Crazy News, Stupid Commentary, and a Gaffe or Two.

It’s Friday morning, and I am here in my Hunker-Bunker looking out into the darkness and fog. The cat is snoring on her perch next to my desk, and I have my hot coffee and I have already scoured the InterTubes looking for headlines that aren’t about Nikki Haley’s Civil War “gaffe”. If you Google the word “Gaffe” this morning…

I sure hope that reincarnation isn’t real. I’d hate to have to come back to what’s coming.

The Headlines That Caught My Eye This Morning

It’s slim pickin’s this morning. I’ll post what I have, and if I run across something interesting later, I will come back and add it here. So don’t blame me for the lack of quality. If you don’t like it then go out and make some better news so I’ll have something to post here. Better yet, why don’t YOU step up and take this off my hands?

Item 1: Maine’s top election official rules Trump ineligible for 2024 primary ballot

The state has the duty to determine a candidate’s eligibility to run for and/or hold public office in that particular state. For example, a state can and will block someone from appearing on the ballot if they do not meet the qualifications for that office. The Office of the Presidency requires the person to be a natural US citizen, of at least thirty-five years of age, and never been involved in an insurrection. Hannibal Lecter could run for office. Trump? Maybe not. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment doesn’t have much prior case law on it, so it’s novel territory for the courts. Now that we have two states blocking, with roughly a dozen others considering it, I suspect that the Supreme Robes will be wading into this before long.

Item 2: Civil War Gaffe Undercuts Nikki Haley’s 2024 Pitch

Wow, I didn’t expect this story to have the legs like it does. I think she was trying to thread the needle in her answer, and failed miserably. On the one hand, she can’t be seen as being ‘woke’ in her answer, and the current Right wing position on the Civil War is that it wasn’t so much about slaves as it was about ‘state’s rights’ trade, and economics.

Was she ‘set up’ by the question? In her responses to her ‘gaffe’, she’s floated the idea that some “Democrat” was responsible for the question. I’m sorry, but does that matter? A presidential candidate of ANY party has to be ready for a ‘gotcha’ question, and this one was low-hanging fruit.

Item 3: The Absolute Worst Political Predictions of 2023

Weren’t we supposed to be in a great recession right now?

Item 4: Lawsuit seeks to disqualify Trump from Alaska ballot

In a ruby-red state like Alaska? The land of Sarah Palin?

Item 5: ‘I couldn’t be any prouder’: Father responds to son’s federal charges in Jan. 6 riots

That’s a strange flex. “I couldn’t be any prouder of my son’s federal felony convictions”. Is dad going to pay for the lawyer? That’s about $50k. Kid goes to prison for a year or so, gets out and can’t get a job anywhere. Probably has a five-year tail on him, consisting of: No firearms within “constructive possession”, in other words, the kid can’t live in a household where guns are present. Constant, random drug testing. Curfews. Random house searches at all hours of the day and night. Must ask permission to leave the county. Computers and phone monitored.

Makes a dad proud.

Item 6: Federal judge rejects Menendez request for delay in corruption trial

Menendez needs to resign from the Senate also.

Item 7: House GOP traps itself in impeachment box

This is what happens when you over-promise, and under-deliver. The base has been expecting this grand, public investigation, with actual, tangible evidence of impeachable offences, followed by a trial in the Senate and a super-majority of Senators voting to convict, then remove Biden from office.

Lofty goals from a handful of zealots in the House, but in reality, there is almost zero appetite in Congress or the general public for an impeachment based on some allegations with no tangible evidence leading from A to Z.

Item 8: Ohio governor vetoes transgender sports, gender-affirming care ban

“I truly believe that we can address a number of goals in House Bill 68 by administrative rules that will have likely a better chance of surviving judicial review and being adopted,” DeWine said at a Friday press conference.

Huh. So he is admitting that whatever the legislature put up there is likely to fail a judicial review, but he seems to think that using his executive authority, he can craft regulations that will bypass current state laws and not be subject to judicial review?

I mean, that’s how regulatory law is made — it’s based on the state laws created by the legislature, and is subject to interpretation by whoever is writing the regulations. But just the idea that a governor will say out loud that he can accomplish the same thing by misinterpreting the statutes is pretty brazen. He’s saying the quiet part out loud.