Trump Part III: In a speech loaded with superlatives about himself, political fictions, denial of climate change and more, Donald Trump last night announced his third run for the presidency saying, “America’s comeback starts right now.”

  It was a return of the Trump show in which credit for all good things go to him and blame for the bad goes to others. He took no responsibility for the party failure in the midterm elections.

  Dismissing climate change, he said ocean levels are predicted to rise 1/8^th of an inch in 300 years rather than the scientifically predicted one foot in 30 years. He said China was involved in the 2020 US elections. He said Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if he was still president.

  Trump declared, “I’ve gone decades, decades without a war, the first president to do it for that long a period.” He was president for four years.

  Conservative politicians and commentators immediately expressed worry about a Trump return. 

  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who held his office by 19 percentage points a week ago, and is a front runner to oppose Trump, was blunt about the underperformance of his party across the country and the prospect of Trump running for president again. “I would just tell people to go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night,” he said.

   In remarks to supporters the morning after her projected victory, Arizona’s governor-elect Katie Hobbs said Arizona voters chose “solving our problems over conspiracy theories” and “sanity over chaos. ” 

  Of course, she was referring to Kari Lake, one of the last holdouts of Trumpism from the Tuesday election who, 36 hours later, has not conceded defeat. Lake campaigned in part on claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden and she has suggested that if she loses it could only be because of election fraud.

  If she finally gives up, it’s a big nail in the coffin of Trumpism. 

The War Room: Poland says it was probably a Ukrainian missile that strayed and landed four miles into the country killing two people, easing concerns that it had been launched by Russia in an attack on a NATO country.

  It was a Russian-built missile, but Ukraine uses Russian weapons and their air defenses were responding to a barrage of 90 missiles Russia fired yesterday at Ukraine’s power grid in one of the biggest nationwide aerial attacks of the war.

  Polish President Andrzej Duda said it appeared to be an “unfortunate accident.”

  The Russian missiles had targeted Kyiv and five other regions of the country. 

  Speaking to the country last night, Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky gave the time hacks for the missile strikes. 

15:24 – rocket, Kyiv. And throughout the country… How we lived today…

15:54 – rocket, Kropyvnytskyi. 

15:56 – two rockets, Kirovohrad region.

15:56 – rocket, Zhytomyr region. And also – Ivano-Frankivsk region, Rivne region, Kharkiv region…

  When he finished he said, “This is the answer of Russia to Indonesia, India, China and all other countries that talked about the need to end the war.”

  President Biden yesterday asked Congress to approve an additional $37.7 billion in aid to Ukraine, and to do it during the lame duck session before the Republicans are likely to control the House next year. Some of the most conservative Republicans have called for trimming or eliminating aid to the war torn country.  Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy last month told Punchbowl News that, “I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession, and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine.” 

Politicking: California Rep. Kevin McCarthy won the Republican nomination for Speaker of the House by the crushing margin of 188-31. But he faced opposition from Andy Biggs of Arizona, who was put up by the far right Freedom Caucus. McCarthy will need 218 votes to actually win the gavel and he may have to make some promises or concessions

  In the Senate, Rick Scott of Florida, who was in charge of the Senate Republican campaign, said he will challenge Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for minority leader. It’s a stretch for Scott, though, after his party’s failure to win the Senate majority on his watch. 

Life After Roe: A county judge in Georgia has blocked the state’s ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, saying the law was unconstitutional when it was passed in 2019, three years before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The ruling allows the resumption in the state of abortions performed after the sixth week of pregnancy, when many women don’t even know they are pregnant.  

  Robert McBurney of the Fulton County Superior Court wrote in his order that the six-week ban was enacted at a time when “everywhere in America, including Georgia, it was unequivocally unconstitutional for governments — federal, state, or local — to ban abortions before viability.” He said the law had to meet the test of constitutionality at the time it was passed.

  McBurney’s ruling does not stop the Georgia legislature from passing a new law banning abortion.

The Spin Rack: Authorities say the killings of four University of Idaho students in a house near the campus was done with a knife or some other kind of bladed weapon. They say it was a horrific scene. As yet, there’s no suspect. The police are trying to track the last movements of the one man and three women, all age 20 or 21. — Brooklyn prosecutors have indicted 32 members of two rival gangs they accuse of being involved in shootings over several years that killed two  and wounded 14. — The lithium ion batteries in electric bicycles have caused 200 fires and six deaths in New York City so far this year, according to fire officials.

Below the Fold: The New York Post, owned by the right wing Fox News empire, covered Donald Trump’s presidential announcement on page 26 under the headline, “Florida Man Makes Announcement.” 

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