The Stupidity of House Republicans

Gaza: The U.S. offered Israel intelligence and supplies to avoid the Rafah invasion, stating that Israel must provide infrastructure and necessities for Gazans instead of moving them to barren or bombarded parts of the Gaza Strip for livable conditions. Israel refused and ordered more evacuations.  

Today’s post was intended to be a political review of states, but the stupidity of House Republicans took over. Maybe next week.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) ranted about a religion forcing their beliefs into law. Not pregnant women forced to die because of religious beliefs, however, but “Sharia law”—a throw-back to over a decade ago. With an A+ rating from pro-life groups, he promotes the non-scientific “life begins at conception” that strips women of reproductive rights in almost half the states. To overturning abortion rights, Roy said, “Thanks be to God” but damned a UK Muslim candidate who said, “God is great, in Arabic when he won his election. responded to his election with win with “God is great” in Arabic.

Roy has moaned about the chamber accomplishing nothing, but the House took action during this three-day week before heading home on Wednesday. With Democratic help, Republicans kept MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) as Speaker by tabling a motion to vacate from Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) before they turned on Greene: 

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY): “Moscow Marjorie has clearly gone off the deep end—maybe the result of a space laser,” referring to her conspiracy theory that the laser in space operated by the Jewish Rothschild family was the cause of California wildfires. He added that “this type of tantrum is absolutely unacceptable.” 

Don Bacon (NE): “98 percent of us find it disgusting.”

Johnson: Greene’s motion was “wrong.”

Marc Molinaro (NY): Greene’s motion was political “theater.”

Andy Ogles (TN): the motion as a “distraction” and “mistake,” said the conservative.

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD): “One dumpster fire at a time,” indicating punishment for Greene.

Barry Loudermilk (GA): Greene is losing her constituents’ support. His district borders that of Greene.

In the Senate, Thom Tillis (R-NC) described Greene as “uninformed” and a “total waste of time.” Greene believes she has done no wrong, calling herself a “team player.”

MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) may face competitor Jim Jordan (R-OH) who is making a stealth move as Johnson’s replacement in 2025. Previously claiming that it isn’t his job to help vulnerable candidates, Jordan is handing out campaign checks to colleagues and hit the trail to campaign for top allies of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Last fall, 25 House Republicans refused to vote for Jordan, making Johnson Speaker.

Before their four-day weekend, Republicans passed the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act (HOOHPA) by 212-195 to waste energy by removing regulations, another bill certain to be DOA in the Senate.  Seven Democrats—Henry Cuellar (TX), Don Davis (NC), Ruben Gallego (AZ), Jared Golden (ME), Tony Gonzalez (TX), Mary Peltola (AK), Gloria Perez (WA)—supported the bill, and 11 didn’t vote. Conservative PunchBowl News called it “part of the Republican culture war clash over energy efficiency and climate change … similar to the gas stove hysteria or Trump’s war on low-flush toilets and light bulbs.” Other bills will be “Liberty in Laundry Act,” “Refrigerator Freedom Act,” etc.

On party lines of 206-202, the oddly-named bill “Equal Representation Act” calls for a citizenship question on the U.S. census, which DDT tried to enforce, and that only citizens can determine the number of states’ congressional seats. The Supreme Court already blocked the change. DDT’s anti-immigrant minion, Stephen Miller, continues to spread the lie that Democrats voted “to give illegals representation in Congress AND the Electoral College.” The U.S. Constitution requires the census to count “the whole number of free persons,” and a change would require the difficult process of a new amendment. The Senate has no interest in the bill, and President Joe Biden has strong opposition to the bill.

Pandering to DDT’s belief, Johnson maintains that noncitizens’ voting is a serious problem, but he doesn’t know how many “illegals are voting in federal elections.” Both believe illegal votes explain DDT’s loss of the 2016 popular vote by 2.9 million ballots and pushed MAGA members into believing it. DDT paid for studies that didn’t support his lie. Federal law prevents noncitizens from voting, but red states are passing these laws, sometimes by amending state constitutions.

Johnson promises to “round up” and likely deport all the estimated 11 million undocumented or unauthorized people living or working in the United States of America, as did DDT in his Time interview. No explanation of how or when. Johnson repeated the lie that Democrats want an open border for illegal voters. About half the crop farmworkers don’t have immigration status. In March, the Center for Migration Studies reported:  

“The undocumented population comprises 5 percent of the workforce … in industries such as agriculture, construction, service, entertainment, and health-care. On a micro level, they help manicure our lawns, take care of our children and grandchildren, clean our homes, wait on us at restaurants, and collect our trash. Without their labor, the US economy would experience a labor shortage which could not be replenished easily, and the costs of goods and services would rise.”

The report described “a severe workforce shortage” in the U.S. as well as a GDP reduction by 2.6 percent, almost $5 trillion in ten years, if the 8.1 million undocumented workers were deported. Legalizing the undocumented population would increase the GDP by $1.5 trillion in that time. Households with undocumented immigrants also hold 1.3 million mortgages.  

A decade ago, Alabama’s law mandating the use of the flawed and costly federal “E-Verify” system to verify the legal status of every farmworker caused crops to rot in the field because even prisoners wouldn’t do the work. One farmer in the $5.5 billion industry said:

“Tomato production contributes $1.6 billion a year to the state’s economy, but without immigrant labor, that money will disappear. We grow it. Hispanics pick it. That’s just the way it is.”

Parts of the law were repealed within two years although the farmworker provision remained, largely ignored by employers. Before the law’s repeal, Alabama arrested a German Mercedes-Benz executive after he left his passport at the hotel and ticketed a Japanese Honda executive despite his carrying an International Driving Permit, valid passport, and U.S. work permit.

Johnson’s “intuition” and DDT’s request to “trust your heart” on election results are laying the foundation for another four years of rants about “stolen election” accompanied by MAGA-endorsed violence. Stephen Colbert called this denial “truthiness,” a belief in something “not because of supporting facts or evidence but because of a feeling that it is true or a desire for it to be true.” In support of election truthiness, a proposed bill would amend the National Voter Registration Act to require proof of citizenship for receiving ballots.

Republicans also want to renew the GOP 2017 tax cuts, expiring at the end of 2025 and the only DDT signature legislative “achievement. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill will cost the government $1.9 trillion before its expiration and a renewal will cost another $4.6 trillion over a decade, further blowing up the deficit which Republicans use as their justification to drop the safety net and vastly shrink Medicare. In its first renewal year, a renewal would net $112.6 billion for the top 5 percent of income earners.

When not passing bills that go nowhere, House Republicans hold hearings. After cowing university presidents and forcing some resignations with the subject of antisemitism, they tackled public school leaders who weren’t as vulnerable. GOP committee members accused representatives from three politically liberal parts of the country—New York, Montgomery (MD), and Berkeley (CA)—of “turning a blind eye” to the rise of antisemitism in classrooms since October 7, when the Israel war began. School leaders turned back the rude behavior, reporting that students and faculty members engaging in overt antisemitic acts had been disciplined. They disputed other accusations, citing investigative lack of proof.

Enikia Ford Morthel, Berkeley schools superintendent, said the district passed a policy against hate speech and members of the district “recognize the need to teach students to express themselves with respect and compassion.” New York schools head, David Banks, told committee members:

“I stand up not only against antisemitism. I stand up against Islamophobia and all other forms of hate. You can’t put them in silos.”

Banks then turned the question back to the politicians, blaming them for not doing enough to fight antisemitism.

“If we really care about solving for antisemitism, and I believe this deeply, it’s not about having gotcha moments. It’s about teaching. You have to raise the consciousness of young people [to] understand our common humanity…. I would call on Congress, quite frankly, to put the call out to action, to bring us together to talk about how we solve for this. This … feels like the ultimate gotcha moment. It doesn’t sound like people are actually trying to solve for something that I believe we should be doing everything we can to solve for.”

After failed attempts at impeaching Biden, far-right House members are energized in another impeachment for sending only defensive weapons to Israel and suspending shipments of militarily offensive weapons if Israel attacks civilians in Rafah. The articles of impeachment from first-term Cory Mills (R-FL) would be Biden’s seventh pending impeachment resolution. Mills and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) draw a parallel between Biden’s decision and DDT’s 2019 extortion of Ukraine by threatening to withdraw congressionally-approved security aid if President Volodymyr Zelensky didn’t give him fake dirt on Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Paused shipments, however, don’t use aid that Congress appropriated but are delayed foreign government purchases.

In GOP precedents, President Dwight Eisenhower also “pressured Israel with the threat of sanctions into withdrawing from the Sinai in 1957 amid the Suez Crisis,” and President George H.W. Bush “held up $10 billion in loan guarantees to force the cessation of Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories.” President Ronald Reagan Reagan delayed the delivery of F16 fighter jets to Israel and banned some weapons sales to Israel “following a congressional probe that found Israel had used them in populated areas in its 1982 offensive in Lebanon.” None of them was threatened with impeachment threats.

Republicans, Protests

It’s a Wednesday so Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) isn’t trapped in court as he incessantly complains. Instead of campaigning, however, he’s hosting a dinner at Mar-a-Lago, trying to sell his NFT trading cards and holding other private political meetings. In contrast, President Joe Biden is in Racine (WI) talking about a new Microsoft data center in Mount Pleasant at the same location where DDT had attended a groundbreaking in 2018 for Foxconn’s $10 billion factory making LCD panels.

Gov. Scott Walker gave the electronics manufacturer millions in subsidies and bulldozed homes and farms, but the facility never came to fruition although taxpayers gave Foxconn $683 million. The area lost 1,000 jobs. As Biden said about DDT:

“He promised a $10 billion investment by Foxconn. He came with your senator, Ron Johnson, with a golden shovel and didn’t build a damn thing. They dug a hole with those golden shovels and then they fell into it.”

Microsoft receives no government incentives for the $3.3 billion dollar datacenter and works with Gateway Technical College, annually training and certifying 200 students for jobs in data and information technology. In addition, Microsoft will work with nearby high schools to train students for future jobs.

DDT also appealed his limited gag order in the New York criminal business fraud. His defense team asked for either a ruling from an intermediate appeals court or immediate permission to appeal to the New York’s Court of Appeals which already rejected pausing the trial during the fight against the gag order. The lawyer’s appeal may be DDT’s latest attempt to stay out of jail. 

Another DDT Truth Social tirade after Stormy Daniels’ testimony, possibly violating the gag order, slammed not only judges but also “sleazebags” and “lowlifes” who “say absolutely anything that they want,” likely meaning witnesses. He posted that he has to “listen to lies and false statements” made against him but can’t respond and called Judge Juan Merchan “corrupt and highly conflicted.” Both the gag order and Merchan’s caution on Tuesday warned DDT about witness intimidation.

Despite two meetings with Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson and urging by Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed her motion to oust Johnson from the position. She lost overwhelmingly: the bipartisan vote to table the motion was 359 to 43 with seven Democrats voting “present.” Only 32 Democrats voted against blocking Greene’s motion along with 11 Republicans. Only Reps. Thom Massie (R-KY) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) had openly said they will support Greene.

Lawmakers widely booed and jeered Greene as she read the resolution for over ten minutes, reciting grievances such as allowing Democrats to pass the federal funding bill to keep the government open, reauthorization of the U.S. warrantless surveillance, and the inclusion of Ukrainian aid in a foreign national security package. After the vote, Republicans lined up on the House floor to shake Johnson’s hand and pat him on the back. Greene’s GOP colleagues had warned Johnson that kowtowing to her would put him in danger. Johnson has been Speaker for a little over six months, and Greene prepared her motion to vacate six weeks ago.

On Steve Bannon’s podcast, Greene said:

“We need to act like Republicans. We need to demand control and we need to stop the government from being used for politics.”

Republicans voting with Greene against tabling the motion were Warren Davidson (OH), Alex Mooney (WV), Barry Moore (AL), Victoria Spartz (IN), Chip Roy (TX, Paul Gosar (AZ) Eli Crane (AZ), Eric Burlison (MO), Thom Massie (KY), and Andy Biggs (AZ). Born in Ukraine, Spartz also voted against aid for her birth country.

Republicans, who don’t want to use the government for politics, plan to hold AG Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for allegedly impeding their Biden impeachment inquiry because he won’t give them an audio recording of special counsel Robert Hur’s interview of Biden—only the transcript. They want information about discussions of Ukraine documents which is not in the transcripts.

Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is also making news with his announcement that he had a parasitic worm that ate part of his brain before it died and both short- and long-term memory loss causing “cognitive” problems. The parasite can cause neurologic symptoms including headaches, convulsions, epileptic seizures, and even death. He was also diagnosed with mercury poisoning what can cause speech and hearing impairment, muscle weakness, lack of coordination, and other symptoms. The 70-year-old has boasted about being a healthier, younger alternative to Biden and DDT, and his spokeswoman stated he had resolved these issue over 10 years ago. 

Previously, Kennedy explained his strained, sometimes hoarse voice is caused by spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological disorder that causes involuntary spasms in the muscles of the voice box, and he became infected with hepatitis C from intravenous drug use in his youth. It was treated. In 2001, Kennedy was hospitalized for atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat caused by a common heart abnormality that can cause strokes, and said in 2012 he was hospitalized three more times for that condition.

Kennedy used Russian propaganda in his four-minute history about its invasion of Ukraine, according to conservative factchecker Glenn Kessler. The presidential candidate’s “history lesson” stated that Russia was “invaded three times through Ukraine,” the reason Vladimir Putin doesn’t want Ukraine to join NATO. The last time by Hitler would have been 80 years ago. Kessler said the Russian attack before that one was in 1812 by French Emperor Napoleon Bonapart, but he didn’t go through Ukraine.

The ”history” cited a non-existent conversation between Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and George H.W. Bush in which the U.S. promised that it “will not move NATO one inch toe the east.” Three former Soviet republics—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—are NATO countries. NATO was created in 1949. Among the false statements in his lecture, Kennedy got the number of countries in NATO correct.

Like DDT, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) finds candidate Kennedy a threat to his reelection if Kennedy is on the Texas ballot. Kennedy supporters prefer Democrat Colin Allred to Cruz by a significant margin. Needing almost 141,000 signature to run, the independent candidate has collected over 200,000, although they aren’t yet verified. The deadline is Monday.

Gay Kevin Spacey, allegedly committing multiple sexually attacking men, endorsed Kennedy for president because he opposes vaccines. The anti-LGBTQ+ candidate repeatedly stated that human-made chemicals in the environment, “endocrine disrupters,” may cause children to be gay or transgender, feminize boys, and masculinize girls. In contrast, Marjorie Taylor Greene believes Kennedy isn’t sufficiently transphobic to be present because he was uncertain about whether gender-affirming medical care, supported by the American Medical Association (AMA), should be available to trans minors.

Louisiana is appealing the three-judge panel’s blocking the state’s latest congressional maps that found the state shouldn’t draw district lines complying with the Voting Rights Act to create a second minority opportunity district. The panel had given June 3 as the deadline for passing an interim remedial map. If the state Legislature doesn’t pass a new map by then, the judges will impose one themselves.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, according to Isaac Newton’s third law of motion. The response to college campus protests against the Israel genocide in Gaza is an example of his premise. Students, mostly peaceful before law enforcement arrives, fight back when college administrations send in law enforcement who beat up the protesters. Some schools, however, talk to students and reach agreements. Usually, students request an end to the Israeli war, disclosures of institutional investments, and divestment from companies tied to Israel or otherwise profit from its military operation in Gaza. In some places, agreements lead to nonviolent dismantling of encampments before graduation. Brown and Northwestern were the first, followed by Rutgers, Johns Hopkins, University of Minnesota, and the University of California, Riverside. Northwestern agrees to peaceful demonstration but no tents through the end of classes on June 1. In return, students can be represented on investment comments, and the school will bring Palestinian students to campus. Although not completely satisfied, students at these schools celebrate the agreements as incremental steps. Other schools such as Wesleyan University look to these schools as models. The journey to the bargaining table at four schools is here.

Over 750 Jewish students at U.S. universities have signed an open letter urging institutions to take action in stopping Israel’s “genocidal assault on Gaza.” The letter states they are “deeply disturbed by the small number of individuals who have attempted to co-opt these encampments to spread violent, hateful, and antisemitic messages” but “wholeheartedly reject the claim that these encampments are antisemitic and that they are an inherent threat to Jewish student safety.” The students responded to Biden’s speech about antisemitism on campuses. Last week, Biden faced backlash for falsely characterizing the campus encampments as lawless and violent while ignoring police brutality and physical attacks against protesters, including a mob assault at the University of California, Los Angeles. More of the letter’s contents is here. It concludes  :

“We demand that academic and political leaders stop misrepresenting and demonizing protests and their organizers, protect the voices of student activists, and take immediate action to stop Israel’s genocidal acts before more Palestinians are killed.”

In 2022, the year that Russia invaded Ukraine, oil company BP’s profit of $27.7 billion, double the previous year.

Global Conflicts, GOP Stupidity Plus DDT’s Trial

Hamas agreed to a ceasefire with Israeli in negotiations worked out by Egypt and Qatar, but a unanimous vote by Israel’s war cabinet rejected it and attacked Gaza’s southern city of Rafah where over half the two million people of the Gaza Strip tried to take shelter. An Israeli lawmaker said, “Killing Palestinians is more important for the Israeli government than saving Israelis.” According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, the Rafah operation was intended to apply military pressure on Hamas for the release of hostages. Of the 1.4 million Palestinians in Rafah, 600,000 are children—almost all of them sick, injured, or malnourished. Israel has a pattern of sending Gazans into areas which are then attacked.

Detailed information about Gaza as of Monday. Tuesday may bring more coherent information from the Middle East.

Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-UT) discussion with Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed that the congressional push to ban TikTok is to erase U.S. access to unfiltered news about Israeli’s assault on Gaza. Romney asked about the lack of communicating “realities” in Gaza and suggested that banning TikTok would quiet outrage about Israeli atrocities. Right-wing lawmakers and pundits propose that students protest Israel’s actions because of TikTok, but students aren’t alone in opposition to Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian civilians and massive destruction in Gaza.

Called a “dark day for the media,” Israel closed local offices for Qatar-funded Al Jazeera, a satellite news network and one of the few international media sources for Gaza news. Netanyahu posted that the news source is a threat to national security after a unanimous vote by his cabinet. Orders confiscated broadcast equipment, cut off the channel from cable and satellite companies, and blocked its websites. The law allows Israel’s shutdown for 45 days with a possible renewal, preventing news about Gaza for three months.

Israeli authorities allegedly targeted several Al Jazeera’s journalists including two killed in Gaza in the past six months and cracked down on protesters against the Gaza war, moving the country from a democracy to an authoritarian government. Foreign journalists are blocked from entering Gaza to cover the conflict.

For the first time since the Israeli war began on October 7, President Joe Biden paused a shipment of U.S. ammunition to Israel. In February, Biden asked Israel to use ammunition only in accord with international law and received a letter of assurances in March. Recently, Netanyahu repeatedly threatened to invade Rafah whether or not he has a deal with Hamas. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Netanyahu that “a major military operation” in Rafah would lead to public opposition by the U.S., negatively impacting U.S.-Israel relations. White House spokesman John Kirby said that Biden “is sincere” about changes to U.S. policy if Israel moves ahead with a ground operation in Rafea.

A February national security memorandum set May 8 as the deadline to report to Congress about whether countries receiving U.S. weapons and munitions are using them consistent with international humanitarian and human rights laws. During the past six months, the Biden administration has authorized over 100 arms sales to Israel including tank and artillery ammunition, 2000- and 500-pound bombs, rockets, and small arms. An Israeli provision for receiving these shipments is “credible and reliable written assurances” that it will “facilitate and not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede” the transport and delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance and U.S.-supported world efforts to provide that assistance. The memo does not apply to air defense systems such as the iron dome missile defense and other “nonlethal” supplies for only defensive purposes.

Since the memorandum, Biden and his officials have condemned Israeli’s military campaign in Gaza. During his State of the Union, Biden stated that most of the 30,000 Palestinians killed at that time were not Hamas but still expressed his “ironclad” support for Israel’s war. Verified deaths are up to about 35,000.

Russia plans nuclear drills against Ukraine’s Western allies after comments about deeper involvement in the war against Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron doesn’t exclude sending troops to Ukraine, and UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Kyiv’s forces will be able to use British long-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia. Ukraine’s shortage of troops and ammunition has kept its army on the 600-mile front line but hits targets deep inside Russia which keeps attacking Ukraine’s power grid.  

While the world is on fire, House Republicans are concerned about household appliances. After reluctantly providing aid to Ukraine, they have returned to protecting gas stoves because of conspiracy theories about Democrats trying to ban them. The GOP will debate Debbie Lesko’s (R-AZ) “Hands off Our Home Appliance Act” to block any bans not “technically feasible or economically justified” and if they do not result in “significant conservation of energy.” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) bragged that “Republicans are protecting your home appliances.” The agenda also includes “Liberty in Laundry Act,” “Clothes Dryers Reliability Act,” the “Refrigerator Freedom Act,” the “Affordable Air Conditioning Act, and the “Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act”—all supposedly to block energy efficiency and climate change.

Although no ban for gas stoves was ever intended, a study found that 650,000 children developed asthma because of them. Yet Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), White House physician fired for his use of drugs while supposedly caring for DDT and inappropriate management of medications, posted:

 “I’ll NEVER give up my gas stove. If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands. COME AND TAKE IT!!”

To Axios’ Andrew Solender’s report, “Appliance Week is BACK in the House!” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) replied, “Israel aid, Ukraine aid, Humanitarian aid, Kitchenaid.”

Possibly searching for an out from her claim to oust MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) as Speaker, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) met with one of her two allies, Thom Massie (R-KY), and Johnson for two hours on Monday. They plan to meet at 12:30 pm on Tuesday. Greene later told reporters the huddle will take place at 12:30 p.m. Last week, Greene vehemently declared she would move forward to present her motion to vacate Johnson because he isn’t anti-Democrat.

In an anti-DDT move, former Republican Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan announced in an op-ed that he would back Biden in November’s election and criticized other GOP voters who “fall in line” with him. Duncan described DDT as “a man who has disqualified himself through his conduct and his character,” listing the current hush money trial as a reason for not supporting him. Another reason by Duncan is DDT’s promoting “unfounded conspiracy theories that led to the horrific events of Jan. 6, 2021.” Duncan concluded:

“This November, I am voting for a decent person I disagree with on policy over a criminal defendant without a moral compass.”

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has ruled that candidates for federal office can raise unlimited funds for groups supporting ballot measures, possibly giving Biden an edge in soliciting money for abortion-rights measures in battleground states.

DDT Trial Day 12: Judge Juan Merchan began the day by charging DDT another $1,000 for contempt in violating his gag order in discussing the jury, dismissing the other three complaints from prosecutors because they were not “beyond a reasonable doubt.” The judge regretfully said that continued violations could result in jail. Later DDT declared that “our constitution is much more important than jail” although he has not violated the order since the first time Merchan threatened him with jail. DDT is fundraising by describing himself as a “victim.”  

In the hearing last Thursday, DDT’s attorneys complained that DDT couldn’t respond to Biden when he “mocked President Trump” about “stormy weather” at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, but Merchan reminded the defense that Biden wasn’t listed on the gag order. (Note that the lawyers always falsely call DDT “President Trump” although he no longer has that title.)

Following Merchan’s contempt of court ruling, the prosecution brought star witnesses—the documents about DDT paying $130,000 to Stormy Daniels. Two Trump Organization employees, former controller Jeffrey McConney and accounts payable supervisor Deborah Tarasoff, described the process for making payments. MConney said Allen Weisselberg, former Trump Organization CFO, told him to reimburse DDT’s former lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen in 2017 with 12, checks each for $35,000s.

Cohen’s invoices listed the checks as “retainer agreement” although he had no retainer. McConney stated that all the payments to Cohen were listed as “legal expenses,” but he never saw a retainer agreement. Invoices were also not sent to the legal department. Checks started from DDT’s revocable trust before the final three-fourths originated from DDT’s personal account with only DDT as the authorized signatory. Tarasoff said that DDT signed all checks with a black Sharpie and testified that checks above $10,000 needed approval by DDT or one of his sons. DDT wrote “void” on all checks he didn’t want to pay. McConney said that a lawyer would need to report payment for legal services as taxable income but not for a reimbursement.

The trial adjourned early and will resume on Tuesday. Prosecution stated that its case may require another two weeks.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s killing of dog, goat, and horses continues, perhaps because she keeps trying to justify her actions. Her latest response is to kill Biden’s dog Commander, now removed from the White House and relocated after biting Secret Service agents.

DDT Day Three, Natural Security Aid Plus War?

Israel Attacks Iran: On early Friday, Israel was responsible for multiple explosions in Iran at Isfahan, site to military research, development sites, and bases. One of Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites is in nearby Natanz. The U.S. and several European countries had called on Israel to not respond to the Iranian attack. Israel notified the U.S. that they were doing it, unlike the killing of seven Iranians at an Iran consulate in Damascus which Israel declared it didn’t see as a provocation. Explosions also occurred in Syria and Iraq. There have also been reports of explosions in Syria and Iraq.

Oil and gold prices surged while DOW futures dropped almost 500 points after the explosions. Commercial flights were diverted from western Iran. Mike Clarke, professor of defense studies, said Israel might not be lucky again if Iran attacks again.

DDT Trial Day Three: And then there were five. Two of the seven jurors selected were dismissed after one said she didn’t know if she could be impartial and the other thought he might have not been accurate about not having been accused or convicted of a crime. Prosecutors had found an article about someone with the same name arrested in the 1990s for tearing down political posters about the political right in suburban Westchester County. Jury selection is struggling with a search for jurors without knowledge of Deposed Donald Trump (DDT).

Judge Juan Merchan has ordered journalists to not report jurors’ answers about current and former employers after the woman who resigned said “she was afraid and intimidated by the press … and everything that had happened.” He also said not to write about anything “they observe with your eyes and ears,” such as a prospective juror’s physical appearance or accent. DDT’s lawyer objected.  On Fox, host Jesse Watters had said he wasn’t “so sure about Juror No. 2” and lamented “undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury.” He also presented biographical and identifying details of all seven jurors with the video at the top of the Fox website. Former state and federal prosecutor Ron Filipkowski, the editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch Network, commented, “Fox & Trump are coordinating to intimidate jurors.”

DDT has made at least ten posts violating his gag order, and prosecutors said they wouldn’t tell DDT who the first government witnesses are because he has been posting about witnesses, a disadvantage to the defense. Lawyers said they wouldn’t tell DDT who the witnesses are, and the judge said that he wouldn’t force prosecutors to give them the witnesses’ names.

DDT seemed to stay awake because he wanted to hear what prospective jurors said about him while he fidgeted and craned his neck. Merchan has sworn in the third set of 100 prospective jurors out of 500. Before the end of the day, seven more jurors and one alternate had been selected, leaving the selection of five alternate jurors for Friday.

After being admonished to not report on potential jurors, Jesse Watters continued to bash them on his Thursday show:

“Today’s jury selection was just as bad as Tuesday. One prospective juror said she wouldn’t believe Trump even if his tongue were notarized. She also called him racist and sexist on social media. Another one said her son worked in DC and when asked for who, she said Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat. One woman said she marched at the Women’s March, is a CNN viewer, and used to work for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. And all three of these people told the court they would be unbiased. This is some jury pool.”

Update on James Comer’s (R-KY) accusations of President Joe Biden at the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday: Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), such a thorn in Comer’s life that Comer called him a “Smurf” during a hearing, told the committee that Comer has to “face the fact that he was taken by the Russians,” and “was used by the Russians.” He added the committee has “already lost” Comer “to Russian propaganda” and asked for them “to build a forcefield around the Chairman to make sure we don’t lose him to Chinese propaganda as well.” More of his speech is here. The video went viral.

Moskowitz continued his Russian theme by saying he “submitted an amendment to Bill drafting appointing MTG [Marjorie Taylor Greene] as Putin’s Special Envoy to the United States Congress.” The media has called the Georgia representative “Pro-Putin” for years, and recently she has pushed her false belief, using Russian propaganda, that Ukrainians are Nazis with a “war on Christianity.” Moskowitz also drafted legislation to name Greene’s Capitol Hill offices after the former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who tried to appease Adolf Hitler and signed the Munich Agreement allowing Hitler to annex part of Czechoslovakia.

Greene offered an amendment to a GOP bill on Ukrainian aid bill that funds should be provided for a space laser to help control migration at the US-Mexico border. Before she was first elected to Congress, she said a prominent Jewish banking family partly owned a space laser starting California forest fires. Recently asked about her claims, she told the journalist to “f*** off.” Another Greene amendment requires all members voting for Ukrainian aid to “conscript in the Ukrainian military.”

Another conspiracy theory, this one from Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC), purports that the former secretary of the Army “slow-walked” the National Guard’s response to the January 6 insurrection to obtain a position in President Joe Biden’s administration and thus purposely allowed “more chaos to occur.” He added, “I don’t have first-hand knowledge of that” while spread his falsehood on Newsmax. Such lies elevate House members, such as Clay Higgins (R-LA), who became chair of the subcommittee overseeing border enforcement and an impeachment manager after he falsely reported “ghost buses” used by the FBI for the assault on the Capitol. Murphy is on the GOP’s January 6 “investigation.”

Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) has been working to present four separate bills to the House that resemble the one $95 billion national security bill passed by the Senate two months ago. All of them together would provide foreign aid to Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine plus other issues such as security for the U.S. southern border and block TikTok until it separates from its Chinese parent. Johnson would miss TikTok; he worked with Chaya Raichik, leader of Libs of TikTok, and other far-social media influencers to promote the bogus reform bill that he and DDT are developing to ban non-citizens from voting, a law that already exists. Bills would also allow the U.S. to seize frozen Russian central bank assets to rebuilt Ukraine and impose sanctions on Iran, Russia, China and criminal organizations that traffic fentanyl.

Johnson hopes that the rules committee will accept the bills’ movement onto the chamber floor so the House can vote on the bills by Saturday. As hardliners rejected the process, other Republicans worked with Democrats on the bills. Passage of the bills means they go to the Senate. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), opposed to the aid, Xed that “no one should expect easy or quick passage in the Senate.”

As Republicans struggle with House bills, they also try to deal with vacating the Speaker since Greene and Tom Massie (R-KY) support the “motion to vacate” that requires only one person for a House vote. The debate is now whether the GOP should pass a rule to create greater difficulties for introducing a vacation by forcing more members to sign the motion.

Johnson said he won’t change the one-person motion to vacate the Speaker, that any change “requires a majority of the full House, which we do not have.” (He can finally count votes!) House Republicans have urged him to change the rule in the foreign aid bills. At one point, far-right lawmakers surrounded Johnson in a heated discussion opposing the change as his back was to the wall. They threatened him a motion to vacate if he didn’t concede to their demands. In a 20-minute heated floor conversation, Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) dared them to oust Johnson and called opposer Matt Gaetz (R-FL) “tubby.” According to a GOP lawmaker, Johnson was “very frustrated.” Jake LaTurner (R-KS) said he wouldn’t be running for reelection in November because of the chamber’s “dysfunction.”

At a press conference, Johnson called himself a “wartime speaker,” adding that “we need steady leadership.” He wouldn’t say what war. House members are talking about Johnson’s “Churchill or Chamberlain moment” regarding the need for Ukrainian funding. Neville Chamberlain gave Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler whereas Winston Churchill defied the Nazis in World War II “to defend our island, whatever the cost may be.”

At least 15 members of the Kennedy family, related to presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appeared to endorse Joe Biden at one of his campaign stops on a three-day swing through Pennsylvania. JFK’s sister Kerry Kennedy called Biden “my hero.” She said “the best way forward for America is to reelect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for four more years.” Biden said:

“Donald Trump’s vision is one of anger, hate, revenge and retribution. I have a very different view of America, one of hope and optimism.”