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Oct. 22: Army general says of Hegseth: “He lost us” … No Kings Day strikes fear in both parties … States warn of coming cuts to SNAP food aid … New Yorkers chase ICE out of New York to keep it as one of America’s safest cities …
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A little-noticed report in the little-noticed right-wing newspaper The Washington Times says that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech stunt last month was a tipping point that tipped off America’s generals that he’s a tipsy ass-clown.
“If he ever had us, he lost us,” one Army general told the paper anonymously because he still had his job and didn’t want to lose it.
Other sources told the not-New York Times that Hegseth’s stunt was “embarrassing” and “below our institution,” which prides itself on the high standards of fisherman murders, the Iraq War, the Tailgate scandal, the Vietnam War…
The new account appears to confirm similar allegations relayed by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) earlier this month. The MRFF quoted one of the high-ranking officers ordered to attend as saying that Hegseth’s remarks “eliminated any last vestige of trust and confidence in our chain of command.”
But unlike the MRFF, the Times (not New York) is likely to have sources even on the right, more likely to reflect broadly shared views among the top ranks. And the un-New York Times reported Monday that the speech “seemed to crystallize beliefs about Mr. Hegseth that had taken root among some senior officers, including the view that the secretary operates with a junior officer’s mentality that has led him to micromanage policies … sometimes at the expense of the much broader portfolio of a typical defense secretary.” And:
High-level sources said that they believe Mr. Hegseth is simultaneously doing deep damage to the military, both from a public relations standpoint and structurally behind the scenes, that may not be fully apparent until months or even years from now…¹
They argue that the firings, early retirements and resignations that have amassed over the past eight months will fundamentally weaken the military.
Wait, weakening the military? That’s the left’s job! I guess pour one out for Hegseth, all my pacifists, anti-imperialists, and fellow Antifa C-suiters!
After No Kings Day, Both Parties Tremble Before No Kings Day
Typically, when someone says they won’t protest because it doesn’t change anything, it takes months or even years to show they’re wrong.
When it’s the largest protest in U.S. history, though, it only takes three days, give or take.
No Kings Day was a tad open-ended about the demands on power, but one part was clear: Democrats would not, should not, in a boat or with a vote, support a Republican spending plan to re-open the government without getting concessions in return.
Number one on the to-get list was extending Obamacare subsidies to prevent premiums tripling or even quadrupling for millions of people. It wasn’t a partisan demand — it was a notice to Democrats, too, not to fold. And lookie here…
Centrist Democratic senators would have voted “yesterday” for the Republican plan if not for their fear of backlash, an unnamed Democratic senator told The Hill on Tuesday.
In the context of the No Kings Day rallies, the senator told The Hill, “People are going to get hammered” if they back the GOP stopgap measure that’s already passed the House to fund the government through Nov. 21. The senator spoke anonymously, presumably to avoid getting hammered, and presumably chose to speak to the press at all because they were already hammered.
Another source privy to Democratic deliberations told The Hill, “We would have enough votes if people were not terrified of getting the guillotine.”
Prior to No Kings Day, three Democratic senators had sided with Republicans, voting to extend funding with no help for Obamacare policy-holders and no guarantee Trump wouldn’t just take the money and use it to attack Venezuela with surface-to-air poop. They are:
Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV)
John Fetterman (D-PA)
Angus King (I-ME)
Republicans need five more Democratic senators who don’t suffer from decapitation-phobia. Only Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) has shown signs of wavering.
Unless we include Republicans…!
Because over in the House, 13 Republicans on Tuesday notified Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) that they, too, are not big fans of guillotines. All 13 only won narrowly last year and fear losing narrowly next year.
In a letter to Johnson, they adopted the Democratic, anti-guillotine position: “Allowing these [Obamacare] tax credits to lapse without a clear path forward would risk real harm to those we represent.” And also to those who are themselves.
The letter ostensibly supports standing firm and not extending Obamacare until after Democrats cave and reopen the government. But the point of a letter like this is to signal that they’ve got the wobblies.
Polling shows that most Americans support extending the Obamacare subsidies. And most Americans say Republicans should cave and end the shutdown. Here are the 13 House Republican Guillotine-O-Phobes (GOP):
Rob Bresnahan, Jr. (R-PA)
Juan Ciscomani (R-CA)
Monica De La Cruz (R-TX)
Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
Carlos Gimenez (R-FL)
Jeff Hurd (R-CO)
Thomas Keane, Jr. (R-NJ)
Jen Kiggans (R-VA)
Young Kim (R-CA)
Michael Lawler (R-NY)
Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA)
David Valadao (R-CA)
Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ)
WHICH DOESN’T MEAN SOME DEMOCRATS AREN’T FLIRTING WITH THE GUILLOTINE On another issues, 14 Democratic senators on Tuesday voted to advance a Trump judicial nomination:
Chris Coons (D-DE)
Dick Durbin (D-IL)
Fetterman
Maggie Hassan (D-NH)
Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
Tim Kaine (D-VA)
Mark Kelly (D-AZ)
King
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Jack Reed (D-RI)
Adam Schiff (D-CA)
Shaheen
Peter Welch (D-VT)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
The judicial nominee, Harold Mooty of Alabama, was then confirmed. Now, is it possible those Democrats got or will get something valuable in return? Um.
So now Demand Justice is launching a campaign to guillotine pressure some of those Democrats. Because the nominee, Harold Mooty of Alabama, isn’t your run-of-the-mill Republican corporocrat.
According to Accountable.us, Mooty’s resume includes defending corporate clients accused of medical malpractice and civil-rights violations. Demand Justice says Mooty has proven incapable of judging things like who won the 2020 election and what exactly that whole January 6 thing was about. And, personally speaking, he’s a total son of an oil lobbyist.
Trump Cutting off Food Aid to Another Third-World Nation
Provinces of another third-world kleptocracy have begun notifying their impoverished people that U.S. food aid will dry up next month if Pres. Donald Trump doesn’t win over enough Democratic votes to end the federal government shutdown.
Already suffering the ravages of kleptocracy in this dysfunctional nation state, some 42 million people depend on U.S. food aid in order not to starve.
Trump earlier this year cut off food aid for many other countries where starvation is rampant. But now he’s decided to let the shutdown disrupt food aid to his own country, even as he’s managed to find money for things he likes, which don’t include food aid for his own country.
States now warning residents to start rationing food because food stamps, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, will run out of money include:
Illinois
Minnesota
New York
Pennsylvania
Texas
West Virginia
Who’s affected? More than 85% of SNAP funding goes to families below the poverty line. Two thirds goes to feed kids, the elderly, or disabled people. Yes, there are steps the federal government can take to delay the SNAP cutoff.
And, yes, Trump is meeting Republican Senate leaders today. For lunch.
Not on the table: SNAP benefits. On the menu: Poor people.
If Republicans don’t agree to a shutdown plan this month, not only will the SNAP cuts kick in the concave bellies of recipients, it’ll effectively be too late to head off the January Obamacare premium hikes.
The SNAP funding — which already buys less than it used to, thanks to Trump’s tariffs — will be cut off Nov. 1, a week from this Saturday, if a deal isn’t reached by Nov. 27, a week from today.
This Friday is also when Trump is leaving for Asia. For a week. Of eating Chinese food. Instead of staying here and making Republicans compromise by agreeing to extend Obamacare funding they’ve already said they support.
And there’s now growing sentiment in Congress that the House stopgap bill no longer leaves enough time to craft a long-term deal. Which means now ending the shutdown will require both chambers to approve a new, longer, short-term stopgap to buy time for a longer, long-term deal.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Tuesday asked Trump for a sit-down before he takes off.
ICE Tries Their Shit in New York But Decides to Fuhgeddaboudit after Being Told To Get the Fuck Outta Here
New York City commuters Tuesday night stopped on the way home to pick up some milk and chase some federal fucking thugs the fuck out of their city.
Masked agents had targeted street vendors on Canal Street, in Chinatown, which is famous for its cheap knockoff crap of overpriced luxury crap. In recent months, the vendors have become an essential defense protecting Americans from Pres. Donald Trump’s tariff-driven inflation.
The Associated Press reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained one suspected undocumented immigrant who was spotted dealing bedazzled fentanyl bedazzled phone cases, which kill an estimated 100,000 people annually. (I guess by distracted driving or something? I dunno. Even TFN can’t keep up with all the fear-mongering innovations.)
Anyhoo, New Yorkers rose to the defense of their immigrant fellows and/or cheap knockoffs, surrounding ICE vehicles (and yet confusingly demanding that they leave).
Department of Homeland (sic) Security spokesliar Tricia McLaughlin spokeslied that “rioters [sic] who were shouting obscenities [yay], became violent [sic] and obstructed law enforcement duties [yay] including blocking vehicles [yay] and assaulting law enforcement [sic].”
In fact, the AP reported, the violence was on ICE, “shoving protesters to the ground.”
Some protesters were arrested, giving future juries their own chance to tell Trump to shove it up his ass. And your satisfaction-delaying TFN has saved the best part for last, this delicious AP line to carry you through your day: “As more New Yorkers joined the fray, some of the federal agents retreated on foot, followed by jeering protesters and honking vehicles.”
I mean, we chased the fucking British out 250 years ago. And if ICE can’t make it here, they can’t make it anywhere.
Mystery Shooting Committed by Known Person Who Was ICE
An ICE officer on Tuesday shot a civilian and a U.S. marshal.
Or — as one would put it if one were corporate media inclined to torture one’s syntax to obfuscate the fact that an ICE officer on Tuesday shot a civilian and a U.S. marshal:
“A U.S. Marshal and a TikTok streamer were injured on Tuesday by gunfire from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer…” — The Hill
“U.S. marshal and undocumented immigrant shot during ICE stop in Los Angeles” — NBC News
Corporate media’s corporate headlines about the incident were so vague, you could be forgiven for not knowing whether the shots were fired by ICE or the Israeli military.
Either way, it’s definitely not that one of Pres. Donald Trump’s feds shot two people on Tuesday. Or even that two people were shot by said fed. No, they were “injured … by gunfire” (even though guns don’t kill people), or shot “during” an ICE stop (which involved ICE shooting people).
The marshal was hit by a ricochet while ICE was shooting the other guy, Carlitos Ricardo Parias. An undocumented immigrant, Parias lawfully documents unlawful ICE operations on TikTok as Richard LA.
After ICE boxed in his car, Parias rammed ICE vehicles, a federal prosecutor said, so it’s probably a lie.
Jan. 6 Crime Watch
A while back, your law-and-order-loving TFN was tracking the pardoned January 6 traitors as they predictably became repeat offenders. It seemed there was a lull and TBH TFN lost track.
Well, we’re back!
Christopher Moynihan of New York was arrested last week and charged with making a terrorist threat against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), specifically a threat to terrorize Jeffries with death.
Moynihan was convicted of in 2022 of January 6ing and sentenced to 21 months in prison. Fellow criminal Pres. Donald Trump pardoned Moynihan and the other traitors because they were just trying to help him trait.
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Inevitable next-President JD Vance is expected to pardon the 34-year-old Moynihan for the Jeffries threat because he’s just a young boy who made a stupid mistake in his youth last week.
OTHER TRUMP PARDON GUY BACK IN TROUBLE Remember former Rep. George Santos (R-NY), despite your best efforts to forget?
Trump on Friday commuted Santos’s sentence after he had served just three months for ripping off his campaign donors. The best part: Trump effectively vacated the order that Santos pay back his victims — Republican political-donor victims! — the $373,750 he stole from them by continuing to charge their credit cards.
Because politics is Newtonian, however, New York State responded to Trump1.0’s pardons with a 2019 law letting state prosecutors file state charges for state crimes against criminals who got off easy on a federal beef thanks to Trump clemency.
And fraud against New York donors, it turns out, is a state crime. So now the county prosecutor isn’t ruling out bringing Santos up on state charges, noting, “the office cannot comment on ongoing investigations.” Ongoing, Newsfuckers!
Three Quickies
Pres. Donald Trump’s on-again-off-again kleptomance with Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin is off again. On Tuesday, a day after Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he’d be willing to attend Trump’s and Putin’s planned talks in Budapest, Hungary, Trump said there will be no talks. Russia continues to oppose a cease-fire before starting talks, so Trump canceled them. Which means Trump not only hasn’t ended the invasion, but can’t even get a cease-fire, and now won’t even hold talks. Yes, Trump’s moving through the peace process, but backward, in an obvious bid to win the Lebon Peace Prize.
Pres. Donald Trump’s choice to lead investigations of civil-rights discrimination, Paul Ingrassia, has withdrawn himself from consideration, an obvious case of discrimination against our civil right to watch Ingrassia squirm in his confirmation hearing that had been set for Thursday. Like many in the gig economy, Ingrassia reportedly had a side hustle. As a part-time Nazi. That was too much for some Senate Republicans, who prefer nominee Nazism as no more than a fun hobby.
Quickly stepping in to fill the brief vacuum in Republican hate-speech scandals is an advisor to New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli. The advisor, Ibrar Nadeem, opposes same-sex marriage — in the year of our gay-marriage-supporting Lord 2025! — but obviously that’s not the sticking point. It’s being reported as if he also said he doesn’t take money from Jewish donors. But it seems pretty clear that he said they don’t give him any. Ciattarelli’s opponent, Rep. Mike Sherrill (D-NJ) called that “antisemitism,” but I suspect she’s wrong, factually, ethically, and tactically.
Recommended Reading
U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan is so inexperienced that in the middle of a case that’s before a grand jury, she texted a journalist to complain about her coverage. And then engaged in an extended back-and-forth. Trump’s former personal lawyer had little experience as a prosecutor — i.e., none — when Trump used her to replace a U.S. attorney who wouldn’t bring specious cases against Trump’s enemies. Which means she didn’t understand that you can’t tell a reporter that your comments are off the record. And you definitely can’t do that after you’ve already gone on the record. Anyway, enjoy Halligan’s text messages.
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