Democrat Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) is correct: Elon Musk is an unelected interloper, with no authority and no legitimacy who makes a mockery of the appropriations process

 

 Musk exercises nonexistent dictatorial line-item-veto powers over spending and personnel as a "super cabinet" official who was never confirmed by the US Senate like the other cabinet members he now tells what's what.

The whole scheme is illegal and unconstitutional, which is why Trump is now all of a sudden denying that Musk is head of the so-called DOGE, just like Trump hastily made Musk a special government employee after lawsuits were filed on February 3 questioning Musk's authority.

It's an end run around the constitution no less serious than the National Popular Vote Compact, which seeks to neuter the Electoral College.

Trump has been making this bullshit up as he goes and has been since Musk endorsed Trump after the July assassination attempt and then became part of Trump's circle of intimates in August.

The tech oligarchy got front row seats at the inauguration for a reason.

Congress closing in on shutdown deadline with no clear plan 

“We cannot come to a deal where you hammer out gains, losses, but you come to a conclusion and you come to a meeting of the minds,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, told reporters. “That should not be subject to some third party deciding that that’s not what they want.”

“We had a deal last year, all of us and so forth, and then there was an interloper with no authority, no legitimacy, nonelected, who said, ‘Don’t vote for it,’” DeLauro said, as Democrats have continued to zero in on tech billionaire Elon Musk, the head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Three House Republican chuckleheads, but I repeat myself, want to waste everyone's time impeaching Trump's enemy judges

 Pure grand-standing from:

Republican Eli Crane (AZ-2)

Republican Andrew Clyde (GA-9)

Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14).

 

House GOP leaders have not weighed in on the calls to impeach the judges — and the chances of such an effort succeeding in their removal is close to zero.

It would take near-unanimous support from House Republicans to impeach a judge if Democrats do not support the measure, and support from Democrats would be required to clear the two-thirds threshold to convict on impeachment articles in the Senate.

More.

  

Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?  

-- Luke 14:31

GOP trainwreck Nancy Mace accuses ex-fiance in US House floor speech, adultery with whom almost made her late for a prayer breakfast in 2023, of recording sex acts with her and others without their consent

 

 Rep. Nancy Mace accuses ex-fiancé and associates of assaulting her and raping others in House speech

... Saying she was going “scorched earth,” Mace detailed how, in November 2023, she says she “accidentally uncovered some of the most heinous crimes against women imaginable. ..."

The prayer breakfast incident occurred in July 2023:

Nancy Mace tells prayer breakfast she told fiancé ‘we don’t got time for that this morning’ 

 

Maybe she'll change it to an "S" now?

 

Little Marco is the joke

 Rubio on buying Greenland: ‘This is not a joke’

President of Jerkola renames places on maps, Canal of Panamonium, Grifterland, and The Great White Eh up next

 

Google Maps to rename ‘Gulf of Mexico’ to ‘Gulf of America’

When eating the road kill catches up with you

 Tim is the US Representative for TN-2.

Burchett says he believes aliens have underwater bases on earth 

“When they tell me something’s moving at hundreds of miles an hour underwater, and our capabilities … and these things, this one was, it was large as a football field underwater. And this was a documented case, and … and I have an admiral telling me this stuff,” Burchett said Wednesday.

Marco Rubio confirmed as Secretary of State in 99-0 vote, voted for himself lol

 

The Senate on Monday unanimously confirmed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) as America’s 72nd secretary of State, putting in place the first member of President Trump’s Cabinet on the day of his inauguration.

Rubio’s confirmation vote passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, 99-0. Rubio also was able to cast a vote for himself. 

Reported here by The Hill at 6:52pm yesterday.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced Sunday that Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted would replace Vice President J. D. Vance in the US Senate, but he has not yet been sworn in, hence the 99-0 vote for Rubio.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced Thursday, January 16th that Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody will replace Rubio in the Senate after Rubio formally resigns.

Senate panel advances Defense secretary nominee Hegseth on party-line vote 14-13

 The Hill reported here yesterday at 5:37pm.

Who ya gonna believe, The Hill 952AM Jan 5 or CBS News 205PM Jan 5?

 Thune says it’s unclear whether all Trump Cabinet picks will be confirmed 

Thune has privately told Trump that Hegseth has the votes to be confirmed as Defense Secretary, sources say

 

Buh bye Mitt Romney

 Romney stands by as Utah Senator Curtis (blocked in the photo by Kamala Harris) is sworn in today.

Watch here.

 

Do you think these guys even once sat down together to discuss the continuing spending resolution before this week's fiasco?

 Maybe James Braid, new Director of the Office of Legislative Affairs, knows lol.

 

Is this James Braid?

Pete Hegseth promises to quit drinking if confirmed as SECDEF lol

 

Why wait, Pete? Why not stop now?

Hegseth appeared to acknowledge that his relationship with alcohol is a matter of serious concern to GOP senators by pledging Wednesday in meetings on Capitol Hill that he would stop drinking if confirmed to serve as Defense secretary.

The Hill, here.

The bargaining is classic drunk.

Matt Gaetz pulled out for Attorney General after CNN confronted him with new threesome story, House Ethics Committee report still hangs like the sword of Damocles over his head

 CNN here:

The woman who says she had sex when she was a minor with then-Rep. Matt Gaetz told the House Ethics Committee she had two sexual encounters with him at one party in 2017, sources familiar with her testimony tell CNN.

The woman, who was 17 years old at the time, testified that the second sexual encounter, which has not previously been reported, included another adult woman. She also testified to both sexual encounters in a civil deposition as part of a related lawsuit, sources said.

After being asked for comment for this story, Gaetz announced he was backing out as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee. ...

Members of the Republican-led House Ethics panel voted along party lines on Wednesday not to release the results of their investigation and instead decided to meet again on December 5 to vote on the final report.

And The Hill here:

Typically, the committee ends its investigations and does not release its findings on members who have departed the House.

Johnson has argued releasing the report would “open a Pandora’s box” and break a long-standing “rule” of the panel to not publish information on former members of Congress.

But there are some previous examples of Ethics investigators releasing information on former members.

In 1987, the panel released its report into former Rep. William Boner (D-Tenn.) after he resigned from the House. And in 2011, the Senate Ethics Committee released its preliminary report into former Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) after he departed the upper chamber.

 

J. D. Vance gets his sorry ass back in the US Senate after missing critical confirmation votes on Monday and Tuesday which confirmed at least one horrible Biden nomination to a lifetime judicial position

 

 If all Republicans had shown up and Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-Pa.) absence held, the GOP would have defeated the nomination [of Embry Kidd] temporarily.

If all senators had shown up, including Fetterman, it would likely have forced a tiebreaking vote by Vice President Harris.

Adding to the drama, Harris left Washington for Hawaii on Tuesday, depriving Democrats of a potential ability to break a 50-50 tie.

Despite the math, GOP members were incensed at the no-shows, which stretched into Tuesday as Vance did not show up for the morning vote.

Other senators, including Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), tagged along with Trump to the SpaceX Starship launch in Brownsville, Texas, further exacerbating the situation as Schumer prepared to hold another long night of nomination votes on Tuesday. ...

Vance, who missed all of Monday night’s votes in addition to the first one on Tuesday, received the lion’s share of criticism.

The outgoing Ohio senator initially defended his decision, saying that he was meeting with Trump as part of interviews for potential candidates to become FBI director and for other slots.

“I tend to think it’s more important to get an FBI director who will dismantle the deep state than it is for Republicans to lose a vote 49-46 rather than 49-45,” he added.

However, he backtracked and deleted his post on X. He also showed up for the pair of Senate votes during Tuesday’s afternoon session.

Full story here. 

Showing up is the easiest, most important thing senators can do, and they were too busy.

It's unforgivable.

 

ICYMI: The House Republican spending bill with Trump's provision to stop non-citizen vote fraud was defeated on Sept.18 202-220 because of 14 Republican No votes, 5 Republican No shows, and 2 Republican fools voting present

 

House GOP torpedoes Speaker Johnson’s funding bill :

A diverse group of House Republicans torpedoed Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) proposal to fund the government on Wednesday, dealing an embarrassing blow to the GOP leader and derailing his strategy to avoid a shutdown at the end of the month.

Fourteen Republicans joined virtually every Democrat in voting against the spending plan — which paired a six-month stopgap bill with a measure that would require proof of citizenship to vote — bringing the final tally to 202-220, with two voting present. Three Democrats crossed the aisle to back the measure. [Davis of North Carolina, Golden of Maine, and Perez of Washington State]

The Speaker faced a troika of GOP opposition, with hard-line conservatives criticizing the use of a continuing resolution; defense hawks voicing concern about the impact the long-term funding bill would have at the Pentagon; and moderates expressing worries about having a shutdown threat so close to the election.

The roll call vote is here. 5 Republicans didn't bother to vote, mostly liberals from New York. Libertarian fool Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Gazpacho Greene voted present. The 14 Nay Republicans included cranks Biggs, Boebert, and Burchett, as well as grandstander Matt Gaetz and Nancy Look At My Big Tits Mace.

Don't blame Donald Trump or Speaker Johnson, or the 199 Republicans who supported them.

 

 

Democrat Representative Dan Goldman, NY-10, used eliminationist rhetoric against Trump on MSNBC last November, backlash forced apology the next day

 There's never a backlash against the Democrat women who do this, however.

MSNBC is the preferred launching pad for the Party of Violence.

Something funny going on here: Reuters says 63% of blacks plan to support Harris according to NAACP survey, The Hill says 51% of blacks would vote for her today based on the same survey

 

Both stories published Friday the 13th.

 One in four US Black men under 50 support Trump for president, NAACP poll finds

Most Black voters, 63%, plan to support Harris, compared with 13% for Trump, according to the new NAACP survey, which interviewed 1,000 registered Black voters across the U.S. from Aug. 6 to Aug. 12. 

 

Black voters, buoyed by Harris, more excited to vote in 2024 than in 2008: [NAACP] Poll

 

Fifty-one percent of Black voters said they would cast their ballots for Harris if the election were held today. Only 27 percent said the same of former President Trump. 

 

 

 

 

Trump has been moving left on abortion, adding insult to injury with a commitment to another federal mandate

 In August, Trump reiterated his opposition to Florida’s ban on abortions after six weeks. Asked if he supported an amendment to the state’s constitution expanding the right to abortion, Trump said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.” Faced with a firestorm of criticism from anti-abortion groups, Trump campaign officials maintained he “has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative.” ...

At the end of August, with polls showing a slight lead for Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump announced that “because we want more babies,” his administration would require either the federal government or insurance companies to pay the entire cost (which typically runs in the tens of thousands of dollars per individual) of IVF treatments for all Americans. He did not specify whether his proposal would be implemented through the Affordable Care Act, which he has promised to repeal, or whether he has become an advocate of socialized medicine. Nor did Trump reconcile the plan with the 2024 GOP platform, which has language that seems to support rights of citizenship, under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, to fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses.

More.

Trump has learned nothing.

 

Jonathan Turley: The addition of Walz completes a perfect nightmare for free speech advocates

 Walz has shown not only a shocking disregard for free speech values but an equally shocking lack of understanding of the First Amendment.

Walz went on MSNBC to support censoring disinformation and declared, “There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy.”

Ironically, this false claim, repeated by many Democrats, constitutes one of the most dangerous forms of disinformation. ...

The Supreme Court has consistently rejected the claim of Gov. Walz. For example, in the 2016 Matal v. Tam decision, the court stressed that this precise position “strikes at the heart of the First Amendment. Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, or any other similar ground is hateful; but the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express ‘the thought that we hate.'” ...

In her failed 2020 presidential bid, Harris ran on censorship . . ..

President Biden is the most anti-free speech president since John Adams. ...

Democrats now have arguably the most anti-free speech ticket of a major party in more than two centuries.

 

The Hill

Squad member Cori Bush defeated in Missouri primary, the second to lose after Jamaal Bowman

 Good.

The Hill has the story.