Republicans Reveal TSA Was Only a Prop

In the latest series of funding fights between Democrats and Republicans, there had been two versions of events. 

Republicans insist that while they control all branches of the government, Democrats are the ones to blame for a partial shutdown of the government. This shutdown impacted the Department of Homeland Security, the Coast Guard, the TSA, and FEMA. The sticking point for Democrats were that they had wanted to see some institutional changes regarding ICE, such as requiring body cams, removal of masks, and clear identification being part of those changes. Republicans took the my way or the highway approach President Donald Trump had stated on numerous occasions he would veto any bill that crossed his desk that did not meet Republican policy objectives.

The funding fight had gotten more strenuous as the TSA went unfunded, agents missed paychecks, and airport security lines started to increase during a busy spring break season. President Trump had even de used to send his unskilled ICE agents to stand around and give the appearance he was doing something.

Democrats had repeatedly offered clean bills to fund TSA but Republicans repeatedly voted against them, that was until March 27th. 

What caused this change?

As congress started to feel the heat from their constituents, it seems as if Republicans were feeling most of that pressure and it did not help things when they lost a couple special elections, with one notable race in particular - the district that contains the president’s resort home in Florida. This caused the president to make a proclamation that he would act without congressional action and pay TSA agents, despite constantly saying Democrats need to acquiesce.

Why does this matter?

Because Republicans quickly voted shortly afterwards to vote on a funding deal minus the funding for ICE, essentially handing Democrats a win but doing one more and proving Republicans were using the TSA as a political football. It also did not help that Trump blew up the GOP’s bargaining chip by saying he would fund the TSA, especially when he shot down a bipartisan deal earlier negotiated by Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

If Trump could find the TSA, why did he not do that from day one unless he and Republicans cynically thought voters would blame Democrats for the long lines at airports. Once they started to experience the political realities and Trump said he would pay the agents, Republicans no longer had a reason to hold out against Democrats’ demands. 

To the Democrats’ credit, they did not chicken out like they usually do and instead left that to Republicans and Trump, who has stayed true to his most damning moniker as TACO, which stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

Now that this current funding fight has moved on to the next stage, who knows what each side will do. Democrats will probably continue to insist on reforms for ICE while Republicans will claim Trump acted decisively and won for the greater good. 

Trump’s New NOAA Director…

With recent news that President Trump and his billionaire lackey Elon Musk were axing hundreds of jobs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and just in time for hurricane season, we have just learned of Trump’s latest appointment to the agency:

Trump Raids Appropriated Money To Create Slush Fund

It has yet to be an entire month since the inauguration of Donald Trump's second term as president and we had already witnessed numerous scandals and chaotic controversies. Trump has conducted immigration raids, sacked almost two dozen inspector generals, caused a trade war with our neighboring allies, blamed a deadly plane crash on diversity, implement a hiring freeze and call on almost every federal employee to resign, implement a constitutionally questionable spending freeze, and allowed billionaire Elon Musk and his goon squad to access sensitive payment systems. If you connect the dots you can see something more troubling - an emerging pattern of illegality and march towards totalitarianism.

In an earlier story, Trump had issued a spending freeze press secretary Karoline Leavitt subsequently and simultaneously attempted to walk back and reaffirm. Federal Judge Loren AliKhan had issued a stay on the order due to the mass confusion from the administration and later a restraining order on reports that the federal government was ignoring the court orders and continuing to withhold funds. 

You would think that was it but then you take into consideration another news story of Elon Musk and his squad bullying their way into federal offices and hooking up unsecure computers into the federal network to access payment systems. This on its own is troubling but Musk had later made comments to ignore all regulations and Trump also announced a new government-run Sovereign Wealth Fund to operate as a slush fund for economic development projects or even potentially being used to purchase social media company Tik Tok.

The first question one would ask is where would Trump get money for this Sovereign Wealth Fund when it is brand new and there have been zero funds appropriated by Congress? 

Considering the events of the past week, it sounds like the Trump administration (and shadow President Elon Musk) are illegally redirecting appropriated funds and ignoring a court-ordered restraining order to continue to spend billions of dollars on whatever pet project he desires.

Biden Can’t Divert Appropriated Funds When Trump Can

In another example of the consequences of conservative court packing and the appointment of hyper-partisan or inexperienced judges, a Trump-appointed federal judge had recently ruled against the Biden administration for diverting funds, which is interesting because when Donald Trump, President Biden’s insurrectionist predecessor, also diverted funds the conservative majority on the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of the Trump administration raiding appropriated money.

The Constitution says, “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in Consequence of Appropriations made by law.”

The Supreme Court used a provision allowing the Trump diversion because after Democrat-controlled congress voted for funding, and Trump signed that bill into law, a day later Trump then declared an emergency to start taking essential military funding to pay for his pet projects on the border. 

The lower courts in that case had ruled against Trump, pointing to the law in question stating that Trump could not take already appropriated funds because the only allowable circumstances would be “based on unforeseen military requirements ... and in no case where the item for which funds are requested has been denied by the Congress.”

So one would think that Biden was okay to also divert funds, right?

Wrong!

Trump Judge Drew Tipton claimed the suing states, Texas and Missouri (which is not a southern border state) has proven they have suffered damages from Biden’s diversion because they have given out drivers licenses or provided education or healthcare to undocumented migrants. 

So to be clear, it is okay when Trump takes money from the military to protect the whole of America but if an undocumented immigrant wants to drive then that is not allowed.

Just another instance of blatant conservative partisan hypocrisy.

One of DeSantis’ Hypocrisies

Ron DeSantis , Florida right wing governor and presidential candidate had recently commented on the Colorado Supreme Court’s removal of twice-impeached former president Donald Trump from the Republican primary ballot. 

 “The Left invokes ‘democracy’ to justify its use of power, even if it means abusing judicial power to remove a candidate from the ballot based on spurious legal grounds. SCOTUS should reverse,” he wrote on a post on X.

Interesting considering DeSantis prides himself and actively boasts on his removal of duly elected officials across his own state, some which have already been deemed unconstitutional from the courts. 

Trump: Immigrants “Poison the Blood”

Donald Trump did his best Adolph Hitler impersonation recently and as CNN’s Abby Phillips noted, GOP Representative Nicole Malliotakis tried to spin Trump’s statements saying that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country” by insisting that’s not what he really meant and that Trump was implying they really poison America with their “democratic policies.”

While that is definitely not what Trump was saying, and keep in mind reports that Trump’s ex-wife Ivana Trump claimed in 1990 that he kept speeches of Hitler beside his bed, there is also some other subtext here - Republicans believe immigrants are Democrats. 

This is nothing new but it explains renewed pushes against immigration policy at a time when elections are determined by a handful of votes. 

Speaker Johnson : Biden Heaven Sent

According to the newly elected Christian Nationalist House Speaker Mike Johnson, “Hod is the one that raises up those in authority.”

He had then added “All of us.”

That would seemingly include the duly elected American President Joe Biden - Johnson would either be agreeing that God had delivered Biden to be president OR he believes the infallible god of his faith to be wrong. 

Lauren Boebert Caught Lying About Public Indecency

Conservative darling Lauren Boebert has recently made the news for getting kicked out of a performance of “Beetlejuice” for disorderly conduct. 

As the story goes, Boebert was on a date at the musical being very loud and animated while vaping. A pregnant woman had asked the congresswoman to please stop and Boebert had refused. The venue’s staff had to intervene and escort the couple out where Boebert could be seen giving the middle finger to security while using profanity as she left the building. 

When the news of this situation broke, Boebert denied any and all wrongdoings and claimed she didn’t do anything wrong. That is when high definition video of the theater was released showing the congresswoman ignore the health of pregnant woman (and unborn child), Boebert also could be seen on camera violating all of the theater’s policies.

There was video of Boebert vaping and using flash photography as she caused a ruckus. The video also showed the right wing conservative groping her date (who also owns gay nightclubs) in public. While this may not be as big of a deal as the other things mentioned, it is quite hypocritical being that the congresswoman has made it part of her mission to fight against the rights of women, transgender, and gay Americans.

So did Boebert apologize for her actions?

Not really.

Remember. She only fessed up to her actions once camera footage was released. And even then she just said she was being animated and lively at a good performance ignoring that a pregnant woman kindly asked her to stop doing only one thing in her presence. And more recently she gave yet another non-apology.

“ It’s been 20 years since I was in the dating scene, and back then, there were not infrared cameras I’m watching my every move” Boebert said in an interview.

And as it was pointed out, she only admitted to doing what she initially lied about after video was released, meaning she would have continued to lie without that ever coming to light.

Ron DeSantis Flip Flops On Biden Disaster Tour

A couple of weeks ago disaster struck Hawaii with a massive wildfire that destroyed the historic seaside community of Lahaina. At that time President Biden was on a weekend getaway with his family at Lake Tahoe. That didn’t stop Ron DeSantis from trying to score political points with the Republican base during the heated primary season. 

'”You know, just a thought experiment: If we had a Republican president, who in the midst of these fires and their aftermath, decided not to go engage to help the victims, but to go sit on the beach, what would the media say if they tried to do that?' DeSantis said. 

It did not matter that Biden was actually visiting Maui and touring the site at that exact moment DeSantis commented. He wanted to prove that during a disaster, as president he would do better. 

Fast forward a couple weeks and DeSantis is facing a disaster of his own with a historic hurricane barreling through his own state of Florida. President Biden has offered full support of the federal government for Florida, much like he did for Hawaii. But did DeSantis clamor to have Biden visit his home state?

No. 

DeSantis had his spokesperson claim a presidential visit would be too disruptive. 

“The security preparations alone that would go into setting up such a meeting would shut down ongoing recovery efforts,” said a spokesperson for the governor.

So to be clear, when it didn’t impact DeSantis he was perfectly fine attacking the president for not immediately visiting a disaster site… but when it comes to his own state facing a problem now he is concerned with security precautions bogging down recovery efforts. 

DeSantis was surely putting politics first  since on the stage of the first Republican debate political neophyte Vivek Ramaswamy attacked fellow candidate Chris Christie for greeting then-President Obama after the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. At the time, being seen with the president, even during a disaster, was political fodder for Republicans and apparently it still is.

Sad.

Mitch McConnell Medical Episode at Press Conference

On July 26th, 2023 Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had a medical episode while delivering a press conference. McConnell stopped speaking and stood motionless as he stared into the distance, not even blinking. Those around the senator looked worried as they led him off to the side while he looked confused. This unknown medical emergency follows reports of numerous falls by the 81-year-old and while the senator’s team claimed everything was alright and McConnell was as sharp as ever. 

While McConnell’s condition remains unknown there have been talks about the senator resigning early - his term does not end for another few years. 

But what happens if he steps down? How does he get replaced? 

Well the governor of Kentucky is Democrat Andy Beshear. The state legislature is overwhelmingly Republican. Originally the governor had the power to fill any vacancies but state republicans, in an effort to curb the governor’s authority and prevent any opposing political party from gaining power, they passed a veto-proof bill, bill 228, that forces the governor to appoint a member of the party of the vacating senator. In this case it would be a republican. 

Governor Beshear should opt to let the voters decide and refuse to appoint any replacement for McConnell, should he resign or die, just like what McConnell did to President Obama in refusing to even consider Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. 

Disney Makes Itself HOA Of Reedy Creek. Republicans Miffed.

  If you haven’t been aware or have been living under a rock for the last year, there had been a huge conflict brewing in Florida between the state government (primarily Republicans in the legislature and Republican Governor and potential 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis) and Disney, the entertainment giant and one of the largest employers of the state and draws for the local economy. 

  While Republicans are the self-proclaimed party of pro-business and free speech, they got a little upset when Disney responded unfavorably towards a new law Republicans passed that was dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law due to its restrictions on speech in the classroom regarding such topics that deal with LGBTQ matters.  Republicans responded by launching a special session of the legislature and rushing a bill to law that stripped Disney (and only Disney) of their special governing status. Other like districts that majority share with the state government did not see their status revoked, like the massive retirement community The Villages.

  Upon their hastily put together attack on Disney it was discovered that Republicans did not consider the consequences of their actions punishing Disney and their law would instead saddle Central Florida residents with a huge tax burden. So republicans went back to work and made a new plan, fleshing out their first law renaming the district and with the governor making political appointments to the oversight board under the guise of managing a runaway company.

But Republicans missed something.

  While they were quickly drafting legislation to punish the entertainment industry giant they were unaware that Disney made a deal with the previous governing body of Reedy Creek that essentially gave Disney discretion over how the properties can operate within the area.

They essentially neutered the new governing board. The State was upset because as their board put it, they can only really be responsible for infrastructure maintenance. Anything else would require Disney’s approval. 

Essentially Republicans are mad because Disney made themselves the homeowners’ association (HOA) of Reedy Creek and now Republicans are upset that a private entity can become a quasi government and operate without interference from the state. Property owners in Florida are well to aware of how HOAs operate. Now Republicans are facing reality and it sounds like there is nothing they can do - their official position is that the contract made under Florida law is null and void because… because they say it is.

The governing board and state Republicans have no legal response to the move because they had been out maneuvered. The lawyers contracted by the board seem to admit that to fight this would require much more legal representation because they are outgunned and from all appearances it seems Disney used existing law to make a legal (if not frustratingly unfair) deal with the government of that time and Republicans in their rush and diminished debate failed to realize all possible outcomes.