It has now taken over the GOP host Josh Marshall wrote this last night and I think it’s the only way to properly frame what’s happening in the US Congress right now. It’s bigger than the speakers race. It’s simply the way the Republican party operates now in every way: Just moments ago news broke that Steve Scalise had withdrawn his bid to be Speaker of the House. This is a genuinely stunning development, even though I semi-predicted it earlier today. I said it half in jest. But we live in an age when half-jokes often come to pass rapidly. I had a conversation this evening that allowed me to clarify some of my own thinking about these developments. After Scalise won the caucus Speakership vote you had a slow trickle of members saying “I’m still for Jim Jordan.” Then later you had news reports asking, “Can Steve Scalise get to 217?” There’s a category, conceptual breakdown here that is kind of hiding in plain view. What do these members mean they’re still for Jim Jordan? He lost. It’s over. Scalise is the Republican Speaker candidate. End of story.
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Emotional policing is again in vogue Have you condemned Hamas vigorously enough for [insert viral unconfirmed atrocity here]? The murderous rampage by Hamas last weekend against Israeli civilians of all ages and how Israel responds will reverberate for years to come. Israel’s 9/11. In the wake of terrorist attacks here two decades ago, some pundit asked: Would America keep its head? I wrote later: We invaded Iraq on trumped-up intelligence. We conducted illegal surveillance on our own citizens. We imprisoned people without charge, here and abroad. We rendered prisoners for torture and tortured others ourselves in violation of international law. All the while, millions of staunch, law-and-order conservatives supported and defended it, and still do. Vigorously. Did America keep its head? Uh, no. It is happening again. Pro-Israel protesters in New York City think Gaza should be flattened to a parking lot. Wipe out all the Palestinians. There are calls for revenge, for collective punishment. War fever is on the rise again. Someone on Bluesky last night posted that “every single Israeli child will one day be an active member of the IDF.” Thus, none are innocent.
A lunatic is the leading GOP candidate for president I’ve said it before: Donald J. Trump is one grain alcohol and rain water away from pulling a Browning machine gun out of his golf bag. This person is a fucking lunatic, Republicans have just stopped talking him, and everyone is going along as if the next election is business as usual. Strange times. https://t.co/RZvcQbLCV9 — Tim Miller (@Timodc) October 12, 2023 And his fans want more: Big cheers here at this Trump event in West Palm Beach after one of the speakers tonight, Rogan O’Handley, said: “My favorite memory of [Trump] is January 6th … I thank him every single day for holding that rally on January 6. I was there, I was damn proud to be there.” pic.twitter.com/V3dz3V9WLg — Kate Sullivan (@KateSullivanDC) October 11, 2023 I’m trying to heed Obama’s advice. “This country’s seen darker moments before”: Not saying it’s easy. pic.twitter.com/9AJQfZqAq5 — mike luckovich (@mluckovichajc) October 9, 2023 Do your best to cope.
…is the Trump Cult I think this has been true for years actually but it fully formed once the smoke cleared after January 6th and Trump remained standing as the Dear Leader. It’s been solidifying its power ever since. Nate Cohn in the NY Times: In the final account, the rise and fall of Kevin McCarthy might read like the familiar tale of a Republican congressional leader toppled by a small but uncompromising right-wing faction. But even if the story ultimately ends like any other Republican congressional drama in Washington over the last decade, something different and important has already happened: The right wing didn’t just bring down a House speaker — its members also made a credible bid at claiming the gavel for themselves. A founder of the House Freedom Caucus, Jim Jordan, won 99 votes in the House Republican conference vote Wednesday, good for about 45 percent of congressional Republicans.
Thank goodness Biden refused him the privilege of getting classified information in the post-presidency Trump ties the attack on Israel to the 2020 election which he describes as rigged pic.twitter.com/BSX0SC8N8c — Acyn (@Acyn) October 12, 2023 Reminder that Trump is beefing with Netanyahu because he recognized Biden’s victory. If BN embraced the big lie Trump would defend him. Policy has 0 to do with it. https://t.co/x6AYYHSUB8 — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 12, 2023 Once again, he shows his casual disregard about classified information. He doesn’t seem to know if he’s sharing it or, more importantly, care. And he thinks that a good time to air his personal grievances with Netanyahu is when Israel is at war and the entire Middle East is on tender hooks. Bill Sher has the back story: On Wednesday Donald Trump held a rally in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Gerrymandering is still on their menu. And it’s not going to go down well. Ian Millhiser on the latest voting rights case before the Court: The Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed majority spent Wednesday morning seemingly hunting for a reason to uphold a South Carolina congressional map that everyone agrees was gerrymandered to benefit the Republican Party. The case is Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. Under the Supreme Court’s precedents, federal courts are not allowed to hear lawsuits challenging partisan gerrymanders — that is, maps drawn to benefit one political party or the other. But federal courts may hear challenges to racial gerrymanders — maps drawn to minimize the political power of voters of a particular race. A lower court struck down the South Carolina map because it determined that while the state’s GOP-controlled legislature’s goal was to shore up Republican control over the state’s First Congressional District, the legislature did so by excluding Black voters from this district.
The president who is suffering from mental decline is not Joe Biden Trump thinks Obama is still President, and it’s not the first time either. We’ve all watched Trump’s mental decline for years. It’s time for Fox News to tell the truth: he’s too old to run for President.pic.twitter.com/lz0PJ9ZMcf https://t.co/w1Rzxcuz3O — The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 12, 2023 .
“We are heading for a wider war” We who watched Iraq invade Kuwait in 1990 and the Trade Towers fall in 2001 have seen war fever take hold. The fever is not just a product of justified outrage nor of the “fog” of sketchy information, but also of active propaganda. Google: Nayirah and Office of Special Plans. Approach with caution. Here is CNN’s tumbnail sketch of where things stand this morning: At least 1,200 people were killed in Israel in Hamas’ October 7 onslaught when armed militants poured over the border into Israel, raiding homes, rampaging through communities and taking as many as 150 hostages back to Gaza. In retaliation for the atrocities, Israeli jets have been pounding Gaza — the densely inhabited coastal strip that Hamas controls — with hundreds of airstrikes, reducing neighborhoods to rubble. Officials say a “complete siege” has trapped residents, cutting them off from food, electricity and resources. Many survivors are in critical condition and struggling with an overwhelming emotional toll as a humanitarian crisis swiftly unfolds in the region.
With any luck, this one won’t fly This was not unexpected. When North Carolina Republicans are not creating secret police forces, they are conjuring new ways to make it harder for non-Republicans to vote. They’re creative that way. So when they passed SB 747 and their supremajorities (thanks, Tricia Cotham!) overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto, I expected state Democrats and Marc Elias to jump right on that. I warned the GOP, I don’t bluff. Now, we will win.https://t.co/Q2dWScgaMu https://t.co/y4bS5I3INB — Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) October 11, 2023 Democracy Docket provides the outlines: On Tuesday, Oct. 10, Voto Latino, the Watauga County Voting Rights Task Force, Down Home North Carolina and two individual voters filed a federal lawsuit challenging part of North Carolina’s newly enacted voter suppression law, Senate Bill 747. The new lawsuit ensued just minutes after the Republican-controlled North Carolina Legislature overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s (D) veto of S.B. 747. The lawsuit specifically challenges S.B.
And it doesn’t look as if they are getting any closer to pulling themselves together As the whole world watches the events unfolding in Israel in slack jawed horror, I think most people are vastly relieved that the person who won the 2022 American presidential election was not Donald Trump. As Israel’s most powerful ally, President Joe Biden has been a steady hand at the wheel trying to ensure that the war doesn’t spread beyond Israel’s borders and reassuring everyone that the US is not going off the rails despite its ongoing political turmoil. You can’t say the same for the putative Republican nominee for president in 2024, Donald Trump whose only contribution to the discourse has been to repeatedly assert on his Truth Social feed that this never would have happened if he were still president and proclaim “I KEPT ISRAEL SAFE!