Illustrating more why Iowa is not a representation of anything:  an influential Iowa evangelical pastor to whom Ron DeSantis-affiliated groups paid $95,000 to get their candidate to speak before his Family Leader Foundation as his campaign started cratering over the summer has officially endorsed the Republican Florida governor for the upcoming Iowa caucuses, Reuters reports.

Bob Vander Plaats’s endorsement don’t mean much in presidential races, but they do seem to be prescient in Iowa.  An unsuccessful politician himself–he had three unsuccessful shots at running for governor himself before 2011–Vander Plaats endorsed the Iowa caucus winners in 2012 (Rick Santorum) and in 2016 (Ted Cruz).

US, Israeli, Hamas, and Qatari negotiators on Tuesday announced an agreement has been reached for a multi-day ceasefire and an Israel hostage/Palestinian prisoner exchange. More to come.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday welcomed far right Argentina President-elect Javier Milei into the global leadership community by telling him on no uncertain terms is the UK’s sovereignty over the Falkland Islands up for debate and that the matter “was settled decisively some time ago” when the Brits repelled an Argentine invasion in 1982, the BBC reports.

Milei had not suggested another war but rather that his administration would “have to make every effort to recover the islands through diplomatic channels” because British sovereignty over the remote and sparsely populated archipelago is some sort of insult to Argentina. While the Falklands are technically a British colony literally none of the classic tropes about colonialism apply here. The islands were never inhabited by pre-Columbian indigenous peoples, came under British sovereignty in 1816, which was 17 years prior to Argentina’s independence from Spain, and the population are all British citizens who voted 99 percent in favor of maintaining their status quo in 2013. Basically it’s just Milei jerking around with some MAGA bullshit even before he assumes office.

Weeks after winning control of both chambers of the state legislature and slaying Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s plan to rescue the GOP from Trump, Virginia Democrats are throwing his promised passage of a bill banning abortion access into reverse, introducing legislation that instead would enshrine abortion access rights into the state constitution, ABC News reports.

Other bills introduced by the Democrats on an “Elections Have Consequences” quest include raising the minimum wage to $15 across the state and banning certain assault rifles.  Democrats also passed a proposed amendment that would re-enfranchise voting rights for some felons who have completed their sentences and repeal further disqualifications for people who fall under the same circumstance in the future.

With Virginia’s laws, a proposed amendment to the state constitution doesn’t require the governor’s signature to get on the ballot.  Instead, it has to pass both chambers in two sessions over two years before it would be put on the ballot, meaning if Democrats maintain control after the next election, it will likely appear on a future state ballot.

An Ohio National Guardsman who went AWOL because “he did not trust the current state of the country following the election of Joe Biden as president” has been arrested and charged with three felony counts and multiple misdemeanors for assaulting police officers during the January 6th Republican-led domestic terrorist attack on Congress, demonstrating that federal authorities continue to hunt down insurrectionists at all levels of the attack.

According to NBC News, 31-year-old Delphos, Ohio resident Matthew Honigford faces two felony counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and one felony count of civil disorder.  Video evidence shows Honigford using a flagpole as a weapon to push back officers at the west entrance of the Capitol, the scene of some of the most violent confrontations between Trump supporters and police defending Congress.

If Donald Trump was President, the 10 freeway would still be closed.

Having real partnership in the White House matters.

— Karen Bass (@KarenBassLA) November 21, 2023

One of the lesser despised members of Ohio’s Congressional delegation and one of the Republican Johnsons of lesser evil, Ohio Republican Bill Johnson announced his retirement from Congress in the next “several…months” to take leadership of Youngstown State University.  But don’t get too excited:  it’s a strong Republican seat, rated R+16 by Cook Political.

So far, the number of House members not seeking reelection has reached 30 (19 Democrats, 11 Republicans), while seven Senators (5 D, 2 R) have announced their departures.  Unlike another Ohio Congressman who has yet to pass a single bit of legislation after 16 years in Congress–that’s you, Jim Jordan–Johnson said he will use his remaining time in office to push for legislation to help people impacted by the train derailment in East Palestine.

Spandex-wearing grapple-freak Jim Jordan on Tuesday subpoenaed Delaware Assistant US Attorney Lesley Wolf to wrestle her in to answer questions about why the Trump Justice Department wouldn’t let her prosecute Hunter Biden during the lead-up to the 2020 election, the Federalist reports.

Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance known to crypto nerds as “CZ” and the more circumspect, less fucking stupid rival to now imprisoned, possibly for life, Sam Bankrupt-Fried, will plead guilty to a federal money laundering charge and step down as part of his plea deal, Semafor reports.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Tuesday will ask a judge to revoke the bond of “Black Voices for Trump” asshole Harrison Floyd, citing his social media posts amounted to intimidation of key witnesses such as Brad Raffensperger, Ruby Freeman, and Gabe Sterling.

A team of crack “election integrity” interns slaving under their master Ronna Not-Romney McDaniel to review the signatures on the ballot access petition of the extremist “Patriot Party” in Arizona have successfully compelled Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to deny the party access to the ballot in 2024, finding the party 3,000 signatures short, the Arizona Republican reports.

“We’re extremely disappointed. It was close,” said former Republican state legislator John Fillmore, founder of the Patriots. “It’s symptomatic of the insecurity and manipulation of the party over the people. Republicans don’t like the conservatives. They were scared of the competition.”

“Massive victory for transparency and part of our ongoing campaign to ensure fair and honest elections across the country,” Ronna tweeted triumphantly after the big victory for voter choice and all that shit Republicans say when it’s a leftist third party getting squashed from the ballot.

At some point while he variously admitted that Mar-a-Lago was valued as a private residence rather than a club and then broke down in tears during direct examination from the defense when they asked him why he doesn’t work at the Trump Organization anymore, former executive at the Orange God Emperor’s corrupt business empire Jeffrey McConney mentioned that the Southern District of New York had subpoenaed him “two hours before” testifying, Law360’s Stewart Bishop reports from the courtroom in New York Attorney General Letitia James’s $250 million lawsuit against Donald.

“I got subpoenaed by the Southern District of New York…two hours before I was supposed to testify,” McConney said, per Bishop, who wrote the guy “was meandering and hard to understand. I’m not sure if he meant today, yesterday, a few weeks back during the AG’s case in chief, his deposition? Or is he talking about his 2022 testimony in the Trump Org criminal trial? And subpoenaed for what investigation? The federal criminal cases against Trump were filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith, not the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.”

Meaning McConney might have just kind of revealed that there’s a federal criminal investigation into the Trump Organization. The Messenger’s Adam Klasfeld, also sitting in the courtroom, writes he heard McConney say the same about SDNY subpoenaing him. So something might be going on.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is about halfway through its first hearing in the case brought against the draconian gerrymanders that have kept the GOP’s iron grip on power in the state legislature for more than a decade. Speaking now is a MAGA lawyer bitching about how unfair it all is.

“US Customs and Border Protection officers working at the Paso Del Norte international crossing seized 354 pounds of methamphetamine Nov 18. The drugs were concealed in the bed of a pick-up truck that entered the US from Mexico. ‘This is an enormous seizure and demonstrates the need for CBP officers to remain vigilant at all times,’ said CBP El Paso Director of Field Operation Hector Mancha. ‘CBP officers utilized a variety of tools to identify and stop this smuggler.’ The seizure occurred just before 4 pm when CBP officers conducting a pre-primary enforcement operation in the area just south of the inspection booths encountered a Dodge Ram truck being driven by 31-year-old Mexican woman. A CBP drug sniffing dog alerted to the bed of the pick-up.”

“CBP officers escorted the vehicle to the secondary exam area. CBP officers performed a Z-Portal x-ray scan on the vehicle and noted anomalies. A physical exam of the vehicle resulted in the discovery of 161 foil-wrapped bundles hidden beneath the truck bed liner. The contents of the bundles tested positive for methamphetamine. CBP officers took custody of the driver. She was turned over to the Texas Department of Public Safety to face charges associated with the failed smuggling attempt,” says a CBP press release once again making it clear the border is wide open.

Why does it mean the border is open? Well it’s like one of those things when, you know, it’s just this… Look lots of people say this didn’t happen when Trump was president because he was really tough on the border which felt like everything was secure and drug smugglers didn’t think they were safe and now because Biden left the border wide open they think they’re going to be able to drive 354 pounds of meth into our country without getting caught. So what if this one lady was wrong and she probably got fooled into thinking she’d just mosey right on in only for the Border Patrol to cuff her ass… Wait… Look, Republicans know what they’re talking about on this so just shut up.

A review of secret audio obtained by CNN’s KFile by downloading a 2022 episode of the Todd Starnes show featuring Mike Johnson reveals the new Speaker of the House is very hostile to Americans’ rights to same-sex marriage and contraception pills. Agreeing with fellow conservative extremist Clarence Thomas’s view that the Supreme Court’s prior decisions affirming those rights for Americans were “not radical. In fact, it’s the opposite of that,” Johnson told Starnes “There’s been some really bad law made. They’ve made a mess of our jurisprudence in this country for the last several decades. And maybe some of that needs to be cleaned up.”

The explosive revelation that Johnson uttered these unsubtle threats on tape – coming right on the heels of him also just last month warning a prayer group that God was going to destroy America for tolerating bisexuality in teenagers – threatens to not prompt any backlash or consequences whatsoever within the Republican Party or, let’s be honest here, the larger media ecosystem in which such public expressions of policy goals need to be falsely labelled as “secret audio” to merit any attention. Even then it has to compete against “OMG Taylor Swift gave Travis Kelce a handjob on the team bus!” for bandwidth. Johnson can’t do anything to make his dark fantasies a reality now, but people miiiiight just want to start paying attention to this kind of shit going forward.

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— The Gateway Pundit (@gatewaypundit) November 21, 2023

Top rated political superhero action series Fox News, which airs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on its own eponymous channel, has rehired Greg Wilson, the bad-boy scriptwriter credited with the fan-favorite “Seth Rich murder mystery” character arc but later fired after the family of a real-life murder victim with the same name and likeness sued the production company, the Daily Beast reports.

Rich, a young Democratic Party staffer who was tragically shot dead by an unknown assailant on a Washington DC street in 2016 was the inspiration for the plot line concocted by Wilson, one in which the fictional version of Seth Rich was a patriot who paid the ultimate price for bravely exposing the limitless corruption within the DNC. Audiences were absolutely riveted by the drama over Rich getting cut down by assassins sent by none other than MAGA Cinematic Universe fan-favorite villain Hillary Clinton, so it makes perfect sense for Fox News‘s creative team to bring back Wilson going into their hotly-anticipated, ultra-high stakes “Election Year 2024: This Time It’s Personal” storyline.

Israeli and Hamas negotiators are closing in on a deal for a multi-day ceasefire and paroling of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages abducted from towns in the vicinity of Gaza during the October 7th terrorist attack, Axios reports on a potential breakthrough.

Worried that they might become even more of a national laughingstock if they go forward with a vote on formalizing an inquiry or actual articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden, House Republicans have set an internal deadline of January to find a “smoking gun” that will actually convince enough “moderates” in their conference to make it happen or they’re going to have to drop the effort, with the latter becoming the increasingly more likely outcome, Politico reports.

“Any kind of an impeachment puts our [members in districts that voted for Biden in the 2020 election] in a really tough spot,” said one member anonymously. “Impeachment hurts us politically – it makes our base feel better.” The frontliners have warned Speaker Mike Johnson that they’re going to need a smoking gun to be moved on the issue, something that same anonymous member straight up said wasn’t happening. “I don’t think we’re going to have a closed-caption video with some Chinese national handing Joe Biden the bank money,” the weasel said, adding the case would ride on a “mountain of circumstantial evidence,” but that some federal prosecutions have been really circumstantial too. Politico should’ve quoted them directly on that gem of an admission.

The clock continues ticking inexorably. “We understand that the further you go toward an election, the more politicized these conversations become. That’s why it’s all the more important for us to begin to take action sooner rather than later,” said Virginia Republican Ben Cline.

The steel mesh safety net hanging from pylons 20 feet below the walkways of San Francisco’s Gold Gate Bridge is about 80 percent installed and will be completed next month, CNN reports on the life-saving deterrent that probably risks becoming something fun to do for idiots filming YouTube videos.