On The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon focused on the brevity of McCarthy’s stint: “Nine months? Even Aaron Rodgers is like, Damn, that was fast,” he joked. “Nine months? I’ve been to Phish concerts longer than that.” He then played a lightning-fast reel of McCarthy’s “greatest moments as Speaker of the House.”
Jimmy Kimmel noted that in a rare feat, Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Republican congressman Matt Gaetz were aligned in voting McCarthy out. “Do you know how much you have to suck to get AOC and Matt Gaetz on the same side of something?” Kimmel said, adding, “Matt hasn’t been this excited since he wandered into the changing room at Forever 21”—likely referring to the investigation into Gaetz for allegedly sleeping with a minor and transporting her across state lines. (Gaetz has denied all allegations against him.)
“Kevin McCarthy says he will not run for Speaker again, which surprised a lot of people, including me,” Kimmel continued. “I mean, he’s a Republican. You lose a vote, you just say you won the vote. You get with the program, man.”
...Following the vote, one congresswoman was reportedly crying on the House floor, and dozens of Republicans supporting McCarthy lined up to console him.
So many shocked faces being acquainted with a leopard.
...McCarthy served 270 days, the equivalent of 27 scaramuccis or 0.093 of a pelosi, after giving away his power—and his dignity—to man-toddlers who eventually stabbed him in the back.
Nancy Patricia Pelosi, who served 2,290 days as Speaker of the House, won election to Speaker by her colleagues on the first ballot every time, deftly shepherded some of the most notable legislation in modern history, and successfully defied challenges to her leadership with uncommonly brilliant coalition skills, backwards and in high heels...
For those who missed it, here’s McCarthy’s execrable performance on Face the Nation (no relation to Face/ the Leopard) that convinced every single member of the Democratic Caucus, no matter how fractious, that there was absolutely no point in even CONSIDERING casting McCarthy a lifeline:
...People close to the president considered McCarthy a fickle and unpredictable partner. When McCarthy met with Biden in person, he typically presented himself as a sober negotiator, clear-eyed about the give-and-take of bipartisan governance. Then he would go out in public and brag about his refusal to bend on conservative demands.
On a particularly sensitive matter, McCarthy mocked Biden’s age and mental acuity in public, while privately telling allies that he found the president sharp and substantive in their conversations — a contradiction that left a deep impression on the White House.
McCarthy’s willingness to sign off on an impeachment inquiry without holding a vote was seen as a cynical ploy that sapped any goodwill among Biden’s closest advisers. The decision to renege on a debt ceiling deal he brokered directly with Biden, meanwhile, signaled his hold over those in his own party was waning...
Here’s my personal two cents:
Meanwhile, in the Canadian Province of Manitoba, the socialist New Democratic Party swept to power, led by the first Native Canadian to serve as a Provincial leader:
NDP Leader Wab Kinew has been elected Manitoba’s premier and Progressive Conservative Heather Stefanson has resigned as her party’s leader after a campaign that saw the two spar over healthcare, crime and the cost of living.
Kinew’s victory speech on Tuesday night reiterated the party’s steadfast promise to fix healthcare, the NDP’s central election focus, while strengthening the provincial economy. Mention of climate change and environment policy were notably absent — as was the case most of the campaign.
Despite a lack of ambitious campaign promises on environmental issues, there are clear differences in the parties’ climate policies.
“You will not have to fight me to take action on climate change, instead we will fight together against global warming,” Kinew said in August.
Tommy Beaudreau… will leave after two years as deputy interior secretary, during which he oversaw the approval of the Willow Alaskan oil project and a deal to protect the Colorado River’s water supply. An energy lawyer who spent part of his childhood in Alaska, Beaudreau became a point person on the administration’s effort to overhaul mining rules, enhance conservation measures, and speedup the build out of renewable energy and transmission on federal lands.
...Beaudreau was nominated for the position after senators from fossil fuel-rich states derailed the White House’s first choice, Elizabeth Klein, now director of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. He was confirmed by the Senate in an 88-9 vote in June 2021, with wide bipartisan support, including from Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).
Meanwhile, Kaiser Permanente workers are on strike:
On Wednesday, an estimated 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers across five states and Washington DC walked out in the largest health care workers strike in US history. After several days of negotiations over fair labor practices and higher wages, company and union members failed to reach a compromise.
Both groups “are still at the bargaining table, having worked through the night in an effort to reach an agreement,” the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions said in a statement, noting there “has been a lot of progress.”
Last month, health care workers threatened to go on strike if Kaiser didn’t agree to increased pay and solutions to the ongoing staff shortage, among other demands, before the union contract’s expiration on Saturday. While the strike is set to last for three days, union members say that they’re prepared to extend it to November if necessary.
On a happier note:
Without decisive action, the world would face “the point of no return”, he said. “Our responses have not been adequate, while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point.”
The pope’s comments came in a “papal exhortation” published by the Vatican on Wednesday morning, a call primarily to Catholics but intended for the world. Called Laudate Deum, which translates as Praise God, the 10-page document is his first big intervention on the climate crisis for eight years.
...The pontiff expressed hope that the Cop28 summit, to be held in Dubai this November and December, would “move beyond the mentality of appearing to be concerned but not having the courage needed to produce substantial changes”.
Justices considering a case against the CFPB seem unlikely to trigger a second Great Depression.
Imagine that the Supreme Court of the United States spent an entire morning debating whether penguins are the primary cause of colon cancer or whether John F. Kennedy was assassinated by aliens from the planet Venus.
That’s more or less the quality of arguments that former Trump Solicitor General Noel Francisco presented to the Court on Tuesday, as part of a quizzical effort to convince the justices to declare an entire federal agency unconstitutional.
...By the end of the argument, even Justice Clarence Thomas — ordinarily the most conservative member of the Court — appeared fed up with Francisco’s inability to articulate a coherent argument.
It seems very unlikely, therefore, that the Court’s decision in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association will end in the CFPB being struck down — and that’s a very good thing. As the banking industry warned in a brief to the justices, striking down the CFPB would mean striking down the agency that writes the rules telling them how to comply with federal laws governing mortgages. Without these rules in place, the entire US mortgage market could seize up — taking out about 17 percent of the US economy in the process.
More at DailyKos: Even SCOTUS is Rejecting the Rightwing Scheme to Kill the CFPB: 'BradCast' 10/4/2023
And also:
Pretty much no one thinks that Deborah Laufer, the plaintiff in a civil rights suit that the Supreme Court heard on Wednesday, should be allowed to move forward with her lawsuit. That includes Laufer herself, who has asked the courts to dismiss her case.
Indeed, the only thing that appeared uncertain during Wednesday’s arguments in Acheson Hotels v. Laufer is which of two alternative arguments the Court will embrace when it dismisses this case.
The stakes in Acheson Hotels also seemed to diminish as the argument proceeded. Many civil rights lawyers feared that the GOP-controlled Supreme Court would use this case as a vehicle to drastically roll back the rights of “testers,” individuals who volunteer to be subject to discrimination so that they can bring a federal lawsuit challenging that discrimination. But that outcome now appears unlikely.
Okay, just gotta get one last dig in, because it’s SO juicy…
X is still worth something, but not for the people running it. Boss Linda Yaccarino is set to present her plans for the social network formerly known as Twitter to bankers holding nearly $13 billion of its debt, the Financial Times reported. Looming over talks is the likelihood that X’s value is substantially less than even that figure.
This week’s meeting with seven banks led by Morgan Stanley (MS.N) that supported Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the platform caps off a tumultuous first four months for Yaccarino, a former advertising executive at Comcast-owned (CMCSA.O) NBCUniversal. That includes a contentious interview last week in which she seemed caught off-guard by Musk’s announced ambition to charge X users a monthly fee to combat bots.
...Put it all together, and X isn’t just worth less than Musk paid for it, but likely less than its debt. Assume that the company’s revenue last year was $4.7 billion, based on results before it was taken private. If advertising has dropped by half, then this year’s sales should be a bit over $2.5 billion. Put that on the same enterprise-value-to-sales multiple as Snap, which is down to a mere 3 times, and X is worth around $8 billion.
What are YOU worth tonight? Are your bankers getting nervous? Tell us all about it in the comments! (Along with your best digs at the late, unlamented speakership of Slippery Kevin)