Today is Monday, December 23, 2024. Today the House Ethics Committee finally – finally – released its damning report on the “Grinch” – Representative Matt Gaetz – who left Congress in the wake of this terrible report that found evidence that he paid thousands of dollars for sex and drugs, including allegedly paying a 17-year-old girl for sex in 2017. And this son of a bitch was being considered for the overarching job of attorney general by an adjudicated sexual predator known as Donald J. Chump. This bombshell of a report is contained in an online CNN article by Sarah Ferris and Jeremy Herb entitled “House Ethics report finds evidence Matt Gaetz paid thousands for sex and drugs including paying a 17-year-old for sex in 2017.”

The disgraced representative even tried to sue in federal court to prevent this incriminating report. The committee concluded in this document that Gaetz violated Florida state laws, including the state’s statutory rape law, as the GOP-led panel chose to take the rare step of releasing a report about a former member who resigned from Congress.

The panel investigated transactions Gaetz personally made, often using PayPal or Venmo, to more than a dozen women during his time in Congress, according to the report.

Earlier this month, the House Ethics Committee secretly voted to release its report after initially voting against doing so. The vote to put out the report was the culmination of a yearslong probe into allegations surrounding the odious representative.

The country has to be thankful that this committee ultimately decided to release this damning report on one of their own because the panel initially voted not to make public its final document on the former congressman. Of course, they were doing this in order to shield the criminal activities of the former congressman. This way the public would never have known the extent of Gaetz’s perfidy. It seems that there were some committee members, including Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican and committee chair, who were opposed to the release of the report because Gaetz was no longer a member of Congress. Anyone with a brain could conclude that Gaetz was expecting this report to be made public soon, so that really formed the true rationale of his abandoning his seat that he just recently won again.

But don’t mourn the loss of this scumbag too soon; he’s now set to join the right-wing One America News Network as an anchor in January. But maybe not if the wave of criticism against him is extensive enough in the wake of the report’s release. Who knows? This is not a left-leaning network like CNN or MSNBC, so maybe their standards are much lower when it comes to hiring anchors formerly from the halls of Congress. Ah, the article does say this: “Some lawmakers believed his resignation was an attempt to bury the investigation.” Just like I said here.

Of course, the scumbag denied all charges leveled against him in the report, a mechanism he’s learned from his erstwhile boss, Donald Chump. He also castigated the Committee’s process as being “weaponized” against him, another accusation continually employed by the president-elect in all circumstances. Scumbag Gaetz also said the Committee was working on behalf of former-Speaker Kevin McCarthy whom he replaced in an infamous clash between him and Gaetz who forced a vote on the “motion to vacate” in October 2023. These are all sorrowful deflections instead of admitting his guilt in executing these acts of depravity while serving the American public in his role as a U.S. representative.

Anyway, it’s late here, owing to Elliot and I watching another fascinating episode of Midsomer Murders that is always entertaining to watch as we sit back and become armchair detectives, along with Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Tom Barnaby and his younger sidekick, Detective Sergeant Ben Jones. I have to admit I didn’t solve who the murderer was in this episode. This series has been on for a vey long time in England, first premiering, I discover, on March 23, 1997. This series definitely differs from American crime dramas in several ways, mainly, with the use of the gorgeous setting, the English county of Midsomer, and its eschewal of gore and violence, even though people are murdered gruesomely at first. The violence, however, is generally not shown in livid color. However, the two detectives never use firearms in their pursuit of suspects; they usually don’t even tussle with suspects as well. They use their wits, which are generally not appealing to American audiences over here. The majority of the earlier episodes are based on the writings of Caroline Graham. I found this series a while ago on the station Ovation and tape the episodes on a regular basis. There is also gentle humor in every episode as Barnaby is generally pitted against his much younger colleague.

Tomorrow we are driving to Easton, Pennsylvania, to spend both Chanukah and Christmas with our friends “Jeff” and “Sandy.” We will be returning on Thursday, December 26. For the occasion, I baked my third Italian ricotta cheesecake. I hope it goes over well with everyone at the dinner table this time.

In advance of the holiday, I wish everyone then a Happy Chanukah (“Chag Urim Sameach!”) and a Merry Christmas.

See you on the 26th.

Oh, I have to retrieve Atticus who’s in a kitchen cabinet. I posted a video of him today successfully opening a cabinet door, by the way.

And so it went!

Here is my cheesecake that I’m taking to Easton tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it was received by Jeff and Sandy and their guests.

Today is Thursday, November 14, 2024. Yesterday, as I had mentioned, Elliot and I were out holding court with my newish cousins from Manhattan, “Rivka” and “Dillon.” We met at a French restaurant, AOC East, located on 1st Avenue and 83rd Street. The reservation was called for 7 and the four of us enjoyed vivacious conversation and delicious victuals covering everything from our dual October trips to Italy and to the horrid election that just ended a little over a week ago. We saved the worst for last: our impressions of the election and what we could expect over the next four years. My cousin Rivka had this “they brought it upon themselves” attitude and said she would just move aside and watch the cataclysm that will arise during Dump’s second term. Unfortunately, she said, this will negatively affect those who voted for him and it would eventually affect the whole country, she acknowledged. Of course, then no one wins with Dump’s selection as “emperor,” oops, president, I mean.

What I cannot avoid commenting on here – even though I’ve said since the election I haven’t watched mainstream news as religiously as I used to do before the election – is the latest selections made by Dump for his Cabinet which has “unserious” names such as Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, and Matt Gaetz assuming top positions in government. I couldn’t avoid hearing about these horrible selections, even though I still haven’t watched any news program entirely. This news item did show up on my smartphone. So I wanted to share some of these pending appointments with you if you haven’t heard about them yet since you too are begging off mainstream news programs for the foreseeable future. You can’t help but hear about them! They are so ridiculous.

Just know that all of Dump’s Cabinet picks – if confirmed – will be held by Dump loyalists. There is no other qualification for these top posts – just how much they have kissed the ring of the Orange Emperor is all that’s necessary. One of those picks is loathsome Matt Gaetz – who looks like the Grinch with his square head and ears (just minus the green makeup) – who is also hated in the House – as attorney general. (Gaetz himself was the subject of an ongoing ethics investigation in the House of Representatives concerning allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, and misuse of campaign funds. But on Wednesday evening, this slime bag had resigned as a lawmaker just two days before a highly critical House report on the investigation would have been released. This effectively ended the House probe since the committee only investigates members. So in essence, if Gaetz is confirmed, his appointment can be compared to that adage, “The fox is in charge of the henhouse here.” This is very, very disturbing!) This nomination, according to John Bolton, Donald Dump’s first national security adviser and outspoken critic of the Orange Turd ever since he left his post, is godawful, in an online article for Raw Story by Travis Gettys entitled “‘Worse in history’: Ex-Trump adviser challenges GOP to ‘stand up’ against cabinet picks.”

Not only did Bolton denounce Gaetz as an unqualified choice for attorney general, he had harsh words for Tulsi Gabbard who has been picked as national intelligence director. This is what the outspoken Drumpf critic said about Gabbard: “I thought [Gabbard] was the worst Cabinet-level appointment in history until I heard about the Matt Gaetz appointment. (At the time of this article, I don’t think Bolton heard about yet another ridiculous and dangerous looming appointment: the brain-eaten Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is being considered for Health and Human Services Department head.) This failed “Democratic” candidate whose brain was half-eaten by some worm some years back is a virulent antivaccine activist and has many unorthodox ideas about health and safety. If confirmed to this position, Kennedy would run riot over the U.S. public health system, most assuredly causing death among American citizens because of his interference in matters he has no knowledge of, just conspiracy theories.

Bolton does not mince words about Gaetz’s selection as attorney general: “It must be the worst nomination for a Cabinet position in American history.” He added, “Gaetz is not only totally incompetent for this job, he doesn’t have the character. He is a person of moral turpitude.”

Appearing on CNN, Bolton likened the nomination of Gabbard to the legend of Roman Emperor Caligula nominating his horse as consul. Bolton described Gabbard and Gaetz (add Kennedy to this list too), as “two people who are totally unqualified, unfit professionally, and really lacking in moral characteristics – the character you need to hold these jobs.” But Bolton fails to mention that the president himself lacks any redeeming moral qualities as well. But the fucking country – or at least 51 percent of it – voted for him anyway.

I always say if you appoint a clown to the highest position in the land, you’re bound to get a clown show and now, folks, we certainly have one! And we’re not even two weeks out of the election. Just think what could happen in the two months leading up to the inauguration: more garbage like this and utter tomfoolery.

The Senate – if it has any balls – must reject all three of these nominations without hesitation. But as the new emperor has hinted, he wants to do away with Senate confirmations if he can. Let’s see if he accomplishes this.

Have a good Friday.

And so it went!