One thing you gotta admit about elected Republicans is that their behavior does make for evidence that the government doesn’t work the way we citizens think it should.
Let me count the ways.
GOP Congressman George Santos actions triggered a House Ethics (please excuse the oxymoron) Panel investigation that’s taken the long and winding road to proclaim there is “substantial evidence” of lawbreaking that should be looked at by the Department of Justice.
Along the way, the Representative from New York was indicted by the feds on 23 counts for stealing the identities of campaign donors and using their credit cards to make tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges
The panel also reported that Santos knowingly caused his campaign committee to file false or incomplete reports with the Federal Election Commission; used campaign funds for personal purposes; and engaged in violations of the Ethics in Government Act as it relates to financial disclosure statements filed with the House.
Santos’ conduct, according to the Ethics Committee, warrants public condemnation, is beneath the dignity of the office, and has brought severe discredit upon the House.
Among the details in the committees report were some of the things ill-gotten gains were spent for, namely Botox, lavish Atlantic City trips, Only Fans, and designer goods.
It sounds like he was giving Duncan Hunter a run for his money (remember the traveling pet rabbit?).
Wowie Zowie. You’d think all this evidence of illegal conduction and deception would warrant expulsion, something the House has done six times and as recently as 2002.
But you’d be wrong. He’s already survived an expulsion vote, with some Congressional reps saying they were waiting for the Ethics Committee report.
Since the GOP has a four vote margin over Dems, the process of dumping Santos –if it happens– will be as slow as possible.
I should note here that Democrats in the Senate have one of their own with some legal problems, namely Sen. Robert Menendez’ highly paid actions on behalf of the Egyptian government. He has been asked to resign, but refuses, claiming innocence.
The reality here is that elected officials of both parties are taking bribes for doing deeds on behalf of foreign governments. Listing them all is worthy of another post, which I promise I’ll get to right after my investigation of Republicans arrested for sex crimes. (Hint: it’s likely more than a thousand)
So taking money from a foreign government is not as big a deal as cheating donors, maybe.
The news breaking while I’m writing this is that Santos has declared that he won’t be running for re-election. It was probably some problem about offices for congressional staff in a federal prison.
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The U.S., thanks to House Democrats, has averted another government shutdown. The right flank of House Republicans let their anger be known by voting against their own appropriations bill, and declaring a recess over the Thanksgiving holiday.
House Speaker Mike Johnson ended up making the same compromises as his predecessor, which logically means more months of doing nothing but saber rattling over Hunter Biden and drag queens.
Here’s a choice quote from Politico under the headline “Same clown car with a different driver - House GOP goes off the rails.”:
Amid months of intra-GOP drama, this week stands out: Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was accused of kidney-punching one of his detractors. House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) lashed out at a Democratic colleague, calling him a “liar” and a “smurf.” Then on Wednesday, conservatives blocked another GOP spending bill, forcing Speaker Mike Johnson to send members home early on a losing note.
Eight House members from both parties have announced their retirement over the past four weeks, with Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) calling her workplace “totally dysfunctional”
The Washington Post came up with a list of the known silliness:
Shortly before that [kidney punch] scene played out Tuesday morning, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) “lacks the maturity and the experience to understand” her effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Greene responded on X by saying that Issa “lacks...” and then posting emojis of various types of balls.
Greene recently called Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) “vaping groping Lauren,” alluding to Boebert being caught doing both in a public theater. Her office this summer also confirmed that she called Boebert a “little b----” on the House floor.
Greene has also called former colleagues in the House Freedom Caucus (from which she was ousted) “Colonel Sanders” and a “CNN wannabe.”
One of those members Greene insulted, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.), recently cited Greene’s “feckless” censure resolution against Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), calling it “deeply flawed.” Greene had used the same f-word while publicly listing the Republicans who voted against the resolution.
Roy later told Greene to “go chase so-called Jewish space lasers if she wants to spend time on that sort of thing” — a reference to one of Greene’s wild conspiracy theories.
Boebert has also dug at Greene for this.
Indicted Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) recently cited the arrest of Rep. Steve Womack’s (R-Ark.) son before apologizing.
McCarthy in the CNN interview this past weekend left open the possibility of expelling Gaetz and suggested Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) doesn’t deserve reelection.
Former congressman and now-Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a McCarthy ally, recently made suggestive comments about Gaetz, who was investigated in a sex-trafficking probe but was not charged.
Both McCarthy and Rep. Jason T. Smith (R-Mo.) have accused Gaetz of constantly lying.
Gaetz, in turn, made suggestive comments about Smith’s personal life.
You know, I think there might be something to like in a national campaign in 2024 pointing out the impotence of the GOP House, along with mentions of GOP Senators deliberately throwing sand into the gears of our military, diplomatic corps, and justice department.
Finally, one bit of good news, coming via Mayor Todd Gloria’s social media feed: Pandas are coming to the US, and San Diego could be the first place to receive them.
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Disturbing News Links
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A Warden Tried to Fix an Abusive Prison. He Faced Death Threats. Via a joint investigation by the Marshall Project and NPR.
Bergami was the warden of a medium-security federal prison in New Jersey when bureau officials asked him to run Thomson. He hired Denny Whitmore, another 30-year veteran of the federal prison system, as his associate warden. When they arrived at Thomson in Spring 2022, they were shocked by some of the staff’s practices.
Agency policy prevented Bergami and Whitmore, who also retired this summer, from speaking publicly about the prison without authorization while they worked there. They said they felt that reporting the abuse at Thomson to their superiors at the agency blocked their own advancement opportunities, so they chose to retire instead.
Both said when they arrived they were distressed to see officers walk people in shackles backward down the stairs, one officer on each arm, and a third controlling the prisoner’s head. Bergami wrote to his superiors that he had never seen that method in any operations manual and that he found it dangerous and unnecessary. Bergami and Whitmore said staff also would move prisoners across the yard in freezing winter weather with no shoes or coat on.
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Conservative States Banned Abortion. US Abortion Rates Increased. By Jill Filipovic
Many more women seem to have realized abortion is an option — a big thanks to the anti-abortion movement for that one. Many women in abortion-hostile states were able to jump through a lot of hoops to end pregnancies they did not want. And thanks to Dobbs and the medication-abortion emphasis it drove, many women across the US were able to get abortion-inducing drugs that they may otherwise have not been able to access.
But this data does not suggest that every woman who wanted an abortion got one. It is almost surely true that there are legions of women in abortion-hostile states (and some likely in pro-choice states) who were forced by law or circumstance or both to carry pregnancies they did not want, and to have babies they were not prepared for. Those women are no doubt suffering the consequences of “pro-life” policies in states that don’t care much about life outside of the womb.
What this data does show is what abortion rights advocates have long said: That abortion bans don’t end abortion. They make it harder to get. They risk women’s lives. But they don’t stop abortions from happening — except among the most vulnerable, whose lives are the most turned upside-down by a forced pregnancy, and who get the least help and the most shame from “pro-life” conservative
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Terror on Retreat - A Rare Look at the Devastation Caused by AR-15 Shootings Via the Washington Post. Don’t look if you don’t want to be very upset. Also–this is way overdue. Send a copy to your Congressman.
Now, drawing on an extensive review of photographs, videos and police investigative files from 11 mass killings between 2012 and 2023, The Washington Post is publishing the most comprehensive account to date of the repeating pattern of destruction wrought by the AR-15 — a weapon that was originally designed for military combat but has in recent years become one of the best-selling firearms on the U.S. market.
This piece includes never-before-released pictures taken by law enforcement officials after shootings inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex., in 2022, and the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Tex., in 2017, that were obtained by The Post. It is also based on Post interviews with survivors and first responders from multiple shootings as well as transcripts of official testimony provided by law enforcement officials who were among the first to witness the carnage. Read a note here from the executive editor about how The Post decided what to publish and why.
The review lays bare how the AR-15, a weapon that has soared in popularity over the past two decades as a beloved tool for hunting, target practice and self-defense, has also given assailants the power to instantly turn everyday American gathering places into zones of gruesome violence.