"One law for me, another for thee".
"One law for me, another for thee".
Trump's total disapproval score remains at a record high 55% for a second day.
His strong approval score is now a record low 27%, lower than his April 9th tariff low of 29%, his only sub-30 score until the last two weeks.
Trump has had a string of eleven sub-30 strong approval scores since November 11th.
Trump kicked off the period on November 11th stating that we needed H-1B workers because we didn't have enough talent in America. The longest federal government shutdown in history ended on Wednesday the 12th. Around the 15th he reversed his tariffs on coffee and other food items which had contributed to their record high prices in the first place. The same day brought the news that he had also stabbed Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia in the back over her criticism of the GOP's refusal to extend the Obamacare premium tax credits. The Epstein files saga came to a head on the 18th requiring their release, but will we ever see them? TikTok was supposed to be sold or shut down by act of Congress, too, and it has not been. On the 19th Trump was kissing the ass of the Saudi killer of Khashoggi, MBS, in the Oval Office. On the 20th Trump's secret 28-point plan with Russia to carve up Ukraine came to light. On the 22nd Democrats went on camera talking darkly about illegal orders being given to the military in the Caribbean. A National Guard soldier was executed on the streets of DC on the 26th by an Afghan refugee let into America by Biden but given residency by Trump. By the 29th we learned that survivors of a Trump drug boat attack in the Caribbean on September 2 were executed in a subsequent strike by the US military, which they obviously hoped no one would ever find out about. They spent the whole time since making up shit about this being a war justifying military engagement when everyone knows it's not a war and killing people for running drugs in the first place is wrong, otherwise the job we give the Coast Guard to do year in and year out has been simply a pointless exercise.
Trump's base is not happy. Pick your reason(s).
It's not exactly a politically winning message, even though 34 states in America allow minors to marry with parental and/or court consent, and four set no minimum age by law.
Google AI estimates there were fewer than 2,500 minor marriages in 2018, mostly involving girls.
Epstein liked 'em young too, but he wasn't trying to marry any of them for crying out loud. He isn't called a predator for nothing.
Meanwhile, marriage under the age of 18 is banned without exception in only 16 states and DC, mostly in the northeast with Missouri and Virginia being notable exceptions in the near south.
Is Megyn just doing this for the clicks, or is it symptomatic of having a tin ear?
Why not both?
At any rate, the woman who once confronted Trump in 2015 sure has changed her spots since then.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for ABC’s broadcast license to be revoked as he angrily lashed out at a reporter from the network who asked why he has not released files on notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, his former friend.
“I think you are a terrible reporter,” Trump told ABC News White House correspondent Mary Bruce.
The president said he did not like Bruce’s “attitude.” ...
Trump’s tirade came shortly before the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill to compel the Department of Justice to release all of its records on Epstein.
The DOJ earlier this year refused to release those documents, despite prior promises by Attorney General Pam Bondi and other Trump administration officials.
Trump does not need to wait for Congress to pass a bill. He could order the DOJ to release more Epstein files.
“Why wait for Congress to release the Epstein files?” Bruce asked the president. “Why not just do it now?” ...
Trump has repeatedly called the Epstein matter a “hoax” created by Democrats, even though members of Trump’s Make America Great Again movement were leading advocates for releasing the files. ...
Last week, the House Oversight Committee released emails showing Epstein discussing Trump.
In one email from 2019, Epstein wrote that Trump “knew about the girls.”
So the legislative branch is ordering the executive branch to D O S O M E T H I N G.
The legislative branch ordered TikTok to do something by last January, you'll recall, but the executive and its Department of Justice found a way around that.
They'll find a way around this, too.
The foxes remain in charge of the henhouse.
Trump last night reversed himself and said the House should vote to release the Epstein files.
Vote they will, except Speaker Johnson has rigged it so that the vote will be under suspension of the rules.
Which means they don't need a mere majority to pass it. They'll need 2/3 . . . of those present.
It's a 219 GOP to 214 Dem U. S. House.
If they all show up the bill needs 286 Yeas to pass.
Good luck with that.
"See, we voted. But aw shucks, it didn't get enough votes to pass. Oh well, time to move on as Trump said."
Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva sworn in after contentious seven-week delay
... Grijalva represents the 218th signature on a bipartisan discharge petition, which will allow rank-and-file lawmakers to bypass Johnson and his leadership team and force a floor vote to release files. She signed the petition as her first act as a member of Congress.
That will force the House to hold a vote in the coming weeks to compel the Justice Department to release all of the files related to its investigation into Epstein. But the bill is unlikely to pass the Senate or be signed into law by Trump, who has personally urged Republicans to block the discharge push. ...
Jeffrey Epstein files: House speaker announces vote next week on release of docs
... Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., provided the 218th signature needed to approve the so-called discharge petition shortly after she was sworn in as a House member, after a seven-week delay. Griljalva won a special election to fill the seat vacated due to the death of her father, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, in March. ...
Even if the effort passes in the House, it is unlikely to become law. The bill would have to pass in the Republican-controlled Senate, and Trump could veto it even if it survived a vote in that chamber. ...
The Epstein files quietly wait for them to return.
Democrat Adelita Grijalva, elected on September 23rd, remains unsworn-in.
... By the time Obama secured his second term as president, the Democratic party (and the shadow groups that swim in its wake) had won the day on virtually every issue that mattered. This victory was largely due to their focus on doing and creating things rather than thinking about them. ...
Democrats owned the world of things and the real-world effects of their policies – however incoherent – were evident to all. An underlying premise of the Trump campaign was a return to things. To infrastructure. To clean streets and safe cities. To American-made products. And to historic landmarks and monuments that memorialize America’s greatness for future generations. Trump recognized that conservative ideas are meaningless until we rebuild the material conditions where they can be achieved. ...
More.
There isn't one thing in the room with us right now, and there won't be.
We are three weeks into a government shutdown and Congressional Republicans are completely OK with these precious legislative days just thrown into the dumpster of history without accomplishing anything.
The US House isn't even in session, and hasn't been in session now but for 3 of the last 16 weeks, and this will likely extend to 17, 18, who knows how many weeks. Some people are predicting to Thanksgiving.
The GOP won't swear in Democrat Adelita Grijalva, elected on September 23rd, because they fear Republican Thomas Massie's Epstein gambit.
Donald Trump's GOP is a farce.
Republicans refuse to swear in newly elected Democrat, delaying success of Epstein petition
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Republican leaders refused requests from Democrats to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) on Tuesday, saying she will be sworn in when the House returns to regular session.
Grijalva, who was elected last week in a special contest [September 23rd] to replace her father, the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), has already vowed to sign the discharge petition as soon as she’s sworn in, and the bipartisan lawmakers pushing to release the Epstein files had hoped to launch the process as quickly as possible. ...
Although there are no votes scheduled, the House floor opened up briefly at noon on Tuesday for a pro forma session, a routine procedure allowing one chamber to pause floor activities for long stretches without the consent of the other.
Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) presided over Tuesday’s pro forma session, gaveling out and refusing to recognize Democrats shouting on the floor as they attempted to force a vote on a Democratic proposal to keep the government open. He did not swear in Grijalva.
“Historically, you do it when the House is in session other than pro forma,” Griffith said after the session when asked about not swearing in Grijalva.
Grijalva noted that Florida Republicans were sworn in during a pro forma session earlier this year, on April 2, the day after their special elections. The House had been in session the day before. ...
A shutdown would not prevent Grijalva from being sworn in. The full House was sworn in during a government shutdown when a new Congress started in January 2019. ...
“It is common practice in the House of Representatives that Representatives-elect are sworn in immediately following their decisive election, with some being sworn in as little as 24 hours after they have won,” wrote Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) . . ..
Imagine Democrats doing this to Republicans. The latter would be howling in front of the cameras about Democrats killing democracy.
That's how they got Manafort after all.
As ever, it is primarily Trump's own clumsy mouth which is what gets him into trouble and keeps him from respectability, but that doesn't mean he isn't right about Obama.
... On Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said he was speaking with Maxwell’s defense lawyer to see if Maxwell “would be willing to speak with prosecutors” to see if she “has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims.” ...
... Blanche previously served as a criminal defense lawyer for Trump when the president was indicted in four separate cases after ending his first White House term in January 2017. ...
Atta boy, Tim, blame the Democrats.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday he believes a client list associated with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein once existed but was “destroyed” by the Biden administration.
“I think the files existed at one time,” Burchett said in an interview on NewsNation’s “On Balance” with host Leland Vittert. “I think they were destroyed in the previous administration.” ...
Elon made his Oval Office farewell just six days ago, and now look at them.
Elon is an exceptionally accomplished person in the auto industry, the communications industry, and the space industry. He's not a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination, but he stands head and shoulders above the puny little rejects of the political class, a bunch of climbers whose sole ambition in life is to control the $7.2 trillion in its hands this particular fiscal year. That must have been pretty boring to be around, and frankly beneath him.