Tony "Squeeze My Balls" Gonzales Still in Office

How is this creep still in office?

Explicit text messages published by the the San Antonio Express-News show GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales repeatedly asked his then-campaign director for nude photos and sex in 2020, years before admitting his 2024 affair with a congressional staffer who later died by suicide.

The previously unreported exchanges containing hundreds of messages were obtained by the newspaper. The messages, which the newspaper reported date from when Gonzales was a first-time Republican candidate in June 2020, show him escalating a late-night conversation with his campaign’s political director into explicit sexual requests over several days.

Within hours of initially discussing her dating life and complimenting her as a “smart girl,” the text messages show that Gonzales asked what she wore to bed, what kind of underwear she was wearing, and requested nude photos. The messages go on to describe how he wished to have sex with her and have her “squeeze my balls.”   

“I know what I want and won’t stop until I get it,” one message reads, according to the report.  When the campaign director declined his requests multiple times, he replied: “47 nos is about my limit.” The texts then include multiple requests for photos in the following days.  Despite the exchanges, the aide, granted anonymity, told the newspaper that no physical relationship occurred and that the pair “didn’t so much as touch.”

The revelations add to mounting scrutiny over Gonzales’s conduct following a separate 2024 affair with 35-year-old congressional aide Regina Santos-Aviles, which he publicly acknowledged as “a mistake” and “a lapse in judgment.” Santos-Aviles died by self-immolation in September 2025 after her husband discovered the messages.  Revelations related to that relationship prompted backlash from House Republican leaders and led Gonzales to abandon his bid for a fourth term. He is set to leave office in January. 

The former campaign director who shared the texts with the Express-News said she chose to come forward after learning of Santos-Aviles’s death in 2025. “He obviously pursued, pursued, pursued her like he did with me,” she said. “I never took him serious… It wasn’t until this poor girl died that I thought, ‘No, this guy is pure evil.’”

“This behavior needs to stop,” she added.

GOP Keeps Fucking Up Health Care

As millions of Americans are bracing to see their health insurance premiums more than double due to Republicans' refusal to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits, GOP lawmakers insisted this week that they will fix health care in the United States. 

Never mind that Republicans for the past 15 years have failed to come up with a health care plan that Americans want or one that improves on the ACA, also known as Obamacare. Republicans are insisting that if they're given just a little more time they will fix the whole health care system.

"We're gonna have a vote before the end of the year for sure, and then we're going to continue to do improvements along the way. In the first quarter, second quarter, there's a lot to fix in health care, we've all acknowledged that," House Speaker Mike Johnson told Punchbowl News.

At a closed-door meeting, House Republicans presented 10 possible ideas, none of which included extending the enhanced ACA tax credits to prevent the coming premium increases.  Yet Republicans left the meeting no closer to an agreement on how to move forward as the clock ticks down for Americans who rely on those credits to stay insured.

“The consensus is we need to come up with something,” Rep. Ralph Norman, Republican of South Carolina, said. 

Senate Republicans, meanwhile, voted on a plan that would give low-income Americans $1,000 to put in health savings accounts. But the proposal failed, receiving fewer than the 60 votes it needed to avoid a filibuster.   Yet, even if it had passed, it wouldn’t have been sufficient to help all of the millions of Americans who are about to be hit with massive premium increases.

"Under the Senate Republican ACA plan, premium payments would still more than double next year. Healthy people could be better off in a high deductible plan with a health savings account. People who are sick would face big premium increases or a deductible they can't afford," Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, wrote in a post on X.

To the mainstream media's credit, reporters grilled Republicans on why, after more than a decade and a half of bitching about the perils of Obamacare, they still have no plan to replace it.

"I'm not sure what we can say," Sen. Roger Marshall, Republican of Kansas, told CNN's Kaitlan Collins after she asked why the GOP still has no concrete proposal. Republicans will not like the result of their health care failures next November, when voters will get the chance to make their displeasure known at the ballot box.  “We've got to solve it,” retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told CNN.

  

GOP Making a Mess of Their Shutdown

Don't watch me while I make a fool of myself! 

The Republican Party has devolved into a circular firing squad as its government shutdown enters its second week, with GOP leaders struggling to stay on message to avoid blame.

As Democrats remain unified and steadfast in their assertion that Republicans need to negotiate with them on extending health care subsidies to prevent Americans’ from seeing massive spikes in insurance premiums, congressional Republicans are unable to get on the same page about their strategy as polling shows that voters blame them for the shutdown.

On Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune gave conflicting answers at the same news conference (!) about whether Republicans will pass legislation to ensure that members of the military and air traffic control will still get paid while the government is shut down. 

“I’m certainly open to that,” Johnson said. “We’ve done it in the past. We want to make sure that our troops are paid.”  But then Thune immediately shot that down.

“You don’t need that,” Thune interjected. “The simplest way to end it is not try to exempt this group or that one or that group. It’s to get the government open.”

 

Speaker Johnson Thwarting the Will of the Voters to Hide the Epstein Files

It's been two weeks since Democratic Representativ-elect Adelita Grijalva won a special election for Arizona's 7th Congressional District, defeating her Republican opponent in a landslide that dwarfed the 22-point margin Democrats won the seat by in 2024.  But Speaker Mike Johnson still hasn't sworn Grijalva into the seat, which became vacant when her father died of complications from cancer.

And GOP lawmakers are now admitting Johnson is slow-walking Grijalva’s swearing in because of the Epstein files.  Once she's sworn in, Grijalva will be the final signature on the petition that would force Johnson to hold a vote on a bipartisan bill that would compel the Trump administration to release the files it possesses on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. If the bill came up for a vote before the full House, it would likely pass—embarrassing Johnson's Dear Leader Donald Trump, who wants to keep the files secret likely because his name has been confirmed to be littered throughout the documents.

"Contrary to what he says, @SpeakerJohnson is doing everything he can, including delaying the swearing in of the most recently elected member of Congress and spreading misinformation about the legislation, to block a vote in Congress on legislation to release the Epstein files," Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who co-sponsored legislation, wrote Monday in a post on X.

Grijalva has been demanding that Johnson swear her in so she can get to work for her constituents—who have been without congressional representation since her father died on March 13.  "The people of Southern Arizona deserve representation and I’m ready to get to work. Swear me in NOW @SpeakerJohnson!" Grijalva wrote Monday in a post on X.

Johnson, for his part, claims he can't swear Grijalva in because Congress isn't in session.  But that, too, is an absurd lie, as back in April Johnson swore in two GOP lawmakers the day after they won special elections in Florida— even though Congress was in recess at the time.

 

Trump Administration Wants to Revoke the Passports of U.S. Citizens It Doesn't Like

A bill has been introduced in the GOP-controlled Congress that could potentially be used to deny U.S. citizens the right to travel based solely on their speech, including for criticism of Israel.  The bill would grant Secretary of State Marco Rubio the power to revoke the passports of U.S. citizens in the same way he has revoked the green cards and visas of foreign nationals in the US for criticizing Israel.

In March, Rubio revoked the visa of Turkish doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk after she wrote an opinion piece critical of Israel in the Tufts University student newspaper in 2024.  The op-ed did not mention Hamas, but called for boycotting and divesting from Israel.

One section of the bill grants the Secretary of State the ability to deny passports to people determined to have “knowingly aided, assisted, abetted, or otherwise provided material support to an organization the Secretary has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.”  The reference to “material support” disturbs civil liberties advocates because it is vague and can be interpreted to include speech and anti-war activism.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), (which is widely believed to function  as a front for Israeli intelligence in the U.S.) and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law suggested in a letter last year that Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) was providing “material support” for Hamas by organizing campus protests against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.  So much for free speech!

The provision regarding "material support" to terrorism also poses a threat specifically to journalists, The Intercept noted.  In 2023, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas demanded a Justice Department “national security investigation” of AP, CNN, The New York Times, and Reuters after they published photos taken by freelance photographers during the Hamas attack on Israeli settlements and military bases on 7 October 2023.

Civil liberties organizations like the ACLU and the Freedom of the Press Foundation contend that the bill undermines due process and could punish speech.  Concerns have also been raised that the bill's appeals process is insufficient, as appeals would be reviewed by the same individual who made the initial decision. Advocates worry that the "material support" language could endanger journalists and human rights activists who report on designated organizations.

 

Republicans Who Voted to Confirm RFK Jr. Now Worried He's a Nut Job

GOP Senators are now seeing what anyone with half a brain has known for months: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a dangerous quack who puts Americans' health at risk.  Multiple Republican lawmakers dressed Kennedy down on Thursday during a Senate Finance Committee hearing, expressing concerns with his anti-vaccine policies and his personnel decisions.

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, an orthopedic surgeon by trade who cast the deciding vote to confirm Kennedy, took a page out of the playbook of Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, saying that he was "concerned" about Kennedy’s stance on vaccines.  “Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines,” Barrasso said. “Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned. The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership in the National Institutes of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired. Americans don't know who to rely on."

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana (who also was a doctor before being elected to the Senate) voted to confirm Kennedy back in February.  At the time, he said that he was confident that Kennedy would ensure access to vaccines. After the RFK Jr. hearing, Cassidy changed tunes, saying that Kennedy is making it harder for people to get vaccines, breaking a promise that Cassidy said he made before his confirmation vote.  “We’re denying people vaccine,” Cassidy said at the hearing.

Meanwhile, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina also lambasted Kennedy for firing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez just a month after the Senate voted to confirm her.  "I don't see how you go over four weeks from 'a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials, a longtime champion of MAHA values, caring and compassionate, and brilliant microbiologist ' and four weeks later fire her," he said.  

Monarez said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that she was fired because she wouldn't approve the recommendations from a vaccine advisory panel that Kennedy stacked with anti-vax quacks. At the hearing, Kennedy disputed that, ridiculously claiming that Monarez was fired because she told him that she was not a trustworthy person.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune also expressed frustration with Kennedy’s decision to fire Monarez.  “Honestly he’s got to take responsibility," he said. "We confirm these people, we go through a lot of work to get them confirmed.”

Of course, it was always clear that Kennedy—a brain worm-addled, well-known anti-vaxxer—was going to be a disaster for public health.  "GOP senator votes to confirm anti-vaxxer, is shocked by anti-vax policy," Democratic Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts wrote on X, mocking Barrasso's shock that Kennedy would implement anti-vax policies.

Ultimately, Republicans had the chance to vote against Kennedy’s confirmation but failed. And while it's new for these lawmakers to speak up and criticize Kennedy, their words will mean nothing without action to remove him from his position. 

 

From the Mouths of Idiots

 

British Tabloid Goes Public With Marjorie Taylor Greene's Sex Romps

The UK's DailyMail has published reports on how controversial conspiracy congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene cheated on her husband with a polyamorous tantric sex guru. Then after ending her affair with him, the mom-of-three moved on to a gym manager behind her husband's back.

But despite the tawdry flings, Taylor Greene stuck with her husband Perry as she made her unlikely rise that has turned her into the most talked-about Republican in Washington, D.C.  Neither man has denied the affairs. Craig Ivey, the tantric sex practitioner, said: 'I will not respond to anything about this,' while the other man, Justin Tway, said: 'I have no interest in talking about anything to do with that woman. Everything with her comes to no good.'

But others say the representative from Georgia's 14th Congressional District was brazen about her affairs which she carried on a decade ago while working in gyms in Alpharetta, Georgia, some 35 miles north of Atlanta.  "It wasn't a secret. Everyone who moved in her circles knew about both the affairs," said one man who worked closely with Taylor Greene.  Her boss, billionaire's grandson Jim Chambers, added: 'She socialized a lot with us. I remember one particular pool party where she was lying draped over Craig's lap drinking a beer. She was quite open about it. We all thought her marriage was falling apart."  Chambers, whose grandmother Anne Cox Chambers was the richest person in Georgia until she died last year, was the owner of the gym where Greene was a member.

46-year-old Taylor Greene has become notorious since being elected to Congress. She calls herself a 'strong conservative Christian,' who planned to take her 'family values' to Washington.  But she has been slammed for her belief in conspiracies linked to the group QAnon which claims former president Donald Trump was sent by God to oust Democrats who are involved in a nationwide ring that traffics, abuses, kills and even eats children.

She has also said that the Parkland and Sandy Hook school shootings were 'false flag' operations aimed at tightening gun control, harassed Parkland survivor David Hogg on the streets and questioned whether the September 11 terrorist attacks were real.  Congress voted last week to remove her from her committee assignments due to her outrageous beliefs and actions.

Last year, Jim Chambers even tweeted out: "@mtgreenee so when you worked for me at CrossFit Alpharetta in 2012, the extramarital affairs you had with Justin and Craig, those were Jesus-approved, right?" 

 

A Degree of Sanity Among the Chaos

One of the people who served jail time for taking part in the US Capitol riot four years ago has refused a pardon from convicted felon Donald Trump, saying: "We were wrong that day."  Pamela Hemphill, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 60 days in prison, said that there should be no pardons for the January 6 riot.

"Accepting a pardon would only insult the Capitol police officers, rule of law and, of course, our nation," she said.  "I pleaded guilty because I was guilty, and accepting a pardon also would serve to contribute to their gaslighting and false narrative." Hemphill, (who was nicknamed the "Maga granny" by social media users) said she saw the Trump administration as trying to "rewrite history and I don't want to be part of that".  "We were wrong that day, we broke the law - there should be no pardons," she told the BBC.

The move has drawn an uneasy reaction from only a very few some Republican politicians.  Senator Thom Tillis, from North Carolina, said he "just can't agree" with the move, adding that it "raises legitimate safety issues on Capitol Hill".  Another Republican US senator, James Lankford from Oklahoma, told CNN: "I think we need to continue to say we are a party of law and order." He added: "I think if you attack a police officer, that's a very serious issue and they should pay a price for that."

In a joint statement with the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) said it was “deeply discouraged” by recent pardons and commutations given by Trump to those who have been convicted of killing or assaulting police.

It reads, “Allowing those convicted of these crimes to be released early diminishes accountability and devalues the sacrifices made by courageous law enforcement officers and their families.”

“When perpetrators of crimes, especially serious crimes, are not held fully accountable, it sends a dangerous message that the consequences for attacking law enforcement are not severe, potentially emboldening others to commit similar acts of violence,” the statement continued.

 

DOD Nominee is Starting to Circle the Drain

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s nominee for Defense secretary, is already under fire for several notable controversies, including ties to right-wing extremism, anti-Muslim bigotry, and his defense of mercenaries that killed civilians. But new reporting has revealed more allegations of abuse toward women and public drunkenness that are likely to come up at future Senate confirmation hearings—if the former Fox News pundit makes it that far.

The New York Times reported on Friday that in a 2018 email Hegseth’s mother, Penelope Hegseth, described her son as an abuser of women.  “On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself,” she wrote. “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”

The behavior described in the letter echoes other reporting on Hegseth’s past behavior.   A recent report by the New Yorker that detailed behavior from Hegseth that led to him stepping down from leading conservative veterans groups, Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America.  A whistleblower report says that Hegseth was so drunk while doing public events for Concerned Veterans of America that he had to be carried out. The report also alleges that Hegseth sexually pursued staffers at the group and he and other men in the organization divided the women staffers into groups labeled “party girls” and “not party girls.”   The report also notes that an allegation of sexual assault by Hegseth was made, involving an employee while the two were at a strip club in Louisiana.

Hegseth is also accused in the document of chanting “Kill All Muslims! Kill All Muslims!” while drunk at a bar in 2015, while on an official tour. An email sent by whistleblowers also accused Hegseth of treating the organization’s funds “like they were a personal expense account” and said he used money donated to advocate for veterans “for partying, drinking.”

The new revelations about Hegseth come on the heels of the release of a police report in which a woman accused Hegseth of raping her at a Republican women’s event in 2017. Hegseth was not charged following a police investigation.

Disclosures about Matt Gaetz, Trump’s former pick to be U.S. attorney general, led to Trump giving up on the nomination when it became clear even Republicans would oppose him. Those allegations included sex with a minor and accusations of sex trafficking. The disclosures about Hegseth seem even more severe, but so far there has been no indication that Trump will back away from the pick.

 

Trump to Congress: Pound Sand

Donald Trump is entering his second term with vows to cut a vast array of government services and a radical plan to do so. Rather than relying on his party’s control of Congress to trim the budget, Trump and his advisers intend to test an obscure legal theory holding that presidents have sweeping power to withhold funding from programs they dislike.

“We can simply choke off the money,” Trump said in a 2023 campaign video. “For 200 years under our system of government, it was undisputed that the president had the constitutional power to stop unnecessary spending.”

His plan, known as “impoundment,” threatens to provoke a major clash over the limits of the president’s control over the budget. The Constitution gives Congress the sole authority to appropriate the federal budget, while the role of the executive branch is to dole out the money effectively. But Trump and his advisers are asserting that a president can unilaterally ignore Congress’ spending decisions and “impound” funds if he opposes them or deems them wasteful.

Trump’s designs on the budget are part of his administration’s larger plan to consolidate as much power in the executive branch as possible. This month, he pressured the Senate to go into recess so he could appoint his cabinet without any oversight. (So far, Republicans who control the chamber have not agreed to do so.) His key advisers have spelled out plans to bring independent agencies, such as the Department of Justice, under political control.

If Trump were to assert a power to kill congressionally approved programs, it would almost certainly tee up a fight in the federal courts and Congress and, experts say, could fundamentally alter Congress’ bedrock power.

GOP is Playing With Healthcare Fire

Republicans have finally revealed their health care plan: repeal the Affordable Care Act. A new video has surfaced of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson saying that Donald Trump, if elected, will kill the Affordable Care Act in the first 100 days, potentially throwing 22 million Americans off their insurance. 

“Health care reform’s going to be a big part of the agenda. When I say we’re going to have a very aggressive first 100 days agenda, we got a lot of things still on the table,” Johnson said during a campaign event in Pennsylvania on Monday, while a life-sized Trump cardboard cutout loomed behind him. The video was first obtained by NBC News.

“No Obamacare,” Johnson continued. “The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.”  Johnson waxed poetic about the virtues of the “free market” and “taking bureaucrats out of the health care equation.”  However, the ACA remains overwhelmingly popular, with an April survey from KFF finding that 62% of Americans have a favorable view of the law.  How fast do you think Harris can get this into a TV ad?

GOP Representatives Emulate Confederacy Losers

The House voted this week to reject an amendment to restore a racist Confederate monument in Arlington National Cemetery. The statue depicted a Black “mammy” holding a Confederate soldier’s baby and a Black enslaved person following a Confederate soldier into battle. In a 230 to 192 vote, only 24 Republicans joined Democrats in opposition to the monument.

The Reconciliation Memorial, also called the “New South” monument, was erected in 1914 by famed white supremacist President Woodrow Wilson. An independent commission recommended the statue for removal in 2022. In December 2023, the Army, which operates Arlington National Cemetery, informed Congress that it intended to remove the statue.

The amendment was brought by Georgia gun shop owner-turned-congressman Andrew Clyde. This was not Clyde’s first time exhibiting racist tendencies over memorials. In 2022, Clyde led House Republicans in blocking a “routine measure” to name a federal courthouse in Florida after its first Black state supreme court justice, Joseph W. Hatchett.

The House vote showed an increase in GOP support for white supremacist symbology vis-a-vis 2021 when only 120 Republicans voted against removing Confederate statues from the Capitol.

 

Delays Help Russia

Brutal Takedown of Marjorie

“The Daily Show” guest host Dulcé Sloan tore into Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene amid the far-right lawmaker’s attempt to oust Mike Johnson as House speaker over his push for aid to Ukraine.  Greene has “the strongest Karen energy I have ever seen,” Sloan cracked after airing a montage of her attacks on Johnson.

“Damn,” said Sloan. “Last time I saw a white lady that pissed about a bill, she was getting kicked out of a Chili’s. I don’t know if she’s going to get Mike Johnson fired, but she’s definitely getting store credit for something.”

Sloan then debuted a new nickname for conspiracy theory-peddling Greene. “The crazy thing is if Capitol Hill Karen does get the speaker fired, that’ll be the second time in six months,” she noted, before telling Republicans the harsh truth that: “If you’re constantly firing speakers, maybe the problem is with you.”

Reverend Warnock Schools Speaker Mike Johnson Over his Ignorance and Hate

Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock hit House Speaker Mike Johnson with a lesson in faith after Johnson called it “outrageous and abhorrent” for President Joe Biden to proclaim that Easter Sunday was Transgender Day of Visibility.

Johnson joined a number of critics, including former President Donald Trump and Caitlyn Jenner, who knocked Biden over the proclamation-- even though International Transgender Day of Visibility has been held on March 31 every year since it was established in 2009.  The event only coincided with Easter due to a quirk in the lunar calendar. 

Warnock, who is senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, took to CNN to criticize Johnson over his claim that the Biden White House “betrayed the central tenet of Easter” with the move.  Apparently, the speaker finds trans people abhorrent, and I think he ought to think about that,” Warnock told Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

He continued: “This is just one more instance of folks who do not know how to lead us trying to divide us. And this is the opposite of the Christian faith. Jesus centered the marginalized. He centered the poor. And in a moment like this, we need voices, particularly voices of faith, who would use our faith not as a weapon to beat other people down but as a bridge to bring all of us together.”

 

Savage Takedown of Trump's Memory Lapses at House Hearing

Today’s House Judiciary Committee hearing examining special counsel Robert Hur’s anticlimactic report on Joe Biden was disastrous for the GOP Congress members hoping to tarnish the sitting president’s image and reputation. Time and again, the Democratic committee members successfully contrasted the attempted attacks on Biden with Donald Trump’s dubious mental acuity, evasive testimony, and general incompetence.

One of the most powerful arrows in the Democrats’ quiver was the video supercut. They introduced not one, not two, but three supercuts showing the relentless incompetence, bizarre behavior, and untrustworthiness of the twice-impeached former president. 

One of the All-Time GOP State of the Union Disasters

Whether it’s Marco Rubio getting so very thirsty, or Bobby Jindal going from darling of the party to has-been in 15 minutes flat, there's something about a Republican response to the State of the Union address that inevitably generates a field day for comedians.

From the faux kitchen setting, to the going all out for the lead in the seventh-grade production of “The Crucible” energy, to the garb that reminded many viewers of a character from “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Katie Britt’s performance in the GOP response to the State of the Union might be the response to end all responses. The Alabama senator projected her best mom-who-would-definitely-take-out-your-kid-so-her-daughter-could-be-head-cheerleader vibes, wandering through a whispery, dystopian hellscape in a kitchen that seemed eerily devoid of life.

Since appearing on America’s televisions, Britt’s drama club delivery has been the subject of a baffled response from Republicans as well as a vast number of social media memes.   It was so awful that, as Rolling Stone reports, Republican commentators were burning down Britt’s performance in real time.

During her speech, Britt told a brutal story of a woman who had been a victim of sex trafficking. The Alabama senator heavily implied that this story had happened in America under President Joe Biden’s watch. However, journalist Jonathan Katz quickly disassembled Britt’s story and found the real woman behind the claims.  Britt’s story was based on the tragic abuse suffered by Karla Jacinto Romero, who told her story to Congress in 2015. As it turns out, the horrific events that she survived happened nearly two decades ago (between 2004 and 2008) and occurred in Mexico, not the U.S.

In her response to the brutal mockery of her speech, Katie Britt refused to apologize for use of the misleading story.

 

McConnell Sneaks His Way to the Exit

McConnell is heading out the door with a tarnished legacy-- with no claim whatsoever to actually have passed significant or historic legislation.  He is only known to have blocked progress (Merrick Garland's nomination, e.g.) or cemented GOP power (to no positive end).  In the waning years of his toxic term, McConnell built up and supported a man that he is known to despise and knows is destructive-- because he always saw Trump as a means to an end. 

And yet that coveted "end," as MSNBC's Jen Psaki points out, left McConnell utterly impotent. "And that's the real legacy of Mitch McConnell: a cynic focused on power only to be swallowed by the monster that he enabled to obtain it," she said.

As McConnell hero Ronald Reagan once said, "To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last — but eat you he will." 

Sinema and Manchin Are Out-- Thank God!

There’s a lot of handwringing in the traditional media about the end of the Senate moderate, now that quasi-Democrats Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, along with Republican Mitt Romney, have called it quits. Axios calls it “a series of crushing blows to Senate bipartisanship, hollowing out a centrist core that has suffered under years of intensifying polarization.” Politico laments that “The filibuster is in big trouble” with “two of its staunchest defenders” leaving.  Good riddance.

Between Sinema and Manchin, all hope of the nation having nice things during the first two years of President Biden’s term (when Democrats held a majority in both the House and Senate) was crushed. They blocked or watered down all the good, transformative policies Biden and fellow Democrats proposed for the country.  Now the two biggest impediments to actual progress will be gone—if the Democrats keep the Senate.

Democratic majority unimpeded by the dysfunctional duo means that progress can finally happen. Democrats can restore and expand the Voting Rights Act (which Manchin and Sinema ultimately blocked).  They can restore abortion rights, which the supposedly pro-choice Sinema blocked when Biden urged a filibuster carve-out for it.  Democrats can raise the minimum wage and make massively wealthy private equity and hedge fund executives pay their damn taxes.  Democrats’ vision for environmental justice can be realized.  Comprehensive immigration reform would be that much more possible.  A Democratic majority without Manchin and Sinema could even reform the Supreme Court.