Things are going as expected for Speaker Cave-In McCarthy

Simmering tensions among House Republicans flared anew over the weekend, following a New York Times report that detailed how Kevin McCarthy’s (R., Calif.) bitterly contested speakership battle has undermined his confidence in colleagues.

While it took McCarthy a historic 15 ballots to secure the position through January’s chaos and infighting, the speaker reportedly remains particularly frustrated by certain Republicans — including Jodey Arrington (R., Texas) and Steve Scalise (R., La.), the budget committee chairman and House majority leader, respectively.

“Mr. McCarthy has told colleagues he has no confidence in Mr. Arrington, the man responsible for delivering a budget framework laying out the spending cuts that Republicans have said they will demand in exchange for any move to increase the debt limit,” Jonathan Swan and Annie Karni wrote in the Times. McCarthy still regards Arrington, who sought to nominate Scalise during the speakership balloting, “as incompetent, according to more than half a dozen people familiar with this his thinking,” the Times revealed.

The leaks, in turn, appear only to have further chilled relations between McCarthy and some members of the conference.

“The members I’ve spoken with are just stunned by his rebuking of his budget chair, and certainly of our leadership,” an unnamed House Republican told Axios on Saturday. The representative expressed doubts McCarthy will serve the full extent of his speakership term.

Georgia on my mind

The indictment of Donald J. Trump in New York over hush-money payments to a porn star was a global spectacle, with the former president glumly returning to his old stomping grounds in Manhattan as TV networks closely tracked his procession of black SUVs on their way to the courthouse

In Georgia, however, there is another criminal investigation of Mr. Trump nearing completion, this one also led by a local prosecutor, Fani T. Willis of Fulton County. While nothing is certain, there are numerous signs that she may go big, with a more kaleidoscopic indictment charging not only Mr. Trump, but perhaps a dozen or more of his allies.

Her investigation has targeted a wide range of conduct centered around efforts to subvert the democratic process and overturn Mr. Trump’s 2020 election loss. Nearly 20 people are already known to have been told that they are targets who could face charges, including Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer, and David Shafer, the head of the Georgia Republican Party.

Willis also is reported to be working on racketeering charges against Trump based on his having organized people to overturn the election not just across the country but also in Georgia.  This is racketeering because racketeering means conspiring with others to commit a crime . . . those others are:

  • His many lawyers who filed suits in several states attempting to overturn the results in individual states.
  • The people Trump lined up in several states including Georgia to file phony Electoral College letters for submission to the Senate.

Both these activities required planning and coordination to pull off a “racket,” hence the racketeering charge.

Willis is reported to have scheduled a grand jury for the second week in May.  District Attorneys typically will take no more than one or two days to present their case, give the grand jury a day or two to deliberate, then announce the charges.  By the end of May, Trump will be facing another batch of criminal charges.  He will have to come to Atlanta, go before a judge, plead, be arraigned, and possibly jailed.

Then, hanging in the background are federal charges from Special Counsel Jack Smith for (1) Trump’s role in the Jan 6 coup attempt, and (2) Trump’s theft of classified documents.

 

We can learn a lot by the expression on a person’s face

'Caged animal' Trump may need a 'secure padded cell' as trial progresses: psychiatrist

This photo was made of Trump as he exited the NYC courtroom where heard the charges against him.  His face tells us a lot.

  • He knows he has finally been caught and no one can save him.  All his life he was lied, cheated, stolen and has never suffered any consequences.  He knows the free ride is over.
  • This is the face of a trapped animal.
  • Trump is angry, fuming, ready to shriek, scream, shout and call people names.
  • He is angry, very angry.

This is the face of a loser who now knows he is a loser.

Speaking of “grooming” children

Why do Republicans talk about “grooming” children?  Because they are experts at it.

On Friday, March 31, Anton “Tony” Lazzaro was found guilty by a federal jury of “orchestrating a sex trafficking conspiracy in which he trafficked multiple minor girls.” Assistant United States Attorneys Melinda Williams, Laura Provinzino, and Emily Polachek released a statement on the verdict, saying, “today’s guilty verdict recognizes the bravery of the five young victims who were trafficked by Lazzaro. We are humbled by their courage and inspired by their journeys to regain their power.”

The government only needed a 10-day trial to make the case against the now-32-year-old Lazzaro, using his much younger associate Gisela Castro Medina as their star witness. Lazzaro’s defense—that he wasn’t preying on “broken” girls, but instead was trying to “fix” them—doesn’t seem to have been effective. The former big-time Minnesota Republican strategist was arrested in 2021 following an investigation and raid that turned up a mountain of evidence showing that, with help from then-19-year-old Castro Medina, Lazzaro had plied young girls with gifts and money in exchange for sex.

Lazzaro was connected to many elected Republicans in Minnesota, including then-Minnesota state Republican Party Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan. Carnahan, who was already facing pressure for a terrible workplace culture, resigned shortly after Lazzaro’s arrest.

Tennessee goes full fascist

Republicans in the Tennessee legislature have expelled three Democratic members because of their support for pro-gun-control protestors.

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Notice the three Democrats who were expelled were BLACK and a WOMAN.  CORRECTION:  ONLY THE TWO BLACK MEN WERE EXPELLED, THE WHITE WOMAN WAS NOT EXPELLED.  IN THIS VIDEO CLIP, SHE EXPLAINS WHY SHE WAS NOT EXPELLED.

In 1951, my father’s business moved us from SW Mississippi to Knoxville TN where my parents lived until they left us in 2005 and 2007. I spent my summers between 1951 and 1962 in rural SW Mississippi; college in Alabama, where I learned to read. My younger brother and I left TN — and the South — as soon as we could and have never looked back.

Tennessee has four large cities: Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville, and Memphis. These cities have a lot of Democrats and elect the few Democrats in the state legislature. The smaller cities of Kingsport, Bristol, Johnson City, Cleveland, and Jackson are nothing but overgrown county seats. Recent gerrymandering has all but wiped out Democrats in the state legislature.

Outside the four big cities Tennessee is dumbass, shit-for-brains, redneck, goober muthafukahs who marry their cousins and are proud of their ignorance. And that’s the smart ones.

Remember — Pulaski TN is the home of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the KKK, and, Dayton TN is home of the Scopes Monkey Trial where a public school teacher was put on trial for teach evolution (and don’t be surprised if that sorry affair repeats itself given Republican attacks on public schools).

Having grown up in rural MS and East TN I am fully acquainted with dumbass, shit-for-brains, redneck, goober muthafukahs who marry their cousins and are proud of their ignorance. I have an earned PhD in WhiteTrashOlogy.

UPDATE

Students swarm the Tennessee legislature chanting “FUCK YOU FASCISTS!”

Let’s call it what it is: Trump is a joke, a really bad joke

I had this thought last night while watching the MSNBC Special Report. Laurence O’Donnell described walking through the park across from the Court and being followed by a guy who was yelling questions at him about his vagina. O’Donnell was very deadpan about it and had the panel in hysterics. It struck me that Trump, if he was watching this, would be furious.

Today, I read that Trump is calling for the defunding of the FBI and the DOJ because they’re after him.

MTG gets chased out of the park. Lindsey begs for the peoples’ last dollar.

And on and on.

These people, and the Republican Party in general, aren’t rational. They can’t be reasoned with. They must be ridiculed. They must be laughed at.

Trump hates to be made fun of. He needs to become a joke.

Want to see a real Confederacy of Dunces?

 

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This is the audience at Mar-A-Largo Tuesday night, April 4, to hear Trump’s speech after his indictment in NYC.

  • Kari Lake, Arizona, loser who thinks she will be Trump’s VP candidate.
  • Marjorie Taylor Greene, who thinks she will be Trump’s VP candidate and who just returned from being chased out of NYC after less than five minutes.
  • Don Jr, the guy with the thousand-yard stare indicating his has just done a couple of lines of coke.
  • Kimberly Guillfoyle, the ‘ho who is 7 years older than Don Jr., who convinced him to dump his wife and five kids, and whose hobby is taking photos of her lovers’ genitals and posting them on her Facebook page.
  • Mike Lindell, former (??) cokehead who continues to predict that Trump will be “re-instated” as president.

Why not ask God for the money?

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) is facing significant blowback following her Tuesday announcement that she is asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover all of the cleanup costs from last Friday’s series of tornados that killed nearly three dozen people and caused extensive damage throughout the Bear State.

“I’ve been across our state since Friday, surveying damage, meeting with survivors, and discussing recovery efforts with local leaders, emergency personnel, and volunteers. It’s clear that the cost to clean up the damage those storms created will be substantial,” Sanders said in a statement as reported by local ABC News affiliate KATV. “The federal government is currently covering 75 percent of all costs incurred during our recovery process, but that arrangement must go further to help Arkansans in need. Today, I’m asking the federal government to cover 100 percent of all our recovery expenses during the first 30 days after the storm.”

The problem is that Sanders has repeatedly railed against federal involvement in state and local issues. During her campaign, for example, Sanders proclaimed that Arkansas residents have the “right to be free of socialism and tyranny.” Then, in January, she tweeted that “as long as I am your governor, the meddling hand of big government creeping down from Washington DC will be stopped cold at the Mississippi River.”

WTF???  Why not simply as God for the money?

We really should not be too hard on Governor Sarah — after all, she’s a graduate of that center of academic excellence, Ouachita Baptist College.