Roundup
(1) Some theories about what might be behind the Gaetz nomination.
(2) Israel may have struck a secret nuclear research facility in Iran. And now that Trump is waiting in the wings, I’d expect to see more of that in the future.
(3) Chris Wallace says buh-bye to CNN:
CNN anchor Chris Wallace was reportedly told his two poorly rated shows would be canceled and his massive salary slashed before the veteran journalist announced he would leave the network.
Wallace, who was being paid a reported $7 million a year, was informed that he was welcome to stay on as an analyst but at a much lower salary as part of CEO Mark Thompson’s vast cost-cutting initiatives, according to Puck News.
Instead, Wallace announced earlier this week that he was exiting CNN, and portrayed the move in a Daily Beast interview as a pivot to podcasting and streaming — because “that’s where the action seems to be,” he said.
Well, both things can certainly be true. But does Wallace have that kind of a following, or the sort of style to make it in podcasting? I don’t think so.
(4) Rand Paul will be chairing the Homeland Security Committee in the new Senate.
(5) The left is saying Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian tool. I seem to recall that none other than good old Hillary Clinton started that sort of accusation against Gabbard way back in 2019; see this.
The Hillary part of the Democratic Party is continuing to live in the 2016-era, with all their Russian tool disinformation. How long before they move on to something else? Really, folks — it’s time to find a new boogey man.
Shhhhh. Don’t tell them.
Never.
It’s far too convenient… and useful!
File under: Convenient untruth….
…to be sure, EVERYTHING that emanates from those jokers is a convenient untruth…
Hey! It’s almost as though Musk gifted the Mullahs with hundreds of billions of dollars!!
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/mainstream-media-cries-foul-over-musk-meeting-iran-ambassadoron-peace
Don’t know about Chris if he is real or a head fake, that we will see.
Been saying Israel needs to hold on for 2 months, Don’t give in.
Never liked Chris even when I use to watch Fox.( bailed on them when they hired Brazile)
Notice that for the American left, Russia did not become an adversary until after the breakup of the USSR and Russia’s moving away from communism. Note also that communism did not go away with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. It laid low for a while, licked its wounds, and then resurfaced in, among other places, the climate change movement.
The political elites on the left, while they may not be communists per se, certainly view “our democracy” as a huge pain in the neck. What I am sure no small number of them would like is a police state (how hard or soft can be debated), while still enjoying for themselves perks like insider trading, luxurious vacations and dining, private jet travel, cocktail parties with celebrities, etc. etc. etc.
Tulsi left the plantation, for the devil Trump, and now the hounds have to hunt her down and destroy her.
Not satisfied with the failure of their ignorant “fascist” and “Hitler” talk, they revert to “Russia.” It’s not going to fly.
Boy, what a difference it makes for Trump to win the Electoral College, the popular vote, the Senate and the House.
I’m relieved that the Dems and the Deep State don’t feel so desperate as to have Trump couped or assassinated.
At least not yet.
It did seem to be a possibility.
I’ll be interested to see if Trump releases the Epstein files or Diddy’s. Though I suspect he will use them as bargaining chips.
I hope the Tulsi revokes all their security clearances.
John “Big Mustache” Bolton open his yap again. Musk shut it for him.
Wallace is self retiring. He won’t get an audience.
Russia is much like the way they felt about righf wing dictatorships in south america or one like greece ideological renewal regimes as the founder of the hudson institute put it
More on Gaetz– it doesn’t feel like a loyalty test.
48 GOP senator voted to make Lisa Monaco the deputy attorney general, an arguably worse vote then Garland
Or maybe it’s a test whether a president should have the cabinet of his choice. Seems Republicans were all for that for a Democrat president.
Well worth perusing Julie Kelly’s X feed. Seems some conservatives are willing to go after Jack Smith for criminal conduct related to his witchhunts.
On another note, the support for Gaetz is genuine.
https://x.com/julie_kelly2
Mr. Wallace is 77 years old. No surprise he’s retiring. Perhaps people expect him to continue working until he’s nearly 90, as his father did.
Considering the size, in dollars, of his contract, I suspect he has enough laid by to stagger along for a bit.
So his risk isn’t that great.
If he can’t get a gig, he can keep writing and posting and being a pest.
Ben Domenech has two columns at The Transom about Matt Gaetz.
1.99 Problems And A Gaetz Ain’t One
2. Matt Gaetz is a Vile Sex Pest and Any Senator Who Votes For Him Owns That
If 2 is true, then 1 will take care of it. But it raises an issue of how much a politician’s private life should affect his ability to represent his constituents. I would say if 1/4 of what Domenech alleges is true, he will never be confirmed. If it isn’t true, I would expect Gaetz to file a defamation suit tomorrow.
https://thetransom.com/p/99-problems-and-a-gaetz-aint-one
yes, so defamation suits rarely work, Chuck Harder, was been a rare exemption, the perpetrators of the defamation, say Julia Ioffe, re Melania continue to get rehired by other publications, how do you prove a negative,
domenech has done some good work in the past, but it seems we have to keep learning the lesson again and again, they are unrepentant about their lies otherwise Anita Hill would be a cipher, in the history books and whoever accused Roy Moore, its not like they need any facts to run this wagon, in fact that is superfluous
Wallace is being rewqrded with irrelevance for this part in enabling Biden to get away with his lies in
2020
wgen did we start believing the Iranian ambassador, did somebody page him, the fact the easiest mark for the regime, is given this story, makes me suspicious, like sherlock with the dog that doesn’t bark
20 senators that enabled the most unscrupulous atty general since mitchell palmer
About Matt Gaetz and the Ethics inquiry: https://x.com/_johnnymaga/status/1857599848062628084
FBI cleared him, which I imagine they tried hard not to. So how valid do you think the Democrat-led ethics committee inquiry was?
The House is where presidential impeachments start — and Gaetz is a loose cannon there, eager to shake up the small republican majority. This nomination gets him out of the House and replaced by another republican, so no matter what happens next it’s a mild win for Trump already. Trump is trying to prevent the disruptions of the non-stop impeach-o-rama of his first term.
Brian E, Ben Domenech’s lawsuit risk would depend, possibly, on whether “vile sex pest” is an actionable slur. Seems a bit fuzzy to me, and if the Dem-led DOJ couldn’t come up with charges that would stick in court, then that should be the end of it.
It’s not about validity of the accusation. It is a “wrap up smear”.
Oh, yes, Phil G. The intention is to slime Gaetz. I will be interested to see how this goes. For one thing, he won’t be in the House trying to purge the Republican majority into a minority. But perhaps this bull in the china shop personality is exactly what the DOJ needs. If he can’t be confirmed or recess-appointed, then Trump will slip in another, less controversial, nominee to do the housecleaning, in a bait-and-switch maneuver.
So Chris Wallace is moving on.
Really now, does anyone really give a shite?
Kate the title of the post is the mildest thing Domenech alleges.
Halperin points out that it would require 50 Senators to call for a recess- so in reality the recess appointment is likely off the table.
Domenech is Megan McCain’s husband, by the way.
I couldn’t read the rest of it because I don’t subscribe. Yes, I knew about the Domenech/McCain marriage. He doesn’t necessarily walk in lockstep with his wife’s opinions.
I don’t subscribe. I just closed the sign in box and was in, I think. To give you a flavor of the post. The rest is just as colorful:
As I said, the private life of congressmen is the concern of their constituents. If we took the entire pool of politicians and compared it to the American people as a whole, would we find a higher percentage of deviant behavior? I’m not sure how you convince Senators, let alone the general American public this would be a good choice.
actually they couldn’t confirm any of that, this is why people hate politics, because the so called serious people spend even a second on this, while the country burns down, thats not a metaphor,
they just let a dementia patient with two coked up kids, (one is so irresponsible she lost her diary, the other well I don’t need to draw you a picture) pretend to determine the fate of this nation, did they have the same outrage over Abbey Gate, that was Austin’s doing, as well as Sullivan and Blinken, they should have been dragged out of their cul de sacs, and thrown to the wolves, do I need to reprise what Garland did to this country, and these possums gave him carte blanche, yech, 20 senators backed him up, because they really hate us, garbage people
their outrage over Laken Reiley and co, is feigned because they had the power to actually do something about it,
btw Mr Bandaid, James Lankford, was promoted to Conference Chair, he was also partial to the Russian hoax, for way too long an interval
One of the best Atty Generals in My life time, Ed Meese, was investigated by two special counsels, for some nebulous matter one couldn’t even prove, because he was Reagan’s wingman as DA in Oakland, Mark Levin was his freshly minted chief of staff,
Raymond Donovan, after he was acquitted, ‘where do I go to get my reputation back’
of
This talk about Gaetz may all be moot, given reports that his nomination might not even make it out of the Judiciary Committee. He hasn’t made friends and influenced people in Congress — or at least hasn’t influenced them in his favor.
“Notice that for the American left, Russia did not become an adversary until after the breakup of the USSR and Russia’s moving away from communism.”
Not quite true, as late as 2012 Obama was telling Russia “we can be more flexible after the election” while deriding Romney’s tough-on-Russia stance. And don’t forget Hillary’s ludicrous “reset button”. The interesting thing is why the Democrats flipped so suddenly and so hard on Russia after 70 years. I honestly think it was simply because they wanted to use “Russian collusion” as a weapon against Trump, they are both that cynical and that shallow. Their trolls and media fluffers still idiotically insist that Trump is “Putin’s lapdog”. Maybe also a little Hunter vig for Biden involved.
back of the book section
https://x.com/HenMazzig/status/1857803368296485195
if one wondered where this sudden impetus to persecute came from
yes the opposition to non binaries was what raised obama’s hackles first, in part the envoy Mcfaul, didn’t understand anything about the Russian Ruling class, the Siloviki and their unity of purpose,
his successors at Foggy Bottom and Langley still don’t in my personal opinion, of such delusions are policy disasters born,
@ Kate > “He hasn’t made friends and influenced people in Congress — or at least hasn’t influenced them in his favor.”
From what I read of other people’s endorsements of Gaetz, that’s the most prominent mark in his favor.
IMO (and I’ve seen many similar conclusions from others): If te case against Gaetz was as iron-clad as Domenech et al. claim, he should have been in the slammer a couple of years ago, or at least in a courtroom.
Somewhere.
I’m not saying there is absolutely no fire sputtering under the smoke, but the Democrats don’t have a good track record of proving up on their atrocity stories.
@ Brian E > “If we took the entire pool of politicians and compared it to the American people as a whole, would we find a higher percentage of deviant behavior? ”
It’s beginning to look that way.
@ miguel > “this is why people hate politics, because the so called serious people spend even a second on this, while the country burns down”
https://babylonbee.com/news/department-of-government-efficiency-identifies-535-government-workers-who-havent-done-any-work-for-years
Tulsi Gabbard has in the past been an apologist for the likes of Putin, Assad, and Iran.