A Month's Worth of Updates

 It's been a minute!

A lot has happened in the few weeks since my last post. My thoughts have been otherwise consumed. I'll try to catch up with a quick digest!

Section Three of the 14th Amendment

My last post was all about Section Three of the 14th Amendment, which mandates that no one who "has engaged in insurrection or rebellion" may "hold any office, civil or military, under the United States." Seems that the Section Three boat is dead in the water as a solution to the Orange Problem. And I understand the reasoning. There is little precendent, and there are other legal questions to be answered before action barring him should be undertaken (for example, is he an "officer" of the United States?)

He may become a more dangerous beast if anything other than voting keeps him from office, and violence could erupt if any state official kept him off the ballot. True, voting barely worked the last time, and it didn't keep violence at bay. But it's our republic's weapon, and we must use it. 

Here is a very good analysis from Ruth Marcus at the The Washington Post. And Politico describes how some Democrat secretaries of state are not keen on it either. So, as elegant, interesting, and correct the idea is, it has evolved to be just a thought experiment. We have to gear up for battle at the voting booth. 

T**** endorsed the idea of executing General Mark Milley

Just another day in 'murkkka. Read in The Atlantic. Disgusting.

He also floated the idea of shooting shoplifters on sight.

I don't know what scares me more. That he throws these kinds of ideas out there so casually, or that his worshippers not only not budge in their support, but they lap it up.

Jim Jordan's Mouth

Jim Jordan did his mouth thing again when he demanded that Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis turn over all her evidentiary documents to Congress. And Willis shot back. Hard. 

In a scathing nine-page letter to Jordan, she took him to school. First class: Constitution 101. She wrote, “Your attempt to invoke congressional authority to intrude upon and interfere with an active criminal case in Georgia is flagrantly at odds with the Constitution ... There is absolutely no support for Congress purporting to second guess or somehow supervise an ongoing Georgia criminal investigation and prosecution. That violation of Georgia’s sovereignty is offensive and will not stand." She pointedly wrote, "Your notion that different standards of justice should apply to a select group of people is offensive." And added, "those who wish to avoid felony charges in Fulton County, Georgia ... should not commit felonies in Fulton County, Georgia” and suggested that Jordan "consider directing the USDOJ to investigate the racist threats that have come to my staff and me because of this investigation." She went on to say that she will not "be bullied and threatened by Members of Congress, local elected officials, or others who believe lady justice should not be blind and that America has different laws for different citizens." Butthead. (Ok, so that was mine)

Here's the letter. Read more in Vanity Fair. 

Lord I despise that guy.

The Newest Tell-All

Cassidy Hutchison, former aide to T**** Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and star witness in the January 6 Congressional hearings, came out with a new tell-all book. And tell all she did! My goodness, lots of disturbing things within. I haven't read it, but the press has described a few concerning things.

• Rudy Giuliani groped her at the January 6 rally.
• Mark Meadows's clothing smelled like a "bonfire" after burning so many documents in his Whitewash office fireplace.
• Meadows got accidentally drunk when he downed three and a half White Claws, not knowing they contained alcohol (Meadows doesn't drink).
• Meadows admitted that he helped to "kill Herman Cain" by going ahead with the superspreader event held indoors in Tulsa in June, 2020.
• T**** didn't like to wear masks because it smeared his bronzer. So, how many lives were lost based on that one vanity? 
• And speaking of Covid, after the election, precautions went out the window and visitors were allowed in the Whitewash House even if they tested positive.
• T**** admitted to Meadows that he had lost the election.
• The leader of the Odious Eight, Matt Gaetz, hit on her numerous times. Ewwwwww!

You can read about all that and more from Yahoo News or NY Magazine or scurry down to your local independent bookstore, buy her book, and see for yourself!

Speaking of the Odious Eight...

I don't usually address all the myriad aspects of the monkey circus that is today's Republican Party, but Matty G and his band of gormless grubs threw the House in disarray when they ousted Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. Again, another first in history. 

The chaos is not good for our country. 

And yet, it's not so surprising. The Odious Eight set the stage for chaos. They forced McCarthy into making tons of concessions just to get elected to the speakership after a historic 15 rounds of voting. One concession was that a single member could force a vote to remove the Speaker. And not-so-surprisingly, Kevin is blaming the Democrats for the dysfunction. 

Bill Bramhall

It is not clear who will take the speakership. Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan are running for the position, but it's not clear that either has the votes.

T**** has made it known that he would like the position himself, and there is nothing in the Constitution that says he can't. At least one writer, Rex Huppke from USA Today, suggests that T**** go ahead and take it. I mean, why not? It would skip a few steps. As it stands today, though, he has endorsed Mr. Sweaty himself, the foaming-mouth Jim Jordan. 

And remember this about Matt Gaetz

Emma Specter in Vogue (I love that hard journalism sometimes comes from fashion magazines. Strong women, strong country!) wants us not to forget what Gaetz is all about. He is a vile, vile man. 

"Word salad" 

T**** has been stumping on the campaign trail, though he has skipped both of the Repug debates VP auditions. 

And it hasn't gone well.

A campaign rally in the middle of last month had him fretting about Biden starting World War II, and suggested that he beat Barack Obama in the last election and is besting him in the latest polls as well. 

“We would be in World War II.” Trump has lost it, he’s demonstrating how cognitively impaired he is. Watch him ramble, stumble on his words, blank out, then turn to reading the teleprompter to save himself, reading it intently. And he still misspeaks. (Video: Newsmax) pic.twitter.com/cS1GLrPHL3

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) September 16, 2023

And in another campaign stop, he blathered these things. Not only is it bizarre, but his speech seems dysarthric to me.

There 👏🏼 is 👏🏼 something 👏🏼 neurological 👏🏼 going 👏🏼 on 👏🏼 with 👏🏼 this 👏🏼 man.

And in the court cases:

Judge Chutkan in Washington declined to recuse herself

The tangerine turd made a bid for Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the Federal January 6 case against him, to recuse herself. She declined.

Judge Cannon in Florida has paused the case

Judge Aileen "Loose" Cannon, overseeing the classified documents case in Florida federal court, has put a pause on proceedings while she thinks about T****'s request to extend some deadlines. 

Judge McAfee in Georgia will continue to preside over the case

Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the Georgia election interference case, won't need to consider a motion to move T****'s trial to federal court because T**** withdrew his bid to move it. There is speculation why he changed his mind, and Harry Litman writing in the Los Angeles Times, surmises that it's because the judge is a white former member of the Federalist Society, and T**** "may have better prospects for charming and cajoling McAfee" than Judge Steve C. Jones, who would be the one to preside in federal court, and who last month shut down Mark Meadows's bid to move his trial there. 

Judge Merchan in Manhattan is mulling a motion 

Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the hush-money case in Manhattan, has a motion in front of him to dismiss the case. Ain't gonna happen. 

Judge Engoron in New York found "overwhelming fraud" 

The civil fraud case is heating up. T**** is finding himself in quite the hot soup in New York.

Judge Arthur Engoron found that the evidence of fraud by T**** and the T**** Organization was so overwhelming that he made a summary judgement that there was fraud before the trial even started. The fraudster had inflated the worth of his properties massively (for example, Mar-a-Lago's value was inflated by 2300%, and the square footage in his apartment in T**** Tower was inflated from about 11,000 square feet to 30,000 square feet) to garner improved terms from lending institutions. He lived in a "fantasy world" according to the judge.

The trial, which was lost before it started, will simply determine how much the Ochre Ogre will have to pay in fines. It could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. He may also lose several properties. The trial started last week.

You can watch Lisa Rubin on MSNBC to get the latest developments in that trial.

And of course, he can't keep himself quiet and still. He may have bought a gun at a campaign stop, in violation of his Federal release conditions. And more pointedly, on the second day of trial, he truth-socialed attacks on the Judge Engoron's clerk, publishing her photo. 

Which led to....

A gag in that a-hole mouth

Judge Engoron issued a gag order based on the egregious truth social posts. Finally! His action opens the door to other judges deciding the same. Judge Tanya Chutkan is also contemplating a gag order. 

Ann Telnaes

They be jumpin' ship

Co-defendants in the Georgia case are starting to plead. Scott Hall, the Georgia bail bondsman who was accused of breaching voting equipment, was first. Hall pled guilty to five misdemeanor counts of conspiracy and will receive probation in exchange for his cooperation.

Since then, "a handful" of other co-defendants have been working with prosecutor Fani Willis to make deals. 

Let's get that tiny-handed turncoat to the stockade -- STAT! 

That's all for now, dear resisters. Stay tuned.