If Mike Johnson (R-LA) cannot carry the conference, look for the professionally Republican Kevin McCarthy wing to reassemble and attempt reinstallation.

WASHINGTON DC – Rep. Mike Johnson won a closed-door contest on Tuesday night to become his party’s fourth speaker nominee.

Now, the Louisiana lawmaker faces the much tougher task of securing the 217 votes he needs to win on the House floor. Earlier Tuesday, Johnson came in second to Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who then withdrew after former President Donald Trump publicly came out against him.

So, Republicans went back to the drawing board, and made Johnson the latest aspirant to a position the fractured and exhausted conference can’t seem to fill. He beat out a field of four other candidates, including Byron Donalds in the final ballot by a 128 to 29 vote. Some 44 other Republicans didn’t vote for either of the two men.

After winning the nomination, Johnson said he was “very confident” that he could get 217 votes and said “the intention is to go to the floor” for a vote on Wednesday. (more)

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State Representative Randy Fine is the only Jewish lawmaker in the Florida legislature and previously endorsed Ron DeSantis for 2024.  However, following the attack on Israel, Representative Fine now withdraws his endorsement and flips to Donald Trump citing the actionable results from Trump foreign policy.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s only Jewish Republican state lawmaker is dropping his endorsement of Gov. Ron DeSantis for president, writing in a scathing column that the Republican governor has not done enough to counter antisemitism in their home state.

State Rep. Randy Fine, previously a DeSantis ally, has pushed top priorities of the governor — including co-sponsoring legislation banning gender-affirming care for minors. He had such a good relationship with DeSantis that the governor at one point was backing him as a candidate for the presidency of Florida Atlantic University.

Fine, however, said that in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks on Israel, he is now shifting his support to former President Donald Trump. He touted Trump’s record in office, including his support for moving the United States embassy to Jerusalem and for brokering a peace deal between Israel and two Arab countries.

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Too many people continue falling for this Lawfare nonsense.   CTH has been outlining what Lawfare operations are all about since we deconstructed the Trayvon Martin narrative.  Perhaps a reminder is useful.

Lawfare, in its most obvious construct, is not a legal approach per se’, it is the intentional manipulation of the legal system to create the optics around information that is intended to be used by media to influence public opinion. {link}

That’s what Lawfare is all about, manipulating public opinion through leaks to the media.  The leaks do not need to be truthful, accurate or directly in line with the prosecution of the case; they are intended exclusively to manipulate public opinion.

Remember, on August 21st, in another ridiculous Lawfare operation, Special Counsel Jack Smith told ABC that Mark Meadows testified that President Trump never attempted to declassify any information {Go Deep}.   That report was transparently false, yet the media ran with it and multiple alternative media promoted it.  Pure nonsense.

In this latest Lawfare effort, again from Special Counsel Jack Smith, again to ABC news, again about former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, the claim is the Special Counsel granted Meadows immunity (that’s the hook), and that Meadows told President Trump the 2020 election was not rigged or stolen.

Now remember, Mark Meadows wrote about the rigged and stolen 2020 election in his book, so why would he undermine his own story by saying something completely the opposite to Jack Smith that is only coming out now?   The Occam’s razor answer is, he didn’t.  This lawfare story is all made up, fictitious, anonymous sources, manufactured to create a public impression.

Bolstering the likelihood that Meadows gave no such testimony, Meadows lawyers, when contacted by media, said the story is fake news.   Yet again, everyone falls for it.  This is how Lawfare succeeds, and this is how Trayvon Martin’s fake and fabricated ear-witness girlfriend becomes the key witness and embarrasses the prosecution on the stand.

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Several people have questioned why the U.S. injuries were not reported at the time of the attack.  The answer is simple, Joe Biden was sleeping on the beach at the time of the events. It wouldn’t look good, so the injuries were withheld until today.

(VIA NBC) -Two dozen American military personnel were wounded last week in a series of drone attacks at American bases in Iraq and Syria, U.S. Central Command told NBC News on Tuesday.

The Pentagon confirmed the attacks last week, but the number of U.S. casualties has not been previously disclosed.

Twenty American personnel sustained minor injuries on Oct. 18 when at least two one-way attack drones targeted al-Tanf military base in southern Syria, CENTCOM said.

One of the drones was shot down. All of the wounded personnel were returned to duty, CENTCOM said, and there was no damage to any military installations.

On that same day, another four American personnel suffered minor injuries during two separate drone attacks against U.S. and coalition forces stationed at al-Asad base in western Iraq, CENTCOM said. (read more)

Two dozen U.S. military injured, Biden does nothing.

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Yes, smiling is in order.  You see folks, even when the professionally Republican do not want to admit it, MAGA, We The People, now control the Republican Party.

As forecast, GOP House Whip Tom Emmer won the secret ballot for House Speaker.  Carrying a coalition of the entrenched right-wing of the DC UniParty, that was not a surprise.  However, as fast as Rep Emmer’s hopes surfaced, they were quickly obliterated by President Trump and the atomic hammer of truth.

“I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social app. “RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them.”

…. And just like that, Tom Emmer drops out.

Everything President Trump said in that statement about Emmer was exactly correct.

[…] “House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) dropped out of the Speaker’s race Tuesday, just hours after the conference nominated the Minnesota Republican for the top job”… {link}

Go Trump! 😂

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Tucker Carlson releases a lengthy discussion of the ramifications of an expanded Israeli War in the Middle East.

(2:00) Col. Douglas Macgregor
(4:20) Threats to the homeland
(6:12) Iran & its missiles
(13:00) Going into Gaza
(19:40) American hostages
(22:45) Impact on the American economy

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As noted by Politico in 2021, when asked about Donald Trump getting involved in midterm primaries, head of the National Republic Congressional Committee Tom Emmer told reporter Jacob Rubaskin, “He’s a private citizen, and he’s entitled to his own opinion.”  “I would tell him that it’s probably better for us that we keep these people and we make sure that we have a majority that can be sustained going forward.”

Emmer followed later in March saying Trump getting involved in the GOP congressional primaries was “not gonna be helpful.”

Fast forward to 2023, Emmer is now the House Republican Whip and wants to be Speaker of the House.  Apparently, Emmer called President Trump this weekend seeking an endorsement.  WATCH:

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President Trump says, “I’m trying to stay out of that as much as possible.”   Meanwhile, all the Republicans who threw their name in the hat to become Speaker of the House want his endorsement.  lol

I’m sure President Trump will leverage the “optimal solution.”

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If you drop the pretending, it becomes crystal clear to see the hostages are being used as leverage to stop a counteroffensive by the Israeli military.  The Obama/Biden administration alignment with Qatar, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), permeates the media narrative with calls to negotiate terms for peace and hostage release.

As we expected, Benjamin Netanyahu is being painted into a corner by the Biden administration who are using the U.S. military presence as a shield to force Israel to follow the approved program of the U.S. government.   Biden, et al, want to protect Hamas while simultaneously calling residents of Gaza “victims” to the interests of Hamas and the PIJ.

With 200+ hostages held by Hamas, and up to another 50 held by PIJ, the slow drip of successful hostage release negotiations becomes the justification to stopping the Israeli War counteroffensive.

The two hostages released, Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, and Nurit Cooper, 79, were taken out of Gaza at the Rafah crossing into Egypt, where they were put into ambulances.  However, their elderly husbands were kept behind.  The two women, along with their husbands, were snatched from their homes in the kibbutz of Nir Oz near the Gaza border during Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israeli communities.

WASHINGTON – […]  Israel is widely expected to launch a ground offensive in Gaza, vowing to destroy Hamas. Iranian-backed fighters around the region are warning of possible escalation if that happens, including targeting U.S. forces deployed in the Mideast.

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We should all be aware of the domestic threat posed after several years of BLM alignment with various groups promoting Islamic Jihad. The extreme elements of the Palestinian movement have swelled in the U.S since 2009 and the introduction of sympathies for the Muslim Brotherhood.

In addition to the preexisting threat, Customs and Border Patrol are also raising the alert for potential Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters to cross the U.S southern border as the influx of illegal aliens continues unabated by the Biden administration.

In a leaked memo from the San Diego Field Office of the CBP: “Individuals with terrorism connections are interested in using established travel routes and permissive environments to facilitate access to the United States,” the alert warns.

(Via Fox News) A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) memo is warning staff of the risk that foreign terrorist fighters engaged in the Israel-Hamas conflict could soon be attempting to enter the United States via the besieged southern border.

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The slate is set for a Monday evening conference in the Republican House of Representatives as nine GOP politicians have registered by the deadline today to put their names in the nomination process.   After the conference meets on Monday night, there will be a secret ballot vote on Tuesday.

The absolute worst-case scenario is Tom Emmer (R-MN) who has just received the endorsement of Kevin McCarthy.  Emmer wants to abolish the electoral college for presidential races in favor of a national popular vote. Unfortunately, Emmer likely carries around 70 automatic votes from the professionally Republican caucus.

On the opposite side of that spectrum is Byron Donalds (R-FL) who is pure MAGA and also running for the job.

WASHINGTON DC – The House GOP’s enormous speaker field is officially set, with nine Republicans seeking to somehow unify their splintered party after almost three weeks without a leader.

It’s the most crowded field since former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s fall 19 days ago. The latest round of candidates includes current GOP leaders — like Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Vice Chair Mike Johnson (R-La.) — as well as more surprising rank and file members like Reps. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.). Another last-minute addition, Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.), who serves as GOP policy chair, raised eyebrows on Sunday.

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