Senate Majority Leader John Thune issued a reality check to President Donald Trump on Monday, as the president continues to demand that senators rewrite their own rules.Trump has been demanding several changes to force his agenda through, including the elimination of the legislative filibuster, which has been a consistent obstacle to his SAVE America Act package of voting restrictions, as well as eliminating "blue slips" that allow senators to unilaterally reject certain executive and judicial nominees from their home states.These rules have often frustrated presidents in both parties, although ironically, the filibuster has historically benefited Republicans more than Democrats, since a greater percentage of their agenda can be passed through federal courts and budget bills.There's still not the appetite to make those changes, said Thune — even on the GOP side.According to Semafor's Burgess Everett, Thune told reporters he has "sat down with about 20 Republicans, and on getting rid of the legislative filibuster, getting rid of blue slips, and there were 15 nos. So I mean, this is not an open question. It's just a fact, and the facts don't change."Thune added that if Trump wants these changes in the Senate to be on the table, he would have to do the heavy lifting of getting those senators to change their minds."If [Trump] can change the facts and start moving some of those senators who are no's into yeses, then we have a different conversation,” Thune told Everett.Trump's most recent rant against the filibuster came earlier in the day, when he proclaimed on his Truth Social account that Thune shouldn't allow the Senate to adjourn until the changes are made, because "the Dumocrats will do it on day one, and can’t believe how lucky they got with this Senate leadership. Remember, stupidity always brings LOSING & DEATH!"
From today's decision in U.S. v. Gendron, by Judge Richard Sullivan, joined by Judges Joseph Bianco and Alison Nathan: Payton…
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Lawyers predict ‘more suppression and no active investigations’ but victims’ groups determined to continue fightAs Donald Trump’s former defense lawyer Todd Blanche appears poised for confirmation as attorney general, numerous Jeffrey Epstein survivors have sounded the alarm that a US justice department helmed by him would derail their pursuit of justice.In a letter urging Republican senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn to reject his nomination, these survivors said that Blanche’s handling of the Epstein case as acting attorney general was characterized by misstep after misstep. Continue reading...
Senator Lindsey Graham was having a documentary about his life and political efforts made at the time he died. The biographical outline is scheduled to be released in the future [CITATION]. However, the Wall Street Journal was granted some excerpts of the recent filming. In a rather telling part of the storyline, Senator Graham notes […]
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If you’ve been finding yourself swooning lately over the clips of Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) calmly and methodically bulldozing Republicans facing Senate questioning, welcome to the “Senator My Boo” Club, my friends. Movie-star handsome and charismatic, Ossoff was given the moniker by political powerhouse influencer Qondi Ntini, who’s turned “political thirst” into a movement that’s been reframing the way Democratic men run for public office. Her social media accounts reflect a timeline of consistently supporting both Ossoff and his fellow Georgia Senator, Rev. Raphael Warnock, always keeping to the facts while centering the thirst. Not just for good-looking men in leadership (though it’s just true that Democrats have the looks on lockdown), but the thirst for truth and equality in both the government as well as the rest of the country. And the Ossoff Thirst is very real, y’all. It’s not just the matinee idol looks, though.Jon Ossoff is a Jewish Democrat who doesn’t take money from AIPAC and tells the truth about Israel at a time when antisemitism is raging like never before. Thanks to his tough stances on Israel while also holding the Trump regime accountable, Ossoff has emerged as a new dark horse contender for president in 2028, despite his claims of “not being interested” in running. While Democrats need him in that Senate seat, Ossoff would have a clearer path to the presidency should Democratic gubernatorial nominee Kesha Lance Bottoms win in November. His replacement could be sworn in by January, and then Jon Ossoff could very well be on the path to become the first Jewish President of the United States. We are a nation starved for goodness and truth from our leadership, and Jon Ossoff represents that in multitudes. His calm and patient grilling of Trumpsimp Jay “Whatever You Say, Boss” Clayton last week during his Director of National Intelligence confirmation hearing over the 2020 election set off shockwaves that sent Democratic women into a swoon. “Isn’t it humiliating to be unable to answer this question?” is one of the best questions anyone has ever asked any Republican when it comes to their full fealty to Trump and the 2020 election. They cannot say Joe Biden won, and Jon Ossoff knows why. While we were collectively still dreaming of a Ossoff presidential run, he made our case for us again on Tuesday. As the Ranking Democratic Member of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, Ossoff grilled egregiously underqualified Punch-Drunk Pete “Low-T” Hegseth over the Department of Defense's multiple failures in Iran. Watching Ossoff pummel Petey Pull-Ups is the kind of knee-weakening swoon-worthy stuff Democratic women have been waiting for. *fans self* Ossoff can also handle the media on the fly. Or in this case, the strut.Democrats who aren’t the biggest fans of Gov. Gavin “Studly” Newsom’s emergence as the 2028 frontrunner have started getting very loud about the possibility of supporting a ticket anchored by Ossoff. One thing Ossoff shares with Newsom--aside from a “great head of hair” (as my Jewish mom would say)--is that he triggers Trump, garnering one of the weakest nicknames in the overgrown dumb bully’s litany of weak nicknames for his opponents. “Os(jerk)off” is about what you’d expect from the least creative low-IQ person to ever nap behind the Resolute Desk. When “Osshole” was right there, too. It’s fine, what do I know about politics or basic creativity? Anyway, it’s obviously about much more than Jon Ossoff’s looks. It’s also about Trump losing Georgia in the 2020 election and never being able to prove otherwise, BECAUSE HE LOST. His rambling, shambolic speech that was supposed to finally expose 2020 election fraud only served to expose himself and the Russian interference in both 2016 and 2020. It’s also renewed conversations about the legitimacy of the 2024 election, but in the interest of staying on topic while maintaining my blood pressure, let’s stick to Ossoff triggering Trump, and therefore, MAGA.We know it’s not Jon Ossoff’s fault that then-Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger wouldn’t help Trump steal votes in the Peach State, and as Trump plans a visit there to whine more about losing, Ossoff is clear about the old guy’s obsession with him. “If there’s one person who committed election fraud in Georgia, it’s Donald Trump when he dialed up our state’s senior most election official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and tried to bully him in a recorded phone call to, quote, find the exact number of votes Donald Trump needed to win in a state that he had lost,” Ossoff told CNN’s Jake Tapper during an interview last week.(Sidebar: Where’s your book on Trump’s obvious mental and physical decline, Jake?)As a Jewish American (albeit an atheist), I’m watching the conversation about a possible Ossoff 2028 run with extra interest.
President Donald Trump and his Republican Party are in an increasingly weak position as they approach the 2026 midterm elections — and yet Democrats are sabotaging themselves due to the reported incompetence of the Democratic National Committee chairman.“At the center is Ken Martin, the 53-year-old party chairman, who has found himself increasingly isolated, gripped by the fear that he will lose his job and relying on a vanishingly small circle of people he trusts, according to interviews with more than two dozen Democrats, including current and former D.N.C. officials and members,” reported The New York Times’ Shane Goldmacher and Reid J. Epstein on Sunday. “Most of them spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the party’s troubled state of affairs.”Goldmacher and Epstein added, “Mr. Martin’s fraying nerves are showing. In a pique of frustration in early July, he threw his phone at the desk of a junior aide while upbraiding the person. The phone-tossing incident resulted in a formal complaint to the D.N.C.’s human resources department.”The Times added that the alleged phone-throwing episode had tangible fallout, with D.N.C. human resources officials meeting with Martin about the incident. Yet that was far from Martin’s only problem during his brief tenure in charge of the organization. He has been slammed for delaying the release of an autopsy on the 2024 presidential election, and then releasing an incomplete and annotated version. He has made very few media appearances. Staffers are widely reported as being demoralized, and the organization is full of leaks. Martin reportedly is in constant fear of being fired.Perhaps worst of all, though, the D.N.C. is struggling to raise money.“None of the party’s problems are more acute than money,” the Times reported. “For more than a decade, the D.N.C. has transferred millions of dollars every election to sister committees responsible for winning the House and Senate. But the national party is now so short on cash — even after taking out a $15 million loan last year — that officials have privately conveyed to congressional leadership that there will be no such transfers in 2026.”By contrast, Republicans — even though they are struggling in polls — are far exceeding Democrats in fundraising.“New financial reports released this week revealed the depth of the D.N.C.’s financial hole,” the Times reported. “The party is $2 million in debt, while the Republican National Committee has $128.5 million in cash on hand. The party that holds the White House almost always raises more money into its party coffers, but this year’s chasm is extraordinarily large.”Speaking to AlterNet in June, various sources also expressed alarm at Martin’s leadership of the Democratic Party. One anonymous source, a longtime member of the DNC Women’s Caucus, told AlterNet that Martin has done nothing to protect mail-in voting from Trump’s reported attempts to quash it. He has also refused to move away from electronic voting and toward paper receipts, which would be harder for Trump and other Republicans to tamper with.Despite this shortcoming, the party’s “autopsy” in May acknowledged that "any assessment of the state of technology in the Democratic party would be incomplete without an acknowledgement that comprehensive data warehouses like Phoenix represent an irresistible target for hackers and other bad actors seeking to undermine the integrity of the modern political process."
