POLITICO: Sex, Drinking & Dementia: 25 Lawmakers Spill On What Congress Is Really Like

"This article was compiled from interviews conducted by Ben Jacobs, Jasper Goodman, Jordain Carney, Jennifer Scholtes, Hailey Fuchs, Emma Dumain, Lisa Kashinsky, Connor O’Brien, Holly Otterbein, Adam Wren, Daniella Diaz and Nicholas Wu. Juan Benn Jr. contributed to this report...

Source:POLITICO hopefully interviewed these members of Congress before 5PM.

From POLITICO

"Just months after being escorted out of a Denver theatre for lewd behaviour, a new report has spilled details on Lauren Boebert’s antics at a GOP Christmas party.

The Colorado representative was allegedly cut off from alcohol by a server at the New York Young Republican Club’s Manhattan gala, an incident seen by several witnesses, according to CNN.

The Secret Service was also reportedly forced to intervene in her repeated attempts to take selfies with the event’s guest of honour, former president Donald Trump." 

Source:The Independent with a look at U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert (MAGA, Colorado) hopefully before %PM.

From The Independent

"New Report Paints Congress As Uneducated & Alcohol Fueled" 

Source:The Ring of Fire with a look at U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert (MAGA, Colorado) hopefully before 5PM. 

From The Ring of Fire

Remember Senator Markwayne Mullin (Republican, Oklahoma) at Pete Hegseth's defense conformation hearing? Well, The New Democrat does: 

“How many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night?” Mullin demanded after Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine’s fiery line of questioning. “Have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign from their jobs? And don’t tell me you haven’t seen it, because I know you have... 

The Oklahoma Republican went on to slam lawmakers for inquiring about whether infidelity in Hegseth’s marriages could be disqualifying for the Cabinet position, arguing that multiple politicians divorced spouses under similar circumstances.

“How many senators do you know have got a divorce before cheating on their wives? Did you ask them to step down? No, but it’s for show,” Mullin said. “You guys make sure you make a big show and point out the hypocrisy, because a man’s made a mistake, and you want to sit there and say that he’s not qualified... 

From The New Democrat

"I'm just looking for qualifications. You didn't give me any qualifications.

Starts bringing up the fact that, what if you showed up drunk to your job? How many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night? (LAUGHTER)

Have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign from their job? And don't tell me you haven't seen it, because I know you have.

Kaitlan Collins: 

"I mean, first off, that's a pretty serious accusation there. Do you want to name any of the senators that you're saying-- are drinking on the job?

Senator Markwayne Mullin: 

No, and that's -- my whole point was, is that these senators, on the other side of the aisle, was trying to act like they were had more morals than Pete Hegseth. And they don't.

If you're going to hold someone accountable for their behavior, then hold everybody accountable. I'm not saying, I'm the most moral man or the perfect individual. I'm absolutely not. I wasn't the one calling him out. But if you're going to hold -- if you're going to hold someone at that standard, then hold everybody at that standard...

But I was in that room today. And when you said that, I guess, the thought that went through my head was, if what you're saying is true, and your colleagues do show up drinking, to come to work and vote, which I think would maybe be concerning to those taxpayers who pay them, how is the bad behavior of a sitting senator, a defense of someone who wants to run the Pentagon... 

From The New Democrat

I have a few responses here, but the general point has already been made. 

Seeing this new story from POLITICO and all the members from the 119th Congress (House & Senate) that they talked to, makes Senator Mullin's statement at Pete Hegseth's defense conformation hearing: 

“How many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night?” Mullin demanded after Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine’s fiery line of questioning. “Have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign from their jobs? And don’t tell me you haven’t seen it, because I know you have... 

no longer look like a drunken fantasy. That he was actually on to something (instead of on something) back in January. I wish POLITICO talked to him, but you know what they say about members of Congress: If you can't catch them by 5, they're probably at the nearest bar or country club throwing a few back. Happy Hour is obviously their best time to drink because as Senator John Fetterman and (Democrat, Pennsylvania) and Representative Marjorie T. Greene: (MAGA, Georgia) they get paid so very little serving in Congress. Actually, I'm the only one who says: "If you can't catch them by 5, they're probably at the nearest bar or country club throwing a few back". Just so we're clear. 

And then my last point here: anyone who thinks American democracy is about sending "the best and the brightest to represent us... whatever you are drinking or smoking right now, feel free to share that with everyone else who wants an escape from reality. And in Donald Trump's America (also known as Trumpland) that's a helluva lot of people. I mean there are waiting lines from the East Coast to the West Coast and every state in-between waiting for that reality escape. 

As U.K Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said: democracy is the worst form of government... except for all the rest. The people that tend to get elected in government, come from the people themselves. 

If you don't like the current level of intelligence, qualifications, accomplishments, education, morality, that makes up who currently represents us in Congress, look at yourself and what you bring to the table for this country, first. And then who is currently representing you in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate right now. And who you voted for and supported in the past. Before you blame the people who are already in office, for their lack of qualifications, lack of intelligence, lack of accomplishments, and lack of morality. 

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Jerrell Ezell: Democrats: It’s Time to Retire the Term ‘People of Color’

"Last month, in the televised moments leading up to President Donald Trump’s arrival at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda to be sworn in, CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King scanned the room and noted, “I do not see many ‘people of color.’” She and her co-host took another 20 seconds or so to point out a few attendees who fit the term.

The moment, predictably, triggered a backlash from conservative commentators, who accused King, who is Black and a journalist, of being preoccupied with race. But it was also a reminder of the awkward, clunky and frequently backward attempts by the left (or those perceived to be on the left) to, literally and figuratively, read the room. For years Democrats’ understanding of race has not only not evolved, it has arguably been in full-blown retrograde. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the party’s canned usage of the term “people of color.”

The 2024 presidential election left the Democrats’ multiracial coalition in tatters. Nonwhite people voted in higher percentages for Trump in 2024 than they did in 2020, in some cases by double-digit increases. Democrats are now in the thick of a come-to-Jesus reckoning over these losses, and it should begin with this obvious truth: There is no deep cultural, social, economic or political linkage between Black, Latino, Indigenous and Asian Americans — at least not one that can be leveraged by the party for votes.

In November, Latinos swung hard for Trump, and the former president had a notable hike in support from Asians. Indigenous voters, crucial in helping Biden win Arizona and Wisconsin in 2020, had no such effect in the vital swing states this go-round, although a majority still voted for Democrats. Black voters remained Democrats’ bulwark, albeit a compromised one, with Kamala Harris netting 8 out of 10 Black voters, down from Biden’s 9 out of 10 in 2020. 

If Democrats were surprised by those results, perhaps it’s because the term “people of color” has subconsciously taught them to think that nonwhite voters are far more culturally alike — and politically aligned — than they actually are or have been in recent memory.

In my field of sociology, we put a high premium on the salience of terms used to describe groups and their interactions with one another. Indeed, many of the expressions that Americans casually use today — like people of color, assimilation, bureaucracy and even culture — were either coined or mainstreamed by sociologists. Being aware of this, as sociologists, when it’s clear that one of our terms has begun to lose its accuracy, we must muster the humility to redefine or jettison it.

In politics, at least, it’s time to stop thinking about “people of color.” 

The genesis of the expression “people of color” goes back to at least the 17th century, emerging as a catchall for nonwhite people. One of the first mainstream references in America comes from the work of William Lloyd Garrison, a white journalist from Massachusetts who founded The Liberator, a popular abolitionist magazine, in 1831.

In the late 1980s when Democrats and activists like Jesse Jackson first began using the term, the expression spotlighted the basic political affinity between racial and ethnic minorities, one forged around a collective interest in ensuring recent civil rights victories were protected.

In contemporary times, the expression “people of color” has been used to convey cultural connection among Black, Indigenous, Latino and Asian people, embellishing emotional solidarity and connection between the groups. It fully bloomed into the progressive lexicon during Barack Obama’s presidency. Sociologists, medical researchers, political pundits and the mainstream media now use the expression with complete abandon...

Source:Cornell University Professor Jerrell Ezell.

You can read the rest of Jerrell Ezell's article at POLITICO Magazine

I completely agree with Jerrell Ezell here. And I'm glad a college professor finally had the guts (to be clean) to actually write an article about this and get it published in a major, mainstream, current affairs magazine, like POLITICO. I've been wanting to write about this and argue this for a while now. Really, since Donald Trump became President of the United States the 1st time and his far-right, nationalistic movement (known as MAGA) came on the political scene 10 years ago. But I haven't had the time. 

It's hard for me as European-American (of German descent) to watch CNN and MSNBC now. I could never really watch MSNBC at night. Their daytime programming is a lot better and you get a lot more news from them during the day. But their prime time lineup, you would have to think that it's state-funded TV for the Green Party, or something. They're so -far-left, they don't even sound like Democrats, at least not mainstream Democrats in prime time. 

But another reason why I really can't watch MSNBC and CNN at night any more, has to do with how they talk about race. Not just their so-called analysts, but their anchors as well. Not just the MAGA people that CNN has on their prime time shows, who they know are just there to prop up Donald Trump and MAGA, or to advance their careers off of that because of the loyalty that they show to that movement... people like Scott Jennings and John Sununu, but their left-wing commentators and anchors and how they talk about race. Bakari Sellers, Laura Coates, Maria Cardona, and a few others. (I guess now the Left is going to call me a racist or sexist) 

If you were to listen to the left-wing (if not far-left in America) America has just too races: People they call "white people" (even though maybe 3-5, if not more Latinos are actually of European descent) and people they call "people of color". And "POC" are people who don't have any European descent, or people who are Latino and have black hair and a brown complexion. 

What the left-wing doesn't seen to understand (or ignores) is that Latino /Hispanic, is not a race: 

There are Spanish Latinos and Latinos of other European ancestry, or have mixed ethnic or racial ancestry. 

There are Afro-Latinos, whose ancestors migrated from Africa to Latin America, or were kidnapped and brought down as slaves  by the Spaniards, before coming to America. 

And along with Spanish, there are West Indian Latinos, people would be called American Indians in America, at least at 1 point. (Before the left-wing decided that American Indian is racist) And the American Indians (or West Indians) from Latin America are the largest racial bloc of people, along with the Europeans (especially of Spanish descent) in Latin America. 

But Latinos tend to be of mixed race. Like West Indian mixed in with European, or European mixed in with African, or a combination of all these different races, including Asian. (Just look at Peru) But according to the left-wing, Latino/Hispanic is a separate race. 

You can see why a lot of Latin Americans voted for Donald Trump in 2024. At least DJT and MAGA are somewhat honest about their bigotry. Whereas left-wing Democrats and even some mainstream Democrats, don't even know who they're talking to when they campaign for Latin American voters. 

Pre-Donald Trump and perhaps even pre-Barack Obama, the term for non-European-Americans, was minority. But that changed for good in 2014-15, when the left-wing in America and the mainstream media picked up on this as well... that the word minority is somehow bigoted and offensive. (Even though they probably never even bothered to ask minorities this, or bother to poll them) So minority got replaced with "people of color" to describe anyone who doesn't have European ancestry, or is mixed race and doesn't look European. But the fact is, all people have color. Some have darker complexions, some have lighter complexions, some people are somewhere in between. 

But if Reverend Marin L. King's America dream to ever come true, shouldn't we stop judging and looking at people based on their color and complexion? And instead look at people based on "the content of their character"? 

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