#119th congress

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Sen. Elizabeth Warren: suspend the filibuster to codify Roe v. Wade during the next Democratic trifecta

Alexander Bolton at The Hill:

Progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) announced Wednesday that there are currently enough votes in the Senate to suspend the filibuster to codify Roe v. Wade and abortion rights if Democrats win control of the House and keep the Senate and White House. “We will suspend the filibuster. We have the votes for that on Roe v. Wade,” Warren said on ABC’s “The View.”

She said if Democrats control the White House and both chambers of Congress in 2025, “the first vote Democrats will take in the Senate, the first substantive vote, will be to make Roe v. Wade law of the land again in America.” The Massachusetts Democrat said her party would only need “skinny” majorities in the House and Senate to override the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the national right to an abortion established by Roe v. Wade in 1973. “We can make Roe v. Wade law of the land if we have, and I have to be clear, we’ve got to have a majority in the House — skinny majority. We can take a really skinny majority in the Senate, I’ll take fifty. And a Democrat in the White House. We have those three things we will suspend the filibuster,” she said.

Speaking on ABC’s The View Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) supports the idea of suspending the filibuster to pass a Codify Roe bill should the Dems get a trifecta.

From the 07.17.2024 edition of ABC's The View:

[deadpresidents]

trump and mike johnson keep talking about a little secret, do you think johnson is going to help trump steal the election when the electoral votes are counted since he is speaker of the house?

Fun fact: Hakeem Jeffries will probably be the Speaker of the House on that day, not Mike Johnson!

The certification of the Electoral College results is January 6, 2025. The new Congress begins on January 3rd. No matter what happens everywhere else, it looks as if the Democrats will most likely win control of the House of Representatives next week. Unlike the Republicans, the Democratic caucus in the House won't need several weeks to elect a Speaker. It's going to be Hakeem Jeffries, and when that happens, whatever the "little secret" that Trump and Johnson keep giggling about might be, Johnson is going to be, at best, House Minority Leader on January 6th. And don't forget that the Joint Session on January 6th will be presided over by the Vice President and I think we know where she stands on the issue.

[justinssportscorner]

Jeff Passan at ESPN:

Sen. Dick Durbin plans to introduce the Fair Ball Act, a bill that would further protect minor league baseball players from previous legislation that exempted them from wage and hour laws, sources told ESPN on Wednesday. In the bill, Durbin (D-Illinois), who has been an outspoken advocate for minor league players and is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, promotes rolling back the exemption granted by the Save America's Pastime Act (SAPA), whose inclusion in a 2018 spending bill allowed teams to avoid abiding by the Fair Labor Standards Act. Should the Fair Ball Act pass, players would be entitled to minimum wage and overtime laws in the absence of a collective bargaining agreement. Minor league players, who unionized with the Major League Baseball Players Association in September 2022, struck a deal with MLB on a collective bargaining agreement in March 2023 and drastically increased salaries and benefits after years of below minimum wage pay.

"Workers deserve a fair playing field everywhere -- including in baseball," Durbin said in a statement. "Executives at MLB lobbied Congress hard for federal wage and hour law exemptions in order to avoid legal liability with the 2018 Save America's Pastime Act. While I commend MLB for voluntarily recognizing the unionization of Minor League Baseball players in 2022, it is time to roll back SAPA in deference to the gains made by that historic unionization. I'm proud to stand with these workers, unions and the integrity of the sport. I stand ready to pass the Fair Ball Act into law." MLB declined comment when reached by ESPN. The treatment of minor leaguers led to a class-action lawsuit in 2014 by players, who argued that MLB teams had run afoul of labor laws. Two years later, SAPA was introduced by Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Kentucky) to exempt MLB teams from having to pay minimum wage to players, who made as little as $1,000 per month and were paid during the season only. While SAPA never gained traction in Congress, its language was included in a spending bill passed in 2018.

The unionization of the minor leagues lifted minimum salaries, ranging from $19,800 per year for players at teams' complexes (previously $4,800) to $35,800 at Triple-A (previously $17,500). MLB later agreed to pay $185 million to settle the class-action lawsuit.

[...] The contraction of more than 40 minor league teams before the 2021 season and past treatment of players continue to resonate, and the Fair Ball Act -- which is also being sponsored by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) and Peter Welch (D-Vermont) -- is intended to keep MLB from using SAPA as a leverage point during negotiations after the minor league agreement expires following the 2027 season. The current session of Congress ends Jan. 3, 2025, and with judicial appointments, a spending bill and disaster aid among the current legislative priorities, the Fair Ball Act could be pushed to the next session or, like SAPA, folded into a larger bill.

The Fair Ball Act is a good bill by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) to protect minor leagues.

[tomorrowusa]

« Republicans have to make a quick decision about whether to bend the knee one more time and hope for the best or to begin their own resistance to an administration that does not seem to care about the future so long as it is radically different from anything that came before. The clock is ticking. »

— Ed Kilgore at New York Magazine.

To save the country, we're dependent on four Republicans in the Senate and perhaps seven in the House who support American democracy.

If you are represented by GOP senators or reps who aren't TOO crazy, this may be a good time to begin a polite and civil lobbying effort to get them to support the checks and balances in our system of government.

[arcadiaberger]

Compete in EVERY Race: Two Under-the-Radar WINNABLE Senate races Florida...

#North Dakota  #Florida  #Compete In Every Race  #119th Congress  #50 States  #RIPGOP   project2025.com

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * * *

Lessons from our success!

November 22, 2024

Robert B. Hubbell

Matt Gaetz’s withdrawal from consideration for Attorney General is instructive on many levels. Most of the lessons learned should fortify us for the battles to come.

Lessons include:

Public pressure works. Although the proximate cause of Gaetz’s withdrawal was a lack of support among GOP Senators, that lack of congressional support was the first derivative of public outrage over Gaetz’s reprehensible conduct. We must repeat that public pressure with respect to Pete Hegseth, Robert Kennedy, and Tulsi Gabbard, among others. Everyone who called their Senators or otherwise raised the alarm about Gaetz deserves a pat on the back.

Just because Trump wants something doesn’t mean he can get it. Those who oppose Trump sometimes accept the myth that he can accomplish everything and anything he wants. Not so. On Wednesday, Trump expressed public support for Gaetz’s nomination as Attorney General. On Thursday, he told Gaetz, “You don’t have the votes.” If we resist, we can win. Timothy Snyder advises us, “Do not obey in advance.” To that admonition we should add, “Do not concede before the battle is over.”

Trump was bluffing about recess appointments. Like most bullies, Trump relies on bluffing to get most of what he wants. When challenged, he retreats. Trump threatened to use recess appointments (and the Adjournment Clause) to force nominations through the Senate. However, he allowed Gaetz to drop out as soon as it was clear that Gaetz did not have the votes for confirmation. See The Bulwark, ‘You Don’t Have the Votes’: How Trump Barred the Gaetz

If Trump were serious about forcing the Senate into an involuntary adjournment, he would not care whether Gaetz had the votes. The fact that Trump cared whether Gaetz had the votes for confirmation shows that Trump was bluffing about forcing recess appointments.

Every defeat suffered by Trump weakens the illusion that he is invincible. Part of Trump's bluffing strategy depends on the fiction that he is invincible. But every time Trump loses a battle, the illusion of his invincibility becomes weaker. That should give us hope in the battles over Hegseth, Kennedy, and Gabbard.

Trump has other corrupt and corruptible candidates to replace every nominee we defeat. That’s okay. Trump immediately replaced Gaetz with Pam Bondi, former Attorney General of Florida. Bondi supported Trump's claims that the 2020 election was rigged and dropped an investigation against Trump University’s fraudulent practices after Trump donated $25,000 to her campaign. See NYTimes, New Records Shed Light on Donald Trump’s $25,000 Gift to Florida Official. Per the Times,

[In September], a check for $25,000 from the Donald J. Trump Foundation landed in the Tampa office of a political action committee that had been formed to support Ms. Bondi’s 2014 re-election. In mid-October, her office announced that it would not be acting on the Trump University complaints.

There is no bottom to the supply of corrupt and corruptible Trump loyalists who can (and will) replace every corrupt and corruptible nominee or appointee who takes office in the Trump administration. That’s okay. The point is to resist, disrupt, and expose the corruption. We need to keep it up, every day!

As I replied to a friend who alerted me to Matt Gaetz’s announcement on Twitter that he was withdrawing, “One down. Fourteen to go.”

Will Matt Gaetz rejoin the House of Representatives? Maybe.

Matt Gaetz resigned from the 118th Congress, which ends on January 3, 2025 at 11:59 a.m.

Gaetz was elected to the new Congress (the 119th), which begins on January 3, 2025, at Noon.

In his letter of resignation, Gaetz said that he “does not intend” to take his seat in the 119th Congress. Saying that you “do not intend” to do something is not the same as a “resignation.”

What if Gaetz changes his mind and shows up on January 3, 2025, to be sworn into the 119th Congress? Gaetz could easily say, “I didn’t intend to be sworn into the 119th Congress because I thought I would be the Attorney General. That didn’t happen, so I changed my mind.”

If that happens, the answer to “What comes next isn’t clear.” See HuffPo, So, Matt Gaetz Won’t Be AG. Can He Go Back To Congress?

I don’t know what will happen. I am simply noting that Gaetz has a plausible path back to Congress—which would presumably resurrect the House Ethics investigation. Query whether that investigation would need to begin from scratch. The 118th Congress is not the 119th Congress.

New questions about Pete Hegseth emerge

On Thursday, news organizations obtained a copy of a police report investigating a reported sexual assault by Hegseth in 2017 at a conservative conference. See AP, Police report reveals assault allegations against Hegseth, Trump's pick for defense secretary. The police report is linked in the AP article. It contains graphic descriptions of the reported assault.

The conclusion of the report states, “I recommend this report be forwarded to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for review.” That recommendation does not exonerate Hegseth, as he claimed in statements to the press on Thursday. See ABC News, Hegseth says he's 'completely cleared' in sex assault case. The police report doesn't say that.

Hegseth later entered into a non-disclosure agreement with the woman who reported the assault. Hegseth paid the woman an undisclosed amount of money to enter into the non-disclosure agreement. Hegseth’s attorney claims that the the woman “was the aggressor” and that she fabricated the story of rape in order to “save face” with her husband, who was staying at the hotel with his wife when the sexual assault took place.

More evidence will be gathered, including the investigation from local prosecutor to whom the case was referred for review. And since Hegseth has made public statements about the alleged assault despite the non-disclosure agreement, it may be that the woman he allegedly assaulted is free to speak to Senate investigators and the media.

The incident took place while Hegseth was in the middle of a divorce from his second wife and fathering a child with his then-girlfriend, who is now his third wife. If Hegseth was an active duty military officer at the time, it is likely he would have been discharged—possibly dishonorably.

Equally troubling are Hegseth’s public statements that express strong sympathy for white nationalist views and animosity toward fellow Americans who do not share those views. See Jonathan Chait in The Atlantic, Pete Hegseth Might Be Trump’s Most Dangerous Nominee.

Chait writes,

In his [Hegseth’s] three most recent books, Hegseth puts forward a wide range of familiarly misguided ideas: vaccines are “poisonous”; climate change is a hoax (they used to warn about global cooling, you know); George Floyd died of a drug overdose and was not murdered; the Holocaust was perpetrated by “German socialists.” [¶¶]

The Marxist conspiracy has also, according to Hegseth, begun creeping into the U.S. military, the institution he is now poised to run. His most recent book calls for a straightforward political purge of military brass who had the gall to obey Democratic administrations: “Fire any general who has carried water for Obama and Biden’s extraconstitutional and agenda-driven transformation of our military.” [¶¶]

In the most chilling passage of his three books, Hegseth declares his fellow citizens to be enemies:

The clearest through line of all three books is the application of Hegseth’s wartime mentality to his struggle against domestic opponents. American Crusade calls for the “categorical defeat of the Left,” with the goal of “utter annihilation,” without which “America cannot, and will not, survive.” Are the Crusades just a metaphor? Sort of, but not really: “Our American Crusade is not about literal swords, and our fight is not with guns. Yet.” (Emphasis—gulp—his.)

Hegseth bears tattoos that are associated with the white supremacist movement. He is unfit to serve in the military, much less serve as Secretary of Defense. Call your Senators to let them know how you feel about a man accused of rape (allegations he papered over with a non-disclosure agreement) and who views his fellow Americans as the enemy.

You can reach your Senators by entering your home state in the dialog box at U.S. Senate: Contacting U.S. Senators.

+

Women, in particular, are in disbelief that their fellow Americans did not rise to defend their status as full citizens under the Constitution. And after the reprehensible effort by the House to stigmatize trans people, everyone who is not straight, white, and in a same-sex marriage is understandably looking over their shoulder to see if the morality police are following them.

Yesterday, Heather Cox Richardson addressed an op-ed in the WSJ by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. See November 20, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson. The Musk-Ramaswamy op-ed distressed many readers. (See the Comments to Today’s Edition Newsletter date 10/21/24.)

Professor Richardson criticizes the Musk-Ramaswamy op-ed and planned “Department of Government Efficiency” in her usual professional, historical, and classy way—which is why she is a national treasure.

Me, not so much. I will say it directly: Musk and Ramaswamy are like a couple of twelve-year-old boys who know nothing about the world but are confident that they can make the world bend to their will because they are twelve-year-old boys who don’t know any better.

They have been put in charge of a fake “department” that can make recommendations that are dependent entirely on members of Congress—who will think twice about cutting two trillion dollars from programs that directly impact their constituents. To underscore this point, Musk has been on a diet of humble pie for over a week—repeatedly failing to persuade Trump and US Senators that Musk’s favorite candidates for the cabinet should be appointed. If Musk were a baseball player, his batting average would be perfect—0.000.

I am not saying that Trump will fail in his effort to cause chaos and inflict pain. He will do so intentionally and negligently in abundance. But the Dynamic Duds of Musk and his sidekick Vivek will be engaged in the equivalent of a kindergarten production of “Wheels on the Bus” while the adults are across town at the opera house watching Wagner’s Ring cycle.

Musk and Ramaswamy are designated psychological terrorists. Their purpose in the new administration is to issue baseless but ominous pronouncements that will garner press coverage and create the illusion that Trump is doing something. They will hold live hearings. Indeed, they will livestream them on Twitter so that Musk can fabricate viewer numbers that do not match reality. Musk and Ramaswamy will slap one another on the back as they congratulate themselves for the masterful production of “Wheels on the Bus.”

Their job is to upset us. Don’t let them. They are jesters in the classic sense of the word. Their job is to mollify the petulant and bored king. Do not let them fool and distract us. The real action is in the Oval Office and the Capitol. Let’s focus our resistance on those venues—which are ultimately accountable to the American people, as the Matt Gaetz withdrawal demonstrated today.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[thesobsister]

Brilliant show of opposition in New Zealand's parliament by Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke in response to a bill proposed by Act, a fringe white "race divides us, so let's do everything we can to undermine legislation that seeks to repair its inequities" political party (sound familiar?), which would rework the foundational principles of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.

As the Beeb notes, "The core values of the treaty have, over time, been woven into New Zealand's laws in an effort to redress the wrong done to Māori during colonisation."

I wish we had something as powerful as the haka to show our disdain and defiance. Love to see it done on the floor of the 119th Congress.

[cyarskaren52]

Mike Johnson is gonna be a horrible speaker. He is a MAGA extremist with a weak disarrayed barely-a-majority caucus.

We have an election on November 5, 2024. Democrats MUST take back the House and make Hakeem Jeffries speaker of the 119th congress. Period!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Mackenzie Krumme and Jonah Beleckis at WPR:

Vice President and Democratic nominee for president Kamala Harris told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” on Monday that she supports ending the filibuster to restore Roe v. Wade to protect abortion rights nationally. “I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe,” Harris said in an interview that aired Tuesday morning. “And get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do.” In 2022 as vice president, Harris said she supported ending the filibuster to protect reproductive and voting rights. As a candidate for president in 2019 when she was a U.S. senator, she also said she would support ending the filibuster to pass environmental legislation known as the Green New Deal.

The filibuster can be an attempt to delay or block a vote for a piece of legislation. Eliminating it would effectively allow the U.S. Senate to pass some legislation with a simple majority rather than meeting a 60-vote threshold.  Harris’ interview with “Wisconsin Today” comes days after her fourth campaign visit to the state.

YES!!! Kamala Harris supports eliminating the filibuster to restore abortion rights that were stripped away by Roe v. Wade being overturned in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Harris made those comments on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Wisconsin Today on Monday.

From the 09.23.2024 edition of Wisconsin Public Radio's Wisconsin Today:

[tomorrowusa]

A little bit of good news. Democratic challenger Derek Tran has nudged ahead of of GOP incumbent Michelle Steel in the race for US representative from CA-45.

With 93.7% of the votes counted in CA-45, Tran is ahead by 36 votes. On Friday he was 236 votes behind Steel and a week ago he was 6,128 votes behind. So things are moving in the right direction.

While it's true the Republicans will have control of the House, the margin makes a big difference. Things currently stand at 218 Republicans and 212 Democrats with 5 uncalled races including the Tran/Steel match-up.

Here are the 5 uncalled races.

My thoughts about these...

AK-01 — Peltola/Begich — pessimistic

CA-13 — Gray/Duarte — 50-50

IA-01 — Bohannan/Miller-Meeks — somewhat pessimistic

CA-45 — Tran/Steel — somewhat optimistic

OH-09 — Kaptur/Merrin — optimistic

So best case scenario, including a Dem win in CA-13, would leave the House 220 R – 215 D. That would mean we would need just 3 pro-democracy Republicans to defect on procedures and bills tp prevent Trump's most dictatorial tendencies. And with Matt Gaetz (apparently) not taking his seat in January, Republicans would temporarily have just 219 seats.

So keep your fingers crossed for those remaining contests!

[roboe1]

Matt Gaetz does not intend to join the 119th Congress

https://rumble.com/v5s1jw5-matt-gaetz-does-not-intend-to-join-the-119th-congress.html

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Send in the clowns :: David Rowe

* * * *

TAKE A DEEP BREATH

Robert B. Hubbell

Nov 14, 2024

Trump's proposed nominations over the last 48 hours are so bad they are disturbing and unsettling—not only for Americans but for citizens of the world. Let’s review where we are. But before we do, let’s catch our breath.

One challenge of writing a daily newsletter during difficult times is to avoid a format that sounds like, “This bad thing happened, then another bad thing happened, and then another bad thing happened.” However, on some days, that is how the news comes at us.

Even on such days, we must remember that the consequences of events will unfold over time—giving us the opportunity to absorb, adjust, and resist. That is where we find ourselves on a day when Trump's cabinet and senior officer nominations seem like a sick joke being played on the American people by Vladimir Putin.

The nominations are so bad that they are likely to have two short term consequences that offer a smidgen of a glimmer of hope.

First, they decrease the likelihood that the Senate will allow Trump to make “recess appointments” that would result in unreviewed confirmations of a Putin ally running our intelligence agencies and a congressman currently under investigation for having sex with underage girls running the Department of Justice.

Second, there is a real possibility that Trump may withdraw some of the nominations. They are so bad that confirming them may be too humiliating for a handful of Republican Senators. We will see.

But there is no soft-pedaling the import of the nominations announced on Tuesday and Wednesday. The nominations suggest that the top priorities of the second Trump tenure will be mass deportations and political vengeance—just as Trump promised on the campaign trail.

Before turning to the nominations, two stories regarding Congress deserve our attention.

Senate Republicans elect John Thune as Majority Leader

Trump lobbied for Senator Rick Scott (FL) to be elected as Majority Leader in the Senate. Scott had promised to put the Senate into recess so that Trump's cabinet nominations could evade the Senate confirmation process.

On Wednesday, Senate Republicans elected South Dakota Senator John Thune as Majority Leader, ignoring Trump's wishes. See Politico, GOP senators brush off concerns about Thune’s relationship with Trump. Thune is an institutionalist who will not allow Trump to evade Senate confirmation hearings and opposes abolishing the filibuster.

Thune will have a narrow two or three seat majority—with Senators Collins, Murkowski, and Bill Cassidy (who voted to convict Trump on the second impeachment)—offsetting against the hardline MAGA faction in the Senate. Of course, Susan Collins has demonstrated an astounding lack of conviction previously and can be counted on for nothing.

In short, “It could have been worse” in the Senate race for Majority Leader. That may be small consolation, but we should accept it for what it is worth.

Hakeem Jeffries concedes that Republicans will control House

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries released a statement  that said, in part, that “we will not regain control of the Congress in January.” In a Democratic caucus meeting, Jeffries took responsibility for the loss. See Axios, Hakeem Jeffries tells House Democrats he owns 2024 election loss.

I do not understand the concession while there is still a mathematical path to control for Democrats, especially after the resignation of Matt Gaetz and the nominations of GOP House members Pete Hegseth (Defense) and Elise Stefanik (UN), Mike Waltz (NSA), which will result in at least four vacancies—all in Republican held districts. But perhaps Hakeem Jeffries has insights into the state of those races that are not available to us.

If you are still working on ballot curing for House members, cure away! Reducing the GOP margin of control will help Democrats remain relevant in the 119th Congress, which begins on January 3, 2025.

Trump cabinet and senior officer nominations.

Trump's nominations for cabinet and senior officers have confirmed that he is prioritizing deporting tens million immigrants and exacting political vengeance. Still, no one was ready for the outrageously unqualified hacks he has nominated.

Before turning to the shocking nominations made on Wednesday, we must revisit two aspects of nominations made earlier in the week.

Mike Huckabee’s nomination as Ambassador to Israel.

Two days after Trump indicated he would nominate Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel, Huckabee said during a radio interview that he would support Israel annexing the West Bank and resettling Gaza with Israeli citizens. (Israel withdrew from Gaza in 1994.)  See The Times of Israel, Trump ambassador pick Huckabee says administration could back West Bank annexation.

In a separate interview, Huckabee said that there “isn’t such a thing” as a Palestinian.

Of course, ambassadors do not set US foreign policy. But Trump's selection of Mike Huckabee sends a strong signal that Trump will support Netanyahu’s vow to “finish the job”—as Trump said during his debate with Joe Biden in July.

Solutions relating to Israel’s security and the territories of Gaza and the West Bank have eluded every world leader from 1948 to the present. But Mike Huckabee’s views are likely to inflame a situation that is already dire.

Pete Hegseth’s nomination as Secretary of Department of Defense

As I wrote yesterday, Fox entertainer and former national guard officer Pete Hegseth is manifestly unqualified to assume the leadership role at the Department of Defense. One day after Washington asked in unison, “Pete Hegseth who?”, reports emerged that Hegseth was barred from serving as part of a national guard security detail in Washington, D.C. for Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Per those reports, Hegseth was removed from the inauguration security detail because he has tattoos that are popular with white nationalist anti-Muslim groups in the US. See HuffPo, Pete Hegseth Was Removed From Biden Inauguration For Tattoo | HuffPost Latest News.

Hegseth claims that the tattoos are “religious symbols.” Those symbols date back to the Crusades—an effort by the Christian west to liberate Jerusalem from Muslim control. One of the tattoos says, “Deus Vult.” Hegseth explained in 2020, “I’ve got Deus Vult – God Wills It – which was the cry of the Crusaders, on my bicep.”  

A 2020 book by Hegseth says, “Just like the Christian crusaders who pushed back the Muslim hordes in the twelfth century, American Crusaders will need to muster the same courage against Islamists today.”

Hegseth thus confirms that the tattoos are “anti-Islamist” in nature. Whether those sentiments also include white supremacy beliefs should be an active area of investigation during his Senate confirmation hearing.

Trump nominates Matt Gaetz as Attorney General

Trump's nomination of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General felt like a gut punch. Gaetz’s only qualification for running the Department of Justice is that he was under investigation by the DOJ for having sex with underage girls (involving travel across state lines). The DOJ dropped that investigation two years ago, but a House ethics committee was scheduled to release a report on Friday of this week on those charges and allegations of illicit drug use. Gaetz resigned from the House on Wednesday in an attempt to forestall the release of the report. See NYTimes, House Ethics Panel Was Set to Vote to Release Report Critical of Matt Gaetz, (Article accessible to all.)

Matt Gaetz is a conspiracy theorist who believes that the January 6 insurrection was incited by the US government. He was involved in the attempted coup to prevent the count of electoral ballots by the Joint Session of Congress. He has called for the FBI to be abolished. He invited a Holocaust denier as his guest to the 2018 State of the Union. Gaetz supports the pardoning of January 6 defendants

Trump's nomination of Gaetz stunned members of Congress. See Axios, Republicans "stunned and disgusted" as Trump taps Matt Gaetz for AG.

It is difficult to capture the depravity of Trump's nomination of Gaetz. It demonstrates that Trump is hell-bent on vengeance above all else. Gaetz views the DOJ as his enemy and persecutor. Gaetz will take a wrecking ball to the DOJ and the FBI as he seeks to destroy evidence of Trump's past crimes (and his own)—even as he uses the DOJ to target Trump's political enemies.

Trump nominates Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence

The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) is the “head of the US intelligence community.” The DNI prepares the president’s daily intelligence briefing (which Trump famously did not read during his first term).

Vladimir Putin could hope for nothing better than to have a sympathetic ally as the leader of the DNI. On Wednesday, Trump nominated Tulsi Gabbard to lead the DNI. Gabbard has a long and suspect affinity for Putin (and Syrian dictator Assad). See Tom Nichols in The Atlantic, Tulsi Gabbard’s Nomination Is a National-Security Risk.

As Nichols notes, Gabbard is spectacularly unqualified to serve as DNI. Worse, when her political positions are not incoherent, she has been a cheerleader for Russia’s interests against the US and its allies. Per Nichols,

She has blamed NATO and the U.S. for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (again, to the celebration of both Russian and Chinese state media), has repeated Russian propaganda claims that the U.S. has set up secret bioweapons labs in that country, and has argued that the U.S. not Russia is wholly responsible for Putin’s nuclear brinkmanship.

When she appeared on Sean Hannity’s show in 2022, even Hannity blanched at Gabbard floating off in a haze of Kremlin talking points and cheerleading for Russia.

It seems doubtful that Gabbard can obtain the security clearances necessary to serve as DNI. As recently as this summer, she claimed to be on the TSA “domestic terror watch list.”

Like Pete Hegseth, Gabbard blames the US for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin could not be happier with Hegseth and Gabbard if he picked them himself.

Concluding Thoughts  

Well, that was a dollop of bad news. Take a deep breath. Recognize that they aren’t going to achieve everything they want merely by declaring their intentions. Watch this space for collective actions in the future to defeat the confirmations of Pete Hegsmith, Tulsi Gabbard, and Matt Gaetz (at least).

The silver lining in Trump's nominations is that they are so outrageous they highlight his bad faith and ill intentions. His nominees for Defense, DNI, and DOJ reveal that he has no interest in governing, only in exacting revenge and deporting ten million immigrants. Even a craven GOP caucus in the Senate must be brought up short by the audacity of nominating anti-government provocateurs to run the most important agencies in the US government.

So, take a breath. Let’s see how this all works out—especially after the American people have the opportunity to make their voices heard.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[deus3xmachinablog]

this didn't take long:

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4997024-mace-introduces-bill-transgender/

from The Hill: "Mace introduces bill to bar trans women from Capitol restrooms"

article text: "Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) on Monday introduced a bill to bar transgender women from facilities on Capitol Hill that match their gender identity.

The resolution, which would prohibit members, officers and employees of the House from using single-sex facilities that correspond to their gender identity, comes just a week after Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.) made history as the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.

The measure charges the House sergeant-at-arms, William McFarland, with enforcing the ban, according to text previewed by The Hill, but it is unclear how the House’s chief law enforcement officer will determine who can and cannot use the Capitol’s facilities.

State laws that bar transgender people from using public restrooms that match their gender identity often rely on anonymous complaints, a notoriously unreliable enforcement mechanism. LGBTQ rights activists in May flooded a tip line designed to alert officials in Utah to possible violations of the state’s bathroom ban with thousands of false complaints.

“This is a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing,” McBride said in a statement. “We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care and child care, not manufacturing culture wars.”

“Delawareans sent me here to make the American dream more affordable and accessible and that’s what I’m focused on,” she said.

Mace is currently in talks with leadership regarding how to bring the measure to the floor, a source familiar with the matter told The Hill.

The congresswoman initially planned to call her legislation to the floor as a privileged resolution on Monday evening, the source said, a gambit that would have forced leadership to stage a vote on the measure within two legislative days.

But Mace scrapped those plans because of ongoing negotiations with leadership regarding the best way to pass the legislation, the source said. Mace is pushing for the measure to be included in the rules package for the 119th Congress, or for it to be brought to the floor and voted on as a stand-alone rule outside the package.

If the bill, however, is not included in the 119th Congress rules package or brought to the floor as a stand-alone rule, Mace would force a vote on the legislation, the source said.

The House is set to vote on a rules package for the next Congress in early January, which will require a majority vote for passage. Republicans are poised to have a razor-thin majority when the next session gavels in."