News Round-Up: January 17, 2019

Rodiney Santiago

Some news items you might have missed:

• The above pic featuring InstaHunk Rodiney Santiago is an ad for a necklace. #TheresAnecklace?

• Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino says the US State Department is ‘deeply disturbed’ by the latest reports out of Chechnya regarding the anti-LGBTI crackdown. But no one is doing anything about it.

• Donald Trump cancelled Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's trip to meet with our soldiers in Afghanistan citing budgetary reasons due to his government shutdown, but hours later First Lady Melania Trump flew on an Air Force plane to Mar a Lago for a weekend holiday. #hypocrisy

• Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to allow a vote to approve a recent House bill that would re-open the federal government. The government remains closed at this writing because McConnell refused to bring the bill up for a vote.

Day 27: I just directly requested passage of a bill to reopen the government. Senator McConnell refused.

Impossible to overstate exactly how ridiculous and offensive — not to mention unnecessary — this continuing shutdown is.

— Tim Kaine (@timkaine) January 17, 2019

• Second Lady Karen Pence recently announced she's going back to teach at a school in Washington DC that doesn't allow gay kids or teachers. So, The Trevor Project sent copies of pro-gay kids book, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, to the private school. #Awesome

• Former Minnesota rabbi Aryeh Leiv Cohen received a 2 day jail sentence after being caught in a police sting operation. Cohen was arrested after sexting with, and showing up expecting to have sex with, what he believed was a 15-year-old boy.

• Folks on the political right lost their minds today as newly-sworn Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave her first-ever speech from the floor of the House of Representatives.

Her three minute speech, on behalf of the 800,000 federal workers affected by the current Trump shutdown, broke the record for the most viewed video on C-SPAN's Twitter account drawing over 1.6 million views.

First House Floor speech from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC): “The truth of this shutdown is that it's actually not about a wall...The truth is, this shutdown is about the erosion of American democracy and the subversion of our most basic governmental norms." pic.twitter.com/r8tmsGSNtT

— CSPAN (@cspan) January 17, 2019

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Ocasio-Cortez Tweets Epic Burn After Lieberman Criticism: "New Party, Who Dis?"

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

On a recent appearance with Fox Business News, former U.S. Senator and 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman criticized rising-star, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saying her progressive positions are not where the heart of the Democratic Party lie today.

“With all respect, I certainly hope she’s not the future and I don’t believe she is,” said the perennially grumpy Lieberman.

"She's gotten a lot of attention because she's different. She's controversial," Lieberman continued. "But if you look at the majority of new Democrats in the House, they tend to be, I say, center-left, if they are not left-left. And that is because they had to be center-left to win some of those competitive swing districts that they took from Republicans."

The 29-year-old social media-savvy congresswoman (the youngest woman ever elected to Congress) fired back via Twitter with an epic burn asking, “New party, who dis?”

New party, who dis? https://t.co/2cznisv8tB

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 11, 2019

Does anyone in the Democratic Party care what Joe Lieberman thinks? https://t.co/fbzV4RWJGY

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) January 11, 2019

This is where Joe Lieberman always wanted to be: Arguing in absentia with a politician 47 years younger than him, as his 2006 primary opponent becomes governor of his home state. https://t.co/dhpzMpXwoj

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 10, 2019

Joe Lieberman sabotaged both the 2000 election and Obamacare’s public option, betraying Democrats over and over again on his way to becoming a Trump supporter. That turncoat is literally the last person on earth who gets to chime in on what the party’s future should be.

— Adam Best (@adamcbest) January 11, 2019

Congresswoman-Elect Claps Back At Trump Junior

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

After one of the biggest upsets in the political world, Democratic Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) is not shy about clapping back at any detractors.

For some reason, Donald Trump Jr. thinks he can take shots at the soon-to-be Congresswoman.

She took a moment to point out to the Junior Trumpster the illogic of such moves.

I have noticed that Junior here has a habit of posting nonsense about me whenever the Mueller investigation heats up.

Please, keep it coming Jr - it’s definitely a “very, very large brain” idea to troll a member of a body that will have subpoena power in a month.

Have fun! https://t.co/oQ6MsdJYCk

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) December 7, 2018