The Corruption of the Republican Party

Aha, there’s a 3 page Addendum to the House Rules, one that has not been made public and has not even been shared with other House Republicans. This is the ransom note that Kevin McCarty has to sign to get the gavel.

Nobody knows what’s in it yet.

Kevin kept it secret in order to get the rule approved today, 220 votes to 213. Now that that has happened, we’ll see if any moderate Republicans squawk.

One of the provisions, reportedly, is that a new Commission will be appointed, led by Jim Jordan, with the power to shut down Justice Department investigations and prosecutions.

Such as those of Trump.

And Jim Jordan.

Even a Democrat could introduce a Speaker vote of no confidence.

I think it's unlikely that five Republicans would vote with the Democrats if it was the Democrats idea. But you never know.

Apparently... George Santos used to appear in drag shows back in Brazil?

Lying, cheating, scamming veterans out of their service pets, misspending campaign funds won't get you barred from the GOP... but I'm guessing being a drag queen would.  Incidentally, rarely mentioned in the news, but Santos has a husband. Maybe.

DOJ refuses the share investigative materials with the target of said investigations.

Hilarity ensues.

DOJ is ostensibly under the Executive Branch, a separate branch of government from the Legislative or Judicial. Jordan may not be familiar enough with how government works to know this, but the Executive does not have to bow to the Legislative. They can tell him to go pound sand.

If Santos came out ("came out") and said he was proudly gay, married to another man, used to compete in drag beauty shows, and has a drag name, I don't think anyone in the country or the Democratic Congress would hold it against him.

The lies and embellishments and fundraising questions would remain, of course.

By contrast, the Republican Congress doesn't seem to care about the lies or embellishments or fundraising questions, but that drag thing would be unforgivable.

Snapshot of America in 2023.

The truly truly astonishing hypocrisy of the Republicans, insisting on the Pledge of Allegiance before their committee meetings, just got worse.

You couldn't make this shit up.

Donald J. Trump lost 63 lawsuits claiming the election was rigged.

John Durham spent 3½ years investigating the Mueller investigation, and came up empty.

The Cyber Ninjas spent six months auditing the Arizona ballot count and found no discrepancies.

Similar audits took place in Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

And now Kevin McCarthy has outsourced 41,000 hours of January 6 security camera footage to Tucker Carlson to try to find any signs it wasn't an armed insurrection.

When are these people going to realize the facts aren't on their side?

NoCoPilot wrote:

And now Kevin McCarthy has outsourced 41,000 hours of January 6 security camera footage to Tucker Carlson to try to find any signs it wasn't an armed insurrection.

And the real news organizations are saying, "Not so fast. Those tapes are public property."

Rupert Murdoch's latest revelations are devastating for FNC. They'll either have to go out of business, or completely change their business plan.

Remarkable.

Remarkable that it's taken this long.

NoCoPilot wrote:

When are these people going to realize the facts aren't on their side?

Apparently not anytime soon.

From the New York Times.

George Santos arrested on federal criminal charges

George Santos has been arrested on federal criminal charges, the Associated Press reports.

Santos, who turned himself into a federal courthouse in New York, has been charged with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.

US attorney Breon Peace said the indictment “seeks to hold Santos accountable for various alleged fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations.”

“Taken together, the allegations in the indictment charge Santos with relying on repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself,” Peace added.

And yet, Kevin McCarthy is still undecided whether to strip him of his committee assignments.

Elmer Rhodes and Kelly Meggs are being sentenced this week for seditious conspiracy.  Supposedly their maximum sentences are 25 years and 21 years, respectively.

What I don't understand is why federal execution is off the table.  This was treason against their own country.

RCW 9.82.010 wrote:

(1) Treason against the people of the state consists in—
...(a) Levying war against the people of the state, or
...(b) Adhering to its enemies, or
...(c) Giving them aid and comfort.
2) Treason is a class A felony and punishable by death.

Sounds like:

A. Kevin's about to lose the Speakership

B. The House will default on the debt, without a quorum to pass a resolution

C. There is no other House member who wants, or is qualified to be Speaker

D. Total chaos in the House

E. Total wipeout in the 2024 elections

A motion has been introduced to expel George Santos after a bipartisan investigation proved he lied about everything, misused campaign funds, hoodwinked donors and spends way too much on designer brands.

It'll take a 2/3 vote to expel him, and chances are slim that'll happen.

I mean, think of the pr(ce)(si)dent.

Republicans 'shouted' and stormed out as judiciary committee subpoenaed Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo

Quote :

The Senate Judiciary Committee ordered the subpoenas for both Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo in relation to Crow's numerous undisclosed gifts to Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, and Leo's facilitation of those gifts. Currently, all federal judges — including members of the Supreme Court – are banned from receiving gifts and compensation for speeches and public appearances under the Ethics Reform Act of 1989.

The Ethics Committee report on George Santos / Anthony Devolder / Kitara Rivache didn't sway 105 Republicans to vote him out of Congress.  This did:


The self-loathing it takes to advocate against drag while being a drag performer, to come out against gay marriage on his 2nd wedding anniversary with his husband Matt, to support the most repulsive anti-trans and anti-gay views of his former colleagues while being himself both gay and part-time trans, well it's just startling.  I suspect in the coming weeks Anthony will publicly explain it was all just another performance for him, his whole Congressional saga was a lark, a different type of make-believe for him... one that coincidentally allowed him to buy expensive designer clothing, get botox, and take lavish vacations.

But at the heart of such a performance is a really dark, really soulless vacuum of inhumanity, and some really serious legal repercussions.

Mike Johnson says he believes he has the votes to start an impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden.

But he also believes in an invisible sky father. So make of it what you will.

What is it?

Is it some kind of brain worm that gets into people's heads, makes them lose all sense of right and wrong, morality, reason? This is FUCKING UNBELIEVABLE.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elise-stefanik-complaint-against-judge-beryl-howell_n_657ccab5e4b036ecab4508f0

Elise Stefanik says a judge giving a speech about democracy and the assaults on our democracy is "inappropriate." She says these are "partisan statements."

Is that what we've come to? Wanting to maintain our democracy is now "partisan," and the efforts to overturn democracy and turn into an authoritative autocracy is just normal politics for Republicans? Democrats should just step back and say okay?

Elise Stefanik is not stupid. She's not batshit crazy -- or at least she didn't used to be,

Now I think she has a worm in her brain, eating out her prefrontal cortex.

Quote :

And when asked if he believed there were House members who had decided how to vote based on compromising material about them held by foreign powers, Burchett said, “Absolutely. And other powers. It doesn’t have to be foreign powers.”

This is one conspiracy theory I can get behind.

It's not just the US either.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/international-elections-2024_n_659d15ade4b075f4cfd3cc88

MTG had threatened to initiate a "move to vacate" (recall election) on Beaker if he supported aid to Ukraine, so he pulled support for the Republicans' own bill.
https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-draws-red-line-mike-johnson-1860394
https://www.newsweek.com/mike-johnson-makes-marjorie-taylor-greene-very-happy-1865360

I kinda wish the cunt had done it, and expelled a third Speaker in one year.  Can I use that word here? No other word quite describes her so well.