Mostly Monday Reads: Extra! Extra! Read All About it! Gaetz did the Deed!

You’ve heard of Elf on a Shelf… spotted at Mars-a-Lago.
@johnbuss.bsky.social

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Nothing like starting up the traditional Crassmass Season with the release of the Matt Gaetz Ethics Report. That ought to Deck your Halls!  Here’s the CNN Headline. “House Ethics report finds evidence Matt Gaetz paid thousands for sex and drugs, including paying a 17-year-old for sex in 2017.”  Nothing like being a Perv with a Special Purpose.  It also looks pretty pathetic.

The House Ethics Committee found evidence that former Rep. Matt Gaetz paid tens of thousands of dollars to women for sex or drugs on at least 20 occasions, including paying a 17-year-old girl for sex in 2017, according to the panel’s report on the Florida Republican released Monday.

The committee concluded in its bombshell document that Gaetz violated Florida state laws, including the state’s statutory rape law, as the GOP-led panel chose to take the rare step of releasing a report about a former member who resigned from Congress.

“The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” panel investigators wrote.

The panel investigated transactions Gaetz personally made, often using PayPal or Venmo, to more than a dozen women during his time in Congress, according to the report. Investigators also focused on a 2018 trip to the Bahamas – which they said “violated the House gift rule” – during which he “engaged in sexual activity” with multiple women, including one who described the trip itself as “the payment” for sex on the trip. On the same trip, he also took ecstasy, one woman on the trip told the committee.

Earlier this month, the House Ethics Committee secretly voted to release its report after initially voting against doing so. The vote to put out the report – which was opposed by panel Chairman Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican – was the culmination of a years-long probe into allegations surrounding Gaetz. He was President-elect Donald Trump’s first pick to be attorney general but dropped out amid opposition from GOP senators and after CNN reported key details of this same ethics report.

And it’s a political jolt that could have reverberations for years to come, as the Capitol Hill panel takes aim at a long-time Trump loyalist and now conservative anchor at One America Network.

Gaetz filed a civil complaint in federal court Monday morning unsuccessfully seeking to halt the release of the report, claiming he was not notified of the panel’s plans to release the report nor was he provided copies of the materials.

Nothing says Family Values Republican like a police report for out-of-wedlock perviness!  You may read the Committee Statement here.

President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences for about 40 Federal Inmates today.  This is from the AP. “Biden gives life in prison to 37 of 40 federal death row inmates before Trump can resume executions.”

President Joe Biden on Monday announced that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office.

The move spares the lives of people convicted in killings, including the slayings of police and military officers, people on federal land and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, as well as the killings of guards or prisoners in federal facilities.

It means just three federal inmates continue to face execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of life Synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history.

“I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement. “Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”

Reaction to the president’s end-of-year act of clemency was strong, particularly among those who were victimized by Roof.

Michael Graham, whose sister Cynthia Hurd was killed by Roof, wants him to die for his crimes and was thankful Biden kept him on death row. He said Roof’s lack of remorse and simmering white nationalism in the U.S. means he is the kind of dangerous and evil person the death penalty is intended for.

“This was a crime against a race of people who were doing something all Americans do on a Wednesday night – go to Bible study,” Graham said. “It didn’t matter who was there, only that they were Black.”

So, the Soap Opera Drama “Daze of President-Eject Incontinentia Buttocks” continues to find the front page of the nation’s legacy media. This is from NBC News. “GOP congressman says it feels like Elon Musk is ‘our prime minister.’ Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, told CBS News on Sunday that he spoke to the tech billionaire multiple times during negotiations for the funding package. Does this mean we’re going to have a queen?  Gonzales was on Meet the Press.

Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, on Sunday compared tech mogul Elon Musk to a “prime minister,” praising Musk for speaking out against an early version of a stopgap funding bill last week.

“It’s kind of interesting,” Gonzales said during an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “We have a president, we have a vice president, we have a speaker. It feels like as if Elon Musk is our prime minister.”

Gonzales added that he spoke with Musk “a couple of times” during a chaotic week for House Republicans as GOP leadership scrambled to pull together a package to fund the government that would garner support from a majority of the House GOP caucus.

Gonzales voted against the final version of a continuing resolution that passed the House late Friday night and was later signed Saturday by President Joe Biden. The package funds the government at current levels through March 14 and includes a one-year farm bill and $100 billion in disaster aid.

Gonzales continued to praise Musk’s influence on the funding process, even as moderator Margaret Brennan pointed out that Musk has not been elected to any formal position in the U.S. government.

“Well, unelected, but, I mean, he has a voice, and I think a lot of —large part of that voice is a reflection of the voice of the people,” Gonzales said.

I have no idea how many people think Elon Musk reflects their lives, feelings, or voices. He’s a billionaire Buffon from a rich South African family of Apartheid enthusiasts. CNN reports that All he ever hears is Musk did that! Musk! Musk! Musk! And he’s getting close to not taking it anymore! “Trump bristles at Musk’s rocketing profile as Democrats play on the president-elect’s vanity.”

“No, he’s not taking the presidency,” Trump told conservative activists at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix. The president-elect insisted he liked having smart people around and accused his opponents of launching “a new kick” after he suggested they tried to delegitimize his first term over “Russia, Russia, Russia.” Trump added: “No, he’s not going to be president, that I can tell you. And I’m safe, you know why? He can’t be — he wasn’t born in this country.”

Trump’s comments suggested at the very least that the constant coverage of Musk’s role has caught his eye and that he resents the idea that his new best friend is the power behind the throne. They will also stoke fresh speculation over how long the president-elect, who doesn’t normally like to share any spotlight, will tolerate Musk’s soaring profile — even if both men have huge incentives to continue a friendship that has seen the tech pioneer almost constantly at Trump’s side at Mar-a-Lago since the election.

The article continues with the new legacy media talking-point that “He’s seen as a hero to many Americans.”  I guess I run in the wrong circles. Again, the consensus in my circle of friends and family is that he’s a buffoon and wouldn’t be anywhere if he hadn’t inherited money.  The man only has a BA in Engineering. You can’t even get paid to build a model rocket with those credentials.  He obviously just buys his brains in the labor market like the rest of them.

Texas shows us once again that young women should find the next plane out of their ASAP. This is from Talking Points Memo. “Anti-Abortion Officials Continue Deputizing Angry Men To Turn Over Their Partners In New Legal Foray.”

A 20-year-old woman in Collin County, Texas arrives at the emergency room to address severe bleeding. A health care provider tells the man she’s with that the woman had been nine weeks pregnant.

“The biological father of the unborn child, upon learning this information, concluded that the biological mother of the unborn child had intentionally withheld information from him regarding her pregnancy, and he further suspected that the biological mother had in fact done something to contribute to the miscarriage or abortion of the unborn child,” a lawsuit, filed earlier this month by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), reads. “The biological father, upon returning to the residence in Collin County, discovered the two above-referenced medications from Carpenter.”

The man, according to the suit, searched a house — the suit does not specify whether the woman or man or both live there — to find evidence that the woman, who had not told him about her pregnancy, had taken mifepristone and misoprostol. From there, and the suit does not detail how, Paxton’s office learned about this situation — the test case he’s been searching for to challenge blue-state abortion shield laws.

The Texan woman was prescribed the medication, the suit alleges, by New York Dr. Maggie Carpenter via telehealth. The state is now suing Carpenter for practicing medicine in Texas without a license.

Experts have been predicting these interjurisdictional clashes for years, ever since Dobbs fell. Many red states immediately enforced anti-abortion regimes, while blue states spun up shield laws to protect their resident patients and providers from those red states’ punishments. Many shield states, including New York, specifically protect abortion providers from out-of-state investigations and prosecutions.

Anti-abortion crusaders like Paxton have been itching for a test case like this one, to probe the murky legal questions around these state-on-state clashes. But he had to wait for a case to fall in his lap — in this case, like many other abortion ones in Texas specifically, by way of a vengeful man eager to turn over his female partner.

“This case was not brought by a woman who said she was harmed, it was brought by a man who supposedly had sex with her and is trying to control what she does,” David Cohen, professor at Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline law school, told TPM.

So, yeah, some guy I've never seen before who is sitting at a table across from us in a coffee shop just took it upon himself to (incorrectly) correct my daughter's pronunciation of a word. 2025 is going to be fun.

— Joyce White Vance (@joycewhitevance.bsky.social) 2024-12-23T16:16:45.366Z

Has anyone done a study on these cis men who think they rule women’s lives and minds yet?  Another privileged white guy is testing the theory about who exactly can get away with murder. This is from NBC News.  “Luigi Mangione pleads not guilty to N.Y. state charges in killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO. The Ivy League-educated suspect is accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian  Thompson on a Midtown Manhattan sidewalk.”

Luigi Mangione pleaded not guilty Monday to New York state charges in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, as his defense complained about police parading him in “perp walks” that are “perfectly choreographed, utterly political.”

Mangione wore a white shirt under a maroon sweater and light colored pants in his arraignment before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro.

Manhattan prosecutors last week unsealed an 11-count indictment against Mangione, charging him with a host of crimes connected to the Dec. 4 slaying.

The allegations include first-degree murder, an act of terrorism, criminal possession of a weapon and forgery for using a fake ID in the days before the murder.

Mangione pleaded not guilty to all charges during the short hearing, in which he conferred with defense lawyer Karen Agnifilo and prison consultant Craig Rothfeld, who works with defendants on confinement issues.

Mangione appeared to be fully engaged with his defense team on Monday as they signed various papers pertaining to the defendant’s current federal incarceration at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Carro ordered Mangione to remain in custody, in lieu of $1 bail.

That $1 bail set by Carro was a perfunctory act, since Mangione is being held in federal custody without bail, and has no realistic chance of freedom until trial.

I have questions about the ‘terrorism’ charges.  How does killing one guy equate to something like the Mother Emmanuel shooting? Is it just because white CEO men all over the country feel they are targeted now for being in the persecuted minority group of assholes?  I don’t get it. This is from PBS.

At a news conference announcing the state charges last Tuesday, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said the application of the terrorism law reflected the severity of a “frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation.”

“In its most basic terms, this was a killing that was intended to evoke terror,” he added. “And we’ve seen that reaction.”

Karen Friedman Agnifilo, an attorney for Mangione, has accused federal and state prosecutors of advancing conflicting legal theories. In federal court last week, she called their approach “very confusing” and “highly unusual.”

So, I start my winter break tomorrow and will enjoy having nothing on my schedule except my time. It’s cold here with temperatures we usually don’t see except for a few weeks in January, so I called my sister and asked her to ship any warm sweats, flannel pjs, and long-sleeve shirts she’s broken in and doesn’t use anymore.  I hope it’s not like last year when we didn’t get snow, but it felt like it could hit us any moment for a few months.  I’m also preparing for my debut as a member of the Crazy Cat Ladies of Bywater in the Krewe de Fou. It’s a new krewe, and we parade on January 31st.  I’ll have to get my craft on.  If the resident paw owners agree, I’m considering making Plaster of Paris Cat paw imprint necklaces. I’ll paint, glitter, and bead them up!

I hope this week goes well for you if you celebrate the normal holidays or not.  The days after Winter Solstice are always good for peace, staying home, and reflection.  I also like the eating part of the holiday season and spending time with the people I love. But my mind will be on Twelfth Night and King Cake by January 5th. That’s when the party gets started here, and the costuming is fun!  So, you take care of yourselves, whatever plans you’ve made!

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?