There's going to be a Qruise

Miles Tayor: GOP Hill staffer texted me the below. Works for one of the 106 Congressmen ...

GOP Hill staffer texted me the below. Works for one of the 106 Congressmen trying to overturn the election.

My reply: “Resign in protest. We’ll help you find a job.”



https://twitter.com/MilesTaylorUSA/status/1337427936740302852

The Senate votes to advance the $740.5 billion bipartisan defense-policy bill (NDAA) over President

A Lone White Male Republican Senator Blocks Creation of National Latino and Women's Museums

Source: Slate

The push to create two new museums in Washington, D.C., honoring the contributions of Latinos and women in American history has been nearly two decades in the making and, on Thursday, appeared on the cusp of becoming a reality. The groundwork had been laid, bipartisan bills had passed overwhelmingly in the House that authorized the museums creation under the auspices of the Smithsonian. But when Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey moved to advance the Latino museum by unanimous consent Thursday evening, a legislative method used to expedite uncontroversial measures, a single Republican senator—Mike Lee of Utah—stepped in and blew the whole thing up. The white male senator said he opposed the creation of “separate but equal museums for hyphenated identity groups.”

“My objection to the creation of a new Smithsonian museum or series of museums based on group identity—what Theodore Roosevelt called hyphenated Americanism—is not a matter of budgetary or legislative technicalities… It’s a matter of national unity and cultural inclusion,” Lee explained. “At the end of such a fraying and fracturing year, Congress should not splinter one of the national institutional cornerstones of our distinct national identity.” Lee said that instead of distinct museums, both should be better incorporated into existing Smithsonian institutions. “[Latino] stories are our stories and they are stories that emphatically should be told by the Smithsonian Institution at the Museum of American History. Period. No hyphen,” Lee continued. “The so-called critical theory undergirding this movement does not celebrate diversity; it weaponizes diversity… It sharpens all those hyphens into so many knives and daggers.”

“Generations of Latino Americans have shaped our country as it is today, but as I suggested a moment ago, many Americans simply aren’t aware of the vast contributions made by these men and women who have come before us, and one critical way we can right this wrong is by providing a home for their stories in the nation’s capital,” Sen. Cornyn said in support of the museum. “Sixty million Latinos in this country are watching tonight because this is a much-expected moment,” Menendez responded to Lee. “Univision, Telemundo, affiliates across the country, national organizations and others have been waiting for this moment—a moment that everybody in the Congress of the United States agrees to, except for one colleague.”

Shortly after that one colleague scuttled the Latino museum, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine introduced her bill to establish a Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum. “I can think of no better way to tell the story of American women, to inspire those young girls and young boys who come to Washington to tour all the wonderful museums that are part of the Smithsonian, than to create a museum of American women’s history so that they can better understand the contributions of American women to the development of our nation and its proud history,” Collins said.

Read more: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/12/republican-senator-mike-lee-blocks-smithsonian-latino-womens-museums.html?via=rss_socialflow_twitter

Mike Lee on Senate floor blocks bill for a Smithsonian museum for Latinos (thread)

Kamala & Doug: From our big, modern family to yours, happy Hanukkah!

Leslie Jones is going to be on Nicolle's show in the second hour. n/t

106 House Republicans Support Trump-Backed Lawsuit To Overturn Election

Source: Forbes

A group of 106 Republican House members, more than half of the GOP caucus in the chamber, signed an amicus brief filed Thursday in support of a lawsuit backed by President Trump that seeks to overturn the election.

The brief is led by Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), who, in an email obtained by Forbes, told his colleagues Trump personally asked him to recruit supporters for the lawsuit, which aims to invalidate electors in four states Joe Biden won: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

The lawsuit was brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and is supported by Republican attorney generals in 17 other states – 6 of whom are trying to directly intervene and 10 of whom met with Trump for a private lunch at the White House on Thursday.

The suit claims the states’ electors should be invalidated because expanded mail-in voting due to the Covid-19 outbreak resulted in widespread fraud and irregularities – an allegation that has already dismissed by courts numerous times.

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/12/10/106-house-republicans-support-trump-backed-lawsuit-to-overturn-election/?sh=4e11c53c3cd6

'Elf' cast reunites to fundraise for Democrats in Georgia Senate runoffs

Source: The Hill

The cast of the 2003 Christmas film "Elf" will reunite for a fundraiser benefiting Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock in the two Georgia runoff elections.

The fundraiser will be livestreamed on Sunday and feature cast members like Will Ferrell, Zooey Deschanel, Bob Newhart doing a table read of the film script, according to an announcement from the digital fundraising platform ActBlue.

"Pod Save America" host Jon Favreau will also take part in the reading, with comedian and writer Ashley Nicole Black hosting the fundraiser.

The event aims to raise money for the Georgia Democratic Party to support Ossoff and Warnock as they try to unseat Sens. David Perdue (R) and Kelly Loeffler (R).

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/529653-elf-cast-reunites-to-fundraise-for-democrats-in-georgia-senate-runoff

There's Rich, And Then There's Jeff Bezos Rich: Meet The World's Centibillionaires