19 Comments

The acceptance of George Santos by Kevin McCarthy and the majority of the House GOP, should surprise no one. Matt Gaetz caught with underage girls is still a sitting member of the house and is on the judiciary committee. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been given Homeland Security after tweeting if she and Bannon planned the January 6th insurrection, they would have won on that day. The best we can do is HOPE we can survive until January 2025.

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“The history of our race, and each individual’s experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.” - Mark Twain

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Steven, I started today by reading your well-written America, America submission. It is overwhelming to learn the extent of George Santos' fabrications. His spouts untruths like a running tap. He presents like a psychopath, with no conscience. Guilt and shame are definitely NOT in his wheelhouse. A dangerous and too often unchallenged precedent was set by TFG Trump, who propagated 'alternative facts' to undermine truth and reality. We can hope that the House Ethics Committee takes Santos to task for his campaign finance anomalies. I contend that the bad actor Republicans will eventually fall from public favour; just when is the question.

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McCarthy is the ring leader of an insane asylum.

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Without guards

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Steven, thank you for your comprehensive focus on the out-of-control sociopathic LIAR, G. Santos.

TFG set a low bar and K. McCarthy doesn't have the integrity to call out even the worst fraudulent actors in a House that is there to serve We The People. We must continue to write, speak, and bring awareness to how low many of our 'leaders' have fallen, so it isn't further normalized. And, Yes. we must never give up for better gun legislation. Thank You for your informative and inspiring newsletters -together we can make a difference, as you have today. Best to you, Lisa -rural Montana

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Thank you, Lisa.

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We’ve all got to do a better job of educating our family, friends and on any public platform of what path strengthens our democracy and which one eventually leads to less freedom of speech and choice.

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About Santos & McCarthy - takes one to know one. KM is disgrace to 'honest' politics, if there is such a thing.

As for another mass shooting, IL governor & legislature passed assault weapons ban. Being challenged by of all grps, a few County sherriffs. Will not take away what you already have, just requires registration.

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Steve: well said, as usual! Do you know of any polling org that has dug deeply in the attitudes of moderate, business oriented Rs as to the party's embrace of Santos? Is he and his corruption an "avenue" to persuade them that the party they have probably embraced for their entire life is no longer and that at least, on a case by case basis, it is permisible to vote for a rational D rather than an confirmed election denier? We can't let them get away with Kevin needs the Santos vote BS! It is a matter of institutional integrity and he could have denied him any committees, and officially "censured" him as he stood in the Well of the House; or instantly called the Ethics Committee to consider expelling him? As you know, of course, it's been done before and if Santos was a D, all three actions would have been firmly underway by now! Thanks again for your ethical leadership.

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Thank you, Ira. You ask a good question, but I’m not aware of such a poll.

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With Santos' lies being so numerous, blatant and disprovable, I'm surprised and disappointed that the Dems in NY didn't uncover and publicize any of this before he was elected. And of course the Republicans wouldn't want to know...

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I read the NYT article today about Elise Stefanik fund-raising for him these last few years - did she know about his lies and did it anyway? Did she NOT know about the lies which means NO ONE vetted this guy. I want to know if he is even a citizen - if they can question if Obama is a citizen then I can question if Santos or whatever his name is, is a citizen. This is just a travesty and just proved that anyone, literally can pull the wool over anyone’s eyes in the pursuit of power..

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The money, or promise thereof, must be breathtaking.

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With Kevin McCarthy (whom I compare to Joseph McCarthy as neither has or had any sense of shame), Greene, Gaetz, Gosar, Hawley and of course, the mother of all crooks and liars, donald trump, is it any wonder a George Santos makes an appearance. He is a Republican vote, so accepted. He will probably get half an hour instead of 15 minutes.

Guns and covid are competing to see which can harm, kill the most people. In 2023 so far, covid cases total almost 102K with 1,100 deaths, Oh, but it is decreasing,, no need to take precautions. Tell to a child who has lost a parent. But don't wear a mask, DeSantis has outlawed them. Guns-36 mass shootings. in the past 3 weeks. There are 120.5 guns for every 100 people. No one is willing to become a profile in courage. Sorry so many are getting killed/hurt, but yea Kyle Rittenhouse.

While there are still upstanding people, so many are not. America has gone kerfuffle.

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Well written; and I zero in on this line from your last paragraph "just the latest expression of a nation learning to live with corruption on steroids." This is so sad. This is not what our country was when I was growing up. As a teenager, my first involvement in the political news of the day was the Kennedy/Nixon election, and the close JFK victory. I know there were those who said dead people voted in Chicago and that gave JFK the victory; and I didn't like that. However, where we are now is truly corruption on steroids as you said. As a teenager, and even through my activist years during college and grad school and beyond, I looked to those who served in government as honorable public officials. I had my political leanings; but I could have a fair fight/disagreement with those who supported the other political party. Now that doesn't happen because the other political party doesn't play by any rules which would allow for meaningful discussion. Lying has become the norm; and Santos is the epitome of that norm. The former president must be proud of how his MO has caught on with this upstart from NY3. That the new speaker fails to address these lies doesn't surprise me. I'm sad to say that; but we have seen how is MO is political expediency. He will take any position that will get him into power, keep himself in power and ingratiate him with the former president. When Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin and John Hancock and the others signed that Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, and when other statesmen drafted and then adopted the Constitution (1789, I think, I defer to the real historians in this group), I don't think this is the country or the government they envisioned. As if all of this wasn't depressing enough, today as I sat down to lunch, the lead story on MSNBC was that MTG is positioning herself to be VP candidate on the 2024 ticket with the former president who is running again. (though I'm hoping he will be indicted in GA soon which could derails those plans - I was also hoping for an indictment by the DOJ; but I'm sort of giving up on that. The whole situation has gotten so messy). Could there be any those worse than a president 45 redux and a vp MTG !!!!!! So, as I think of my future senior years, I see lots of disappointment. I just feel really sad that our country has come to this. And, of course, as in your postscript, the gun violence situation is so totally unacceptable, horrendous, outrageous, and add a few adjectives of your own. Again, this is not the USA that I thought I would be living in. This is not the USA that any of us should be living in. However, the GOP have no interest in stopping gun violence either. They fear losing votes from gun owners and fear losing money from the gun lobby and the NRA more than they fear innocent people being killed while celebrating a cultural holiday at a neighborhood dance hall, or the next day just doing their jobs at a farm. It's a grey day here in NJ, going from snow to rain to just clouds. However, the weather will change. But we don't know if the sad state of our government and GOP elected officials will change.

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Just one more egregious, over the top performance from the party of liars, con artists, snowflakes, and grievances. We should not be surprised. But we should continue to be outraged. Today’s GOP is like a traveling carnival of whatever “performance entertainment” appeals to the masses as an opiate to make them feel good while taking all other avenues of living well away (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, SNAP, unemployment insurance, FEMA, etc). All in the name of grabbing power and then pointing to their favorite scapegoats by race, religion, skin color, sexual orientation as the reason their Medicare, Medicaid, SSI, UI, etc have disappeared. There is no sense of public service or governance in that party. Just take as much as you can and hold on to power.

If it were not so serious, it would be downright comical to have so many ignorant, poorly educated, uninformed be grifted by their “equals” who only have the advantage of some skill to convince them to give them their money. It is a cross between brainwashing and a marketing ponzi scheme.

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We've got to reach out to the swingers nationwide

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