The US House of Representatives on Friday voted 311 to 114 – well over the 2/3rds majority present required – to expel lying piece of shit Long Island Congressman George Santos from the chamber, shaving one off the GOP’s razor-thin majority until a special election that will be hotly contested but likely lean in favor of a Democratic candidate. Santos becomes just the sixth member expelled from the House in the chamber’s 234-year history and the only one to have not been convicted of a felony or engaged in rebellion against the United States. The now-former congressman said nothing to reporters as he left the Capitol immediately afterward and got into a waiting car.

On Friday Ohio MAGA Congressman Max Miller – the former Trump White House aide accused of punching fellow staffer Steph Grisham while they were dating, the subject of (probably accurate) shit-talking from George Santos on the House floor on Thursday – sent an email to colleagues said to be wavering on expelling the piece of shit by sharing the “personal impact” of Santos’s crimes.

“Late yesterday on the floor I alluded to a personal impact of Rep Santos’s conduct. Earlier this year I learned that the Santos campaign had charged my personal credit card – and the personal card of my Mother – for contribution amounts that exceeded FEC limits. Neither my Mother nor I approved these charges or were aware of them. We have spent tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees in the resulting follow up. I’ve seen a list of roughly 400 other people to whom the Santos campaign allegedly did this. I believe some other members of this conference might have had the same experience. While I understand and respect the position of those who will vote against the expulsion resolution, my personal experience related to the allegations and findings of the Ethics Committee compels me to vote for the resolution. Since I alluded to this on the floor yesterday, and because of the significance of the question before us, I believe you’re entitled to this further explanation,” Miller wrote without adding anything about how letting Santos skate might make Republicans look like they’re abiding his conduct and voters might not react well to that. Just the “personal impact.”

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday rejected disgraced former President Trump’s “absolute immunity” defense against a number of lawsuits brought against him by several members of Congress and Capitol police officers for his inciting the January 6th MAGA insurrection.

The decision just might kind of have some not-good implications for Trump’s defense in his criminal case in DC for the failed coup attempt, as the court ruled “When a first-term President opts to seek a second term, his campaign to win re-election is not an official presidential act. The Office of the Presidency as an institution is agnostic about who will occupy it next. And campaigning to gain that office is not an official act of the office. So, when a sitting President running for a second term attends a private fundraiser for his re-election effort, hires (or fires) his campaign staff, cuts a political ad supporting his candidacy, or speaks at a campaign rally funded and organized by his re-election campaign committee, he is not carrying out the official duties of the presidency.”

“He is acting as office-seeker, not office-holder – no less than are the persons running against him when they take precisely the same actions in their competing campaigns to attain precisely the same office. President Trump himself recognized that he engaged in his campaign to win re-election – including his post-election efforts to alter the declared results in his favor – in his personal capacity as presidential candidate, not in his official capacity as sitting President. That is evident in his effort to intervene in the Supreme Court’s consideration of a post-election lawsuit challenging the administration of the election in various battleground states. He expressly filed his motion in the Supreme Court ‘in his personal capacity as candidate for reelection to the office of President’ rather than in his official capacity as sitting President.” It keeps going but you get the gist.

This is it! Maybe! Lying piece of shit Long Island Republican Congressman George Santos will be expelled from the House of Representatives! Possibly! There are enough votes to kick his flabby ass out of Congress for good! Or there are not enough votes to kick his flabby ass out of Congress for good! It’s a not sure thing! That’s really exciting! Kind of! We think it is! Just watch the video above!

Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has died the age of 93, the court announced on Friday, setting up a heated Senate confirmation battle for her seat as an election year appro-

Oh wait, O’Connor retired from the court like 20 years ago. Silly us for thinking that justices are supposed to stay on the bench until they die and shift the court’s ideological balance if the president and the Senate majority are aligned to confirm a replacement to their side’s advantage.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Friday told Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman that he will vote against expelling George Santos, with Johnson evidently having decided that tossing a gay immigrant scumbag who ripped off the NRCC from his chamber before he’s convicted might set a bad “precedent” – as in voting yes could be incongruous with supporting a presidential candidate also credibly accused of federal felonies. And make it harder to pass legislation. There’s that too.

Meanwhile “moderate” New York Republican Marc Molinaro tells CNN’s Manu Raju that he and his anti-Santos colleagues are “closing in” on the 90-ish number of GOP yes votes (assuming all Dems vote yes too, probably a safe assumption) but that it will be “tight.” It’s not clear yet what Johnson’s own no vote will do in terms of swaying other Republicans, though it probably isn’t a good sign.

Well, that didn’t take long!

I am not a fan of @Moms4Liberty. I was attacked for saying this months ago. But something doesn’t smell right.

Never has, if you want my honest opinion.

Why did you delete this post, @TinaDescovich? https://t.co/25ZFDJaGKL pic.twitter.com/MKqK2EDT6E

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) November 30, 2023

Would be worried if it was only Laura Loomer saying she had dirt on these Nazis and not an actual criminal complaint against the co-founder’s husband. Otherwise we might be getting hyped up about a massive scandal that could destroy “Moms for Libertarianism” or “Mops for Libraries.”

An in-depth review of “independent” presidential candidate Cornel West’s finances by Forbes finds that his assets equity in a home co-owned with Princeton University and a retirement account worth roughly a combined $505,000 versus $465,000 in outstanding tax liens leaves his net worth at about $40,000, which Forbes describes as “leaving West little breathing room if other debts pop up.”

And they “popped up” quite a bit over the years given his five marriages and habit of knocking up women then not paying child support. Doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would handle the “managing the world’s largest economy” part of the job he supposedly seeks very well at all.

But absolutely perfect for the actual job he’s in all probability been hired to do, unwittingly or otherwise, by certain actors with a vested interest in seeing West on the ballot in a number of key states where he could help swing the 2024 presidential election a certain way. A guy who’s for all intents and purposes broke will happily accept a bargain price in exchange for such a service.

“Extreme House Republicans have spent the entire year investigating President Biden, and over and over again, they have failed to turn up any evidence of wrongdoing. In fact, their own witnesses and documents have time after time debunked their false allegations. Faced with this level of ‘failure theater,’ these same extreme House Republicans now appear to be trying to invent claims of ‘obstruction’ and ‘stonewalling’ to rationalize their illegitimate so-called ‘impeachment inquiry.’

“Some House Republicans are even leaning on these false claims as a predicate to vote to formally authorize such an inquiry. The problem: Claims of ‘obstruction’ and ‘stonewalling’ are easily refuted by the facts. Those House Republicans don’t have to simply take our word for it: They should listen to comments from their own colleagues, such as Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer who has bragged on TV that he has received ‘100% of what we’ve requested’ and even said ‘we’re in the downhill phase of this investigation now because we have so many documents,'” reads a memo from White House impeachment “war room” guy Ian Sams sent to House Democrats on Friday.

“The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is preparing to land humans on the moon for the first time since 1972 in a mission known as Artemis III. Since GAO’s September 2022 report, NASA and its contractors have made progress, including completing several important milestones, but they still face multiple challenges with development of the human landing system and the space suits. As a result, GAO found that the Artemis III crewed lunar landing is unlikely to occur in 2025. In July 2023, NASA stated that it is reviewing the Human Landing System schedule.”

“The Human Landing System program is aiming to complete its development – from project start to launch – in 79 months, which is 13 months shorter than the average for NASA major projects. The complexity of human spaceflight suggests that it is unrealistic to expect the program to complete development more than a year faster than the average for NASA major projects, the majority of which are not human spaceflight projects. GAO found that if development took as long as the average for NASA major projects, the Artemis III mission would likely occur in early 2027.”

“As of September 2023, the Human Landing System program had delayed eight of 13 key events by at least 6 months. Two of these events have been delayed to 2025 – the year the lander is planned to launch. The delays were caused in part by the Orbital Flight Test, which was intended to demonstrate certain features of the launch vehicle and lander configuration in flight. The test was delayed by 7 months to April 2023. It was then terminated early when the vehicle deviated from its expected trajectory and began to tumble. Subsequent tests rely on successful completion of a second Orbital Flight Test,” says a bummer of a new General Accountability Office report.

Despite Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis acting like a 13-year-old acting like a teenager whose mother just reviewed his browser history during his debate with Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom, Fox hostess and former White House professional liar Kayleigh McEnarny handed the debate to DeSantis:  “DeSantis gets an ‘A’; he was the clear runaway winner.  However, Gavin Newsom given a bad pile of facts gets a ‘C’; he’s a sharp messenger.  Watch out, that guy’s coming.”

At least 117 people in 34 states have contracted salmonella poisoning after eating cut cantaloupe–sold both as an individual product or as part of fruit salads–pushing officials to warn people not to eat the fruit if they don’t know the farm where it came from, the Washington Post reports.

Two brands, Malichita or Rudy, have been linked to the known cases, with the products having been sold at Kwik Trip, Bix Produce, Kroger, Sprouts Farmers Market and Trader Joe’s stores around the country.  Earlier this month, the companies recalled their whole fruit from stores, but failed to recall fruit that was sent to processors.

Saying Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is on a “banning binge, a cultural purge” going after LGBTQ, women’s rights and reproductive medical care to take the US back to a “pre-1960s” time, California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom landed the fatal punch in his final statement during the dog-and-pony show Fox “News” hoped would bring Ron DeSantis into prominence to justify dumping Trump:  “But there’s one thing in closing that we have in common, is neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024.”

DeSantis did nothing to improve his chances.  He was smoked by Newsom on most topics, but also comically noted that more people moved from California to Florida than the other way.  And that’s true, but largely due to California being double the population of Florida.  In fact, a higher percentage of the population of Florida left to move to California than the percentage who moved the other way, according to the US Census.

Saying it “overstepped state power,” a federal judge has blocked a ban on the social media site TikTok instituted by the Montana state government from going into effect, a significant strike against conservatives who want to block access to the Chinese-owned site particularly popular with young people.

According to NBC News, Clinton-appointed Senior District Judge Donald Molloy commented that users sign up for the service voluntarily and voluntarily giving their information to the app, a comment to which prompted Montana Solicitor General Christian Corrigan to assert the Republican state government needed to limit people’s freedom to do what they chose because Montanans are smart and they “don’t know what they’re doing. They’re exposing themselves to the Chinese military. So we need to say ‘ban TikTok citizens from exercising certain individual liberties.’”

Republican Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, famous for assaulting a reporter, signed the bill in May, and the ban would have gone into effect in January 2024, resulting in a fine of up to $10,000 for each time someone in Montana had the app advertised to them or was offered the opportunity to download the app.  TikTok or the app store would have been responsible for the fine, not the individual who downloaded the app because, y’know, Republicans are the Party of Personal Responsibility.  But then, Gianforte bodyslammed a reporter when he was asked a question about the Affordable Care Act, which is a completely rational response.

The New York Times (gift article) reports that for more than a year, the Israeli government knew about the plans executed by Hamas on October 7th with its attack on Israeli soil, but Israeli officials dismissed the reports as aspirational and didn’t think Hamas could carry out the plan, later ignoring some key events that pointed to Hamas’s efforts to carry out the plan.

As with the infamous “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US” presidential daily briefing ignored by George W. Bush, the information collected by Israeli intelligence.  Codenamed “Jericho Wall” by Israeli officials, the 40-page document outlined a number of actions Hamas took on October 7th that led to the death, disappearance or kidnapping of more than 1,200 people.

Although the document circulated among Israeli government and military officials, the prevailing opinion was that Hamas did not have the manpower, coordination or training capability to undertake such a large operation.

Almost certainly involuntarily celibate MAGA Georgia state Senator Colton Moore, famous for his previous failed schemes to save his Orange Allah from prosecution in Atlanta, has a bold new plan to amend the RICO statutes that will probably wreck a shit ton of other cases being pursued – almost certainly including the one against the Antifa libs indicted over that “Cop City” clusterfuck – if he can get Governor Brian Kemp to sign it, which he won’t, Meidas Touch reports.

“I’m working on a piece of legislation called the ‘Stop Political Persecutions Act.’ This thing is going to be foolproof. Several attorneys are working on it… RICO in the state of Georgia does not have a monetary component to it, other states do. If we added a monetary component to Georgia’s RICO well, Trump and everybody’s been indicted on election stuff not monetary stuff,” Moore told Steve Bannon in an interview on Thursday. “That would retroactively drop the charges. Fani Willis would be done. It would only take a simple majority vote. All we need is 29 votes of 33 Republicans and we can get this done and we would set Trump free,” he continued smugly and confidently.

For those of you who became regular readers at any point after November 30, 2021, you would scarcely recognize the National Zero of the before time: 17 months and 5 days of mostly copied and pasted content largely ripped from other sites, much like Political Wire, JoeMyGod, Rick Hasen’s Election Law Blog, and some others. This wasn’t a hard-and-fast rule as Jack – a guy with actual experience in the industry – would mostly compose his own articles while I, who never did despite having “studied” journalism before dropping out of school, did not. I just copied and pasted shit.

A lot of it. The volume was considerably higher when the hardest part of pasting in the first paragraph or two of a CNN or Washington Post article is coming up with a snappy headline to go with it. Which was cool for a while, but after that first year something began gnawing at me inside, a feeling that this site could never truly be its own product if most of the news and analysis – the actual real reason you’re all supposed to be here – was just written by someone else.

Making that switch was a big fucking deal for me, something I seriously doubted I was capable of before something snapped and I just forced myself to do it. The support and encouragement from those of you who were here before and after that switch is utterly humbling.

Jack deserves the most credit for the shift however. He never once challenged me directly, but the guilt of watching him actually put work into this while I hit CMD + C and CMD + V to make most of my “articles.” I sure as shit wasn’t listening to the MAGA trolls who mocked me for the copypasta.

Spokesman for the New York State Office of Court Administration Al Baker on Thursday said in a statement that Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron’s “wife has sent no social media posts regarding the former president. They are not hers,” the Messenger reports. Which means that for the last few days Trump has been siccing his jihadis on some completely anonymous Twitter user “Dawn Marie”, one whom deleted their account just a few hours ago, per far right influencer Laura Loomer.

“Don’t worry, bitch. I archived your entire account before you could lock it or delete it. I have it all. #Trump2024,” the fucking idiot, who was the first to “identify” the user, wrote Thursday.

Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, MD used the Heimlich maneuver to quickly save Iowa colleague Joni Ernst from choking to death during a caucus lunch, Politico’s Burgess Everett reports.

It’s not clear if Paul needed to stand on a chair to get in the proper position or if Ted Cruz was sitting at the same table and laughed “Hahahaha! Look everyone, Joni’s pretending to choke! Okay Joni, that’s not funny anymore. You can stop now,” before Paul pushed the chair up to aid Ernst.

Dr Anthony Fauci did not comment either, but probably would have said “Oh wow, that fucking asshole finally used something from his four years of med school on the job? Color me impressed.”