A little good news for your Christmas celebrations.
This past week’s round of Felon34 chaos has been on a scale even Democrats didn’t see coming. The chaos of Felon34's pre-presidency is entirely his own creation; it could have easily been avoided.
The weeks between election and inauguration are usually a period in which an incoming president can bask in victory, accept congratulatory wishes, and spend his days imagining a world of exciting possibilities, before the real work begins on Inauguration Day.
But no, Felon34 managed to step in ever-deeper shit every single day last week, as he continued to pretend he had become President on November 6 and acted like he had total control of the Republican Party and all office-holders.
And it wasn’t just last week. In the seven weeks since November 5, the Mump Regime has bounced and careened from one failure to the next, part of a pre-inaugural process for which the only accurate word is “shambolic,” as Rachel pointed out last night. What’s more, it’s getting worse.
Morons like Pennsylvania Representative Dan Meuser said: “House Republicans need to get onboard with Trump. Our role is really to be more of a supportive Board of Directors.” But it turned out the Party of Broken Toys in the House is still fractured on ideological lines.
Rand Paul put the blame squarely on Felon34 for blowing up the original CR negotiations: “Getting rid of the debt ceiling seems to be fiscally irresponsible. It’s a little bit late in the game to be putting debt ceiling on this anyway.”
The reason why Felon34’s threat to primary anyone who doesn’t say “How high?” on the way up when he says “Jump!” isn’t that much of a threat is because of the Great Gerrymander. The ones least likely to follow orders are among the furthest-right, in safely-gerrymandered districts, where no one can come at them from the right. As Thomas “Machine Gun” Massie said to a Politico reporter who asked if he was concerned about Trump’s threats to primary people who opposed him after he voted against “Plan B”: “It’s a real threat for some people, but Chip Roy can survive it. I can survive it. (Trump’s endorsement) will move the needle 20 points in a race. But if you were going to win 80-20 percent you will be ok.”
On Faux Snooze, Brit Hume said: “Speaker Johnson is getting the blame for the failure of the bills to keep the government open. But how about the team of Trump, Musk & Co? They shot down the first bill. Too full of pork, they said. They demanded a streamlined bill. Johnson produced one and put it on the floor. It failed miserably, with three dozen House Republicans voting against it. Way to go guys.”
Felon34 wanted one thing and one thing badly - to get rid of the debt ceiling. Plan B gave him that. No matter how he spins this defeat by declaring victory, that after all the sturm und drang the debt ceiling is still in place is a major defeat for him since it makes it that much harder to get his tax cuts through next year; he knows that has to be accomplished by April if it’s going to happen at all, and the Broken Toys in the House don’t have the skill - or the votes - to do it.
Getting “Plan C” passed has exposed the power vacuum in the Republican Party which will create a crisis in the government of the United States over the next 90+ days until there are special elections to fill the three seats lost to Gaetz’ resignation and Trump taking Stefanik and Walz to serve in the administration. Capitol Hill Republicans are now bracing for a miserable future.
The big loser from last week is Darth Maga (the new name here for Elmo, to satisfy those upset by the use of “a beloved childhood character” to describe everyone’s favorite Unreconstructed Afrikaner Space Nazi) who‘s too fucking stupid to realize how badly he has screwed his own pooch.
After drawing the kind of attention nobody wants from Felon34 - with all the Democrats calling him “President Musk” - Darth Maga tweeted Friday morning that no one was going to ruin his relationship with Trump. And then he tweeted an endorsement of Germany’s neo-Nazi Party: “Only the AfD can save Germany.” What he meant was, “no one else” will ruin his relationship with Felon34.
Sen Chris Murphy responded: “The AfD’s mission is to rehabilitate the image of the Nazi movement. One leader’s license plate is an open tribute to Hitler. A top AfD official said about migrants, ‘We can always shoot them later, or gas them.’ Another described Judaism as the ‘inner enemy’ in Germany.” X user ‘Jay in Kviv,’ a reliable account on news from Central and Eastern Europe: “The most pro-Russian political party in Europe now has the support of Elon Musk. A party that is constantly having its members arrested for espionage in favor of Russia. Musk needs to be in prison.”
This raised back to prominence the fact Felon34 spent November 5, Election Day, at Mar-A-Lago with members of AfD, who said they are hoping to be close with the incoming administration. Remember that Felon34 keeps a copy of “Mein Kampf” in his nightstand, along with a copy of Hitler’s speeches..
After that news came out, social media exploded with the realization an unelected billionaire from South Africa who supports neo-Nazis, fascism, and white sumpremacy had intimidated Republican legislators into doing his bidding - and the majority of the Broken Toys thought that was just fine, with some calling for him to become Speaker of the House while others declared he was their “prime minister.”
This was all topped with Felon34's threat to go after Liz Cheney and prosecute her for “witness tampering” for her work as a member of Congress on the Jan. 6 Committee. He followed up the Disney Surrender about his suit against ABC with a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register for publishing a poll that was unfavorable to him before the November election.
Those are classic authoritarian moves to consolidate power, but to those without the ability to pay close attention and understand what is happening, they were less striking than the reality that Darth Maga appears to have taken over for Felon34 as the incoming president, to the point where the felon had to explain to the right wing lunatics in Phoenix that such a takeover was impossible; there’s an old saying about how when you’re explaining you’re losing...
Darth Maga has shown he doesn’t know fuck diddly about how government operates. The people he would really want to spend his couch cushion money primarying are the people he can’t primary from the right, no matter how much moola he spends. And the Broken Toys in Congress have now seen him fail on getting the Senate Leader he wanted, the Treasury Secretary he wanted, and the CR he wanted. In Washington-speak, that spells L-O-S-E-R.
Georgia Republican Rep. Rich McCormick - one of the conservative hardliners who voted against “Plan B” said the quiet part out loud on CNN . “Last time I checked, Elon Musk doesn’t have a vote in Congress. Now, he has influence, and he’ll put pressure on us to do whatever is the right thing for him, but I have 760,000 people who voted for me to do the right thing for them. And that’s what matters to me.”
Even the upper middle class Yuppie morons who think driving a Tesla is proof of their committment to Making The World Better are thinking twice about a car that only works right 75% of the time, and what it means to be giving money to the guy who thinks the Neo-Nazi Party is the only party that can save Germany. Tesla sales have been slumping since last Spring when Darth Maga decided to rip off his “Occupy Mars” T-shirt and reveal his Brown Shirt. The sales don’t support the current stock price. That will inevitably be fixed and a fortune based on pure speculation will be “resolved.”
In case anyone wonders why people are saying Darth won the budget fight because he got them to drop the restrictions on investment in China, consider this: Tesla has become a Chinese car company. The Tesla factory in Shanghai is the biggest car factory in the world, and it produces 52% of all the Teslas produced around the world. Darth also wants to build the world’s biggest battery factory down the road from the car factory. And he has his eyes on building another car factory over there that will rival this one for size.
Also consider that last week, three government agencies started investigating Darth for national security reasons, because he holds a Top Secret clearance and has had “many meetings and conversations” with Putin and Xi, which he has not reported having, or informed the security agencies of the content of the meetings - which as a holder of a Top Secret clearance he is required by law to do. Because of his admitted drug use, and these international contacts, he cannot qualify for the Higher Than Top Secret clearance that the CEO of every other major defense contractor holds. Do you think he would pause for even a second if Xi told him that the price of the battery factory and the second car factory was a complete debriefing about Space-X and his national defense contracts by Chinese intelligence? Yeah, me neither. The only loyalty this piece of shit has is his loyalty to his own ego.
Politically, Darth’s never known that any serious congressional negotiator - which he seems to aspire to be - keeps a handful of maxims top of mind: don’t make it personal; remember that your adversary today could be your ally tomorrow; keep your word; and never, ever cut off your nose to spite your face. Over the past eight years, Felon34 has flagrantly ignored these principles. It’s clear Darth Maga has now proved himself another species of political amateur altogether.
His ignorance of how political negotiations work - as opposed to business deals - has made it harder to bring Democrats into the fold to pass bipartisan legislation. Funding bills usually pass with bipartisan backing. This time, House Democrats eventually came around, despite Darth spending Friday personally attacking Rosa DeLauro, ranking Democrat on the House Appropriation Committees, based on her physical appearance and eclectic personal style; Darth repeatedly compared her to a Jim Henson puppet, referencing “her broomstick,” calling her a “swamp creature,” etc. These attacks are akin to showing up at a Fleetwood Mac concert and congratulating yourself for mocking Stevie Nicks’s witchy outfit: It shows you have never been to a Fleetwood concert, and know nothing about the band.
DeLauro’s supposed sin against Darth was a speech where she questioned whether he understood the implications of a shutdown for federal employees, including military service members. “[Republican members] got scared because… President Musk said, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Shut the government down,’” she said. “Imagine, what does he know about what people go through when the government shuts down? Are his employees furloughed? Hell no. Is he furloughed? No. And when you shut the government down, people don’t get paid and maybe if none of us got paid, some people on the other side of the aisle would feel differently.” Darth is likely personally pissed that DeLauro also sent a letter to congressional leaders accusing him of getting involved in the spending debate in order to protect his Chinese investments - which is likely true. Like his buddy the felon, Darth only thinks about what will help Darth.
Darth’s frustration over this will be nothing compared to the agitation he feels next year when he discovers he burned the bridges he needs to get legislative buy-in for the DOGE agenda. Apparently Darth is dumb enough - along with his partner in stupidity, Rama-rama-swam-swam - to think that DOGE is an actual part of the government. It’s not - it’s another special commission, one of many that come and ask congress to listen to their ideas, most of which never go anywhere. Darth’s got himself positioned to be the guy about whom congressmen sing “Heigh Ho! Heigh Ho! It’s Off To Work We Go!” a they go to the floor to vote against whatever it is he’s selling.
And here’s what the Confederate scum of MAGA want to do this Spring: Republican leadership promised to raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion early in 2025 while also cutting $2.5 trillion in “mandatory” spending, which covers Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP nutrition assistance. (I have the feeling that’s the lead balloon that won’t fly. There are at least six Republicans in seats where Biden won in 2020, who know they are Prime Targets for 2026; self-preservation will dictate careful consideration on their part of how badly they want to fuck over the people they need for re-election. There’s also the 22 Republican Senators up for re-election, several of whom are not in “safe seats.”
The fiasco of the past few days is a major political blow to Felon34. Darth Maga overshadowed him, and when the felon demanded Republicans free him from the debt ceiling, they ignored him. Meanwhile, extremist Republicans are calling for Johnson’s removal, but it is unclear who could earn the votes to take his place. And, since the continuing resolution extends only until mid-March, and the first two months of Trump’s term will undoubtedly be consumed with the Senate confirmation hearings for his appointees - most of whom are completely unqualified and are going to generate lots of pass-the-popcorn moments in their confirmation hearings - it looks like this chaos will continue. One can only hope.
A governing trifecta can be a powerful thing. In Joe Biden’s first two years, the Democrats were incredibly successful, notwithstanding Manchin and Sinema. It was all due to Biden having 30 years’ experience in making things happen in the Senate.
He knew what he was doing.
As opposed to the Felon & Darth Show - two clowns who never managed to graduate from clown school.
If the past seven weeks have been a preview of what’s to come next year, our expectations and worries should be much lower than we have thought since the election. They have no “mandate.” Polling shows every one of Trump’s proposals to fuck America are opposed by majorities of Americans. The GOP is still the Party of Broken Toys Who Never Learned To Work And Play Well With Others. Remember, they were all dumb enough to flunk the IQ test low enough to qualify for membership in MAGA.
The good news is that during these seven weeks, the Democrats have discovered what they need to do in order to be an effective opposition: a politics focused on being the defense of ordinary Americans living on a budget. That and Stay Unified; when they did, they forced the “majority” to say “Uncle.”
With a Senate that is tied up with confirmation hearings, Felon34’s First 100 Days Agenda could be gone with the wind; in fact, his first year in office could be a failure. And he only has that year before Congress is embroiled in the mid-terms, where there are 22 Republican Senators up for re-election, and where an accomplish-nothing House is a Large Slow Target.
If the Democrats turn things around in the mid-terms, Felon34 may want to hand things over to Darth and retire to one of his shitty golf courses two years early.
There is solid reason for Hope in 2025. The enemy is not as strong as he thinks. Or as smart.
It would be very helpful if free subscribers would step up and become Paid Subscribers. The rent and security increase are still set to start here on New Year’s Day. Consider it a Holiday present to Opposition.
Thank you very much to those who have already done so.
Comments are for paid subscribers.
I thought Darth Maga was supposed to be smarter than this - he is doubling down on China when many other countries and companies are starting planning to move their manufacturing from China to other countries or back home in their home countries..... In fact, China is facing a critical disaster in its economy - China is facing a major population collapse that is now baked in and cannot be avoided. The reason the Chinese economy is stagnating right now is that there are not enough young Chinese to provide the consumer demand to keep the economy healthy. Soon, China will run out of sufficient workers to keep ts industrial production going and the whole edifice will start to crumble. Yes, China is expanding and developing new weapons and resources now, but it is not sustainable in the long run. Peter Zeihan, a geopolitical analyst, gives China a likely 15 years or so before the nation comes apart due to population decline and regional differences..... Darth Maga may find it difficult to build Teslas in China without workers or a stable industrial economy.....
I wake up every day hoping for one particular bit of good news. So far, it hasn't happened. But this recap of what DID happen is encouraging. When the Mumpster gets bored tomorrow because no one is paying him any attention, I suppose he'll come up with another country to annex, another unqualified creep to appoint, another way to backstab all of us, or another failure to launch under his "brand" ...anything to grab headlines on Christmas Day. I am hoping that maybe Santa can fit him into his sleigh and drop him off somewhere. Anywhere we don't have to see or hear about him will do. Mars will be fine.