As it turns out, Jared Kushner may be on his way out the door at the White House, and all because of something he has no control of. According to a Thursday report from CNN, Kushner's security clearance - something that's legally required in order to work in the West Wing - isn't just being held up by the nearly 40 revisions he's entered for his paperwork due to irregularities in financial and conflict of interest disclosures.
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hortly after President Joe Biden's inauguration on Wednesday, a friend told me he was worried. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was smiling way too much during the ceremony, he said, and it made him nervous. The sight of a smiling McConnell, after all, is like seeing a smiling Ted Bundy: It should immediately make you wonder where the bodies are buried.
<p>Sure enough, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/01/22/can-democrats-hold-the-line-schumer-may-rebuff-mcconnell-on-filibuster-in-first-power-sharing-salvo/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">McConnell wasted no time launching his evil scheme</a> to maintain control of the Senate after losing his Republican majority.</p><p>On Thursday, McConnell kicked off the newly Democratically-controlled Senate's first filibuster, not of legislation nor appointments, but <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/21/politics/senate-filibuster-democrats-republicans-power-sharing/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">of even starting the business of the Senate by assigning committee spots</a>. He demanded that Democrats take the elimination of the filibuster off the table completely before commencing with the basic business of the upper chamber. <a href="https://twitter.com/LeaderMcConnell/status/1352317412226568198" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">He justified the move by pompously declaring</a>, "Minority rights on legislation are key to the Senate" and disingenuously appealing to tradition. </p><p>This is complete and total nonsense offered with the utmost bad faith, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D.-Mass., pointed out. "Mitch McConnell was fine with getting rid of the filibuster to a United States Supreme Court nominee for a lifetime appointment, but he's not okay getting rid of the filibuster for unemployment relief for families that are out of work because of COVID-19," Warren told CNN. "I've just had enough of Mitch McConnell."</p><p>Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, agreed, reminding the Republican leader: "We won the Senate. We get the gavels."</p>
<div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="39b8f6158a081bf5be42cdcd193bbb2e" id="c9b16"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1352309652235702273"><div style="margin:1em 0">McConnell is threatening to filibuster the Organizing Resolution which allows Democrats to assume the committee Cha… https://t.co/UW2byneSYy</div> — Brian Schatz (@Brian Schatz)<a href="https://twitter.com/brianschatz/statuses/1352309652235702273">1611250720.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>That McConnell is filibustering before Senate business even begins should serve as the surest sign that his strategy going in is to obstruct everything the thin Democratic majority wants to do, tank the ability of the government to serve the people, and force Biden's presidency into failure. This is what McConnell did to Barack Obama, working under the almost certainly correct theory that people blame government failures not on the Republicans who caused them, but the Democrat in the White House. <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/12/02/mitch-mcconnells-campaign-to-sabotage-bidens-presidency-begins-in-earnest/" target="_blank">And that's clearly what McConnell intends to do this time around</a>.</p><p><span></span>The only solution is to take the filibuster debate off the table completely, not by agreeing to let the filibuster stand, but by killing the filibuster off completely, right here and now. McConnell's favorite tool for obstruction needs to be taken away from him.</p>
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Bill Maher goes after Lauren Boebert and QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on 'Real Time'
January 22, 2021
HBO "Real Time" host Bill Maher has a segment he plays at the end of the election where he says "goodbye douchebags."
Maher decided that it would be better to start introducing his audience to "nuts" before they face the voters for re-election.
<p>On Friday night's show, Maher blasted Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) during the insult-filled skit.</p><p>Maher said even strippers were more informed about government than Tuberville.</p><p>As for Cawthorn, Maher said he had "thrown up Scotch older than this prick."<br/></p><p>Greene was described as "the true mayor of crazytown."</p><p>Watch:</p><p><br/></p>
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<span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="560ebbdd96fbb051689be643937feea0" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" type="lazy-iframe" scrolling="no" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2t8ksSc4GHQ?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Hello Douchebags</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t8ksSc4GHQ" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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'Insanity': Experts shocked by '100% bonkers' NYT story on Trump's DOJ coup attempt
January 22, 2021
Experts were stunned by the bombshell report in The New York Times on Donald Trump's scheme to oust his acting Attorney General in an effort to overturn the 2020 election.
"The Justice Department's top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President Donald J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department's power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results," NYT correspondent Katie Benner reported Friday evening.
<p>"The unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster Mr. Trump's continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Mr. Rosen had refused the president's entreaties to carry out those plans, Mr. Trump was about to decide whether to fire Mr. Rosen and replace him with Mr. Clark," the newspaper reported. "The department officials, convened on a conference call, then asked each other: What will you do if Mr. Rosen is dismissed? The answer was unanimous. They would resign."</p><p>"Their informal pact ultimately helped persuade Mr. Trump to keep Mr. Rosen in place, calculating that a furor over mass resignations at the top of the Justice Department would eclipse any attention on his baseless accusations of voter fraud. Mr. Trump's decision came only after Mr. Rosen and Mr. Clark made their competing cases to him in a bizarre White House meeting that two officials compared with an episode of Mr. Trump's reality show "The Apprentice," albeit one that could prompt a constitutional crisis," Benner reported.</p><p>Following publication, <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/trump-doj/" target="_blank">Benner appeared on MSNBC's "All In"</a> with Chris Hayes.</p>
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<span class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="48eb4174d3580daefa2d4525e2036751" style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="auto" type="lazy-iframe" scrolling="no" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-_pmVpV9DD8?rel=0" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;" width="100%"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Katie Benner</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_pmVpV9DD8&feature=emb_logo" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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<p>Many were stunned by the report.</p><p>"Don't know what to say. I guess there was, I dunno, an almost-coup at DOJ so that this man no one really knew outside of the department could send a letter to Georgia politicians to stop the steal," is how Benner <a href="https://twitter.com/ktbenner/status/1352779951049682947" target="_blank">summed up</a> the story on Twitter.</p><p>"Insanity!" is how veteran reporter Dan Rather <a href="https://twitter.com/DanRather/status/1352810138965405697" target="_blank">described</a> it.</p><p>Former FBI Special Agent Asha Rangappa analyzed the story from the perspective of Trump's upcoming impeachment trial.</p><p>"A key point in this piece: Trump was deterred by the possibility that there could be political consequences, and "recriminations." Evidence that not convicting him the first time made him feel invincible, and that impeaching him again was 100% the right move," Rangappa <a href="https://twitter.com/AshaRangappa_/status/1352790171159130112" target="_blank">argued</a>.</p><p>The reporter received an outpouring of support from her colleagues.</p><p>"When [Benner] first told me about this story even I was stunned after 4 years of covering the Trump Administration. This coda is one for the history books," NYT correspondent Adam Goldman <a href="https://twitter.com/adamgoldmanNYT/status/1352781770639421440" target="_blank">tweeted</a>.</p><p>NYT reporter Mark Mazzzetti <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkMazzettiNYT/status/1352782494530211843" target="_blank">praised</a> the "amazing reporting" and described the story as "100% bonkers."</p><p>There were also the inevitable Watergate and Richard Nixon comparisons.</p><p>"SHADES OF NIXON'S SATURDAY NIGHT MASSACRE! I know you want to put Trump in the past--what sane person doesn't?--but READ THIS. Trump's despicable scheme to overthrow the election was broader than we knew," U.Va professor Larry Sabato <a href="https://twitter.com/LarrySabato/status/1352816971931398144" target="_blank">said</a>.</p><p>Conservative pundit Bill Kriston said it was worse than Watergate.</p><p>"When Barr left Dec. 23, I said I was alarmed about Trump and DOJ, and I wasn't confident Rosen would stand up to illegal efforts by Trump. Rosen did, and deserves credit for doing so. But what Trump tried to have DOJ do was worse than anything Nixon tried," Kristol <a href="https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1352798248428253189" target="_blank">charged</a>.</p><p><br/></p><p><br/></p><p><br/></p><p><br/></p><p><br/></p><p><br/></p><p><br/></p>
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