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There was a time when that statement would have sounded totally nuts. It’s not that far-fetched today…

That’s right. Trump just called Biden a crackhead. Anyway: A Secret Service probe into who left a small bag of cocaine in the White House earlier this month has concluded without a suspect being identified—reigniting right-wing conspiracy theories about sham probes and Hunter Biden. “At this time, the Secret Service’s investigation is closed due to a lack of physical evidence,” the Secret Service conceded in a press release on Thursday. […] Outrage ensued from Republican lawmakers, who remain hell-bent on continuing the probe despite the Secret Service’s admission there are no leads left to chase. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) reportedly stormed out of a Secret Service briefing for lawmakers just moments after it began. Outside, he called the probe’s conclusion “bogus” and the investigation a “complete failure.” “Y’all know you can’t go in [the White House] without giving your Social Security number anyway, and to say that it’s just some weekend visitor, that’s bogus,” Burchett said.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson dons an apron “No one should be too poor to live in one of the richest cities — Chicago — in one of the richest countries — America — at the richest time in the history of the world,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, the opening keynote speaker, told the Netroots Nation 23 conference on Thursday. “There is literally more than enough for everybody. Everybody. No one should lose at the expense of someone else winning.” “Now, the soul of Chicago was on full display tonight because you see, and you can feel it in the air,” said Johnson, 47, a former public schoolteacher. “This multicultural intergenerational movement that has propelled us into this moment where we don’t have to shrink and we don’t have to hide from our values. We can actually run on our principles and values and win.” After the speech, Johnson and other officials spent an hour serving food and drinks to several thousand attendees as part of his effort to promote new legislation that would raise pay for tipped workers in the city.

The nose knows ‘The judge said it best in one word: Wow,” tweeted Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse this morning. Michael Ponzer, a senior judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts comments on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ethics stink. “What has gone wrong with the Supreme Court’s sense of smell?” Ponzer asks in the New York Times. He has had to abide by a written code of conduct since 1984, before any of the sitting justices were on the bench. In those years, he’s had a few complaints filed against him, but so far none found to have merit. Ponzer’s colleagues know not just to stay inside the ethical lines, but well inside them. But the Roberts court? The recent descriptions of the behavior of some of our justices and particularly their attempts to defend their conduct have not just raised my eyebrows; they’ve raised the whole top of my head. Lavish, no-cost vacations? Hypertechnical arguments about how a free private airplane flight is a kind of facility?

It looks like we’re going to find out I don’t know if it’s morning in America, exactly, but we can at least see the faint glimmer of dawn on the horizon. Even the relentlessly negative media has started to make note of it — some of them, anyway. We are still seeing headlines by newspapers and cable networks which seem to be determined to temper any positive developments with caveats and forewarnings. But the coverage has shifted a bit in the past couple of weeks which must be a welcome development for the Biden administration. Take, for instance, the Politico Playbook from Thursday which starts off with this encouraging paragraph: “President JOE BIDEN is having a good week. A really good week, actually.” It goes on to lay out a whole bunch of good economic news, starting with the fact that the inflation number is now down to 3%, the lowest its been since March of 2021 and observing that in Washington and on Wall St., a consensus is building that the economy may have turned the corner.

More, please In Chicago for the next few days for the Netroots Nation conference, so please excuse the abbreviated postings. A taste of Kiev Air raid sirens screamed out across downtown Chicago multiple times and cell phone alerts chirped through the hotel to warn of tornadoes touching down in the area, a rare event according to one report. Friends were stuck on the tarmac at O’Hare Airport until the weather service called all-clear. They texted that could see the tornado from the plane (AP): The weather service warned Wednesday evening that a confirmed tornado was on the ground near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Passengers took shelter and the storm disrupted hundreds of flights, but there were no immediate reports of injuries. A short time later, the weather service said the Chicago forecast area was “currently tornado warning free.” The storm moved into Michigan before passing through the state and into Canada early Thursday. Tornado watches that were in effect for parts of Michigan, Indiana and Ohio all expired. The twister tore the roof of a motel west of the city.

Keeping women’s mistreatment in the headlines It may be a stunt, but one with a point (New York Times): Democrats in Congress are making a fresh push for the nearly century-old Equal Rights Amendment to be enshrined in the Constitution, rallying around a creative legal theory in a bid to revive an amendment that would explicitly guarantee sex equality as a way to protect reproductive rights in post-Roe America. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Representative Cori Bush of Missouri are set to introduce a joint resolution on Thursday stating that the measure has already been ratified and is enforceable as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. The resolution states that the national archivist, who is responsible for the certification and publication of constitutional amendments, must immediately do so. […] “In light of Dobbs, we’re seeing vast discrimination across the country,” Ms. Gillibrand said in an interview. “Women are being treated as second-class citizens.

Here we go again Fergwadsakes: House Republican leaders are now betting they can come up with 218 GOP votes for the FY2024 defense authorization bill after essentially ending any hope of a bipartisan deal with Democrats. Speaker Kevin McCarthy is giving the House Freedom Caucus and other conservative hardliners what they’ve demanded all week — dozens of “culture war” amendment votes on the $886 billion NDAA package. Conservatives threatened to derail the defense-authorization bill unless they got these votes. The House will take up these amendments today in what promises to be a long and bitterly partisan slugfest. McCarthy wants to vote on final passage for the NDAA bill by Friday. You can see the list of NDAA amendments here. These GOP amendments run the gamut of conservative talking points. They cover everything from the Pentagon’s abortion policy, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives, Covid-19 vaccines, critical race theory and transgender-related medical services. Ukraine, China and Taiwan are also key amendment topics.

Ron DeSantis: “The idea that he’s entitled to this, especially, you know, we had the Biden-Trump in 2020 and Biden’s president. The idea that he’s just entitled after that doesn’t make any sense.” What a dolt. Until; he’s ready to stand up like an adult and admit that the election wasn’t stolen and the The Big Lie is a big lie, then most Republicans still believe he IS entitled to the nomination because the presidency was stolen from him. This mealy mouthed “… and Biden’s president” instead of “and Biden won” plaintive wail is just weak, weak, weak.

Surprise They have to be allowed to spread lies unencumbered or they are being persecuted: In the days since Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads app premiered, a number of rather predictable media storylines and narratives have dominated the news cycles around the latest would-be Twitter replacement. One focuses on the sheer power of Zuckerberg’s Meta empire—Threads is now the fastest-growing app in history. Zuckerberg says his new platform hit 100 million sign-ups in less than a week. Of course, many of those users were already on other Zuckerberg digital properties: Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp. A related narrative argues that this early but apparent success is a much-needed win for Zuckerberg, who squandered billions trying to convince people to join his online cartoon world, the metaverse. There’s also a more esoteric storyline about how the success of Threads might affect Zuckerberg’s looming antitrust battles.