Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has seizes control of a massive electronic communications network, further expanding his already colossal influence over the flow of information to American voters, a source tells the New York Post. “This is scary,” the source, described as “a Republican,” said of the financial titan’s potential to leverage the communications network in order “to exert influence on public opinion in the months leading up to the 2024 presidential election.”

In related news, Soros’s son Alex and Hillary Clinton’s longtime top aide Huma Abedin are dating.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office on Wednesday declared victory against 2020 election conspiracy theorists Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, founders of “True the Vote” and co-creators of the incredibly stupid 2022 Dinesh D’Souza “documentary” 2000 Mules, after the pair admitted in court that they had no actual evidence to back up their fantasies of a cabal of ballot traffickers illegally boosting Joe Biden’s win in Georgia and other swing states, the AP reports.

“Once again, True the Vote has proven itself untrustworthy and unable to provide a shred of evidence for a single one of their fairy-tale allegations. Like all the lies about Georgia’s 2020 election, their fabricated claims of ballot harvesting have been repeatedly debunked,” said Raffensperger spokesman Mike Hassinger in a statement after Engelbrecht and Phillips copped to their lies in response to a civil complaint brought by the state Board of Elections wrought by their own false 2021 complaints to Raffensperger’s office. A Fulton County judge had last year ordered the pair to share whatever evidence they had after two years of refusing to do so.

In a the response that surfaced Wednesday, True The Vote’s lawyers in December had claimed they made “every additional reasonable effort to locate responsive items,” but they had “no such documents in its possession, custody, or control,” to support Engelbrecht and Phillips’ repeated complaints of a shadowy conspiracy to stuff ballot boxes and tip the election to Joe Biden. Sounds like the kind of thing people get prosecuted for, making false reports to law enforcement, especially after they admit it in court during a civil proceeding brought in response to those false reports.

Two Dem Iowa state House lawmakers walked out of a markup meeting on Tuesday after the panel’s Republicans voted to advance an “election integrity” bill that would allow convicted felons on the ballot, ban ballot drop boxes, ban ranked-choice voting (which isn’t even a thing in Iowa), and arbitrarily shorten the deadline for absentee ballots to be received, USA Today reports.

Iowa Representatives Amy Nielsen and Adam Zabner walked out after HSB 697 sponsor Bobby Kaufmann interrupted Nielsen while she was speaking, insisting it was cool for him to do so since he was chairing the meeting. Zabner told reporters “It takes quite a lot of nerve to call a bill an election-integrity bill when the point of the bill is to let felons run for office. And particularly someone like Donald Trump, who has so little integrity.” Kaufmann of course served as a “senior adviser” to the fat fuck’s Iowa campaign. “I just think Iowans need to let that set in,” Zabner said. “Someone who worked for the Trump campaign is here passing a law specifically to help Donald Trump.”

Kaufmann falsely denied it, telling reporters that the bill is only about “maintaining the highest level of election integrity” and “It is not our job to decide who’s on the ballot. It is the voters’ job and it’s arrogant, frankly, for us to think that we should overrule what they choose to do, whether that’s a D, an R, an independent, a Libertarian or Green Party or anyone else for that matter. We’re not going to become a country of 50 different laboratories for right-wing and left-wing activism. The voters who choose a president need to be the ones who decide it, not the Legislature.”

Iowa law currently requires presidential and congressional candidates to sign an affidavit attesting that they know they are disqualified from holding office if they have been convicted of a felony in any jurisdiction. Kaufmann is working to fix that – while killing a few other birds with the same stone by banning ballot drop boxes and making it harder to ensure an absentee ballot arrives on time by changing the deadline for its receipt by county clerks from EOB on election day to the day before.

New York man who smuggled pythons into the US by hiding them in his pants sentenced to probation, fined $5k https://t.co/i8T7BuDCKw

— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 15, 2024

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will use the great latitude given to the Senate to conduct impeachment trials to either quickly dismiss the charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas or hold a cursory trial before the Senate votes to acquit, the New York Times reports.

With the House impeachment managers expected to deliver the charges to the Senate by the end of February, Schumer will work to gather support to dismiss the charges through a traditional motion to dismiss the charges, typically done as the managers finish prosecuting their case; a simple majority vote would dismiss the charges and would not require Mayorkas to mount a defense.  There’s no chance that the necessary two-thirds of the Senate will vote to convict Mayorkas, with all Democrats and many Republicans questioning the rationale of House Republicans for using trickery to vote through the article against the Secretary.

There is nothing worse in life than letting down the one person in the world you want to impress the most.  Therapists make billions who feel they didn’t live up to the expectations of their spouses, or parents, or sixth-grade teacher.  Pharmaceutical companies profit off men’s feelings of inadequacy.  Well, first he tried tanning his balls, and now he’s about to make some counselor in Maine rich:  Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was very disappointed with Tucker Carlson’s interview, saying he had hoped for hard questions from the American conservative propagandist and hate speech amplifier.

Per the Daily Beast (and if you speak Russian you can watch snippets of the interview here):  “Sincerely speaking, I didn’t fully enjoy this interview,” Vlad said in an interview with a Russian reporter, hinting that he would use Carlson as an agent to facilitate dialogue with the US government.  “If today, due to their own reasons, we are unable to conduct direct dialogue, then we should be grateful to Mr. Carlson for the fact that we can do this through him as an intermediary.”  Hearing that was like magic to Tucker’s ears.  “He likes me.  He really, really likes me.”

Senate Minority Leader and periodically malfunctioning animatron Mitch McConnell told USA Today the 237-pound (yeah, right) Golden Lion Tamarin in the room has been undermining his efforts to get the Senate to pass legislation to get aid money for Ukraine.

Calling Trump the “likely nominee,” McConnell said Trump’s interference has made negotiations “doubly challenging” because of Trump’s ongoing revenge campaign against those who he believes betrayed him, like the entire country of Ukraine because of Trump’s first impeachment.

Trump doesn’t want any progress on any legislation, believing that grinding Washington to a halt will launch him back into the White House.  “He’s very influential, there’s no denying that,” McConnell said. “He’s got the biggest following among Republicans in the country – he’s certainly been in the process of demonstrating that.”

Two of the most powerful houses in the Great Realm of Democrats are close to uniting if a report from the Daily Beast is to believed:  Huma Abedin, who is–yeah, she’s the ex-wife of disgusting former Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner–better known as a long-time key aide to former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is dating the Heir of the Throne, Alex Soros, the son of Archangel George.  The pair were seen canoodling in a photo she posted to social media.

The Realm shall celebrate if the House of Clinton and the House of Soros should officially unite outside the seriousness of the relationship.  I mean, c’mon, people:  you don’t put the new beau on your ‘gram unless it’s serious.

“This is insane,” Trump lawyer Alina Habba says, but not of her newfound ability to get filthy rich while continually failing.  “This case which I sat through trial, I can tell you there is absolutely no facts that support their basis.  We have been in three years of hell for this AG who ran on getting Trump before she knew anything about Trump, got elected, and has made good on her promise, and now we’ve got a judge that’s helping.  It is beyond corrupt and I’m telling you there was absolutely, not only was there not evidence, there was evidence to the contrary. [blah blah blah]”

Here’s the problem with her argument:  Donald Trump already lost the case; this portion of the trial will determine the punishment.  She should know this if she sat through the trial.  And yes, there is evidence of Trump’s fraud:  he admitted to it in court… not to mention the company’s CFO reportedly pleaded to perjury.

South Carolina Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn announced Wednesday that he’s stepping down from his leadership position within the House Democratic Conference, but he will run for re-election for his House seat in November.

“I have informed Leader Hakeem Jeffries of my intention to step down as Assistant Democratic Leader of the House Democratic Caucus,” the statement reads.  “I am deeply grateful for the confidence my colleagues have placed in me throughout my career, especially as Co-President of my Freshman Class, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Vice Chair and Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, and twice as Majority Whip and Assistant Democratic Leader.  I am confident that Leader Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark, Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, and the entire leadership team will continue the important work of putting people over politics.

The 83-year-old Clyburn has represented the district since 1992, and he is credited with helping Joe Biden capture the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination by endorsing him in the state’s primary.

The Russian Republican National Committee, led by lame duck leader Ronna Romney McDaniel, announced it recognized Trump-endorsed former Congressman Pete Hoekstra as chairman of the Michigan Republican Party in his battle for control against Kristina Karamo, the person elected to the position by state delegates a year ago, the Detroit News reports.

The announcement may not stick.  Karamo’s team has been state for its caucus, slated for March 2nd, when state leaders intend to have delegates also vote to reaffirm Karamo’s leadership.  The funny thing about this:  Karamo is an ardent election denier and Trump supporter, but because of her poor business management of the Party, a group of Party delegates voted to oust her last month.

“If the RNC continues with its unprecedented actions of not recognizing our duly elected state chairperson, the Michigan Republican Party is prepared to take the appropriate steps to protect the rights and will of our delegates and state committee members from being usurped,” Karamo’s team said in a statement.

The national security threat that Republicans announced earlier Wednesday turns out to be a new Russian program designed to attack and disable US satellites, a move that could cripple American military reach and cause havoc in commercial systems, the Washington Post reports.

Russian scientists have reportedly begun working on the system, which could employ a nuclear weapon or other technology to disable a wide region of satellites.  After being briefed on classified information, members of Congress said the system was still years away from potential deployment but, as one Congressman said, it would be a “geo-strategic game changer.”

Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s team on Wednesday filed their response to fat former President Trump’s petition to the US Supreme Court, six days ahead of the deadline.

“The Special Counsel, on behalf of the United States, respectfully submits this opposition to the application for a stay of the mandate of the court of appeals pending the filing and disposition of applicant’s forthcoming petition for a writ of certiorari. The stay should be denied because of applicant’s failure to meet this Court’s settled standards. The application stems from an indictment returned by a grand jury against applicant, a former President of the United States, charging him with federal crimes committed in an alleged effort to perpetuate himself in power and prevent the lawful winner of the 2020 Presidential election from taking office. The charged crimes strike at the heart of our democracy. A President’s alleged criminal scheme to overturn an election and thwart the peaceful transfer of power to his successor should be the last place to recognize a novel form of absolute immunity from federal criminal law. Applicant seeks a stay to prevent proceedings in the district court from moving towards trial, which the district court had scheduled to begin on March 4, 2024, before applicant’s interlocutory appeal necessitated postponement of that date.”

“Applicant cannot show, as he must to merit a stay, a fair prospect of success in this Court. Nor can applicant show that the balance of equities or the public interest favors continued delay of the criminal proceedings. To the contrary, the equities and public interest strongly disfavor a stay.”

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, the Floridian asshole who led the impeachment of Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, will not be seeking reelection, Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman reports, noting that Green is the fourth committee chair fucking off after 2024.

Green is now the 20th overall out of the House Republican to dip out by quitting or running in a Senate race they have no chance of winning to roughly 14 Dems. Really says something about how things are going when the chair of a powerful committee that just successfully impeached the first cabinet secretary in over 150 years hates the job that much that he’ll just walk away like this.

Switching things up a bit from the “Here’s why that’s bad news for Joe Biden” song and dance, the New York Times on Wednesday decided to credit Tom Suozzi and Democrats for weaponizing Congressional Republicans’ utter dereliction on handling the border in fealty to Trump, writing that Tuesday’s win “injected Democrats with fresh optimism that the party might have found some of the basic ingredients to neutralize immigration and the border as political issues, which party officials have privately seen as among their deepest areas of vulnerability in 2024.”

“We have now made the border an issue where Democrats are on their front foot, whereas before all this happened, we were on our back foot,” Chuck Schumer told the Times. “Trump almost handed us the issue on a silver platter when he said he didn’t want to do it for political purposes after saying the border is an emergency. [The border] has been turned from a negative issue to a positive issue. Not totally positive, but overall positive,” Schumer continued.

One person is dead, at least nine injured, and three are in custody after shots rang out Wednesday during the Super Bowl victory parade for the Kansas City Chiefs, Fox4KC’s Marcus Officer reports.

Just like Republicans and the NRA drew it up. Thoughts and prayers and shit to the dead and injured.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Speaker Johnson! pic.twitter.com/0NPB04W4YR

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 14, 2024

Investigators on the House Ethics Committee have obtained 2017 texts sent by credibly suspected statutory rapist Matt Gaetz to at least one woman – who was 21 at the time – his former bro Joel Greenberg had been paying for sex with himself and other men, ABC News reports on the walls not really closing in on Gaetz so much legally as maybe eventually ending up being a case for expulsion.

“Hey – any interest in flying on a private plane to the keys May 19-21? 2 guys, 4 girls. A very high-quality adventurous group,” Gaetz wrote in 2017. The woman accepted and then Gaetz wrote “Fantastic. As is true with all time you spend w me, it’ll be fun and chill… You have a passport?”

Sources said the woman ended up backing out after that, but per ABC the texts are significant because it’s the first proof of contact with a woman who Greenberg – the former Seminole County tax collector and now a convicted felon serving a lengthy sentence for all sorts of shit – had been pimping out to other men, a line of inquiry House Ethics are interested in seeing if Gaetz may have traded political favors for sexual ones. Again this is a political/HR investigation retracing a criminal one that ultimately did not meet the burden of proof to bring charges but a burden the House doesn’t have to meet if they want to push forward on trying to expel Gaetz.

House Oversight Ranking Member Jamie Raskin on Wednesday provided another update in the continuing failure show of Chairbilly James Comer’s attempt to impeach Joe Biden, this time laying out why Comer accused Raskin and the Dems of “witness intimidation” after the interview with former Hunter Biden pal Tony Bobulinski, the same dipshit Trump brought to a debate in 2020:

“Just as expected, Republicans’ ‘star witness’ and Donald Trump’s political pawn repeated the same debunked and vacuous allegations against President Biden, recycled from Trump’s 2020 campaign. Over the course of his more than eight-hour long interview, Mr Bobulinski did not provide any evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden, nor did he provide any evidence at all that President Biden was involved in his family’s business dealings. Mr Bobulinski testified that neither Hunter nor James Biden ever indicated that Joe Biden would receive money from their business dealings, and Mr Bobulinski confirmed that Joe Biden was not part of their business structure.”

“Mr Bobulinski conceded that he only ever had two brief, non-substantive conversations with Joe Biden – both at a time when Joe Biden was a private citizen – and Mr Bobulinski could not point to any discussion he had with Joe Biden about his son’s business dealings. When asked about who invited him to the October 2020 presidential debate or organized his press conference hours earlier, Mr Bobulinski repeatedly claimed not to know. Eventually, he admitted that Jason Miller, who was then a senior advisor to the Trump campaign, introduced him at his 2020 press conference and that he was likely a guest of President Trump’s at the debate. Unable to support his claims against President Biden with any evidence, Mr Bobulinski accused multiple FBI agents of lying in their Form FD-302 report, accused the Wall Street Journal of lying in their reporting which dismissed Mr Bobulinski’s claims, accused Cassidy Hutchinson of lying, and accused his former business partners as well as nine of Republicans’ own witnesses of lying because they have affirmed that Joe Biden was not involved in his son’s business ventures,” Raskin wrote, like he’s having fun with this now.

Hard to put a headline to this. Would be better if we didn’t need one at all, but such is life vicariously watching the drama between such unlikeable people. Semafor’s got more on this.