Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) compared Democrats to “Superman” while predicting Republicans in the House will be in a constant state of “disarray” headed into the new year following the chaos surrounding a spending bill to avoid a government shutdown.
Crockett, who voted “present” on the final approved spending bill, joined MSNBC’s Ali Velshi on Saturday to discuss a government shutdown being avoided at the last minute following President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk helping to kill an original spending bill supported by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
“You guys still can’t get your house in order, not you, but the Republicans can’t get their house in order,” Velshi said.
“I was about to say, Ali, don’t put that on us!” Crockett replied.
The lawmaker continued:
Democrats are swooping in like Superman and super women to make sure they can take care of the American people, but I just need the American people to have longer memories because, as you stated, this Congress ended on the same note that it began, but for some reason we will not have a Speaker Jeffries on January 3. We knew that these Republicans in their slim majority were unable to get anything done and the crazy part is that Nancy Pelosi had the same slim majority but, guess what, we weren’t always in a state of crises and they are going to go into the 119th [Congress] with an even slimmer majority.
After an initial spending bill was killed, a second supported by Trump and Musk also failed
to pass, with dozens of Republicans opposing it. One point of contention was Trump’s insistence that the debt ceiling
be eliminated temporarily. The final spending bill keeps the government funded
through mid-March.
Crockett praised some elements of the final spending bill, including funding for pediatric cancer research being put back in after being chopped out. She credited Democrats for ultimately avoiding a government shutdown with their votes
for the bill.
Crockett herself voted “present,” chalking her decision partially up to Musk’s influence and involvement with Republican lawmakers. Johnson had said this week he was in direct contact with Musk over the spending measures. The initial 1,547-page bill was cut down to just 118 pages before it was passed on Friday night.
“I wouldn’t vote to actually throw things into disarray as we are approaching Christmas, but I want to be clear, this is not how I legislate. I absolutely think it was a mistake for them to even be influenced by Elon Musk,” Crockett said.
The lawmaker added that Johnson, who has a tight majority hold, is “not going to get any favors out of” Democrats in the next session of Congress.
THANK YOU
In today’s times one tends to get so cynical about things. Politics is front and center and probably the main culprit.
We could be either Republican or Democrat and generally speaking that’s who we associate with. Those who think as we do, politically.
Can you imagine marrying a person of another party?
Would you go into business with someone of another party?
If you were in kidney failure and a Republican, would you accept the kidney of a Democrat?
Sounds crazy, right? Guess we’re a bunch crazies.
In the last few weeks, the news has been dominated by speculation about who Juan Soto was going to sign with. Is it possible that his representatives were checking out the parties of his pursuers? Just asking.
Now the real surprise. This past Friday afternoon, I was driving on the Merritt Parkway, going North from Greenwich to Norwalk in Connecticut. As usual, at this time, traffic was stop and go. The young woman driving in the car directly behind me was uncomfortably close. I anticipated a problem.
Sure enough, she went barreling into me. Did some damage to my rear bumper and the side of my car. Her damage was significant. Parts of her car fell off. I had some physical discomfort. The jury is still out. Not sure about her.
What interested me was the woman’s and my reaction to each other. She accepted responsibility, was very contrite and apologized repeatedly for causing the accident.
Furthermore, A man pulled over and offered to be of assistance. Several people passing by called the police.
The cynic in me was appreciative of the reaction of not only the young woman but those who in their own way reached out to be of assistance.
Not one person, asked about my political preference. Thank you.
I once had the honor to work as a principal at one of the most prestigious law firms in the world. Years before that, I worked on three presidential campaigns.
As the 2024 presidential campaign played out between first former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden and then Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, I thought often about those two experiences, because of the unethical and un-American “lawfare” strategies rolled out continuously against Trump.
Not only were these seemingly coordinated strategies unprecedented in presidential politics, but they were truly chilling. Almost everyone in the Democratic Party and on the left — be they politicians, the media, academia and certain judicial officials — seemed to be in on this grift to usurp the will of the American people via laughable legal challenges, charges and strategies that would have been universally condemned were they leveled at anyone other than Trump.
As these multiple “lawfare” tactics played, my overriding thought was that Trump better have a first-rate legal team behind him. As it turns out, they were better than first rate. In many critically important ways, they saved the campaign — and the candidate.
And they had to be first rate because they were facing a stacked deck and up against the full force of the Department of Justice. For it was there that Special Counsel Jack Smith filed broad indictments against candidate Trump — the overwhelming favorite for the Republican nomination — in both Washington and Florida that were overly reliant on novel criminal theories and selectively applied against Trump.
Knowing that, Trump leaned heavily on senior legal adviser Boris Epshteyn, one of his most loyal and long-serving confidantes, to lead the recruiting and coordination of a top-tier legal team to fight back against the mounting Democrat-led lawfare campaign. As a savvy behind-the-scenes operator, Epshteyn quickly assembled an exceptional and highly motivated team consisting of Todd Blanche, Emil Bove, John Sauer, Will Scharf, John Lauro and Steve Sadow.
Once in place, the team found itself running a parallel public relations campaign in conjunction with the ever-ramping presidential primary while coordinating 24/7 with campaign leaders Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita as well as as well as campaign communicators Steven Cheung, Jason Miller, Aaron Harison and legal spokesperson Alina Habba. On top of that, Epshteyn had to figure out in a hurry how to play four-dimensional chess.
First, he and the team had to prepare their candidate for a contested GOP primary; next, the general election against Biden; then against Harris; against the Biden-Harris Department of Justice; a special counsel in DC; a district attorney and judge in Manhattan; a district attorney in Georgia; the state Supreme Court in Colorado; and the secretary of State in Maine.
All of the individuals prosecuting these cases against Trump had seemingly done so to unconstitutionally weaponize the law against him to both derail his campaign and destroy his personal and financial life in. To prevent that, his legal team rushed into battle on multiple fronts.
Blanche, whom Trump has since nominated to serve as deputy attorney general, took the lead on the Florida and Manhattan cases and also served as co-counsel in the D.C.-based Jan. 6 case with attorney John Lauro. Sauer and Scharf were retained to lead Trump’s appellate team and were the masterminds behind the successful immunity appeal to the Supreme Court.
High-profile attorney Steve Sadow would lead in the Fulton County, Georgia case against District Attorney Fani Willis (D), whose case quickly found itself stuck in the mud after her unethical romantic relationship with a deputy was revealed in pre-trial court motions.
Clearly, failure by the legal team was not an option. It was all or nothing. Win the race or possibly be sent to jail by the so-called protectors of “our democracy,” as the Democrats repeatedly labeled themselves.
In the iconic 1939 film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” the Jefferson Smith character (Jimmy Stewart) is under constant assault by corrupt special interests, politicians and members of the media all looking to destroy him and his populist message for their own biased and greedy reasons (sound familiar?). As Smith prepares to fight to clear his name, a reporter played by Jean Arthur tells him, “It’s a 40-foot dive into a tub of water, but I think you can do it.”
The Trump legal team was forced to make multiple 1,000-foot dives into thimbles of water as they fought back against one invented legal scheme after the other. Time and again, the team prevailed. Be it twice with the Supreme Court; state and city jurisdictions; or, of late, against ABC News and George Stephanopoulos.
While the lawfare campaign has largely been defeated, the two state cases in Manhattan and Georgia retain faint heartbeats in the face of strong reasons for dismissal. In Manhattan, Judge Juan Merchan has a dismissal motion awaiting a decision on his desk. Will he do the right thing and clear the slate, finally ending this charade and travesty of justice? In Georgia, the Court of Appeals just disqualified Willis and her team from prosecuting Trump. An indictment that should never have been brought is now all but over.
For the good of the country, these cases need to end. As we await those final outcomes, it must be noted that Trump’s unheralded legal team continually executed the proper moves at the right times on that four-dimensional chess board. And because they did, Trump himself was able to declare, “checkmate.”
The Aurora City Council has approved preliminary plans for a new 340-unit apartment complex planned along North Orchard Road in the city.
The council approved the plans on Dec. 17.
The complex, proposed by national real estate developer Continental Properties, would be called Springs at Aurora and have 17 two-story apartment buildings, a clubhouse and both attached and detached garages, according to a city staff report.
Of the apartment complex’s 340 units, 34 are expected to be studio apartments, 136 are expected to be one-bedroom apartments, 136 are expected to be two-bedroom and 34 are expected to be three-bedroom units.
Springs at Aurora would be constructed on the currently empty land between the Home Depot at 1250 N. Orchard Road and the Holiday Inn at 2424 W. Sullivan Road, site plans show.
Each of the 17 apartment buildings would hold 20 apartments, all of which would have a patio or deck and eight of which would have its own one-car garage. The complex would also have five detached garages with a total of 49 parking spaces along with 365 outdoor parking spaces and other parking spots on driveways in front of the attached garages.
The 4,300-square-foot clubhouse would have its own 13 parking spaces and feature a leasing office, a 24-hour fitness center and an in-ground swimming pool, the staff report said. The clubhouse would also have Wi-Fi, a demonstration- style kitchen and an outdoor patio and grill area, according to a presentation given to the Aurora City Council Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee on Dec. 11.
Other amenities included in the apartment complex would be a coffee bar, pergolas with outdoor grilling areas, courtyard walkways, a car care center, a pet wash station, pet parks and handyman services, the presentation said.
The apartments are set to be between 650 and 1,400 square feet, depending on the number of bedrooms, according to the presentation.
The main entrance to the apartment complex would be at an existing traffic light on Orchard Road between West Indian Trail and Sullivan Road, and a secondary entrance would be located near the Holiday Inn.
Russ Whitaker, a Naperville-based attorney representing Continental Properties, said at a recent City Council Committee of the Whole meeting that Continental has built 11 of these Springs apartment complexes in the Chicago area over the past several years. What sets Springs apart from other apartment complexes is the price point, which would be “coming in at a premium” compared to others in the region, he said.
The site has been owned by Meijer for at least the past 24 years, and during that time, plans to build a Meijer store and gas station on the site have been fully approved twice, the city staff report said. Instead of moving forward with that development, Meijer recently decided to sell the property instead, officials said.
Along with approving preliminary plans for the Springs at Aurora apartment complex, the Aurora City Council also voted to approve the subdivision of the site into five plots, one of which will hold Springs at Aurora, and also to make changes to the roughly 500-acre USAA Planned Development District, which the site sits in, to accommodate the project.
In addition to the roughly 18-acre plot where Springs at Aurora will be located, the other four plots on the site will include a site for future commercial development, an access road and two plots for stormwater management, according to the staff report.
The changes to the USAA Planned Development District changed the land-use designation on the property where Springs at Aurora is set to be located from office, research, light industrial or commercial use to multi-family residential use with similar standards to the city’s existing R-5 Multi-Family Dwelling District zoning, but with some differences, the staff report said.
The development will be allowed to be on a single lot with a reduced lot size and floor area ratio, but it is required to be completely owned by a single company. It also requires a certain number of parking spaces, with a certain number of those spaces to be enclosed, lowers setbacks within the development, sets higher minimum floor areas for each type of apartment, requires patios or balconies for all apartments, and requires an amenity center with a pool.
The Aurora City Council voted 11-1 to approve all three items, which included the preliminary plan, the resubdivision and the change to the development district. Voting against was Ald. John Laesch, at-large, who said at the earlier Committee of the Whole meeting that the city already has enough apartments, and that he would rather see single-family homes built.
Laesch said he was also against lowering the parking requirements from what is typically allowed.
“I think the cost of $1,500 per a single-bedroom is probably going to encourage overcrowding in that space and is probably going to require more parking,” he said.
Aurora Senior Planner Tracey Vacek said the parking was lowered because residents can also park in the driveway in front of their attached garages, which were not formally counted as parking spaces. If those were counted, it would be near the level of parking typically required by the city, she said.
She also disagreed with Laesch that there are enough apartments, as did Mayor Richard Irvin.
“The reality is, we wouldn’t be building this apartment development unless there is demand for it, and demand means people want to live in them,” Irvin said.
Based on demographic data from other Continental apartment complexes, Springs at Aurora is also going to attract young professionals to the city, which is an important demographic to attract because they will then “move up through” other types of housing, according to Whitaker.
The Indiana Association of School Principals honored four administrators from Northwest Indiana schools, including three from the School Town of Munster, at its annual celebration on Nov. 24.
The event recognized exemplary school leaders across 12 regions in the state.
For District 1, which covers Northwest Indiana, River Forest High School Principal Gaelyn Mlynarcik was named High School Principal of the Year.
At Wilbur Wright Middle School in Munster, Bojan Jovanovic and Nicole Laird were named Middle School Principal of the Year and Assistant Principal of the Year, respectively.
Kelly Boersma, principal of Frank H. Hammond Elementary School in Munster, was named Elementary School Principal of the Year.
“These awards are a testament to the dedication, vision, and impact that Ms. Boersma, Mr. Jovanovic, and Mrs. Laird bring to our students and staff every day,” said Dr. Bret Heller, Superintendent of the School Town of Munster. “This recognition not only highlights their individual accomplishments but also underscores the strength of the entire School Town of Munster community. We are incredibly proud to have such remarkable leaders in our district, and this recognition is well-deserved.”
“May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace.”
Those words, from Disney’s new Snow White actress Rachel Zegler, came shortly after half of the country, roughly 77 million Americans, voted for Donald Trump.
Tis the season for liberal hate-fests!
Only a few weeks ago, Kamala Harris and her supporters were rallying the country to choose “love over hate.”
Now, the “joy” is gone. Tis the season of the liberal hate-fest.
As Washington prepares for the inauguration, we are seeing a return to rage.
During the first Trump administration, liberal servers and restaurant owners pledged not to serve Trump officials. Now, the Washingtonian
is reporting on the planned resumption of the harassment of those serving in the Trump administration.
Zac Hoffman, manager at the National Democratic Club and “D.C. restaurant veteran,” told the magazine that abusing conservatives was only natural and understandable: “You expect the masses to just ignore RFK eating at Le Diplomate on a Sunday morning after a few mimosas and not to throw a drink in his face?”
One bartender stated that Trump people may “theoretically [have] the power to take away your rights, but I have the power to make you wait 20 minutes to get your entrée.”
Suzannah Van Rooy, a server and manager at Beuchert’s Saloon on Capitol Hill, declared that she would not serve some Trump officials. “It’s not, ‘Oh, we hate Republicans,’” she said. “It’s that this person has moral convictions that are strongly opposed to mine, and I don’t feel comfortable serving them.”
This campaign of hate is all too familiar to conservatives. Many remember when White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her family were kicked out of the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. As others were denied service or chased from restaurants, Democratic members like Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, supported such harassment.
For those restaurants not willing to follow the Red Hen model
, the response was equally unhinged. Mariya Rusciano runs a D.C. pizza restaurant. She posted congratulations to Trump on X after the election to encourage everyone to come together as a nation. The response from Democrats was furious,
filled with pledges to boycott
the restaurant and force it out of business.
It is not just service and civility that are scarce in Washington. Even while accusing Trump of putting his political and personal interests ahead of the nation, Biden is now reportedly
moving to veto a bipartisan bill to relieve pressure on our overwhelmed court system.
The Judges Act, supported by both Democrats and Republicans, would add 66 new judgeships to an over-worked court system. The White House supported the bill right up until Trump won the election. While some Democrats are still trying to get the White House to change its mind, liberal groups are applauding
the expected veto “to prevent President Trump from having more vacancies.”
If Biden carries out his threat, it will be not only gratuitous but illogical. The bill deliberately staggers the addition of judges over the next decade so that presidents of both parties will presumably be able to appoint them. Moreover, the Senate is still closely divided, and “blue-slipping” (whereby senators can hold up some nominations) remains in effect.
More importantly, the reason for this bipartisan effort
is due to a dire need for our courts. Judges are drowning in dockets with rising caseloads. In 2004, the number of cases in district court pending for more than three years was 18,280. This year, there are 81,617.
If justice delayed is justice denied, our court system is becoming a tar pit of injustice, with litigants left without verdicts or relief for years.
The word of the intended veto stripped away any pretense of the White House putting the public interest before politics. A veto would put rage before reason.
In my recent book, I discussed how addictive rage is. People do not like to admit it, but they like being angry. Sometimes, people can choose madness as a relief from reality. It offers a righteous license to slip from the bounds of civility and decency. It allows people to harass Republicans in restaurants or to scream profanities outside of their homes.
It allows a president to say that he might block judgeships for a struggling court system, just because he does not want his successor to make any of the appointments.
It is the reason 41 percent of adults under 30 believe that killing others, like healthcare executives, is justified, according to an Emerson College poll
.
We cannot seem to shake this rage addiction even after an election or during a holiday committed to peace and understanding. One liberal site, Crooked Media, is actually selling holiday items featuring the violent extremist group Antifa — one of the most anti-free speech groups in history, which routinely attacks journalists, speakers, and conservative demonstrators.
Created by former Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor, the Crooked Media site is selling
a line of Antifa items for liberals, including Antifa onesies for infants and “Antifa Dad” shirts to seemingly celebrate political violence.
It seems the joy, bipartisanship, and civility have all expired like last year’s eggnog. Even Disney’s new Snow White seems to have taken the cue from the Evil Queen and treated this election as “a blast of wind to fan my hate
.”
Gary Mayor Eddie Melton issued a joint statement with two Pennsylvania mayors regarding the United Steelworkers’ position on the proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel.
“USW leadership is putting jobs at risk with its actions, plain and simple,” said the joint statement from Melton, North Braddock Mayor Cletus Lee and West Mifflin Mayor Chris Kelly. “During the course of our discussions with Nippon Steel, we urged the company to come to the table with an agreement that addressed each of the concerns that USW leadership raised with us. Nippon Steel delivered, but USW leaders refused to engage in good faith.”
USW International President David McCall and Mike Millsap, director of District 7 and chairman of the negotiating committee, on Thursday released a statement saying the union must continue to resist Nippon Steel’s purchase of the American steel company.
Nippon Steel vice president and executive director Takahiro Mori, on right, gestures to Gary mayor Eddie Melton during a press conference at the Gary City Hall concerning the planned acquisition of U.S. Steel by the Japanese company, on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (Kyle Telechan/for the Post-Tribune)
On Dec. 10, Bloomberg reported that U.S. President Joe Biden plans to block Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States panel is expected to refer its decision to Biden on Sunday.
An August letter from the Treasury Department on behalf of CFIUS offered justification for blocking the deal by arguing the deal is a threat to an industry critical not just for the production of military equipment, but also for infrastructure, Bloomberg reported on Dec. 10.
USW leadership met with the Pennsylvania mayors on Monday to discuss lingering concerns. On Wednesday, they met with Melton and Nippon Steel representatives, the statement said.
Nippon leaders made it clear it has no intention of addressing problems the union has with the sale, the union’s statement said.
In the meetings, Nippon conceded that its pledged $1 billion for a hot strip mill in Pennsylvania’s Mon Valley is only half the cost required, the statement said, which leads union leaders to question the company’s commitment to the long-term success of facilities.
Union leaders also said they’re concerned that Nippon will transfer production from other facilities to Big River in Arkansas, which they argue hurts union workers and undercuts long-term job security.
“It became obvious over the course of the meeting that Nippon intends to spend some money in the communities surrounding our facilities if the sale happens, such as funding the construction of community centers,” USW’s statement said. “But it would not commit to keeping production in our current facilities. And without our facilities and the good, family-supporting jobs they sustain, our communities will ultimately suffer.”
In December 2023, it was announced that Nippon aimed to acquire the American company, according to U.S. Steel’s website. U.S. Steel employs about 4,500 steelworkers at both Gary Works and its Midwest plant in Portage.
U.S. Steel has repeatedly said that the transaction should be approved.
“The benefits are overwhelmingly clear,” a U.S. Steel statement said. “Our communities, customers, investors and employees strongly support this transaction, and we will continue to advocate for them and adherence to the rule of law.”
Nippon announced in August that if the deal is approved, it would invest about $300 million into the local Gary Works facility, specifically the blast furnace. With the investment, the Gary Works’ furnace would have its life extended by up to 20 years.
Since the announcement, Melton has continually expressed his support for the deal.
“When I first heard about this deal, like many, I say this respectfully, I was skeptical as well,” Melton said Dec. 12. “I wasn’t sure what fate was going to look like for the city of Gary. … But for the city, this partnership would mean so much.”
Northwest Indiana environmental groups have said they oppose the steel deal because they worry the deal will further permit the use of blast furnaces, calling the technology outdated. Just Transition Northwest Indiana and Gary Advocates for Responsible Development both prefer direct reduction furnaces for steelmaking.
During a Dec. 12 Gary press conference, Nippon Steel’s Representative Director and Vice Chairman Takahiro Mori said the company plans to invest $1 billion into Gary Works.
If the deal is approved, Nippon plans to invest nearly $3 billion into its union-represented facilities. The Japanese company is committed to serving steelworkers in the region, Mori said Dec. 12.
In a statement after USW meetings, Nippon executives thanked the Pennsylvania mayors and Melton for their support of the deal. Nippon’s statement said McCall refuses to engage with the Japanese company.
“This is now the second time in a matter of weeks that President McCall walked away from discussions — putting at risk the necessary capital and technological improvements that Nippon Steel will bring to U.S. Steel so it can produce stronger, cleaner and more advanced steel for its customers in the U.S.,” the statement said. “We were particularly disappointed that the USW put out its recent statement denouncing the meeting while it was still taking place, and while President McCall was still in the room.”
Nippon plans to continue pursuing USW’s approval and agreement, the statement said.
Lee, Kelly and Melton said in their statement that USW’s statement was “a slap in the face.”
“We have been through a lot of struggle in our communities, but the USW’s behavior is a new low,” the statement said. “We know that the members would be disappointed if they were in the room to hear what we heard.”
