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🇺🇸 Jim Jordan Jumps In

🇺🇸 Jim Jordan Jumps In

Plus, don't sleep in this bear's bed.

Good morning, and happy Tuesday. An Oklahoma teen is on top of the world after winning a car last month at a funeral 30 miles away from her home — fulfilling the last wish of a woman she had never even met.

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Trump’s Gag Order, ACLU Agreement, Biden’s Warning to Israel

US: Trump ‘does not have the right to say and do exactly what he pleases,’ Judge Chutkan says, issuing gag order (CNN)

US: Muslim boy killed and woman wounded in Illinois hate crime motivated by Israel-Hamas war, police say (AP)

US: Biden admin reaches settlement with ACLU over separated migrant families under Trump (ABC News)

World: Biden warns Israel against occupying Gaza as ground invasion appears near (CNN)

World: Welcome back, Donald: EU sighs in relief over Poland election results (POLITICO)

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Farms and A.I. Have This in Common?

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CONGRESS

Jim Jordan Jumps In

Image Credit: Congressman Jim Jordan

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) is continuing his effort to become the next speaker of the House of Representatives. A full vote is planned in the House today, Tuesday, October 17, at 12 p.m. ET.

Reporting from the Right: Jordan's speaker bid gains serious momentum as key GOP holdouts come around (FOX News)

Reporting from the Left: Jordan wins over some GOP skeptics ahead of speaker vote (CNN)

From The Flag: Like Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), Jordan is facing an uphill battle. On Friday, House Republicans voted 124-81 to nominate Jordan for speaker but remained divided, with only 152 Republicans saying they would vote for Jordan on the House floor. The House has gone nearly two weeks without a speaker after ousting Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Here’s what both sides are saying in the lead-up to the full vote.

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Jordan Might Pull This Off

Intra-party relations are fractured within the House Republican conference, but things appear to be turning in Jordan’s favor.
Should Jordan win the speakership, it will be a huge win for conservative activists who will have installed an anti-establishment, hardline conservative in the speakership.
Seizing on the division among House Republicans, Democrats are targeting vulnerable, swing district Republicans to vote against Jordan.

Jim Jordan Locks Up Dissenters’ Votes amid Chaotic Speaker Bid Audrey Fahlberg, National Review: “A dark cloud of uncertainty hangs over Capitol Hill as Congress approaches its two-week mark without a speaker of the House. … As of this writing, the pendulum is swinging in Jordan’s favor. The pro-Jordan camp is betting that, unlike hardline conservative members — many of whom stalled McCarthy’s January speakership bid and are used to being a thorn in House GOP leadership’s side — mainstream Republican holdouts are not used to getting flak from grassroots conservative groups and will cave when the vote moves to the House floor. As of Monday afternoon, that strategy was already paying dividends, with three avowed “no” votes — Representatives Mike Rogers (R., Ala.), Ken Calvert (R., Calif.), and Ann Wagner (R., Mo.) — all signaling in public statements that they will reverse course and back Jordan’s bid. … Intra-party relations are so splintered that only 209 of the House Republican conference’s 221 members even bothered to show up for Friday’s closed-door meeting.”

Jim Jordan tests whether conservatives can go from rebellion to running the House W. James Antle III, Washington Examiner: “If Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is elected speaker of the House, conservative activists will not only have scored the ultimate victory over the vaunted Republican establishment. They will also no longer be able to blame the establishment for how the party governs. This is, of course, a big “if,” given the recent histories of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), who were shoo-ins for the speaker’s gavel until the moment they weren’t. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) still clings to his position as one of the last vestiges of GOP establishment power. But the election of the first Freedom Caucus speaker will be a test for the conservative rebels. Can they stop rebelling and govern with one of their own in the speaker’s chair? If elected, Jordan would be a conservative speaker who rose up the ranks through conservative activist circles and is in touch with their passions. He might be more purely their speaker than even Gingrich.

One more opinion piece from the Right: House Democrats target vulnerable Republicans to vote against Jim Jordan speakership Cami Mondeaux, Washington Examiner

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Jordan Would Be Dangerous

Liz Cheney rightly warned that giving Jordan the speakership would mean Republicans can’t be counted on to defend the Constitution.
Republicans could find a way out of this if they chose to work with Democrats meaningfully and put forth a relatively moderate GOP speaker.
Jordan represents everything that is wrong with the “Party of Trump,” and the machinations of far-right conservatives in the House have led to a dysfunctional situation that is of the GOP’s own making.

Why Liz Cheney’s warning about Jim Jordan is spot-on Dean Obeidallah, CNN: “Cheney’s warning is 100% correct. The January 6 committee’s final report documented that “Jordan was a significant player in President Trump’s efforts” to overturn the 2020 election. … Nevertheless, how could anyone such as Jordan, who is tied to efforts to block certification of Biden’s victory and who willfully ignored a congressional subpoena, ever serve as speaker of the House? And very alarmingly, if Jordan were elected speaker, he would be second in line to the president of the United States, behind the vice president. But Jordan might just win, especially given Trump’s endorsement of him on Friday. … Of course, Trump believes that Jordan would be great, given how doggedly the lawmaker worked to keep the former president in power after he lost the 2020 election. … However, [Cheney] declared that if House Republicans did elect Jordan, ‘there would no longer be any possible way to argue that a group of elected Republicans could be counted on to defend the Constitution.’

With the House GOP in full meltdown, Democrats could offer a way out Greg Sargent, The Washington Post: “The next best thing, then, is a deal that both sides can accept. Republicans will have to offer meaningful concessions to Democrats to have any hope of getting their support for a consensus, relatively moderate GOP speaker. At an absolute minimum, a compromise would tackle the core problem: That a few extreme members can propel the House into total meltdown, rendering it ungovernable. Several high-profile, non-MAGA Republicans, such as Reps. Mike D. Rogers (Ala.) and María Elvira Salazar (Fla.), have publicly called on Democrats to specify what they would need to throw the GOP a lifeline — and Democrats have several ideas in mind. First, some Democrats want to reform the “motion to vacate” rule so that a single member can’t force a snap vote to remove the speaker on a whim… Second, Democrats are discussing the idea of a mechanism that would give them more leverage over what bills get a floor vote, even on things many Republicans oppose…”

One more opinion piece from the Left: Jim Jordan sums up what’s wrong with the House GOP Julian Zelizer, CNN

FLAG THIS

Jordan is Building Support But Has a Ways to Go

Before the weekend, Rep. Jordan’s chances seemed a lot more dire. While he has not secured the required number of votes, as of this writing, Jordan has been making strides to close the gap.

Initially, following his nomination within the House’s Republican conference, only 152 Republicans stated they would vote for Jordan on the House floor. Around 50 opposed his speakership, but Jordan has been able to flip some key holdouts, getting him closer to the necessary 217 votes. With that said, he can only afford to lose if 4 Republican votes (CNBC).

If Jim Jordan is unable to secure the speakership after an initial floor vote in the House, how should Republicans proceed?

FLAG FINDS

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Loma Prieta Earthquake, Nonstick Guide, Smart Birds

Image of collapsed Cypress freeway structure in Oakland, California. Image Credit: USGS

On This Day in 1989: An earthquake hits the San Francisco Bay Area killing 67 people and causing more than $5 billion in damages. Though this was one of the most powerful and destructive earthquakes ever to hit a populated area of the United States, the death toll could have been much worse.

Lifehacker: How to Buy, Use, and Care for Nonstick Cookware

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The Collector: What Happened to the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World?

Today I learned crows are incredibly intelligent birds, sometimes on par with 7-year-old children in terms of reasoning abilities. They've been known to use tools, recognize faces, and even hold grudges!

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