In today’s day and age where nearly everything is available on-line and verifiable, I am amazed how often supposedly smart people are caught falsifying information that is easily disproved with little or no investigative effort. I am especially mystified when it is a public person.
The latest incident of Representative elect George Santos, who admitted yesterday that he falsified many things he listed as credentials on his campaign website, absolutely confounds me. Santos admitted to lying about graduating from college, making misleading claims that he worked for Citigroup or Goldman Sachs, indicating he had a family-owned real estate portfolio of 13 properties, and he was not a landlord. Rather than doing the right thing and resigning, next week he will be taking an oath of office to uphold the laws of our country and our constitution as he is sworn in as a member of Congress. To quote Santos, “My sins here are embellishing my résumé,”
As my good friend Ernie says, “Only in America.”
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Per the NY Times , the Supreme Court said on Tuesday that a pandemic-era health measure that restricted migration at the southern border would remain in place for the time being, delaying the potential for a huge increase in unlawful crossings.
In a brief, unsigned order, the justices halted a trial judge’s ruling that would have lifted the measure, known as Title 42, that allowed even migrants who might otherwise qualify for asylum to be swiftly expelled at the border. The court said that it would hear arguments in the case in its February sitting and that the stay would remain in place until it issued its ruling.
Immigration is one of those issues, like the deficit, that our national politicians love to talk about and criticize how it is handled by the other party, but no one wants to hammer out an acceptable compromise solution. In the meantime, we have laws on the books that neither party is willing to allocate the necessary resources to enforce for those that have entered illegally or to provide timely services and legal processing for those who have entered the country legally. Only former president George W. Bush had the guts to present a reasonable proposal, but his own party would not let it get out of committee for a vote. In the meantime, border states continue to bear the brunt of the problems and with local politicians taking matters into their own hands.
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Excerpts from the Executive Summary of the House Select Committee on January 6:
As Judge Carter concluded, President Trump and Dr. Eastman participated in “numerous overt acts in furtherance of their shared plan.”[623] These included, but certainly were not limited to, direct pleas to the Vice President to reject electors or delay certification, including in Oval Office meetings and the President’s vulgar comments to the Vice President on the morning of January 6. Judge Carter also addressed evidence that President Trump knowingly made false representations to a court. Judge Carter concluded that Dr. Eastman’s emails showed “that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud” cited in a complaint on behalf of President Trump “were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public.” Judge Carter found that the emails in question were related to and in furtherance of a conspiracy to defraud the United States.[624]
In finding that President Trump, Eastman, and others engaged in conspiracy to defraud the United States under Section 371, Judge Carter relied on the documents at issue (largely consisting of Eastman’s own emails) and evidence presented to the court by this Committee. This Committee’s investigation has progressed significantly since Judge Carter issued his first crime-fraud ruling in March 2022. The evidence found by this Committee and discussed in detail in this Report further document that the conspiracy to defraud the United States under Section 371 extended far beyond the effort to pressure the Vice President to prevent certification of the election. The Committee believes there is sufficient evidence for a criminal referral of the multi-part plan described in this Report under Section 371, as the very purpose of the plan was to prevent the lawful certification of Joe Biden’s election as President.
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Quote of the Day: “Look, I’m just going to say this again, it stings. It’s awful. But man, it’s the best thing that could happen to us because I think no matter who you are, in whatever you do, some of your best work is when you get your face kicked in. … I do know, man, when your back is against the wall and you get trotted on and everything is at its worst, either you stay down there, or you get up, and you come back motivated and upset with calculated energy and aggression, and man, you go. And there is a purpose. So I think this is the best thing for us.” Lions’ head coach Dan Campbell at his Monday press conference after reflecting on the butt-kicking the Lions received at the hands of the Carolina Panthers on Saturday.
Orchid of the Day: The Webb Telescope, launched one year ago on December 25, 2021, which is seven times more powerful than the Hubble Telescope. See my Video of the Day.
Onion of the Day: Representative elect George Santos. See above story.
Question of the Day: Should George Santos be forced to resign or recalled?
Video of the Day:
Tom:
That video was great. You read about the new telescope but seeing it makes it real.
Thanks, Frank
Frank,
I love the space exploration. It goes back to my early childhood when my dad would have us in the backyard at night looking for satellites and shooting stars.
Biggs