, he said, “Go to your local sheriff.” He concluded, “Sheriffs and judges … are gonna bring this country back. They gave me a badge. I’m semi-official.”

Debates from High-profile GOP Candidates:

Debates from High-profile GOP Candidates:

In Utah, Sen. Mike Lee, being overtaken by unaffiliated Evan McMullin, desperately campaigned for a return to the U.S. Senate with nasty responses to McMullin level and factual presentation about Lee’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election in favor of Dictator Donald Trump (DDT). McMullin said:

“Senator Lee, you sought to find a weakness in our system. You advised the White House, find an alternative slate of electors for Trump to overturn the will of the people. That’s what you said [about states sending alternative slates to vote for DDT] …

“You said the president should listen to legal quack Sydney Powell, ‘Please make time for her, let her in,’ you told the White House chief of staff. You told the president that you were working overtime—14 hours a day, I think you said—to unravel this for him, to keep a president who had been voted out of office according to the will of the people in power despite the will of the people. Senator Lee, it is a betrayal of the American republic. You were there to stand up for our constitution, but when the barbarians were at the gate you were happy to let them in.”

Lee answered, “I disagree with everything my opponent just said, including the words ‘but,’ ‘and,’ and ‘the.’”

Lee begged for Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) endorsement on Fox’s Tucker Carlson show, a program that regularly roasts Romney. Pundits with short memories slam Romney for no endorsement, but Lee refused to endorse Romney in 2018 and gained his first Senate term in 2010 by destroying popular GOP senator, Bob Bennett, for not being sufficient right-wing. Again desperate, Lee wrote an op-ed glorifying himself in third person “he.”  

A.B. Stoddard has an excellent piece on Lee’s need for power so great that he faithfully follows DDT after rejecting him in the beginning. 

In Ohio, J.D. Vance, another DDT endorsement, faced off with Tim Ryan for the U.S. Senate in a close battle rife with anger and lies. Ryan pointed out Vance’s praise for Alex Jones as an example of Vance’s extremism. Vance denied he said that “Alex Jones is a far more reputable source of information than Rachel Maddow,” but a screen shot of his tweet proves Ryan was right. A believer in the GOP “replacement theory” that Democrats were trying to replace all white people with minorities, Vance tried to hide behind his biracial child. His wife is Indian American. He frequently connects President Joe Biden’s southern border policies with increased fentanyl trafficking in his state, accusing Biden of trying “to kill a bunch of MAGA voters in the middle of the heartland.”

In the debate, Vance followed the DDT party line, dismissing the House investigation into the insurrection. The attack on Ryan’s voting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) came from Ryan’s statements in the first debate about DDT’s remark regarding Vance’s “kissing my ass” to get his support. Ryan said Vance should move back to San Francisco if he wants to run against Pelosi. 

Vance has joined the crazy QAnon conspiracy theory of kitty litter boxes in schools for “furries, ”the evidence-free belief about students pretending to be cats, and said he wants the school to tell him if his child “identifies as a chipmunk.” Despite multiple claims from losing GOP candidates, only one school districts keeps kitty litter in classrooms: a Colorado school keeps it in “go-to” buckets for children’s use during school shootings.

In another evidence-free claim, Vance said that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “don’t say gay” law is to ban “sexually explicit material that propagandizes and encourages children to take different identities and to engage in sexually explicit acts.” The law highly restricts any discussion about sexual orientation and gender identity.  

More about Vance.  

In Georgia, DDT-endorsed Herschel Walker for U.S. Senate survived one debate telling his lies, including holding up a child’s “Junior Ranger Badge” for law enforcement in violation of debate rules he had signed. He skipped the debate at the Atlanta Press Club. His opponent, Sen. Raphael Warnock, used the extra time to describe Walker’s domestic violence and lies. A former state senator and GOP chair said people took “comfort” about Walker’s “ability to stand up … and look like he’s fundamentally in charge of … himself.”

Immediately after the announcement of the first abortion, a prayer circle hosted by First Baptist Church Pastor Anthony George called for Walker’s divinely anointment. About pointing a gun at his wife’s head and threatening to kill her, he claims to be redeemed. In far-right Christian evangelical lexicon, Walker paid to have his own child murdered, but they abandoned  the teachings of Jesus to control the U.S. Senate. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) called Warnock, a pastor, an “abomination.” 

A third candidate, Libertarian Chase Oliver, participated in the debate. A gay man, Oliver attacked Walker’s anti-LGBTQ stance. If no one receives at least 50 percent of the vote on November 8, a run-off on December 6 between the top two will determine the winner. Republicans moved up the timing since the last Senate election as well as eliminating any new voter registrations between Midterms and the run-off, trying to avoid their problems in 2021 when they lost two Senate seats.

In the past two weeks, Walker admitted he lied about not knowing the ex-girlfriend, mother of one of his illegitimate children, and paying her; denied he urged her to get another abortion two years after the first one; and uses his book, published two years before the ex-girlfriend’s first abortion, to excuse himself because he was saved “by the grace of god.” Walker claimed abortion kills babies but there “was nothing to be ashamed of” if the claims are true.

Perhaps trying to divert the media from the abortions’ stories, Walker claimed his grandmother was “full-blood Cherokee” and his mother “part Native American, a big part.” Walker’s mother said she couldn’t confirm his claims,” and the Cherokee Nation, which keeps excellent records, has no evidence of Walker’s claim. When Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) claimed to have Native American ancestry, she was ridiculed for years; Walker’s lie was barely a blip on the radar.

Walker is the classic deadbeat dad who he claims to hate. He’s a typical poorly-parented adolescent who lies to get out of trouble, tells really bad, pointless jokes like the one on bulls and cows, threatens to beat up or kill people, and runs away from all his responsibilities. DDT didn’t even go to Georgia to support his own candidate. Instead, surrogates Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rick Scott (R-FL) were sent, and Cotton was forced to laugh at transgender servicemembers along with Walker. Although Walker never served in the military, he claimed to do “lots of things in the military,” and his son is gay. Cotton also lied when he claimed to be “a U.S. Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Georgia’s Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said he couldn’t vote for Walker but can’t vote for Warnock. He described himself and “hundreds of thousands of other Republicans here in Georgia … confused. We don’t really have anywhere to go right now.” Mistaking Duncan for a TV pundit, Walker disparaged his statements. Polls are all over the place in Georgia from a two-percent lead for Walker to a 12-percent lead for Warnock. Early voting started last Monday with big crowds.

Joe Scarborough called Walker “the perfect lab experiment on just how low Republican voters are willing to go.” According to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, DDT “wants to show that nothing matters.” The more DDT and MAGAs abolish the rules, the less the rules count.

More about Walker.

Also in Georgia, a debate between Gov. Brian Kemp and Democrat opponent Stacey Abrams in the gubernatorial election drew much less notice, likely because of no buffoon for the policy-based event. and the hour-long event was policy-based. Four years ago, Kemp was able to purge voter rolls and otherwise control the election while he was Secretary of State; this year, he commands the field as an incumbent who has not destroyed the state and can still control some campaign financing to benefit himself.

Abrams presented a list of Georgia’s problems—spiking crime, rising home prices, and Chinese government’s purchase of the state’s farmland. Kemp attacked her on a position of “defund the police,” touting his endorsements, but she pointed out that endorsements are typically related to long-entrenched power in the state. His answer to any question was that Georgia reopened the state’s businesses and schools earlier than any other state in 2020, including those about racial disparities, local economy, expanding Medicaid, and budget surplus.

Kemp also signed a law permitting anyone in Georgia to carry a firearm without a license after the mass shootings in 2021. He claimed he wouldn’t seek any further restrictions in laws or contraception although he secretly expressed an openness to these changes. Georgia already blocks abortions after six weeks before many women are unaware of a pregnancy. Caught on audio, he claimed he was just humoring his audience. He does want a law stopping “divisive concepts” and a “parent’s bill of rights”—meaning white nationalist curriculum and only conservative parents’ “rights.”

In a Wisconsin debate, an audience laughed at Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) when he whined about being “set up” by the FBI to explain why he had to be warned that the Kremlin tried to make him a “Russian asset.” He claimed that the FBI used “a corrupt briefing and then leaked that to smear me.” Johnson blamed the laughter on college students who might have sneaked into the debate because they are “taught leftist propaganda” and called the January 6 insurrection “peaceful” by “people … that truly respect law enforcement [who] would never do anything to break the law.”  

Johnson is paying a law firm connected to a January 6 probe into overturning the 2020 election. The campaign listed expenses as “recount,” indicating he may be getting ready for a loss in three weeks. Johnson also received donations from a DDT attorney accused in the state’s fake elector effort. Asked the usual question to say something positive about his opponent, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, Johnson said he wanted to know why “he turned against America.” Johnson was booed.

Other Johnson policies: retirees should go back to work, Social Security and Medicare will disappear if they aren’t voted in every year, and he doesn’t know if he will accept defeat. Johnson is also open to the conspiracy theory that COVID vaccines cause AIDS and wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Plus more.