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Thursday, January 23, 2025

Ari breaks it down while Marco Rubio gets Idiot of the Week

First up, important video that you need to see.

Please share that video. It's important.

I am so sick right now of the Rashida Tlaib freaks. I go through BLUESKY and just block them when they show up on my home page. I don't need your lies defending her. I'm fine with ignoring her. But if you're bringing her up, I'm blocking you. You're a lying piece of garbage defending a supposed Democrat who stabbed the party in the back. She needs to publicly flip over to Trump since that is who she worked to get in the White House. She's a f**king p.o.s. who betrayed the party, betrayed democracy, betrayed the country. And you freaks need to understand that I'm not out here alone with that opinion. It is the popular opinion and it's only going to strengthen over the next four years.

Every death in Gaza and the broader Palestinian area after Nov 5th is on the hands of Rashida Tlaib and the Muslims in Dearborn MI. I said what I said. https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-ceasefire-west-bank-violence-c5eb8ef474446671eb56bcc53ff5ff36
— EthanObama (@ethanobama.bsky.social) January 22, 2025 at 8:11 PM

I'm sure we'll get another idiot of the week before Saturday but Marco Rubio said something so stupid we really need to signal him out now.

David Badash reports:

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio refused to comment on President Donald Trump’s pardons and commutations of more than 1500 people convicted of crimes surrounding the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, including the insurrection — despite having denounced the attack in strong terms four years ago.

In three separate interviews on Tuesday — on ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News — when presented with his comments about the 2021 attack, Rubio declared that he would not discuss domestic issues because he is now Secretary of State.

CBS News’ Gayle King told Secretary Rubio, “in February 2021, even you issued a statement and you said the images of the attack stirred up anger in you, the nation was embarrassed in the eyes of the world by our own citizens.”

“How do you personally reconcile those feelings with the pardons that he did yesterday?” she asked. “I understand you have work to do in the job is hard for many things, but on this particular issue, I’m curious about what you’re thinking.”

“Yeah, well, what I’m thinking is that I used to be a United States senator until midnight last night, and now I’m going about to be sworn in as the Secretary of State of the United States,” Rubio curtly replied. “And that’s what I’m thinking is I work for Donald J. Trump, the new president of United States, the 47th president who has a clear mandate to reorient our foreign policy to one that once again puts America and our interests at the center. And that’s what I’m gonna focus on. A hundred percent.”

No, you greasy, little weasel. You work for the American people. We pay your salary. You are our employee -- as is Donald Chump. Not the other way around. You assholes better get it straight. And you better do so quick.

Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports:

President Donald Trump may have signaled that he's growing tired of his so-called co-president Elon Musk, according to MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle.

The president on Tuesday announced a joint venture investing up to $500 billion for infrastructure related to artificial intelligence by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, but the CEO of one of those companies is the archenemy to Musk, who poured at least $277 million of his own money into Trump's re-election campaign and has been at his side as a key adviser since the election.

"I will make one, maybe it's a political point but it's worth pointing out, [at] the press conference yesterday, [OpenAI CEO] Sam Altman, standing behind the presidential seal with president Trump standing next to him," said CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin. "Think about that just for a moment, and the reason I say think about that, Sam Altman is Elon Musk's nemesis, and there has been a long conversation about whether we thought that Elon Musk was going to have influence over president Trump, and he was going to use his influence to thwart and hurt his enemies, and I think it was a surprise. I don't know if it's surprising or not, but I think it was remarkable, just worth remarking upon that Sam Altman and president Trump standing there next to each other. I should also mention Sam Altman spent $1 million during the inauguration, but the truth is that clearly the president, president Trump, behind this in a major way, and I think that that has a lot of folks sort of looking at this, trying to understand what it all means."

It means Chump took Elon for a ride. He rode Elon hard and put him up wet. It'll be interesting to see which one of the two tries to slit the neck of the other first -- Chump or Elon. As they say on HIGHLANDER, "There can be only one."

Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"

Wednesday, January 22, 2025. We need to be planning now on how to weaken outsiders attacks on the next Democratic Party presidential nominee, that means not letting people rewrite history, Chump is on a rampage to destroy all that's good in this country and, yes, those who helped elect him need to be held accountable.

Let's start with this.

Blue MAGA? Let's give Matt applause for at least being honest about what he is: A Socialist. And Socialists and Democrats are not the same thing. The closet cases give us a bad name because the GOP tars and feathers us all as Socialists and Communists. That's one of their tools to frighten the American people from Democrats. So I will applaud Matt for not being closeted.

His sentiment is 100% accurate for a non-Democrat.

It's not accurate in any other way.

Rashida ran as a Democrat and was elected as a Democrat and took campaign money from the Democratic Party. So those of us who are Democrats -- not Blue MAGA -- have every right to be furious that she backstabbed the party and the country.

She helped put Donald Chump into the White House and that was her goal.

She deserves the anger. As this country begins four years of hell, Rashida's earned the blame.

Again, good for Matt for being public about being Socialist. Because I really don't feel like being tarred and feathered in the next election with his views passed off as being the views of a Democrat.

Exactly. They are responsible for their actions.

And let's note again that Rashida believed Donald Chump was such a threat to this country that she twice voted to impeach him. But in 2024, when he ran for re-election, she campaigned against Kamala. That's what she did. And so, reality, she and her followers? They are the Blue MAGA.

We're the Democrats, Matt, the same Democrats you've hated your whole life. But Rashida is your type of politician because she's proven she's not really a Democrat. So you have her. I grasp where you're coming from and I understand why you feel the way you do.

And we can all see that this is a highly popular take among Socialists.

Socialist do not control the Democratic Party. They'd like to. That's why so many stay in their political closets. That's why they come up with "Justice Democrats!" and other slogans to pass Socialists off as Democrats in their attempt to take over our party.

But again, to fool people, they have to lie about who they are so they hide in political closets.

Applause for Matt for being honest about who he is.

You saw the Socialists look the other way in 2024 when Bernie ran for re-election.

He was 83 years old.

That's too damn old.

And he's not a Democrat. And he's not an "independent." He's a Socialist.

Which is why we could call it out but THE NATION, DEMOCRACY NOW, COMMON DREAMS eat al looked the other way and acted like it wasn't happening.

They rightly have noted that there are too many people in government who refuse to leave at a reasonable age. And that's where you can find Democrats and Socialists in agreement on an issue.

But when it's time to call out Saint Bernie, the Socialists look the other way. When he was calling Nelson Mandela a terrorist, they looked the other way. They blamed it on him being Jewish and they excused it with "The ADL has the same position!"

Nelson was a political prisoner and the leader of a movement.

Bernie was wrong then.

Most Black people are aware of his history. He gets to avoid it in part because he'll insist he doesn't want to do "identity politics." Sorry, Bernie, calling Nelson a terrorist is not something Black people are going to let you escape from no matter how many Socialists stooges -- especially those who blame the US government for the deaths of their parents -- looking at YOUTUBER -- to work on your campaign.

We're bring up Bernie for a reason. It's really too late for the Socialists to find their spines and call Bernie out for running for re-election to a six year term at the age of 83.

But you can certainly call out the latest news. Sophie Clark (NEWSWEEK) reports:

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has filed to run for reelection in 2030, when he would be 89 years old.

On Monday, Sanders, who has been vocal against what he sees as an oligarchy looming over the U.S. government, expressed his desire to fight back against the Trump administration and has opened the door to running for the Senate again at the end of this decade.

Now we'll all see if the majority of Socialists have backbones or not?

They've covered for or ignored Bernie's long history of racism -- which also includes his trade policies -- and last year they ignored that he was too old to run for re-election.

Now he's expressing his intent to run for re-election in 2030.

Will his Socialist fan base call him out or not? I think a number of them will stay silent and that, children, is the real Blue MAGA.

Red MAGA?

Disgraced Congress member Matt Gaetz was Convicted Felon Donald Chump's first nominee for Attorney General a few months back. That imploded. No, not because Matt's inflated looking face sprung a leak. Instead, it was because Matt has no ethics at all. Drugs, prostitutes, underage females. When a man's got an ass as fat as Matt's, they're going to land on it and Matt hopped his ample ass on over to TV. If anyone wanted to wish him well, they should avoid Adam Gabbatt's review at THE GUARDIAN:

Matt Gaetz’s brand new show on the far-right wing One America News Network began with him looking absolutely bizarre.

It was unclear who had applied the disgraced congressman’s makeup, but the combination of very light concealer around his eyes and dark foundation on the rest of his face made for an odd look, like a sort of reverse Hamburglar.

That distracting appearance proved to be the only memorable thing about his first episode. Gaetz spent 60 minutes waddling through boilerplate conservative talking points in front of a cheap-looking green-screen, all in an attempt to continue his time in the public eye.

Is there money in the program's budget for JD Vance? Miss Sassy know more than just eye liner -- remember those photos of JD in drag? And he has so much free time now that he's the Unwanted Visitor at the White House. Donald didn't even introduce JD Sunday night -- but Donald did bring Elon Musk on stage.

Pete Hegseth is Donald's drunken nominee for Secretary of the Army. As we noted in yesterday's snapshot, he's refusing to meet with Senator Patty Murray. He had agreed to meet with on January 15th but then cancelled the meeting. The senator is the Vice Chair on the Senate Appropriations Committee -- that means defense spending. A qualified nominee for Secretary of Defense would grasp the importance of building a relationship with all the members of the Senate Appropriations Committee. It goes to yet again how unqualified Hegseth is for the job. And we know his history of sexism. So if this has anything to do with that, it's worth noting the Chair of the Committee is Susan Collins. Both the chair and the vice chair are women and both were elected to the US Senate. Maybe it's hard for a basic cable TV personality to grasp that or that when he refuses to answer to those senators, he's refusing to answer to the American people? As Murray's office noted, Hegseth has said he'll catch her after his confirmation.

Pass.

She needs to meet with him to ask her questions ahead of that vote. As she's observed, "I expect every nominee to be willing to meet with Senators, regardless of their party, to answer basic questions about how they would approach their role if confirmed. Conducting these meetings is the absolute bare minimum given the role of each Senator and the constituents they represent. And should Pete Hegseth be confirmed, we have to be able to meet and communicate." Exactly.

Steve Benen (MSNBC) reports the latest on that still troubled nomination:

Even if Pete Hegseth’s personal life were that of a teetotaling and celibate monk, the former Fox News host would still be the most controversial defense secretary nominee in American history. We are, after all, talking about a man who’s been accused of financial mismanagement at the two veterans-related charities he ran. (He has denied the accusations.)

Alas, that’s just the start. President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Pentagon has also never led a large organization, has written bizarre and conspiratorial books, did not attain a high rank during his tenure in the military, and has touted highly provocative ideas related to American women serving in combat and the Geneva Conventions. After Hegseth’s recent Senate confirmation hearing, The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank added that the nominee “also appears to have no idea what he’s doing.”

But just as importantly, the former television personality has most definitely not lived the life of a teetotaling and celibate monk. On the contrary, Hegseth has faced allegations of excessive drinking and sexual misconduct, which he has repeatedly denied.

Given the traditional norms of American politics, Hegseth’s odds of confirmation would be around zero. Given the state of American politics in 2025, Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee have already voted unanimously to advance Hegseth’s nomination to the full floor for final consideration.

It’s unclear if anything could convince senators in the GOP majority to think twice ahead of the confirmation vote, but as NBC News reported, Hegseth is facing new allegations that have reached Capitol Hill in the form of an affidavit.

Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat and the Senate Armed Services Committee’s ranking member, asked Danielle Hegseth to detail what she knew of “instances of abuse, or threats of abuse, perpetrated against any other person” and “mistreatment of a spouse, former spouse, or other members of his family,” among other requests.

Reed said in a statement, “As I have said for months, the reports of Mr. Hegseth’s history of alleged sexual assault, alcohol abuse, and public misconduct necessitate an exhaustive background investigation. I have been concerned that the background check process has been inadequate, and this sworn affidavit confirms that fact.”

The Democratic senator, who voted to confirm Trump’s Pentagon nominees in the Republican’s first term, added that “the alleged pattern of abuse and misconduct by Mr. Hegseth is disturbing. This behavior would disqualify any service member from holding any leadership position in the military, much less being confirmed as the Secretary of Defense.”

NBC News’ report added that Danielle Hegseth’s affidavit described allegations “of volatile and threatening conduct by Hegseth that made his second wife, Samantha Hegseth, fear for her safety.” (She says she didn’t witness the conduct firsthand.)

He's not qualified. He has anger management issues at best. At best he can't handle stress. Do we think Secretary of Defense is not a stressful job? When he goes on a drunken bender -- he swears that, if confirmed, he'll stop drinking -- when he goes on a drunken bender as a result of being given a job he can't do, will the Senate be legally responsible? Are they opening themselves up to litigation?

Should Joni Ernst vote to confirm him, would that make the Republican senator even more liable then others since she herself was a victim of assault?

Tom Vanden Brook, Cybele Mayes-Osterman and Davis Winkie (USA TODAY) note some of the assertions made by Danielle Hegseth:

Hegseth's second wife sought refuge in a closet after Hegseth threatened her.
She was so concerned about her safety that she shared a code word with her sister-in-law to alert her when Hegseth threatened her. She texted the code word to the sister-in-law in 2015 or 2016.
The complainant witnessed Hegseth drunk on several occasions, including one Christmas when he vomited and passed out. In another instance, at a bar in 2013 in Minneapolis, Hegseth danced with drinks in both hands, broke glasses and was dragged out. On the walk home he made comments that implied he condoned non-consensual sex.
On another occasion in 2009, Hegseth was found drunk at a strip club in downtown Minneapolis in his military uniform, drunk and getting lap dances. He had to be dragged out of the club.
He disparaged Hispanic people and said Christian people needed to have more babies than Muslims to avoid being overtaken.

Meanwhile,Jennifer Bowers Bahney (RAW STORY) notes:

A Department of Defense scholar claimed that Trump nominee Pete Hegseth's objective to bring "warrior culture" back to the Pentagon is a "terrible idea."

"We need soldiers, not warriors," wrote Eliot A. Cohen in an article for The Atlantic.

Hegseth, who served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, said at his defense secretary hearing, "When President Trump chose me for this position, the primary charge he gave me was—to bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense. He, like me, wants a Pentagon laser focused on warfighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness."

In his article, Cohen gave the definition of warriors as "people who exult in killing, who prize individual courage and daring, who obsess about honor (often in self-destructive ways), who frequently take trophies from the bodies of their enemies, and whose behavior on and off the battlefield often veers into atrocity."

While I believe most people can grasp the point Cohen's making, I'm not sure Hegseth can. He has no control over his rage as evidenced by one nasty episode after another. That's probably why he's skipping out on Senator Murray who has noted, "If Pete Hegseth is determined to make the role of Secretary and Department of Defense partisan by refusing to meet with Senators as part of his confirmation process -- then he shouldn't be confirmed as Secretary of Defense. I think most Americans would agree that you shouldn't get the job if you decide you can just skip the job interview. Mr. Hegseth's refusal thus far to commit to meet with me before a confirmation vote is unacceptable and I hope all of my colleagues will condemn this unprecedented effort to ignore the Senate’s role to advise and consent."

Donald Chump is on a destruction spree. Emery Winter (VERIFY) observes:

President Donald Trump issued a flurry of executive orders during the first day of his second term, including a single sweeping order revoking dozens of executive orders issued by the Biden administration.

Viral social media posts claim that one of the orders revoked was one that lowered prescription drug costs for people on Medicare and Medicaid. Several VERIFY readers asked us if these posts are true.

[. . .]

Yes, Trump did rescind a Biden order to lower prescription costs for people on Medicare and Medicaid.

WHAT WE FOUND

Trump rescinded an executive order that required the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop and test ways to lower drug prices for people on Medicare and Medicaid.

Since former-President Joe Biden's 2022 order, CMS had been planning out and preparing to test three models to lower prices. None of them had fully gone into effect. Therefore, current Medicare and Medicaid enrollees will not see their drug prices go up. They will also not see some of the proposed price cuts scheduled to go into effect in the future.

Wow. I guess we were so lucky to have Rashida Tlaib and others insisting that there was no difference between Kamala Harris and Donald Chump, that people should vote for grifter Jill Stein or sit it out and don't vote or even vote for Chump. Weren't we lucky? I don't feel lucky about it, do you?

Their actions have consequences and Blue MAGA can deny responsibility all they want but they were calling it a "movement" in real time. And this what their "movement" produced: Four more years of Convicted Felon Donald Chump.

No, it is not forgotten. They want us to because they really want to act out and have their tantrum in 2028. That's why we need to get honest so all their tricks and whoring are known ahead of time. So people can pay attention when Red Diaper Baby Amy Goodman brings on guest after guest in three months before the election who hate the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. She doesn't tell you that they're Socialists. She let's you assume this is the reaction of the average Democrat. Hell, she doesn't even tell you that Naomi Klein needs to shut her mouth and sit her ass down because her lukewarm 'praise' of Kamala doesn't matter -- she was born in Canada and raised there and should not be considered an American citizen when the reason her family was in Canada was because her father deserted during Vietnam. But by all means, let's bring Socialist Naomi on the program and let her speak to the ills of Kamala with no context because Amy's entire point was to tank the election.

We don't need these fake asses trying to trick people again.

ABC NEWS notes:

President-elect Donald Trump is now — once again — President Donald Trump, and in the roughly 24 hours since he has taken office, he has very publicly claimed for himself an extraordinary amount of executive power: He issued more executive orders on Day 1 than any previous president, including one to end birthright citizenship (a right guaranteed in the Constitution) and one blocking the enforcement of a ban on the video streaming app TikTok that was passed by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court. He also pardoned rioters who breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Even before these latest actions, a significant number of Americans were worried about the U.S. becoming less of a democracy and more of an authoritarian state under Trump's second term. A Dec. 3-5 poll from Marist College found that 73 percent of adults thought there was a serious threat to the future of our democracy. And according to an Ipsos/Public Religion Research Institute poll from last August-September, 49 percent of Americans thought there was a real danger that Trump would use the presidency to become a dictator.

But when people think of Trump becoming a dictator, they're probably thinking of something akin to him going on TV one day and declaring himself president for life. (For instance, host Nikki Glaser memorably joked at the Golden Globes about there not being a next election.) There are a myriad of legal and practical reasons why that is extremely unlikely to happen — but that doesn't mean he won't pose a threat to democracy. Political scientists who have studied the erosion of democracy in other countries emphasize that it's a gradual, even subtle process that often leaves the trappings of democracy in place. In fact, those experts say, U.S. democracy was already eroded under Trump's first term — and the most serious danger is that his second will see more of the same.

Protections in place? Hmm. When Congress passes a law -- and the Supreme Court doesn't overturn it -- then it's settled law and executive orders aren't supposed to be able to get around it. Nor are executive orders supposed to be able to circumvent our Constitution. But Chump's currently trying to do both things.

There are two ways Trump could try to prevent it -- on sketchy legal ground but it could happen. No, I'm not revealing it here -- I'm not here to provide destruction plans to the despot in chief.

Sara Schonhardt, Zack Colman and Karl Mathiesen (POLITICO) note:

President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. on Monday to withdraw once again from the 2015 Paris climate agreement — instantly isolating the country from the global campaign to stem catastrophic warming.

This time, Trump’s repudiation of the worldwide climate effort could bite deeper by taking effect more quickly and at a time when the new president has more far-right allies overseas and at home.

Language in Trump's executive order said the U.S. would consider the withdrawal to take effect "immediately." It didn't mention the one-year notice period that the climate pact spells out.

The order, which Trump signed with public fanfare just hours after taking office, collides with a rise in climate havoc around the world, including the devastating Los Angeles wildfires and revelations that last year was the hottest ever recorded. It marks the launch of an aggressive agenda to roll back U.S. climate policy, driven by an emboldened president who invites confrontation over the scientific underpinnings of climate change.

The long-promised exit will jettison the United States' Biden-era promise to cut climate pollution by up to 66 percent within a decade. It also calls into question a host of other U.S. commitments, such as providing billions of dollars in support to poorer nations suffering from unprecedented heat waves, floods and rising seas.

Maya Mehrara (NEWSWEEK) reports:

President Donald Trump has cancelled flights for 1,660 refugees from Afghanistan who were previously cleared by the government to come to the U.S., according to Reuters.

The 1,660 Afghan refugees who have been taken off flights include family members of active-duty U.S. military personnel, unaccompanied minors flying to the U.S. to reunite with family, and those who fought for the former U.S.-backed Afghan government.

Trump's suspension of U.S. refugee programs and subsequent cancelling of flights is detailed in a report from Shawn VanDiver, the head of the #AfghanEvac, a coalition of U.S. veterans and advocacy groups, and an anonymous U.S. official.

Allie Kelly and Noah Sheidlower (BUSINESS INSIDER) report:

President Donald Trump's mass deportation plans could have a significant economic side effect: draining the Social Security fund.

As more Americans reach retirement age — many without adequate savings — Social Security can be a financial anchor. The checks average $1,976 monthly, and thousands of older adults told Business Insider they rely on the money to pay for essentials. However, the checks often aren't enough to live on.

Trump's vow to carry out a mass deportation of people living in the US illegally could make matters more difficult because the Social Security fund is largely financed by payroll taxes from American workers. The Social Security Administration told BI that deportations could cut annual cash flow by $20 billion — potentially reducing retirees' benefits over time.

Immigrants living in the US illegally, about 8.3 million of whom work, also pay payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare. They are ineligible to claim these benefits themselves.

Are you getting why we can't afford, in 2028, to let non-Democrats pose as Democrats and attack our presidential nominee? They're doing the same thing FOX "NEWS" does when they pass off someone as a Democrat -- Tulsi for instance -- and say, "See even Democrats don't support this." It cannot happen again.

We'll wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:

Following President Donald Trump signing Day One executive orders, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released the following statement:

“Donald Trump ran on the promise that he would make life more affordable for hardworking Americans, but he spent day one of his presidency doing next to nothing to lower costs. Instead, he spent his time on an agenda of revenge, division, and cruelty with a side helping of cozying up to billionaires. If Day One is a sign of what a second Trump term will look like, it will be great for his billionaire donors and giant corporations, and pain and costs for everyone else.”

###

The following sites updated:

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Is it time for Fetty Wap to go back into the institution?

We haven't noted the idiot Fetty Wap in some time. That's the White man -- old man -- who tries to dress like a rapper even in the Senate. There are predictions that he and Rashida Tlaib will flip to Republicans this years. Hanna Trudo (THE HILL) reports:

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) attempted to squash questions that he was preparing to change parties after openly playing ball with President Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans.

The Pennsylvania senator told Semafor that talk about a potential flip to the GOP is “amateur-hour s‑‑‑.”

“If they think, ‘Oh, it’s going to be like a Manchin or a Sinema play,’ that’s just not true, and that’s not going to happen,” Fetterman said to the outlet on the evening of Trump’s inauguration, referring to former Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), who began their careers as Democrats but retired this year as Independents.

“It’s not going to happen. And even if I wanted to do that, this is a rocket sled to Palookaville to try and switch — I would make a pretty bad Republican.”

The lady doth protest too much. In fact, he sounds downright Tulsi Gabbard-ish.

And he's already posing for picks with the insurrectionists. Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) reports:

The office of Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is responding to a wave of criticism on social media after the senator was seen in a photograph posing with an infamous Jan. 6 rioter.

NPR investigative correspondent Tom Dreisbach posted an image that showed Fetterman posing with a smile and a thumbs up alongside Adam Christian Johnson, a Florida man who pleaded guilty to Capitol riot offenses and was famously photographed stealing the lectern of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

The senator's office explained the photo by saying Fetterman didn't know the man.

"John had absolutely zero clue who he was," an unnamed spokesperson from Fetterman's office told Dreisbach. "He took several dozens of photos with people today alone."

Well if anyone would have "zero clue" about something, it would be crazy Fetty Wap. But shouldn't his staff have caught that? Even if he didn't?

Here's C.I.'s "The snapshot:"

Tuesday, January 21,2025. Day two of the Chump regime, the only thing more stupid than Zell Miller clone Rashida Tlaib are her lying sycophants on BLUESKY, we have to fact check them because they can't stop lying and we have to fact check them because we can't allow another election like 2024 to ever take place again.

ABC NEWS reported yesterday, "President Donald Trump did not place his hand on the Bible as he took the oath of office during his inauguration on Monday. First lady Melania Trump stood next to the president holding two Bibles, but the 47th president of the United States didn't place his hand on either as he raised his right hand to take the presidential oath, which Chief Justice John Roberts issued." Why? I have no idea. It might be because he's not a Christian. That might be why he didn't do. The "might" does not apply to the Christian label. He is not a Christian. Even the Pope agrees with me on that. As I noted years ago, and years ago, here and at THIRD, I have encountered Chump many times over the last decades and I avoided him and walked away from him for the bulk of those encounters because I don't like him. But, yes, I know for a fact that he's not a Christian. He doesn't believe in God. He always reminded me of one those EST freaks. That 70s fad, remember? Like the late Joel Schumacher -- an EST freak (and Mildred Newman groupie) -- Chump honestly believes he is the ruler of his destiny and everything he has is his possession because he manifested it to be so.

But maybe he didn't put his hand on he Bible this go round so he could later argue that he wasn't bound by the oath of office? I wasn't aware until yesterday that his attorneys actually tried to argue in court that his insurrection couldn't be held against him because the law only applied to those who took an oath to follow the Constitution and that he had never done that.

They're just liars. Not unlike Rashida Tlaib supporters, we'll get to them in a bit.

CNN noted some of the lies that Chump told in his inauguration address:

Tariffs: Trump said, “Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.” But this description of tariffs is false. Tariffs imposed by the US government are paid by US importers, not foreign countries, and it’s easy to find specific examples of companies that passed along the cost of the tariffs to US consumers. Study after study, including one from the federal government’s bipartisan US International Trade Commission, found that Americans bore almost the entire cost of Trump’s tariffs on Chinese products in his first term.

Additionally, Trump mentioned creating a new “External Revenue Service” to collect revenue from tariffs on imports, a plan he has mentioned before. Again, it is US importers, not foreign exporters, who pay tariffs on imported goods – and often pass some or all those costs to US consumers.

Andrew Fleming (INDEPENDENT) also covers Chump's stupidity on tarrifs noting:

Continuing, Trump claimed that he’d be ordering the creation of an “external revenue service” to “tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” seemingly ignorant of the fact that foreign countries do not pay tariffs because they are paid by American companies that import foreign goods.

Additionally, the task of collecting tariffs is carried out by the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection agency, the successor to the U.S. Customs Service that was created during the presidency of George Washington.

Keith Edwards noted the dreadful day in this video.

And Rachel Maddow addressed it -- and Chump's pardoning of the insurrections.

ABC NEWS reported yesterday afternoon, "Incoming President Donald Trump is expected to issue an executive order that would systematically dismantle all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within the federal government, an incoming Trump White House official told reporters during a press call on Monday." Thanks, Rashida. AFP reported yesterday, "President Donald Trump's administration on Monday announced the United States' intention to withdraw from the Paris climate accord for a second time, a defiant rejection of global efforts to combat planetary warming as catastrophic weather events intensify worldwide." Thanks, Rashida. Catherine Boudreau and Dominick Reuter (BUSINESS INSIDER) add, "On Monday, flanked by CEOs of the largest tech companies, Trump said he would end the Green New Deal and cancel the electric vehicles mandate." Again, thank you, Rashida. And thank your sister too. Were it not for you, we might be working towards a better world.

Elaine noted last night:

Rashia Tlaib cost Kamala Harris the election and she and her sister (and Norman Solomon and the other freaks behind 'uncommitted') intended for that to be the case.

There is no excusal or pass for that despite what idiots like Eion Higgins write and say. There's no excuse.

The choice was between Kamala and Chump.

You either supported Kamala or you supported Chump. Yes, voting for grifter Jill Stein was supporting Chump. Yes, sitting out the vote was supporting Chump.

That's what you wanted to do. That was your stated goal. To deny your votes from Kamala. To punish her.

So I'm really not in the mood to hear you whine or your supporters whine.

Yes, it's fair to blame Rashida Tlaib. She set out to deny Kamala the presidency and she succeeded in doing that. So, yeah, Rashida's responsible.

Her lying supporters are whores. You can't rewrite history Eion Higgins. You can't pretend that she didn't set out to do this. That 'movement' was very public about their intent.

Elaine is exactly right. But now Rashida stans want to act like it's just not so. And so they lie and attack. And they're so damn stupid. We'll get to it.

And to add something else, we weren't stupid enough before 2024 to ever think that you elect someone and the day after the election or the day after they're sworn in, a war stops. Barack Obama ran on ending the Iraq War. But his promise -- which Samantha Power insisted to the BBC wasn't a promise and that's why she had to leave the campaign -- was, if elected, he'd end the Iraq War ten months after he was sworn in. But it was cute to watch the political liars try to tell the adults in the room that something never done before could suddenly be done now . . . because they said so.

Rashida Tlaib freaks really are the worst.

MisterIan

@MisterianZajac

If that were true the highest approval ratings in congress wouldn’t belong to Bernie Sanders and Rashida Tlaib.

Rashida outperformed kamala even in the notoriously conservative suburbs of Wayne county where all the cops live.

Voters are fed up with the ESTABLISHMENT not the left.

I don't understand liars. Do they lie to themselves?

In what world does Rashida Tlaib or Bernie have the highest approval ratings in Congress? Better question: What poll? There is none. Sorry, you stupid idiot, there's no People's Choice Awards for politicians.

See I don't just dictate these snapshots on a whim. Someone makes a claim (LIE) that Bernie and Rashida are the ones with the "highest approval ratings in Congress"? I realize that first off all that's a false claim and that, most likely, the way things go someone as vile as Marjorie Taylor Greene probably has a higher score just because fate loves to mock us. But I get on the phone and speak to a friend at PEW and then a GALLUP because I don't put stuff up here on whim. The attack on Latinos in Texas for the 'crime' of registering people to vote? That story was two days old in the corporate media. I kept waiting for DEMOCRACY NOW! to do something on it so we could highlight that. They didn't. So I spoke to TCI members in Texas, I spoke to three of the women whose homes were invaded by the police, I spoke to a member of the US Congress and read everything corporate media had published on it. Only then, did I write about it.

I always do more research than I need to -- a pattern since college.

So, no, there's no national survey being done on whose most popular in Congress or which member of Congress could pull off a mid-riff crop top?

But, hey, lie. Just lie. That's what the Gaza Freaks do and they lie for Rashida as well.

So they lie and know most people will just read along and never question.

Got into an exchange on BLUESKY last night with two such liars. Bimbo we'll come back to, Blowhard was a waste of time.

I was the idiot. I honestly thought someone could be educated but it's not just the MAGA nuts that lie it's also some of the fake asses on BLUESKY. When I saw that Blowhard was attacking multiple Democrats on BLUESKY, I realized he wasn't sincere. He was just a liar -- and, yes, he knows he's lying -- and he was bound and determined to shout his lies as loudly as he could to silence everyone else.

I never want a repeat of 2024 so the days of 'live and let live' are over. From now on, I'll call your crazies out and not pretend that your nutty conspiracy theories deserve a hearing.

The Blowhard didn't want to admit that Rashida's is in a highly gerrymandered district that any Democrat would win.

There are 13 districts in Michigan. She didn't get the most votes. She didn't get the second most votes. She's number seven. She received 253,188 votes.

Above her?

Republican Lisa McClain District 9 received 311,163 votes

Republican Jack Bergman District 1 received 279,370 votes

Democrat Debbie Dingell District 6 received 280,889 votes

Republican John Moolenaar received 278,533 votes

Republican Tim Walberg received 268,777 votes

Democrat Haley Stevens District 11 received 260,489 votes

Below her?

Republican Bill Huizenga District 4 received 236,200 votes

Republican Tom Barrett District 7 received 226,694 votes

Democrat Hillary Scholten District 3 received 225,400 votes

Democrat Shri Thanedar District 13 received 220,586 votes

Republican John James District 10 received 217,440 votes

Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet District 8 received 217,390 votes

Get it? She's in the middle with six winners above her who got more votes and six below her who got less.

And in terms of donors? She got the most money from New York, then Detroit, then San Jose, then DC and then Los Angeles. And some of her biggest donations -- based on zip codes -- came from Houston (zip 77024 was her second biggest donation area by zip code) and Frisco, TX was her tenth biggest donation zip code (75034). Though not a poll, that really doesn't scream: She's the most popular politician in the House -- or even one of them.

Again, she represents a highly gerrymandered district. Don't believe me? Don't have to. Princeton does the Gerrymandering Project ranking all the states. Rashida's district? 74% are registered Democrats. 24% are registered Republicans. For the record, she didn't get 74% of the vote. Some of the Democratic voters in her district -- about 7% -- elected not to vote for her. It's a small district population wise and it's heavily packed (74% -- 74.05% if we want to be precise) with Democrats.

Any Democrat would win in that district if running for the House.

Let's bring Bimbo into the conversation because I believe that's where she jumped in.

She is from Michigan, she wants me to know, and they don't have a gerrymandering problem! They addressed that with a law! And with a Committee!

Elaine always says -- and has for years going back to college -- that my biggest flaw is I don't trust myself. You come up to me and tell me I called you fat and I instantly apologize, I'm so sorry. When did I do that? When I asked you if you were pregnant! And, in that case with Melissa, I hadn't asked that. Another friend had. But I'm so doubtful of myself that I will immediately assume I'm in the wrong or I'm wrong.

Now in a rational moment, I would think, "Well redistricting's based on laws and it too is by a committee."

But I was convinced I was wrong and called my friend at Princeton to ask how I could've misunderstood the data.

"You didn't," he told me.

Yeah, they passed a law but it didn't really fix the issue.

Which is why, he said, I should link to this page. That's the letter grades The Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave 'sainted' Michigan for the 2024 elections. There are three categories. The first is geography. That's how the districts are drawn -- GOOGLE that for bad examples in the past, I not here to spoonfeed you a week's worth of meals. On that, Michigan got an A.

So, yea, Michigan!

But that was kind of like attendance.

Partisan Fairness?

No A for them there. No. A B. "And that was a generous grade," my friend with the project told me.

So that's an A and B. And maybe, like Bimbo does, you can spin that as a success. Woo hoo Michigan! Let's all follow your lead!

The third category?

Competitiveness.

Their grade there?

A C.

So their average is B.

Bimbo from Michigan, it's not enough to pass new laws, you also have to look at how well they created change. There wasn't a great deal of change after your state law and your commission began work and that's why you didn't get three As from The Gerrymandering Project.

But keep repeating your lies becuase otherwise you're going to have face the truth about Rashida Tlaib and none of you liars want to do that.

Her 'success' has been vastly inflated. And that's due to liars like Misterlan who are no better than the goons at FOX "NEWS." There are no national polls that rank individual members of Congress but don't let reality interfere with Misterlan's lying.

Misterlan is an idiot. He reTweets Sami Hussein -- the longterm conspiracy nut. Let's make 2025 all about calling things what they are. Faucci -- I never can get his name right.

Dr Anthony Faucci was an idiot. Joe Biden should have replaced him immediately. He refused to admit when he got things wrong.

His only reason for being was to calm the American public.

That's it.

We were in a pandemic. And it's one we hadn't seen in about 100 years. Nothing like it for that long.

We were all learning as we went.

And had Faucci acknowledged that, public trust wouldn't have plummeted the way it did. Oh, there'd still be the conspiracy nuts like Sami Hussein and Robert Kennedy Junior. But they wouldn't have gotten as much traction.

Faucci reversed on many details. And that is understandable. If you admit that you had something wrong before. But he never did admit it and he confused the American people and he created too much doubt in the results. That's why he should have been fired when Joe took over.

If you're confused, read the above again slowly. I say he was not effective in his role.

I don't say he acted criminally. Because he didn't. I don't say he's a crook.

I say his vanity got in the way of giving updates that included, "Early on, we thought this but with more research we now know this."

I don't create some vast conspiracy and accuse of him of being a criminal.

Yesterday, Sami -- who Misterlad follows and reTweets -- Tweeted nonsense about "the criminality of Fauci and connections to Jan 6 -- as I've said before, Jail Fauci, Free Palestine."

And that wasn't his only nut job conspiracy. He's trying to implicate Antony Blinken in the Epstein scandal. Via Blinken's step-father. This is the garbage that passes for 'news' on the faux left. It's no better than QAnon and we need to call it out.

Another troubling person Misterlan follows is grifter David Sirota. I don't recommend Twitter but isn't it telling that the bulk of people agreeing with grifter Sirota are . . . Republicans? Check any of his threads. And they're comfortable enough with Sirota that they agree with him and trash trans people in the same Twitter reply. And Sirota's on board because he's human filth.

Late to the party?

Sirota attacked the mother of a veteran because she 'dared' to hold a member of Congress accountable for the Iraq War. He failed to mention in his attack that he had worked for that member of Congress. That's a basic disclosure that journalists are required to make. But he's not a real journalist. We defended Tina and noted David's journalistic malpractice. David not only threatened to sue, he sent abusive and harassing e-mails. Didn't end my life. Did end his chances at an Academy Award when, years later, he was undeservedly nominated and I attended as many business parties as I could manage to distribute copies of his correspondence so people could know what he really was and not vote his trashy ass.

But grifter David is at it always. I guess with a head that looks like it got squashed by forceps during birth, there's not a lot of joy in Sirota's life. That would explain this Tweet:

Not a single Democratic operative, powerbroker, media elite or party insider responsible for decisions that led to Trump’s two victories have faced any professional or social status consequences, and almost all of them have gotten rich.

Well, David, your non-stop attacks on Kamala Harris? That was a decision you made that helped Chump get sworn in yesterday. You haven't faced "any professional or social status consequences" -- but then again, you have no social standing and you've lost one job after another year after year so you really don't have any professional consequences that could be doled out.

Also, if you're upset about Bernie and his dwindling presence, maybe hold him accountable for his vastly unqualified campaign staff when he ran for president in 2016 and 2020 -- oops, we're back to you on that, aren't we?

I'd suggest he change his name to David Failure but I believe history already has taken care of that.

Liars and tricksters and whores who are not Democrats worked really hard to tank Kamala in 2024. I'm not in the mood to humor those liars, tricksters and whores ever again. If we have an election in 2028, a fair one (Chump's has all these plans to remove citizens -- especially Black ones -- from voting), we can't afford to let the liars, tricksters and whores pose as Democrats again. They need to be outed.

Nothing wrong with a Socialist being in opposition to a Democrat. They're Socialists for a reason. But for them to write and go on programs and present themselves as Democrats while offering these ideological attacks? No. Your not going to trick voters again.

You know if you came out of your closets that voters would be like, "Oh, well that's not a Democrat." So you stay hidden to play the FOX "NEWS" game of Look Even Democrats Don't Think Kamala's Qualified.

I'm not in the mood for you screwing over this country again.

We'll wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office.

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released the following statement in response to Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), cancelling a Wednesday meeting with her for January 15 and refusing to reschedule the meeting until the week of January 26 after his confirmation vote:

“I expect every nominee to be willing to meet with Senators, regardless of their party, to answer basic questions about how they would approach their role if confirmed. Conducting these meetings is the absolute bare minimum given the role of each Senator and the constituents they represent. And should Pete Hegseth be confirmed, we have to be able to meet and communicate.

“Even beyond the deep concerns I have regarding his character and fitness for the job, I, like all other Senators, need to be able to discuss with Mr. Hegseth his thinking and approach to the many threats and challenges we face around the globe—whether it’s competition with China or aggression from Russia.

“If Pete Hegseth is determined to make the role of Secretary and Department of Defense partisan by refusing to meet with Senators as part of his confirmation process—then he shouldn’t be confirmed as Secretary of Defense. I think most Americans would agree that you shouldn’t get the job if you decide you can just skip the job interview. Mr. Hegseth’s refusal thus far to commit to meet with me before a confirmation vote is unacceptable and I hope all of my colleagues will condemn this unprecedented effort to ignore the Senate’s role to advise and consent.”

As the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Murray helps author and negotiate defense spending each year. In Fiscal Year 2024, Murray prioritized investments in our servicemembers and military families, including by delivering on a 5.2% pay raise for servicemembers, expanding child care services, increasing funding for sexual assault prevention services, and boosting mental health and suicide prevention resources. Senator Murray also played a leading role in negotiating and delivering on a comprehensive national security supplemental in April of 2024 to extend aid to Ukraine, provide badly needed humanitarian relief, and support key partners in the Indo Pacific while deterring aggression by the Chinese government.

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