Thune Punches GOP in the Johnson

Senate leader punched way down to smack down the speaker as Republicans furloughed their unity

Oct. 8: Thune metaphorically punched Johnson in the dick for forgetting GOP talking points … Sharpie-gate guy confirmed to run America’s weather stuff … Trump’s Venezuela intel reliability questioned by intel veterans … “One Battle After Another” sparks another battle with the right …

---

Ed. note: Not every day is a huge news day! Not every 24-hour period provides us with A Big New Thing That Happened about which we are obliged to be informed, let alone form an opinion of which we are totally sure, let alone light our hair on fire. This is such a day. You are hereby excused from getting exercised about anything new. Treat yourself!

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), left, towering, delivers the classic “We talked about this” gesture to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who nods along in supplication. (Screengrab / Johnson video, which come to think of it is just a polite way of saying dick pic.)

The diminishing capacity of Pres. Donald Trump to stay on message appears to be contagious. Congressional Republican leaders are now fracturing as well in the face of mighty unbreakable Democratic unity¹. (I kid because I love.)

Of course, it’s tough for anyone to stay on the same page when infrequent reading leaves them unfamiliar with the concept of pages. And so, yesterday, in the shutdown showdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) parted ways tenderly, but bittersweetly, with only the most fleeting backward glance.

The reason it’s today’s lead story is that awareness of Republican disunity is what’s keeping Democrats from folding or caving or going caving to find a cave to do their folding. So far, Democrats are holding firm on their refusal to extend Republican spending levels without extending Obamacare subsidies to prevent massive health-insurance premium hikes in a few months.

And on Tuesday, Republicans both continued their lack of same-page-itude and added some more. Even though they literally have nothing else to do right now but same-page-ify.

In a joint appearance that turned out less joint than expected, Johnson was asked about the potential for a stand-alone bill to pay air-traffic controllers and the military. The response was disjointed.

Johnson responded, and I had to watch the thing — I had to watch it! — because while yay corporate media for flagging this, they cut down Johnson’s answer. (No, wait, I lie, another piece had more of it.) Anyway, Johnson was all in on a stopgap:

Johnson: I’m certainly open to that. We’ve done it in the past. We wanna make sure that our troops are paid. [Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) has] already filed legislation to pay our troops. [Blah blah end the shutdown like I just undercut our efforts to do].

Thune: And honestly, I mean, you don’t need that. [Johnson nods his head in unity against his prior disunity]. … The simplest way to end this is not try to exempt this group or that group [like this fucking dweeb just suggested].

In other words, no, coppers, we won’t at least let the women and children out or the old guy faking a heart condition. And Thune shooting down Johnson’s play was captured on home video taken from just beyond the grassy knoll:

But that wasn’t the only crack — in just one day! — in yet another Republican wall that Mexico didn’t pay for.

Trump wasn’t about to let one (1) day pass without also being out of goosestep with his ostensible partners in many crimes. So the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is considering not reimbursing furloughed federal government workers with back pay.

Cue Thune: “My understanding is, yes, that they would get paid. I’ll find out. I haven’t heard this up until now.” Maybe get on the same page?

Feeling left out regarding who they’ll leave out from back pay, Trump weighed in (not a fat joke!) and introduced a third scenario: Back pay for people he likes.

“[I]t depends who we’re talking about,” Trump said even though no not really. “For the most part, we’re going to take care of our people, but for some people they don’t deserve to be taken care of.”

Let the record show that most government managers refer to “paying” employees. “Taking care of our people” is more commonly used in reference to ensuring that one’s numbers runners on the street get paid and that the boss gets his taste.

Obviously, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Republicans “are all in complete lockstep,” referring to the unlocked, out-of-goosestepping.

Jackson added that “The Administration will not negotiate while the American people are being held hostage by Democrats.” Because everyone knows you don’t negotiate to free hostages the way the Administration is literally doing right now with Hamas. Just ask any hostage negotiator!

Hilariously, the AP reports that Johnson yesterday said, “We were always planning to have those discussions.” And they’re also always already planning to cave in those discussions: Politico reports that “top Republican leaders agree that the subsidies have to be extended going into a midterm election.”

So Republicans already expect to give Democrats what they and most Americans want; Republicans are telling the media this, knowing it will encourage Democrats to hold their ground; and the entire government shutdown is only continuing because Republicans don’t want to come to an agreement too early, even though usually they don’t care if they come too early.

And the GOP leadership’s followers aren’t even following their leaders. TFN told you on Tuesday about Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) demanding subsidy extensions. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is also cracking the GOP wall.

And even if the Administration won’t negotiate, some Republicans will.

A bipartisan herd of senators — pride? clutch? murder? — is holding informal talks, the well known precursor to formal talks. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has put forward a subsidy extension plan to stop extending her party’s official no-talking position.

At this point, the only thing that could weaken the GOP position more would be rampant flight delays due to staffing shortages.

RAMPANT FLIGHT DELAYS DUE TO STAFFING SHORTAGES One week into the federal government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that’s run by a former reality-TV star is showing the strain the way a reality-TV star would in a deceptively edited promo. But for real!

Delays were expected or actually happening Tuesday night in Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Nashville, and Newark, among others. And in case Republicans are worried these delays will get blamed on the shutdown, if you called the FAA to ask about it, you got a recorded message saying you wouldn’t get a human to talk to because of the shutdown.

BACK-PAY FLASHBACK Denying back pay to any of the 600,000 furloughed federal workers would violate federal law, and not the usual way Trump violates federal law.

Trump is perhaps best known for violating federal laws signed by people dead so long we just assume the paintings of them are accurate. Denying back pay, however, would violate a 2019 law signed by a president of whom there are far too many photos: Himself.

Despite Trump’s threat to unfairly deny pay to people he doesn’t like, the law he himself with his himness signed in 2019 is literally called The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act.

Hilariously, OMB Director Russ Vought was busted and caught² by NPR — even without his funding! — for issuing guidance as recently as Sept. 30 saying workers will get back pay “as soon as possible after” the shutdown, and then deleting that language on Oct. 3. Vought ought to get his shought together.

OBLIGATORY REMINDER The richest nation in recorded history should have free health care for everyone. And we already know we can afford it because it’s already being paid for. The only awkwardly phrased issue is, by whom should it be paid for by whom?

MEDIA WATCH There are tons of important things going on, so why is TFN so focused on the shutdown? Actionability is a big factor in my story selection: Is there anything anyone can actually do about it?

There is. And not just legislators. Everyone can speak up and help change the course of this showdown. Another factor: Consequences.

Obviously, the shutdown has real consequences for the country and 600,000 workers. But this is also the biggest political battle we’ve seen since Trump re-took office. A Democratic victory — anything short of just rubber-stamping GOP spending levels — has the potential to be a massive game-changer in terms of morale and activism going forward. With the midterm elections one year away.

Graffiti Accomplice to Leave His Mark at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed a new administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The new chief who will oversee NOAA agencies including the National Weather Service (NWS) is best known for his part in perhaps the most notorious case of outsider street art other than Banksy.

During Pres. Donald Trump’s first term he displayed a forecast map with a crudely drawn bloop extending a hurricane path to make it appear as if it vindicated his previous, wrong prediction. The mystery artist was never identified and the work itself, known as “Sharpie-gate,” is now estimated to be valued in the millions.

As acting NOAA administrator at the time, Neil Jordan participated in the release of a statement criticizing NWS forecasters for being correct.

A panel of the National Academy of Public Administration for NOAA found that the White House pressured NOAA to put out the statement and that Jacobs “violated the Code of Ethics for Science Supervision and Management set forth in Section 7.01 of NOAA’s Scientific Integrity Policy.”

Obviously, the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed Jacobs yesterday, after his nomination advanced from committee last month with help from five Democrats:

• Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)

• Maria Cantwell (D-WA)

• Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)

• Jacky Rosen (D-NV)

• Brian Schatz (D-HI)

In their defense — not counting his Sharpie-gate ethical lapse, which he says he regrets — Jacobs seems about the best we could get from Trump. He understands that climate change is changing the climate and, despite Trump’s staffing cuts, wants to prioritize staffing for forecasting and alerts for the national disasters his boss is making worse by exacerbating climate change.

Wilkerson Decries Trump Use of Alt Intel on Venezuela

Retired Col. Larry Wilkerson (U.S. Army) became one of the best-known critics³ of the Iraq War after renouncing his own role in unwittingly passing on shitty intelligence used to justify the unjustified war.

And now Wilkerson is comparing Pres. Donald Trump’s use of questionable intelligence against Venezuela to Iraq. Ahmad Chalabi was an Iraqi politician who later defended the use of bogus intelligence for the greater good of toppling Saddam Hussein.

As I reported last week, Martin Rodil is a Venezuelan dissident feeding Trump the narrative — not accepted by Trump’s own intelligence community — that Venezuela trained thousands of gang members to wage covert war on the U.S.

In my followup story yesterday, Wilkerson said he “could not help but compare” Rodil to Chalabi.

Former CIA official Larry Johnson told me, “This is Iraq 2.0 and Rodil is Chalabi.”

And both men raised serious questions about Rodil’s partner, former CIA official Gary Berntsen, whom Johnson knew.

Johnson said he thinks Berntsen honestly believes what he’s telling the White House. “I think it is highly likely that opponents of Maduro have ginned up the story about Tren de Aragua as his secret army or placing Venezuela as a major hub of narcotics activity,” Johnson said. “Is Gary being played? I would assume so.”

You can read more of what Wilkerson and Johnson told me here.

Two Thumbs Up!

Conservatives are pissed at “One Battle After Another,” which I haven’t seen (yet) but will try not to spoil. The Hollywood Reporter Hollywood reports that the critically acclaimed Paul Thomas Anderson hit — starring Leo DiCaprio and Sean Penn and more — is drawing fire from right-wingers who won’t be named here because fuck those goobers. (Hint: One of them rhymes with Agnew, Spiro.)

Here’s the right-wing critique of the movie:

“The basic suggestion is a conspiracy theory in which the United States is run by white supremacist Christian nationalists… [ha ha, these crazy sci-fi flicks!]

“And that system must be taken on at the cost of family, at the cost of friendship, at the cost of decency, at the cost of basic human capacity for success. It is better, in other words, to be a complete loser who wastes your life bombing things randomly in order to free illegal [sic] immigrants to run willy-nilly across the border than to be a productive citizen.”

Newsfuckers, this was literally the calculus of the American Revolution. With one important exception.

Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death calls upon us to be losers who waste our lives to free people. Because there are principles worth sacrificing one’s life. Even one’s life as a productive citizen contributing to the Gross Domestic Product.

The exception is decency. Even in the throes of America’s birth, when the consequence of failure was hanging, America’s leaders, literally General George Washington, refused to torture, understood that decency was the thing we fight for.

So, y’know…

Three Quickies

• A federal judge on Friday declared there’s a “realistic likelihood” that the prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia is vindictive, because, as they say in the law, non cacas Sherlockus. Judge Waverley Crenshaw said there’s enough evidence for Abrego to challenge his human-smuggling charges, allowing him to seek documents and depositions from the government. Crenshaw’s a Black guy appointed by a Black president, so expect Pres. Donald Trump to accept this ruling in the spirit of good fun.

• The Trump administration is considering selling federal student-loan debt to the organized crime families known as Wall Street. Handing over 45 million Americans to the savage butchers who run America’s predatory-lending cartels is considered an essential step toward generating massive public support for free fucking college already.

• This is how you protest. On Tuesday night, protesters gathered outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland, OR, where Pres. Donald Trump has massed federal law enforcement and would love to send in troops. Trump has described the city as “war ravaged” because he believes what he sees on Fox. Here’s the reality. This is how you protest:

Taking Action

You can get info about and sign up for the general strike at GeneralStrikeUS.com.

The next round of No Kings rallies is October 18. You can find events at NoKings.org, and keep checking, because new events will get added.

Protest rock group Triple is on Bandcamp here and on Instagram here.

Supporting TFN

Substack overload is a real thing. Whenever someone subscribes to TFN, I get an email telling me, including what other Substacks you subscribe to. And, um, y’all reading too many Substacks.

I worry you’re doomscrolling instead of connecting with real people, but hopefully for most of you Substack is a bit of both. My point, though, is to clarify that I don’t expect casual TFN readers to upgrade to a paid subscription. You don’t have to throw money at every Substack and you don’t need to save me. Thanks to you all, I think I’m gonna be okay.

If you want to support original, occasionally investigative reporting, you can upgrade to paid over at my Jonathan Larsen Substack. On the other hand, if you’re a hardcore Newsfucker, if you find yourself counting on TFN to show up for you, and if you can afford it, then I hope you’ll consider joining the emerging model of direct reader support for individual journalists — liberating us from the pressure to serve anyone but you.

No one should stretch their budgets to support TFN. We’re all contributing, building something, just by being here. Thank you. E pluribus fuckem.

If you want to set your own level of recurring support, or make a one-time donation, you can do so via these predatory digital pay sites:

• Buy Me A Coffee.

• PayPal.

• Venmo.

• Zelle:

If you’d like me to respond to your donation, please let me know it’s okay to use your email address!

NEWSFUCKING IN THE WILD Catch me every Monday on The Nicole Sandler Show at 3:30pm eastern, for free, right here.

RESOURCES

• Supporting TFN

• Upcoming elections

• Other resources

• Me on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Spoutible

• TFN merch (now including E Pluribus Fuckem swag!)

Go get ‘em, kids! Remember, Republicans will hold the line just as soon as they figure out where it is.

---

TFN creator and writer Jonathan Larsen co-created Up w/ Chris Hayes and wrote for Countdown with Keith Olbermann at MSNBC, helped launch CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° and Air America Radio, and has also worked at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Young Turks.

1. That’s the only Democratic Party stanning you get today. Just not my nature.

2. I’ve been having some fun rhyming Vought with words like “caught” and “forgot” but it turns out it’s pronounced, ironically, like “vote.”

3. I don’t have any specific memories of it, but odds are I produced segments with Wilkerson as a guest when I was a producer at Countdown with Keith Olbermann.