Medical Miracle: Trump Can Now Hear ‘No’
Deaf to the "no"s of countless women, Trump now able to hear it from old, white senators
Nov. 22: New details on Gaetzfail … Bondi new AG nominee … Defense nominee under fire barely being held accountable … Biden’s last judges …
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RePresident-elect Donald Trump finally seems to be able to hear the word, “No.” At least when it comes from old, white people.
Somehow, the same ears incapable for years of hearing “No” from legions of women have somehow acquired the ability to hear “No,” at least when it’s said in response to the question “How about Matt Gaetz as attorney general?”
Maybe that bullet this summer was like Spider-Man’s radioactive spider and gave Trump’s ear the superpower of a rich old white dude able to detect the sound of someone saying, “No.”
Your news-scouring TFN spent all day scouring the Beltway press and reading all the alleged insiders to find out how this medical miracle occurred. Nada.
It can’t be Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., making everyone healthy, because he’s not Health secretary yet.
So how did the left score a win this early in the game? It’s really important to understand why, because it tells us how to win in the future.
Your always-debunking TFN debunked some of the Gaetz bunk when the news bunked yesterday. But spotting bullshit isn’t enough; TFN demands the truth!
There’s some speculation that Trump accepted the withdrawal as a 4D chess move. This is hilarious for many reasons, but mostly chess. It’s also hilarious because of the premise: Trump agreed to a plan in which he looked like a loser.
Has Trump once in his life feigned a loss to get a real win later? Not counting bankruptcy or taxes?
Trump Steaks. Trump Water. Trump University. Etc.
Besides, Trump reportedly personally lobbied for Gaetz. Why put your fingerprints on this thing if you know it’s going down? So, for the sake of reality, let’s assume Trump has not suddenly learned 4D chess. Here’s what we do know.
Vice President-elect JD Vance was in Senate meetings on Wednesday, just one day before the nomination gaetz-and-burned. “In those private meetings,” the Washington Post reported, “Gaetz and Vance acknowledged that they were lacking the support they needed.”
Why didn’t Gaetz and Vance perform their macho testosterone act to whip senators into line?
“Gaetz seemed nervous and did not appear familiar with the scope of the Justice Department,” a source told the Washington Post.
Man, wait’ll the boss finds out his flunkeys acknowledged a reality that could’ve been altered by not acknowledging it! That’s Trump 101, even at Trump University.
This is actually really huge, because Vance is going to be Trump’s Capitol point person. And doesn’t know how to bring the Trumpist reality-altering!
Reportedly, they were at least four votes short. Lacking the votes ought to have led Trump to identify who those no votes were, and then privately bully them by threatening to publicly bully them.
Gaetz’s claim that this fight would be a distraction is bullshit.
A) From what?
B) It would’ve established Trump’s dominance out of the gate(z). Instead it’s established the opposite.
We know lots of tidbits about what happened, but not a lot about the reasons for what didn’t happen.
And, look, Washington political reporters are pretty good at their jobs. The problem is the jobs themselves — which don’t require questioning the system. So when Trump plays by the system, it’s just … the system.
But, but … why did Trump play by the system? The obvious but admittedly unproven explanation is that Trump got played.
Consider the evidence, including more from the Washington Post on Trump having zero sense of the battlefield:
Trump had not realized that his announcement of Gaetz’s selection would come just before the potential release of a House Ethics Committee report on Gaetz, and was furious at the pick’s failure.
Also, Trump tapped Vance to work the Hill. But what are Vance’s qualifications for moving powerful Republican senators?
Vance has been in the Senate Congress elected office any government job for less than two whole years. During which his party was the minority. In which Vance held no leadership roles. And accomplished nothing.
Given Vance’s absolute lack of qualifications for this sales job, how did they do? Had they done their homework? Gaetz failed the test of “What’s in the Justice Department?” Did they storm the Senate like, uh, stormtroopers? Gaetz was nervous.
Not surprisingly, their takeaway was that the votes weren’t there. They were likely to lose four Senate Republicans, leaving them just one vote short.
Which four? We don’t know. And that’s a massive tell here. If MAGA-land had heard a whisper of “No” from any senator, we’d know it from the intimidation campaign. Did any senator tell Vance and Gaetz “No” to their face? Maybe we’ll find that out, but we haven’t yet.
If you were Trump or Vance and knew a senator to blame wouldn’t you publicly jack them up? Unless you felt you needed them later, maybe. But even then, bullying them now would lock them down for later, no?
So…what if they didn’t know who the “no” votes were?
That would suggest that GOP leaders — Republican leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) or incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) — relayed a message: “We don’t have the votes.”
Presenting it to Trump as a fait accompli meant they didn’t counsel him on how to overcome it. They could’ve counseled Trump that no one said “no” in public because they were afraid to. Which meant they were bullyable. But apparently they didn’t tell him that.
If that’s what happened, it implies that neither Trump nor Vance had their shit sufficiently together to challenge the counsel from Thune or McConnell, let alone to find out who the holdouts were in order to bully them.
So Trump and Vance and Gaetz folded. As the Washington Post’s source said, “McConnell just told MAGA, ‘I took down your golden boy in a week.’”
McConnell and Thune left no fingerprints on this gun, and Trump let them leave the crime scene without testing their hands for gunpowder residue and holy shit is this metaphor still going?
Whatever the explanation, it amounts to “Team Trump’s not good at this.” It’s dangerous to accept the punditry explanation that Trump played by the system. He never does. Usually that’s his advantage. But now it’s ours.
As the Post’s source also said, “The game changed as of today.”
Trump Hands U.S. Law Enforcement to Qatari Lobbyist
After an exhaustive instant new search process, RePresident-elect Donald Trump yesterday named current lobbyist and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as his nominee to run the Justice Department.
As a lobbyist, Bondi has taken money to represent the interests of:
Amazon
General Motors
Qatar
Uber
Represent these corporate and international interests against who, you might ask? The Deep State, obvi! It’s not like Bondi’s clients make their billions in profits off of Trump voters!
Oh, and Bondi’s brother is a lawyer who’s paid to represent — guess who?!? – Elon Musk! In a case that’s being prosecuted by — guess who?!? — Bondi’s brother’s sister…Pam.
That’s right, The Lever reports that Bondi will now oversee the prosecutors going up against her brother, who’s defending Musk against charges of securities fraud. Which obviously, to commit securities fraud, any sane billionaire would have to be high off their face on drugs!
Bondi’s obvious conflicts of interest aside, her primary, unquestioning, unpaid loyalty is to Trump. For Trump, she lied even without fake evidence to back up her claim that he won the 2020 presidential election.
All of this, of course, makes her more dangerous than former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) would’ve been. Because unless we learn that Bondi raped a kid or had consensual sex with a woman, she’s now going to be seen as “normal” and “acceptable” and “qualified.” Never mind that her loyalty isn’t to the Constitution.
And, yes, Bondi has all kinds of scandals, too. But her scandals are what would disqualify normal nominees in normal times, which these are not. If Democrats don’t see Bondi’s loyalty as the primary disqualification, that needs to change.
So if your news outlets are focusing on scandals (yes, TFN does it, too, there’s some merit to elevating weaknesses, for sure) — but they’re not addressing the fundamental, systemic, constitutional problems with these nominees, with loyalty — then that should change, too.
Hegseth Spouts Blatant, Unchallenged Lie
There’s a lot of siloing in journalism. And it hurts us.
For instance, some political reporters haven’t covered criminal-justice shit. Crime reporters know that there’s no such thing as innocence. Juries don’t exonerate defendants. Cops don’t exonerate suspects.
There’s guilty and not guilty. No innocent.
So when Fox co-host Pete Hegseth said yesterday he was “completely cleared” of accusations of sexual assault, you knew that was a lie before his tongue hit the last plosive sound.
And whoever Trump has shepherding the Hegseth nomination ought to have coached Hegseth on how to talk about it. Who might Hegseth’s sherpa be? Vice President-elect and Senate noob JD Vance, obvi.
Hegseth is the Gaetz understudy who yesterday took on the starring role in the off-your-rocker production of Les Miserable Cabinet Nominees. And yesterday Hegseth was asked whether he sexually assaulted the woman who told police he did.
Hegseth said he’d keep his response simple and then proceeded not to, by not saying, “No.” Instead, he said:
As far as the media is concerned, I’ll keep this very simple. The matter was fully investigated, and I was completely cleared, and that’s where I’m going to leave it.
Again, a crime reporter would likely also know that “fully investigated” isn’t a thing.
But this really isn’t reporters’ fault. Editors, too, see things in silos. And even though a ton of important stuff happens between silos, our billionaire publishing overlords aren’t smart enough (I did say “billionaire”!) to see this, let alone fix it.
In good-journalism world, the fact that Hegseth lied and said he was “completely cleared” ought to have been the headline. Instead of this:
And the reason neither the headline nor the story address Hegseth’s prima facie lie is the little kicker in red above the main headline: Defense.
This isn’t a Defense story! It’s a many-things story! Political, but also criminal justice, and also more things.
But how news is framed in the media is often how politicians see it — because unseeing frames is a lot of work. In theory, Democrats could ask Hegseth this same question under oath. And then make him double down on it by pressing him to add to his lie. Who pronounced you cleared? By what authority? On what evidence?
The reason to press him is not (just) a gotcha. Hegseth’s willingness to lie correlates directly with the same problem we have with Pam Bondi: Corrupt loyalty. The willingness to make your oath of office a lie.
Democrats alone can’t stop the nomination, but they can serve as an impediment by getting nominees on record about loyalty. Checks and balances!
Because loyalty to Trump is the problem with attorney-general nominees rapey and otherwise, and with Pentagon nominees, rapey and otherwise. Hell, even the lack of experience isn’t as scandalous as the loyalty.
Which means we need to hold our media accountable — withholding cash and eyeballs alike — when they succumb to silos or knee-jerk coverage and neglect the fundamental issue of loyalty to the Constitution.
TFN likely won’t ignore big narratives driving mainstream coverage, but it’s really important that you Newsfuckers keep me honest, too, about addressing the real scandals. Checks and balances!
Trump Launches Christian Crusade in Europe
RePresident-elect Donald Trump is sending his former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to Europe, as his ambassador to NATO. Whitaker’s getting overlooked by our political media because who cares that he’s a rampaging Christian nationalist.
Over on the Jonathan Larsen Substack where I silo original reporting, I’ve got some previously unreported details on Whitaker’s role in the cause of right-wing Christian nationalism. And I connect some dots to show how the right-wing evangelization of Ukraine may stand to gain from this.
Democrats have a rare opportunity to probe Whitaker in the confirmation hearing about the “religious freedom” nonsense under which this crusade is hiding itself, but it’s doubtful they will — unless a stink is made.
And looky here, author and journalist Jeff Sharlet — the mastermind behind the book and Netflix series “The Family” — reposted my reporting yesterday on Bluesky (which is suddenly the new Twitter):
So the world is ready for this stink to be made, Newsfuckers! (And, yes, we’re going to stay on the Christian nationalism of Team Trump, you betcha.)
Schumer Fucks Up and/or Brilliantly Manages Final Judicial Appointments
Four years of putting sensible people on the bench is just about over. By the year 2029, eight of the previous 12 years will have involved right-wing billionaire dark-money front groups telling President Donald Trump who to inject into our judiciary system.
Fighting/removing them is going to be a generational effort. But for now, let’s focus on how Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) brilliantly/stupidly engineered/fucked up the last nominations of Pres. Joe Biden.
There’s a lot of hollering from the left about the deal Schumer cut to get some of them confirmed. Republicans could have gummed up the works, stalling or even preventing some confirmations.
So Schumer agreed to drop some in return for not stalling others.
Specifically, Schumer cut loose four circuit-court nominees. In return, he’ll get to confirm 13 judges to lower courts. And piss off some credible skeptics.
Lena Zwarensteyn of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights called the deal “Unacceptable” and said, too late, “All of these nominees must be confirmed expeditiously before the end of the 118th Congress.”
Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), now president of the American Constitution Society, said, “All public officials need to be prepared to fight against the extremism that will come when Trump returns to office and retreating in advance is a dangerous precedent to set.”
The problem here, though, might not be Schumer. His office told the AP that the four dropped judges didn’t have the votes to get confirmed, anyway. Which means maybe Schumer was smart to at least get these 13 judges through.
But also means some unnamed Democratic senators just handed Trump four more judgeships. Anyone got names?
Three Quickies
Brazil has indicted former President Jair Bolsonaro and 36 other political and governmental leaders on charges of illegally trying to keep him in office after losing the 2022 elections. The indictments were praised by American researchers who said prior to now it was believed impossible to indict a president just two years after they tried to steal their office.
Russia has upped the ante in knocking down Ukraine’s buildings and killing people. For the first time, President Vladimir Putin is using a new, medium-range, “nonnuclear hypersonic” ballistic missile called Oreshnik. Yes, everyone’s gonna blame Pres. Joe Biden for first upping the ante by letting Ukraine use long-range U.S. missiles against Russia. But lest we forget, Russia is also racing to grab as much territory as it can before RePresident Donald Trump comes in and pressures Ukraine into letting Russia keep whatever land they’ve seized.
There’s a fun, diverting theory that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) could undo his retirement from Congress by simply…showing up when the next congressional session begins. Yes, this is exactly the plot of a Seinfeld episode in which George Costanza simply…shows up after quitting. Could Gaetz get away with this? The only authorities to stop it are the House and the state of Florida. So shit yes.
TCB
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NOTICE It is TFN’s editorial policy that the vast majority of Americans are not evil and didn’t suddenly decide to vote for evil. We just need to awaken enough good to sideline the fuckheads. Despair is not an option.
Go get ‘em, kids. And give yourself a good, cozy weekend…
If Gaetz does show up for the next congress, THEN can we see the ethics report?
I read somewhere this morning that the 4 senators are Collins, Murkowski, The Turtle himself and the new guy from Utah that just replaced Mittens. I wish I could remember where but it was probably Bluesky, so it may or may not be accurate. 🤪