Patterico's Pontifications

11/20/2024

Let the Games Begin: Two Items of Note

Filed under: General — JVW @ 11:27 am

[guest post by JVW]

ITEM 1
The Biden Administration seeks to spend all appropriated funds before the Trump Administration can claw them back:

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is on an urgent mission: get as much high-tech spending out the door before Donald Trump takes office.

The Biden administration is aiming to commit nearly every unspent dollar in its $50 billion microchip-subsidy program before President-elect Donald Trump takes over in January, an effort that would effectively cement a massive industrial legacy before the GOP can reverse course.

[. . .]

The effort to spend her department’s full CHIPS Act budget would put a capstone on a signature Biden economic policy.

It also speaks to the urgency facing a host of Biden’s historic raft of spending programs, many of which could be vulnerable to a Republican White House and Congress eager to pare back the most ambitious Democratic spending packages.

The Chips money alone is a massive undertaking. Congress allocated $50 billion in subsidies for semiconductor manufacturing and R&D. So far only two companies have received binding awards from the Department of Commerce’s manufacturing program. To hit her target, Raimondo still needs to nail down contracts with Intel, Micron, Samsung and SK hynix — multi-billion-dollar deals that have, at times, been rocky and required renegotiations.

What a great idea: go on a mad dash to spend tens of billions of dollars over the next sixty days. What could possibly go wrong?

ITEM 2
Rank partisan Chuck Schumer now wants to reinvent himself as an advocate of bipartisanship:

When the Democratic convention took place in August, with new nominee Kamala Harris rising in the polls, Democrats were giddy with a sense of impending victory. In Chicago for the convention, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) visited with party officials and reporters to outline his plans for a glorious new age in Washington with Democrats in control of the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives.

Schumer’s top priority in the new Harris administration would have been to eliminate the legislative filibuster that has long protected minority rights in the Senate. That way, even if the Senate were tied between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, those 50 Democrats, with the tiebreaking vote of Vice President Tim Walz, could enact far-reaching legislation without any input at all from Republicans. Washington would have true one-party rule, and the minority party would have no say in things whatsoever.

The story relates how in 2022 Senate Democrats tried to kill the filibuster, but the principled votes of Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin prevented them from doing so. With Ruben Gallego expected to replace Sen. Sinema, the Majority Leader had hoped that Democrats would lose nothing more than the Manchin seat in West Virginia, ending up with 50 seats and Vice-President Walz as the tie-breaking vote. But of course the Dem losses in Ohio, Montana, and Pennsylvania (the latter subject to defending against Democrat vote fraud) have scotched that strategy, and now the incoming Minority Leader wants to make nice:

So this week, Schumer went to the well of the Senate and addressed some remarks to his Republican colleagues. “Another closely contested election now comes to an end,” he said. “To my Republican colleagues, I offer a word of caution in good faith: Take care not to misread the will of the people, and do not abandon the need for bipartisanship. After winning an election, the temptation may be to go to the extreme. We’ve seen that happen over the decades, and it has consistently backfired on the party in power. So, instead of going to the extremes, I remind my colleagues that this body is most effective when it’s bipartisan. If we want the next four years in the Senate to be as productive as the last four, the only way that will happen is through bipartisan cooperation.”

The short version of that is: Please don’t do to us what we were going to do to you.

It is probably a helpful trait for Senator Chuck Schumer to be so blissfully free of principles. Fortunately for him, in this one aspect of politics the GOP has held fast to tradition. In the immediate aftermath of the election, outgoing Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell announced that his party would not eliminate the filibuster. It is clear of course that eventually a Democrat Senate majority might end the practice, but I can appreciate that our country’s ostensibly conservative party refuses to engage in this naked power play and I salute them for this.

– JVW

Comments (37)

37 Responses to “Let the Games Begin: Two Items of Note”

And I hear that Matt Gaetz is meeting with Senate Judicary committee members today. What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall for those talks.
JVW (1f63ab) — 11/20/2024 @ 11:28 am
The GOP will not be the side to end the filibuster. However, I expect the Democrats to use it to such an extreme that they’ll be very tempted.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 11/20/2024 @ 12:16 pm
What a great idea: go on a mad dash to spend tens of billions of dollars over the next sixty days. What could possibly go wrong?

Completely constitutional, and each party can reasonably be expected to get the most out of its term of office.

Of course they will have a hard time spending it wisely (as they would in any case had Harris been elected.)

I think contracts can also be revoked
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 11/20/2024 @ 12:27 pm
I hear that Matt Gaetz is meeting with Senate Judicary committee members today. What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall for those talks

Nobody will discuss any elephants in the room. Unless they asked him if he would consent to the release of the House Ethics Committee report.

Trump by the way has come close to acknowledging that Gaetz will not become Attorney General. but he’s not giving up on the nomination but will let the Senate kill it.

Meanwhile he nominated Todd Blanche, his lawyer in the New York Alvin Bragg case and the two Jack Smith cases to become deputy attorney general and he’ll probably be confirmed easily and become Acting Attorney General, maybe for an extended period of time.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/14/us/politics/todd-blanche-deputy-attorney-general-trump.html

Todd Blanche may in fact have suggested it, in which case he might be taking a page from the Clinton Administration when Vincent Foster was named deputy White House counsel (and so when he died people very close to Bill Clinton had to hastily remove the secret files from his office.so they would not fall into the hands of his official superior, Bernard Nussbaum. Whom else could they have been removed to keep them away from? Not the Park Police. They wouldn’t get to see a lawyer’s files!) *

Up to a little more than a year ago, Todd Blanche was a Democrat.

Trump also named two other lawyers he hired to top Justice Department jobs: Emil Bove as principal associate deputy attorney general, and D. John Sauer, who represented him before the Supreme Court in the immunity case, and was s Solicitor General of Missouri, as solicitor general.

All highly plausible nominees. Todd Blanche was a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York (9 years, almost 4 as a supervisor)

===============================

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/14/us/politics/todd-blanche-deputy-attorney-general-trump.html

* They almost certainly did not mainly concern Whitewater. They mixed them up with other files before handing some files to Kenneth Starr

Vincent Foster was probably killed by the Saudis when he tried to blackmail them for money to pay for a lawyer – my theory – the Saudi Arabian Ambassador’s residence was right across the street from he park where he was found, and someone leaked to Fred Barnes, right at the same time as numerous Foster case leaks in March 1994, published on page 10 of the March 14, 1994 New Republic, an obviously false explanation of why the Saudi Ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan had a secret unscheduled meeting with President Clinton sometime in July, 1993
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 11/20/2024 @ 1:08 pm
Senator Chuck Schumer as switched sides on the filibuster question several times. One notable thing about his ethics is that in the Waco hearings in 1995 he got all the witnesses to agree that the Davidians started the fire.
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 11/20/2024 @ 1:10 pm
Vincent Foster was probably killed by the Saudis when he tried to blackmail them for money to pay for a lawyer – my theory – the Saudi Arabian Ambassador’s residence was right across the street from he park where he was found, and someone leaked to Fred Barnes, right at the same time as numerous Foster case leaks in March 1994, published on page 10 of the March 14, 1994 New Republic, an obviously false explanation of why the Saudi Ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan had a secret unscheduled meeting with President Clinton sometime in July, 1993

Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 11/20/2024 @ 1:08 pm

LOL! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/20/2024 @ 1:11 pm
I hear that Matt Gaetz is meeting with Senate Judicary committee members today. What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall for those talks

Nobody will discuss any elephants in the room. Unless they asked him if he would consent to the release of the House Ethics Committee report.

Gaetz is no longer a member of the House, so he cannot provide/withhold consent on anything.

Related:

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz has been calling Senate Republicans, asking for a “fair shake” as he faces a long road to confirmation as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general.

Since when did Gaetz ever give a “fair shake” to anyone?
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/20/2024 @ 1:17 pm
I think contracts can also be revoked
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 11/20/2024 @ 12:27 pm

…much as Biden did with the border-wall contracts:
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/30/biden-terminates-border-wall-construction-485123
ColoComment (c47d60) — 11/20/2024 @ 1:30 pm
Gaetz isn’t the only one with sordid accusations:

For now, Donald Trump is reportedly standing by Pete Hegseth, his embattled pick for defense secretary, but some Trump transition officials are beginning to doubt whether the Fox News host can survive the controversy. According to two Republicans close to Trump, the transition team is quietly preparing a list of alternative defense secretary candidates should Trump abandon Hegseth. “It’s becoming a real possibility,” one of the sources says. The second source tells me that transition members are frustrated that Hegseth failed to disclose he had paid a financial settlement to a woman who alleged he raped her at a Republican women’s event in 2017. “People are upset about the distraction. The general feeling is Pete hasn’t been honest,” the second source says. (Hegseth, through his attorney Timothy Parlatore, strenuously denies his accuser’s allegation.)

……….Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was made aware of an allegation that Hegseth committed sexual misconduct with a woman at a Republican women’s event in Monterey, California, about seven years ago (The Monterey Police Department confirmed it had investigated the alleged sexual assault and that the woman had reported suffering “contusions to right thigh.” No charges were filed).

……….The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that a friend of the alleged victim sent the transition team a memo that detailed what she said transpired at the Hyatt Regency in Monterey. Hegseth’s lawyer told Breitbart News that the alleged victim’s settlement contained confidentiality agreements that were breached when the allegation became public.
……….
One prominent Republican close to the transition says the leaks are evidence that some Trumpworld insiders are alarmed by Hegseth’s lack of qualifications and are trying to make sure he doesn’t become defense secretary………
##########

More:

……….
“He is completely and totally innocent. It was completely investigated. She was the aggressor,” Parlatore said in a phone interview, referring to the woman who claimed she was assaulted.
……….
The accuser, who was allegedly sober at the time, took him back to his room, Parlatore said.

“She took advantage of him. She led him. She was, by all accounts, both video and eyewitness, she was sober. He was drunk. She grabbed him. She took him to his room. She’s like walking arm in arm with him. And really putting it on, and she gets him into his room. And then the police honestly, when they looked at it, even though she was the one that reported it, when they looked at the video, they considered charging her,” he said.
……….
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/20/2024 @ 1:40 pm
ColoComment (c47d60) — 11/20/2024 @ 1:30 pm

To no avail:

……….
Biden says he has no choice but to continue building the wall, and in a public filing that went into effect (on October 5, 2023), his administration gave notice that it intends to waive 26 laws and regulations in order to “take immediate action” to build a few miles of new barrier in Starr County.
……….
……….(B)order barrier construction has continued in Texas and elsewhere since the early days of Biden’s term. As early as 2021, construction crews were erecting 15-foot concrete panels topped with 6-foot steel bollards in the Rio Grande Valley. In 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection detailed plans to build 86 miles of border wall in the Rio Grande Valley, including Starr County.

On Thursday, Biden told reporters that he was required by law to continue certain wall construction because Congress appropriated money for it. That appropriation occurred in 2019, before Biden took office.
……….
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/20/2024 @ 1:46 pm
Shoveling Biden’s judges out the door and into courthouses:

Senate Republicans aired frustrations Tuesday after Vice President-elect JD Vance and other party members skipped votes Monday, greasing the skids for Democratic-backed judicial nominees to be greenlighted as part of a final push to fill the bench with lifetime appointees before President-elect Trump takes office.
………..
Headlining that group were Vance and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), President-elect Trump’s choice to lead the State Department, angering GOP members during their weekly Tuesday policy luncheon.
……..
Adding to the drama, Harris left Washington for Hawaii on Tuesday, depriving Democrats of a potential ability to break a 50-50 tie.
………
Other senators, including Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), tagged along with Trump to the SpaceX Starship launch in Brownsville, Texas, further exacerbating the situation as Schumer prepared to hold another long night of nomination votes on Tuesday.
……….
Vance, who missed all of Monday night’s votes in addition to the first one Tuesday, received the lion’s share of criticism.
……….
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/20/2024 @ 2:05 pm
Parlatore said.

“She took advantage of him. She led him. She was, by all accounts, both video and eyewitness, she was sober. He was drunk. She grabbed him. She took him to his room. She’s like walking arm in arm with him. And really putting it on, and she gets him into his room.

And then somehow, she takes a date rape drug?? (for which there is nothing else so far connecting him to)

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-cabinet-pete-hegseth-sexual-assault-allegation-what-we-know.html

The woman allegedly couldn’t remember everything that happened after that:

According to the memo, [Four pages received by Trumps’ transition team after his nomination and written by a person claiming to be a friend of the woman in question, and then leaked about to the Washington Post] Jane Doe “didn’t remember anything until she was in Hegseth’s hotel room and then stumbling to find her hotel room.” The memo said that her memory of six to nine hours “was very hazy,” and that her husband was searching for her and was relieved when she finally showed up. The following day, the woman returned home and “had a moment of hazy memory of being raped the night before, and had a panic attack,” the memo said. The woman then went to the emergency room, where she received a rape-kit examination that “was positive for semen,” the memo said. The woman gave county authorities a statement about what happened, according to the memo sent to the transition team.

It cold be that her husband became suspicious of where she had been ad what she had been doing.
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 11/20/2024 @ 2:18 pm
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 11/20/2024 @ 2:18 pm

How much do you have to drink to be unable of fight off an amorous woman? Either way it doesn’t make Hegsteth look good.
Rip Murdock (e63693) — 11/20/2024 @ 2:27 pm
Rip Murdock (e63693) — 11/20/2024 @ 2:27 pm

How much do you have to drink to be unable of fight off an amorous woman? Either way it doesn’t make Hegsteth look good.

Oh, he didn’t fight her off. And he probably was not so drunk that he didn’t know what he was doing. He was a big philanderer.

But any contusions on her right thigh could be from her carrying him back to his room or trying to position him on top of her.

Still needing explanation: If she initiated it, why?

Yes, she could pretend to be interested in him in order to get him away from the two other women but from that, to intercourse?

Q. Was it really her job that night to make sure he made it back aboard his plane the next day?

The Washington Post says according to New York magazine:

One of [the woman’s] responsibilities at the conference was to make sure Hegseth made it back to his room and left in time the next morning for the 90-minute drive to the airport, the memo said

If so, who gave her that job? Did she volunteer for it?
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 11/20/2024 @ 2:43 pm
Who would know he would be expected to get drunk and assign her that job??
Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 11/20/2024 @ 2:44 pm
Filibuster subverts the will of the voter and prevents the majority from exercising power. 26 states with 18% of the population now control 52 senate seats that is undemocratic enough. Let the voters decide in the next election if they like how the majority voted. Schumer is a corporate stooge who does what his corporate donor masters want.
asset (e61f2c) — 11/20/2024 @ 2:50 pm
But any contusions on her right thigh could be from her carrying him back to his room or trying to position him on top of her.

Still needing explanation: If she initiated it, why?

Yes, she could pretend to be interested in him in order to get him away from the two other women but from that, to intercourse?
……….
The Washington Post says according to New York magazine:

One of [the woman’s] responsibilities at the conference was to make sure Hegseth made it back to his room and left in time the next morning for the 90-minute drive to the airport, the memo said

If so, who gave her that job? Did she volunteer for it?

Sammy Finkelman (e4ef09) — 11/20/2024 @ 2:43 pm

If Hegsteth needed a minder to get back to his room then he was too drunk to function. Not a good qualification for the Secretary of Defense. Everything else is is ungrounded in fact speculation.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/20/2024 @ 3:04 pm
It all boils down to how afraid the Republican Senators are of Donald Trump. If the answer is “very afraid”, then kiss the filibuster goodbye.

As for appropriations, I’ll be shocked if Trump makes any meaningful cuts in government spending (not that Harris would either). Voters won’t stand for it.

Patterico was right. The electorate is trash.
norcal (52a9c8) — 11/20/2024 @ 3:27 pm
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/20/2024 @ 1:46 pm

Apologies. I stand corrected.
Since seeing your reply, I have looked online, but unfortunately I cannot find definitive information re: how many miles of border wall have actually been built to date during the Biden administration.
ColoComment (c47d60) — 11/20/2024 @ 3:40 pm
In the immediate aftermath of the election, outgoing Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell announced that his party would not eliminate the filibuster. It is clear of course that eventually a Democrat Senate majority might end the practice, but I can appreciate that our country’s ostensibly conservative party refuses to engage in this naked power play and I salute them for this.

Whatever Mitch McConnell said before retiring as Minority Leader is worthless. We’ll see if the Republican majority continues to allow the filibuster get in the way of President Trump’s agenda. For example, he has promised to “abolish” the Department of Education, but that can only be accomplished by an act of Congress, and will almost certainly be filibustered by the Democrats. The SAVE Act? Filibustered. Border security? Filibustered.

We’ll see if frustrated Republicans decide to nuke it on their own.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/20/2024 @ 4:45 pm
Ouch!

It started so quickly and so promisingly.
……….
………. Overall, the president-elect was coming across as purposeful, focused and energetic (with his nominees).

Then came Wednesday. On Nov. 13, the future president picked for his attorney general Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz. It is a catastrophically bad selection.

The nomination can’t be defended by referring to Mr. Gaetz’s record as an attorney. He has barely practiced law. He has no prosecutorial experience except as a prosecution’s target. And his law license was briefly suspended in 2021 because he stopped paying his bar-association dues.

Nor can the pick be justified because of his outstanding legislative record. He doesn’t have one. To the degree he’s known for doing anything on the House floor, it’s reportedly for sharing the details of his latest female conquests.

Then of course, there’s his turn on former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Mr. Gaetz’s behavior then makes appeals to party unity to confirm him now unpersuasive…….
…………
Mr. Trump now faces the likelihood of contentious hearings featuring sensational charges that will distract from the good things his administration does. And Mr. Gaetz’s hearings won’t be the only circus act in town.

The confirmation proceedings for Mr. Trump’s director of national intelligence nominee, Tulsi Gabbard, and (Pete) Hegseth could also be messy and full of bad press. ………

The former president made one other mistake with his nominations. By revealing his early choices through posts on Truth Social, Mr. Trump missed opportunities to deliver powerful messages to the American people about what he intends to do and why.
…………
Inadequate vetting, impatience, disregard for qualifications and a thirst for revenge have created chaos and controversy for Mr. Trump before he’s even in office. The price for all this will be missed opportunities to shore up popular support for the incoming president. But at least it’ll make great TV.
##########
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/20/2024 @ 4:57 pm
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/20/2024 @ 3:04 pm

If Hegsteth needed a minder to get back to his room then he was too drunk to function.

The first question is: Is that true? he secnd question is: If so, when did somebody decide that he needed a minder? Before he left Washington? The third question is: Who decided that he needed a minder? Someone on Fox News?

Who picked her? (if that is true)

Did the two of them know each other before that evening? Why did he take an overnight trip to California to that event? Who knew about it? He’s originally from Minnesota.

Was he back in California a few days later? I seem to have understood that but that may be wrong,

This reminds me:

John Tower was rejected for Secretary of Defense in 18989 because he was a habitual drunk. President Bush 41 persisted in the nomination till a vote.

Hegseth was considered by Trump for the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2017.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 11/20/2024 @ 5:22 pm
Mediate has full santa monica pd police report on hegseth sexual assault.
asset (7141ff) — 11/20/2024 @ 11:37 pm
How much do you have to drink to be unable of fight off an amorous woman?

There is a point past which it won’t matter.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 11/21/2024 @ 7:28 am
It all boils down to how afraid the Republican Senators are of Donald Trump. If the answer is “very afraid”, then kiss the filibuster goodbye.

We’ve already seen it: Not very. They elected Thune over Trump’s clear objections. This meme is tired.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 11/21/2024 @ 7:30 am
Patterico was right. The electorate is trash.

Keep saying that and you’ll keep losing. Whining about the deplorable voters isn’t very productive or informative. Mostly it’s a process of smug self-righteousness. If instead, you try to understand why they voted as they voted, you might get a clue as to how to move past Trump and Trumpism.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 11/21/2024 @ 7:38 am
Trump’s nominations are intended to be disruptive. That is the whole POINT of his appeal to the electorate. Some of them are also performative and more an in-your-face F.U. (and battlespace prep) to be replace later by the real choice.
Kevin M (a9545f) — 11/21/2024 @ 7:42 am
It should also be pointed out that a man who appoints RFK Jr to, well, anything cannot be called “conservative.”
Kevin M (a9545f) — 11/21/2024 @ 7:43 am
@26

Patterico was right. The electorate is trash.

Keep saying that and you’ll keep losing. Whining about the deplorable voters isn’t very productive or informative. Mostly it’s a process of smug self-righteousness. If instead, you try to understand why they voted as they voted, you might get a clue as to how to move past Trump and Trumpism.

Kevin M (a9545f) — 11/21/2024 @ 7:38 am

Kevin, some people are simply incapable to do that.

There’s a term that describes this that shall not be named here.

It’s no different than people whom were dealt lemons in life, and is incapable of making lemonade.
whembly (477db6) — 11/21/2024 @ 8:15 am
Regarding Pete Hegseth allegation.

If the alleged victim had a rape-kit done the next day, the hospital is required to also test for drugs (ie, roofies).

Had her test result came positive for roofies, there’s no way the local police would ignore this.

Her “story” isn’t lining up well.
whembly (477db6) — 11/21/2024 @ 8:18 am
whembly (477db6) — 11/21/2024 @ 8:18 am

If the alleged victim had a rape-kit done the next day, the hospital is required to also test for drugs (ie, roofies).

She only reported it four days later, coming in with her husband and children. She had semen in her.

There are a lot of questions you could ask to get at the truth, or at the probabilities.

By the way, this took place in October,2017, and Pete Hegseth got divorced from his second wife in 2017, according to Wikipedia, and married his third in 2019. He has seven children, all told.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 11/21/2024 @ 8:27 am
Nikki Haley came out against two of Donald Trump’s nominations,

Which two?

Tulsi Gabbard, whom she called something like a Chinese asset (and not just that) who hasn’t retracted her views, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom she called, among other things, a liberal Democrat,

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/21/nikki-haley-trump-cabinet-tulsi-gabbard-rfk-jr

Nikki Haley, the former UN ambassador and Republican presidential hopeful, criticized two of Donald Trump’s cabinet picks, calling his choice for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, “a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer” and Robert F Kennedy Jr, tapped for health secretary, a “liberal Democrat” with no background in relevant policy.

“So now she’s defended Russia, she’s defended Syria, she’s defended Iran, and she’s defended China,” Haley said of Gabbard on her SiriusXM radio show on Wednesday. “No, she has not denounced any of these views. None of them. She hasn’t taken one of them back.

“This is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer,” Haley continued, adding that the director of national intelligence “has to analyze real threats” to US security.
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 11/21/2024 @ 8:33 am
I think some Senators are trying to kill some nominations as quietly as possible, but let them die they will..
Sammy Finkelman (c2c77e) — 11/21/2024 @ 9:08 am
Nikki Haley came out against two of Donald Trump’s nominations,

Who’s Nikki Haley?
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/21/2024 @ 9:33 am
Police report on Hegseth alleged assault released

……….
The report, provided by the City of Monterey, California, was previously released to Hegseth in March 2021, per his request. It runs 22 pages and details the allegation leveled by a woman who claimed in 2017 that she was sexually assaulted by the cable news star at a Republican women’s conference.

Tim Parlatore, Hegseth’s attorney, vehemently denied the assault when it was first reported last week that a detailed memo of the claim had been sent to the Trump team. Parlatore said the sex was consensual, and that Hegseth later paid his accuser as part of a nondisclosure agreement in order to protect his reputation. Hegseth was never charged with a crime.
……….
According to the report, the police were first made aware of the alleged assault when Jane Doe (a pseudonym), who was 30 at the time, submitted for a rape-kit exam at a local hospital. A nurse from the hospital called an officer at the Monterey Police Department and reported the assault claim. Days later, police spoke with Doe as part of their investigation.

Doe said she spoke with Hegseth on the final night of the conference, during which attendees were drinking in a suite and at a bar in the hotel. Doe told police that Hegseth was flirting with women and putting his hand on their legs at the conference, and this prompted her to tell Hegseth she did not appreciate how he treated women.

Two different women who attended the conference and spoke with police said that Hegseth put his hand on their legs and asked them to come back to his room on separate occasions. One of the women, who worked at the conference, told police that she told Hegseth the physical contact was not acceptable. She said she then called over Doe to act as a buffer so he would not continue to pursue her.
………..
Doe told police she had been drinking that night, and told the nurse that she believed someone had slipped something in her drink.

She told police that her recollection became fuzzy after the pool exchange, and that the next memory she had was in an unknown room. She said Hegseth took her phone and blocked the door with his body when she tried to leave. She told police she said “no” repeatedly. She said she was next on a bed or a couch and Hegseth was on top of her, with his dog tags hovering over her face. …….She said he then threw her a towel and asked if she was okay. She said she did not remember how she got back to her room that night.
……….
(Hegseth told police a few weeks after the alleged assault that) he was “buzzed” but not drunk and that Doe led him out of the bar before going back to his hotel room. He said Doe would not leave his hotel room, and that the two proceeded to have consensual sex.
……….
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/21/2024 @ 9:49 am
Gaetz withdraws
Kevin M (a9545f) — 11/21/2024 @ 9:50 am
Nikki Haley, the former UN ambassador and Republican presidential hopeful, criticized two of Donald Trump’s cabinet picks, calling his choice for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, “a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer” and Robert F Kennedy Jr, tapped for health secretary, a “liberal Democrat” with no background in relevant policy.

LOL! If having “no background in relevant policy” is the standard, that would also apply to Pete Hegseth (Defense Dept.), Linda McMahon (Education), Mehemt Oz (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), Matt Gaetz (Justice), Matthew Whittaker (ambassador to NATO), Kristi Noem, etc.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 11/21/2024 @ 9:57 am

11/20/2024

Let the Games Begin: Two Items of Note

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