On Trump's utter failure
Well. This was supposed to have saved Donald Trump from the multiple flames licking at his pustulent posterior. He was going to show who was boss, stamp his authoriteh on the House GOP, and end the "witch hunt" against him in federal court. His minions in Congress would scupper the government, and his cases would be dismissed due to lack of funding.
Of course, none of this happened.
What did happen was that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy caved to House Democrats—and both Senate Democrats and Republicans—and passed a clean continuing resolution to keep the government funded for a further forty-five days until he will, again, cave and bring the Senate spending plan to a vote in the House, where it will pass with half of his caucus and all of the Democratic caucus.
Trump's acolytes in the House like Matt Gaetz abdicated any power they had. They were supposed to hold Speaker McCarthy's feet to the fire and send their apocalyptic CR to the Senate and dare them to not pass it, thus pushing the blame for a government shutdown onto the Democrats.
The thing is: When you put all your eggs in a basket owned by someone as spineless as "Steve" McCarthy, you might not get what you were expecting. You might expect a glorious Götterdämmerung. Instead, you get what happened in the late hours of Saturday evening, where Democrats extended the pain, making sure all the things they didn't want in the CR were jettisoned, making sure ever i was dotted and t crossed, and then gave McCarthy the votes he needed to avoid sending the economy into a tailspin and have countless local news broadcasts explain just why grandma wasn't getting her Social Security check for October. (Spoiler: Republicans would be blamed.)
And about that spoiler: our feckless news media was actually on point this time. Rather than do their louche "a pox on both your houses" schtick, the media made it quite clear that this failure would be solely on the heads of House Republicans. The GOP had already lost the battle; all that was left was to decide to withdraw in some order.
Now, this week will be interesting. After this humiliation, where McCarthy had to go hat-in-hand once again to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to save his flat ass, there may be a movement to oust him from his speakership. And Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi is advising her colleagues to not save him; this is the GOP's mess. The fact of the matter is that there is no one around whom the Republican caucus could coalesce for Speaker. The Gaetz tribe may succeed in jettisoning McCarthy; but they have no replacement, certainly no one from within their ranks.
But back to Trump.
Today sees the beginning of his financial fraud trial in New York. The judge overseeing the case has already summarily ruled that Trump and his Trump Organization engaged in massive fraud. Now the trial is to determine if another $250 million in fines will be levied. It's a good bet that they will. Not only did Trump fail to scupper his federal trials, but now is on the verge of seeing his mob front rolled up and him left penniless. It came out last week that Melania Trump renegotiated her prenup. Oh dear, I don't think that prenup is worth the paper on which it was printed. She might have to return to her former career of soft-porn model.
This is the thing: Trump is a moron and appeals to morons who are angry at a world which no longer values them. He doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut, and when to not make things worse. His gambit to shut down the government failed, and he is now weaker than he was last week. New York attorney general Leticia James is about to destroy his livelihood, and special counsel Jack Smith keeps bearing down on him. Ignore the noise from the media; Trump's goose is cooked. The only question is when will the timer go off.
Settle in and get your favorite snack. This is going to be fun.
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