Last Call For Our Little White Supremacist Domestic Terrorism Problem, Con't

Two suspects have been arrested in connection with the power substation attacks in Washington State on Christmas day.

Two men were arrested on New Year’s Eve for allegedly shutting down four Washington state power substations in late December that led to power outages for thousands across Pierce County.

Matthew Greenwood and Jeremy Crahan have been charged with conspiracy to damage energy facilities and Greenwood faces a separate charge of possessing illegal short-barreled rifles.

According to court documents, Greenwood, 32, and Crahan, 40, plotted to knock out power from four substations. While power was out in the first two facilities, the pair broke into a local business to steal from the cash register, Greenwood allegedly told investigators after his arrest.

Greenwood got into the substations by cutting through fences and locks, prosecutors say, and tampered electrical breakers and with something called the “bank high-side switch.” For all but one attack, Crahan allegedly stayed outside and acted as a getaway driver.

The two cut off power to thousands of locals and caused at least $3 million worth of damage, according to charging documents.

Investigators identified Greenwood and Crahan almost immediately after the attacks took place by using cell phone data that allegedly showed both men in the vicinity of all four substations, according to court documents. Surveillance images cited in the court documents also showed images of one of the men and of the getaway car.

When Greenwood was arrested in a trailer Saturday, law enforcement also found two short-barrel rifles, which they say Greenwood did not legally own.

The two face up to 20 years behind bars if convicted of conspiring to attack energy facilities. No defense lawyers were listed on the public docket as of Tuesday.

 

Dumbasses didn't even turn off their cell phones, and surprise, they had firearms that they didn't legally own.

Still, if two stupid terrorists like these can cause millions in damage and power outages for tens of thousands, imagine what a couple hundred of these jokers could do in a nationwide attack. Not that I think they're coordinated to pull off something like that without tipping the Feds, but any group that can would present a major danger to the country.

I still believe an attack like that is coming this year, and I absolutely want to be wrong.

 

The Circus of the Damned Begins

Kevin McCarthy has now failed on three ballots to become House Speaker.

 

Republicans are facing a leadership drama as they take control of the House on Tuesday.

As the 118th Congress convenes, the first order of business in the chamber is the election of a new speaker -- and current Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is being stymied by a group of hardliners demanding concessions.

To win the gavel, McCarthy needs a majority of the members-elect who are present and voting. But because the GOP holds only a five-seat advantage, a small number of defections is so far stopping McCarthy from gaining the office he's long sought.

The House can conduct no other business until a speaker is chosen. For the first time in a century, the vote is requiring multiple rounds.

 

There's no indication that this mess will end anytime soon.

House Republicans are completely incompetent, but we all knew this.

 

And now they have adjourned until noon tomorrow, where we go through this all again.

Historic incompetence.

Fantasma Santos, Con't

I don't know if the NY Times is working overtime on the George Santos criminal fraud beat out of guilt or trying to cover up their incompetence on stopping him from even being nominated last year, but the more we find out about Santos's pathological lies about his criminal background, the more I want to smash people's heads in at the Times, the NY Democratic party, law enforcement and prosecutors, state and federal, for letting the GOP put in another Trump fascist in the House.

When Representative-elect George Santos takes his seat in Congress on Tuesday, he will do so under the shadow of active investigations by federal and local prosecutors into potential criminal activity during his two congressional campaigns.

But an older criminal case may be more pressing: Brazilian law enforcement authorities intend to revive fraud charges against Mr. Santos, and will seek his formal response, prosecutors said on Monday.

The matter, which stemmed from an incident in 2008 regarding a stolen checkbook, had been suspended for the better part of a decade because the police were unable to locate him.

A spokeswoman for the Rio de Janeiro prosecutor’s office said that with Mr. Santos’s whereabouts identified, a formal request will be made to the U.S. Justice Department to notify him of the charges, a necessary step after which the case will proceed with or without him.

The criminal case in Brazil was first disclosed in a New York Times investigation that uncovered broad discrepancies in his résumé and questions about his financial dealings.

Just a month before his 20th birthday, Mr. Santos entered a small clothing store in the Brazilian city of Niterói outside Rio de Janeiro. He spent nearly $700 using a stolen checkbook and a false name, court records show.

Mr. Santos admitted the fraud to the shop owner in August 2009, writing on Orkut, a popular social media website in Brazil, “I know I screwed up, but I want to pay.” In 2010, he and his mother told the police that he had stolen the checkbook of a man his mother used to work for, and used it to make fraudulent purchases.

A judge approved the charge in September 2011 and ordered Mr. Santos to respond to the case. But by October, he was already in the United States and working at Dish Network in College Point, Queens, company records show.

Despite his earlier confessions, Mr. Santos has recently denied any criminal involvement, telling The New York Post, “I am not a criminal here — not here or in Brazil or any jurisdiction in the world.”

Joe Murray, a lawyer for Mr. Santos, said on Monday, “I am in the process of engaging local counsel to address this alleged complaint against my client.”

Just the sheer number of decision points where Santos should have been in jail and his political career ended is shocking, and yet he made it all the way to the US House of Representatives as a career criminal.

Fitting, I guess.  He'll never be expelled even if convicted, because the GOP can't afford to lose any seats. As such, the House GOP plans to open the session today with new rules that will all but eliminate Democrats from the House Ethics Committee.

You know, if they even can elect a Speaker to begin.

More on that later today.

Of course even if Santos was somehow removed, given the gargantuan incompetence of the NY Democratic Party, they'd lose a special election for sure, and a rematch in 2024 is at best a 50-50 proposition.

It just fills me with anger. This guy should have been fried like a clam years ago.  

Yet here he is, about to be sworn in today, and making laws.

Disgraceful.