GOP to Hegseth Accusers: Speak Out So We Can Crush You
Trump's other nominations look a lot more sure after Ernst caves to MAGA bullying
Dec. 10: Breach in Senate’s defense against Trump’s Trumpish nominees … Mangione charged with murder he pretty clearly did … Netanyahu on the stand … New Commandment brings Lord’s total to 11 …
You can listen to the TFN podcast here.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) went public with her criticism of President-elect Donald Trump’s Defense secretary nominee. And then MAGA attacked her.
So now Ernst is urging other critics of former Fox anchor Pete Hegseth to go public, too.
Ernst — who says she has been raped and sexually assaulted — surrendered to Hegseth yesterday, with a statement saying she supports him “through this process,” which what the fuck does that mean?
“This process” is meeting with senators.
Ernst’s statement isn’t “I support him for secretary” so what the Orwellian fuck does she mean? She hopes Hegseth doesn’t die on the floor of Ted Cruz’s office?
To be fair, Ernst did kinda explain herself, or at least hint at what’s going on.
“As I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources.”
Ah, so there it is.
She’s raising the bar, justifying rejecting complaints from women who don’t want to be re-victimized.
Ironically, of course, Ernst was pressured into saying that because she, too, fucked up and didn’t remain anonymous. As TFN said last month — cosplaying as a savvy Beltway pundit — GOP senators are only safe from Trump and MAGA in their anonymous collective.
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) lost his attorney-general bid because his Senate opponents never came forward. Trump was just told that he didn’t have the votes — leaving him and MAGA no targets.
Ernst didn’t learn that lesson. She went public with her concerns about Hegseth. Non-anonymously.
And the Christian warriors who want the United States military to be run by a Christian warrior mobilized.
Trump loyalists sounded the call for MAGA to defend Hegseth by attacking Hegseth’s attackers. It started with Trump Jr. and Trump Jr. Jr. (Charlie Kirk) attacking Ernst online last week. Kirk is threatening primary challenges against Republicans who don’t submit to Trump’s nominations.
And the Republican National Committee press team firehosed the media with an op-ed piece by the attorney general of Iowa, Ernst’s state, urging senators to submit to Trump.
Yesterday, Steve Bannon said, “It’s imperative that both Pete and Kash get confirmed, if nothing less than to send a message that President Trump is going to have the administration he wants,” referring to Hegseth and FBI nominee Kash Patel1.
An insider source at the Trump transition team told Politico, “Joni, I’m told, got the message loud and clear.”
Hear that, ladies? Come forward and you will be attacked and made to back down.
Which is why Ernst is now urging you to come forward.
Of course, Ernst should’ve known coming forward means getting attacked. Because that’s what she did. When Ernst voted to confirm yet another Trump nominee accused of sexual violence, Ernst also wanted to hear directly from the victim. And then didn’t believe her.
The year was 2018. America’s youth danced innocently to popular singers like R. Kelly and Sean “Diddy” Combs. An optimistic nation eager to test the bounds of democracy watched with amazement as someone with no government experience tried to run the United States government.
And Ernst confirmed the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
Even though Christine Blasey Ford testified non-anonymously before the Senate that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her. Even though she had witnesses to her credibility. Even though the Trump1.0 White House blocked a full investigation of Kavanaugh. Here’s Ernst from those halcyon days:
What we want to see is, is there evidence or corroboration that the FBI is able to find through the supplemental investigation that would corroborate Dr. Ford's accusations and if not, I will continue to support Judge Kavanaugh [who I know is a rapey fuckin’ frat-boy sneering asshole but what can I do I’m just a U.S. senator].
In short: Anonymous? Not good enough. Public? Not good enough. Under oath? Not good enough. Witnesses? Not good enough.
Unless an FBI compromised by the White House finds and shares mythical corroboration of a decades-ago sexual assault, you’re good enough for Republicans.
Aaron Rupar, Public Notice’s maestro of clips, shared video of Hegseth yesterday lobbying for the Pentagon gig by saying he’d been “misconstrued”:
...that I somehow don’t support women in the military. Some of our greatest warriors, our best warriors out there are women.
Rupar juxtaposes that with Hegseth last month confirming, “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles.” Rupar concludes that “Hegseth now claims he didn't say the thing he said on camera a month ago.”
Your suspicious-of-certainty TFN isn’t so certain. It’s not clear to me that Hegseth yesterday definitively said he supports women in combat roles. Because who knows what the fuck he meant by “warriors.”
Besides, as Ernst just demonstrated in response to bullying by Hegseth’s allies, in MAGA land previous contradictory statements only prove your reality-defying edgelord power.
BOTTOM LINE Ernst stuck her head out of the foxhole and ended up surrendering. Had she stuck with the strategy on Gaetz — opponents hide anonymously behind GOP leaders Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and John Thune (R-SD) — then the Republican line of defense against wildly unqualified and ideologically vile nominees might have held.
Instead, Trumpworld now believes they’ve got the Senate GOP on the run through the crack Ernst has created. They’re now increasingly optimistic about getting through other nominees including Patel, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI).
In short, Ernst may have cleared the way for all of them by coming forward publicly and then falling to the forces (including her) that swarm anyone who comes forward publicly.
Mangione Charged with Murder
Two accused killers appeared in court yesterday on charges other than killing people. One of them was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The hotter one was Luigi Mangione.
Mangione was arraigned on charges related to his alleged ghost gun and fake ID. Then, late last night, New York prosecutors filed charges against him for the murder last week of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Mangione, of course, is entitled to the presumption of innocence despite being obviously guilty. (Sorry, but c’mon.)
A court filing says that when cops responding to a tip in Altoona, PA, confronted Mangione at the McDonald’s where he was eating, they asked him whether he’d been to New York recently. At that point, Mangione “became quiet and started to shake.”
What was first described as his manifesto turns out to be less than three pages because kids today2. In it, Mangione allegedly wrote, “I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done. These parasites had it coming.”
There’s a lot of anecdotal reporting about Mangione’s medical issues, specifically his back. But the point is to prevent this specific case from eclipsing the focus on the state of American health care. (Which, yes, TFN totally guilty of because I mean c’mon!)
MANGIONE’S DEFENSE New polling suggests that Mangione could offer a novel legal defense by arguing that the Zeitgeist made him do it.
Polling taken before Mangione killed allegedly killed Thompson shows Americans fucking hate this fucking paperwork dickhole deductible goddam premium jackshit copay assface in-network shitfucking bullshit.
New Gallup polling finds that only 28% of people rate health insurance in the U.S. as at least good — and all of those 28% lack health insurance for impaired brain-thinking.
And the number of Americans ready to say fuck this bullshit entirely and cast the for-profit “health”-”insurance” industry out of the network of the United States is at higher levels than we’ve seen since before Republicans used a president’s Blackness to make Americans hate free health care.
The new Gallup poll finds that 62% of America believe the government should ensure that all Americans have coverage. Technically, that means “should have insurance,” but in practice we know it means “should have health care” and better/deeper polling would show that.
Either way, this means universal “coverage” is now the mainstream position. Which makes leaving health care to the free market is now a radical, fringe idea far out of step with America. GOT THAT, RADICAL, FRINGE MAINSTREAM MEDIA?!?
THE LOBBY IS IN THE BUILDING A top UnitedHealthcare lobbyist is also a top Democratic fundraiser, Sludge reports. Steve Elmendorf, a former congressional aide, has been paid millions by UnitedHealthcare for work including killing public support for either single-payer healthcare or a public option — or anything else showing any symptoms of common-sense socialism.
Sludge connects the dots between Elmendorf fundraising and Democratic leaders including Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). Sludge does good work, so go read it. You’ll get angry. Just, y’know, not too angry, okay? Activism angry, not Jesse Claims angry.
VIDEO Pretty sure TFN was first with this — and I’m also pretty sure no one gives a shit so I should shed that bad old-media habit of chasing down shit that’ll come out anyway — but if you’re curious, last night’s TFN Bonus Story included video of Mangione’s 2016 high-school valedictory speech. (Spoiler: It’s boring.)
ILLIONAIRES STICK TOGETHER Amazon, the military arm of Jeff Bezos, is clamping down on anti-corporate messaging, according to the Washington Post, the political wing of Jeff Bezos. Shirts and other merch bearing the words Deny Defend Depose popped up on Amazon after they were found on the bullets and casings at the Thompson murder scene. So Amazon removed them, apparently because they glorified the killing, and definitely not because they shame the ongoing corporate crime spree of killing 45,000 people a year.
Netanyahu Appears in Court in Democratic Country That Doesn’t Exempt Leaders from Laws
For the first time in his years-old corruption case, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared in court this morning, explaining that the charges against him are a “drop in the sea” compared to all his other crimes uh, the rest of his busy agenda.
Unlike his buddy, President-elect Donald Trump, Netanyahu said he — like a grownup — is capable of doing his job at the same time as a trial. The same way everyone else in America is expected to do both when they make crimings.
Netanyahu is also accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court. But today’s court proceedings focused on more quotidian charges.
He’s accused of fraud, breach of trust, and three (3) different bribe-taking incidents.
Netanyahu allegedly helped out a Hollywood billionaire in exchange for almost $200,000 worth of cigars and champagne. That amount of cigars and champagne would kill most people, raising questions about why Netanyahu didn’t have it shipped to Gaza.
He also allegedly pushed helpful regulations so that media moguls would be nice to him and the Netanyahu brood. Not sure Netanyahu denies the charges or is simply planning to plead too Trumpish to be subject to human laws.
Progressive Caucus Gets New Chair
Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) is the new chair of the sprawling, possibly-too-big3 Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Casar says the best way to defeat MAGA culture-war bullshit is to be strong on economic issues.
...when we hear Republicans attacking queer Americans again, I think the progressive response needs to be that a trans person didn’t deny your health insurance claim, a big corporation did — with Republican help.
Casar hinted at two approaches that sound about right to your always-listening TFN: Educating and democratizing.
Democrats, Casar said, need to explain to people why America’s most powerful political party is obsessed with issues relating to a minuscule proportion of the population: “We need to connect the dots for people that the Republican Party obsession with these culture war issues is driven by Republicans’ desire to distract voters and have them look away while Republicans pick their pocket.”
The way to do that, Casar suggested diplomatically (and maybe too diplomatically), is for the party to “shed off some of its more corporate elements.”
The thing about populism-izing the Democratic Party, though, is that voters never hear you until you start naming names and making enemies. FDR famously bragged about taking hot baths in the hatred of the banks. If Casar starts naming these “corporate elements” we’ll know he’s serious and that America’s monied interests actually have a fight on their hands.
Two Quickies
POSSIBLE GROSSNESS ALERT (WITH NO IMPLIED KINK-SHAMING) Here’s your video of moral paragon and Christian warrior Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) — sentinel of bathroom genitalia — spitting in a nice lady’s mouth. The special occasion? The 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump.
The oldest known stone tablet inscribed with
thesome Ten Commandments is going on the auction block. Because what else would you do with words allegedly dictated by The Lord Almighty, Creator of Everything Including Nancy Mace’s Trump Campaign Party, Father of Jesus Christ and also Himself? Here’s the fun part: These Ten Commandments are yet another variation. That’s right, there is no “The” Ten Commandments, just whichever version your gerrymandered legislature imposes on your schools. So consider this TFN’s vote for this version, which drops Thou Shalt Not Take the Lord’s Name in Vain and substitutes in Thou Shalt Worship on Mount Gerizim. Well, Texas, get to it! Let’s see some Mount Gerizim worshipping, tout suite, pardner! Jesus Christ!4
TCB
FUCKING SWAG FUCKING CAVEATS Just a reminder that TFN HQ can’t vouch for the third-party delivery time of all the TFN swag now available at TheFingNews.com. So if you’re hoping to get something in time for Christmas, please do your shopping tout suite, pardner! The 10% discount codeword FINGNEWS10 is good through Saturday, Dec. 14, at The TFN Shop.
Here’s one more look at this rakishly handsome t-shirt, bearing the iconic symbol that true Newsfuckers know stands for Deny Defend Depose:
And don’t forget to share pics of all you glorious Newsfuckers sporting and/or brandishing your new TFN swag!
SOCIAL-ISM We’re on at least 74% of all the social medias! Namely, Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon, and Spoutible.
Go get ‘em, kids.
…who once defended an arms dealer trying to send illegal stolen weapons to the West Bank, as TFN exclusively revealed!
I kid because I love; Mangione turns out to be a prolific and peripatetic reader!
Some members aren’t exactly Progressive Classic, leading to awkward situations when their primary challengers want the caucus’s endorsement.
Because it’s now okay to take the Lord’s name in vain, yo.
Best sentence maybe ever written: Polling taken before Mangione killed allegedly killed Thompson shows Americans fucking hate this fucking paperwork dickhole deductible goddam premium jackshit copay assface in-network shitfucking bullshit.
thank you Jonathan.
Please God keep me Sober today.