It’s interesting to step back sometimes and consider the possible big pictures of our times. These connections won’t be new to many of you. They’re not to me, as far as they go. But it’s been clarifying and helpful to me nonetheless. Today we have our ongoing battle over democracy and authoritarianism in the U.S. The UK is in its latest stage of its ongoing national self-immolation. Italy has just elected its first far-right government since Benito Mussolini’s rise to power in the early 1920s. Russia, which has made itself into the international clarion of rightist, revanchist nationalism, is stumbling through a succession of largely self-inflicted catastrophes in its war of choice in Ukraine.
Continue reading “Musings”The Wily Ron Johnson
A series of polls out of Wisconsin show why you simply cannot ever count Ron Johnson out, unfortunately. Johnson has been consistently unpopular with Wisconsin voters for sometime. There weren’t many polls of the reelection contest until the last month or so, after Mandela Barnes finally secured the Democratic nomination. Over that period polls have gone from showing a surprisingly robust lead for Barnes to show an almost equal advantage for Johnson.
Continue reading “The Wily Ron Johnson”Under Oath, Ginni Thomas Stuck To Big Lie Script
She’ll never let go, Jack!
Continue reading “Under Oath, Ginni Thomas Stuck To Big Lie Script”Gingrich Clutches Pearls Over Fetterman’s Tattoo Because Gangs And Heroin And Hide Your Kids!
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Morality Authority Speaks
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) is desperately sticking to the GOP’s extremely weird new line of attack claiming that Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman has gang ties, though Gingrich has an added a special twist: Heroin.
- Gingrich zeroed in on Fetterman’s “I Will Make You Hurt” tattoo on Fox last night, which the Republican claimed was “either a reference to a song in favor of heroin use” or “was a tribute to the Crips, which was a Los Angeles-based, very violent gang.”
- “These people verge on being sick,” said Gingrich, who divorced his first wife as she was being treated for cancer.
Reality alert: Fetterman’s tattoo is a reference to “Hurt,” a well-known song by Nine Inch Nails that has literally nothing to do with the Crips.
Hurricane Barrels Toward South Carolina After Slamming Florida
Biden has declared a state of emergency as Hurricane Ian makes its way to South Carolina, leaving a devastating trail of destruction in Florida.
Senate Dodges Shutdown With Spending Bill
The Senate on Thursday approved must-pass legislation in a bipartisan vote to keep the government funded until Dec. 16.
- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) was forced to cut his proposed permitting reform from the bill after Republicans abruptly dropped their support for it out of spite over his deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on climate and drug pricing legislation.
- Insider reports a troubling moment with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) right before the vote in which the 89-year-old Democrat (who’s been increasingly struggling with her cognitive health) got frustrated with her aides as they tried to prepare her for the vote. At one point, Feinstein reportedly snapped, “I don’t even know what that is” when they asked if she had questions about the measure.
- The House is expected to take up the spending bill today before government funding expires at midnight.
Ginni Thomas Regurgitated Big Lie During Jan. 6 Panel Testimony, Chair Says
Hardline MAGA activist Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, had her voluntary interview with the House Jan. 6 Committee yesterday. It turns out that if you’re as dedicated to the Big Lie cause as she is, then you’ll keep insisting the 2020 election was stolen even while under oath.
Cannon Rescues Trump From Having To Back Up His Bullshit
Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday threw out special master Judge Raymond Dearie’s order that would’ve required Trump to actually substantiate his accusations that the FBI planted evidence in its Mar-a-Lago raid. Cannon also gave Trump another boost by extending the deadline for Dearie to wrap up his review to Dec. 16.
Putin Set To Officially Annex Ukrainian Regions
Russian leader Vladimir Putin is holding a ceremony today to sign what the Kremlin calls “accession treaties” that would illegally annex the four regions in Ukraine (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia) where Russia held fake referendums.
- Russia fired a missile at a civilian convoy in Zaporizhzhia that killed at least 25 people on Friday morning, according to Ukrainian officials.
- The U.S. and the E.U. are expected to slap new sanctions on Russia in response to the annexation.
SCOTUS’ Crumbling Legitimacy By The Numbers
Americans’ trust in the Supreme Court is plummeting to historic lows, according to a new Gallup poll, which notes that people’s opinions of the high court overall in terms of trust, job approval and confidence are “the worst they have been in 50 years of polling.”
- 47 percent say they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in SCOTUS, the lowest number recorded. It’s a staggering 20-point drop from 2020.
- SCOTUS’ job approval figures are astonishingly terrible too: Disapproval is at 58 percent, an all-time high.
- People are seeing the right-wing partisan hackery that’s infected the high court: A record high number of Americans say SCOTUS is “too conservative.”
- But don’t you dare suggest the high court is losing its legitimacy, or else Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito will wag his finger at you for crossing what he calls “an important line.”
Key Analysis
“What the urban-rural split in the 118th Congress will look like” – The Washington Post
Wake Up, Sheeple
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Correction: John Fetterman is the Democratic nominee for Senate not governor. We regret the error.
These Judges are Corrupt
Do take a moment to read Josh Kovensky’s report here on Judge Cannon’s latest order. It’s hard to capture just how unheard of and close to unprecedented this is. Trump literally asked for this particular judge to be the special master. Now only a couple weeks after his appointment she is jumping in and just overruling him in the most transparently one-sided ways. It’s really not too much to say that she’s essentially acting as Trump’s defense counsel — which is good I guess since he’s had a hard time holding on to them.
Special masters do work on behalf of the judge. At the end of the process he can make recommendations and she can simply not take them. So she is not acting beyond her authority in the narrow sense. But the point of the exercise is to have a respected outside party review evidence and make recommendations to the judge. By jumping in and overruling entirely reasonable and unremarkable decisions about how the review will be conducted she’s removing whatever pretense was left that she is there to oversee the case under the law as opposed to protect Trump. It’s not the worst of her orders in this ruling. Others are much worse on substance. But Special Master Dearie said he needed x amount of time to conduct the review. She jumps in and says, no actually you need to until past the election.
It’s all very transparent. But here we are. Read it.
Judge Cannon Does Trump Another Solid
After twisting federal criminal and national security law to help former President Trump fend off the Mar-a-Lago investigation, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for the Southern District of Florida has given him another boost.
Continue reading “Judge Cannon Does Trump Another Solid”Listen To This: The Smorgasbord Episode
A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate discuss a charcuterie tray of a Supreme Court case, the latest hijinks of the two most infamous Democratic senators and some recent shifts in midterm polls.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
Five Alarm Fire
The DC insider sheets are already buzzing about the exciting news: House Republicans plan a new round of debt limit hostage taking next year. Of course, this is all treated as somehow totally normal, as opposed to an unconstitutional form of legislative terrorism. This piece in Axios walks through the ins and outs of it, noting the following ….
The debt limit turning into a “political football” has become a “pattern in divided government,” particularly with a Democratic president, Neil Bradley, chief policy officer for the U.S. Chamber of Congress, told Axios.
This is a crock. Let’s be honest. Only Republicans do this. It only happens with Democratic presidents. Perhaps understandably, the head of the pro-business Chamber — which is, paradoxically, somewhat reviled now in the Trumpite GOP — can’t say this directly. But journalists don’t have to repeat their nonsense. The leading contender for the key committee chairmanship that would call the shots on this is already being clear on what Republicans will do. Tell the President that he has to repeal his 2021-22 legislation or the country has to declare national bankruptcy.
Continue reading “Five Alarm Fire”Fed Agencies Outline Plans To Prevent More Missing Texts After Jan. 6 Debacle
The mystery of the missing text messages from January 6th hasn’t unraveled just yet. Since several federal agencies admitted that they hadn’t retained any text messages from key figures surrounding the attack on the Capitol complex, officials have taken steps to prevent it from happening again.
Continue reading “Fed Agencies Outline Plans To Prevent More Missing Texts After Jan. 6 Debacle”Missed Chances
If you look at recent polls, there’s definitely a drift away from Democrats in a number of key races. The shifts are tiny if you look at the race averages. They may simply be the sloshing back and forth of poll numbers which is essentially noise. My best guess, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, is that Republicans have gotten back on the airwaves in a number of key races and been helped by a few weeks or ominous economic news — market declines which create a backdrop of disquiet even for people who have little or no direct exposure to equities markets. These things are mostly beyond Democrats’ and individual Senate candidates’ control. But what campaigns do control or have some real impact on is what an election is about. And it is always critical to make the election “about” whatever it is on which you have the strongest hand. In this case, for Democrats, that’s on abortion rights.
Continue reading “Missed Chances”