LOOKING AROUND THE RUBBLE

So, here we are, nine days into the tenth month of the battle against the fascist traitors, Day 215 of the illegal occupation of the White House (he did not win all seven swing states) by the country’s greatest threat. There are 370 days to the 2026 mid-terms.

The latest YouGov/Economist survey shows 57% disapproval of Trump’s performance as president, compared to just 39% approval. Every ne poll over the summer has been recorded as a lowest-ever. This is the lowest-ever until next week.

There’s a new organization you should consider joining (I did). Defiance.org - check it out. Two friends - Miles Taylor (a former official targeted by Trump) and Xander Schultz (founder of Defeat by Tweet and One for Democracy) - decided to stop waiting around for someone else to build this and just do it. They’ve put in their own time and money to get it moving. The public leadership is solid and comes from across the pro-democracy anti-fascist political spectrum. They’re all people I’m happy to stand with. The goal is to Fight Back. Defiance.org

As part of the program to “Bonwit-Teller-ize” the White House, Trump has taken a wrecking ball to an independent federal agency tasked with reviewing his massive construction projects. The White House has terminated all members of the Commission of Fine Arts, which is tasked with advising the president, Congress, and local governments on “matters of design and aesthetics.” “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as a member of the Commission on Fine Arts is terminated, effective immediately,” read an email sent to one of the commissioners and obtained by The Washington Post, which first reported the firings. The commission reviews proposed designs for memorials, government buildings, coins, medals, and privately owned properties in certain parts of Washington, “as they affect the federal interest and preserve the dignity of the nation’s capital.” The White House previously declined to comment on whether it intended to send the plans for Trump’s swanky ballroom to the CFA, and whether a green light from the commission is required. An official told The Post that “all necessary agencies and entities who need to review the project” were being consulted. Trump may use a precedent set by former President Harry Truman to sidestep its scrutiny of his ballroom. In 1947, the CFA said it could only serve in an “advisory” capacity to the president, allowing Truman to proceed with adding a balcony to the White House. Last week, the nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation penned a letter urging the Trump administration to halt the teardown of the East Wing until plans for the ballroom undergo “the legally required public review processes, including consultation and review by the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts.” Some of the fired commissioners had also expected to play a role in reviewing the design for Trump’s triumphal arch project, according to the outlet, which will be built on federal land at the end of the Arlington Memorial Bridge and is therefore not exempt from standard review processes. But Trump appears to have geared up for a review of his construction projects by stacking the National Capital Planning Commission with his allies. The 12-member board is led by White House staff secretary Will Scharf. Members include Cabinet secretaries Pete Hegseth and Doug Burgum, as well as Republican lawmakers Rand Paul and James Comer, though these officials typically send representatives in their stead. According to Karoline Blowjobber, this is now Dear Leader’s main priority; Gaza forgotten, the coming talks with Xi-Jinping forgotten, the trade wars yesterday’s news. Trump concentrating on knocking down the White House is the equivalent of Captain Queeg worrying about the strawberries in the middle of Halsey’s Typhoon.

A photo about which there will be more news to come

Now that our Senile Daddy-O has found out that he cannot delay his lameduck status by claiming he will run for an unconstitutional third term after admonishment by everyone (and has publicly admitted such to the press yesterday aboard Chair Farce One), he is flailing to find something that will get the DC Press Corpse in a similar tizzy and bring him the attention his disfigured psyche depends on for survival. His latest attempt at “creating chaos” is his new threat that he could send the Navy, Air Force, and Marines into U.S. cities to do “whatever I want” and the courts would not stop him; that he could “routinely” invoke the Insurrection Act to bypass the legal system if he wanted to use all arms of the military against his own citizens. “If I want to enact a certain Act, I’m allowed to do it. We haven’t chosen to do that because we’re doing very well without it, but I’d be allowed to do that, you know that, right? And the courts wouldn’t get involved. Nobody would get involved, and I could send the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. I could send anybody I wanted.” This isn’t the only blather he’s been spouting recently; he has also said he could keep committing extrajudicial killings of alleged “drug smugglers” without congressional approval, claimed he was the nation’s “chief lawmaker” as he called for the DOJ to go after his enemies, and suggested he could demolish the Jefferson Memorial without needing legal authority. As with everything else that has ever come out of than asshole under his nose, this is Pure Bullshit. Pay it no mind. But expect more of it as he is faced with the reality of his loss of power, regardless of what he does. The answer to this is No. You. Cannot. Do. This.

As if things weren’t Bad Enough, there’s always The Wrong RFK Got Shot and his Kollection of Krazy Kooks to make things worse. Martin Kulldorff, chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) at the CDC, said in an interview this morning that he believes vaccine mandates for schools are “not necessary.” He said, “ACIP should make recommendations based on what we think is best for children. I don’t think we should be involved at all in mandating any vaccines. That’s not our role. More generally about mandates, I think mandates of the COVID vaccine were very detrimental, and I think that’s one of the big driving forces behind what we see now in public health. Those mandates were both unscientific and unethical.” Hey, asswipe - those mandates were based on science and saved many lives among the big stupid bipeds who never get the word otherwise, aka your believers. In the meantime, for those with brains living in Red America, it might be time to adopt lib’rul home schoolin’ as the best defense of your kids to get them through childhood, since these goobers obviously want to promote childhood death that hasn’t been seen since I was really young.

The uber-wingnut whackjobs of the WSJ Opinion Page strike again: The editorial board of Murdoch-owned WSJ is urging Republicans in Congress to end health care subsidies introduced as part of ObamaCare as the party tries to negotiate an end to the government shutdown. In an editorial published this morning, the droolers wrote that “Despite longtime Democratic political dominance on healthcare, more voters may be noticing for the first time in years that the Affordable Care Act is a debacle that has made care worse and more expensive. Do taxpayers — many of whom pay for their own coverage at work — want to underwrite baby boomer early retirement? Maybe the politics here aren’t as obvious as Democrats assume.” “It’s still a product few deem worth buying unless they’re protected from the cost. The political and media ground have changed in the past 10 years. An underappreciated question of the shutdown is whether the GOP will re-enter the debate on healthcare — and go on offense on ObamaCare’s failures.” These alleged humans need to be run through the woodchipper in “Fargo.”

Yesterday, the Supreme Court requested additional information before it rules on whether Trump can deploy the National Guard in the Chicago area, suggesting a ruling is still weeks away. Maladministration II appealed to the high court earlier this month in a bid to resume the deployment after lower courts blocked it. At the center of the battle is a statute that allows Trump to federalize and deploy a state’s National Guard unit if there is an invasion, rebellion or when he is “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.” Wednesday’s brief, unsigned order from the Supreme Court requests the administration and Illinois submit written briefs detailing whether “regular forces” refers to the military and how that should affect the analysis. Each side is due to submit their views by Nov. 10 and reply to the other by Nov. 17. It suggests the justices won’t rule on Trump’s appeal until then, meaning the Chicago National Guard deployment would continue to remain blocked for weeks. The Supreme Court’s order came as a trial kicked off on whether the Portland deployment is illegal. Most of the other deployments are also the subject of legal challenges.

Monday night, five Republican senators led by Rand Paul joined all Democrats and ended Trump’s crazy traiffs on Brazil. Last night, the same coalition - the Republicans realizing they hadn’t been struck by lighting immediately on taking the previous vote - voted to end Trup’s tariffs on Canada, 50-46. Sadly, these are symbolic votes only, since it is highly unlikely that Hue Squeaker MAGAMike and the House Confederacy Caucus would take up either vote, even assuming he ever brings the House back into session.

Since Dear Leader continues to be convinced that offshore wind energy projects cause cancer, nurally Wrong RFK Got Shot would take steps to prove the truth of Dear Leaders demented digressions. Bloomberg News reported this week that Wrong RFK directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to look into the matter. Asked about the effort, HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard described it as being on hold because of the ongoing government shutdown. A 2011 literature review found that “no peer reviewed articles demonstrate a direct causal link between people living in proximity to modern wind turbines, the noise they emit and resulting physiological health effects.” And the same shall be found again. Because Dilbert was born with his head up his ass.

(Photo: KarenRN)

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