Crooked Media - The Mandate of Kevin

- Donald J. Trump, continuing to falsely inflate the value of his real estate holdings while on trial for falsely inflating the value of his real estate holdings.

Congress was busy today making history (derogatory). In a move with no precedent in American politics, the House of Representatives, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz and a small contingent of far-right Republicans, voted to oust its chamber leader, Kevin McCarthy, from the speakership, leaving the legislative body with no official leader.

• Following yesterday’s now legendarily embarrassing Twitter exchange, the artist formerly known as Speaker Kevin McCarthy began his day by letting House Republicans know he intended to bring Rep. Matt Gaetz’s motion to vacate his speakership during the first vote series of the day.

• After McCarthy’s Republican allies failed to prevent the motion from moving forward, a final vote was held in the afternoon. Along party lines, McCarthy could only afford to lose four GOP votes to maintain the speakership. With a final vote of 216 to 210, eight Republicans joined Democrats supporting McCarthy’s removal. 

• The move comes as a shock to an unprepared Congress, despite their voting to do it. It’s also the culmination of months of intraparty bitterness. McCarthy’s speakership election in January took a record 15 rounds of voting. And his opposition on the hard right only relented after McCarthy reportedly capitulated to their demands. Gaetz, one of the dissenters McCarthy had to court in January, was clearly eager to follow through on his many threats to challenge McCarthy’s position, mostly made during last week's successful avoidance of a government shutdown.

Believe it or not, one of our most powerful voting bodies suddenly losing its leader presents some… complications. As one unidentified Republican was overheard saying on the floor moments after McCarthy’s dismissal, “Now what?” 

• Without a speaker in the House, the floor is considered paralyzed: all work must stop until a new leader is decided. This means no progress can be made on urgent updates to farm-subsidy and nutrition programs, avoiding the next government shutdown, or considering further aid to Ukraine.

• House Republicans are now in the unenviable position of finding someone well-enough liked by the rest of the party to carry an election. In the meantime, Rep. Patrick McHenry, longtime McCarthy ally and former chief deputy whip of the House, has been named speaker pro tem. His first and only move so far? Recessing the house.

• As far as where we go from here, it’s anyone’s game. Rep. McCarthy could in theory still run for re-election, but despite his incredible humiliation tolerance, he has reportedly indicated in closed-door meetings that he has no plans to run again. Democrats will likely nominate minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, though without significant Republican support, they won’t have the votes to make him Speaker. 

• Even more chaotically, the Constitution doesn’t technically require the Speaker of the House to be a member of Congress. Which has ordinarily sane men saying things like this.

Throughout this maximum-schadenfreude circus, one thing remains clear: An election year is quickly approaching, and the Republican Party is falling apart at the seams in spectacular fashion.

Looking for a way to tell your boss you’re over their micromanaging? Or what about setting that healthy work/life boundary with them? In this week’s Work Appropriate, Melissa & Jonathan Nightingale, internationally recognized experts on management and the modern workplace, return to answer listeners' questions about their horrible bosses with host Anne Helen Peterson. Tune into this conversation and more every Wednesday, only on Work Appropriate.

A new Supreme Court session began Monday, and the Sinister Six conservative justices are already making some (dare we say positive?) waves. Today, during oral arguments for Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) v. Community Financial Services Association of America, the Supreme Court indicated they would not support a conservative-led challenge of the CFPB, a watchdog agency created and spearheaded by Senator Elizabeth Warren [D-MA] following the economic hellmouth that was the 2008 financial crisis.

The CFPB, which regulates mortgages, car loans, and other consumer finance, is being challenged by former top Trump lawyer Noel Francisco, who, on behalf of a trade group representing predatory payday lenders, argues that the agency’s unique position of being funded directly from the Federal Reserve somehow violates the Constitution. How exactly? We’re not sure, either. Lucky for most of us consumers, even the conservative justices seemed skeptical of Francisco’s broad argument, with Justice Kavanaugh in particular validly pushing back that the agency, like others, is still subject to the will of Congress. A ruling in favor of the agency would help legitimize the much-challenged agency and discourage further attacks by Republicans and their influential financial backers. And it would protect crucial government programs like Social Security and the Federal Reserve, which receive funding via similar frameworks, and which conservatives would love the opportunity to undermine.

Though the court heard oral arguments today, a final ruling could come as late as June 2024. So far, all indicators are positive, but this case is only one of many challenges to federal regulators on the conservative-leaning court’s docket.

President Biden spoke with 11 world leaders on a Tuesday morning phone call, where he reaffirmed the US’s support of Ukraine in their conflict with Russia. The call, which included the prime ministers of Canada, Italy, Japan, and the UK, comes after Congress passed a bill to avoid a government shutdown; the bill did not include any financial aid for Ukraine.

Senators Marsha Blackburn [R-TN] and Richard Blumenthal [D-CT] sent an open letter to ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company, seeking information about recent personnel changes at the firm. High-level Chinese executives have taken US-based jobs at TikTok, and Blumenthal and Blackburn claim in their letter that the postings “give the impression that TikTok is attempting to preserve ByteDance’s influence over TikTok while avoiding suspicion.”

After his plea deal collapsed, America’s favorite failson, Hunter Biden, pleaded not guilty to three federal gun charges. He is accused of lying about his drug use on a 2018 form in order to obtain a gun that he kept for “about 11 days,” according to the AP.

A 9-year-old girl who went missing last weekend on a family camping trip in upstate New York was reunited with her family after police recovered fingerprints from her kidnapper’s ransom note. A 47-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the crime and Gov. Kathy Hochul says charges are expected

To no one’s surprise, the rights of trans kids remain in flux. A county judge required a school district in southeastern Wisconsin from to obtain the consent of students’ parents before allowing the children to choose names and pronouns.

After Hollywood studios met with SAG-AFTRA on Monday for the first time since union actors walked out in July, the actors’ union announced they would convene for further negotiations on Wednesday. They’re booking!

Adieu, Paris Fashion Week! The week-long fashion bonanza wrapped up today, but not without leaving a city-wide bedbug infestation in its wake. Bonne chance, as they say.

Disgraced human and Republican frontrunner Donald J Trump made it all the way to day two of his New York financial fraud trial before getting an official “respectably, STFU” from Judge Arthur Engoron. Shortly before lunchtime, Trump figured it’d be a savvy legal move to post a personal attack on Judge Engoron’s clerk on Truth Social, attaching an image of the clerk with Majority Speaker Senator Chuck Schumer, falsely describing her as “Schumer’s girlfriend,” and, for the cherry on his shit sundae, posting a link to her personal Instagram account.

The post was swiftly deleted, but not swiftly enough for Trump. Judge Engoron told Trump and his legal team he was issuing “a gag order for all parties from posting about any members of my staff… Personal attacks on members on my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate, and I won’t tolerate it.” Despite Trump’s many legal troubles and his resulting attacks on judges, witnesses, and prosecutors, Engoron’s gag order is the first of its kind to be issued to the former President. We can’t imagine it’s going to be the last.

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The non-profit Consumer Reports launched a free app called Permission Slip that’s made it easier than ever to demand companies like Ticketmaster, AT&T, CVS, and *ahem* Pornhub to delete or not sell any information they’ve stored about you. Not that Pornhub has any information about you. We just thought you’d want to know.

More prizes for our most accomplished nerds: The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to scientists Anne L’Huillier, Pierre Agostini, and Ferenc Krausz for giving us the first-ever glimpse of a spinning electron.