Impolitic: Exiting House Speaker John Boehner, interviewed yesterday on CBS, condemned the uncompromising “false prophets” who drove him out of Congress. “The Bible says beware of false prophets,” Boehner said, “And there are people out there, you know, spreading noise about how much can get done. I mean this whole notion that we’re going to shut down the government to get rid of Obamacare in 2013 — this plan never had a chance.”

Boehner got tired of the fight and quit. He said the Republican right knew they were not going to get rid of Obamacare, or get anything they wanted, by shutting down the government, but went ahead and let it happen.

Asked to confirm that he called Texas Sen. Ted Cruz a “jackass,” Boehner said, “You can pick a lot of names out. I’ll let you choose them.”

The Tea Party wing of the party sees Boehner’s departure as a victory and a signal that they’re right. There could be a vicious fight over who replaces Boehner, and how much control the hard liners will have.

The View from Hair: Usually short on specifics, Donald Trump revealed on “60 Minutes” last night that as president he would attempt to lower the tax rate to “zero” for some Americans. “We’re talking about people in the low-income brackets that are supposed to be paying taxes, many of them don’t anyway.”

Trump said he would also cut taxes for the middle class and for corporations … that’s a big issue for Republicans. “Overall it’s going to be a tremendous incentive to grow the economy and we’re going to take in the same or more money,” Trump said. He promised that he would grow the country out of its $19 trillion debt.

Permawar: Moving in where the US fears to tread, Russia announced an agreement with Iraq, Syria, and Iran to share military intelligence in the fight against the Islamic State. It’s a dangerous brew over there. At least 13 countries have carried out air strikes against ISIS, some of which support the Syrian regime.

President Obama and Russia’s Vladimir Putin meet today at the UN for the first time in a year. Obama has given Putin the cold shoulder since the Russian takeover of Crimea, but squeezed by international economic sanctions, Putin asked for the meeting. And facing Russia’s deeper involvement in Syria, Obama was compelled to take it.

The Pope Exits: Pope Francis met quietly with victims of sexual abuse by the clergy during his US visit, he revealed yesterday in Philadelphia. He said “all responsible will be held accountable.” The Pope had been criticized for giving sympathy to a gathering of bishops in Washington for their courage in facing the church wide sex abuse scandal, without speaking up for the actual victims. Yesterday he said he is committed “to a careful oversight to ensure that youth are protected and that all responsible will be held accountable.” Francis flew home to the Vatican last night.

Exhausting: Audi says that 2.1 million of its diesel cars around the world have the Volkswagen computer programming designed to cheat on exhaust testing. Volkswagen admitted that 11 million of its cars have the cheater system. The German government announced today that they have begun a criminal investigation of former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn, who resigned in the wake of the company’s exhaust-programming scandal.

The Grid: The Pittsburgh Steelers lost quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to a knee injury yesterday, becoming the second marquee QB knocked out in a week. The Steelers went on to beat the Rams 12-6, but without Tony Romo, Dallas lost to the Falcons 39-28.

Editor’s Note: For news about the Kardashian family, please use Google.