It appears Kevin McCarthy’s speakership is about to go to speakership heaven. But we’ll see.
Okay, they’re starting the vote … and he’s out!
Judge Arthur Engoron, who is in charge of Trump’s real estate fraud trial in New York, has issue a gag order for Trump! Finally!
In a Truth Social post that went up while Trump was sitting in the courtroom Tuesday, Trump targeted Engoron’s principal law clerk — who was sitting just a few feet away — calling her “Schumer’s girlfriend,” that reposted a picture of her alongside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a fellow New York Democrat.
It is unclear what connection, if any, Schumer has with the clerk. Schumer’s office has not responded to a request for comment from The Hill.
Trump’s campaign on Tuesday also sent out an email shortly after the Truth Social post while the court was on a lunch break that lambasted the judge himself. …
… Judge Arthur Engoron issued the gag order barring Trump and any party in the case from posting or speaking publicly about members of his staff after Trump released personally-identifying information about his principal clerk on Truth Social while the hearing was underway.
The trial judge, without naming Trump, addressed the court on the matter, saying “one of the defendants” posted a “disparaging, untrue and personally-identifying post” about his staff, and though the judge ordered it deleted, it had been emailed out to “millions of other recipients.”
“Personal attacks on members of my court staff are not appropriate and I will not tolerate it under any circumstance,” Engoron said.
He added that he warned counsel off the record about the former president’s comments yesterday, but the warning went unheeded.
See also Judge Shuts Down Trump’s Claim That He Reversed Himself on Statute of Limitations. Apparently Trump misunderstood something that happened yesterday and left the courtroom thinking that the judge had agreed most of the case against him was past the statute of limitations. This morning he learned otherwise. I bet he’s in a bigger snit now than he was yesterday. Heh.
And I think Engoron would be a great name for a super villain. Just sayin’.
In the J6 federal trial, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan shut down some crap coming from Trump’s lawyers.
A D.C. federal judge called out the latest bid at endless delay from attorneys for Donald Trump.
Trump’s lawyers had argued that deadlines in his D.C. election reversal case should be delayed because of issues relating to classified material.
It was an obviously bogus excuse to further push the proceedings down the calendar from the start, but federal prosecutors with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office made it clearer in a Monday filing. Trump attorney John Lauro hadn’t even submitted his paperwork for a security clearance yet, they said, while another, Todd Blanche, had done so more than one month ago. Attorneys in cases involving classified material need a provisional security clearance to review records.
So, Tuesday morning, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan essentially called the lawyers’ bluff: She ordered Trump attorneys to “initiate and complete all security clearance tasks” by Oct. 10. And she wants proof of compliance by Oct. 11. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Oct. 16.
The Washington Post and New York Times are both running articles about the shocking decline in life expectancy in the U.S., which is not happening in other prosperous countries. Just here. These are all without a paywall:
Washington Post, An Epidemic of Chronic Illness Is Killing Us Too Soon
Washington Post, How Red-State Politics Are Shaving Years Off American Lives
New York Times, Without a College Degree, Life in America Is Staggeringly Shorter
The GQP what a shitshow! Hunter Biden sure picked a good day to enter his plea on (almost never charged) felony gun charges. Though FAUX is of course covering that and ignoring Stump's gag order. I watched a few minutes of FAUX coverage after "My Kevin" got shit canned. They blamed the vote on Democrats: "a small group of republicans joined by a unanimous vote from democrats has vacated the Speaker position and has thrown the House of Representatives into complete chaos"! Now that is some first class misdirection. I couldn't stop laughing. They just can't say one fucking word that might upset the mouth breathers what watch that useless "news" channel!
The vote counts for McCarthy (from NYT):
– all 208 Democrats voted to oust him
– only 8 Republicans voted to oust, 210 voted to keep him.
8 extremists plus every Democratic vote was enough to get rid of him. I think the final straw for Democrats (from what I read) is that McCarthy was on a talk show this past weekend, blaming Democrats for the budget impasse. He'll say anything, isn't that smart, and I think got what he deserves.
The articles about declining life expectancy are good, and recall the last days of the Soviet Union – similar statistics appeared for that country back then.
Trump's trial in NY is expected to go on to December. Plenty of time for Trump to piss off the judge and get thrown in jail. I cannot wait. First time in Baby-Man's life, that someone stood up to him. That moment is coming, in one form or another. It will be a great tragedy if Trump leaves this life before atoning for his karmic debts.
Irony may have gone the way of shame, hypocrisy and everything else the GOP has no problem with these days. But it is ironic that the eight nutballs slammed for McCarthy for getting democrat support to avoid the shutdown they wanted, but then they relied even more heavily on democratic votes to oust McCarthy.
Apparently Trump misunderstood something that happened yesterday and left the courtroom thinking that the judge had agreed most of the case against him was past the statute of limitations.
Trump didn't misunderstand what the judge said. He created his own narrative of the way he wanted his MAGA stooges to perceive that he is being persecuted and victimized. Regardless of what the judge says, or the press says, or the truth of the matter Trump's diehard followers are now more firmly convinced that the court is determined to take Trump down even if they use illegal methods to do it.
Trump was again code talking about the illegitimacy of his prosecution. And his followers heard him loud and clear.
"Trump didn't misunderstand what the judge said. He created his own narrative of the way he wanted his MAGA stooges to perceive that he is being persecuted and victimized"
100% but it's not just the magats he’s also programing our corporate tabloid media. He knows they can't resist covering his windbag shit lies. By 7pm yesterday bobble-heads all over cable where asking the "statute of limitations" questions. He knows he's fucked in court I guess he thinks if enough people think he's getting screwed somehow he'll get out of it? He wants another fucking riot, and nbc, cbs, abc, cnn, et-all seem all too willing to assist.
My fear about this, stated by Josh Marshall, is that Kevin's ouster empowers Gaetz the Destroyer. He is using his position to fundraise and draw power from the internet. He, Trump, MTG want to topple the government. This is just a continuation of Jan 6, but it's inside the halls of power.
I fear the Dems will look back and regret the day they helped show Kevin to the door. They should've swallowed hard and voted to keep McCarthy, and put the extremists in their corner. Instead of leaving it to weak Republicans to police this cancer.
I think the Dems made the right choice in not trying to save McCarthy's speakership. As Hakeem Jeffries pointed out the entire Republican party is infected with the MAGA virus but only to varing degrees, so it would do no good to try and save McCarthy's ass. It's best to let them stew in their chaos. There are Repugs who aren't interested in completely burning down the government to satisfy Trump's rise back to power.
It's kinda like the expression Let go, let God, meaning that the American people will tire of the disfunction and failure to govern and get rid of the extremist MAGA elements. The fringe right is pushing an agenda that is out of step with majority the of American voters.
Totally agree Dems did the right thing not trying to save McCarthy. The result is that Dems appear completely unified and their action determined the outcome, Repugs are anything but unified and are back to where they were on their first day in power. Mere days ago the talk was about impeaching Biden, now its all about their own chaos and infighting. Optically, at least, I think Dems won the day and are perhaps in no mood to fix Repugs' messes for them.
What should have happened? Should every democrat have voted to keep him as speaker or just a few?
Enough to push him over the line and save his job, thus telling Matt Gaetz where to go. Now Gaetz is empowered – who would dare cross him now, after what happened to Kevin?
Hmm…
A gag order for tRUMP.
How, exactly, does one gag Orange Julius Caesar?
With a mouth that big (and a brain that small) only the Hindenburg might suffice.
Too bad it went up in flames in 1937.
The thing is, tRUMP WANTS to egg a judge into putting him in jail! Then, he can whine about how unfair the justice system is in this country. How DARE they stick the leading RepubliKKLAN Party candidate for POTUS in jail?!? They're trying to fix the coming election!!!
Btw: Please note that the only judge he's not trying to goad into doing something drastic like that is Judge Aileen Cannon.
Coincidence?
I think not.
"Coincidence? I think not."
Understatement of the year. And it's October.
This is one of my favorite tunes so I don't mean to sully it's meaning, but it seems appropriate today for My Kevin, Stump and the magats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8kPv3w8h34
I don't know but the unanimous decision by Democrats was to dump McCarthy. Will he be replaced by someone worse? Only eight Republicans wanted to try for the chaos option. But those eight are enough to prevent any sane Republican from applying for the job. And the crazy agent of chaos isn't going to be acceptable to the 200+ Republicans who voted to keep McCarthy.
So it's a stalemate and the bomb-throwers will be perfectly happy to have the Speakership vacant and the government shut down. Yeah, that will happen in less than six weeks if the Freedom Caucus has their way. IMO, the Freedom Caucus won't vote for anyone who won't shut down government and keep it shut until Democrats all surrender. (This will include calling ff the DOJ from all prosecutions of DJT.)
So where does it go? IMO, it has to be a compromise Speaker who is not part of the Trumpian wing who will bench the House Republicans who are still executing the insurrection for Trump. Just my opinion, but the 200+ Republicans will need Democrats to crossover and the Dems in the House won't do it if it means placing someone in Trump's camp in the Speaker's chair.
Trump sees what he wants to see. Thinking that the judge decided to exclude 80% of the evidence of fraud – just because – is a classic example of how delusional Trump is. Going after the clerk of the judge in the trial in NY is pretty delusional. This judge will decide the penalty against Trump – the argument is no longer about Trump's guilt. It's about his liability. IMO, Trump thinks he can derail the trial if he frightens the staff for the judge into not showing up. If someone gets killed, Trump may think the appeals court will be terrified of sustaining the verdict.
If I'm right about Trump's thinking, things will get worse. Trump may know that he's going to be found guilty unless the jury is terrified of Trump's followers. So Trump can't moderate or delegate the rhetoric, Not until his followers are conducting terrorism on a grand scale without direction. Since J6, Trump's army has the ferocity of cub scouts afraid of the scoutmaster. A few loyalists have tried and been arrested – or killed. Injuring Paul Pelosi is the closest they've gotten, an incident Trump likes to bring up in speeches. ("Hint, hint, crowd!", Trump wishes he could say.) But I think Trump is hoping to goad the judge(s) into sanctions that will enrage his followers enough to riot for Trump. Yeah, it's a reason for a thoughtful judge to be very restrained – not out of fear of Trump but to ensure an orderly trial without bloodshed.
In two weeks, Chutkken has Trump's lawyers in her courtroom for a discussion prior to issuing a partial gag order. (I'm pretty sure she will, especially after today's show in NY.) I would not be surprised to see the other judges of the other criminal cases close ranks and issue orders that mirror Chutkin's order. (Some hopeful thinking there, but I suspect judges are all protective of their staff.) The question is the remedies for violating the orders.
Trump's lawyers are an open question. Kiese in NY is supposed to be a serious lawyer. He SHOULD have serious problems with what Trump pulled. I'm not sure if he can pull out of the case, citing irreconcilable differences. (I suspect the judge would not allow it in the course of the trial.) But the lawyer could express that he has warned his client and he can't control the client that he wanted to separate from.
Fasten your seat belts. We're in for a hell of a ride.
"Only eight Republicans wanted to try for the chaos option. But those eight are enough to prevent any sane Republican from applying for the job. And the crazy agent of chaos isn't going to be acceptable…"
That's the announcer lead in to the new reality sitcom, "Hate Plus Eight."
Republicans in our state now resemble the party on a national basis. Here, the party has been in a constant state of civil war for my lifetime and probably beyond. One faction of the party always maintains a certain amount of control, with I guess the coveted right to call the other faction RINOs. Democrats are tolerated only because at some times the civil war becomes so hot, real governmental business cannot get done without them. The Democrats get to decide which faction gets to keep or pass the right of RINO calling.
The Democrats now have decided that McCarthy cannot just let the Trump. Putin, Goetz, and six other voting republicans no longer get to have RINO calling power.
That is a good call. You won the battle, now the tough job. You “get” to make peace and get to get something to show for all the trouble.
Edit paragraph #2 to:
The Democrats have now decided that McCarthy cannot just allow Trump. Putin, Gaetz, and six other voting republicans exclusive RINO calling power.
Watching more bad cable news bobble-head babble today! They can't seem to figure out why Stump is in court for a third day, even as they hang on every word he utters and broadcast his lies unedited for 8-10 hours during the day and into the night. Gee why would Stump want that? How did I live without this garbage before I retired? Last night I saw one msnbc bobble-head wringing her hands that this trial is giving Stump a huge megaphone, and that he is using it to campaign. she said this after airing 2-3 minutes of his post hearing lies to the media scrum, duh?