HOLY COW MIDWEEK ALREADY

Democrats won the mayoral race in Miami, Florida, the first time they have taken this office in almost 30 years. Decision Desk called the race at 7:08 p.m. ET for Eileen Higgins in the runoff election. The Associated Press called the race around 8 p.m. ET. “Tonight, the people of Miami made history,” Higgins said in a statement. It’s a significant win and a morale boost for Democrats in a state that has handed them a series of headaches in the last decade, backing Republicans in almost every statewide race and seeing a precipitous drop in support for Democrats in longtime electoral strongholds. Eileen Higgins, a former Miami-Dade County Commissioner who represented conservative Cuban-American areas of the city and is known by the nickname “La Gringa,” clinched the victory against Republican-backed former city manager Emilio Gonzalez, with a 59% - 40% win. That’s not just a win - it’s a blowout.

Trump’s birthday plan to turn the White House South Lawn into an Ultimate Fighting Championship cage match now includes erecting an arena on the historic property and holding the weigh-ins at the Lincoln Memorial. The extravagant, tacky event to celebrate Trump turning 80 is perhaps the cultural low point of the Trump Era in Washington. The National Mall will host autograph-signing sessions and “punching bags for tourists to test their skills.” Fighters involved in the matches may even warm up at the White House. The event has been scaled back from Trump’s original proposal of 20,000 spectators. Trump said Monday that the arena will have the capacity for about 5,000 seats. “Idiocracy” is now real and is truly upon us. We’re the laughingstock of the world already, so who even cares any more.

More on PlasteredPete’s 2016 takedown of Trump the Wannabe War Criminal: In appearances on Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, Hegseth stated: “You’re not just gonna follow that order if it’s unlawful. The military’s not gonna follow illegal orders,” when asked about Trump’s claims that they would. Hegseth was more cutting with similar comments during an appearance on Megyn Kelly’s Fox show in April 2016, after Trump reaffirmed his position during a March 2016 Fox News debate: “Here’s the problem with Trump. He says, ‘Go ahead and kill the family. Go ahead and torture. Go ahead and go further than waterboarding.’ What happens when people follow those orders, or don’t follow them? It’s not clear that Donald Trump will have their back. Donald Trump is oftentimes about Donald Trump. And so you can’t; if you’re not changing the law and you’re just saying it, you create even more ambiguity.” I have to say, finding gems like this - from the Before Times when Republicans still had functioning brains - that it’s sad to realize even a moron like Hegseth could see what was what.

The United States will allow Nvidia’s (NVDA.O) H200 processors, its second-best artificial intelligence chips, to be exported to China and collect a 25% fee on such sales, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday. The decision appears to settle a U.S. debate about whether Nvidia and rivals should maintain their global lead in AI chips by selling to China or withhold the exports, though Beijing has told companies not to use U.S. technology, leaving it unclear whether Trump’s decision would lead to new sales. Nvidia shares rose 2% in after-hours trading after Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, following a 3% rise during the day on a report by Semafor. Trump said in his post that he had informed President Xi Jinping of China, where Nvidia’s chips are under government scrutiny, about the move and that he “responded positively.” He wrote on Lies Anti-Social: “We will protect National Security, create American Jobs, and keep America’s lead in AI. NVIDIA’s U.S. Customers are already moving forward with their incredible, highly advanced Blackwell chips, and soon, Rubin, neither of which are part of this deal.” I thought they were our new “strategic competitor” according to the Surrender Monkey Strategy recently announced?

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has ordered testimony next week from DOJ whistleblower Erez Reuveni and deputy assistant attorney general Drew Ensign in the criminal contempt of court inquiry in the original Alien Enemies Act case. Not satisfied with what he called the “cursory declarations” from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and top DOJ officials involved in the decision to continue with the AEA deportations in March despite his court order, Boasberg is taking his inquiry to the next level with the first live testimony. Testimony from Reuveni is likely to be especially probative as he as already gone public with his account of his efforts to urge DOJ and DHS to abide by Boasberg’s order to stop the AEA deportations of Venezuelan nationals and turn around the planes en route to El Salvador. Reuveni also produced extensive internal DOJ communications that buttressed his account of that fateful weekend in mid-March that quickly became a flashpoint between the executive and judicial branches. Ensign has been a willing pawn in an ongoing DOJ effort to stonewall, obfuscate, and mislead judges in some of the key Trump II deportation cases. Ensign was the lead DOJ attorney in front of Boasberg as the AEA deportations unfolded and much of Boasberg’s initial ire was directed at him. Boasberg is zeroing in on whether Noem’s decision to continue with the AEA deportations despite his order was willful, a necessary element of a finding probable cause for criminal contempt.

With the Trump DOJ continuing to pretend that Lindsey Halligan is the interim U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia despite a court ruling that she was invalidly appointed, it’s hard to see how the district judges can continue not to appoint an interim U.S. attorney, especially with ongoing public attacks on them like this from Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blancheon Xitter: “Certain district court judges and magistrate judges in the Eastern District of Virginia are engaging in an unconscionable campaign of bias and hostility against U.S. Attorney Lindsay Halligan and her line AUSAs. Lindsey and our attorneys are simply doing their jobs: advocating for the Department of Justice’s positions while following guidance from the Office of Legal Counsel. They do not deserve to have their reputations questioned in court for ethically advocating on behalf of their client. This Department of Justice has no tolerance for undemocratic judicial activism. We will continue fighting for public safety in courtrooms across the country, and we will not be deterred by rogue judges who fail to live up to their obligations of impartiality because of their own political views. The American people, and the people of the Eastern District of Virginia, deserve nothing less.” Trump Truculence is now the Order of the Day.

A complaint by Donald Trump advisor Stephen Miller’s wife Katie that their family had been victimized by protesters making what were described as “terroristic” threats fell apart on Tuesday with the release of a police incident report that pointed out that she had made much ado about nothing. Katie Miller called police because she feared protesters outside their home. After the event, she ran to Fox News where she cited her own picture of chalking on her sidewalk that read “Stephen Miller is preying on families” as “doxing” and claimed, “There are several criminal statutes that were violated in the case.” Virginia police appear to disagree with Miller’s assertion.According to the police report, “The messages were non-threatening and alluded to political issues such as immigration, transgender rights, DEI, and white supremacy.” The report comes just days after Miller appeared on the “Ruthless” podcast where she complained, “There were people who drove by my home, there were people who sent us death threats, who knew where we lived, and it was no longer safe for our children to play in our front yard, or our backyard.” The Millers used this “threat” to justify their move into free military housing for their family security.

Moving from Katie to Stevie: White House adviser Stephen Miller melted down in a Fox News interview while insisting that descendants of immigrants often fail in society. (Miller himself being Example Number One) He ranted at Fox News host Will Cain on Tuesday: “And so what you saw between 1965 and today was the single largest experiment on a society, on a civilization that had ever been conducted in human history. Not just the 76 million immigrants that were brought in, largely from the third world, but their descendants too. So you see, with a lot of these immigrant groups, not only is the first generation unsuccessful. Again, Somalia is a clear example here. But you see persistent issues in every subsequent generation. So you see consistent high rates of welfare use, consistent high rates of criminal activity, consistent failures to assimilate.” Miller began to shout as he continued. “If Somalians cannot make Somalia successful, why would we think that the track will be any different in the United States? If Libya keeps failing, if the Central African Republic keeps failing, if Somalia keeps failing, right? If these societies all over the world continue to fail, you have to ask yourself, if you bring those societies into our country, and then give them unlimited free welfare, what do we think is going to happen? You’re going to replicate the conditions that they left over and over and over again!” he yelled. “And we mask the impact of immigration on every public policy issue we discuss! We talk about test scores! If you subtract immigration out of test scores, all of a sudden our test scores skyrocket!” This worthless little motherfucker really is a goddamned Nazi. Stuffing him in a seabag and throwing him off the Santa Monica Pier into a winter storm is being entirely too gentle with him.

Further proof that, if you have a brain, you do not want to live in Red America: Texas has launched a partnership with Turning Point USA to create chapters of the right-wing organization on every high school campus in the state. Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Turning Point USA Senior Director Josh Thifault revealed the initiative during a news conference at the Governor’s Mansion on Monday. They did not outline any plans that would require schools to initiate the clubs, but Abbott said that he expects “meaningful disciplinary action” to take place against “any stoppage of TPUSA in the great state of Texas.” He aid: “Let me be clear: Any school that stands in the way of a Club America program in their school should be reported immediately to the Texas Education Agenc.” Republican officials in Oklahoma and Florida have also announced partnerships with Turning Point to expand the organization’s presence. Those partnerships rely on interested students to initiate the clubs, while Turning Point provides them with organizational support. Oklahoma’s former right-wing superintendent, Ryan Walters, had threatened to go after the accreditation of schools that refused to welcome the conservative group. “This is about values,” Abbott said. “This is about constitutional principles. This is about a restoration of who we are as a country.”

Plastered Pete, who 10 years ago had enough brain cells to know that Trump would go full war criminal given the chance, continues to demonstrate the fecklessness of the entire GOP in their sellout of anything vaguely resembling morals and ethics now. Pete the Plastered launched a foul-mouthed rant against an adviser who spoke out against the deadly airstrikes on alleged drug boats, according to a damning new report. Sources told The Daily Mail that the blackout drunk Pentagon chief is not only ignoring but actively antagonizing senior civilian and military advisers who have questioned the attacks that have left more than 80 people dead in both the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. Facing the war crime allegations he forecast 10 years ago, he reportedly called one adviser who raised concerns in memos about the airstrikes a “pussy” during a meeting in which the adviser was not present. Hegseth allegedly called another adviser who questioned the legality of the strikes “weak” several times during two meetings in September. Pentagon poop-scooper Sean Parnell has denied that the macho-image-obsessed blackout drunk used the misogynistic slur against his own Defense Department advisers, saying “This is just more fake news from anonymous sources intended to undermine the Secretary and the president.” One anonymous source told the Daily Mail, “My guess is that he ignored the professionals that day as usual.”

Senators Jeff Merkley and Catherine Cortez Masto introduced legislation Tuesday to prevent Trump or any sitting or living former president from being featured on U.S. currency, which would thwart the U.S. Treasury’s plan to issue a commemorative $1 coin with Trump’s image on it. The bill, titled the Change Corruption Act, is cosponsored by senators Ron Wyden and Richard Blumenthal; it states: “No United States currency may feature the likeness of a living or sitting President.”

ICE Barbie told The World’s Dumbest Mick that Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani may have “violated the Constitution” by informing migrants of their rights if approached by immigration officers. She told Hannity: “We’re certainly going after and looking into all of that with coordination of the Department of Justice. He could be violating the Constitution by giving advice on how to evade law enforcement and how to get away with breaking the law.” On Monday, Mamdani said that as mayor, he would “protect the rights” of the roughly 3 million migrants in New York City in a “know your rights” video posted on the social platform X. In the video, Mamdani is seen reminding viewers that ICE agents can be refused entry into a home if they do not have a warrant but also said that people may not impede an investigation. “If ICE does not have a judicial warrant signed by a judge, you have the right to say, ‘I do not consent to entry,’ and the right to keep your door closed.” He also said that individuals have the right to remain silent, ask whether they are free to go while being detained and film ICE activities so long as they do not interfere with an arrest.

The Senate will vote Thursday on a Republican proposal to replace enhanced health insurance subsidies under the ACA with health savings accounts that would receive federal contributions to pay out-of-pocket expenses, Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced Tuesday. The Senate was already set to vote Thursday on a Democratic plan to extend the expiring subsidies for three years, and Thune’s decision will give Republican colleagues the opportunity to vote for a GOP alternative. “We also will have a vote. Our members have decided that we’re going to vote on a Crapo-Cassidy proposal,” Thune announced after a Senate Republican conference lunch meeting Tuesday. The plan from Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) has support from a majority of Senate Republicans who argue it would reduce health insurance premiums and save the federal government nearly $30 billion. “It actually does make health insurance premiums more affordable. It drives down, according to the Congressional Budget Office, premiums by double-digit levels. It delivers the benefit directly to the patient, not to the insurance company. And it does it in a way that actually saves money - to the taxpayer. That is an alternative that we will put forward and we will have a vote on, on Thursday. And we’ll see where the Democrats come down on that,” Thune said.

Trump was roundly mocked by political analysts and observers last night after giving a meandering speech that was billed to be about affordability. During the speech - which is supposed to be the first of many - he blamed the Biden administration for the rising cost of living, citing the pandemic-induced spike in inflation five years ago, growing immigration, and other Democratic policies. However, the speech meandered through other topics, including praise for the work of his cabinet secretaries. His major point about affordability, the proclaimed topic of the rally, was to once again call the issue a “Democrat hoax.” He also said the coming midterms “should be fun.” “It only took 20 minutes for Trump’s speech at the NEPA casino to go completely off the rails,” J.J. Abbott, executive director of Commonwealth Communications, posted on X. “He can’t even stay focused on a speech about affordability, let alone do anything to help.” Yeah, Susie Wiles - you keep working on that genius idea of sending him out for lots of rallies during the coming campaign. In fact, schedule him for even more of them; we want a “conviction majority” in the Senate.

On Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott Varholak refused to release Tina Peters, the former Colorado elections clerk convicted of trying to overturn the 2020 election, despite Trump calling for her to be freed while she appeals her case. Peters was found guilty last year of seven criminal counts - including four felony charges - for letting Trump’s allies illegally access the county’s election system after Trump falsely claimed Joe Biden had “stolen” the election. Judge Varholak’s decision cited a decades-old Supreme Court case prohibiting federal courts from interfering with ongoing state criminal proceedings except in the case of “extraordinary or special circumstances,” which Varholak found didn’t apply to Peters’ case.

Andrew Egger gets today’s last word: Things are different now. The White House issues its lies at maximum volume, scattershot and erratic, not bothering to distinguish truth from falsehood. They change their story at will, dropping their prior story the second it no longer seems useful and moving on to whatever feels useful in the new moment. Wash, rinse, repeat. This strategy would be toxic to their “credibility” - if it were obvious that “credibility,” as a useful political concept, still existed. The White House seems to be betting it no longer does. There’s no truth or lies. There’s just narratives, crashing into each other at high speeds, and the only way to win is to have yours hit harder.

Photo: KarenRN

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