“Well right now, [the House] can’t govern, and I think that the eight people who betrayed the conference and joined the Democrats to defeat the 96 percent of the conference unleashed furies that I don’t think they’d even dreamed of, because it gave every person the right to be equally destructive and equally angry. Hahahaha. No, Newt, those furies were unleashed decades ago by you. Recall Newt’s first big power play against his own party: On the evening of Oct. 4, 1990, Newt Gingrich and his then-wife, Marianne, were enjoying a VIP reception at a Republican fundraiser when they were suddenly hustled over to have their picture taken with President George H.W. Bush. “I thought it was a bad idea,” Gingrich said in a series of interviews in 1992 that have not been previously published. Days earlier, Gingrich had dramatically walked out of the White House and was leading a very public rebellion against a deficit reduction and tax increase deal that Bush and top congressional leaders of both parties — including, they thought, Gingrich — had signed off on after months of tedious negotiations.
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Look for him to start blowing everything up They’re serious this time: Donald Trump wanted to pull the United States out of NATO during his first term, but was repeatedly talked out of it by senior administration officials. For a possible second term in the White House, the 2024 Republican presidential frontrunner is already discussing how he could actually get it done, if his demands aren’t met by NATO. He and his policy-wonk allies are also gaming out how he could dramatically wind down American involvement to merely a “standby” position in NATO, in Trump’s own words. When the former president has privately discussed the United States’ role in the transatlantic military alliance this year, Trump has made clear that he doesn’t want the upper ranks of a second administration to be staffed by “NATO lovers,” according to two sources who’ve heard him make such comments. The ex-president has made these kinds of jabs at the longstanding alliance during conversations related to the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine. Trump, the sources say, has continued to express an openness to pulling the U.S.
Don’t kid yourself At least they aren’t blaming the Democrats anymore. (For now anyway.) Kevin McCarthy, the ousted speaker, was making his way through the Capitol when reporters asked what he thought of the chaos consuming House Republicans, who for nearly three weeks have been trying and failing to replace him. His answer veered into the existential. “We are,” he said on Friday, “in a very bad place right now.” That might be an understatement. In the House, Republicans are casting about for a new leader, mired in an internecine battle marked by screaming, cursing and a fresh flood of candidates. In the Senate, their party is led by Senator Mitch McConnell, who spent weeks arguing that he remained physically and mentally fit enough for the position after freezing midsentence in two public appearances. And on the 2024 campaign trail, the dominant front-runner, Donald J. Trump, faces 91 felony charges across four cases, creating a drumbeat of legal news that often overwhelms any of his party’s political messages.
Will it work? An interesting thought experiment from Brian Beutler in his newsletter today: President Biden has been buffeted by attacks on his Middle East policy for the past two weeks, but enjoyed a brief reprieve on Thursday in the form of welcome criticism from Ari Fleischer, an immense cynic and warmonger who gained infamy as chief spokesman for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. “When [President Biden] said that Israelis should not be consumed by rage? Who the hell does he think he is?” Fleischer cried bitterly on Fox News. “I sat in on every summit meeting with foreign leaders when they came to the U.S. after 9/11 and met with President [George W.] Bush—not one said to Bush the Americans shouldn’t be consumed with rage.
The man they want to lead the world Trump: I’m for us. You know how you spell us, right? U.S. I just picked that up. Has anyone ever thought of that before? I’m reading and said us. You know, when you think about it, us, equals U.S. If we think of something genius, they will never say it. pic.twitter.com/xzXTMRRge6 — Acyn (@Acyn) October 23, 2023 The vast majority of Republican voters will vote for that puerile imbecile next November. What the fuck has happened to this country? Update: Whoa… Wow. Trump says if he’s elected he’ll implement “strong ideological screening” of all immigrants to the U.S. One of his criteria: “if you don’t like our religion…then we don’t want you in our country.” pic.twitter.com/PJ8rbqglZ9 — Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) October 23, 2023
On October 10, 2022, I realised that there was no hope of ever reforming mainstream economics, since on that date, Ben Bernanke and two other Neoclassicals were awarded the “Nobel” Prize in economics for their work on banking. They assumed the validity of the “loanable funds” model of how banks operate—as Bernanke said in his … Continue reading "Why Credit Money Matters"
According to his lawyer, Trump has nothing to worry about: Prosecutors claimed the former lawyer wrote legal memos on behalf of the Trump campaign creating a false legal backing for the fake elector scheme. As part of the plea, the former lawyer agreed to testify in future cases if called upon. That would include the trial of former President Trump, scheduled for early next year. Grubman said Chesebro’s guilty plea doesn’t implicate any other defendants, and that Trump should “not be worried.” “He did not implicate anyone else. He implicated himself in that particular charge,” he said. “He is required to testify truthfully if he is called by the state, and Mr. Chesebro is a man of his word.” “At the same time I will say, if he is called by a defendant he will testify and testify truthfully,” Grubman added. This isn’t going to go over well, however: “First of all, Mr. Chesebro never believed in ‘the Big Lie,’” attorney Scott Grubman said Saturday in an interview on MSNBC. “If you ask Mr.
A very thought-provoking piece from Zack Beauchamp at Vox about the next steps for the Israel war. It’s complicated and well worth reading in its entirety, going into all the global, military and political implications, but this is a taste of the kind of thinking that’s gone into it and I think it’s impressive: The moral case for counterterrorism Bradley Strawser, a former US Air Force captain, has an unusual job: he is a moral philosopher working for the US Navy. His title is professor of philosophy in the defense analysis department at the Naval Postgraduate School; his actual job description is teaching America’s special operators how to fight wars as ethically as possible. When I asked Strawser how he would approach the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, he said that it was essential to hold two ideas in one’s head at the same time. First, that Israel had not only a right but a moral obligation to respond to Hamas’ vicious attack on its civilian population. This may not seem obvious, as a ceasefire would certainly lead to some immediate reduction in civilian suffering.
And they aren’t positive I never much cared for Mitt Romney over the years but I did admire his willingness to vote to impeach Trump and sign on to bipartisan legislation from time to time. That’s a pretty low bar but in GOP politics these days it makes him a unicorn. But in his new book he doesn’t hold back about his impressions of his fellow Republicans and I am here for it: Christie, Chris Mr. Romney’s advisers in 2012 suggested that he consider Chris Christie, then the governor of New Jersey, as a running mate, according to the book. But Mr. Romney had reservations about Mr. Christie’s “prima donna tendencies,” and worried that the governor was not “up to the physical demands” of being on the ticket and was plagued by “barely buried” scandals, Mr. Coppins writes. The two also came into conflict in 2016 after Mr. Christie became one of the first establishment Republicans to back Mr. Trump. “I believe your endorsement of him severely diminishes you morally,” Mr. Romney wrote in an email. He added: “You must withdraw that support to preserve your integrity and character.” Evaluating Mr.
We’ll give you crazy Rudy says Biden is an Iranian spy: “He’s on Iran’s side and he’s on Hamas’s side. He is not on our side. He’s got a bunch of spies in his Admin. This guy is working for Iran. Why? Maybe because they’ve infiltrated his Admin the way the communists infiltrated FDR’s Admin.” pic.twitter.com/pBudDVycaM — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 22, 2023 This is the man the putative GOP nominee for president hired to represent him. Meanwhile, in MAGA: THIS WEEK IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY Oct 14 – Oct 21, 2023 pic.twitter.com/9kR7YkCZmL — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 22, 2023