Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Jack Smith’s J6 case, has issued Trump a limited gag order. He is restricted from “making public statements attacking the witnesses and specific prosecutors or court staff members involved in the federal case concerning his efforts to overturn the 2020 election,” the NY Times says. Trump has “truthed” that he will appeal the order. His campaign also sent out emails claiming that President Biden is behind the gag order. Judge Chutkan did not specify what penalties Trump might face if — excuse me, when — he violates the order.
On to the House Circus. Many news articles have said that a core group of Republicans are saying they will not vote for Gym Jordan, which if true would seem to kill his chances of being elected Speaker. Some have said that if Jordan tries to force a roll-call vote tomorrow, they will block it. We’ll see.
It’s also said Jordan has been urging his MAGA supporters to bully the holdouts into submission. Josh Marshall writes that most of the resisters are establshed but conservative Republicans who are tired of Jordan’s act. And some of them are flipping.
If they give way you’ll be left with a handful of vulnerable Republicans like the newly elected members from New York state and a few others sitting in Biden districts. If it’s down to them I’m fairly certain they just fold.
If it plays out like that you could have a Speaker Jim Jordan in place by tomorrow.
This would be quite bad for the country. But it’s hard for me to see how it isn’t pretty bad for the GOP in terms of the 2024 election, at least in the House.
Late Update: Now another, Ann Wagner (MO), has flipped. The rationale is refusal to be forced to work with Democrats to elect a Speaker. Steve Womack seems to be the only high profile NeverJim who’s holding tough. My assumption now is the Jordan probably wins this. Though we need to see more to know.
Later Update: I think this is close to done. Jordan is going to be Speaker. Maybe not tomorrow but soon. And in all likelihood probably tomorrow.
In other news: I feel I have to mention the 6-year-old boy in Illinois who was murdered by his mother’s landlord. The statement from the county sheriff’s department is just anguishing. “The six-year-old boy was stabbed twenty-six (26) times throughout his body. The knife used in this attack is a twelve-inch serrated military style knife that has a seven-inch blade.” Joseph M. Czuba (age 71) has been charged.
On a more cheerful note, the DoJ has filed notice that it wants the US Court of Appeals in DC to impose longer sentences on Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Dominic Pezzola and Ethan Nordean, all Proud Boys I believe.
Oy…
A Gym Jordan Speakership.
If our Founding Fathers weren't already dead, this would kill them.
Only in America can you plan and call for a coup and still run for POTUS.
And again, only here, can you help plan a coup and still have a good chance at becoming the Speaker of the House!
In the words of that great Russian-American philosopher, Yakoff Smirnoff: "AMERICA! VAT A COUNTRY!!!
OY!!!
I read that the boy just turned 6 years old, and he looks adorable from the photos out in the press. His family came to the US 12 years ago, fleeing the craziness in the Middle East. His murderer looks like a sun-baked, stringy haired crazy old man. I hope we find out who programmed him, what his media diet was like. Three guesses.
Read that Hannity's been emailing Jordan's opponents. Hannity, king of the flying monkey brigade, the real Speaker of the House. Jordan, who hasn't authored a single piece of legislation in 16 years, in charge of the whole shebang.
Researched Boebert's $300 "expense". Her date's bar is a fancy cocktail bar in tony Aspen, Colorado. "Like your living room but more fun" is the tagline. The bar sells merch on-line, hoodies for $85, and so on. I guess I can't fault a girl for trying to upgrade her life.
A hoodie for only $85?
Aspen's really letting itself go.
Great Christmas gift for John Fetterman!
I fail to find any means to understand the behavior of Joseph M. Czuba, now charged with a hate crime. How does a person hate so pathetically and savagely as to stab to death a six-year-old? It is way more than breaking bad, some part of his being became badly broken. He was never trained in terror tactics. You have to wonder if he is one of many on the edge of breaking in a similar way. Has human evolution taken a barbarian turn? Is it now more the survival of the savage over survival of the fittest?
"Be careful what you wish for – you may get it."
Jordan as Speaker of the House. Let's say it happens – I'm not sure how accurate Josh Marshall is with his head count. But let's say there aren't four opponents of this mental midget who have the spine to publicly vote no. If so, I'm truly disappointed in the decay of the GOP.
There were 40 to 50 who didn't like the idea of Gym Jordan because they know he is a tool of Donald Trump, or because he's pursued the impeachment of Biden without regard for evidence, or because he defied a legal House subpoena from the J6 committee, or because the hearings he's presided over have been a complete sh^t show or because he turned a blind eye to the sexual abuse of students by a college doctor. But threaten to sic the MAGA mob on them, and they fold. Pathetic.
But if Jordan follows his pattern, he will use the House to attack Biden relentlessly for the next 12 months. I think Jordan will refuse to fund government. I think Jordan will try to force everyone, including the Senate and President Biden to accept draconian budget cuts as the only way to re-open government. (It may not last more than a month – there's a procedure that can be invoked to force a vote in the House. I forget the name, but Jordan may not be able to shut down everything indefinitely.)
A temporary shutdown might not be popular with Republicans but the longer a shutdown drags on, the less popular it is with moderate voters. And moderates will determine the outcome of the presidential race and the balance of power in Congress in just a year. IMO, the damage that a shutdown does to the GOP will be directly related to the length of the shutdown and the unpopularity of the hostage demands. Jordan may be stupid enough to couple his demands to amnesty for Trump. (About 2/3 in the last poll I saw think Trump should be tried before the election.) I don't think cutting food stamps is going to be popular, nor is protecting the profits of big Pharma. A savvy politician like McConnell would limit the list of demands to "stuff" that will sell to the average voter and not enrage normally low-turnout voters. But I don't think Jordan will hold back.
My read: if Jordan wins, the whole country will be dragged into the sewer – maybe dunked in the sewer is a better description. Most in the GOP are comfortable there and accustomed to the stench but most Americans won't like it and the 2024 election will be their opportunity to voice their disgust. And this is the difference between Jordan and McCarthy, two poor examples of the human species. McCarthy knew that dragging the country into a shutdown and into a full impeachment would draw attention to how low the GOP has sunk. McCarthy knows there will be consequences and Jordan does not care.
It's a political metaphor of the atrocities of Hamas. Once Jordan starts slitting the throats of the innocent (metaphorically) there's gonna be retribution.
Last night I was processing the nightmare that might ensue if Jordan won, and at the time it looked like his opposition was caving. I decided to short-circuit this thinking, because 1) it hadn't happened, and 2) it wasn't entirely sure he'd win. In other words, why worry about a calamity that hasn't yet occurred. I slept soundly.
We used to call congressmen "lawmakers". But the GOP has no use for actual public service. Jordan is a man with a law degree who never even took the bar. He is profoundly destructive and shallow. He has never lifted a finger to help the American people.
If Jordan is elevated, and there is a shutdown that lasts any significant amount of time, the Republicans will pay. Dearly. It will hasten the demise of this benighted, useless frat party and rid us of their vile influence and power.
It will hasten the demise of this benighted, useless frat party and rid us of their vile influence and power.
I don't think so. They'll just morph into another form and be back at it with a different name and different causes. They represent the spiritual disease of selfishness and disregard for their fellow human beings.
Bernie,
That savagery is in our DNA.
Compared to the hominids in the opening scene of "2001: A Space Odyssey," our DNA is probably less than one percent different than theirs.
Yes, we're far more societally advanced than they were.
But basically, we're just much more technically adept than those hominids.
We still share a lot of the same hatreds and fears.
Chief among them, is fear of "the other."
And when you fear something, you come to hate it. You want to eradicate that which arouses fear in you.
I'd bet this old menace is a Fox and the Reich Wing Wurlitzer – including the internet – junkie.
And those entities fed that (mentally unstable?) landlord a steady diet of fear and hate.
Is it any wonder then that he acted out, and killed an innocent 6 year-old – and severely wounded his mother?
Yes, we're far more societally advanced than they were.
Unless you are a republican who follows TFG. He now recently claimed republicans eat their young. Sounds like a evolutionary mutation due to survival of the savage to me. Trump said confidently, we all know that is true (the eat their own offspring). He is still leading in republican polls. I am not sure why these facts are true in an advanced or advancing society. It does not fit.
Just a note here. The phrase republicans eat their own offspring is a common saying that is not used in a literal fashion. It is generally used figuratively to describe a pathological form of parenting that prevails in (old?) republican circles. TFG does not seem to be aware of that. His audience sure does not understand, and generally takes everything TFG says literally. Mostly they attend to hoot at the dog whistles.
They have already effectively shut us down
I disagree, Vic, I don’t believe it’s ‘our nature’
That’s almost enough to make a guy get a haircut, shave …
Jordan went down in flames in the first ballot. Not that close. Still voting but 14 against. Jordan has to strong-arm at least ten in the next ballot.
Our nature is freedom, it's not something that even God will take away from us. And so each of us has the choice (the freedom) to create heaven on earth or a living hell. Each one of us can be a Hitler or a Mother Teresa, and anything in between, your choice.
We do have to live with the consequences of our choices, individually and collectively.
Ten Bears,
Imo, anyway, savagery IS indeed still within us.
That's my opinion, and I'm standing by it!
Some of us are better at suppressing our savagery.
Others revel in it!
I think moonbat gives an excellent synopsis on this issue.
PS, Ten Bears:
I started to go bald 30 years ago, so I started to shave my head rather than looking like an aging CPA (not that there's anything wrong with that!).
So, my friend, you'll get no sympathy from me about getting a haircut! 😉
I've read Czuba was supposedly a fan of right wing talk radio. Shocking, horrific, appallingly sad, but not surprising. The only surprising aspect is that the guy did not use a gun.