NATIONAL GOURMET COFFEE DAY UPDATES

In Which Kevin McCarthy Busts Out The MAGA Sorting Hat

-Committee assignments for the House of Representatives were announced on the Republican side, and the scope of the deals that Kevin McCarthy (SINO-CA) made for the job became apparent, particularly in committees that UltraMAGA representatives got – no more so than in the roster of Republicans that are part of the so-called House Committee on Oversight and Reform. That Committee, whose number one goal according to new Chair Rep. James Comer (HunteR!, KY) is to investigate the Biden Administration for anything, has (according to The Recount), 11 members who refused to certify President Biden’s 2020 elction win (and three new House members who would have done the same), three that allegedly threatened Democratic colleagues, two that spoke at white nationalist rallies, two others that sought pardons for their actions on January 6, and one who has an active lawsuit against radio talk show host Bubba the Love Sponge over an accusation that said member is or is not a witch.

-And that doesn’t even count the most prominent member, GOP party leader Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Z-Q-R, GA) – who not only is on the Oversight Committee (where presumably she will be watching for the religious origin of space-based lasers), but also got a prominent position on the Homeland Security Committee. That assignment is particularly ironic given that the Committee was first created after the September 11 terrorist attacks – and Green has been on the record questioning whether THOSE attacks happened or were “inside jobs” created by the Government. Greene now is on a Committee that is supposed to conduct oversight on keeping America safer.

-Meanwhile, McCarthy has begun his retaliatory actions against prominent Democrats, with a particular focus on Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). Swalwell, a frequent and sardonic critic of GOP and MAGA actions, was once involved with a woman who eventually was shown to have connections with Chinese intelligence services – and, as three separate FBI investigations confirmed, Swalwell immediately ended the relationship after being told, with no breaches of security reported. Nonetheless, McCarthy used that relationship to stop McCarthy from being on the House Intelligence Committee by claiming “If you’ve seen what I’ve seen you’d keep him off the Committee too” (even though in other interviews McCarthy openly admits the real reason for denying Swalwell the position is political) – and right-wing media sites continue to flog the disproven claim as being true while reporting on this story.

-It is not expected that McCarthy or the House Oversight Committee will move to try to remove Republicans from committees who may have interacted with known Russian operatives such as Maria Buttina that had widely-reported sexual relationships with at least one prominent GOP fundraiser (not to mention former NRA Spokesmouth Wayne LaPierre) or intends to investigate how a Russian woman with ties to the Russian mafia (and therefore potentially Putin) claimed to be a member of the Rothschild family and successfully infiltrated Mar-a-Lago at a time when ultra-sensitive documents were on the grounds and got so deep that she played a round of golf with (and got a photo on the course with) Ex-President Trump and his handmaiden, Sen. Lindsay Graham (VapoRs, SC).

-And if you think THAT’S bad, well, I’m afraid there’s the ugliest story yet that has emerged involving “Rep.” “George Santos” (“R”. “NY”). Multiple news services are now reporting that in 2016, “Santos” (using his other known name, “Anthony Devolder”) heard of a story of a US veteran whose dog needed surgery to remove a cancerous tumor to save the dog’s life, and set up a GoFundMe to raise money for the surgery. $3,000 was raised and the money was collected – but the money was collected by “Santos/Devolder” and never got to the veteran. The veteran’s dog did not get the surgery and died. “Santos” has denied the story to Fox, of course, and instead busied himself after McCarthy gave him seats on two House Committees, further making his potential expulsion by the GOP less likely given the five-vote margin they must nurture to try to bring the world economy to potential disaster unless draconian cuts are made to government programs they do not like.

-On this date in 1803, Thomas Jefferson approve of funding for an expedition westward to be led by Merriwether Lewis and William Clark. On this date in 1919, negotiations began to end World War I. On this date in 1974, THE SIX MILION DOLLAR MAN premiered on ABC (back when that was a lot of money). On this date in 1983, Jim Thorpe’s Olympic Gold Medals were reinstated to his family. And on this date in 1996, regular-season interleague games were approved by Major League Baseball.

-Happy Birthday to Peter Mark Roget, Daniel Webster, A.A. Milne, Oliver Hardy, Cary Grant, Danny Kaye, Bob Bell, Ray Dolby, Curt Flood, Bobby Goldsboro, David Ruffin, Rep. Elijah Cummings, Ted DiBiase, Frankie Knuckles, Kevin Costner, Mark Rylance, Mark Messier, Dave Attell, Dave Bautista, Jesse L. Martin, Pep Guardiola, Jason Segal, and Julius Peppers.

-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to John Tyler, Rudyard Kipling, Curly Howard, Sydney Greenstreet, Malcolm Kerr, Wilfrid Brambell, Ron Luciano, Minnesota Fats, Georgia Frontiere, John Stroger, Kate McGarrigle, Sargent Shriver, Glenn Frey, Johnny Bach, and Don Sutton.

-Feed the Worms: Ponzi scheme creator Carlo Ponzi (appropriate) bought it on this date.