Tag: crazy

No, you’re not going crazy. Vivek Ramaswamy is everywhere.

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Ramaswamy is now, according to a CBS poll out last week, tied with Pence for a distant third place in the GOP field. And he has become a credible enough threat to higher-polling Republicans that apparent opposition research against him has started flowing: Notably, a top operative working to boost Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently shared on Twitter a story about Ramaswamy paying to alter his Wikipedia page. Even primary frontrunner and former President Donald Trump took notice, saying in a jab at DeSantis on Friday that he was “pleased to see” Ramaswamy “doing so well.”
Ramaswamy is still a longshot. But the attention he has quickly drawn is significant in a primary in which DeSantis has slid well behind Trump in primary polling while other Republican candidates scramble to make their mark.

Ramaswamy greets guests at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition Spring Kick-Off on April 22, 2023, in Clive, Iowa. Iowa is scheduled to hold the first Republican presidential nominating contest of 2024, on Feb. 5.
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Scott Olson/Getty Images
“America First without the chaos,” is how Bob Meisterling, a 40-year-old in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, described Ramaswamy’s appeal.
An Obama-Trump voter and “right of center” Republican, Meisterling said if the Iowa caucuses were held today, he would back Ramaswamy. And Meisterling, who owns a golf simulation studio, is making a rare exception to his rule of not talking politics with his customers by inviting Ramaswamy to come by his business this weekend during an Iowa bus tour. The campaign is taking him up on the offer.
Prior to launching on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox in February, Ramaswamy was a regular on cable news programs and podcasts, despite being little-known by most Republican primary voters. But after high-profile tangles with mainstream television hosts Don Lemon and Chuck Todd in recent weeks, a barrage of media hits and an aggressive calendar of early state retail-politicking, Ramaswamy is now firmly on the radar.
It’s a campaign that blends the youthfulness and hustle of Pete Buttigieg’s run in 2020 with the extremely online nature of Andrew Yang’s millennial fan base — except that Ramaswamy is a conservative running on an “America First 2.0” promise to take Trump’s policy agenda “further than Trump.” His eclectic coalition of supporters includes self-described moderates, family values conservatives, crossover voters, Trump/DeSantis fans and even those who are curious about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to interviews with Ramaswamy supporters at a recent town hall in New Hampshire and in other early nominating states.
In New Hampshire on Wednesday, about 70 people packed into a small room of the local business center in Windham for a stop on Ramaswamy’s second bus tour of the state. For sale were “Bud Right” koozies emblazoned with Ramaswamy’s photo, a nod to a recent conservative boycott of Bud Light after the company hired a transgender woman as a paid influencer. The audience filled with both the Ramaswamy-curious and superfans. A man at the mic was on the brink of tears, and a 19-year-old college student in the front row had returned to see him after recently meeting Ramaswamy at an event in Ohio. One woman was so excited about seeing Ramaswamy a second time that she brought two friends along, while across the room, an older man who said he’d never been to a political event before pledged Ramaswamy his vote.
Britton Albiston, a 50-year-old Bedford Republican who describes herself as “not a Trump lover” and “not old enough to be Vivek’s mother — but probably could have been his babysitter,” said she wants to nominate someone with enough energy to lead the country for eight years. She said she likes that he isn’t a “professional deflector.”

“He’s not deflecting to his favorite three points. He’ll openly say, ‘You may not like my answer, but I’m going to tell you how I feel,’” Albiston said.
Like Buttigieg when he launched his presidential campaign, Ramaswamy is still years away from 40, making him “the first millennial to ever run for president as a Republican,” as he touts on the campaign trail. And while Ramaswamy has a long way to go before his online following comes close to reaching the organizational structure of the Yang Gang, there are already the makings of it: A handful of supporters on Twitter are trying to make #VekHeads happen.
It’s unclear if they’ll succeed. Even Ramaswamy’s early supporters don’t shy away from the question of whether he can overcome Trump, DeSantis and other bigger-name Republicans in the primary.
“All of what you say is great,” Thomas Petrarca, an independent voter in Windham, told Ramaswamy during his post-stump-speech Q&A on Wednesday. “But the first step is: How are you going to overcome the national recognition, the name recognition of your opponents?”
Ramaswamy responded that his campaign strategy is “an open book.” He said he plans to “slowly and steadily” work his way to third-place by the end of the year.
“And then we want to come here and we want to win New Hampshire, and then we want to change the momentum and actually win the rest of the race,” he said. “That’s the plan we’re taking.”
Indeed, most of Ramaswamy’s ad spending to date has been concentrated in the Boston media market, which reaches New Hampshire. And while money is one thing he isn’t short of, Ramaswamy is milking the free earned media: In the last week of April, he gave roughly 43 interviews with radio, print and television reporters, a blitz that ranged from local early-state outlets to Comedy Central’s “Tooning Out The News.”
The roughly $1 million that Ramaswamy has spent on ads so far in the Republican primary trails only the super PACs of DeSantis and Trump, which have each dropped $8 million to $10 million on television. But nearly half of Ramaswamy’s investment in advertising, and more than any other candidate, according to AdImpact, has gone to ads on streaming television platforms — a sign that Ramaswamy is targeting a younger demographic than traditional cable and broadcast viewers.
With DeSantis and other higher-profile Republicans expected to get into the race within weeks, Ramaswamy — if he becomes competitive — will be forced to defend some of his more strident policy positions. Meisterling, the Ramaswamy fan in Cedar Rapids, suggested the entrepreneur-turned-politician may need to make clearer proposals when it comes to overhauling the federal government. What happens, logistically, if you shut down the Department of Education, FBI, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other agencies, as Ramaswamy has proposed?
“He has bold ideas,” Meisterling said. “From a practical standpoint, they can come across uncertain as to what the outcomes are.”
Asked about Ramswamy’s claim that he will exceed Trump’s “America First” initiative, and do so without “personal vengeance and grievance,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung pointed to Trump’s overwhelming lead in the Republican field. It is Trump, Cheung said, who is “the unquestioned leader of the America First Movement,” and has laid out a “bold agenda” for a second term.
Still, Ramaswamy appears to be pulling at least a small part of that movement. In New Hampshire, Fred Doucette, the state’s deputy House majority leader who served as a Trump campaign co-chair in New Hampshire in 2016 and 2020, is now a senior strategist and state campaign chair for Ramaswamy. He said he got a similar “gut feeling” from Ramaswamy that he got when he first met Trump — only Ramaswamy is more “inspirational.”
On the way into Ramaswamy’s Windham town hall, Anthony Henry, a young Republican activist interning with the state GOP, snagged a branded baseball cap and declared Ramaswamy “the smartest person running for president.”
Except he can’t actually vote for Ramaswamy. He’s only 15.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

May 9, 2023
‘The cost is crazy’: fighting in Sudan sends food prices soaring

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“I haven’t sold anything since 6am today,” said Adam Musa, a vegetable seller at Omdurman’s open-air market, as fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces raged a few miles away. “There are no people buying.”
Musa, 55, faced two problems: a lack of customers, and an inability on the part of those who did come to pay what he was charging.
His costs had increased sharply since violence broke out in Omdurman’s neighbouring city of Khartoum and elsewhere around Sudan on 15 April. In particular, fuel costs have soared, affecting the prices of all commodities, as fuel stations have closed down and petrol supplies have moved over to the black market.
“The cost of transporting is crazy,” he said. “I used to pay 1,500 SDG [Sudanese pounds; about £2] to transport my vegetables from Al-Shaabi souk on the other side of Omdurman. Now it is 10,000 SDG [£13.40]. I understand why it is so expensive. The transporters buy their fuel from the black market. God, make our lives easier.”
Only about 50% of the stalls at the market were open, and those who had ventured out looking for food faced price rises across the board: a kilo of beef up from 3,500 to 8,800 SDG; a kilo of tomatoes up from 330 to 3,000 SDG; a small bag of onions up from 6,000 to 10,000 SDG. Sugar, a vital commodity in Sudan, rose from 6,000 SDG for a 10kg basket to 10,000 SDG before disappearing from the market altogether.
Despite the sound of gunfire, the looting and the security vacuum, the dominant conversation among people in Omdurman is how expensive life has become.
Khamiesa Nimir, 44, a mother of eight, said she had fled the neighbourhood where she lived to the north of Omdurman because the fighting was getting close and armed robberies were taking place. “You can’t walk along the street alone,” she said.
Nimir said the cost of food and transport was rapidly rising beyond her reach. “My children haven’t had food since yesterday,” she said, adding that she had begged the driver of the minibus that brought her to this part of Omdurman to charge her 300 SDG instead of the 500 he had initially demanded.

“We are so poor … I was hoping to go to my mother in South Kordofan [a state on the border with South Sudan], but the bus ticket is unaffordable for me and my children,” she said.
As black smoke rose to the east, gunfire could be heard from inside the market as stallholders tried to scare away thieves.
“This is normal, they are chasing robbers, especially from the gold market,” a falafel stallholder said as he tried to reassure a woman who had begun to run away when she heard the firing. “You need to be extremely careful,” he told the woman. “They will take everything you have, even the plastic bag you are carrying, let alone the mobile phone in your pocket.”
El-Daw Ali, 63, a father of seven who owns a small restaurant in Ombadah, in west Omdurman, said the cost of a meal for one consisting of four small pieces of fish had doubled from 500 to 1,000 SDG since the fighting began.
Ali’s usual source of fish is the big fish market in Khartoum, located on the west bank of the Nile, but it has been forced to shut down by the fighting.
“I went to buy fish from small fishermen on the White Nile banks instead,” Ali said. “I had to cross past RSF forces who are deployed on the streets along the way. The fighting was going on around me. But what can I do? The situation is awful, I just hope things will calm down.”
He apologised to an elderly woman who in normal times he would not charge. “I’m really sorry, I can’t help you today,” he said. “You need to pay to get the fish.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 28, 2023
Opinion | The Crazy Candidate Will Lose in 2024

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The video, in other words, was another shot in an ongoing war over which party will define itself as more normal in 2024. Republicans thrilled to the line in newly elected Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ GOP response to the State of the Union address that “the choice is between normal or crazy.” That’s a great framing — as long as Republicans aren’t the ones that come off as crazy, which is exactly what Joe Biden and the Democrats are counting on.
The two sides, naturally, portray their respective positions in different places on the normal-crazy spectrum.
For Democrats, their support for trans rights is the logical next step in the expansion of civil rights and is all about inclusion; for Republicans, it is an irrational fad that is trampling on parents’ rights and threatening women’s sports.
For Democrats, the increased focus on race in education is simply teaching the country’s history on racism; for Republicans, it represents an ideologically driven agenda that doesn’t belong in the schools.
For Democrats, efforts in Florida and elsewhere to remove books with offensive content from public schools is book banning; for Republicans, it is ensuring that children aren’t exposed to inappropriate material in schools whose approach should be resolutely down the middle.
And so on. The parties will continue to war on these issues, but the top of the tickets in 2024 will have an outsized role in establishing which party gets to claim the mantle of normal.
Biden and his team figure that in a rematch with Trump, it’s not a contest, and for good reason.
Trump inveighs against the “crazies” on the other side and portrays himself as a defender of common sense. He’s still fundamentally a disrupter, though. He has no interest in politics as usual, when he believes politics as unusual is what’s needed (and is much more compelling and entertaining).

For MAGA, normal politics is corrupt. Normal is useless. Normal is a sham. Normal is for suckers. Only their man sees through it all, tells the truth, and will bring the hammer against the establishment like the woman in the famous “1984” Apple ad.
In 2016, Trump broke all the rules to shake up politics and brought to the fore new positions on immigration, trade and China; now, he wants to break all the rules to wreak vengeance on all the people who supposedly stole the election victory that was rightfully his.
This all suits Biden just fine. In fact, he couldn’t script a better opponent with a better message and better affect for his purposes.
Now, with inflation having eroded real wages in recent years and perhaps a recession looming, Biden can’t be complacent. He could lose to anyone.
Still, Trump’s attempt to get his vice president to subvert the counting of the electoral votes in 2020, his defense of the Jan. 6 rioters, his call for the Constitution to be suspended, his bodyguard of strange loyalists led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, his erratic statements and positions (attacking the state of Florida and threatening not to participate in the Republican debates in just the last couple of days), all make Biden normal by default.
If Biden’s theory of the case against Trump is correct (circumstances and execution will, of course, matter), it falls apart if someone else is the Republican nominee.
First of all, a matchup against Trump effectively takes age off the table. Some other Republican makes it front and center.
Trying to march an 80-year-old man through a national election and another term in office is not normal. Indeed, it’s unprecedented and deeply discomfiting, which is why so many voters think that Biden shouldn’t run again. By contrast, running a 44-year-old (Ron DeSantis) or 57-year-old (Tim Scott) is what you expect.
The Biden team believes if DeSantis is the GOP nominee, he, too, like Trump, can be branded as a MAGA extremist. In that scenario, though, DeSantis will have taken down Trump in an insanely brutal primary campaign. Trump will presumably be denouncing him as a liar and a cheat for the offense of winning against him. It’s going to be hard to portray DeSantis as a tool of the man who tried to destroy him, and failed, and is likely still trying.
Then, there’s the substance. With some exceptions (perhaps the fight with Disney most prominently), the DeSantis record is firmly within the range of normal Republican politics. Sure, there will be targets for Democrats to shoot at, but they’re also defenses that DeSantis is well-prepared to make.
People describe DeSantis as representing Trumpism without Trump, but the last part of that formulation is very important. DeSantis is more combative with the media and has leaned into the culture war more than he might have pre-Trump, but, at the end of the day, he’s nothing like the former president.
He gives conventional political speeches, not rollicking, digressive off-the-cuff rants to adoring fans. He lives, as far as anyone knows, the life of a good family man, with no affairs with porn stars or Playboy Playmates that need covering up. He’s not getting indicted for anything. He hasn’t given a vitriolic speech to a crowd that’s gone on to bust into the U.S. Capitol or any other government building while he watches from the sidelines doing nothing to stop it.
The main personal charge against DeSantis is that he’s standoffish, made few friends in Congress and may have once eaten pudding with his fingers, an allegation he denies.
This is not much material to work with. Even if DeSantis isn’t a backslapper and strikes people as overly earnest, as a general election candidate he’d be a recognizable type — a young, ambitious governor looking to make the step up to the White House like George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter before him. These are all different men, with different politics and strengths and weakness, but there’s nothing unprecedented about going from the state house to the White House.
DeSantis or another Republican who isn’t Trump would be well-positioned to make the race about the incumbent rather than themselves. For all that Biden promised to bring normality back to the White House, his Afghan withdrawal and neglect at the border have shattered whatever reputation he had for competence; the levels of spending have been off the charts; he’s accommodated his party’s left flank, striking out positions that would have been considered wildly radical several years ago; and he’s increasingly governed through legally dubious executive fiat.
In short, Biden can make the case that Trump isn’t normal, whereas another Republican can see and raise him, and hold out the prospect of moving on from the drama and weirdness of the Trump-Biden years.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 26, 2023
Mutton Crazy Kashmir Consumes Over 800 Truckloads Of Sheep This Ramadhan

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SRINAGAR: Amidst fluctuating mutton rates, the demand for mutton has increased in the Valley with over 800 truckloads of sheep consumed during the holy month of Ramadan so far.
“Nearly 30-35 trucks loaded with sheep arrive in Kashmir on a regular basis in the past 27 days of Ramadan,” Mehraj ud Din, General Secretary of Mutton Dealers Association said.
He said that there is no shortage of mutton in Kashmir, adding that the shortage of mutton would be possible in case the highway is closed for vehicular movement amid the prevalent weather conditions.
The General Secretary of the association further informed that so far a total of 811 trucks loaded with Sheep arrived in Kashmir since the beginning of Ramadan. “30-35 trucks arrive in Kashmir on a daily basis. The number of trucks ahead of Eid will go up to 160 a day,” he said.
Moreover, the consumers continue to complain that the mutton is being sold at Rs 650-700 per kg, adding that there has been no proper check on the ground as it seems that the mutton dealers and butchers have been let loose to loot the public as per their will.
“One fails to understand the need of issuing a rate list when it is not being implemented on the ground. It seems that the authorities concerned are reluctant to act against the mutton dealers and have been maintaining silence over the issue,” a consumer said.
He further said that a few months back, the concerned officials started a drive to act tough against the mutton dealers, but all in vain as the step has not yield any results for the consumers. (KNO)

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#Mutton #Crazy #Kashmir #Consumes #Truckloads #Sheep #Ramadhan
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

April 18, 2023
Mutton Crazy Kashmir consumes over 800 truckloads of sheep this Ramdhan

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Srinagar, Apr 18: Amid fluctuation in mutton rates, the demand of mutton has increased in the Valley as over 800 truckloads of sheep were consumed in the holy month of Ramdhan so far.
“Nearly 30-35 trucks loaded with sheep arrive in Kashmir on a regular basis in the past 27 days of Ramadan,” Mehraj ud Din, General Secretary of Mutton Dealers Association told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).
He said there is no shortage of mutton in Kashmir, adding that the shortage of mutton would be possible in case the highway is closed for vehicular movement amid the prevalent weather conditions.
The General Secretary of the association further informed that so far a total of 811 trucks loaded with Sheep arrived in Kashmir since the beginning of Ramadan. “30-35 trucks arrive in Kashmir on a daily basis. The number of trucks ahead of Eid will go up to 160 a day,” he said.
Moreover, the consumers continue to complain that the mutton is being sold at Rs 650-700 per kg, adding that there has been no proper check on the ground as it seems that the mutton dealers and butchers have been let loose to loot the public as per their will.
“One fails to understand the need of issuing a rate list when it is not being implemented on the ground. It seems that the authorities concerned are reluctant to act against the mutton dealers and have been maintaining silence over the issue,” a consumer said.
He further said that a few months back, the concerned officials started a drive to act tough against the mutton dealers, but all in vain as the step has not yield any results for the consumers—(KNO)

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#Mutton #Crazy #Kashmir #consumes #truckloads #sheep #Ramdhan
( With inputs from : roshankashmir.net )

April 18, 2023
SRK, Gauri Khan’s new dance video goes crazy viral

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Mumbai: The King of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, and his queen, Gauri Khan, proved once again that they are the ultimate power couple as they graced the dance floor at Alanna Panday’s wedding. The stunning duo looked like royalty as they swayed to the beat of AP Dhillon’s Dil Nu, accompanied by Alanna’s mother, Deanne Panday.
The trio was clearly lost in the moment as they held hands and danced in a circle, enjoying every second of the joyous occasion. The party was glitzy and glamorous, with celebrities like Kim Sharma, Sonakshi Sinha, and VJ Anusha Dandekar in attendance. The show, however, was truly stolen by SRK and Gauri’s electrifying performance. Video of their dance is going crazy viral on social media.
It’s no secret that the Khan family is close to Alanna’s parents and uncle, so seeing them all together to celebrate such a special occasion was heartwarming. Suhana Khan, Gauri, and Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter attended the pre-wedding festivities, adding to the celebrity-studded affair.
The Khans looked every bit the power couple, with Shah Rukh Khan in a suave black suit and Gauri shining elegance in a stunning green gown. They were the epitome of grace and class as they moved to the beat.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 18, 2023
‘You think I’m crazy?’ Florida GOP sweats Trump vs. DeSantis

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The Florida delegation’s 20 House GOP members are clearly wary of choosing sides between the party’s two heavyweight 2024 contenders, as the former president takes shots at their governor even before he formally enters the race. And it’s not hard to figure out why lawmakers are staying out of it — a wrong decision risks political repercussions.
Trump is notorious for his revenge politics, having spent his two post-White House years taking down GOP lawmakers who crossed him by encouraging his base to support their primary opponents. But with his influence in the party on the wane, Florida Republicans are just as acutely aware that they need a strong relationship with their governor.
And DeSantis, who’s especially vocal on natural disaster response and home-state projects, has the power to inflict pain over any of his own grudges. Which puts Florida’s House Republicans in quite a bind as they gather for their annual retreat, set to start Sunday in Orlando.
First-term Rep. Aaron Bean (R-Fla.) was more succinct than Dunn, calling it “Sophie’s choice” in a reference to the four-decade-old film about a woman forced to kill one of her two children.
Another Florida Republican, granted anonymity to speak candidly, addressed Don vs. Ron by exclaiming: “Do you think I want to talk about that? You think I’m crazy?”
Conversations with every member of Florida’s GOP congressional delegation (excepting Rep. Greg Steube, whose office did not respond to a written request for comment while he recovers after a January fall) point to clear future fractures over which candidate to support. And decision time is quickly approaching, as early polling shows the party primary trending towards a two-way battle between the two Floridians.
While Trump hasn’t started pursuing endorsements in the state yet, his level of support on the Hill is still off to a lackluster start. Only two Florida Republicans, Reps. Matt Gaetz and Anna Paulina Luna, have publicly endorsed his 2024 bid since he launched his campaign in November.
“Who am I supporting, Governor DeSantis or Trump? Trump,” Luna said without missing a beat. “I love DeSantis. I don’t think anyone will ever be able to compete with him as governor and I’ll be sad to see if he leaves early. I hope he doesn’t, but I love them both.”

Others are preparing to hear an endorsement request from Trump.
“I think I’ll get a call soon,” said Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), who said he is undecided in the GOP primary and would consider DeSantis. “We will have a nice discussion.”
No Florida members have openly endorsed DeSantis, who has not yet announced a campaign. One Republican described DeSantis’ outreach so far as “non-existent.”
As Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) put it: “Candidly, he’s not in the race. So members are not gonna put themselves on the line.”
But some subtly indicated that they’re leaning toward their state’s governor.
“DeSantis is the ideal candidate,” one Florida Republican lawmaker said, granted anonymity to speak candidly.
“The most important thing is, Florida will be in the mix,” Bean said. And when pressed about the choice, Bean didn’t explicitly answer, but he praised DeSantis and noted the two of them served “side by side” for four years in the state Senate.
DeSantis has close ties with other House members as well. Some are former colleagues in a chamber where he served three terms before winning the governor’s mansion in 2018. Still other Florida GOP lawmakers know him from his own administration; first-term Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.), for example, served as his secretary of state.
Some Florida GOP members, like Neal and freshman Rep. Cory Mills, say they’ve made up their minds about the presidential race but declined to name their choice. Other Florida Republicans, like Reps. Daniel Webster, Mario Diaz-Balart and Vern Buchanan, indicated they’re waiting to see who else runs.
“We’re gonna have to make a choice,” said Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla.). “Choices are coming. … I’m open, but I do think it’s a good thing for the state of Florida.”
Buchanan declared that “I’m not getting in the middle of that. I want to let things play out, and so many people are going to be involved.”
Florida’s House Republicans referred to multiple different strategies to handle the choice ahead, from avoiding the primary to endorsing only after one of their two home-state candidates drops out.
But weighing their options also means acknowledging the pros and cons of each man.
Some Florida Republicans noted how accessible Trump is and was, not to mention his ability to deliver the resources they needed in their districts when it mattered. While the delegation largely reports a good working relationship with the governor’s staff, other Florida Republicans noted how little DeSantis has personally sought to build relationships with them ahead of a potential run.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who preceded DeSantis in the governor’s mansion, hinted at closed lines of communication with DeSantis in a brief interview, describing a relationship that became bumpy during their transition.
“DeSantis doesn’t talk to me, so I don’t know about DeSantis. I talk to Trump. I wish him all the best of luck,” Scott said, noting he hasn’t “historically” endorsed in primary races.
Gaetz made it clear that his once strong relationship with DeSantis has fizzled since the former helped the latter win the governor’s mansion.
“I have no ill will, but we are not as close as we once were when I was his transition chairman,” Gaetz said.
DeSantis supporters counter that he can be Trump without the drama, arguing that anointing him will help the party move away from the constant scandals of the former president’s term. While they see the Florida governor as skilled enough to go the distance, some acknowledge it is early and they are waiting to see how he fares against a bruise-inducing Trump if the duo winds up sharing a debate stage.
A few in the state brushed off the looming question altogether. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said he has “spent zero time thinking about” Trump vs. DeSantis, though the rivalry has been a constant topic of discussion among other lawmakers in the state.
The primary, Rubio added, “is a long ways away.”
Other Florida Republicans, however, are acutely aware that next week’s House retreat brings them to Trump and DeSantis’ shared backyard.
“It’ll be a tough primary,” Rutherford said. “Even though it’s coming quickly, it’s still kind of early.”
Burgess Everett and Marianne LeVine contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 17, 2023
So that crazy selfie with the spy balloon? It’s real.

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CNN first reported that the photo had been taken and had quickly gained “legendary status” in military circles.
The high-altitude surveillance aircraft had been sent up as the balloon traversed the U.S., and the Pentagon later cited imagery taken by the pilots to say the airship was “capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations.”
An Air Force fighter jet shot the balloon down on Feb. 4 and “the majority of the balloon, including the payload, was recovered,” said Singh.
The Pentagon wrapped up search operations in the area off South Carolina last week and referred reporters to the FBI for details on what was recovered.
After the initial Chinese balloon incident, three other unidentified objects flying over North America were destroyed by U.S. forces just within a little over a week. Those objects were not believed to be from China or to pose a national security threat. The U.S. military did disclose, however, that they’ve observed Chinese surveillance balloons flying over the Middle East and Afghanistan in recent years.
President Joe Biden was criticized by Republicans for how the administration handled the Chinese balloon incident, including waiting until it was over water before destroying it. However, lawmakers passed resolutions condemning China for the balloon.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Wang Yi, director of China’s Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference last week about the situation and the consequences of Chinese surveillance of the U.S. Blinken stated on NBC that Wang offered no apology.
Wang publicly condemned the U.S. at the conference for the country’s response to what China claims was a weather monitoring device and accused the U.S. of warmongering.

Connor O’Brien contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 23, 2023
The time George Santos tried to raise crazy money to host a simple rally for Trump

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Santos was defensive about the unusually high price tag for a local event.
“Understand that I’m not here for personal gains or for any kind of financial gains,” he said in a spring 2019 video message to the group posted on its Facebook page. “All monies raised are solely for structuring this movement slash organization.”
Santos was only able to pull in $645 out of a $20,000 goal. It’s unclear what happened to the funds.
While Santos was ultimately unsuccessful in raising $20,000 for the Trump group, his extravagant asks drew questions about whether he was out for personal, financial gain. The episode has echoes of other fundraising efforts that have made Santos the target of state and federal prosecutors. The Federal Election Commission is probing questionable campaign expenses including nearly $11,000 spent on rent for his Long Island home and the FBI is investigating claims that he absconded with $3,000 in donations meant for a disabled U.S. Navy veteran’s dying service dog.
Santos was a fringe player in 2019. He’s now a national political figure — but not for anything he’s accomplished. Instead, the Republican congressman who was elected in November in a swing district on Long Island, is best known for largely inventing his campaign biography. He has resisted calls for his resignation, saying his resume was only embellished, although he did step away from committee assignments citing the “ongoing attention surrounding both my personal and campaign financial investigations.”
Naysa Woomer, Santos’ communications director, said she could not comment on any campaign or personal matters, and calls to Santos’ personal attorney were not returned.
In spring 2019, a year before his first, unsuccessful run for Congress, Santos became a founding member of United for Trump, a grassroots group supporting President Donald Trump’s reelection. At a March 23 rally at Trump Tower in Manhattan, Santos was filmed holding a “Gays for Trump” sign.
By March 25, Santos set up a GoFundMe account that other United for Trump members pushed to the group to raise money for a future “Northeast tour” of Trump rallies.

He posted a video in the United for Trump Facebook group to introduce himself to other members that month.
Santos had a few specific asks: He said he wanted to establish an LLC with an accountant, at a cost of $500 to $750. United for Trump also needed a lawyer — “to keep in our back pocket and just to retain” — for $2,500.
In the March video, Santos alluded to “a lot of confusion as to what we are raising money for,” acknowledging it can cost less than $100 to get permits for rallies. But, he explained, United for Trump would be different than what members were used to, calling it “an organization to actually give power.”
In May 2019, Santos was listed in a Facebook post as the group’s “president” using part of his full legal name, George Anthony Devolder. Other United for Trump committee members included Joseph, who organized central New York rallies for a group called ACT for America, described as a “national anti-Muslim hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Joseph said she met Santos when he introduced himself to her at the March Trump Tower rally and that he “seemed like a sweet kid.”
“In grassroots, we accept everyone who wants to join and do a little work,” she said, adding that after the New York City rally, most of United for Trump’s other events envisioned for that year “didn’t get off the ground.”
Joseph said she was preoccupied with other things and began fading away from the group around the time Santos became its president, and said she didn’t remember the group getting very far with organizing events while she was involved.
In July 2019, Santos did help organize a counterprotest to an Impeach Trump rally in Buffalo — an event that turned violent.
Rus Thompson, a longtime conservative activist from Buffalo, was the lead organizer of the counter-rally. He had no recollection of Santos attending the event. The New York congressman should “never have been elected,” Thompson said in a recent telephone interview.
United for Trump planned to hold another Erie County rally at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center on August 3, 2019, according to administrator posts in the group’s Facebook page.
Santos had asked United for Trump members to help raise six-figures for the August event.
“Need your help. The est. cost to bring the pro-Trump rally to Buffalo with credible speakers is $20,000,” according to a call for donations that went out in the Facebook group.
Thompson questioned the $20,000 price tag for Buffalo speakers.
“I never paid speakers,” he said.
Planning for the August Buffalo rally was the last time Santos seemed to be involved with United for Trump. In October 2019, he announced his 2020 candidacy for Congress at a Queens Village Republican Club dinner. His biography for the event doesn’t mention United for Trump.
Thompson said he didn’t remember an event happening in Buffalo around that time. The location Santos proposed, he said, didn’t make sense.
“That’s really expensive and not set up for a rally,” Thompson said. “Car or boat show, yes, but political rally? No.”

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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 15, 2023