Posts on Thursday, January 5, 2023
On Thursday, doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center gave an update on the medical condition of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin. Hamlin is reportedly responsive physically and neurologically and is communicating with doctors via writing since he cannot speak while intubated.
According to reports, Hamlin asked doctors, “Did we win?”
“Yes, Damar. You won. You’ve won the game of life,” a doctor told him. [Video]
According to Sports Illustrated, “There is no timetable for a return to football, but they are hoping to get the breathing tube out soon and send him further down ‘the road to recovery.'”
The 11th vote in the US House of Representatives for Speaker is on. Rep. Matt Gaetz recommended President Trump for the Speakership.
First of all, President Trump is eligible for the speaker’s position per prior publications. …The House can elect whomever it wants to serve as speaker, even if it’s someone who isn’t a member of Congress…
…The speaker of the House has always been a member of the House of Representatives, even though the Constitution does not list House membership as a requirement for the job, simply saying lawmakers “shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers.”
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) called for a vote tonight to adjourn for the day.
This was after the US House failed to select a Speaker after 11 consecutive votes.
As reported earlier this has not happened in over 100 years.
This hasn’t happened since 1859.(Tweet) According to the Washington Post, “the last time a speaker election took more than one ballot was in 1923, when Speaker Frederick Gillett (R-Mass.) was reelected on the ninth ballot.”
“But the longest speaker vote began on Dec. 3, 1855, when the 34th Congress convened,” the outlet added.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), one of 20 House Republicans who voted against Rep. Kevin McCarthy for Speaker expects a written offer between McCarthy and his opponents to be completed Thursday night, Punchbowl News reported.
Punchbowl News’s Jake Sherman reported that a deal between McCarthy and his opponents “is close.” Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Patrick McHenry (R-NC) have reportedly been leading negotiations with McCarthy.(Tweet) “All the big players” met in Rep. Tom Emmer’s (R-IN) office, and according to Sherman, Norman “expects an offer in writing tonight.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) released an ad campaign on Wednesday urging Republicans to change the party and fight President Joe Biden’s agenda.
“People told me not to run for Republican Leader against Mitch McConnell. They said I wouldn’t win. I knew it was going to be hard. But we’ve got to start somewhere,” Scott said in the ad, which will start running nationwide starting on Friday. “We are on the road to woke socialism and Republicans are just a speed bump,” he warned. “We can’t keep doing the same old thing. It’s time for Republicans to be bold, speak the truth, and stop caving in. Help us change our party.
Thomas Jefferson said, "The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground," and that has been borne out by history with the few bright exceptions in which a society demanded the freedom to live as they ought. The founding of the United States of America was one of those bright moments. Often described as an experiment, it was one of the most improbable series of events in history in which a people threw off the shackles of their government and sought out to see if they could rule themselves.
As we saw, the experiment was difficult to replicate.
We reported earlier about how Joe Biden had finally gotten around to making plans to go to the border.
Biden also made remarks about the border, with Kamala Harris trying to hold it together while standing behind him. The remarks were just a confused mess. Biden didn’t seem to have any idea what he was talking about. He didn’t know what “CBP” stands for, that it is Title 8 that applies to immigration, or that Title 42 has helped to prevent the situation at the border from getting much worse.
His “plan” seems to be an app that would help people who apply for asylum.
Speaking during an interview with Fox News Thursday afternoon, Republican Congressman Don Bacon expressed he was open to working with Democrats in order to get Leader Kevin McCarthy across the finish line as Speaker of the House. McCarthy needs 218 votes. (Tweet/Video) Republican Michael Waltz, who is supportive of McCarthy, is opposed to working with Democrats in order to elect a Speaker. (Tweet/Video) As of Thursday afternoon, McCarthy failed to obtain 218 votes on nine ballots. At the beginning of the day, McCarthy urged reporters and Americans watching the votes not to read into the results,
People in the Mexican town of Ciudad Juárez, near the US border, are mourning the deaths of guards killed in Sunday's prison break.
Nineteen people - both guards and prisoners - died when gunmen attacked the prison. Thirty inmates escaped.
Seven more people were killed in a shoot-out on Monday while investigators were hunting the escapees.
Following the incident, Mexican authorities fired the prison director, Alejandro Alvarado Téllez.
The attack is one of the deadliest seen in recent times.
On Wednesday, Massachusetts State Police released a statement following the sudden deaths of three officers within four days last December 2022. Three active-duty Law Enforcement Officers, Officer John F. Santos (25) of The Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department, Officer Sean Besarick (48) of the Brockton Police Department, and Officer Christopher A. Davis (42) of the Stoughton Police Department died suddenly last week.(Snip)...Gov. Charlie Baker mandated the COVID-19 vaccine for Executive Department employees, including police, that took effect in mid-October 2021.(Snip)About 1,000 state workers overall were fired or terminated amid a wave of suspensions and disciplinary hearings, in which they were urged to get the shot,”
Joe Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre always manages to find new ways to embarrass herself. From the very beginning, she’s proven herself to be a lackluster spokesperson. Biden received praise from the media for promoting her to replace Jen Psaki, but that was because Jean-Pierre was a black lesbian rather than for her communication abilities. As such, her first months as White House Press Secretary haven’t gone very well.
She has managed to be even less prepared than Jen Psaki, awkwardly dodging questions and constantly having to refer to her notes. Things were getting so bad that they even brought Pentagon spokesman John Kirby over to babysit her.
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy lost a ninth round vote for Speaker, which would mean he's lost three races each of the last three days.
No House Speaker vote has gone on this long in modern US political history, and it's set Republicans' new majority in the chamber off to a rocky start.
The last time a House Speaker vote reached 10 rounds was in 1859.
In 1856, it took former House Speaker Nathaniel Prentice Banks two months and 133 rounds of voting for the House of Representatives to settle on a leader - the longest stretch on record.
KJP stammers when asked why Biden was
wearing a mask, laughs nervously when
she really steps in it replies
wearing a mask, laughs nervously when
she really steps in it replies
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was caught off-guard when confronted by reporters on why President Biden was wearing a mask as he stepped off Marine One recently, stumbling over her answer and then attempting to deflect from the question. (Video)“Well — that’s a — I don’t know. I did not notice that, that he — we all wore our masks on Marine One,” Jean-Pierre haltingly answered as reporters noted that they do not often see Biden wearing a mask when he disembarks the aircraft.
Instead of directly addressing the question, Jean-Pierre noted that she was wearing a mask as well.
“So can you tell us — was he exposed to someone?
President Joe Biden blamed the Republican Party during a Thursday White House speech for the southern border invasion.
Biden’s statement that Republicans are to blame for the border crisis was followed by a claim that partisan divisiveness has prevented immigration solutions. Under Democrat rule, 2.2 million illegal migrants have overrun the border in fiscal year 2022, a 33 percent increase from 2021.
“I sent congress a comprehensive piece of legislation that would completely overhaul what has been a broken immigration system for a long time,” Biden said.
Biden alleged preventing illegal immigration is a priority but Republicans have opposed his plan.
We now know more about the evidence investigators in Idaho collected following the murders of four University of Idaho students that led authorities to seek the arrest of Bryan Kohberger as a suspect, thanks to a just-unsealed probable cause affidavit that outlines the case authorities have built.The 19-page document explains what the Moscow, Idaho, police found when they entered the residence of the students and found Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin murdered.
(snip), authorities found "a tan leather knife sheath" stamped with "Ka-Bar," "USMC," and the U.S. Marine Corps insignia. (snip) the Idaho State Crime Lab identified a single source of male DNA contained on the snap
Most people are unaware that outside lobbyist groups hold the power over the internal dynamic. In addition to internal financial systems, each congressperson is aligned with a lobbyist group that pays for their political election efforts, (snip)
According to Politico, the Congressional Leadership Fund (team McCarthy) has come to an agreement with the Club for Growth Fund (team not McCarthy) and worked out a deal the representatives may be permitted to support. The deal “includes a vote on term limits for members, more seats for Freedom Caucus members on the powerful House Rules Committee and allowing a single member to force a vote on ousting the speaker.”
GOP Rep. Matt Rosendale appeared on FOX News on Sunday to explain why he and several other members of the House GOP will block Kevin McCarthy's path to becoming House Speaker:
REP. MATT ROSENDALE: We gave Kevin McCarthy opportunities over the last two years to demonstrate leadership skills, whether it was the C.R., the NDAA, the so-called infrastructure bill -- we put him in a position where he could have negotiated some common-sense reforms, and he failed on every measure.
We presented him, many of us did, with rule amendments that we wanted to try and implement months ago, and he refused to speak with us --
Idaho Officials Release Criminal Affidavit
Outlining Murder Charges Against Suspect
Bryan Kohberger replies
Outlining Murder Charges Against Suspect
Bryan Kohberger replies
With the extradition process completed, law enforcement officials in Idaho have released the arrest warrant and criminal affidavit against murder suspect Bryan Kohberger.
[Criminal Complaint, 3-Pages Here] – [Affidavit Outlining Charges, 19-pages Here]
Within the probable cause affidavit outlining the evidence against Bryan Kohberger, the investigators release a lot of very specific new evidence against the suspect, including an eyewitness within the house.
Trimming Back the Speakership
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The battle for the next Speaker of the House has been going on for weeks. By the time you are reading this, that battle may very well be over. Or it may not, as history has shown that contentious Speaker elections do not always end quickly. Regardless, we would do well to look past the daily headlines in this fight and dig into the deeper meaning of the issue. As Mark Meadows said in a recent interview when asked why he made the unpopular decision to take on Speaker John Boehner, a decision that led to Boehner resigning as Speaker of the House in 2015
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered a unilateral 36-hour cease-fire in Ukraine from noon January 6 to midnight on January 7, the same time as Orthodox Christmas.
The Kremlin said Putin was influenced by Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kiril in making the decision.
"Taking into account the appeal of His Holiness Patriach Kirill, I instruct the defense minister of the Russian Federation to introduce from 12:00 (0900 GMT) on January 6, 2023 until 24:00 (2100 GMT) on January 7, 2023 a cease-fire along the entire line of contact between the sides in Ukraine," a statement from the Kremlin said.
Kevin McCarthy came up short once again on Thursday as he lost the seventh House vote to elect a new speaker. The outcome will only increase pressure on McCarthy to end the impasse over his imperiled speakership bid, but it is unclear whether he will be able to pull it off as the situation grows increasingly dire for his future political prospects. The House is moving to hold an eighth vote.
The son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin "El Chapo" has been arrested in Sinaloa, Mexican officials say, as violence erupted in the state.
The mayor of the city of Culiacán said armed forces had carried out a raid early on Thursday.
An airline said one of its planes was hit by gunfire, while shooting and car-jackings have been reported.
Guzmán-López is thought to be a high-ranking member of a major drug cartel, the Sinaloa. The group is one of the largest drug-trafficking organisations in the world.
Mexican airline Aeromexico said the fuselage of a plane scheduled to fly from Culiacán to Mexico City was hit by gunfire on Thursday morning
Idaho murders suspect Bryan Kohberger was denied bail during a brief court appearance today that came as police and prosecutors dropped their bombshell case against him, including how his DNA was found on a knife sheath found at the scene.
Kohberger, 28, was denied bail today during a brief court appearance in Moscow. He will return to court on January 12 for a status hearing.
He spent most of the 10-minute hearing looking directly at Judge Megan Marshall as she read him his rights and the five counts and answered ‘yes’ when asked if he understood each count.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has agreed to join Columbia University as a professor and presidential fellow.
Clinton has accepted a professorship at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. Additionally, she has joined the Columbia World Projects program as a presidential fellow.
"I am honored to join Columbia University, and the School of International and Public Affairs and Columbia World Projects," Clinton said of her new position.
The release of the 911 call log after Jeremy Renner was crushed by a snowplough has detailed the extent of the actor’s injuries.
Renner, who starred in the Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker and several Marvel properties as Hawkeye, was injured over the New Year’s weekend close to his Nevada home.
He had been trying to rescue his car from the snow when he was accidentally run over by the heavy-duty snowplough he’d been operating.
A Federal Bureau of Investigation surveillance team tracked Idaho quadruple murder suspect Bryan Kohberger and his father on a cross-country road trip from Washington State to Pennsylvania and asked Indiana police to pull him over, a law enforcement source told Fox News.
The law enforcement source told Fox News that the FBI surveillance team was seeking video images of Kohberger as well as his hands.
Idaho murder victims' roommate heard crying,
saw man in mask morning of killings: court docs replies
saw man in mask morning of killings: court docs replies
One of the Idaho murder victims' surviving roommates heard crying then opened her door and saw a man wearing a black mask, according to a newly unsealed filing that paints a vivid account of the massacre. The roommate, identified only as D.M., awoke at 4 a.m. Nov. 13 by what she thought was the sound Kaylee Goncalves playing with her dog, Murphy, on the third floor. A short time later, she heard what she thought was Goncalves saying "there's someone here," the document says. D.M. opened her door and heard crying coming from Xana Kernodle's room and a male voice saying "it's OK, I'm going to help you." CORRECTION*
How much has America changed? Well, consider moves being made at West Point.
Over the summer, Washington’s Naming Commission — comprised of four civilians and as many retired military vets — came to final conclusions regarding seven different Department of Defense “assets.” In its report, the group recommended a renaming of sites honoring Confederate General Robert E. Lee, along with Generals P.G.T. Beauregard and William Hardee.
And over the holidays, the United States Military Academy at West Point began the process of purging Lee from its hallowed halls.
As relayed by the Daily News, Superintendent Lieutenant General Steve Gilland released a December 26th statement:
Prince Harry has sensationally claimed that his brother William called Meghan 'rude' and 'pointed a finger at her' during a furious bust-up after the Duchess of Sussex told Kate that she must have 'baby brain because of her hormones'. Details of the alleged row have appeared in Harry's bombshell memoir Spare, which has been published in Spain.
This “incident” comes on the heels of a Muslim machete attack on cops in New York City. It’s just another of those mysterious incidents that seem to come in groups.
A man who was armed with a large knife was shot and killed by a Cambridge Police officer Wednesday afternoon. It happened after a foot chase in the area of Chestnut Street, police said.
A Cambridgeport resident called 911 at about 1:15 p.m. to report a man jumped out of an apartment window with what appeared to be a machete. The man was then seen cutting himself with the weapon and broken glass from the window he jumped out of.
When police arrived,
The Biden administration announced new policies at the southern border on Thursday, effective immediately, that will bar more immigrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua from crossing the border to claim asylum while increasing the number of legal pathways for those migrants to apply for asylum from their home countries. The announcement comes as the Biden administration faces record numbers of illegal border crossings, particularly by migrants from those three countries. Previously Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans have been able to skirt the Covid-19 border restrictions
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger joined CNN as a senior political commentator on Wednesday and subsequently faced mockery from critics online.
“Kinzinger joins CNN with extensive experience in GOP politics, having recently retired from the U.S. House of Representatives after serving six terms representing Illinois’ Sixteenth Congressional District,” the network said in a statement. “Kinzinger most recently served on the high-profile House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol as well as the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the House Foreign Affairs Committee.”
I wrote previously about how Rep. Adam Schiff’s office went after journalist Paul Sperry to try to get him suspended from Twitter, using the excuse that he was spreading “QAnon conspiracies.” Sperry denied that he was spreading any such conspiracies. And that still wouldn’t justify the actions of Schiff’s office — you still have a big constitutional problem with a member of Congress trying to suppress speech.
The journalist believes it was because of the story he broke about impeachment “whistleblower” Eric Ciaramella’s connection to Adam Schiff’s staffer, Sean Misko. Sperry said that Schiff’s chief of staff Patrick Boland had even been making threats to his employer, RealClear Investigations
Byron Donalds Has Best Response When Asked
if ‘Worried About Retribution’ Over
Speaker Challenge replies
if ‘Worried About Retribution’ Over
Speaker Challenge replies
RedState wrote earlier about the predictable yet contemptible comments made about Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) by fellow House member Cori Bush (D-Mo.) in the aftermath of his nomination for the powerful House Speaker position also currently being sought most notably by former House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in what’s become a riveting battle between various Republican factions.(Snip) Reporter: “You’ve put yourself in a pretty public position opposing the person that could be the speaker. Are you worried about retribution?”
Donalds: “Man, I’m 6’2″, 275. I’m not worried about that.”
That’s what I call beast mode, folks. Watch:
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) gave the 20 conservative holdouts four more concessions before Thursday’s continued speakership vote.
The concessions, negotiated Wednesday night between McCarthy and his critics, are meant to peal several members away from the group of 20 holdouts. McCarthy needs 16 lawmakers to break ranks with the so-called “rebels.” The concessions McCarthy made are significant. Axios and Politico Playbook reported:
One member motion threshold needed to force a vote ousting a speaker, instead of five.
More House Freedom Caucus members on the House Rules Committee (two seats).
Pledges to hold votes
Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk has publicly backed House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to become Speaker of the House, using social media Thursday morning to offer his support.
Musk’s backing comes as McCarthy begins his third day of trying to garner enough votes to get the job, as Breitbart News reports. Kevin McCarthy should be Speaker,” Musk tweeted in the early hours before another day of politics and diplomacy in Washington, DC. The House adjourned at 8pm on Wednesday night, sparing McCarthy the prospect of a seventh Speaker ballot which he would have likely lost.
“No deal yet,” McCarthy said as the House abruptly adjourned. “But a lot of progress.”
Border Patrol agents and the force’s union leader aren’t convinced that President Joe Biden’s expected visit to the southern border will yield anything productive or expose him to the true depth of the crisis, they told the Daily Caller News Foundation Wednesday.
Biden revealed Wednesday his intent to go to the border “to see what’s going on” and hopefully observe “peace and security.” The president last visited the border in 2008 when he drove by it, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in 2021.
”After two years, it is past time Biden come to the border to survey first hand the chaos he created,” National Border Patrol Council President
Guest post by Kelly Wilde ~
Illegal arrest, officer perjury, and suppression of favorable evidence: The Jan 6 case against US Army veteran Christopher Alberts is flimsy at best.
Please help! Unconstitutional charges based off an illegal arrest are being used to try to put Army combat veteran Christopher Alberts behind bars for more than 20 years for exercising his Constitutional right to protest on January 6th.
Alberts did not cause any harm or property damage and was not suspected of committing any crime when he was illegally searched by a Metro Police officer on the evening of January 6th.
Prince Harry claims in his forthcoming memoir that his older brother Prince William physically attacked him once in 2019 while the two were arguing over their relationship and his marriage to Meghan Markle, according a report.
In his memoir "Spare," hitting bookshelves on Tuesday, Harry wrote that the Prince of Wales allegedly called Meghan Markle "difficult", "rude" and "abrasive" after the two brothers met at Harry’s then-home Nottingham Cottage, according to the Guardian, which obtained an excerpt of the book.
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin is in critical condition after collapsing on the field during Monday night’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Bills said.
The team said Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest following a hit in the game. His heartbeat was restored on the field and he was transferred to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for further testing and treatment, the Bills said.
Buffalo Bills defensive back may have suffered a “remarkably rare” condition when he collapsed on the field during Monday night’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, CBS News medical contributor Dr. David Agus told “CBS Mornings.”
Southern California beachfront property that was taken from a Black couple through eminent domain a century ago and returned to their heirs last year will be sold back to Los Angeles County for nearly $20 million, officials said Tuesday. The heirs' decision to sell what was once known as Bruce's Beach, a portion of what is now Manhattan Beach, was announced by Janice Hahn, chair of the county Board of Supervisors, and state Senator Steven Bradford, who led local and state government efforts to undo the injustice. (Snip) "This is what reparations look like and it is a model that
Asking an Asian person for math help is a microaggression. Reverse racism does not exist. Men can get pregnant.
Those are just a few of the lessons imparted to government workers in diversity trainings and presentations in 2021, according to documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal editorial page. The materials, summarized in a December 30 editorial, show how once-fringe ideas have saturated the federal bureaucracy, from the Department of Veterans Affairs to NASA and the military.
One NASA training states that efforts to be colorblind "actually limit us." Another identifies the words "America is a melting pot" and "don't you want a family?" as "microaggressions,"
Florida colleges and universities are required to submit information detailing how they use state resources to support diversity, equity and inclusion programming, according to a memo from the state’s Office of Budget and Policy obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
All colleges and universities within the Florida College System and the State University System must submit a report explaining how they use state-given resources to provide diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and critical race theory (CRT) programs, according to the memo, which was sent by Office of Budget and Policy Director Chris Spencer to Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz and State University System of Florida Chancellor Raymond Rodrigues.
The conservative and influential Club for Growth announced it cut a deal with the super PAC affiliated with House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), signaling possible movement in the House speaker race after a stalemate had resulted in no speaker through six rounds of voting as of Wednesday afternoon.
The deal with the McCarthy-affiliated super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), involves CLF agreeing to stay out of open-seat Republican primaries in safely red districts, as well as CLF vowing not to enable other super PACs to do the same.
“No matter how bad you think things are, if you look closer, you’ll inevitably find it’s worse.” — M. Stanton Evans
For years Twitter denied that it targeted conservatives, despite piles of evidence to the contrary. But who could have imagined that Twitter had been working hand-in-glove with leftist officials in the federal government to silence speech they didn’t like. If Twitter was this bad, imagine what true tech giants like Facebook and Google have been up to.
As conservative paragon M. Stanton Evans rightly observed, whatever you think, it will likely turn out to be far worse.
The revelations that have been emerging
oversight, noun /ˈoʊ.vɚ.saɪt/
1. a mistake caused by a failure to notice or do something
2. systems or actions to control an activity and make sure that it is done correctly and legally
Cambridge Dictionary
Why do record numbers of poll respondents see America on the wrong track? Perhaps because Congress institutionalizes all too much of the Definition (1) variety of “oversight” – and little, if any, of Definition (2).
Exhibit A: The $1.65 trillion omnibus(t) appropriations bill olé-ed through in the closing hours of the 117th Congress, which sustains the legislative branch’s
Dozens of prominent conservatives, including a former attorney general for the Reagan administration, released a letter Wednesday in support of the 20 House Republicans standing between Rep. Kevin McCarthy and his bid for the speakership.
“Months ago, these members made clear that this established way of doing things was no longer acceptable,” the Conservative Action Project letter said. “Rather than engage them in a good faith negotiation, Rep. Kevin McCarthy has instead maligned both the requests and the messengers. He has publicly and through proxies leveled attacks against members of his own party, including threatening to deny committee assignments for those who continue to oppose him.”
The Coup We Never Knew
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Did someone or something seize control of the United States?
What happened to the U.S. border? Where did it go? Who erased it? Why and how did 5 million people enter our country illegally? Did Congress secretly repeal our immigration laws? Did Joe Biden issue an executive order allowing foreign nationals to walk across the border and reside in the United States as they pleased?
Since when did money not have to be paid back? Who insisted that the more dollars the federal government printed, the more prosperity would follow? When did America embrace zero interest? Why do we believe $30 trillion in debt is no big deal?