Trump gets gagged, McCarthy gets booted. What's next in Trumpworld?

Dates set by Judge Engoron for their testimony in the civil fraud trial. 👀

November 1 — Don Jr.
November 2 — Eric Trump
November 3 — Ivanka Trump
November 6 — Donald Trump

Doofus hardly knows most of them...

Good grief, there’s isn’t a part of me that could feel an ounce of sympathy for Pence. He signed on as VP because like many of us, he thought Trump would crash and burn within months and he’d be President by default. He’s a spineless weasel who managed to do one decent thing (probably because he knew he wouldn’t get away with not certifying the election). Good riddance!

I don't feel terribly sorry for him because he was all in on MAGA right up until Dan Quayle convinced him that he just couldn't get away with what Trump asked of him.

Plenty of sane Republicans tried to work with Trump, hoping that he'd mellow out or listen to reason, but they soon found that they either had to go along with the madness or quit (at which point they would be denounced by Trump and put in real physical danger.)

Pence waited until JANUARY to reach that point. He's like Bill Barr, who was happy to be Trump's personal fixer at the DOJ, until he finally couldn't go along with the stolen election lie. Now, Barr says sensible things and I believe him when he goes on TV and says that Trump is "toast." He's not a stupid man and he knows what he's talking about. But he's morally bankrupt and I don't respect him.

What ?! A man who would happily take away your own right over your own body because of some imagined legitimacy from a fairy story ?

Fuck him.

And if he is finding his life constrained because of what other people judge him for, then it's richly ironic.

I feel a little sorry for Pence. A man trapped by an unprecedented situation, with the supporters of the man he served as VP calling for him to be strung up for doing his duty. I hope he can put his feet up for a bit. The time for him to be in politics has gone, and what's more, he realises it.

Pence has dropped out of the race for president.

In response, one Jeff Timmer (former Michigan Republican Party executive director) said of him that "There is plenty of market for his dangerous bastardized strain of Christianity, but no GOP consumers were interested in his personal brand of 'not brave enough to violate the Constitution.'"

Heaven defend us all if it is now a sign of courage for a Republican politician to violate the constitution. Not doing so is no longer "not being being a lawless rascal"; it is being "not brave enough".

Gah.

@SerendipityJane Here in the NE of Enland some very useful development posts were created, and most posts were filled with hard-working well educated people. He also introduced the Private Finance Initiative, which enabled the building of new infrastructure like hospitals. There was no money to invest up front, but at least it could be borrowed, and everyone just had to cross their fingers and hope it would turn out alright (which, of course, it didn't, but at least the buildings were still in use) Eventually the money for the new posts ran out. It always does. But things were left a little bit better, and the work done then has been built on, as best could be done in the circumstances.

As was the case when Blair led Labour to victory in 1997.

It's amazing how much was achieved in the first few years after that. Almost as if the "blob" hadn't had a chance to smother change.

Here in the UK we don't have a functioning first party. And after 13 years the opposition lacks experience. As was the case when Blair led Labour to victory in 1997. Hopefully, the Labour party, if and when it is elected, will look to those who have experience in government, even if they are Blairites The Blair Gvt did a lot of good things in a post-industrial post-colonial country with dwindling finances. They got in because everyone was sick to the back teeth of Maggie Thatcher, and even though John Major was a Good Egg, we had had enough of the Tories...

'one member making a motion to vacate' hazard applies to Johnson, too. This is probably why Johnson was so concilliatory towards Jeffries; he wont' survive if he doesn't speak nicely to Dems, but he won't survive if he makes any deals with Dems.

November 17th looms. IIRC, Johnson most recently voted no additional funds for Israel or Ukraine, which is not a unified position in House GOP (meanwhile Senate is strongly bipartisan wanting both to be funded). Extremist GOP Reps will never agree to bills that passed in Senate with strong bipartisan support or even Biden's budgets... Johnson will never placate the Repn zealots because they don't care if USgovt & indeed society turn into anarchy.

It's really come to something when Molly Jong-Fast is lamenting the precarious state of the Rep party. Her Pod is full of NeverTrumpers lately.

Do we want to start our own little sweepstakes on how long the new Speaker will stay in post? I'm going for 50-50 odds he'll be out by Xmas, and 100% odds he'll be out by March 2024.

I'm expecting her to be significantly more slippery than her father.

He's been top dog in his own world for many years, so is overt in his behaviour. ("Yeh, and? Wotcha gonna do?")

She's a rung down from him and has had to manage and appease him all her life. So while I think she's probably made in his image, she's more likely to try to eel her way through than bulldoze.

Bet she and Rebekah Wade/Brooks of News International make a fun pair at parties...

Ivanka Trump will have to testify in business fraud case against her father and brothers, a New York judge rules

@BruceAndNosh said: On the subject of the Ark, the new Speaker is a Creationist, the whackadoodle type of Christian.

I suspect The Flintstones have much to answer for! The new Speaker probably thinks it was a cartoon documentary.

I have read all about the new Speaker. He sounds absofuckinglutely awful.

On the subject of the Ark, the new Speaker is a Creationist, the whackadoodle type of Christian

The slaves didn't have the vote though. In Greece, the Middle East, and in many other places. That's part of the point of slavery. Unequal distribution of resources and power? Thank goodness that went out with the Ark (cynical )

Maybe the UD needs reconstructing ?

Slavery is a long and noble tradition. Even the Bible has a guide on how to treat your slaves. With a rather peculiar insistence on "male and female" slaves. I look forward to it being cancelled, when someone gets round to reading it.

I've been looking for a thread on here about the latest mass shooting in Lisbon and can't find one. Has it come to this, we are so inured to these horrors, it's not worth creating a thread about it? (I'm not one to create a political thread, my foot runs away at my mouth.)
I agree, @Wallaw, I've been looking at the social media formerly known as Twitter, and it is amazing how many commentators are victim blaming those who were shot for not carrying weapons! I mean what the actual Flaming Nora is that about?
Since we are not going back to before Trump was elected and getting Hillary in instead, what is the future going to be? I see Trump just left a court because he disagreed with the judge - why on earth is that allowed? Why isn't he jailed immediately for contempt of court?
I'm too old for this, I can't cope. Moving further to the "left" (or as I call it, humanitarianism) as I age.

the ancient greeks had an idea of democracy.
but I wouldn't call it one if not all citizens were included (i.e. women and slaves)

@SerendipityJane Churchill's quote, not mine. In fact he prefaced it with the words "it has been said that" - and no-one has found a source he could have been plausibly quoting.
This has, as you might imagine, generated some discussion.
Project MUSE - The Churchill Hypothesis (jhu.edu)
The Worst Form of Government? (Forum for Philosophy) | Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method (lse.ac.uk)
The Ancient Greeks practised sortition democracy. But how does everyone know the lottery is drawn fairly? How do you get selected to go into the lottery in the first place, and who does the selecting? In Ancient Greece, I would guess you had to be a free man, with money, estates, slaves and golden escalators.