Steve Thomas

I have to marvel at Lauren Boebert. It's not often that a freshman (relatively speaking) member of Congress with only a GED education tells a former President of the United States and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to go to hell on the same day. Steve Thomas

Douglas, Now THAT'S funny. Hats off to you. Steve Thomas

Steve Thomas

Watch: Lauren Boebert refuses to say if she will bring a gun into the Capitol following removal of metal detectors by Brandon Gage, Alternet January 04, 2023 https://www.rawstory.com/watch-lauren-boebert-refuses-to-say-if-she-will-bring-a-gun-into-the-capitol-following-removal-of-metal-detectors/ “"Congresswoman," the interviewer began, "This was put here in part because of you. Do you have a response to whether Democrats are going to feel unsafe? Should they feel unsafe?" "Absolutely not. They should not feel unsafe," Boebert beamed, boasting that "if they do, they should come see me for a concealed carry weapons permit, and I can make sure that they are locked and loaded in Washington”" Steve Thomas

[Marjorie Taylor] Greene spoke to right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk on Wednesday following McCarthy's failure to secure the speakership on the fourth ballot. She added: "We can't live in conservative fantasy land, although I share those same conservative fantasies with the group of 20." Um... Um... Hi. My name is George Santos. You got a minute? Steve Thomas

W., The biggest thing that came out of today (1/4/23) is that Donald Trump lost whatever political clout he ever had in the Republican Party. He drew a line in the sand this morning and told his crazies that they must vote for Kevin McCarthy. They told him to run along. The crazies are all Donald Trump has left. If even they won't listen to him, he's got nothing left. I think Trump is history. Steve Thomas

New Congresswoman Fights Rival Over Witchcraft Accusation by Zachary Petrizzo Jan. 04, 2023 https://www.thedailybeast.com/rep-anna-paulina-luna-fights-rival-michael-tito-over-witchcraft-accusation?ref=home?ref=home\ Rep. Anna Paulina Luna came to Congress on her first day in office ready to do battle—not just with Democrats, but also with her own party, as she became one of the 20 Republicans to vote against electing Kevin McCarthy speaker. But back home in her conservative Florida district, Luna is waging a very different kind of war: a legal fight with political enemies who say she is a literal witch. A letter obtained by The Daily Beast reveals that the Florida Republican retained the high-powered law firm Holland & Knight to go after a would-be rival who leveled a series of outlandish allegations against Luna on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show in the fall. The letter demands that Matt Tito, a pal of Roger Stone who mulled challenging Luna in a primary, apologize on video for his accusations, which include claims that Luna was fired from a job—and that she had a sexual liaison with Rep. Matt Gaetz. But Tito said he isn’t backing down from any of his claims about the former MAGA influencer—who once accused him of conspiring with another candidate to kill her during the campaign, which he denied. Tito claimed he learned about Luna’s purported background from other MAGA figures. According to Tito, Hispanics for Trump associate Paloma Zuniga said that “Luna practices witchcraft.” “That is where I heard that from,” Tito said. “She puts spells on people.” Another failed California Republican congressional hopeful, Omar Navarro, suggested the unsubstantiated rumors must be accurate because so many people were repeating them. “It has got to be true to a certain extent,” he told The Daily Beast. “It’s fair enough to say that it’s spread among people in the Republican Party.” Oh, well. If everybody is saying so... This just keeps getting better and better. Steve Thomas

[Andy] Biggs has led the anti-McCarthy faction along with Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, plus Reps. Bob Good (R-Va.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), all of whom belong to the caucus. WASHINGTON — Rep. Ralph Norman’s biggest regret about urging the Donald Trump White House to declare martial law so Trump could remain in office seems to be that he did so with bad spelling. The South Carolina Republican texted White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Jan. 17, 2021, that Trump should declare “Marshall Law” to prevent Joe Biden from taking office. Steve Thomas

George Santos put out a press release. In his Press Release, he said that he was sworn into office on January 3rd by the Speaker of the House after taking the Oath of Office. There are no words... Steve Thomas

Donald Trump was asked if he still supports Kevin McCarthy. Trump responded, "We'll see what happens." Ain't love grand? Steve Thomas

Robert Costa @costareports An extraordinary moment in American history. A speaker of the House asks the chairman of the joint chiefs if the nuclear codes are safe because she fears the president is crazy and liable to make a deadly decision to stay in power. From Milley's testimony re: Jan. 8, 2021 call. https://twitter.com/costareports/status/1609924279818412034 Steve Thomas

Meet the new MAGA generation: These newly-elected Republicans set to join Team MTG By Igor Derysh, Salon 01/03/23 http://www.rawstory.com/meet-the-new-maga-generation-these-newly-elected-republicans-set-to-join-team-mtg/ Steve Thomas

On Monday's edition of CNN's edition of "The Lead," political reporter Eva McKend said that the Republicans making demands will just be emboldened to continue making more — and possibly paralyze the whole House. Ultimately, argued McKend, McCarthy's bind is a demonstration that "you can't abandon your principles in pursuit of power because it ultimately may not work out for you in the end." Amen Steve Thomas

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/109620645245203294 The man belongs in a home. Steve Thomas

We Need a New Approach to Fighting Malevolent Forces Online By David Rothkopf Updated Dec. 24, 2022 https://www.thedailybeast.com/we-need-a-new-approach-to-fighting-malevolent-forces-online “Everywhere you look in the past few weeks, the growing risks we face have been made clearer. CIA Director Bill Burns has warned of the potential for TikTok’s Chinese owners to use the app to access data that they could use to threaten our national security. The scandals shaking cryptocurrencies reveal that the world of digital finance presents unique opportunities for scam artists to debunk a gullible and ignorant public. Tech moguls have emerged as the robber barons of our age, wielding unprecedented power, controlling without constraint vast swaths of the marketplace and the means by which we connect and function as a society.” “AI (artificial intelligence) is a tool that can give a strategic advantage to combatants or be a force-multiplier for terrorists, its development and distribution still largely left to market forces (or constrained by narrow, country-specific programs to limit its development—like those of the U.S. with regard to China). Deep fake technology can make it all but impossible to know the difference between what is happening in the world, and what individual people may be saying or may believe”. “To date these threats have been addressed piecemeal, when they have been addressed at all. Our failure to anticipate them is a sign of the inadequacy of our government to provide useful oversight, as is our unwillingness to properly regulate Big Tech and challenge the highly concentrated power of a few organizations and individuals.” “Absent constraints on malevolent actors, protections that ensure safe commerce, the ability to identify and manage threats to our information security, we will put at risk our fundamental freedoms and values in ways that today’s headlines should already be making painfully clear to all.” Steve Thomas

Donald Trump's positive, uplifting message for the New Year: https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1609406998730182656|twgr^d0766c024b733852c23115fcc5665948f344615c|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Fdonald-trump-says-us-like-third-world-country-video-nye-party-1770611 Steve Thomas

Greg, "Let's Get Our Story Straight." Steve Thomas

Ethics questions on fundraiser, expenses and more: Where George Santos' many scandals stand https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/30/where-the-george-santos-scandals-stand-00075871 Selling access to his swearing-in For between $100 and $500, Santos said donors could get a bus trip to Washington, lunch, a swearing-in ceremony and a campaign-led tour of the “Capitol grounds.” The invitation, first reported by CNN Thursday, launched a fresh round of questions about Santos’ ethics. Campaign finance experts at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center said it wasn’t immediately clear that the offer was a violation, since the invitation didn’t explicitly say the money paid was for a tour. Additionally, the tour offer was for the “Capitol grounds,” not the Capitol building itself or its office buildings, which could be a reference to the outdoor public space around the Capitol rather than private areas. Santos could run afoul of ethics rules barring the use of official resources for campaigns, however, if he explicitly held tours or meetings with donors in congressional buildings. Eye-popping expenditures Santos is also drawing scrutiny for a series of questionable expenditures made by his campaign. The campaign spent $11,000 to rent a suburban house in Huntington, Long Island, claiming it was lodging for staff, the New York Times reported — but neighbors said Santos himself was seen living there. It’s illegal for a candidate to spend campaign funds on their own personal expenses. The campaign also spent more than $40,000 on air travel, according to the Times — a figure far beyond what is typically spent during a local congressional campaign. Another $30,000 was spent on hotels across the country and $14,000 on car services. Dozens of expenditures by the campaign were listed in disclosure forms at $199.99, just below the $200 threshold where receipts are required. Nice guy. Steve Thomas

1994 December 11 Russian forces enter Chechnya https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/yeltsin-orders-russian-forces-into-chechnya “In the largest Russian military offensive since the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan, thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks pour into the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya. Encountering only light resistance, Russian forces had by evening pushed to the outskirts of the Chechen capital of Grozny, where several thousand Chechen volunteers vowed a bitter fight against the Russians.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Georgian_War “The 2008 Russo-Georgian War[note 3] was a war between Georgia, on one side, and Russia and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, on the other. The war took place in August following a period of worsening relations between Russia and Georgia, both formerly constituent republics of the Soviet Union. The fighting took place in the strategically important South Caucasus region. It is regarded as the first European war of the 21st century.[31] “ Chechnya 1994 Georgia 2008 Crimea 2014 Ukraine 2022 All you’ve got to do is look at a map to see what’s going on. Steve Thomas

Idaho murders: 28-year-old man arrested in Pennsylvania By Emily Shapiro, Aaron Katersky, and Josh Margolin December 30, 2022, 1:56 PM https://abcnews.go.com/US/idaho-murders-police-hold-news-conference-friday-afternoon/story?id=95976902 “A 28-year-old man, Bryan Kohberger, was arrested Friday morning in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains in connection with the murders of four University of Idaho students, according to a criminal complaint. Law enforcement sources told ABC News that authorities knew who they were looking for and had tracked Kohberger down to Pennsylvania. A SWAT team entered the location where he was staying in order to take him into custody. He was arrested on a warrant for first-degree murder issued by Idaho authorities, according to the complaint. Kohberger appeared before a judge Friday morning.” Steve Thomas

A sign of our times. [Southwest Airlines] chief executive officer Bob Jordan saw his annual compensation package increase to $9.1 million in 2022. "Meanwhile, thousands of Southwest customers have been stranded in airports around the country in recent days, with little knowledge of where their luggage is or when they will be able to reach their destination." Steve Thomas

And he wouldn't need a passport to go to Cancun. Steve Thomas

I feel sorry for the Russians. Russians don't have very good balance. They're always falling out of upper story windows. Steve Thomas

George Santos’ victory tells a sad story about the state of local news https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/george-santos-win-highlights-sad-state-local-news-rcna62849 “When Santos unsuccessfully ran for the same seat in 2020, he reported having “no assets or earned income.” For his 2022 campaign, the newspaper notes, Santos reported assets worth between $2.6 and $11 million and reported loaning that campaign $700,000. How did Santos go from nothing to millionaire status in two short years? There is no clear answer but we need one given that with this newfound wealth Santos largely funded his 2022 campaign.” “According to The New York Times, after he lost the 2020 election, Santos worked in various financial ventures including one sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for being a Ponzi scheme. (Santos was not personally named in that lawsuit.) Per his congressional disclosure filing, he then created a company called The Devolder Organization that paid him a salary of $750,000. But according to the Times, that company had no assets and was thereafter dissolved for failing to file an annual corporate report. There must be an investigation to determine the source of the funds Santos loaned his campaign to ensure it was not an attempt to circumvent federal election laws, including laws that prohibit straw donors.” This guy's been bought and paid for. The new Congress should refuse to seat him. Steve Thomas

Fourth Utility Station Vandalized In Washington State https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fourth-power-outage-vandalism_n_63aa214fe4b0d6724fb7e2bd "TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A fourth electrical substation was vandalized late on Christmas Day in Washington state, leaving homes in Kapowsin and Graham temporarily without power, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office." Authorities are still calling it vandalism instead of the terrorism that it is. America is being attacked, in no less a fashion than when we were attacked at Pearl Harbor. Steve Thomas