If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Texas Attorney-General Ken Paxton has spoken at a Turning Point USA event to detail a series of unjust obstacles he has been facing since taking office, one of those being debanking. According to Paxton, as many as four different banks denied him their services, which was followed by a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit, attempts to revoke his law license, and an FBI investigation. https://video.reclaimthenet.org/articles/paxton-debank.mp4 This was happening during the last four years of the Biden-Harris Democrat administration, suggesting that the reasons were political, but it went all the way to “a Republican split”: while the state House tried to impeach Paxton – the Senate later acquitted him in the impeachment trial. The takeaway here is that democratic norms and the principle of due process are at this point considerably compromised and highly vulnerable to political influence. And Paxton is by no means the only high-profile individual to become the target of debanking. When the new administration took over after President Trump’s first term in office, his wife Melania, and son Barron were denied banking services. According to a memoir the first lady published earlier in the year, her account was terminated, while her son was not allowed to open his own. “This decision appeared to be rooted in political discrimination, raising serious concerns about civil rights violations,” Melania Trump wrote, describing this as actions of the “cancel mob” made up not only of financial institutions but also legacy media, corporations, and even cultural institutions. Debanking is used as a form of political pressure against individuals, but also businesses. Even though the goal over the past four years was to discourage them from supporting Trump – in some cases it had the opposite effect. One of the top venture capitalists, Marc Andreessen, addressed this when he appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast, saying that the Biden administration’s choice of going after political opponents by exuding them from the financial system was “one of the reasons why we ended up supporting Trump.” Andreessen also said that he is unaware of anyone on the Left getting debanked – having their bank account closed and cut off from credit card transactions for being a “politically exposed person.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Texas AG Ken Paxton Reveals Multiple Instances of Debanking Amid Political and Legal Challenges appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

NYT Never Trumper Repents

Axios: Mainstream Media Enters 'Suck-Up Moment'

Not to sound conspiratorial, but...

In the ancient formation of North America, three geological sites were torn from each other.

Scientists have discovered a huge spiral galaxy with an ordered structure in the early universe, but cannot explain how it grew so big so quickly. Using the Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered a spiral galaxy with an ordered structure about 32,000 light years in diameter. It existed 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. But galaxies in the early universe are lumpier and lack an ordered structure. So this discovery has stumped astronomers. The study was published on the preprint server arXiv, Live Science writes. Astronomers have discovered an unexpectedly large, well-ordered spiral galaxy in the early universe, 32,000 light years across, called A2744-GDSp-z4. That it existed as early as 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang could change what astronomers know about galaxy formation, and spiral galaxies in particular. Generally, the older a galaxy is, the farther it is from Earth. Astronomers can estimate the age of a galaxy and how far away it is by using redshift. When light travels across large areas of space, it shifts toward the red end of the electromagnetic spectrum. Using the Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered a spiral galaxy with an ordered structure, the galaxy A2744-GDSp-z4, with a diameter of about 32,000 light years. It existed already 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. As the universe expands, older stars appear further away. The red part of the spectrum shows the longest wavelength of light, so stars that are very far away tend to appear redder because they have a red shift. The Webb Space Telescope can see the most distant stars and galaxies in space, which are the oldest. But astronomers have mostly found spiral galaxies closer to us, meaning they are generally younger than the recently discovered galaxy A2744-GDSp-z4. Well-ordered spiral galaxies like this one have two distinct spiral arms. Astronomers have previously found very few galaxies with redshifts higher than 3.0, meaning the light from these galaxies has taken about 11.5 billion years to reach us. But the galaxy A2744-GDSp-z4 has a redshift of 4.03, meaning that its light has been traveling to us for more than 12 billion years. According to scientists, calculations show that this galaxy formed about 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, or 12.3 billion years ago. At the same time, scientists say that the galaxy grew too quickly to such a huge size, although it is still 3 times smaller than the Milky Way. But for galaxies in the early Universe, this is a very large size. A study of the rate at which new stars are formed in the galaxy A2744-GDSp-z4 has shown that it has gained a mass equivalent to 10 billion solar masses in just a few hundred million years, which contradicts the model for the formation of spiral galaxies. Scientists say spiral galaxies in the early universe were mostly lumpy and turbulent. But a spiral galaxy with an orderly structure has been discovered. Astronomers believe that the galaxy’s rapid growth and ordered structure may be due to the presence of a stellar bar. This is a gaseous structure found in most galaxies that fuels the birth of stars and acts as a conduit for the movement of gas between the galaxy’s interior and exterior. This movement of gas helps the galaxy grow and shape itself. The ancient spiral galaxy may have formed from the merger of two smaller galaxies, although this seems less likely given its orderly structure, astronomers say. The post Astronomers Have Discovered a Galaxy They Can’t Explain appeared first on Anomalien.com.

Mexico either refuses to or is utterly incapable of getting their drug cartel problem under control as they ravage innocent people. So instead, they’ve chose to shift blame to the United States and target American gun rights in a pair of lawsuits in American courts. In a segment on Sunday’s 60 Minutes, CBS News chose to cheer on Mexico’s effort as they willing pushed foreign propaganda in an effort to tear down Americans’ Second Amendment rights. “There`s been a lot of talk about stopping the flow of illegal immigration and drugs from Mexico. But few people are talking about another crisis at the border -- guns. Specifically, American guns,” chided correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi. She parroted Mexican talking points that blamed American gun rights for cartel violence, not Mexico’s refusal to crackdown and their rampant corruption. She even suggested that Mexico’s actions against the U.S. could “fix” the “problems” with America’s gun rights: Mexico says those American guns are responsible for much of the cartel violence that`s plagued its country. And now, it`s taking an unusual approach to try and stop it -- it`s suing. The government of Mexico has filed lawsuits in U.S. courts against a handful of gun stores and one of the largest gun manufacturers in America. It believes damning that "iron river" might also fix some of the problems that plague the U.S.     The video portion of the segment opened with comments from anti-gun rights lawyer Jonathan Lowy suggesting that Americans should care just as much about Mexico’s crime rates as they do about fentanyl overdoses and illegal immigration into the U.S. Alfonsi touts that Lowy had teamed up with Mexico against America: LOWY: If you think fentanyl overdoses are a problem, if you think migration across the border is a problem, if you think the spread of organized crime is a problem in the United States, then you should care about stopping the crime gun pipeline to Mexico. And you need to stop it at its source. Because all those problems are driven by the supply of U.S. guns to the cartels. ALFONSI: Jonathan Lowy is an American attorney who`s been battling the gun industry in court for 25 years. Mexico asked Lowy to help devise its strategy to cut off the gun pipeline after one of the deadliest chapters in the country`s history… Alfonsi also sat down with anti-American former Mexican President Andrea Manuel Lopez Obrador, who made the dubious claim that when he was leading the country, “We have confiscated, in the time that I`ve been in government, 50,000 guns of high power, of high caliber -- 50,000 guns. And 75 percent of them from the United States.” Being an ignorant liberal journalist, Alfonsi didn’t ask about what Obrador meant by “guns of high power, of high caliber.” The report cheered on Mexico’s lawsuits against gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson and five gun stores in Arizona. Without providing evidence, Alfonsi boosted claims by Lowy that the store owners should just magically know that the people walking into their establishments were working for the cartels. One of the telltale signs? Using U.S. currency (Click “expand”): LOWY: The dealer`s main responsibility, in my view, is to pay attention to indicators to see if the person standing in front of them, on the other side of the counter, is a potential criminal or supplier to the criminal market. ALFONSI: The gun retailers say it`s really hard to know sometimes if somebody`s a straw buyer, right? That they come in with a good cover story and you have to believe them. LOWY: It`s pretty obvious. I mean, you see these multiple sales of AR-15s. You see these large cash payments, you see these persons coming back to the store every few days or every few weeks. I mean, these are not normal buying patterns. Lowy also claimed S&W was somehow aware that they were selling to stores selling to Mexican drug cartels: ALFONSI: How can you say manufacturers are responsible for anything when there are so many steps in the process between the time that they make it and it goes to the retailer, and then maybe it`s sold to somebody else or resold? How can you trace it back and say, "It`s the manufacturers." LOWY: When manufacturers make the decision, "We`re going to sell guns through dealers no matter what their record is, no matter how many crime guns they`re selling," you know, that`s on them. What the report failed to establish, and Alfonsi was probably too ignorant to ask, was: how long was the time-to-crime between the sale of the guns in America and them turning up at crime scenes in Mexico? CBS News like to blame gun crime on the increase in gun sales. But as The Reload founder Stephen Gutowski told NewsBusters in April 2022, the trace data shows (the same data cited in the report to smear S&W) “most guns recovered at crime scenes are years old,” which means the guns are likely stolen. At least in the U.S. Despite speaking with former ATF Agent Tim Sloan, who worked in the Mexico field office, at no point in the report did Alfonsi mention that the AFT helped to facilitate straw purchases of guns to Mexican drug cartels via the infamous Operation Fast and Furious gunwalking scheme. There also didn’t seem to be a question about how many of those guns could still be kicking around in Mexico; guns which were allowed to be purchased from stores in Arizona. Elsewhere in the segment, Alfonsi touted how Mexico only had one gun store in the entire country. “Like the U.S., Mexico`s constitution grants citizens the right to bear arms. But unlike the U.S., that right comes with a long list of restrictions,” she boasted. “There`s only one gun store in Mexico -- in the middle of a heavily guarded military base in Mexico City…But before customers can enter, they have to show proof they`ve passed psychological tests, drug screens, and extensive background checks.” Again, as an ignorant liberal journalist, Alfonsi didn’t seem aware that the U.S. mandated background checks. The form also included drug use and mental evaluative questions. In fact, it was one of those questions that Hunter Biden lied on which led to him catching a felony charge, only to be pardon by his daddy, President Biden. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: CBS’s 60 Minutes December 22, 2024 8:02:10 p.m. Eastern SHARYN ALFONSI: There`s been a lot of talk about stopping the flow of illegal immigration and drugs from Mexico. But few people are talking about another crisis at the border -- guns. Specifically, American guns. An estimated 200,000 to half million U.S. firearms are smuggled into Mexico every year, part of what`s known as the "iron river." Mexico says those American guns are responsible for much of the cartel violence that`s plagued its country. And now, it`s taking an unusual approach to try and stop it -- it`s suing. The government of Mexico has filed lawsuits in U.S. courts against a handful of gun stores and one of the largest gun manufacturers in America. It believes damning that "iron river" might also fix some of the problems that plague the U.S. [Cuts to video] JONATHAN LOWY: If you think fentanyl overdoses are a problem, if you think migration across the border is a problem, if you think the spread of organized crime is a problem in the United States, then you should care about stopping the crime gun pipeline to Mexico. And you need to stop it at its source. Because all those problems are driven by the supply of U.S. guns to the cartels. SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Jonathan Lowy is an American attorney who`s been battling the gun industry in court for 25 years. Mexico asked Lowy to help devise its strategy to cut off the gun pipeline after one of the deadliest chapters in the country`s history that culminated with this -- (People speaking in foreign language) SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): -- 2019, Mexican armed forces captured one of the most wanted drug lords in the world, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, the son of the former Sinaloa cartel boss, known as El Chapo. In their custody was the man, U.S. prosecutors say was largely responsible for the massive influx of fentanyl in the United States. But what should have been a turning point in the war on drugs, turned into a deadly, five-hour gun battle with 600 cartel gunmen. That is a 50-caliber belt-fed rifle sourced from America. The cartel doused soldiers with gunfire, took hostages, and blocked entrances to the city, burning vehicles. Outgunned, and hoping to end the bloodshed, Mexico`s president at the time, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, ordered Guzman to be released. This past March, we spoke to then-President Lopez Obrador in Mexico City. Homicides and cartel violence soared during his six-year term. We were surprised who he said was partly to blame. SHARYN ALFONSI: Where is the cartel getting their guns? ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR (Through Translator): From the United States. We have confiscated, in the time that I`ve been in government, 50,000 guns of high power, of high caliber -- 50,000 guns. And 75 percent of them from the United States. SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Which is why, he said, his government was pursuing two civil lawsuits in U.S. courts seeking $10 billion for the damages U.S. guns have caused in Mexico. The first, filed in 2021, included U.S. gun manufacturer, Smith & Wesson, and one of their wholesalers. The other, filed a year later, against five U.S. gun stores for what Mexico claims are, quote, "reckless and unlawful business practices that supply dangerous criminals." SHARYN ALFONSI: Is it the U.S.` responsibility to stop guns from getting in the hands of the cartel? Or is it the Mexican government`s responsibility to keep the guns out? ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR (Through Translator): Of both. Of both governments. But there has to be cooperation. You cannot sell weapons to just anybody. SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Like the U.S., Mexico`s constitution grants citizens the right to bear arms. But unlike the U.S., that right comes with a long list of restrictions. There`s only one gun store in Mexico -- in the middle of a heavily guarded military base in Mexico City. We were allowed in. But before customers can enter, they have to show proof they`ve passed psychological tests, drug screens and extensive background checks. The store sells about a thousand guns a month, mostly shotguns, small caliber rifles, and handguns. What civilians can`t buy here are the weapons the cartel favors. Those are not legally sold anywhere in Mexico. TIM SLOAN: Cartels` favorite weapons are weapons of war -- belt feds, .50 caliber rifles, guns that you can shoot from a mile away. The more expensive, the more powerful, the sexier they think they are. SHARYN ALFONSI: It`s a trophy. TIM SLOAN: It is a trophy. SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Tim Sloan worked for the ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, for 22 years. His last assignment was running the ATF`s four field offices in Mexico during some of the bloodiest years on record. TIM SLOAN: It`s so easy -- SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Part of his job was tracing the guns recovered at crime scenes. In 2019, one of those scenes was inside a cartel ranch near Guadalajara. TIM SLOAN: There was dead bodies everywhere. There was a 14-year-old girl chopping up bodies. And so there were 55-gallon drums with body parts in them. It`s something that the human mind can almost not comprehend or fathom. And all the weapons in that house came from the United States. All of them. Every person there was murdered by a firearm purchased in the U.S. And so it was -- it made a very lasting impression on me. SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Sloan says most of the guns the ATF traced in Mexico were sold directly to traffickers or to so-called "straw purchasers," someone who buys a firearm on behalf of another person. In this case, Americans buying guns that, ultimately, end up in the hands of the cartel. SHARYN ALFONSI: What did you learn during your time about how the cartel was getting these guns from the United States into Mexico? TIM SLOAN: Well, I mean, it`s pretty easy, right? So it`s straw purchasers. You know, you`re offering a 23-year-old girl in Arizona $4,000, $5,000 just to go into a store and buy a gun for you. She`s going to do that. A lot of people are going to do that, especially if they have any addiction problems, but no criminal record. SHARYN ALFONSI: Can you send a 24-year-old to go buy an AK-47? TIM SLOAN: Oh, as many as they want. Five, 500, they can buy as many as they want, as long as they`re not prohibited. SHARYN ALFONSI: And how do they get them into Mexico? TIM SLOAN: Well, that`s the easy part. Just drive across the border. SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): That porous border works both ways. Over seven years, the ATF traced 50,000 American guns recovered in Mexico to gun dealers across the United States. But Mexico`s lawsuit names just five dealers -- from one state -- Arizona. In Mexico City, attorney Alejandro Celorio spearheaded the lawsuits for the Mexican government. ALEJANDRO CELORIO: We believe they`re liable for actively facilitating the trafficking of firearms that empower the cartels, the fentanyl crisis. A cartel without firearm is just a gang. SHARYN ALFONSI: The five gun shops that you`ve named in Arizona, how did you choose those five gun shops? ALEJANDRO CELORIO: It`s based off who do we believe are the bad actors in this dynamic. SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): It`s difficult to know which gun dealers could be, "bad actors" because U.S. law prohibits the ATF from publicly releasing specific gun trace information. WOMAN #1: And with the ATF National Tracing Center -- SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): But 60 MINUTES reviewed internal ATF and Mexican law enforcement documents. According to the documents, 566 guns recovered in Mexico over a four-and-a-half-year period were traced back to the Arizona gun dealers named in Mexico`s lawsuit. And nearly 200 of the guns came from one dealer, Ammo AZ near Phoenix. Veerachart `Danger` Murphy is the store`s owner. VEERACHART MURPHY: We sell guns here legally. We`ve been -- SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Murphy declined to be interviewed by 60 MINUTES. But after Ammo AZ was named in Mexico`s lawsuit, he posted this response online. VEERACHART MURPHY: If we were actually doing something illegal, ATF, FBI would have already shut us down and I would be in jail. SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): The ATF has said a crime gun trace does not necessarily indicate gun dealer wrongdoing. JONATHAN LOWY: If you`re a dealer and you have reason to know that that person is a straw buyer or gun trafficker, it`s your legal obligation not to supply them with guns. SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Jonathan Lowy, who is Mexico`s co-counsel, has litigated gun cases in more than 40 states. SHARYN ALFONSI: The gun shop owners we spoke to said, "Look, I`m running the background checks, I`m filling out the paperwork. I`m doing everything that I`m supposed to do. Isn`t that enough?" JONATHAN LOWY: Absolutely not. The dealer`s main responsibility, in my view, is to pay attention to indicators to see if the person standing in front of them, on the other side of the counter, is a potential criminal or supplier to the criminal market. SHARYN ALFONSI: The gun retailers say it`s really hard to know sometimes if somebody`s a straw buyer, right? That they come in with a good cover story and you have to believe them. JONATHAN LOWY: It`s pretty obvious. I mean, you see these multiple sales of AR-15s. You see these large cash payments, you see these persons coming back to the store every few days or every few weeks. I mean, these are not normal buying patterns. SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): There are more than 75,000 licensed gun dealers in the United States, twice as many as U.S. post offices. Jonathan Lowy says most of those dealers are acting responsibly. JONATHAN LOWY: About 90 percent of gun dealers sell zero-crime guns. I mean, that is a great mark for the gun industry. That shows that if you pay attention to these obvious indicators of trafficking and straw buying, you can actually stop supplying crime guns. The problem is these bad actors. And there`s no good reason why manufacturers don`t say, "Look, if you`re selling our guns, use best practices." SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): Which is why Mexico filed its other lawsuit against gun manufacturer, Smith & Wesson. Under U.S. law, gunmakers have typically been shielded from liability when one of their guns is used in a crime But Mexico is arguing the manufacturer is "aiding and abetting" gun trafficking to the cartels. In court, Smith & Wesson called that allegation "not true." They did not respond to our request for comment. SHARYN ALFONSI: How can you say manufacturers are responsible for anything when there are so many steps in the process between the time that they make it and it goes to the retailer, and then maybe it`s sold to somebody else or resold? How can you trace it back and say, "It`s the manufacturers." JONATHAN LOWY: When manufacturers make the decision, "We`re going to sell guns through dealers no matter what their record is, no matter how many crime guns they`re selling," you know, that`s on them. SHARYN ALFONSI: You say they know that the guns are going to the gun stores that are bad actors. How do they know JONATHAN LOWY: Well, manufacturers, and dealers, and distributors all get trace data. That is when law enforcement recovers a gun in crime, they determine its commercial history. And every seller in every point of the chain knows that that`s a gun that they sold, that was recovered in crime. SHARYN ALFONSI (voiceover): If Mexico`s lawsuit is successful, it could open the door for more lawsuits, foreign and domestic, against the gun industry. Earlier this year, gun manufacturers successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to review the case. They argued they could face years of costly litigation by another country that`s "trying to bully the industry into adopting a host of gun-control measures." Three years after the deadly battle that ended with his release, fentanyl drug lord, Ovidio Guzman Lopez was finally recaptured in Sinaloa in 2023 His arrest sparked another gunfight that left 10 soldiers dead. The violence continues today. In the last four months, cartel in-fighting has killed more than 500 people in Sinaloa. According to documents obtained by 60 MINUTES, 47 guns were seized after Guzman`s capture, including an AK-47-style rifle traced back to one of the defendants in Mexico`s lawsuit -- Ammo AZ.

What exactly is it that you do here? On Thursday, that was the question National Review staff writer Jeffrey Blehar wondered of the establishment liberal media given the range of excuses from ignorant to purposeful coverup of not having been more dogged in exposing the President’s failing cognitive state. He argued that “Joe Biden’s mental decline was no secret to conservatives for the simple reason that each of us had eyes and the ability to use them” while the liberal media were, in his view, purposefully silent since “it was not in the best interests of the Democratic Party to do so, at least as perceived by the ‘herd mind’ of the media” of Washington D.C.: So what the hell happened to the mainstream media during this entire period? Where were our sentinels of the republic, our tribunes of truth? How could the Fourth Estate, with its eyes forever upon the world of Washington politics, have missed Biden’s advancing mental and physical decrepitude? Why did so many journalists claim they weren’t even suspicious after it all came crashing down in late June? I have an appealingly simple theory to explain the mystery: They didn’t miss it at all. Everyone knew, and the sorts of people who would have normally pursued these whispers about Biden’s remoteness — obvious enough from his calendar and the behavior of his public minders — simply decided not to because it was not in the best interests of the Democratic Party to do so, at least as perceived by the “herd mind” of the media, the left-tinged blob of assignment editors, investigative reporters, and liberal commentators across Washington. Do you know how I know this? I know this because back in 2019, when Joe Biden seemed for all the world like a hopelessly boring retread with no chance of winning the 2020 nomination…the New York Times was more than happy to report about Biden’s age. Once he captured the nomination and went into a quasi-hibernative “basement campaign” (timed perfectly to conceal his weakening state), however, that was it for any investigations into that topic. Blehar later observed the press “want to tell us that they didn’t know” about Biden’s mental incapacitation, yet they were “so eager” after the fateful June debate “to raise the subject when it seemed possible to prevent Joe Biden from winning the nomination, or discourage him from running again,” despite having weeks earlier “act[ed] as Karine Jean-Pierre’s water boys” in the weeks prior when the regime wanted to peddle the “cheap fakes” narrative. He closed with the other side of the coin, which would be just as disturbing. If some in the press had no idea Biden wasn’t cogent, Blehar said, the question should be asked: Of what value are these people? If the media professionals really didn’t know — when I could tell, when you could tell, when it was a key concern among voters…then why should we respect them? What would we say it is they do here? The flip side is, once again, not pretty either: “If the media chose not to explore Biden’s mental decline because of partisan allegiance to the Democrats or dislike of Trump, then they have forfeited their credibility in a devastatingly permanent way.” To read Blehar’s full story, click here.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky posted his 10th annual "Festivus Report" on Monday, continuing his decade-long tradition of airing his grievances about government waste. In this year's report, Paul brought in the Christmas spirit and began by laying out his complaints on all things congressional. "It’s hard to decide where to start these grievances," Paul said in the annual thread on X. "Every year, I think, there can’t be THAT many more can there? But when you’re surrounded by people in Congress every day, it’s not a problem at all."'I was a one-man DOGE before DOGE was a gleam in the eyes of amped-up tech executives, and new media barons got behind the idea.'"It's hard to decide where to start this year," Paul continued. "Fauci? Maybe. He may be gone, but he's not forgotten. Biden? Which one? Harris? Trump? CONGRESS? So many targets, so little attention span this morning. It might break 40 degrees here in Kentucky today, so this might all be canceled for golf."Paul laid into Dr. Anthony Fauci, pointing to the House's attempt to hold him accountable. Although Fauci is still "walking around a free man," Paul mentioned his incoming chairmanship on the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which has the subpoena power to "force [Fauci] to turn over everything he's been hiding." "Even better, my good friend Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be in charge of HHS and happily receive the subpoena for other documents," Paul said. "Do you think he might be happy to turn them over? Merry Christmas and Happy Festivus, Tony."Paul also set his sights on former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted earlier in the 118th Congress. As a result, McCarthy spent tens of millions on primary challengers against members of Congress who voted to vacate the speakership only to fail. "Speaking of people who got run out of town but won't entirely go away, Happy Festivus to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy!" Paul said. "Kevin spent nearly $30 million trying to defeat conservatives who voted him out last year. But he only won one race when President Trump was also against his target. Basically, he completely and utterly failed. He lost races by 27 and 30 points. Speaker McCarthy proved as bad at running campaigns as he did the House. But he's still on my TV?! WHY?"That being said, McCarthy was not the only speaker whom Paul called out. Although Speaker Mike Johnson narrowly avoided a government shutdown on Friday, Paul predicts that his speakership may be in jeopardy after the funding fiasco. "I noted last year that I would be roasting the next speaker and the gang who put him in power by this Festivus," Paul said. "As usual, I am right. I want to be the first to congratulate former @SpeakerJohnson, who will be gone before DC gets warm again."In the spirit of DOGE, Paul also published a 2024 government waste report that includes a $10,000 grant to support an ice skating show performed by the Bearded Ladies Cabaret focusing on climate change, $20 million on an Arabic spin-off of "Sesame Street," over $30,000 for breakdancing, and over $720,000 on wetland conservation projects for ducks in Mexico. "I was a one-man DOGE before DOGE was a gleam in the eyes of amped-up tech executives, and new media barons got behind the idea," Paul said as he wrapped up his thread. "Don't get me wrong, I'm VERY happy they're here. I passed along 2,000 pages of waste to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in the interest of curbing government waste. Now, they don't have to work too hard to find what I've already found." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

During a speech at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest over the weekend, Glenn Beck celebrated President-elect Donald Trump's victory and also warned about potential infiltrators amid the Republican Party's surging popularity."Last year when I was here, I told you there's a million ways this country can fall apart, and there is only one way it stays together. And that is a miracle from the almighty God," Beck told the AmFest audience.'We have to make sure those who wear masks are not coming in and claiming to be part of this team, and they have no intention of being on the team.'Beck discussed the first assassination attempt against Trump at his Butler, Pennsylvania, rally in July. "I thought immediately, 'If he's dead, we're in civil war,'" he continued, suggesting that Trump sustaining only a minor injury was an act of God.Beck stated that God is "waiting for us to do the rest of the work.""We have a lot of work in front of us, but, man, take a minute. Doesn't it feel good to win?" he asked. The crowd responded with booming cheers. — (@) Beck explained that if Trump had remained in the White House in 2020, he "wouldn't have had the same mindset he has today.""He wouldn't have done all the vetting to get as many weasels out. He wouldn't have had the long list — and, believe me, he's checked it twice — of all the people that need to go," Beck said.He also discussed the fall of the corporate media, stating that AmFest's media row, which was packed with dozens of alternative outlets, is "more powerful than ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC combined.""It's a new world. And believe me, you have a better chance of seeing the next 2020 presidential debate on something like BlazeTV than you do seeing it on ABC. They're done," he declared. — (@) Beck warned that now is "a time of peace," but resistance is on the horizon. He cautioned that the left will relentlessly seek ways to divide the conservative movement."Now that we have all of this popularity, suddenly Donald Trump is cool with everyone, we have to make sure those who wear masks are not coming in and claiming to be part of this team, and they have no intention of being on the team," he stated.Specifically, Beck warned about those in the corporate media who compared Trump to Adolf Hitler for years and are now backpedaling amid rapidly declining viewership. "We have to be careful. We have to watch. Trust, as [former President Ronald] Reagan said, but verify," he remarked. — (@) Beck called for the crowd to recite the Pledge of Alliance with him before detailing the meaning of each line."If you want to find out is somebody truly on our side, you look for these things. You look for someone who is truly taking a solemn promise to stand with loyalty to a republic, a state which its supreme power rests with all of us," he said. "We will remain firm and steadfast to defend these things. We believe in a creator."He declared that America is "incapable" of being divided if its citizens are united on account of their rights. Beck encouraged the audience to read and familiarize themselves with the country's founding documents."If you want to keep a free country, read it, read the Bible, and choose carefully," he concluded. — (@) Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!