Texas Governor Scrooge

Three busloads of migrants arrived outside the Naval Observatory, the vice president’s official residence, on Saturday, according to ABC 7, when temperatures were in the teens. Video captured by a reporter from the outlet showed groups of migrants wrapped in blankets. One person was wearing shorts.

[...]

“Governor Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve without coordinating with any Federal or local authorities,” White House assistant press secretary Abdullah Hasan said in a statement. “This was a cruel, dangerous, and shameful stunt.”

[...]

The Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, a local aid group, took the migrants to a church to receive assistance, according to ABC 7. The organization said Abbott was behind Saturday’s drop off, and the local outlet said the group learned about the buses a few days earlier.

Abbott has not confirmed his involvement.

[...]

“It really does show the cruelty behind Gov. Abbott in his insistence on continuing to bus people here without care,” Fischer told ABC 7, going on to say that the migrants “don’t have clothes for this kind of weather and they’re freezing.”

[...]

“Worthless @GovAbbott dropping off people with no money and no means on Christmas Eve in 15 degree weather near the VP’s residence,” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) wrote on Twitter early Sunday morning. “How Christian of you, Greg Abbott. Being a heartless POS isn’t going to make you the next Republican President.”

“Governor Abbott claims to be a ‘pro-life Christian’ yet shows no regard for the lives of children left shivering in the freezing cold on Christmas Eve,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) wrote on Twitter. “Dropping off migrants in 18 degree weather is so cruel that it ought to be criminal.”

Abbott and other Republican governors for months have been directing migrants to Democratic-led cities — including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia — drawing widespread criticism from Democrats for what they see as using the immigrants as political pawns.

  The Hill

They see it that way because that's the way it is.

In one of the most widely-publicized cases, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) flew two planes of migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts in September. That same month, two buses of migrants from Texas arrived at the Naval Observatory.

I guess Florida has more money for political stunts than Texas. Or else Texas didn't want the immigrants to get a plane ride.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

A change in the war

According to the [Russian] defence ministry, a Ukrainian drone was shot down on the approach to Engels base early on Monday morning but falling debris killed three soldiers.

The strike was the second recent attack on the Engels airbase, located about 300 miles away from the Ukrainian border and more than 450 miles south-east of Moscow.

Earlier this month, three servicemen were killed and two aircraft were damaged during an apparent Ukrainian drone attack on the Engels airbase.

[...]

The Soviet-era Engels airbase, named after the communist philosopher Friedrich Engels, is a crucial site for Russian air force operations against Ukraine and for the country’s strategic nuclear forces.

It is home to Russia’s 121st heavy bomber aviation regiment, which includes the Tu-95 and Tu-160 strategic bomber squadrons whose missiles have devastated Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

[...]

The attack on the Engels airbase once again exposed Russian air defence gaps and demonstrated Kyiv’s ability to penetrate hundreds of miles into Russian airspace.

  Guardian

A notable difference between Ukrainian and Russian drone attacks is that the Ukrainian attacks are on a military target, not civilian ones.

Meanwhile, despotic sabers are rattling in China and North Korea.

Seventy-one Chinese air force aircraft including fighter jets and drones entered Taiwan’s air defence identification zone in the past 24 hours, the island’s government said on Monday, the largest reported incursion to date.

[...]

China said it had conducted “strike drills” in the sea and airspace around Taiwan on Sunday in response to what it said was provocation from the democratically governed island and the US.

[...]

[A Chinese spokesperson said they are] referring to the US defence spending bill, which calls China a strategic challenge. With regard to the Indo-Pacific region, the legislation authorises increased security cooperation with Taiwan and requires expanded cooperation with India on emerging defence technologies, readiness and logistics.

[...]

Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, speaking at a military ceremony on Monday, reiterated the need for Taiwan to boost its defence capacity due to “the continuous expansion of authoritarianism.”

  Guardian

South Korea scrambled warplanes and attack helicopters and fired warning shots on Monday after North Korean drones violated its airspace, the South Korean military said.

South Korea tracked the drones crossing from North Korea over what is known as the military demarcation line between the two countries after detecting them in the skies of the western city of Gimpo at about 10.25am (0125 GMT), the military said.

  Guardian

It's Sunday

Hypocritical "Christians" are all too common.  It appears he might also be guilty of one of the 7 deadly sins.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Jesus, these hypocrites

Marjorie Taylor Greene has been vacationing in Costa Rica, and voting by proxy in Congress.

Proxy voting is a pandemic-area procedure that was originally designed to allow members of Congress to avoid traveling to Washington, DC in order to minimize the risk of exposure to COVID. Since then, members of Congress have used it for all sorts of non-COVID reasons.

[...]

Republicans, including Greene, have harshly criticized the practice, despite often using it themselves. Greene even introduced a bill in March of this year to eliminate the practice. "Now that COVID is over and we're back to normal life, Congresswoman Greene is ready to end proxy voting," Greene spokesman Nick Dyer told Insider in May.

  Business Insider

Obviously, she is not.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

WWJD

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

h/t Jean

White House holidays

2022:

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Merry Christmas compare and contrast

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Missouri's "Make Murder Legal Act" revived

A southwest Missouri lawmaker is again pushing for passage of a law that prosecutors across the state have condemned as a “get out of jail free” card for murderers.

In a Republican-controlled state that already has permissive gun laws, the legislation introduced by Rep. Ben Baker, R-Neosho, would establish a presumption that a defendant acted reasonably in self-defense when they use deadly force against another person.

  

I can't help but wonder who Rep. Baker wants to kill.

“I just think it’s important when it comes to our Second Amendment rights,” Baker said. “I think the issue is valid.”

[...]

Baker’s proposal is identical to a bill that faced withering criticism in the Senate last year.

“The language is the same. There are no further changes to the bill. I suspect that there will be,” Baker said.

[...]

The Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, in a statement issued in May, slammed the legislation, saying it would prohibit police from detaining any murderer who shouted “self-defense” and would grant violent killers absolute immunity for their crimes.

[...]

Missouri already has one of the nation’s most expansive ‘stand your ground’ laws,” the statement noted.

[...]

One county prosecutor called the Senate bill, which was sponsored by former Sen. Eric Burlison, R-Battlefield, the “Make Murder Legal Act.”

[...]

At the same time, Democrats in the minority are working to combat gun violence following a deadly shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High in St. Louis, which claimed the lives of Alexzandria Bell, a 15-year-old student, and Jean Kuczka, a lifelong educator. Seven others were injured in the October rampage that also affected Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience.

[...]

Democrats representing the state’s urban areas have introduced a slew of legislation designed to prevent dangerous people that pose a threat to themselves and others from easily accessing firearms.

Williams, for example, is sponsoring a bill that would attempt to strengthen the state’s concealed weapons permitting law, which has been weakened through the passage of Republican-backed firearms laws.

Rep. Peter Merideth, D-St. Louis, wants to impose a so-called “red flag” law that may have stopped the fatal school shooting.

[...]

Merideth also wants to raise the age necessary to legally purchase a firearm to 21 years old. It is now set at 19.

[...]

Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, has signaled that he doesn’t favor tougher gun laws.

“You can pass all the laws you want for that, but if they aren’t abiding by the law, it’s not going to make any difference,” Parson told KOLR-TV after the school shooting.

Parson may be one of the country's dumbest governors. If you have the laws, and you prosecute those who violate them, that will make a difference.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The Right eating themselves continues

In one of his harshest attacks to date on Donald Trump, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the former president’s clout has “diminished” and called him harmful to the Republican Party.

Trump has created a view of Republicans as “nasty and tended toward chaos,” McConnell said in an interview earlier this week with NBC News in his Capitol Hill office.

[...]

“We lost support that we needed among independents and moderate Republicans, primarily related to the view they had of us as a party — largely made by the former president — that we were sort of nasty and tended toward chaos,” McConnell said.

  HuffPo

The Republicans didn't need Trump's help to be viewed as nasty. And Mitch has always been one of the nastiest. Maybe second only to Trump.

McConnell said he will no longer be cowed by Trump’s endorsements and vowed instead to “actively” seek “quality candidates” for 2024.

He'll be kowtowing to Trump just like all the other cowards if Trump is the nominee in 2024.

McConnell has been locked in a bitter feud with a vengeful Trump after having criticized his actions on Jan. 6, 2021 — and the relationship presents land mines for the GOP in 2024, particularly if Trump is its nominee. McConnell recognizes those land mines — he won't endorse in the presidential primary. He has suggested Trump cannot win the nomination again, but he kept the door open to backing him in the general election if he does.

  NBC

Yeah. Like I was saying.

McConnell had his own role in the GOP's underperformance this year. Using aggressive parliamentary tactics, he arguably played a larger role than anybody else in building the 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, which sparked a revolt among supporters of abortion rights when it overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June.

[...]

He conceded that the ruling “generated enthusiasm among Democrats, not surprisingly,” in the midterm election. But he said GOP turnout was “fine” and argued that abortion wasn’t the reason key independents and swing voters backed Democrats.

“They may have been ginned up some with their base,” McConnell said. But he insisted: “Our biggest problem was candidate quality.”

If he really believes that, he's going to continue losing.

..but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  Oh, now he's just TRYING to start a fight.

Don't look for Dems to change the pattern

The difference, however, is that Republicans would like to put it ALL in military and law enforcement.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.