Gotch!

If that's how Congress is supposed to work... putting a zinger over on a colleague?

This morning I wrote about the congressional hearing with Jack Smith... I want to talk about the drama surrounding the hearing.

They were gleeful... “We got him now!”

Why are they so set on getting Jack Smith?

Why... because Trump wills it!

 Viral slow zoom on Katie Britt says it all as she realizes Jack Smith gotcha moment is going up in flames
The exchange unravelled after Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt mistook a Caitlin Clark college basketball game in Maryland for an NBA game in Atlanta Jasmine 

Independent 

Fernández
30 September 2026

 

 

 A video of Alabama Republican Senator Katie Britt looking visibly stunned during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing circulated on social media after her colleague, Senator Eric Schmitt, stumbled in his questioning of former special counsel Jack Smith.

Schmitt, a Missouri Republican, attempted to corner Smith over an alleged 2024 trip to an Atlanta Hawks basketball game, suggesting the trip pointed to coordination with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in the prosecution of Donald Trump. During the exchange, Schmitt accused Smith of committing perjury.

“You will go down as a total dirtbag,” Schmitt said.

Smith corrected him, pointing out that Schmitt had mistaken the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks for the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team.

They were gleeful... we got him now!

 

Why are they so set in getting Jack Smith?

 

 

Why... because Trump wills it!

 

Reuters reported that,

 Former US special counsel Jack Smith told senators on Tuesday that he will not be silenced by threats of prosecution, as ​he faced Republican accusations of abuse of power in his investigations of President Donald Trump.

Smith brought two since-dismissed criminal cases against Trump over his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 ‌election and his alleged mishandling of classified documents after his first term.

That is what started this witch-hunt... his nerve in investigating their cult leader.

 Republican lawmakers, who have repeatedly blasted Smith for what they see ​as vindictive, politically driven prosecutions of Trump and his allies, alleged Smith abused his authority and used his investigations to obtain information from a variety of Republican officials and groups.

And now they had him! Perjury! So once again, they drag him before a hearing! Since they do it, they think everyone does it!

 “This wasn't a normal prosecution,” Grassley said. "Mr. Smith's operation was a partisan weapon that broke the rules."

That would be quite natural for the Republicans to think that. This is the evidence! We got the goods on him...

 Based on text messages Schmitt said his office had viewed, he accused Smith of attending an Atlanta ​Hawks basketball game, suggesting that would have placed him in the city where local prosecutor Fani Willis was also trying to prosecute Trump.

So if Mr. Smith was there in the same city where Willis was, in their mind, that was enough evidence... in the same city with over a quarter of a million people... collusion! We got him!

 Republican efforts to hold Smith responsible for his alleged abuse of power have picked up in the past year, though no charges against him have been filed. Smith gave closed-door testimony to a Republican-led House committee in December, saying the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot “does not happen” without Trump. Smith then gave public testimony before the same committee in January.

They dug through not just his call list but also all the texts that he sent. They smelled blood, and that was enough for them.

 Much of the Republican criticism of Smith has focused on records his investigators obtained involving members of Congress. Smith obtained phone call logs from several ​Republican senators around the time of the Capitol ​riot. In July, Republican senators revealed that ⁠Smith also reviewed texts from 44 US lawmakers as part of a review of material from White House aides.

They thought they had a "GOTCHA." They were not looking for the truth but rather something to get him on. In other words, they were looking for something to justify their searches of his life, to prove Trump was right, that this was an attack on him.

This was personal to Trump. It certainly looked less like a search for the truth than a search for something, anything, that could be used against Smith.

 

 

---

Update: 4:15PM

People, What Is The Number 1 Problem In The U.S.

Okay folks...

online polls

What? Jack Smith? What about him?

Jack Smith defends Trump probes in Senate hearing filled with GOP insults

The former special counsel testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee amid the Justice Department’s pursuit of those involved in investigations into Trump.

NBC News

By Ryan J. Reilly and Justin Goldman

Sept. 29, 2026

Former special counsel Jack Smith told senators Tuesday that he would not be silenced “by continued threats of prosecution” over his handling of the investigation into President Donald Trump.

Smith appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee amid the Justice Department’s push to target law enforcement officials involved with his investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as well as the probe into his handling of classified documents after he left office in January 2021.

Smith, who brought two since-dismissed federal criminal cases against Trump, said in his opening statement that he stood by his decision to bring charges against Trump, which was the result of a deep investigation that uncovered substantive evidence.

I feel sorry for Mr. Smith. The Republicans on their vendetta against him is must be costing him, both monetarily and psychological.

This has going way beyond gathering fact to political zingers... The Rolling Stone reported,

MAGA firebrand Eric Schmitt came after Jack Smith during a dramatic Senate hearing on Tuesday, attempting to catch the former special counsel in a lie about his conduct during his high-profile investigations of Donald Trump. Schmitt, however, had his facts completely wrong — not that you’d know it by watching the right wing content mill. 

Instead of admitting the mistake, some MAGA tastemakers have doubled down on Schmitt’s completely wrong assertion that Smith was lying about attending an Atlanta Hawks game in early 2024.

Schmitt’s original gaffe has to be seen to be believed. The Missouri senator thought that he had text messages that proved that Smith was in Atlanta on Feb. 3, 2024, which he believed would have indicated that Smith was somehow colluding with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was also investigating Trump. Schmitt’s “proof,” was a series of text messages from Smith’s staff that referenced a basketball game, which Schmitt was certain was the Hawks’ game against the Golden State Warriors. The texts referenced a game, yes, but one that Smith soon realized likely referred to the University of Maryland women’s NCAA game against the University of Iowa that he attended the same day. Sen. Amy Klobuchar delightedly pointed out that Schmitt had probably mistaken the Hawkeyes (Iowa’s mascot) for the Atlanta Hawks.

Stand by your man

Stand by your man

And show the world you love him

Keep givin' all the love you can

Stand by your man

"Stand By Your Man" Tammy Wynette

The Rolling Stone goes on to report,

Despite this pretty conclusive proof that Schmitt was up the creek without a paddle, MAGA media has doubled down. Here’s Schmitt just minutes later, on The Charlie Kirk Show, attempting to launder his reputation with a feeble insistence that he was right all along. 

CHARLIE KIRK SHOW: Gotta give you some flowers. Dang! So you had text messages from Jack Smith's team confirming he was going to a Hawks game, and he sat there acting dumbfounded?

ERIC SCHMITT: It was the only NBA game going on at that time in Atlanta. He claimed later that he… pic.twitter.com/IqTIG8YP38

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 29, 2026

MAGA commentator Benny Johnson also cast Schmitt’s questioning as a win. He posted an out-of-context clip of the exchange, before it was revealed that Schmitt was wrong. “Senator Eric Schmidt Just CAUGHT Jack Smith perjuring himself on the stand in his testimony,” Johnson wrote, adding that Smith was “stunned.”

If you can dazzle them with truth... baffle them with lies.

What Is It With These Republicans

Can you image if a Democrat said to kill Republicans... it would be all over the front page. But...

Texas Republican called for public execution of Democratic leaders – report

Bo French, who is running to lead a state agency, has in the past posted controversial and racist statements online

The Guardian

Ariana Baio

Mon 28 Sep 2026

Bo French, a Texas Republican running to lead a powerful state agency, has a history of making controversial social media posts, including calling for the public execution of Democratic leaders, according to a recent investigation from CNN’s KFile team.

French, who is running to lead Texas’s railroad commission, has recently faced criticism from members of his own party after making a racist post on social media. Powerful Republicans, including the Texas senator John Cornyn, said they would not support French in the upcoming election.

But the latest spat over French’s social media has led to a deeper look at his online history. In a review of old posts from social media accounts that seemingly belonged to French, CNN’s KFile team found that the Texas Republican repeatedly called for public executions of opponents.

This is despicable! And the fact that other Republicans are not calling him on on this is even worst!

French is no stranger to posting controversial statements online.

Over the last year, he has used his platform to assert that the entire religion of Islam should be banned; claim childless women were “selfish” and “responsible for the demise of our culture”; and posted a poll to ask whether “Jews” or “Muslims” posed a bigger threat.

According to CNN/KFile’s investigation, in May 2020 French used an account under the name “rwbofrench”, which has since been suspended, to encourage Donald Trump to “hang” Obama-era officials believed to be part of the “Russia hoax”.

And this is the candidate they are putting forward in the election. In another Guardian article they report that,

The outbursts came repeatedly during Ted Cruz’s Thursday night address at the American Airlines center, when he named a Democrat he accused of holding radical views. After the senator mentioned the New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, video footage depicts at least one audience member shouting: “He should be shot!” The same cry followed when Cruz named Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and again after he named Texas Senate candidate James Talarico. Cruz did not pause or respond to the shouting, and it remains unclear whether he heard it from the stage. Cruz did not respond to a request for comment.

[...]

Asked about the moment on CNN’s The Source With Kaitlan Collins, El-Sayed said such rhetoric had become dangerously normalized and that it should unsettle anyone who heard it. He called on Republicans to name the chant for what it was: incitement that both parties ought to reject, and appealed for a return to a politics centered on people’s basic needs and dignity.

No it is not! It might be in the Republican party, but I haven't heard any Democrats call for executions!

And what does about the people who voted for him?

Reagan/Trump

What do the two presidents have in common?

Yes, they were both Republicans.

Yes, they both tanked the economy.

But neither took diseases seriously. Reagan: HIV/AIDS. Trump: Ebola. Ebola is not like COVID; it doesn’t spread like wildfire but more like AIDS... slowly. But it is still highly contagious!

Congo’s Ebola outbreak tops 8,000 confirmed cases as disease remains out of control

AP News

September 28, 2026

The number of confirmed cases of Ebola virus in Congo has surged past 8,000, as the country runs out of health workers to contain the deadly disease, officials said Monday. The outbreak is the country’s 17th and its deadliest.

Congo announced an outbreak on May 15, caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no known treatment or vaccine, and has struggled to contain it.

The latest data from Congo’s health ministry released Sunday showed that 8,067 cases have been confirmed, with 3,901 deaths as of Sept. 26 across 63 health zones in seven of the country’s 26 provinces, with a fatality rate of more than 48%.

Do you remember that Reagan delayed funding because it was the “Gay” disease? This time, funding has been cut back across all USAID funding. The thing is, Ebola never sleeps.

Some areas have shown signs of improvement, with fewer confirmed cases in the past several weeks, including in Ituri province and Haut-Uele, but officials say the disease is spreading further in other areas, expanding its geographical reach.

Diseases never sleep.

Media ITE reported:

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, was quoted as saying at the time, “This is not efficiency. It is dangerous neglect. The United States spent years building the relationships, supply chains, laboratories, and community health networks that help stop deadly diseases at their source. The Trump administration tore into that capacity and now wants to pretend the consequences were unforeseeable.”

Just like Reagan you can't ignore diseases! Infection Control Today wrote,

The Ebola outbreak spreading across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and into Uganda is now one of the most rapidly escalating in the virus's recorded history. As of May 25, 2026, the CDC reports that the bulk of the devastation is concentrated in the DRC, with 906 suspected cases and 105 confirmed cases," or restructured as "906 suspected and 105 confirmed cases, with 234 deaths

Once a disease gets a toehold the CDC will be putting out one brush fire after another. Even though Ebola doesn't spread easily if a enough Ebola infected people come here it could overload the system.

Last year the Senate Foreign Relations Committee put this out...

The Dangerous Consequences of Funding Cuts to U.S. Global Health Programs

“In less than two months, the Trump Administration has undone six decades of investments that made the United States more respected and influential than any other nation. The resulting chaos has left us weaker and more vulnerable. Like all of my colleagues, I have always supported reforming government and making sure our tax dollars are spent wisely. But this administration has ignored U.S. laws enacted by Congress-cutting foreign assistance programs and USAID staff that are essential for our nation

[...]

Top Line Impact of Global Health Cuts

• Our 50-country network for stronger surveillance to deadly diseases from bird flu to swine fever [is] gone.
• Our emergency response system that cut response times to global outbreaks from greater than two weeks to less than 48 hours [is] gone.
• AIDS programs to prevent new cases of HIV in high-risk populations [is] gone
• Programs for preventing child and maternal deaths that reached 93 million women and children under 5 in 2023 and added 6 years of life on average [has been] cut 92%.
• Lifesaving tuberculosis programs cut [by] 56%.
• Lifesaving water and sanitation programs cut[by] 86%.
• Funding for GAVI, the global vaccine alliance, which was set to vaccinate half a billion children [was] terminated and, if not restored, will cost 500,000 lives a year and drive higher exposure to measles in the U.S.

It almost seems like if there isn't a buck to be made the Trump adminstration doesn't care about it.

"We have met the enemy and he is us."

That famous saying came from Pogo, a satirical comic strip created by Walt Kelly but it could apply today to the Trump adminstration.

Vance Busted Using Bogus Numbers in His Big Crusade

The vice president claimed his task force found $250 billion in fraud—but its own figures tell a murkier
The Daily Beast

Tom Latchem 

Sep. 28 2026

JD Vance’s claim that his White House task force uncovered $250 billion in fraud in just a few months is based on questionable accounting, a new report has revealed.

The vice president has made fighting fraud a major part of his remit since Donald Trump put him in charge of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud in March.

But a New York Times analysis of the administration’s own records found some figures being used by Vance to show his task force’s successes are inflated, difficult to substantiate, or based on work that began before Trump returned to office—which one expert described as a “sleight of hand.”

Naw... the Trump adminstration would never do that! Now would it?

The accounting also includes money the government has not actually recovered, the Times found. More than a third of the ledger’s $59.1 billion in “fraud enforced” is linked to $22.6 billion attributed to the Small Business Administration. Most of that represents delinquent pandemic loans sent for debt collection, which had previously been identified as potentially fraudulent during the Biden administration, rather than billions already clawed back from fraudsters.

What? You mean this is from the Biden adminstration! And Trump is taking credit for it? Figures.

We Are At A Crux

[Essay]

There are certain points in time that take a radical turn—like the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, or the Robber Barons cornering all the wealth right before the anti-trust acts were passed. Once again, the bubble burst, which led to the Great Depression and the creation of Social Security.

What do they all have in common? The concentration of wealth.

Well, once again, we are at a crux. This November is going to be a major turning point, and like all cruxes, it can go either way.

This November, if Trump wins and maintains control of Congress... god help us. It will shape the world for more than a generation, leading right down the road to 1984.

If the Republicans maintain just one chamber... see the above, unless they manage to grow some backbone.

If the Democrats sweep a Blue wave... battle lines are drawn in Congress over the seating of the new members... impeachment... the Speaker becoming president... civil war? It is yet another crux.

“May you live in interesting times.” This November will prove that old blessing/curse true.

[/Essay]

Smoke & Mirrors

This guy was a strong anti-LGBTQ Republican... hard core.

He introduced the law banned Pride flags and non-official flags from being displayed in public schools and government buildings! He sponsored legislation targeting transgender individuals, including bills attempting to restrict transgender people from working as teachers, proposals to eliminate gender identity provisions from state documents, and efforts regarding birth certificates and public bathrooms!

But you have to wonder... was a it a all to hide his crimes?

Breaking: State Rep. Trevor Lee charged with four felonies related to alleged mortgage fraud

The firebrand representative immediately resigned his legislative seat after being charged by the Utah Attorney General’s Office.

Salt Lake Tribune

By Robert Gehrke, Emily Anderson Stern, and Addy Baird

Sep. 28, 2026

The Utah Attorney General’s Office has charged state Rep. Trevor Lee with two counts of fraud and two forgery-related counts stemming from allegedly falsified documents related to the mortgage on his Layton home.

Lee, a 35-year-old Republican who lost his reelection bid in the June primary, promptly resigned his House seat after the charges were filed in 3rd District Court. The Salt Lake Tribune confirmed in July that the attorney general’s office was investigating Lee.

[...]

The charges accuse Lee of having falsified a contract with a company named Enevive — including forging the signature of its CEO — purporting to show that he made $168,000 annually from the business in order to get a $1 million home loan from Kind Lending last year.

It seems like our worst critics are crocks crooks.

One Land, One Justice.

One set of laws governing the land.

That is the basis of our Constitution... but the Supreme Court is thinking that maybe two sets of laws or more might govern the country.

Supreme Court Emergency Docket Asked to Protect Right to Use Religious Courts

A state court has ordered an Orthodox Jew to demand that a rabbinical court reverse a religious ruling. That goes too far.

National Review

By Dan McLaughlin

September 23, 2026

The use of religious tribunals to settle disputes that might otherwise be heard in civil courts has long been a fault line in systems of civil law. The very structure of Anglo-American law presumes a sometimes-abstruse division between the spheres of law and equity that has roots in medieval England, where the chancery courts (while ruling in the king’s name) were often de facto religious tribunals. In more modern times, when the government’s courts are civil, we see instead controversies arise when litigants want to use the religious courts — or feel compelled by their religious communities to do so.

[...]

he use of religious tribunals to settle disputes that might otherwise be heard in civil courts has long been a fault line in systems of civil law. The very structure of Anglo-American law presumes a sometimes-abstruse division between the spheres of law and equity that has roots in medieval England, where the chancery courts (while ruling in the king’s name) were often de facto religious tribunals. In more modern times, when the government’s courts are civil, we see instead controversies arise when litigants want to use the religious courts — or feel compelled by their religious communities to do so.

Now, this hot potato has landed on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket. Justice Sonia Sotomayor ordered Wednesday that a response be filed by Monday, September 28, in Strulovitch v. Bain, a case arising from a collision between the courts of New York State and an Orthodox Jew’s resort to a rabbinical court known as a beis (or beth) din. The dispute is a real one, although whether it belongs on the emergency docket is a closer question, especially because it is embedded in a commercial dispute whose twists and turns are characteristically intricate.

My problem is... "feel compelled by their religious communities to do so," and also what happens if someone is not a member of that religious sect? The way I see it, it is like a clause to use binding arbitration (which I am against). As long as both parties agree, I don't see a problem, but if it is forced on a person... no. And that a person can back out at any time.

The order by Jamieson goes further than necessary in trying to “rectify the potential damage” to a litigant’s “reputation in the religious community.” Whether the Supreme Court will find that this is a sufficiently urgent First Amendment violation to warrant emergency relief is another matter. And it’s always hazardous to judge the whole case just on one side’s argument. But the narrow relief of striking that portion of the order seems warranted if one wishes to avoid a collision between the secular and religious courts.

A can of worms is about to be opened when you have two or more sets of laws...

One nation under one law!

Hmm... I wonder if they would change their tune if the religious court ruled that trans women are women. I bet you would hear the Supreme Court change their tune.

I have to wonder if a religious court or body issues a ruling that affirms trans people, I think the the conservative courts or lawmakers will suddenly become very interested in asserting state supremacy and invalidating religious autonomy. However, when religious rules are used to restrict rights or enforce traditional hierarchies, I see the same institutions will be eager to carve out broad "religious freedom" exemptions.

Electric Bills!

How many times have you heard that from candidates this election cycle, promising to bring down your electric bill? But ask them this: “Why aren’t you speaking out against Trump’s blocking of wind and solar power?”

Wind and solar power frozen out of Trump permitting push

Reuter

By Nichola Groom

December 10, 2025

Summary

• Power demand seen rising 32% by 2030, driven by AI expansion
• Federal delays threaten solar and wind projects on public and private lands
• Renewable plants are quicker to bring online, but Trump says less reliable

U.S. President Donald Trump's freeze on approvals for major onshore wind and solar projects is leaving thousands of megawatts of clean power capacity in limbo at a time of soaring demand for electricity, a Reuters review of permitting data and interviews with industry officials shows.

Just one solar project has been approved on federal lands since Trump took office in January, and none have been permitted since July when Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered that all new decisions related to renewable energy projects require his personal sign-off.

Why aren’t politicians talking about Trump’s blocking of renewables at the behest of coal companies? 

AP News reported,

Democratic attorneys general from California and New York sued the Trump administration Tuesday over its plans to buy back offshore wind leases as President Donald Trump seeks to discourage the expansion of wind energy in favor of fossil fuels.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said he is suing over removal of a project off his state’s coast planned by Chicago-based Invenergy. The Trump administration said in June that it’s buying back the company’s U.S. offshore wind leases for four wind projects on the East and West coasts.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, meanwhile, led seven states in suits seeking to block the Invenergy deal and another proposal with Bluepoint Wind, which agreed in April to end a wind farm under development off the New York and New Jersey coast.

The deals would hand energy companies $1.4 billion in taxpayer dollars in exchange for the cancellation of multiple projects. ln all, the Trump administration has pledged nearly $4 billion to companies to walk away from projects across the country.

Why is he doing it? Why is he pushing coal? Last December, at a rally in coal country, he said in a speech…

So we only call coal, clean, beautiful coal. Is that right, fellas, because coal needs a little public relations help. It's a very powerful -- it's a very powerful fuel. It's used by China. You know, China makes all our windmills but they don't have any wind farms. It's a little interesting, isn't it? Wind is the worst.

It's a big -- it's a big -- that's a scam. They ruin your valleys. They ruin your peaks. They -- and the most expensive energy. The only ones that get rich are the developers who make a fortune. You have to change the windmills. And most of them are made in China, but China has very few wind farms. You know why?

Because they're smart. You know what they do have, a lot of coal. They love coal. So that's OK. But we have clean, beautiful coal and we brought it back into vogue. We have nuclear. We have oil and gas. We have sort of everything. We don't want -- we don't approve windmills. We don't approve it. I'm sorry.

Why is he pushing coal? Because the coal industry is a major backer of Republicans.

But now, with oil prices skyrocketing, buying wind and solar contracts is driving up the cost of electricity and you don’t hear candidates addressing it!