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‘First Man on the Moon’: Internet Explodes in Laughter and Anger as George Santos Lands Seat on Committee Overseeing NASA

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Freshman New York Republican Congressman George Santos has been handed two committee assignments, including one on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, which oversees NASA.

MSNBC’s Ryan Nobles reports Santos, who is seen by many as a serial liar and is under investigation on multiple fronts, also landed a seat on the House Small Business Committee. Nobles reports Speaker Kevin McCarthy defended allowing the New York Republican two seats, citing “protocol.”

According to its government website, the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology has broad jurisdiction across many areas. Some could pose potential national security risks.

The committee has jurisdiction over all research and development in critical areas including energy, astronautical and outer space, civil aviation, the environment, marine research, commercial application of energy technology, and standardization of weights and measures and the metric system.

READ MORE: McCarthy Runs Defense for Santos

In addition to NASA it also oversees the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Science Foundation, and the National Weather Service.

Last week Santos suggested he would like to sit on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, promising that he was a “workhorse.”

Incoming new chair of the Small Business Committee, Rep. Roger Williams, appeared to attempt to normalize Santos by claiming, “he represents a million people.” That’s false. Current Census projections show Santos represents about 746,000 people.

On social media reactions went from anger to laughter.

The political action committee MeidasTouch tweeted an image of Santos in an astronaut’s uniform.

U.S. Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) was quick to mock Santos, saying, “I’m very excited to learn that a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and astronaut is joining the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.”

READ MORE: ‘Scandal’: Why Did McCarthy Say He Wasn’t ‘Notified’ a Santos Staffer Impersonated His Chief of Staff Until ‘Later’?

Actual former NASA Astronaut and retired U.S. Navy Captain Scott Kelly mocked the New York Republican, tweeting: “Awesome to have former NASA astronaut and moon walker, Representative George Santos … on the House Science Space and Technology Committee. To infinity and beyond!”

Attorney, former federal prosecutor, and former Republican Ron Filipkowski also mocked Santos, appearing to suggest national security concerns: “Because we want George Santos to have access to the information that comes into the Science, Space & Tech Committee,” he tweeted.

The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson sarcastically tweeted, “Well, the science committee will certainly benefit from having Dr. George Santos as its first Nobel prize winner in physics on the panel.”

Writer and human rights activist Leah McElrath, also sarcastically, tweeted: “It’s totally cool and not at all concerning that Santos will have access to US secrets as part of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee…”

Presidential historian Michael Beschloss: “Hope that Santos does not claim to have a BS in Science.”

Deputy Chief of Staff to U.S. Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA), Aaron Fritschner, responding to Santos’ apparent hope to be put on the House Science and Technology Committee, last week sarcastically denounced any such attempt.

“Flagging that Santos suggests he’d be a good fit for the House Science Committee. As the spox [spokesperson] for a longtime member of that committee, I do think we could benefit from his experience as a former astronaut, biomedical researcher, and Nobel Prize-winning nuclear physicist,” Fritschner wrote.

Watch the video above or at this link.

 

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‘Bad News’ for Sidney Powell as First Trump Co-Defendant in Georgia RICO Case Takes Plea Deal: Legal Expert

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September 29, 2023

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The first of 19 co-defendants in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ RICO and election interference case against Donald Trump has pleaded guilty in what is being described as a “plea deal.”

“Under the terms of an agreement with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s office, Hall pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit computer theft, conspiracy to commit computer trespass, conspiracy to commit computer invasion of privacy, and conspiracy to defraud the state,” NBC News reports. “Under the terms of the deal, he’s being sentenced to five years probation.”

CNN previously reported “Hall, a bail bondsman and pro-Trump poll-watcher in Atlanta, spent hours inside a restricted area of the Coffee County elections office when voting systems were breached in January 2021. The breach was connected to efforts by pro-Trump conspiracy theorists to find voter fraud. Hall was captured on surveillance video at the office, on the day of the breach. He testified before the grand jury in Fulton County case and acknowledged that he gained access to a voting machine.”

READ MORE: Will McConnell and Senate Republicans Use Feinstein’s Passing to Grind Biden’s Judicial Confirmations to a Halt?

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, a professor of law and frequent MSNBC contributor, says Hall “was in the thick of things with Sidney Powell on Jan 7 for the Coffee County scheme involving voting machines. If he’s cooperating, it’s a bad sign for her.”

Hall’s plea deal “spells bad news for, among others, Sidney Powell,” says former Dept. of Defense Special Counsel Ryan Goodman, an NYU Law professor of law. Goodman posted a graphic showing the overlap in charges against Hall and Powell, which he called “alleged joint actions.”

See the graphic above or at this link.

 

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Far-Right Republicans Kill GOP Bill to Keep Government Running in ‘Embarrassing Failure’ for McCarthy: Report

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September 29, 2023

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With a shutdown less than 36 hours away, far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives Friday afternoon voted against their party’s own legislation to kept the federal government running. Democrats opposed the content of the bill and voted against it. Just 21 far-right members of the GOP conference were able to effectively force what appears to be an all but inevitable shutdown at midnight on Saturday.

“HARDLINE HOUSE RS take down stopgap funding bill. 21 GOP no votes. 232-198,” reported Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman just before 2 PM Friday.

NBC News reported that a “band of conservative rebels on Friday revolted and blocked House Republicans’ short-term funding bill to keep the government open, delivering a political blow to Speaker Kevin McCarthy and likely cementing the chances of a painful government shutdown that is less than 48 hours away.”

READ MORE: Will McConnell and Senate Republicans Use Feinstein’s Passing to Grind Biden’s Judicial Confirmations to a Halt?

“Twenty-one rebels, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a conservative bomb-thrower and a top Donald Trump ally, voted Friday afternoon to scuttle the 30-day funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR, leaving Republicans without a game plan to avert a shutdown. The vote failed,” NBC added. “The embarrassing failure of the GOP measure once again highlights the dilemma for McCarthy as his hard-liners strongly oppose a short-term bill even if it includes conservative priorities. It leaves Congress on a path to a shutdown, with no apparent offramp to avoiding it — or to quickly reopen the government.”

A bipartisan group of at least 75 U.S. Senators has passed two bills this week that would keep the government running. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has refused to allow it to come to the floor for a vote.

 

 

 

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‘Wannabe Dictator’: Milley Appears to Slam Trump After Ex-President Suggested He Should Be Executed

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September 29, 2023

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General Mark Milley, the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military advisor to the President, during his retirement speech Friday appeared to deliver strong criticism of former President Donald Trump, who appointed him to that post but since has waged war against him.

One week ago the ex-president had said that “in times gone by” General Milley would have been executed for treason. Trump in 2021 had called for General Milley to be “tried for treason.”

“Trump’s rhetoric is dangerous, not just because it is the exact sort that incites violence against public officials,” professor of global politics and political scientist Brian Klass wrote at The Atlantic after Trump’s most recent attack on the Chairman, “but also because it shows just how numb the country has grown toward threats more typical of broken, authoritarian regimes.”

READ MORE: Trump Goes on Wild Rant Targeting Judge and Attorney General After Being Found Liable for Fraud

Trump had written, “if the Fake News reporting is correct,” General Milley “was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act.”

Milley was acting within his duties in a White House approved conversation, according to Klass.

On Friday, Milley appeared to blast Trump.

“We don’t take an oath to a tribe. We don’t take an oath to a religion. We don’t take an oath to a king, or queen, or a tyrant, or dictator. We don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator,” Milley declared. “We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.”

“Every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, Guardian and Coast Guardsmen, each of us, emits our very life to protect and defend that document, regardless of personal price to a country.”

READ MORE: ‘He Knows I’m Right’: Democrat Mocks ‘Scared’ McCarthy and Blows Off Chairman Comer in ‘Very Unserious’ Hearing

Vanity Fair on Thursday reported General Milley “said he has taken security precautions to protect himself and his family after Donald Trump all but called for his execution last week.”

Watch Milley’s remarks below or at this link.

 

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