"Sphincter Politicians on Parade”

[LFC]

How effortlessly they turn on law enforcement, and then use their hatred of authority to raise money.

[goldenvalley]

Aug 10, 2022 15:10:39 GMT LFC said:

How effortlessly they turn on law enforcement, and then use their hatred of authority to raise money.

I just wish she and her ilk would be more original.  "Defund a law enforcement agency" has already been taken. And yet people will buy this made in China crap and she'll have more money.

[andydp]

Sen Paul is about to get "gold" status for stupid statements.

It would seem Sen Paul is not familiar with the "ex post facto" provision in the US Constitution. Simply put: you can't change the law after a crime is committed to either make it a crime or not make it a crime. ***

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul wants Espionage Act repealed

WASHINGTON - Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Saturday called for the end of the Espionage Act, less than a week after the FBI's search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home.

"The espionage act was abused from the beginning to jail dissenters of WWI. It is long pastime to repeal this egregious affront to the 1st Amendment," he wrote on Twitter.


news.yahoo.com/kentucky-sen-rand-paul-wants-142201281.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=fb&tsrc=fb

*** Only applies if alleged perpetrator is GOP.   

[LFC]

This made me smile. Poor Madison wasn't even good at grift.

After losing his primary in May, Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) now officially identifies himself as a self-employed investor. But if his political investments are any measure, he might consider a new line of work—he’s now down more than half a million dollars.

A pair of unusual campaign finance reports this week reveal that since 2019, Cawthorn has personally invested a total of $817,000 into his campaign, while recovering only $261,000 of that amount.

That leaves him personally in the hole $556,000, more than three times the annual congressional salary of $174,000.

The new campaign reports also punctuate a remarkable financial collapse that had been playing out in parallel to Cawthorn’s not-so-slow motion political implosion over the first half of the year.

In all, the Cawthorn campaign raised almost $4.5 million for his failed 2022 re-election bid. It blew through more than $4.9 million along the way. The grand totals for 2020 and 2022 combined: $9.2 million in, $9.55 million out.

As of June 30, the campaign had $1,504 in the bank.

The spending spree caught up to the campaign at the worst possible time: right when the primary election hit. Campaign finance law experts told The Daily Beast that the Cawthorn operation appears to have overdrawn more than $200,000 in the weeks after the primary, which Cawthorn backfilled at the end of June with a single personal contribution.

While the campaign was scrambling to make its primary election obligations, it had also tapped donor money for the general election, which it wasn’t legally allowed to touch, as The Daily Beast previously reported.

Saurav Ghosh, director of federal reform at watchdog group Campaign Legal Center, said the situation “could accurately be described as a ‘Dumpster fire.’”

“Madison Cawthorn put himself in campaign finance hot water when he dipped into the general election funds, and it looks like what he did at the end of the reporting period is use his own funds to bail out his campaign,” Ghosh told The Daily Beast.

[LFC]

Oh, look! Another Republican hypocrite pulling a Paul Ryan! Gov't aid is only bad after they've cashed in themselves.

Monica De La Cruz, a firebrand Republican running in a fiercely competitive South Texas race, received thousands of dollars for personal business interests from federal COVID relief programs despite disparaging federal assistance programs as harmful to the U.S. economy.

She’s the latest to join the growing list of Republican candidates and members of Congress who have recently come under fire for touting the benefits of Democratic or bipartisan legislation that they had disparaged and voted against. De La Cruz told The Texas Tribune she has always supported the kinds of assistance programs her businesses benefited from, but she vocally opposed major legislation that would have expanded them, saying they included wasteful spending items.

De La Cruz reported herself in disclosure forms as president of JSM De La Cruz Holdings, which generated for her rental income in the $100,001 to $1 million bracket in 2020. The firm received a $1,000 Economic Injury Disaster grant in May 2020 as well as a $39,000 loan,

De La Cruz also co-owned Navi Business Group with her then-husband, reporting $36,000 in spousal income in 2020. The firm received $4,000 in an Economic Injury Disaster Grant in April 2020 and a $98,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan in May of that year. De La Cruz and her husband have since separated in a bitter divorce involving allegations against her of abusive behavior toward his daughter. De La Cruz rejected the allegations.

Two years later during a January candidate forum, De La Cruz blasted President Joe Biden’s pandemic relief package, the American Rescue Plan, as causing “higher prices” and the “destruction of small businesses.” The American Rescue Plan Act appropriated $15 billion toward the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.

Another of De La Cruz’s businesses, DLC Insurance, was approved for a $38,552 Paycheck Protection Program loan back on April 29, 2020, intended to support five jobs at the firm. But the firm was ultimately shuttered during the pandemic, according to a March report from NBC News. De La Cruz, who listed her title as president of the company on disclosure forms, reported making $44,600 in income from DLC Insurance that year. The PPP loan was forgiven, including interest.

Calls by The Texas Tribune to a number listed with her insurance agency went unanswered.

[LFC]

Look, a twofer of Republican shitbags!

The Justice Department announced Tuesday that former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada (R) and Cade Cothren, his chief of staff, were indicted on federal bribery and kickback charges. Casada and Cothren were arrested at their homes by FBI agents on Tuesday morning.

Both face charges alleging money laundering and bribery; theft from programs receiving federal funds; bribery and kickbacks concerning programs receiving federal funds; honest services wire fraud; and conspiracy to commit money laundering, the DOJ said.

If Casada and Cothren sound like familiar characters, it’s because TPM covered the dynamic duo and their various scandals — involving racist text messages and efforts to get an activist jailed — back in 2019.

The 20-count indictment against the two Republican also alleges Casada and Cothren used a fictitious name to commit fraud, eight counts of money laundering, and two counts of bribery and kickbacks.

Prosecutors allege that Casada and Cothren conspired with another former state lawmaker to carry out a fraudulent scheme. According to the DOJ, the three exploited their official positions as legislators at the time to get state approval for their sketchy company, Phoenix Solutions, to be used as constituent mail services vendor for members of the Tennessee General Assembly.

Prosecutors also alleged that Casada and Cothren told members of the Tennessee General Assembly that Phoenix Solutions was run by an individual named “Matthew Phoenix,” whom they allegedly claimed was a political consultant with experience in working for a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm. However, prosecutors found that “Matthew Phoenix” was a fictitious person, and that Cothren actually operated Phoenix Solutions.

Casada, Cothren and the other conspirator — since-resigned GOP state Rep. Robin Smith — allegedly secretly profited from the fraudulent scheme. They allegedly submitted fraudulent invoices in the names of political consulting companies owned by Casada and the other conspirator to funnel money from the state to Phoenix Solutions.

[LFC]

A sphincter politician (Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant) and a sphincter football star (Brett Favre) colluded to steal government block grant money for the poor to build a volleyball center with it at the University of Southern Mississippi. Any of you care to guess which college Brett's daughter attends and what sport she plays there? Take your time.

Text messages entered Monday into the state’s ongoing civil lawsuit over the welfare scandal reveal that former Gov. Phil Bryant pushed to make NFL legend Brett Favre’s volleyball idea a reality.

The texts show that the then-governor even guided Favre on how to write a funding proposal so that it could be accepted by the Mississippi Department of Human Services – even after Bryant ousted the former welfare agency director John Davis for suspected fraud.

“Just left Brett Favre,” Bryant texted nonprofit founder Nancy New in July of 2019, within weeks of Davis’ departure. “Can we help him with his project. We should meet soon to see how I can make sure we keep your projects on course.”

When Favre asked Bryant how the new agency director might affect their plans to fund the volleyball stadium, Bryant assured him, “I will handle that… long story but had to make a change. But I will call Nancy and see what it will take,” according to the filing and a text Favre forwarded to New.

The newly released texts, filed Monday by an attorney representing Nancy New’s nonprofit, show that Bryant, Favre, New, Davis and others worked together to channel at least $5 million of the state’s welfare funds to build a new volleyball stadium at University of Southern Mississippi, where Favre’s daughter played the sport. Favre received most of the credit for raising funds to construct the facility.

Bryant has for years denied any close involvement in the steering of welfare funds to the volleyball stadium, though plans for the project even included naming the building after him, one text shows.

New, a friend of Bryant’s wife Deborah, ran a nonprofit that was in charge of spending tens of millions of flexible federal welfare dollars outside of public view. What followed was the biggest public fraud case in state history, according to the state auditor’s office. Nonprofit leaders had misspent at least $77 million in funds that were supposed to help the needy, forensic auditors found.

[LFC]

Gym Jordan, Patron Protector of Perverts, may be in court again soon. Yes, he would likely end up being called to testify under oath, something that he clearly avoids like the plague on a variety of subjects.

A federal appeals court ruling Wednesday revives unsettled lawsuits against Ohio State University over decades-old sexual abuse by the late team doctor Richard Strauss.

A district judge in Columbus had dismissed most of the unsettled cases, acknowledging that hundreds of young men were abused but agreeing with the university’s argument that the legal time limit for the claims had long passed. The plaintiffs argued that the clock didn’t start until the allegations came to light in 2018, and that their cases should be allowed to continue.

Two of the three judges on the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel that heard the case concluded in Wednesday's ruling that the men “plausibly allege a decades-long cover up” and “adequately allege that they did not know and could not reasonably have known that Ohio State injured them until 2018.”

“Ohio State is a vast institution, and the plaintiffs’ allegations underscore how difficult it is for a student to know what appropriate persons within the Ohio State administration knew” about abuse allegations, Judge Karen Nelson Moore wrote in the decision.

Lead plaintiff Steve Snyder-Hill said it's a huge ruling for the survivors, who believe it could influence other sexual misconduct cases at universities.

“Our lawyer argued that if OSU had gotten away with what they were trying to do here, with getting this motion thrown out on the statute of limitations, then they would have paved the way and given a playbook for all these other universities to do the same thing that they've done, and I'm glad that this court saw through it and didn't let it happen,” Snyder-Hill said.

Here's a quick flashback of how this sniveling, cowardly little shit behaved before. He's a waste of human skin.

Adam DiSabato, a former Ohio State University wrestling team captain, said during a State House bill hearing Tuesday that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) called him “crying,” begging him to deny that Jordan and other team officials were aware that open-shower team facilities facilitated sexual assault. DiSabato told members of the House Civil Justice Committee that Jordan called him repeatedly in 2018 after his brother, Michael DiSabato, publicly claimed that the sexual abuse of late team doctor Richard Strauss was common knowledge to those in the wrestling program, including Jordan. “Jim Jordan called me crying, groveling… begging me to go against my brother…That’s the kind of cover-up that’s going on there,” said DiSabato, who is among the former university wrestlers who have sued the school alleging it ignored Strauss’ abuse. Jordan was an assistant coach for the OSU wrestling team from 1987 to 1995 and has consistently denied claims that he knew about the sexual misconduct at university facilities.

Jordan’s spokesman Ian Fury called DiSabato’s testimony “another lie.” DiSabato was appearing on Tuesday as a witness for hearings on a bill that would allow the doctor’s victims to sue OSU for damages by waiving the statute of limitations for the case. A university investigation released last May found that Strauss abused at least 177 young men between 1979 and 1998. He was never charged and killed himself in 2005. Jordan, a ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, is a fierce defender and ally of President Trump.

Seems like Gym has accused a loooootttt of other people of lying.

[LFC]

MTG just kicked an 18-year old woman who questioning her. The sickness knows no bounds.

Several videos circulating social media appear to show far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) getting rough with a young activist who confronted her about gun violence on Thursday.

The incident happened as members of Voters of Tomorrow, a Gen Z advocacy group, were following Greene on a sidewalk near the Capitol and asking the GOP lawmaker, a militant gun control opponent, what she would do to stop gun violence, especially school shootings.

18-year-old Marianna Pecora, the deputy communications director of Voters of Tomorrow, commented to Greene: “You’re not voting for gun violence prevention.”

The Republican said she was “voting for it” by “supporting the Second Amendment.”

“How does the Second Amendment prevent gun violence?” Pecora asked as she shifted over to walk in front of Greene, seemingly without obstructing the congresswoman’s path.

That’s when Greene appeared to kick the activist’s leg from behind, then kick again while saying, “Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me.”

That moment was captured in a video that, bizarrely enough, Greene tweeted herself Thursday evening in a post bashing Pecora and Voters of Tomorrow Executive Director Santiago Mayer, the other activist who was there, as “foolish cowards.”

[pnwguy]

Sept 16, 2022 19:09:58 GMT LFC said:

MTG just kicked an 18-year old woman who questioning her. The sickness knows no bounds.

She can quick raise another 50 million if she pistol whips a 75 year old lesbian.  She just needs to video it and post it online!

[LFC]

Sort of a politician whining about facing the consequences of his own actions. So sad. Too bad. Go f*** yourself.

[LFC]

Please let this be true and let it lead to prosecutions of the guilty.

[LFC]

Gaetz was clearly scared spitless back when Trump was still in office.

Gaetz Wanted Pardon For Sex Trafficking Probe

Senior Trump White House aide Johnny McEntee told the House Jan. 6 Committee during his testimony what Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) wanted Trump (aka “the boss”) to wipe away with a preemptive blanket pardon: whatever would come out of the federal sex trafficking investigation into the congressman, according to the Washington Post.

• Gaetz told McEntee he had relayed his pardon request to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, McEntee reportedly testified.

• Gaetz had been aggressively pushing for a pardon that was “as broad as you could describe” since early December 2020, ex-Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson and ex-White House lawyer Eric Herschmann told the Jan. 6 panel.

[LFC]

Sept 14, 2022 18:34:59 GMT LFC said:

A sphincter politician (Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant) and a sphincter football star (Brett Favre) colluded to steal government block grant money for the poor to build a volleyball center with it at the University of Southern Mississippi. Any of you care to guess which college Brett's daughter attends and what sport she plays there? Take your time.

Favre proves himself to be a real piece of work by playing the God(tm) card to the hilt. What a piece of shit. I couldn't bear to watch the video.

[LFC]

Welcome to Texass, where their attorney general fled his own home to avoid a subpoena.

Cue The Benny Hill Theme Music

A newly filed affidavit describes how Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and his wife fled their home in a truck on Monday morning when a process server tried to serve the attorney general a subpoena in a lawsuit by nonprofits working to help Texans receive out-of-state abortion care.

Here’s how part of the scene played out, according to the process server in the affidavit:

“I walked up the driveway approaching Mr. Paxton and called him by his name. As soon as he saw me and heard me call his name out, he turned around and RAN back inside the house through the same door in the garage.”

• The process server said he put the documents near the truck on the ground, only for Paxton to drive away–but not before the process server told the official he was being served.

• Paxton claimed later via Twitter that he ran away out of “concern about the safety and well-being of my family.”

OK, so now that you know your family is safe did you schedule an appointment for the process server? I'm going to place my bet on "no."

[LFC]

So MTG's husband filed for divorce. The comments have been brutal.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, who stalked Parkland shooting survivors, would like the media to respect her privacy during this difficult time.

If they can’t make it who can??

Is she on that new MAGA dating app yet?

And this one is the winner so far for me.

Please tell be Lauren Boebert's bowling ally flasher marriage is still solid, I need to believe in love.

Apparently the youngest kid just turned 18 which could be the reason for the timing. If he stuck it out that long for his children then kudos to him.

[LFC]

Raise your hand if you're surprised. Anybody? It's always "different" when it's their state, just like we saw relatively recently in Texass and Kentucky.

All eyes are on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as he attempts to lead his home state out of the "catastrophic" storm that is Hurricane Ian this week. But as the governor looks to the federal government for additional aid, his critics drew comparisons between DeSantis' requests to the Biden administration and his previous voting records on disaster relief.

"Just a reminder to New York...Marco Rubio and Ron DeSantis (who was in Congress at the time) voted against aid for Hurricane Sandy," New York State Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou tweeted on Wednesday. "But because we are New York, we care about everyone. Even when they don't care about us. ❤️"

"Just a reminder that, when he was in Congress and Sandy had devastated the tristate, Ron DeSantis voted against Federal aid. (Not suggesting Dems should now do [the] same. Just pointing out he's always been a heartless little s--t.)," author Stephen Whitty wrote on Twitter.

[LFC]

Being lectured on morality by Newt Gingrich is like being lectured on business ethics by Donald Trump.

Morality Authority Speaks

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) is desperately sticking to the GOP’s extremely weird new line of attack claiming that Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial nominee John Fetterman has gang ties, though Gingrich has an added a special twist: Heroin.

• Gingrich zeroed in on Fetterman’s “I Will Make You Hurt” tattoo on Fox last night, which the Republican claimed was “either a reference to a song in favor of heroin use” or “was a tribute to the Crips, which was a Los Angeles-based, very violent gang.”

• “These people verge on being sick,” said Gingrich, who divorced his first wife as she was being treated for cancer.

Reality alert: Fetterman’s tattoo is a reference to “Hurt,” a well-known song by Nine Inch Nails that has literally nothing to do with the Crips.

[AnBr]

“Hurt” was also Johnny Cash's swan song.

[andydp]

Starting to get monotonous.

Matt Gaetz is asking the government to fund Hurricane Ian disaster relief in Florida days after he voted against FEMA aid

In a tweet on Sunday, Matt Gaetz asked Congress to send financial aid to Florida.  Gaetz said he was asking for help "on behalf of my fellow Florida Man in grave need of assistance."  Gaetz was among the 201 Republicans who voted no to a bill that carved out cash for FEMA.

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz is calling for the US to send aid to Floridians in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian — but he also voted "no" to a bill that carved out cash for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to do just that.

In a tweet on Sunday, Gaetz appealed for help after Hurricane Ian battered Florida. Ian was a Category 4 storm when it made landfall and pummeled the Florida coast, killing at least 76 people.

www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/matt-gaetz-is-asking-the-government-to-fund-hurricane-ian-disaster-relief-in-florida-days-after-he-voted-against-fema-aid/ar-AA12vWJT

[LFC]

MTG's hubby doesn't seem interested in parting amicably and silently.

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s husband, Perry Greene, has moved to withdraw a motion seeking to seal documents in their ongoing divorce case, meaning the matter could remain public. “Petitioner Perry Greene, by and through his undersigned counsel and hereby files this Withdraw of Motion to File Under Seal in Civil Action,” reads a court filing summited Monday afternoon and obtained by The Daily Beast. The law firm representing the Greene family, Harris Divorce Law, told The Daily Beast, when asked about the filing, “It’s really funny because it’s none of your business.” A Greene spokesperson didn’t return a request for comment. As for what it all could mean, celebrity divorce lawyer Peter Walzer speculated in an interview with The Daily Beast that lawyers could be telling Perry Greene he’s fighting an uphill battle in sealing the matter or that he might get a “better deal by making it public.” “Being cynical and being a divorce layer I would say, he wants to get a better deal by saying, ‘Hey if you don’t do it my way, I will go to court and everybody will know about our private lives,’” Walzer added.

[LFC]

Sept 14, 2022 18:34:59 GMT LFC said:

A sphincter politician (Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant) and a sphincter football star (Brett Favre) colluded to steal government block grant money for the poor to build a volleyball center with it at the University of Southern Mississippi. Any of you care to guess which college Brett's daughter attends and what sport she plays there? Take your time.

The criminal probe of these dirtbags continues.

Former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has again been subpoenaed amid an ongoing civil suit in a multimillion-dollar welfare fraud scandal, and this time attorneys want to see communications between the ex-governor and former NFL and Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre.

Attorneys for one of the defendants in the state of Mississippi’s suit issued the subpoena Friday, asking for several years’ worth of additional documents and communications between Bryant and Favre, as well as others connected to the case that auditors say resulted in at least $77 million in federal welfare dollars being misspent.

[LFC]

America's right-wing really is just filled to the brim with perverts.

A Republican candidate for the Maricopa County Community College Governing Board in Arizona was arrested in early October after he was allegedly caught masturbating in his truck near a child care center.

A report by the Maricopa County Community College Police stated that Randy Kaufman, who announced on Tuesday that he was suspending his campaign, was cited for public sexual indecency on Oct. 4.

According to the report, Kaufman was allegedly caught when an officer noticed that the way the truck was parked in the parking lot of Rio Salado Community College Lifelong Learning Center “seemed unusual” (it was allegedly positioned across three spaces), and he approached the vehicle to investigate.

The officer saw Kaufman “had his pants down mid-thigh and was exposed showing his fully erect nude penis,” the report stated.

The Wirtzels Preschool and Child Care Center was allegedly nearby, and the officer stated in the report that he saw several preschool-age kids outside in the playground.

The candidate, who allegedly admitted he was watching porn on his phone, said he “didn’t notice” the child center until the officer confronted him, per the report.

“I fucked up,” Kaufman allegedly lamented.

Asked why he would do this, Kaufman allegedly replied: “I’m just really stressed out. I have a lot of things going on.”

At one point, Kaufman, who had previously been endorsed by the Maricopa County Colleges Police Officers Association, name-dropped the association’s president, Jim Hill, in his conversation with the cop, the police report said.

“Can I say something off the record?” Kaufman allegedly asked.

“Ok. You can, go ahead and tell me,” the officer replied, according to the record.

“I know Officer Jim Hill; he works with you guys … and … I’m running for the Governing Board for the colleges,” Kaufman allegedly said.

Like many Republican candidates, Kaufman has previously painted Democrats as child predators during his campaign: According to HuffPost, he declared in a Facebook post in May that he wanted “our children protected [from] the progressive left.”

And theeeeere's the projection.

[pnwguy]

So of course since he was running as a Republican, he’ll get elected.

"Those Democrats are all pedophile groomers! Got to vote to Make America Great Again and defeat Satan"

[goldenvalley]

Oct 21, 2022 15:49:17 GMT pnwguy said:

So of course since he was running as a Republican, he’ll get elected.

"Those Democrats are all pedophile groomers! Got to vote to Make America Great Again and defeat Satan"

Has he said yet that he had a problem but is repenting?  That seems to be a magical statement for some that transforms a sinner into someone who is electable.