Posts on Friday, December 23, 2022
Trump turns tables on Dems’ ‘deranged
political witch-hunt,’ gives GOP-led
House a call to action replies
political witch-hunt,’ gives GOP-led
House a call to action replies
Never one to cower in a defensive position, former President Donald Trump has recorded another explosive campaign video in which he pushes back against the Democrats’ “deranged” pursuit of his tax returns and calls on incoming GOP House members to demand the financial records of President Joe Biden and his “entire criminal enterprise.”
Breitbart News got an exclusive look at the new video, which came after members of the Democrat-led House Means and Ways Committee voted along party lines on Tuesday to release Trump’s long-sought-after 2015-2020 tax returns.
On Friday, Trump, who remains thus far the only Republican challenger to enter the race for the White House, torched the “radical Democrats”
Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans really, really hate their voters.
The Senate Minority Leader approved the $1.7 trillion spending bill this week along with 17 Republican Senators. Mitch was OK with the purple-haired crazy lady, Democrat Rep. de Lauro sitting at the Omnibus table but NOT GOP’s Appropriations Committee ranking member Rep. Kay Granger. (Photo) Rep. Kat Cammack told Maria Bartiromo 98% of all Democrat earmarks made it into the package.
They shaped the future of America’s long-term spending from the comfort of their La-Z-Boy recliners.
More than half the members of the House of Representatives called out sick Friday when the lower chamber passed the massive $1.7 trillion spending bill – instead opting to take advantage of the widely-abused COVID-era proxy voting system.
A bipartisan group of 226 congressional lawmakers filed proxy letters with the House clerk before Friday’s vote on the omnibus spending bill, giving notice that they will designate a colleague to vote in their place.
The pandemic-era policy allowing lawmakers to choose a representative to vote in their stead was instituted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in 2020,
Tens of millions of Americans are bracing for the coldest Christmas in living memory, with cities in Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania expecting record-breaking lows.
At least ten people died this week in vehicle crashes that authorities said were likely related to the storm in Kentucky, Kansas, Ohio and Oklahoma, with a 50-car pile-up in Ohio and 100 crashes reported just north of the Canadian border, near London, Ontario.
One Ontario Provincial Police officer described the corridor as 'one of the worst traffic scenes' he'd ever witnessed.
More flights were cancelled on Friday - 5,259, as of 7:30pm - than on any other day of the year,
Sam Bankman-Fried's ex-girlfriend has confessed that she knowingly engaged in 'illegal' business tactics with the disgraced FTX founder in bombshell court testimony given as part of a plea deal with authorities.
Caroline Ellison, 28, Bankman-Fried's former on-off lover, told a New York court that she ran Bankman-Fried's investment company, Alameda Research, and essentially had access to an 'unlimited' amount of FTX client money.
Ellison, who has pleaded guilty to fraud charges, said she agreed with Bankman-Fried to give 'materially misleading financial statements' in order hide the arrangement - which she knew was illegal.
As we reported, the Jan. 6 Committee got around to releasing their final report Thursday night. If they wanted to release it at the worst time to have people pay any attention to it, they could scarcely have picked a better time — in the week before Christmas — when everyone is occupied with other things. But the problem for the Committee is that most of the Americans they would like to convince have long since stopped paying attention to the farce. The only people who still care about what the Committee might say is a small contingent of the rabid folks on the left. I reported
New York Democrats voted to give themselves a 29 percent salary increase just days before Christmas, potentially making Albany the highest-paid state legislature in the nation.
Members of the state Assembly and Senate would make a base salary of $142,000 under a bill they passed during a special session, a $32,000 raise from their current $110,000. Their new salary is three times the average New Yorkers' salary of $43,208.
Their last pay raise was in 2018, when they went from $79,500 to $110,000. It was the first time in 20 years New York Legislators received an increase. Their pay in 1998 was $57,500.
A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit from Massachusetts parents who accused public school officials of hiding their children’s gender transitions from them.
U.S. District Court Judge Mark Mastroianni, an Obama appointee, criticized Ludlow Public Schools officials for allegedly hiding the pair of siblings’ gender transitions from their parents, but he said the officials’ actions do not “shock the conscience.”
“While the court is apprehensive about the alleged policy and actions of the Ludlow Public Schools with regard to parental notification, it cannot conclude the decision to withhold information” about the children from their parents meets the conscience-shocking legal standard in Massachusetts, the judge wrote
A great time to be a .279 hitter
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Have you seen the sports headlines lately? Money is flying fast from teams to players. I don't want to hear owners in the next union contract negotiations complaining about the cost of doing business. It's obviously the owners driving up the cost of doing business and higher ticket prices are next.
The latest is Carlos Correa, who just won the baseball lottery also known as free agency.
Cabbie who drove slain Idaho students
home said they were ‘excited’ to go
home and eat pasta replies
home said they were ‘excited’ to go
home and eat pasta replies
A taxi driver who took University of Idaho students Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen home on the night of the grisly murders said the girls were “super excited” about going home to chow down on mac and cheese — as he opened up about how the unsolved slayings have “weighed” on him.
Speaking to the Daily Mail this week on condition of anonymity, the cabbie said he was likely one of the last people to see Goncalves and Mogen, both 21, alive before they were slaughtered along with their roommate Xana Kernodle and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, both 20, on Nov. 13.
“It’s weighed on me,” the driver told the news site.
King Charles has finally thrown Prince Andrew out of the royal fold and told him he's 'on his own', a source has claimed.
Andrew was told to no longer use Buckingham Palace as an office space, effectively severing his final tie to his old life as a working royal, according to a new report in The Sun.
'Any presence at the Palace is officially over,' the source said. 'The King has made it clear. He isn't a working royal. He's on his own.'
As part of the King's decision, Andrew, 62, will not be able to use the address for any future correspondence.
The ongoing global energy crisis has forced Japan to make a major U-turn in its energy policy....
Japan has adopted a new policy promoting nuclear energy...
The pivot ends an 11-year prohibition and phase out of nuclear energy that was triggered by the Fukushima disaster. .. Under the new policy, Japan will maximize the use of existing nuclear reactors by restarting as many as possible, prolong the operating life of old reactors beyond their 60-year limit and also develop next-generation reactors to replace them.
New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pushed for spending pork in the House’s omnibus appropriations bill before voting "no" on the package due to its increase in homeland security funding.
The House passed the massive $1.7 trillion package Friday, with the national debt sitting well above $31 trillion, before leaving Washington for Christmas break.
Ocasio-Cortez was the lone Democrat to vote against the 4,000-page bill, citing her campaign promise to "oppose additional expansion and funding" of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The Keystone Pipeline runs from Alberta to Houston, almost in a straight line south down “Tornado Alley” in America’s midwest, running from North Dakota to Texas.
The overall pipeline is 2,687 miles long, is owned by TC Energy, and carries 860,000 barrels of oil per day through its 30 inch diameter tubes. The current price of oil per barrel is roughly $80. So the pipeline is moving roughly $68.8 million worth of oil through its pipeline every day, or $25.1 billion per year.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell laid blame on former President Donald Trump and a segment of his base for critical losses in key states during last month's midterm elections. McConnell told NBC News on Wednesday that Republicans failed to take the Senate due to Trump's hand-picked candidates, and promised to back "quality candidates" in the 2024 primaries. He also said Trump's "political clout has diminished."
"We lost support that we needed among independents and moderate Republicans, primarily related to the view they had of us as a party—largely made by the former president—that we were sort of nasty and tended toward chaos,"
'Just a Beginning': Liz Cheney's Foreword
in Jan. 6 Report Reminds Us There's More
of This Nonsense replies
in Jan. 6 Report Reminds Us There's More
of This Nonsense replies
The January 6 select committee finally released their final report on Friday morning, as Leah highlighted earlier. With soon-to-be former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) serving as the vice chairwoman, she was allowed produce a foreword, which took up approximately four pages of the nearly 850-page-report.
As brief as the foreword is, Cheney still looks to make her mark. There's reference to Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, as Cheney has done in the past, when she had even compared herself to the first Republican president.
POLITICO's Playbook for Friday morning highlighted many parts of the report, including this excerpt from Cheney's foreword:
Purchasing government
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These days you are wasting your money if you pour resources into lobbyists. These days you can directly buy government.
Mark Zuckerberg spent his money in 2020 purchasing the actual mechanism by which which elections are conducted; and while this was expected, I think we can be pretty confident that he was satisfied with the results of his purchase. “Zuckerbucks” went directly to election officials, and while they didn’t directly purchase vote totals, they certainly had an effect on the outcome.
But that was not the most efficient use of his money, it turned out. Zuckerberg poured $350 million more or less into the electoral system,
There was a ‘bombshell’ revelation divulged in court on Thursday in a lawsuit brought by Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake against Secretary of State and Governor-Elect Katie Hobbs.
Maricopa County Elections Director Scott Jarrett confirmed in court that the ballot printer and tabulation errors that sowed widespread chaos in the Arizona election was caused on Election Day. Watch: (Video) “Is it your testimony that the printer set changes that led to the so-called ‘shrink to fit’ issue was that done on Election Day?” Kari Lake’s attorney Kurt Olson asked.
“That’s correct,” Scott Jarrett replied.
The January 6th committee finally released its much-hyped report on Thursday to ecstatic fanfare from a press that has made it an obsession. With that report came multiple criminal referrals of former President Donald Trump.
Early leaks previously revealed what the outline would be, and as expected, it was “orange man bad” on steroids. Despite Trump not being present at the Capitol on January 6th and never telling anyone to become violent, the report was almost singularly focused on his supposedly culpability, to the point of appearing parodic. They didn’t even try to keep up the pretense that the committee was anything but a mission to get one man.
Fr. Pavone’s laicization
is ‘unjust and illegitimate,’ feeds
‘a climate of terror’ among clergy replies
is ‘unjust and illegitimate,’ feeds
‘a climate of terror’ among clergy replies
Agere sequitur esse. So we are taught by scholastic philosophy: the action of every being depends on the nature of that being. It follows that a person’s actions are consistent with who that person is. We find confirmation of this principle of ontology in the canonical sanctions recently imposed by the Holy See on Father Frank A. Pavone, a well-known and appreciated pro-life priest, who for decades has been committed to the battle against the horrible crime of abortion.(Snip)And whoever has inculpated themselves as an accomplice of this persecution against the good ought to tremble at the thought of the judgement which awaits them.
After selling out their base on marriage and gun control, Senate Republicans decided to finish out 2022 by helping Democrats pass a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package on Thursday that will keep the federal government funded through the end of 2023.(snip) Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri, John Boozman and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Mike Rounds and John Thune of South Dakota, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Roger Wicker of
You would think with a title called “Speaker” of the House that a politician could, you know, actually speak.
But that proved to be a nearly insurmountable challenge for Nancy Pelosi, who many political observers suspected of being ‘three sheets to the wind’ in her final speech as House Speaker.
While casting her vote for the $1.7 trillion spending blowout called the “omnibus” bill, Pelosi unwound her season’s greetings and threw in one that Americans had never heard of: Shwanza. (Tweet/Video)
The House passed the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill Friday by a vote of 225-201-1. Nine Republicans voted for the bill, which was released just days earlier.
The 4,155-page bill will now be signed into law by President Joe Biden before Friday night’s deadline for a government shutdown.
“This bill is further proof that Republicans and Democrats can come together to deliver for the American people, and I’m looking forward to continued bipartisan progress in the year ahead,” Biden said about its passage.
Many of the GOP “yes” votes came from outgoing members who lost their reelection bids in the 2022 cycle or are retiring.
Traitors
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A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. But there are only a few profane words to describe the obscene scene as the two women closest in line for the presidency hoisted the Ukrainian flag from the dias of the House of Representatives while swooning over Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Congress cheered on December 21. (This appears to be the first time in history the flag of another nation essentially flew inside the U.S. Capitol building.) (snip) even more telling—sickening?—was the image in the same photo of a House staffer wearing a black face mask standing silently, eyes cast downward, behind a tri-folded American flag in a
Caroline Ellison's world is about to get a whole lot smaller since the heady days of working and living with a group of colleagues — including her ex-boyfriend, FTX's former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried — in the Bahamas.
The plea deals that Ellison, who was the CEO of Bankman-Fried's trading firm Alameda Research, and FTX cofounder Gary Wang have struck with federal prosecutors in New York free them each on $250,000 bonds.
At a hearing on Dec. 19, before those plea deals were made public, Ellison told the New York federal court overseeing the FTX criminal cases that she is "truly sorry" and that she "knew that it was wrong,"
The Storm is Over
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It is been two years and nine months since the start of the COVID pandemic. In my region of Pennsylvania, the newest milder omicron variants are certainly about, but in greatly reduced numbers compared to last year. There is relatively little morbidity. Nonetheless, we are still forced to mask at the hospital, and once a week, symptomatic or not, because I’m unvaccinated, I am expected to be tested for the virus. Unfortunately, I see no end to this.
Regarding the pandemic, I feel like one does after a dangerous storm passes through your town. You spent time in preparation, boarding the windows and staying indoors.
WACO, TX- The female WNBA player who bounces basketballs for a living and who was traded for arguably one of the worst terrorists in the world to secure her freedom from a Russian jail, Brittney Griner, is apparently not as popular as the leftist media would have us believe.
According to the Media Research Center, University Baptist Church in Waco, TX., located only miles from Baylor University where Griner attended college, sought to host a welcome back party for Griner after she returned back from Russia.
Now one might think that an icon of the alphabet community who checks off a number of boxes on the woke checklist might draw
Washington - The House approved a $1.7 trillion spending package Friday, a day after the Senate adopted the sweeping bill despite a last-minute tussle between Republicans and Democrats over southern border policies.
The House vote, which provides funding of domestic and foreign programs through Sept. 30, took place only hours before the government would have run out of money and would have had to initiate a partial federal shutdown. The chamber passed the legislation largely along party lines, 225-201, with nine Republicans joining Democrats to approve the spending package. One Democrat sided with Republicans in opposing the bill.
The package now heads to President Joe Biden for his signature.
On Thursday, in her final press conference on Capitol Hill as a leader in Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a swipe at former President Donald Trump while reflecting on her legacy.
“I was speaker and minority leader under President Bush, under President Obama, under what’s-his-name,” Pelosi said, referring to Trump. “The hardest thing that I had to do is when we had a Democratic president and we were in the minority, as minority leader, was to sustain a presidential veto. Because the Republicans would roll out stuff that sounded like a chocolate sundae, but it’s more like doggy doo.”
An Amish farmer is back to be able to sell raw milk and meat after a US Appeals Court dropped a $300,000 fine against him is allowing him to resume selling raw milk meat. Amos Miller does not use antibacterial chemicals to sterilize his products, which means it is considered “adulterated,” by the USDA. According to Food Safety News, in a deal negotiated by Miller’s lawyer last week, the $300,000 in fines was negotiated down to $55,000 payable over the next six months and Miller’s contempt of court hearing has been canceled, with the case having been put in stay and abeyance, provided that the farmer makes the payments. CORRECTION*
Weak RINO Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey Dismantles
Makeshift Border Wall at Behest of Biden Regime replies
Makeshift Border Wall at Behest of Biden Regime replies
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, the weak RINO who was a great personal friend of deceased former U.S. senator John McCain, is tearing down his border wall to serve the Biden administration.
The makeshift border wall was made of shipping containers that were lined with barb wire. Arizona will bring them all down by Jan. 4, making it easier for illegals to invade the border, after the Biden regime objected.
The U.S Interior and Agriculture departments made a filing arguing that “a declaration that Arizona’s use and occupancy of lands owned by the United States without the required permits or other authorization constitutes unlawful trespasses.”
House Republicans offered mixed reactions to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to a joint meeting of Congress, foreshadowing a bumpier road that his country will face in securing future U.S. aid once the GOP takes control of the House in a few weeks.
(snip) he likely had little chance of swaying the fiercest GOP opponents to aid.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) tweeted that he was not in Washington, D.C., and would not attend the speech of a “Ukrainian lobbyist.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who did not attend the address, tweeted earlier in the day that global foreign aid is like Americans being “raped everyday at the hands of
As you probably know, some conservatives in the House of Representatives are hesitant to back Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California as House Speaker. You may not have heard that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia is not one of them. Not only is she supporting McCarthy for Speaker, but she is also tangling with other Republicans who are not.(Snip)The one thing people are sick and tired of from Washington, D.C., is empty promises. Lying to the base is a red line for me, and that’s what five of my closest colleagues are doing when they claim a consensus House Speaker candidate will emerge as they oppose Kevin McCarthy.
About those Trump tax returns
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I never cared much about Donald Trump’s tax returns. Why should I? Why should anybody?
So I pretty much ignored all the hoopla surrounding the release when they were dumped out into the public. Of all the presidents we have had in the past few decades, Trump was the one least likely to use his office to get rich.
He is already rich. So rich that he donated his salary every year that he was president.
All the ridiculous talk of emoluments, schemes to use the office to enrich himself seemed beside the point. Trump loves himself some money and will do ridiculous things to make it, but even if he
EL PASO, Texas — The Texas Department of Public Safety uses a range of tactics including air surveillance and agents on the ground to smash human trafficking rings operated by cartels.
Both were deployed this week to raid a “stash house” in the border city’s downtown which held 12 migrants who had sneaked into America illegally from Mexico.
One of the agency’s pilots had spotted a red Jeep from the sky as it lumbered down Country Club Road — the vehicle’s back end sloping down under the weight of all the people crammed inside.
From 'Free Speech' to Elon Musk
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There was a time, in years past, when calling someone a hypocrite was taken as an insult to a person’s integrity, or more specifically their lack thereof. That is no longer the case. Today’s political Left, Democrats in particular, now seemingly take pride in their ability to shift positions at will. They do so in all sincerity, with a straight face while facing no repercussions in either the media or at the polls. As Grouch Marx once said regarding politicians: “Sincerity is the key to success. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.” Democrats have perfected this into an art form.
A furious Joe Biden was 'dropping f-bombs' throughout the White House as his team scrambled to find answers to the migration crisis, according to a new book on his presidency.
Biden's aides told author Chris Whipple that the situation on the U.S.-Mexico border 'made his blood boil'.
Along with vaccine misinformation, it was the problem that most aggravated Biden.
Whipple's book, The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House, details how the Biden administration struggled to deal with surging migrant arrivals from Mexico throughout 2021 - and faced mounting criticism.
Social media users were not buying President Biden’s call for unity during his Christmas address Thursday afternoon.
The White House promoted the event as Biden planning to "deliver a Christmas address focused on what unites us as Americans, his optimism for the year ahead, and wishing Americans joy in the coming year." The theme of "what unites us" continued throughout his speech as he called for Americans to look past political differences.
"So, my hope this Christmas season is that we take a few moments of quiet reflection, find that stillness at the heart of Christmas, and look really look at each other, not as Democrats or Republicans,
Attorney John A. “Jack” Clifford is of counsel with Merchant & Gould. P.C. He has lived, worked, and voted in Maricopa County, Arizona since 2014. He sends us this report on the Lake v. Hobbs trial that concluded yesterday. The AP’s story on the second day of trial is here. Jack’s day 1 report is here. This is Jack’s day 2 report:
As before my comments are my own personal observations and are not made on behalf of any client or my law firm.
• The rubber met the road Thursday in the Kari Lake v. Katie Hobbs trial.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday that 300,000 people left California in 2022, more than left any other state, amid a general slow increase in the U.S. population as the country recovered from COVID-19.
The estimates cover the period from July 2021 to July 2022.
It was the third consecutive annual decline for California, the Sacramento Bee noted, though births outnumbered deaths.
The U.S. population grew by about 1.3 million people, thanks largely to the arrival of over 1 million migrants:
After a historically low rate of change between 2020 and 2021, the U.S. resident population increased by 0.4%, or 1,256,003, to 333,287,557 in 2022,
The public is being bamboozled about the conditions for pretrial release of accused mega-fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.
It is the worst possible signal to those who fear that his scores of millions of dollars of political donations have bought him kid-glove treatment by the judicial system.
The stories you read and hear from the media would have you believe that a “record” bail of $250 million has been paid to ensure that he doesn’t flee the country or otherwise evade prosecution. Where that figure comes from, I don’t know, but this account from The Hill suggests that the federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York had a hand in it:
It’s simple: In a head-to-head matchup, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis might be able to take down former President Donald Trump in 2024. In a crowded field, Trump will win easily.
This isn’t just my opinion. It’s what Trump’s own inner circle believes. In a story published Thursday, the Washington Examiner collected anonymous statements from more than half a dozen Trump insiders, and the consensus was clear:
“Though DeSantis currently matches or beats Trump head to head in many national polls, Trumpworld predicts the Florida governor will fizzle as former Vice President Mike Pence, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tim Scott (R-SC),
On Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court gave the go-ahead to a request by Gov. Ron DeSantis to impanel a statewide grand jury to investigate potential wrongdoings related to COVID-19 vaccines.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta will preside, with members to be selected from five judicial districts. DeSantis made the initial request on the 13th of this month, stating at the time that “there are good and sufficient reasons to deem it to be in the public interest to impanel a statewide grand jury to investigate criminal or wrongful activity in Florida relating to the development, promotion, and distribution of vaccines
Who needs those icky rank-and-file Republican voters who ring the doorbells, make the calls, and write the checks? Not the Republican Party! At least that’s what some at the top of the party pyramid think. Some of this elite cabal is utterly disregarding what amounts to the base’s effective unanimity that current GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel needs to go away. After three terms of ignominious failure, she is pushing for a fourth go ‘round as the Republican National Committee (RNC) head honcho
The WHO doesn’t mess around. At least when it comes to spreading propaganda.
I will assume for the sake of civility that the WHO genuinely believes that the COVID vaccine is safe and effective. I will even assume that for most people the vaccine is safe, and at least somewhat effective in reducing the likelihood of severe disease in people likely to become deadly ill from COVID, such as the very old and very sick.
But I will not concede that critics of the vaccine are spreading misinformation nor stoking unreasonable fears. Quite a few sober scientists and even the health officials of many OECD countries have expressed real and reasonable skepticism
The House select committee investigating last year’s Jan. 6 Capitol riot released its long-anticipated final report on Thursday night.
The report, nearly 18-months in the making, is based on the information gleaned from the more than 1,000 interviews conducted by the panel, as well as the emails, text messages, and phone records obtained by investigators over the course of their investigation.
Among the findings of the 845-page report, the panel estimates that former President Donald Trump and his allies engaged in some 200 acts targeting state legislators or state and local election officials attempting to overturn the 2020