Resistance HQ Bulletin 14, 11/26/24

… Trump’s Cabinet of Losers - 17 of his nominees have lost elections.

… He did nominate 5 billionaires and multiple people who inherited fortunes though, so they are winning at getting rich that’s for sure.

… I appreciate all the feedback on this column, which I write 6 days a week. We produce so much great content at Meidas from so many talented people across multiple platforms. The people on our team are from every generation and are scattered across the country.

… I intended for this column to be something unique. The format is modeled after some of the great columnists I grew up reading, which has largely been abandoned, blended with the wide spectrum of content that is available in the social media and information age we are living in. So I am trying to take the best of the old and blend it with the new tools that are available to us now to create something different from anything else.

… The other thing that makes this unique is that I gather news from dozens of different platforms and thousands of sources every single day. I watch, read and follow everyone involved in politics from far-right conspiracy theorists to very progressive thinkers. Many of the people I watch, follow, and read I despise. Some I disagree with intensely, others I may disagree with on one or two big issues but agree on the rest.

… As you might imagine, it takes a lot to put this together keeping track of all that stuff while writing. I start writing and gathering information at 6:00 AM, finish around 7:00 PM, then proofread and put finishing touches on for an hour to get it out by 8:00 PM. Then I spend two hours after that watching evening shows to get ready for the next day. So it is a 16 hour process while editing the content of other writers and doing my own podcast and other interviews, while posting continuously on 3 social media platforms.

… I wasted all that column space today just for the purpose of thanking you for supporting my work and everyone at Meidas. We are entirely reader supported and appreciate every person who subscribes. I continue to keep this first half of the column available to free subscribers while saving the other half of it for people who are willing and able to do paid subscriptions. We have big plans to do so much more but can’t do it without your help.

… There are talented people out there that we would like to hire to expand our operation, but we don’t have any billionaires writing us big checks, even though MAGA thinks Soros is our sugar daddy. (We wouldn’t mind though!)

… Now back to the nonsense …

… Canada’s Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland responded to Trump’s threat to impose a 25% tariff on that country by noting that Canada would be forced to respond with an equal tariff on US products, so not only would American consumers be hurt, so would American companies and jobs: "Canada places the highest priority on border security and the integrity of our shared border. Our relationship today is balanced and mutually beneficial, particularly for American workers. Canada buys more from the US than from China, Japan, France and the UK combined."

… Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum also responded to Trump, saying that border crossings were down 75% this year and 70% of illegal guns in Mexico came from the US. She says if he starts a trade war with Mexico and Canada, everyone in all three counties with suffer

.

… More Sheinbaum: “70% of the illegal weapons seized from criminals in Mexico come from your country. We do not produce these weapons, nor do we consume synthetic drugs. Tragically, it is in our country that lives are lost to the violence resulting from meeting the drug demand in yours.”

… Goldman Sachs then issued a statement saying Trump’s proposed tariffs would increase inflation by at least 1%.

… Sen Chuck Grassley is an old school free trade guy who has always been against tariffs, but says this is a “tricky situation” for him because he doesn’t want to “bad mouth” Trump’s plan on tariffs. He says he hopes they will never be imposed and thinks that Trump is just making these threats as a “negotiating tool.” Republican Senators never think he actually is going to do what he threatens to do before he does it.

… Trump and his supporters are already claiming credit for a “migrant caravan” that was broken up in Mexico. Immigration lawyer Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “These MAGA influencer types apparently don’t know that not a single caravan that has left southern Mexico since 2019 (and there have been dozens and dozens) has made it to the border. Mexico has been breaking them up for years now.”

… Rick Scott says he thinks Ron Desantis is going to appoint Lara Trump to fill Marco Rubio’s seat in the Senate: “I think Lara is the right person to replace him. It’s an important decision, and I think he’s going to pick Lara because he knows she’s clearly qualified.”

… It’s important to note that Scott has no relationship with his successor in the FL’s Governor’s mansion, so he isn’t working with any inside knowledge here. I can’t see Desantis picking Lara - no way. Scott is just doing what he always does - sucking up to Trump.

… Rudy Giuliani came unglued in his court hearing today in NYC and had to be told by the judge to stop talking. Apparently he still has not turned over his Mercedes and the excuse he provided to the court today is that he is having difficulty transferring the title. The prosecutor responded: “He was the US Attorney for this district. The notion that he can’t figure out how to get a title certificate …” then he was cut off by Rudy yelling that he was doing his best. That is when the judge told Rudy he was done talking.

… Fox is reporting that Matt Gaetz only dropped out after Trump called him and told him he would never be able to get the votes to be confirmed by the Senate and he didn’t want to expend all his “political capital” on a losing effort. Trump had conversations with several Senators who told him the nomination was a mistake and they could never vote for Gaetz.

… They also reported that Senators told him they thought they could get Gaetz through, but Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr were going to be very difficult, so he should spend his time and energy on them and move on from Gaetz as soon as possible.

… The Senators reportedly told Trump that in the case of Gabbard, statements of hers that repeated Russian propaganda are the biggest issue; and with RFK Jr it was his statements that covid was a “plandemic” conspiracy deliberately created by big pharma so they could make money off treatments and vaccines.

… They are not concerned about any of his other nominees being able to get confirmed.

… Mother Jones reported that Gabbard has recently created multiple PACs that have raised millions of dollars from thousands of donors, including some shady ones, with the overwhelming majority of the money going into her pocket and the pockets of her friends. These PACs appear to be her primary source of income as she is fleecing donors.

… Democratic Rep Ro Khanna spoke out against Gavin Newsom’s plan to deny a proposed $7,500 EV credit to Tesla: “Tesla makes over 550,000 vehicles in my district and employs over 20,000. Let’s not play politics with this and keep manufacturing in California. It would be foolish to exclude Tesla. Have we learned nothing from snubbing Elon Musk at the Biden EV summit?”

… WaPo reported that after Trump’s Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent met with Trump in February, Boris Epshteyn invited him to a lunch and asked for $30,000 a month to promote him. The Trump campaign has been conducting an internal investigation of the longtime loyalist and Steve Bannon pal Epshteyn to see if he was shaking down potential nominees for cash to talk them up to Trump.

… Eric Trump on Epshteyn: “My father’s been incredibly clear - you do not do that under any circumstance. I can also tell you if that’s true, he will no longer be around.” It appears to be true.

… What a surprise that a political movement filled with grifters and con artists led by the greatest grifter and con artist of them all would be grifting and conning each other. And Trump is only upset because he is supposed to get a piece of the action on all MAGA grifts and Boris wasn’t kicking up to the boss.

… The DNC announced that it will hold an election to replace outgoing Chair Jaime Harrison on February 1 in Maryland. They will hold 3 candidate forums in January where candidates will answer questions and share their ideas on the best way forward.

… Harrison pointed out today that the Senate has now confirmed 15 Black federal appellate judges including 13 Black women under Biden. Before Biden became president, only a total of 8 Black women had served as appellate judges, so he nearly doubled the total of the previous 240 years of this country’s history in less than 4 years.

… Trump is demanding an apology from the NYT because of the reporting of Maggie Haberman, who he called ‘Magot Hagerman,’ and said is a “a third rate writer and fourth rate intellect.” Very classy and mature as always.

… Vivek Ramaswamy was complaining today about the Biden Admin announcement that they will provide a $6.6B loan to EV manufacturer Rivian to build a factory in Georgia. Vivek claims it is just being done to help a competitor to Musk’s Tesla.

… Don’t expect GA Gov Brian Kemp to complain.

… Texas has approved a Bible-based curriculum for K-5th grade. To somehow try and make this constitutional, they claim that the new curriculum is “voluntary,” but they