Payback Time: Establishment Dems Ambush AOC, Denying Her Prized Energy Committee Position

Legal Insurrection

“I’m taking into account who works against other members in primaries and who doesn’t,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) reportedly said prior to the vote to award the key committee position to Rep. Kathleen Rice over Ocasio-Cortez." 

"Freshman New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was snubbed Thursday during a private Democrat committee meeting held to decide a key House Energy and Commerce Committee seat, and it wasn’t even a close vote.

"According to Politico, Ocasio-Cortez lost out to fellow NY Rep. Kathleen Rice in a 46-13 vote, and at points during the run-up to the vote, tensions ran high:

Just before the Steering Committee moved to vote on the Energy and Commerce slots, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team presented a slate of their preferred candidates for four out of the five seats.

But notably, top Democrats did not choose a nominee for the final seat, which is essentially reserved for a New York member — forcing Rice and Ocasio-Cortez into a head-to-head matchup.

The panel launched into an intense round of speeches on each candidate, with several Democrats speaking up to lobby against Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman member and social media star who is seen as a political threat by many of the caucus’s moderates for her far-left policies.

"The piece also noted that some Democrats who took part in the video conference call spoke against AOC by pointing out that she supported primary challengers to their re-election campaigns:

On the video call, several Democrats called out Ocasio-Cortez’s efforts to help liberal challengers take out their own incumbents, as well as her refusal to pay party campaign dues.

“I’m taking into account who works against other members in primaries and who doesn’t,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) said on the call, according to multiple sources. Cuellar successfully fended off a primary challenge from Jessica Cisneros, who Ocasio-Cortez supported.

. . .  

Gov. Northam, It’s Not Up to You to Tell People of Faith How They Can Worship

Jake Lambert   "During a press conference Thursday, Gov. Ralph Northam, D-Va., took it upon himself to tell the faithful not only how they should worship, but also shamed them for wanting to worship with fellow believers. 

“ 'The holidays are typically times of joy and community. We gather together, we celebrate our faith, and we celebrate with family,” Northam said during the press conference. 

"The Democrat governor of Virginia went on to say that people of faith don’t need to be in a church to worship God. 

“ 'But this year we need to think about what is truly the most important thing. Is it the worship or the building? For me, God is wherever you are. You don’t have to sit in the church pew for God to hear your prayers. Worship with a mask on is still worship,” he said. “Worship outside or worship online is still worship.”

"Here’s the thing—it’s more than OK for Northam to share how he chooses to worship. 

"But, the governor of Virginia, or any other politician for that matter, has no business telling others how to worship. " . . .   Source material can be found at this site.

Human Rights Campaign Wants Christian Schools to Abandon Beliefs or Lose Accreditation

"The Human Rights Campaign—a large, influential LGBTQ advocacy group— recently released a policy brief with recommendations for a Biden administration, and the suggestions are alarming."

Russian truther Swalwell steps in it big time with attempted dig at Trump, GOP: ‘Fang Fang says what?’

Tony Branco

BPR  "Rep. Eric Swalwell was mocked online earlier this week for criticizing Republicans and President Donald Trump in the wake of reports that Russian hackers had penetrated key U.S. government systems, likely for some time.

“ 'While Republicans are losing their minds on Trump Island, the United States Government is being hacked. Anyone want to tell the President? Maybe, I don’t know, protect our country and the businesses affected?” the California Democrat wrote on Thursday." . . .

"As for Swalwell, his comment comes amid a scandal of his own involving a Chinese spy known as Fang Fang, a.k.a. Christine Fang, with who he is suspected of also having had a romantic relationship. Republicans have grown increasingly concerned about it because the California Democrat who frequently pushed the baseless Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy is a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

"Following a briefing on the matter by the FBI, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said flatly, “Swalwell should no longer be on the Intel Committee.”

"But it was his focus on the Russian hacking that earned Swalwell mocking scorn from several users online." . . .   Full article.

Kayleigh McEnany says she’ll ‘never forget’ life-changing day cops showed at her door

" White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation that she was doxxed earlier this year during the riots.

"McEnany discussed with the DCNF’s Mary Margaret Olohan at the White House on Wednesday how her life has changed since she entered her role as press secretary in April 2020. The press secretary said she would “never forget” a day when she was at home, shortly after assuming her role in President Donald Trump’s White House, and a policeman showed up at her door.

"The policeman reportedly told her, “Hey, I need to check in on you, we heard there were some rioters that were targeting your home,” McEnany told Olohan. She added that she then found out that her “address had been put up on social media.”

'“I had been targeted in that way,” she said.

" 'I lately get three a.m. phone calls from unknown numbers, and listen to the voicemails, and they are targeting, harassing messages,” the press secretary added. “It’s really unfortunate. I don’t think anyone deserves that whether you are on the right, whether you are on the left, we should have civility in this country, and it’s unfortunate that just wanting to serve your country means that you’re targeted with threats of that nature.” . . .

Ghislaine Maxwell And Her Husband Offer $28.5M Bail Package

 Noisy Room

"NYP: Jeffrey Epstein’s accused madam Ghislaine Maxwell has proposed a $28.5 million bail package — that represents all of her and her husband’s assets — in a desperate bid to spring her from federal lockup, according to a new motion unsealed Monday.

"The suggested package is “exceptional in its scope and puts at risk everything that Ms. Maxwell has — all of her and her spouse’s assets, her family’s livelihood, and the financial security of her closest friends and family — if she were to flee, which she has no intention of doing,” wrote her lawyer Mark Cohen.

"Although her spouse’s name is redacted from the documents, his identity has been widely reported as tech CEO Scott Borgerson.

"The package is composed of a $22.5 million bond co-signed by her and her husband, according to the motion that was filed under seal on Dec. 4." . . .

Laughable: Joe Biden plans to lecture Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro about the virtues of free and fair elections

Monica Showalter  "Free and fair elections?  From a guy whose presidential "victory" was sealed with Venezuelan Smartmatic technology?  Oh, this is going to be a good one, hearing Maduro's response.

"Maduro, like Biden, insists that all was free and fair with the elections in his country.  He's in there despite the shambles he's made of his country, yet somehow Venezuelans can't get enough of him, electing him and his party for six consecutive terms.

"That's garbage.  Venezuela's elections since 2004 have all been plagued by allegations of and considerable proof of fraud.  The fraud is forensic, it's statistical, it's in total ballots cast, and it's in the declarations of disinterested international observers.  It's also visible in the behavior of Venezuela's voters, huge numbers of whom don't bother to vote anymore.

"Now Joe Biden's going to fix things in Venezuela by offering Maduro a deal — an end to U.S. sanctions in exchange for free and fair elections? 

"Maduro is going to be laughing up his sleeve.

"We all know what Biden thinks of free and fair elections, yelling about "threats to democracy" with every successive challenge to his "presidency" and making his first big post–Electoral College vote speech arguing that he somehow legitimately "won."

"Can you imagine Biden, whose coming "presidency" is going to be asterisked forever with allegations of election fraud, telling a guy like Maduro that he's got to hold "free and fair" elections?

"Maduro would laugh in his face." . . .

Must We Respect a Fraudulent President?   . . . "In the long months leading up to the election there was little doubt as to whom the people preferred.  Donald Trump’s rallies drew tens of thousands, while  Biden’s mustered up a few dozen, if that many.

"And then came the election itself.

"By now the allegations of voter fraud -- and accompanying evidence -- are well known.  There are the statistical impossibilities arising from late-night ballot dumps.  The official observers who were prevented from watching.  The corruption was made possible by mail-in balloting.  And then there is the matter of Dominion Voting Systems machines. " . . .

Must We Respect a Fraudulent President?  . . . "In the long months leading up to the election there was little doubt as to whom the people preferred.  Donald Trump’s rallies drew tens of thousands, while  Biden’s mustered up a few dozen, if that many.

"And then came the election itself." . . .

The real Biden speaks

Anony Mee ''During the campaign season, it was something of a game to see what would happen when Joe Biden went off script.  The joke becomes less funny when we realize that, off-script, Biden's default setting is mean — and that this mean man will be America's representative in important, stressful situations both at home and abroad.

"If he really is president-elect, the whole world will hang on Joe Biden's words.  If President Trump is unable to secure an immediate second term, in about a month, Biden will occupy the most powerful position in the most exceptional country in the world.  Every utterance will be dissected, parsed, scrutinized, imbued with meaning, and probably cause the occasional bar fight.  But as Andrea Widburg reminds us, Joe Biden is weird, racist, disconnected, and drooling.  He's all that, and it all comes out of his mouth. 

"Reading from the teleprompter, as long as it moves at the correct speed for him at that moment, he sometimes sounds okay — a bit robotic, totally scripted, but okay.  Trying to recite from memory or engage in a logical train of thought on his own, though, Biden often falls into the argy-bargy.  It's awful listening to him trying to claw his way from there into rationality." . . .