"Sphincter Politicians on Parade”

[LFC]

Today we have a known sphincter but not one of the constant repeat offenders. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) become notorious for profiting off of inside, non-public pandemic info. Turns out Burr helped out his brother-in-law in the same manner and he acted on the non-public info in literally one minute.

After Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina dumped more than $1.6 million in stocks in February 2020 a week before the coronavirus market crash, he called his brother-in-law, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

They talked for 50 seconds.

Burr, according to the SEC, had material nonpublic information regarding the incoming economic impact of coronavirus.

The very next minute, Burr’s brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, called his broker.

ProPublica previously reported that Fauth, a member of the National Mediation Board, had dumped stock the same day Burr did. But it was previously unknown that Burr and Fauth spoke that day, and that their contact came just before Fauth began the process of dumping stock himself.

The revelations come as part of an effort by the SEC to force Fauth to comply with a subpoena that the agency said he has stonewalled for more than a year, and which was filed not long after ProPublica’s story.

[LFC]

MTG seems to be keeping a lower profile lately. Or it could be her shtick got old and the press isn't very interested anymore. No matter which it is amusing to see how the right-wingnuts screw each other over for money on the regular. Rudy isn't the only one to get stiffed by their client.

Two MAGA world luminaries who have spent the better part of a year promoting some of the same election conspiracy theories—Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and QAnon-aligned lawyer Lin Wood—are now pitted against each other in a dispute that could put Greene on the wrong side of a campaign finance violation.

Wood, the Georgia defamation lawyer who has floated some of the fringiest of fringe theories about ex-President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, posted a note on the Telegram messaging app over the weekend blasting Greene and claiming she still owed him for previous legal work.

But it turns out that Wood was not representing his former ally in her personal capacity. Instead, his services went to Greene’s campaign committee as it fought two defamation disputes. Worse still for Greene is Wood’s claim that the Greene campaign has never paid him, raising a number of questions about the legality of their arrangement.

A spokesperson for Greene, who handles communications for her congressional office and her campaign, did not offer comment.

Four campaign finance experts consulted for this article said Greene’s candidate committee—Greene for Congress—appears at minimum to have violated federal financial reporting laws. They also raised concerns about illegal corporate and in-kind contributions, with some experts pointing to two possibilities in other legal realms: breach of contract, and, in a word, “theft,” if Wood were to take an austere line in state court.

Wood seems to have ruled out that option, but in a conversation with The Daily Beast, the veteran attorney claimed that Greene owes him $5,000 for legal services rendered in July and September 2020.

[goldenvalley]

Nov 2, 2021 16:02:30 GMT LFC said:

MTG seems to be keeping a lower profile lately. Or it could be her shtick got old and the press isn't very interested anymore. No matter which it is amusing to see how the right-wingnuts screw each other over for money on the regular. Rudy isn't the only one to get stiffed by their client.

Two MAGA world luminaries who have spent the better part of a year promoting some of the same election conspiracy theories—Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and QAnon-aligned lawyer Lin Wood—are now pitted against each other in a dispute that could put Greene on the wrong side of a campaign finance violation.

Wood, the Georgia defamation lawyer who has floated some of the fringiest of fringe theories about ex-President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, posted a note on the Telegram messaging app over the weekend blasting Greene and claiming she still owed him for previous legal work.

But it turns out that Wood was not representing his former ally in her personal capacity. Instead, his services went to Greene’s campaign committee as it fought two defamation disputes. Worse still for Greene is Wood’s claim that the Greene campaign has never paid him, raising a number of questions about the legality of their arrangement.

A spokesperson for Greene, who handles communications for her congressional office and her campaign, did not offer comment.

Four campaign finance experts consulted for this article said Greene’s candidate committee—Greene for Congress—appears at minimum to have violated federal financial reporting laws. They also raised concerns about illegal corporate and in-kind contributions, with some experts pointing to two possibilities in other legal realms: breach of contract, and, in a word, “theft,” if Wood were to take an austere line in state court.

Wood seems to have ruled out that option, but in a conversation with The Daily Beast, the veteran attorney claimed that Greene owes him $5,000 for legal services rendered in July and September 2020.

They might share delusions, but Wood knows the color of money and he wants to make sure he gets it.

[andydp]

Looks like Mr Issa may have to sue himself for this one.

Another Republican ensnared? Rep. Darrell Issa may be implicated in Fortenberry scandal

The federal case against Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb. — who was indicted last month on charges of lying to federal investigators and concealing information about illegal campaign donations — appears to have ensnared another Republican congressman. The Department of Justice stated last week that a protective order was "necessary" in the Fortenberry case to protect "evidence related to sensitive and ongoing investigations, including those related to public officials."

One public official in question, who is identified in court filings only as "Candidate C," is Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican who is now the apparent target of a DOJ investigation — and may indeed have been the object of a sting operation.


www.salon.com/2021/11/10/another-ensnared-rep-darrell-issa-may-be-implicated-in-fortenberry-scandal/?fbclid=IwAR0c823TxfVKfJzIxgtwO40Lg2vsvPFWzn8LcWta4g44m0X6Yk6WUxDdg9Q

[LFC]

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Griftville), unconvicted arsonist and insurance fraudster? Say it ain't so!

[LFC]

The entire Republican Party is brimming with sphincters. This is the party that the Christianists have hitched their wagon to because of their "morality." And they wonder why young people are walking away from organized religion in droves.

The dozens of accusations of sexual assault and harassment levied against Donald Trump over the years are inseparable from his political identity. But Trump has also endorsed several candidates for office who have been accused by those who know them of domestic violence, threatening behavior or sexual harassment.

Trump’s world is chock full of these types of figures: In 2018, then-White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter was accused of domestic abuse by two ex-wives. Porter denied the allegations, and the President wished him well on his way out the door. (Porter wasn’t the only White House staffer to resign over abuse allegations.)

Steve Bannon, once Trump’s campaign chief and then a White House counselor, was once accused of pulling his then-wife’s neck and wrist during an argument, and then of grabbing the phone from her and throwing it across the room as she called 911. Bannon pleaded not guilty and the case against him was ultimately dismissed.

And, of course, there was Roy Moore, the Senate candidate accused of sexual predation of teenagers who Trump supported well after those allegations were reported publicly. “Forty years is a long time,” Trump said of the time between the alleged misconduct and Moore’s Senate candidacy.

After his presidency, Trump has continued to endorse and stand by political figures accused of abuse and harassment, including those in the middle of competitive primary races where he has the option of supporting other candidates.

Read on for details on 5 of them running for office.

[LFC]

And this is what happens when you grant blocks of money to the states, particularly the red states. The se;f-dealing political corruption at the costs to those who should have received the benefit stinks to high heaven.

Iowa’s governor used federal COVID relief funds to pay her own staff’s salaries and cover a pre-existing budget shortfall, the state’s auditor said in a report released Monday.

The report accused Gov. Kim Reynolds’ (R) office of using nearly $450,000 from the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund — part of the CARES Act meant to help local governments deal with COVID — to pay the salaries and benefits of 21 staffers from mid-March through June 2020.

Though the money was used to pay staff in the governor’s office, it was taken from the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management’s COVID response funds — even though the staffers paid with the money didn’t qualify for the COVID money, state auditor Rob Sand found. The blog Bleeding Heartland first reported the payments in September.

A spokesperson for Reynolds told auditors that during the time period in question, the governor’s office was focused on COVID response — but, “Documentation to support this conclusion was never provided,” the report noted. Reynolds’ office also has not provided documentation describing how the money was allocated, nor anything describing the time each staffer spent on COVID, the report said.

Reynolds spokesperson Alex Murphy did not immediately return TPM’s request for comment, but he told The Associated Press in a statement that “During this time, the Governor’s staff spent a vast majority of their time responding to the pandemic. In fact, many members of Gov. Reynolds’ staff worked seven days a week out of the State Emergency Operation Center to provide direct support to Iowans.”

“This has always been our justification for the expense,” the statement added. “We are now working with Treasury to provide them documentation, per their request.”

What’s more, the audit report noted, budget documents from the state Homeland Security and Emergency Management office show that the nearly $450,000 paid in salaries for Reynolds’ staffers “represents a budget shortfall and an overspending of the Governor’s appropriation.”

“What is not clear, is why these salaries were not included in the Governor’s budget set prior to the fiscal year and prior to the Pandemic,” the report said. “Based on this information, we conclude that the budget shortfall was not a result of the Pandemic.”

In other words, the report concluded, “it appears more likely the CARES funds were used to cover a budget shortfall that was not a result of the pandemic.”

[andydp]

What do you know ? Gaetz is at it again.  (As if he ever stopped.)

Matt Gaetz said his office is open to hiring Kyle Rittenhouse as a congressional intern if he's 'interested in helping the country in additional ways'  ***

Florida congressman Matt Gaetz said he thought Kyle Rittenhouse would make a good congressional intern and said he may contact him to make the job offer happen if he's "interested."

"He deserves a not guilty verdict, and I sure hope he gets it because you know what, Kyle Rittenhouse would probably make a pretty good congressional intern," Gaetz said. "We may reach out to him and see if he'd be interested in helping the country in additional ways."


www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/matt-gaetz-said-his-office-is-open-to-hiring-kyle-rittenhouse-as-a-congressional-intern-if-he-s-interested-in-helping-the-country-in-additional-ways/ar-AAQQ6I3?ocid=msedgntp

*** A fully automatic AK 47 would be right up his allley

[pnwguy]

Nov 18, 2021 14:24:51 GMT andydp said:

What do you know ? Gaetz is at it again.  (As if he ever stopped.)

Matt Gaetz said his office is open to hiring Kyle Rittenhouse as a congressional intern if he's 'interested in helping the country in additional ways'  ***

*** A fully automatic AK 47 would be right up his allley

Maybe Kyle could work on a night vision rifle scope that would discriminate targets by melanin level

[LFC]

Nov 18, 2021 15:36:41 GMT pnwguy said:

Maybe Kyle could work on a night vision rifle scope that would discriminate targets by melanin level

No need for those people to get a scope to take over what they've trained all their lives to do.

[pnwguy]

Nov 18, 2021 15:43:33 GMT LFC said:

Nov 18, 2021 15:36:41 GMT pnwguy said:

Maybe Kyle could work on a night vision rifle scope that would discriminate targets by melanin level

No need for those people to get a scope to take over what they've trained all their lives to do.

I'm thinking an advanced version could suddenly do face recognition of any white people, run a check of their social media, and then give a warning if the potential target is True Patriot.  We don't want friendly-fire accidents.  

[LFC]

Nov 18, 2021 15:48:08 GMT pnwguy said:

I'm thinking an advanced version could suddenly do face recognition of any white people, run a check of their social media, and then give a warning if the potential target is True Patriot.  We don't want friendly-fire accidents.  

Be sure to add in the summer / sunny winter vacation tanning filter as well.

[goldenvalley]

The dear boy shot white people.  There should be a special category for people like him...wanna be good guys who think that brandishing a weapon will be enough to make targets cower away and who then put themselves into situations in which they are incapable of handling.

[pnwguy]

Nov 18, 2021 16:07:37 GMT LFC said:

Nov 18, 2021 15:48:08 GMT pnwguy said:

I'm thinking an advanced version could suddenly do face recognition of any white people, run a check of their social media, and then give a warning if the potential target is True Patriot.  We don't want friendly-fire accidents.  

Be sure to add in the summer / sunny winter vacation tanning filter as well.

If the social media scan of said white person comes back "woke", that cancels any "don't shoot" warnings.

[LFC]

Liz Cheney on perpetual sphincter Ted Cruz.

"I think that, uh, Trump broke Ted Cruz. Ted used to say he was a Constitutional conservative. But now he is like, so desperate for political approval that he will even advocate, suggest, secession. And I think that a real man would be defending his wife, and his father, and the Constitution."

Ouch. If Ted had any manliness that would sting.

[pnwguy]

Nov 18, 2021 18:59:30 GMT LFC said:

Liz Cheney on perpetual sphincter Ted Cruz.

"I think that, uh, Trump broke Ted Cruz. Ted used to say he was a Constitutional conservative. But now he is like, so desperate for political approval that he will even advocate, suggest, secession. And I think that a real man would be defending his wife, and his father, and the Constitution."

Ouch. If Ted had any manliness that would sting.

Dumpster has made almost the complete GOP office holders into empty scrotum zombies.  Only Liz and Kinzinger seem to have a pair.

[goldenvalley]

Nov 18, 2021 18:59:30 GMT LFC said:

Liz Cheney on perpetual sphincter Ted Cruz.

"I think that, uh, Trump broke Ted Cruz. Ted used to say he was a Constitutional conservative. But now he is like, so desperate for political approval that he will even advocate, suggest, secession. And I think that a real man would be defending his wife, and his father, and the Constitution."

Ouch. If Ted had any manliness that would sting.

For all my concern about feeding the trolls...Liz Cheney that was excellent!  I agree with her on very little but her responses to the Trump suckers are spot on.

[pnwguy]

Nov 18, 2021 20:27:14 GMT goldenvalley said:

Nov 18, 2021 18:59:30 GMT LFC said:

Liz Cheney on perpetual sphincter Ted Cruz.

Ouch. If Ted had any manliness that would sting.

For all my concern about feeding the trolls...Liz Cheney that was excellent!  I agree with her on very little but her responses to the Trump suckers are spot on.

If there is an afterlife where one gets to watch things back on earth, I imagine John McCain must be blowing his stack every day and wishing he could take a flame thrower to his former Republican colleagues.  This seems like worse torture than being stuck in the Hanoi Hilton.

[LFC]

Nice coverage of Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA). He sound like a pasty, flabby, male version of Kyrsten Sinema and by that I mean a rank political opportunist of the lowest order with no scruples or principles outside of retaining their cushy job.

Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy has behaved in ways as abhorrent as many of his colleagues but mostly failed to make it into primetime, overshadowed by the likes of Ted Cruz waging jihad on Big Bird and calling on Texas to secede from the union and Lindsey Graham repeatedly climbing into Donald Trump’s lap and golf cart to beg forgiveness.

That changed last week when Kennedy took his aw-shucks-country-boy-in-a-rumpled-suit shtick too far. The setting was a Banking Committee hearing to consider the qualifications of Saule Omarova to become the next Comptroller of the Currency, as one of the few Biden nominees to escape Cruz’s blanket hold on all nominees. Kennedy didn’t focus on the plans of the Cornell law professor who served in President George W. Bush’s Treasury Department to regulate the country’s largest banks and the Wild West of cryptocurrency before it gets too big to fail. Instead, he held a show trial of a citizen of the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, letting fly zingers like, “I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade.”

Kennedy often plays his party’s designated hitter, playing a cut-rate Joe McCarthy while trotting out his commonsense and Christian values supposedly lacking in the hoity-toity book-learners in the other party. He hyper-articulated the name of the youth group Omarova belonged to—“the Leninist Communist Young Union of the Russian Federation”—and demanded a letter of resignation even after she explained that membership was compulsory and ended automatically when you aged out.

Omarova is an interesting nominee: an immigrant, a woman, a member of an ethnic minority, and easy prey for a conservative Republican. What’s just as interesting is who Kennedy is—not one of those Kennedys, but one of the biggest phonies in a Senate that has its fair share of them.

For starters, Kennedy’s probably been in Russia more recently than Omarova, one of six GOP senators traveling there the week of July 4, 2018, to be wined and dined by Vladimir Putin. But doubting the loyalty of others is Kennedy’s default charge. As the climate change summit in Glasgow was drawing to a close, she Senator explained that his party would have been more involved if the U.S. envoy to the talks weren’t John Kerry, a “woke Trotskyite.”

It gives Kennedy no pause that before he was against the purported Trotskyite, he was for him, endorsing Kerry in his 2004 run for president over George W. Bush. Kennedy was a Democrat back then, working for a Democratic governor, until he lost his first two races for the Senate.

Tired of losing, the Vanderbilt graduate, Oxford scholar, and editor of the law review at the University of Virginia, dusted himself with some hayseed, switched parties, and ran in 2016 for the seat left open by incumbent David Vitter, whose admission that he “failed” his family but had found “forgiveness and love” wasn’t enough to overcome his inclusion in the D.C. Madam’s phone book.

Kennedy’s been corn-poning with impunity ever since, complaining of Biden that, “It may be that the President has put in charge of his immigration policy a bunch of pink-haired wokers who don’t know their ass from their elbow. I use ass in the King James Bible sense… It may be that the President has put in charge of his immigration people who are bilingual—they speak English and stupid.”

I love the descriptive phrases "dusted himself with some hayseed" and "been corn-poning with impunity."

[goldenvalley]

Nov 23, 2021 20:20:19 GMT LFC said:

Nice coverage of Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA). He sound like a pasty, flabby, male version of Kyrsten Sinema and by that I mean a rank political opportunist of the lowest order with no scruples or principles outside of retaining their cushy job.

I love the descriptive phrases "dusted himself with some hayseed" and "been corn-poning with impunity."

This reminds me of reports on Bush, the Younger.  He was more articulate when running for Texas governor than he was when running for US president according to some people.   I was never sure where he fell on the intelligence scale.  Like Trump, I think he was doing a lot of compensation to accommodate childhood issues. 

[LFC]

Rand Paul makes a move for the Louis Gohmert Dumbest Member of Congress Award. It's also an admission that he doesn't believe in democracy.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Monday accused Democrats of stealing elections by using completely legal methods of registering and convincing potential Democratic voters to support them.

Writing on Twitter, Paul linked to an article published by the conservative Washington Examiner that detailed how Democrats flipped Wisconsin back to their side in the 2020 presidential election after narrowly losing it to former President Donald Trump in 2016.

"How to steal an election," Paul commented, before quoting from the article that Democrats' plans involved "seeding an area heavy with potential Democratic votes with as many absentee ballots as possible, targeting and convincing potential voters to complete them in a legally valid way, and then harvesting and counting the results."

Paul's complaints about Democrats using legally valid methods to win elections drew immediate hackles from some of his Twitter followers.

"Convincing potential voters to cast legal ballots is the how you win elections in a democracy," commented CNN reporter John Harwood.

"They really believe it's a scandal to help legal voters who might oppose them to participate in democracy," wrote Georgetown University political scientist Donald Moynihan.

"This is what we call— wait for it— voting," replied Georgia State Law professor Anthony Michael Kreis.

[goldenvalley]

Dec 28, 2021 17:23:30 GMT LFC said:

Rand Paul makes a move for the Louis Gohmert Dumbest Member of Congress Award. It's also an admission that he doesn't believe in democracy.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Monday accused Democrats of stealing elections by using completely legal methods of registering and convincing potential Democratic voters to support them.

Writing on Twitter, Paul linked to an article published by the conservative Washington Examiner that detailed how Democrats flipped Wisconsin back to their side in the 2020 presidential election after narrowly losing it to former President Donald Trump in 2016.

"How to steal an election," Paul commented, before quoting from the article that Democrats' plans involved "seeding an area heavy with potential Democratic votes with as many absentee ballots as possible, targeting and convincing potential voters to complete them in a legally valid way, and then harvesting and counting the results."

Paul's complaints about Democrats using legally valid methods to win elections drew immediate hackles from some of his Twitter followers.

"Convincing potential voters to cast legal ballots is the how you win elections in a democracy," commented CNN reporter John Harwood.

"They really believe it's a scandal to help legal voters who might oppose them to participate in democracy," wrote Georgetown University political scientist Donald Moynihan.

"This is what we call— wait for it— voting," replied Georgia State Law professor Anthony Michael Kreis.

This gets to the nub of what folks like Paul believe.  Putting a ballot in the hands of a voter is a bad thing.  It might get cast for the wrong candidates.

[pnwguy]

Apr 8, 2021 14:37:50 GMT LFC said:

So he didn't blame her, didn't blame the librul media, and didn't wail about his "disease" and how he's now facing it with the help of God(tm)? He just lied about it and falsely accused the woman involved of harassment? That's actually quite the step up for a Republican.

That makes him a RINO in Trumpist eyes.  Admit NOTHING.  Never accept blame.  He's weak and not capable of leadership.

[LFC]

IOKIYAR to the max! Morality is for the other side.

Gotta Stay Folksy, Folks
Even with multiple criminal charges hanging over his head, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) announced on Monday that he’s running for another term.

• The GOP lawmaker announced this while sitting in the same pickup truck where he had filmed himself in October announcing his impending indictment.

• Fortenberry’s charges include lying to the FBI about his alleged ties to a foreign campaign contribution scheme.

• He’s pleaded not guilty and is set to appear at a hearing today.

[LFC]

Matt Gaetz's high school sweetheart, a.k.a. the 17-yr old girl he was "dating" just a few years ago, appeared before a grand jury.

The federal probe into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who is reportedly being investigated to determine whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, has reached a key development, according to two new reports.

Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend, who was reportedly dating the congressman during the time period when the relationship may have occurred, appeared in front of a federal grand jury at the George C. Young Federal Annex Courthouse in Orlando, Florida on Wednesday, according to NBC News.

CNN confirmed shortly after NBC’s report dropped that the former girlfriend was seen entering the courthouse with her lawyer. CNN had previously reported in May that the ex-girlfriend — who news outlets have not publicly identified for privacy reasons — had agreed to cooperate with investigators.