The Conversation -- February 3, 2024

South Carolina Democrats are holding their presidential primary election today.

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Tara Copp & Lolita Baldor of the AP: "The United States and Britain struck 36 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday in a second wave of assaults meant to further disable Iran-backed groups that have relentlessly attacked American and international interests in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. But Washington once more did not directly target Iran as it tries to find a balance between a forceful response and intensifying the conflict.... The Houthi targets were in 13 different locations and were struck by U.S. F/A-18 fighter jets from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier, by British Typhoon FGR4 fighter aircraft and by the Navy destroyers USS Gravely and the USS Carney firing Tomahawk missiles from the Red Sea, according to U.S. officials and the U.K. Defense Ministry."

Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "House Republicans are planning to vote on a bill next week that would give billions in military assistance to Israel and U.S. forces in the region, a measure that is destined to come to a head with a Senate proposal expected to package funding for border security with aiding foreign democracies.... The move comes as the Senate is expected to unveil and vote on a supplemental package this week that would fund new measures to control the historic flow of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, while fulfilling President Biden's $106 billion request to also aid Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific region. House Republicans' surprise announcement to send the Senate a standalone Israel funding bill sets up dueling votes in both chambers...." The NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I think Donald Trump has been a Russian asset for years; now I'm wondering if Mike Johnson and his anti-Ukraine, pro-Russian pals in the House are, too.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times channels Donald Trump's brainfarts about Taylor Swift. Amusing but way too literate and intelligible. Full sentences, no misspellings, more-or-less connected thoughts. Dowd writes like an adult; Trump's style is more that of an 11-year-old bully with attention deficit disorder and below-grade-level vocabulary.

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Missy Ryan, et al., of the Washington Post: "U.S. forces launched a broad attack against Iran's powerful military wing and affiliated militias in Iraq and Syria on Friday, delivering a blow to armed groups that Washington has blamed for killing American troops in Jordan and a surge of violence across the Middle East. U.S. Central Command said that American forces, using B-1 bombers flown from the United States and other aircraft, hit more than 85 targets affiliated with the Quds Force, a unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC), and local militias that it supports. Among the locations hit at four sites in Syria and three sites in Iraq were command and control posts, intelligence centers and drone storage facilities, officials said. The operation marked the opening of what officials say will be a multiday campaign aimed at various targets close to Iran, which the Biden administration has blamed for the spiraling bloodshed that has erupted since the start of Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, including a drone attack Sunday that killed three U.S. service members and injured dozens more at a remote outpost in Jordan." An NBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Natasha Bertrand, et al., of CNN: "The US has begun conducting airstrikes on targets in Iraq and Syria, the start of what will likely be a series of larger-scale US strikes on Iranian-backed militias who have carried out attacks on US troops in the Middle East, according to two US officials. The retaliatory strikes came in response to a drone strike by Iran-backed militants on a US military outpost in Jordan on Sunday, which killed three US service members and wounded more than 40 others. They came not long after President Joe Biden attended a dignified transfer and met family members of the soldiers killed in Jordan. Officials have signaled the strikes are likely to be more significant than previous attacks on Iranian-backed militias over the last several weeks, which have primarily focused on weapons storage or training facilities." (From a liveblog, also linked yesterday.)

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in the Iraq/Hamas war are here: "The United States will strike additional targets at 'times and places of our choosing,' President Biden said in a statement, after the latest U.S. attacks on militia groups backed by Iran.... At least 18 militants were killed in the U.S. strikes, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights."

Eileen Sullivan & David Sanger of the New York Times: "In the hours before the United States carried out strikes against Iran-backed militants on Friday, Washington hit Tehran with more familiar weapons: sanctions and criminal charges. The Biden administration imposed sanctions on officers and officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iran's premier military force, for threatening the integrity of water utilities and for helping manufacture Iranian drones. And it unsealed charges against nine people for selling oil to finance the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. The timing seemed designed to pressure the Revolutionary Guards and its most elite unit, the Quds Force, at a moment of extraordinary tension in the Middle East."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden honored three Army reservists killed in the Middle East as their bodies were returned to the United States on Friday in a silent, somber ceremony marking the first deaths under fire in a proxy war with Iranian-backed militias since Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Mr. Biden attended a short event known as a 'dignified transfer' at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware along with his wife, Jill Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and General Charles Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. No speeches were given but the president and others stood solemnly in a cold wind as the flag-draped cases were carried across the tarmac." (Also linked yesterday.) The Hill's story is here. ~~~

(~~~ From the Archives. S.V. Date of the Huffington Post (Sept. 2020): "In the world of ... Donald Trump, he has paid his respects to 'many, many' returning soldiers killed in the line of duty.... In the real world, Trump has traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware exactly four times ― fewer than half as many times as his vice president ― and avoided going at all for nearly two years after getting berated for his incompetence by the father of a slain Navy SEAL, according to a former White House aide who spoke on condition of anonymity. Bill Owens, the father of William 'Ryan' Owens, refused to shake Trump's hand at that Feb. 1, 2017, encounter, the aide said, and then told Trump that he was responsible for his son's death for approving the disastrous raid in Yemen without bothering to understand the risks." [Also linked yesterday.])

Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "A duo of House Oversight and Accountability Democrats are asking the Government Accountability Office to review Sen. Tommy Tuberville's (R-Ala.) 10-month blockade of military promotions.... The letter from ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) ... asks for a review of the 'unprecedented blockade of military promotions, including the short- and long-term detrimental effects on [the Defense Department] and our broader national security.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

The Trials of Trump and the Trump Gang

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The federal judge overseeing ... Donald J. Trump's prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election issued an order on Friday scrapping the March 4 trial date for the case. The order by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan was a formal confirmation of what had seemed fairly obvious for weeks. It came after she had made a series of hints that she was going to delay the trial as Mr. Trump pursues an effort to have the underlying charges tossed out with an argument that he enjoys complete immunity from prosecution. In her order, Judge Chutkan said that she would set a new date for the proceeding in Federal District Court in Washington 'if and when' Mr. Trump's immunity claims are resolved." Politico's story is here. MB: "If and when"? Looks like the kind of understatment meant to convey Judge Chutkan's frustration with the Appeals Court's delay. ~~~

~~~ Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "Of the four criminal cases ... Donald Trump is facing, charges filed in New York over 2016 hush money payments have long been considered by legal experts to be the weakest of the bunch. But it is increasingly likely that case will be his first to go to trial, perhaps as soon as next month.... So instead of hearing evidence about efforts to block a U.S. election or improperly keep highly classified U.S. secrets, the first jury to weigh alleged crimes by Trump as he again runs for president could be focused on sordid allegations of a long-ago sexual encounter with an adult-film star.... Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records, a felony in New York where there is an intent to defraud that includes intent to 'commit another crime or to aid or conceal' a crime. In announcing the charges, [Manhattan D.A. Alvin] Bragg said the goal of Trump's scheme was to cover up violations of New York election law, which makes it a crime to conspire to illegally promote a candidate. Bragg also said the $130,000 payment exceeded the federal campaign contribution cap." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Let me say this about that. Barrett and many other journalists have characterized this as a "hush money" case, so fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of the Trump record of (alleged!) criminal activity. But Andrew Weissmann said on MSNBC recently that the heart of the case is about election interference. Had Trump not illegally conspired with former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker to squelch a story about Trump's relationship with Stormy Daniels right before the 2016 election, Trump might not have been elected and the world might have been spared the epoch of Trump. The hush money Trump paid Daniels is incidental to the larger scheme of election tampering. Weissmann said that Alvin Bragg has always characterized the case as one involving election interference; it's the media who have labeled it a hush-money case. BTW, if you believe Trump paid off Daniels to spare his wife Melanie the embarrassment of a public airing of his infidelity, then let me assure you that Trump hired bodyman Walt Nauta because Trump and Nauta are confirmed feminists (Nauta story linked below.)

Jack Smith Brief: Trump Is a Lying POS, a Thief & a Reckless Bozo. Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Special counsel Jack Smith used a routine legal filing Friday to offer a forceful public rebuttal against Donald Trump's claims that his criminal prosecution for allegedly hoarding classified documents has been infected by politics and legal impropriety.... 'The government will clear the air on those issues ... because the defendants' misstatements, if unanswered, leave a highly misleading impression.' What followed was a lengthy recitation of the events that led prosecutors to suspect Trump had been squirreling reams of classified records at his Mar-a-Lago estate.... A running theme throughout the prosecutors' filing: Where Trump spoke in ominous terms about a monolithic 'Biden administration' acting against him, the reality was that career officials from multiple agencies, acting on their discrete responsibilities, took standard and even 'innocuous' actions to fulfill their duties.... The brief is also peppered with factual claims that make Trump's behavior sound more ... egregious." ~~~

     ~~~ The filing is here, via Politico.

Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Fani T. Willis, the district attorney prosecuting the Georgia election interference case against ... Donald J. Trump, acknowledged [in a court] on Friday a 'personal relationship' with a prosecutor she hired to manage the case but argued that it was not a reason to disqualify her or her office from it.... Ms. Willis's filing includes an affidavit from [prosecutor Nathan] Wade asserting that the personal relationship started only after Mr. Wade had been hired. The original motion containing the accusations, filed by Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official, alleged that Ms. Willis had hired her 'boyfriend' as a special prosecutor, granting him lucrative contracts even though he was underqualified, and then benefited from going on vacations that Mr. Wade paid for. But Ms. Willis said in her filing that 'financial responsibility for personal travel taken is divided roughly evenly' and Mr. Wade echoed that language in his affidavit, adding that Ms. Willis 'received no funds or personal financial gain from my position as Special Prosecutor.'" Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Willis' court filing is here, via Politico. ~~~

~~~ Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis finally admitted on Friday that she was romantically involved with one of her special prosecutors, Nathan Wade -- but the details she and Wade have now revealed destroy any real chance ... Donald Trump can use it to get her thrown off the election racketeering case against him, argued Georgia State law professor Anthony Michael Kreis.... 'The chances of a successful disqualification went from 5% to .05%,' wrote Kreis, noting that according to Wade's affidavit, 'The relationship with Fani Willis started after his appointment as special prosecutor, the two have never cohabitated, and travel expenses have been split between them.' The existence of a relationship between Willis and Wade, in and of itself, would not pose any legal conflict of interest, because the two of them are on the same prosecutorial team and their professional interests are aligned regardless."

Katherine Doyle of NBC News: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has subpoenaed District Attorney Fani Willis of Fulton County, Georgia, demanding documents from her office following allegations that Willis fired a whistleblower who tried to stop a top campaign aide from misusing federal funds. The subpoena ... is part of a broader probe by Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Republicans into whether Willis used federal funds in conducting her more-than-two-year investigation into ... Donald Trump.... In a letter Friday, Jordan says Willis has failed to comply with two earlier requests for documents.... The subpoena calls on the district attorney's office to provide documents and communications 'referring or relating to the Fulton County District Attorney's Office's receipt and use of federal funds' and 'referring or relating to any allegations of the misuse of federal funds.' Willis' office has condemned Jordan's requests, writing last year in a letter to him that there is 'no justification in the Constitution for Congress to interfere with a state criminal matter.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Ah, the Gracious Host. Kaanita Iyer & Jamie Gangel of CNN: "Attorney Roberta Kaplan ... Donald Trump threw papers across a table and stormed off during a deposition at Mar-a-Lago after learning that his legal team had agreed to provide her lunch." Worth reading the free-lunch anecdote and the one that follows.

** M.L. Nestel of the Raw Story: "Donald Trump's valet, who's been indicted as a central player in Trump's hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, became his hired hand after being removed from the White House once multiple sexual harassment claims came to light, The Daily Beast reports. Before landing a full-time position at the former president's Palm Beach palatial estate, Walt Nauta was a Navy enlistee who had been posted in the White House Presidential Support Detail since 2012. That ended, according to sources who spoke to the Daily Beast, when accusations materialized accusing Nauta of fraternization, adultery, harassment and circulating 'revenge porn,' among other sexual misconduct. He was escorted off White House grounds by the Navy and stripped of his White House security clearance, the report said. Three female service members accused Nauta of inappropriate behavior which spanned years, according to The Beast.... Two other women raised complaints accusing Nauta, who ultimately admitted to the relationships when confronted about them during a White House interview." (Also linked yesterday.)

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A Pennsylvania barber whose violent attacks on the police on Jan. 6, 2021, were widely seen as the tipping point in the storming of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob was convicted [in a bench trial] on Friday of federal assault charges. The barber, Ryan Samsel, was one of the first people to confront the police on Jan. 6 and push through barricades at what is known as the Peace Circle, allowing hundreds of others behind him to breach the grounds of the Capitol and ultimately the building itself. Prosecutors at a trial for Mr. Samsel and four co-defendants, who were also convicted of assault and other charges, said that the men's actions 'ignited a fire that burned for over four hours at the Capitol.'" Politico's report is here.

Americans Are More Ignorant Than You Thought. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "There is an assumption, probably particularly among those who cover the news and those who read it, that Donald Trump's legal travails are common knowledge.... As it turns out..., new polling conducted by YouGov shows that only a bit over half of the country on average is aware of the various legal challenges Trump faces. And among those Republicans on whose political support he depends? Consistently, only a minority say they are aware of his lawsuits and charges."

Presidential Race

Adam Cancryn & Meredith McGraw of Politico: "A remarkable run of good economic news has tripped up the Trump campaign's initial plans to paint President Joe Biden as a disaster on the economy. Now, the GOP frontrunner is grasping for new ways to attack the administration's increasingly robust record.... Trump has responded [to the positive economic news] by throwing out a series of counterarguments downplaying Biden's role in the economic upswing, including suggesting that the stock markets' gains are actually his doing. On Monday, he claimed on Truth Social that voters were already enjoying a 'TRUMP STOCK MARKET' because the economy was anticipating his eventual victory.... But economists quickly dismissed the claim, and the theory that Trump should get credit for an economy overseen by Biden has proved too far of a stretch for many Republicans as well.... A recent poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 65 percent of Americans overall view the economy as 'poor.'" ~~~

~~~ Another Insane Trump Conspiracy Theory. Alex Griffing of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump on Friday accused Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who he nominated, as wanting to bring down inflation and interest rates in order to help President Joe Biden get reelected. 'Well, I think he's going to do something to probably help the Democrats, you know. I think if he lowers interest rates. But you have the potential of having massive inflation again, because the Middle East could drive up the price of energy,' Trump told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo.... '... I think he's political,' [said] .. Trump.... Trump nominated Powell in 2017, saying, 'He's strong, he's committed, he's smart.'" MB: Trump seems unaware that it is the Fed's job to try to keep the U.S. economy on an even keel.

South Carolina. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "On the final day before South Carolina's primary election officially kicks off the Democratic presidential nominating contest, Vice President Kamala Harris urged supporters not to ignore a contest that is widely expected to be uncompetitive but where she and President Biden are hoping for a morale-lifting rout.... The rally was Ms. Harris's ninth trip to South Carolina as vice president and was already her third of the year, an indication of the importance she and Mr. Biden's campaign have placed on a dominant performance to begin their party's presidential nominating season. Standing before two banners bearing the slogan 'First in the Nation' -- with the word 'First' underlined -- Ms. Harris highlighted the Biden administration's achievements, including expanding high-speed internet access, increasing federal funding for historically Black colleges and universities, and reducing prescription drug costs."

Wisconsin. Maegan Vazquez & Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday ruled that Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips’s name will appear on the state's April 2 primary ballot, after he claimed he was unlawfully excluded. Acting on the recommendation of the state Democratic Party leaders, the Wisconsin Elections Commission and the Wisconsin Presidential Preference Selection Committee had previously listed President Biden as the only Democratic candidate for the state's primary. Phillips, a Democratic congressman representing Minnesota, had accused the state party of forcing him to spend about $300,000 to collect signatures through a separate process to acquire ballot access. In his complaint last week asking the state Supreme Court to overrule his exclusion, he cited a provision of state election law that allows ballot access for candidates who are found to have been recognized as serious contenders by the news media. He argued in his brief that the state elections board failed to make any determination of whether Phillips met this test, despite significant news coverage of his candidacy." The court agreed with Phillips, with no dissents noted.

Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court declined on Friday to temporarily block race-conscious admissions at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, clearing the way for the school to continue considering race as a factor in selecting the class that will enroll in the fall. The court's order rejected a request for emergency relief from Students for Fair Admissions, a conservative group that has repeatedly challenged the consideration of race in higher education, as a lawsuit moves forward. It had asked the justices to act swiftly because West Point was poised to stop accepting applications on Wednesday. In its order, the court said that the record was 'underdeveloped.' Its denial 'should not be construed as expressing any view on the merits of the constitutional question,' it added, signaling that the justices could consider the issue in the future. There were no noted dissents." Politico's report is here.

Another Insane Musk Conspiracy Theory. Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "Billionaire X/Twitter owner Elon Musk claimed on Friday that President Joe Biden is trying to 'get as many illegals in the country as possible' so he can create a 'one-party state.'... In another post, Musk -- who voted for Biden in 2020 -- claimed Biden's supposed strategy 'explains why there are so few deportations, as every deportation is a lost vote.'" MB: Musk, who is a U.S. immigrant himself, may not be aware that immigrants -- legal or not -- who are not U.S. citizens cannot vote in federal elections or in the vast majority of other elections.

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Texas. Arelis Hernandez & Hannah Allam of the Washington Post: "A motley crew is gathering [in Eagle Pass, Texas,] this weekend: militia-style groups invoking 1776 and the Civil War. Christian nationalists praying for the chance to confront evil. Racists stoking fear about the 'replacement' of White people. Election deniers, anti-vaccination crusaders, conspiracy theorists.... Right-wing extremists are dusting off the blueprint for the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol and using it to rally support for their cause du jour: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's showdown with the federal government over border enforcement. Monitoring groups warn that Abbott's posturing, like Trump's 'Stop the Steal' effort, heightens the risk of political violence as supporters converge on Eagle Pass, a frontier outpost of 28,000. Summed up by one observer as 'slow-motion secession,' the unrest in Texas is a case study in how once-fringe ideologies have been laundered into mainstream Republican politics." ~~~

~~~ ** Jill Wine-Banks in an MSNBC opinion piece: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's actions at the southern border and his reaction to the Supreme Court's decision in favor of the federal government make me fear for the continued existence of the United States of America. So does his signing of an expansive new law that gives the state's law enforcement powers over immigration that rightly belong to the federal government, not to Texas or any other state. In fact, should the Supreme Court rule against the Biden administration's challenge to that law, that would have consequences for every federal policy, not just immigration policy.... Dozens of governors from red states, many with no international borders with Mexico, signed a statement supporting Abbott. A compact between any of those states and Texas without congressional approval would directly violate Article I of the Constitution." Read on. The former prosecutor makes her case.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Carl Weathers, who went from doling out bone-crunching hits as a linebacker for the Oakland Raiders to delivering knockout punches on the big screen as Apollo Creed, the nemesis of Sylvester Stallone's lovable-lug prizefighter in 'Rocky,' helping to spark one of Hollywood's most successful franchises, died on Thursday. He was 76."

New York Times: "Joe Madison, an influential talk radio host with a rumbling musical baritone, who interviewed President Barack Obama in the Oval Office and numerous other political leaders in his Washington, D.C., studio, urging them to take action on civil and human rights issues, has died at his home in Washington. He was 74."

Comments

[Marie Burns]

Marie: So Trump is a sexual predator and he hires a sexual predator as his body man. I could not quite figure out what to say when I read the story about Walt Nauta's being (an *alleged!) serial sexual predator and that after the White House found out, after officials goose-stepped him out of the White House, Trump decided he would be just the guy to have by his side at all times. Sometimes the news is so stunning to me that it shuts my mouth.

Luckily, along came Akhilleus, and he knew what to say. Here is Akhilleus' post, republished from yesterday's thread:

Wanted: criminal scumbags.

The Orange Monster, once one surveys his actions. His friends, his lies, his predilections for fellow criminals and scumbags, seems constitutionally unable to befriend, or hire, any good, decent, morally upstanding individuals. Rather, he prefers assholes like like Walt Nauta.

Here’s the not so hypothetical hypothetical.

Fatty is looking to hire someone. He is reviewing resumes.

Resume one: someone with sterling recommendations, experienced, smart, decent, strong character, upstanding citizen.

Resume two: snarling, sneaky, slimy lowlife sexual predator, spreader of revenge porn, accused by multiple women of inappropriate behavior, who has been stripped of security clearance by a branch of the armed forces.

“Junior! Call number two. He’s our kind of guy. Just what we need. Tell that number one guy to fuck off and go work for the Democrats. We don’t need his kind.”

[ForrestMorris]

I found a candidate for trump's VP slot.

Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga) says "immigrants should be given rides
on Pinochet Air."

Thats a reference to dicktater Pinochet who has dissidents dropped
out of helicopters over the Pacific Ocean.

What would Melanie think of that, being an immigrant.

[ForrestMorris]

https://www.rawstory.com/facist-violence-mike-collins/

[ForrestMorris]

The donald paid a non union shop in Clinton Township $20,000 to
pretend he was addressing the United Auto Workers.

https://democraticunderground.com/100218649470

[RAS]

Cartoon solutions to global warming.

New York Times
"Could a Giant Parasol in Outer Space Help Solve the Climate Crisis?
Interest in sun shields, once a fringe idea, has grown. Now, a team of scientists says it could launch a prototype within a few years."

[Ken Winkes]

A deeper dive into the real numbers of working class MAGAs.

Or: You can't believe everything you read.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/donald-trump-white-working-class-voters

[RAS]

"Raw Story

0-for-1,668: Senators extend their streak of never punishing other senators
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is facing federal criminal charges, but the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics has had little to say on the matter.

WASHINGTON — Arguably the most bipartisan – nonpartisan, really – committee in the Senate is also, arguably, the biggest laughing stock on Capitol Hill.

For at least 17 years and running, the Senate Ethics Committee — tasked with confidentially investigating allegations of misconduct by the chamber’s austere members and staffers — has failed to formally punish anyone at all, a Raw Story analysis of congressional records indicates.

That amounts to 1,668 complaints alleging violations of Senate rules with exactly zero resulting in disciplinary action.

U.S. senators have been caught running fraudulent campaigns, receiving kicks back for leasing out federal government property, embezzling money (before being laid to rest in the Congressional Cemetery), charging U.S. citizens to perform their senatorial duties and taking bribes in exchange for war contracts. Senators have been nabbed in FBI stings before being sent to prison.

All of those cases of historic corruption came before the Senate Ethics Committee. Some of those inquiries seem to have scared some senators into resigning early, but not one elicited an expulsion vote. Most senators emerged from these and other tribulations without even receiving a formal punishment."

[RAS]

$124 million

"Texas has spent more than $124 million sending buses of migrants to sanctuary cities, according to records obtained by Nexstar.

According to documents Nexstar obtained, Texas has paid $124,603,616.19 to bus more than 100,000 migrants from the state’s border communities to Washington D.C., New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles as of Jan. 10. That equals out to 2,245 buses year to date, an average of 45 migrants per bus.

Taxpayers are footing about 99.6% of the total cost of these buses, coming from money already appropriated by the Texas Legislature for border security under Operation Lone Star.

Abbott created a donation portal for the program when it first launched to help supplement state dollars. As of early December 2023, the state has raised $460,196 to help pay for the buses, according to the governor’s office."