The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: anna paulina luna
Kevin McCarthy

McCarthy Won't Endorse Trump -- And America Will Pay The Price

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has reached that stage of a GOP-controlled congressional session where he is simply perfecting the art of playing political Whac-A-Mole—nothing more, nothing less.

Whatever supposed agenda House Republicans were pursuing, that all ended when McCarthy struck a deal with the White House on raising the debt ceiling that miraculously avoided a catastrophic debt default. While the country undoubtedly benefited from that relatively reasonable outcome given McCarthy’s band of heretics, we will all be paying the price for his betrayal of the caucus extremists for the remainder of his speakership.

The first bill came due in early June, when House GOP extremists shut down the floor and McCarthy was forced to recess the chamber for the better part of a week. Several weeks later, Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna went on a censure crusade against Rep. Adam Schiff of California over comments he made several years ago about Donald Trump's ties to Russia. Luna originally folded a $16 million fine into the measure, which she pushed in the form of a privileged resolution in order to skip going through committee and using regular order. But when 20 vulnerable Republicans sided with House Democrats to table the resolution, McCarthy sprang into action, trying to convince Luna that this very bad look for the GOP was only benefitting one person: Schiff, who ultimately raked in more than $8 million in second-quarter donations for his Senate bid. Luna dropped the fine, McCarthy backed the measure, and the censure passed on a party line vote, 213-209.

That same week, McCarthy went through the exact same drill with a privilege resolution pushed by Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado to impeach President Joe Biden: no investigation and no high crimes, misdemeanors, or explicit violations of the Constitution. She just felt like it—so there.

McCarthy once again convinces this low-level GOP talent that her resolution will fail, embarrass the Republican majority, and be a boon to Biden. Instead, she agrees to refer the articles to the Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees in return for bragging rights that she initiated the impeachment push.

But that's what McCarthy exists for now—he's a glorified cat herder in a necktie.

"The best he can do in these situations is mitigate the damage," remarked The New York Times' Annie Karni on The Daily podcast. "And he knows every day that his troubles are not behind him and are only probably getting worse."

McCarthy's next challenge is avoiding a massive rift within his caucus over which 2024 Republican hopeful to back. For now, he has declined to endorse Trump—yet another slap in the face to the MAGA misfits who would just as soon burn the House down as build bridges.

It's a placeholder position that could yield fast considering how quickly McCarthy walked back his recent observation that Trump might not be "the strongest" Republican candidate in the GOP field.

Trump fumed over McCarthy’s disloyalty and, in a near-immediate clean up interview with Breitbart, McCarthy asserted, “Trump is stronger today than he was in 2016.”

Sure, watching McCarthy squirm amid the MAGA death grip is entertaining. But the longer McCarthy holds out on endorsing Trump, the bigger the price we'll pay. McCarthy owes his precious speaker’s gavel to Trump, and when Trump wants something, he'll hang McCarthy's delinquency over his head like the Sword of Damocles.

And more than likely, Trump will extract the biggest pound of flesh he can get from McCarthy, whether that's a massive investigation escalation into Biden’s son Hunter, or a full on impeachment proceeding. One way or the other, Trump will get his due.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Wind Energy Production

Oil Lobby's Republicans Aim To Hinder Clean Wind Energy Production

The Union of Concerned Scientists calls wind 'one of the cleanest and most sustainable ways to generate electricity.'

House Republicans plan to hold a vote this week on the Lower Energy Costs Act, a package of proposals to boost fossil fuel drilling and roll back environmental regulations, which they claim will promote an "all-of-the-above energy policy," meaning tapping every renewable and nonrenewable source available. But several amendments being pushed by GOP lawmakers would undermine the development of the production of wind energy, a power source experts say must be a major component of efforts to avert catastrophic climate change.

The GOP package would cut taxes on natural gas; reduce environmental safety regulations; and make it easier for oil and gas companies to drill on public lands, build pipelines, and export their products. It is designated as H.R. 1, a number typically reserved for a bill representing a top priority for the majority party.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said in a statement posted to his official website:

H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, focuses on two main priorities: increasing the production and export of American energy and reducing the regulatory burdens that make it harder to build American infrastructure and grow our economy. … To lower costs for Americans and grow our economy, we need to get the federal government out of the way. The Lower Energy Costs Act will fast-track American energy production, and includes comprehensive permitting reforms that will speed construction for everything from pipelines to transmission to water infrastructure.

Before the vote on the bill itself, the House will vote on amendments to it, including three proposals by anti-wind energy Republicans to put the federal government in the way of wind energy development.

Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna will offer two proposed amendments to the bill.

One of Luna's amendments would require the Government Accountability Office to produce and publish a study of the impacts of wind, "including the adverse effects of wind energy on military readiness, marine environment, and tourism," before the administration could move forward with wind farm leases in Eastern Gulf of Mexico Planning Area, the South Atlantic Planning Area, and the Straits of Florida Planning Area.

Luna's second amendment would put Congress on record as warning "that major components of wind infrastructure, including turbines, are imported in large quantities from other countries including countries that are national security threats, such as the Government of the People's Republic of China."

New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith's amendment would compel the Government Accountability Office to carry out a "study of sufficiency of the environmental review process for offshore wind."

New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who once backed wind energy and even previously served as co-chair of the House's Offshore Wind Caucus, proposed changes that would similarly force the nonpartisan research agency "to publish a report on all potential adverse effects of wind energy development in the North Atlantic Planning Area."

These amendments would force the government to devote time and energy to creating reports telling only one side of the story. And Luna’s amendment would also halt progress until that research is done.

All three lawmakers have taken a significant amount of campaign cash from nonrenewable energy interests. Luna took $33,369 in political action committee donations from oil and gas during her 2022 campaign; Van Drew received $32,000 from the oil and gas sector and $22,500 from electric utilities for his 2020 and 2022 races; and Smith has accepted $2,000 from oil and gas PACs and $17,000 from electric companies since his 2012 campaign.

According to a 2013 explainer published by the Union of Concerned Scientists, wind power creates some environmental concerns that need to be mitigated, such as making sure turbines are built in places that disrupt land use as little as possible.

But the group noted: "Harnessing power from the wind is one of the cleanest and most sustainable ways to generate electricity as it produces no toxic pollution or global warming emissions. Wind is also abundant, inexhaustible, and affordable, which makes it a viable and large-scale alternative to fossil fuels."

The Sierra Club also endorses wind farming as a safe and climate-friendly energy source: "Wind energy plays an important role in fighting climate change and weaning us off fossil fuels. In 2018, wind energy avoided 201 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. It is also one of the lowest-priced sources of energy available today."

The Republican Party has long rejected calls to curb climate change and reduce fossil fuel use, frequently framing their energy policies as an "all-of-the-above" approach.

The party's 2016 platform, left unchanged in 2020, states: "Together, the people of America's energy sector provide us with power that is clean, affordable, secure, and abundant. Their work can guarantee the nation's energy security for centuries to come if, instead of erecting roadblocks, government facilitates the creation of an all-of-the-above energy strategy."

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer told Politico on March 6 that this was the strategy behind the GOP's energy package. "Everybody will have a little different perspective," the Minnesota Republican said. "But when you want to attack inflation in this country, it starts with an all-of-the-above energy policy, and I think that will be the more unifying thing."

On March 9, Van Drew hosted a House field hearing in Wildwood, New Jersey, on the dangers of offshore wind development.

Local environmental leaders criticized the hearing and Van Drew's position on the subject.

Ed Potosnak, executive director for the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, said in a statement that climate change is the real threat to the state's residents.

"As co-chair of the Offshore Wind caucus in the House of Representatives, Van Drew was once regarded as the 'most progressive Republican' on climate and environmental issues," Potosnak noted. "Now, he's a shill for the fossil fuel industry, flip-flopping on his promises to support New Jersey's growing clean energy economy and pushing lies implying that offshore wind development is killing marine life."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has already proclaimed the bill dead on arrival should it reach the Senate. President Joe Biden's office said that he would veto it if it reached his desk.

Reprinted with permission from American Independent.

Another Santos? Ana Paulina Luna Seems To Be Fabricating Her Life Story

Another Santos? Ana Paulina Luna Seems To Be Fabricating Her Life Story

Freshman Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (born Anna Paulina Mayerhofer) is a lot of things—apparently a lot of conflicting things.

Although Luna is a MAGA conservative and the first Mexican American woman elected to Congress from the Sunshine State, friends who served with her at Whiteman Air Force Base in Warrensburg, Missouri, told The Washington Post she has described her cultural identity as everything from Middle Eastern to Jewish to Eastern European.

While Luna’s a staunch gun rights advocate who’s argued for the right of House members to carry firearms to committee meetings and boycotted an invite to a White House reception because of COVID-19 restrictions, friends say she supported President Barack Obama.

“She would really change who she was based on what fit the situation best at the time,” a roommate who lived with Luna for six years during her time in the military told the Post.

Born in 1989, Luna legally changed her name when she ran for Congress—an homage to her mother’s Mexican heritage, the Post reports.

According to her website, Luna was “[r]aised by a single mother in one of Southern California’s low-income neighborhoods,” and she has said repeatedly that her mother had “no family to rely on.” A cousin and several family members told the Post, however, that Luna was regularly at family gatherings and they had support from plenty of extended family.

“The whole family kind of raised her—my dad was a part of her life when she was younger, and we all kind of coddled her,” Nicole Mayerhofer, one of Luna’s first cousins, said.

According to Luna’s campaign website, her father, George Mayerhofer, who died last year in a traffic accident in Florida, suffered from drug addiction and “spent time in and out of incarceration,” and her “communication with him during these times was through letters to jail and collect calls.” The Post was unable to locate any public records of charges or prison sentences in California to verify that claim.

Also, on the website is a claim by Luna that “by age nine,” she “experienced an armed robbery and survived,” and as an adult, she “was the victim of a home invasion.”

According to the Post, a roommate at the time of the “home invasion” says she has no memory of it.

Luna has said that while she identifies as Christian, “she was raised as a Messianic Jew by her father.” “I am also a small fraction Ashkenazi,” she told Jewish Insider.

George Mayerhoffer’s father, Heinrich Mayerhofer (Luna’s grandfather), was a German immigrant to Canada who served in the Nazi German armed forces as a teenager in the 1940s, the Post reports.

Luna’s mother, Monica Luna, told the Post that she’d never known that Luna’s grandfather had Nazi ties. Several of Luna’s cousins say the lore about their Nazi grandfather was well-known in the family and that the man even talked openly about it.

“Yes, [my grandfather] did grow up that way, but when he decided to come to America and live here, even though he tried to remember where he came from, he was accepting of people of different races and religions — he was not antisemitic,” Nicole Mayerhofer told the Post.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Anna Paulina Luna, who was threatened by William Braddock.

On Secret Tape, GOP Candidate Says Russian 'Hit Squad' Will Murder Opponent

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

In a Politico bombshell report William Braddock, a Florida Republican congressional candidate can be heard saying he has access to Russian and Ukrainian hit squads, "billions of dollars" in offshore cash, and would "end" the life of one of his Republican political opponents, a Trump-endorsed candidate named Anna Paulina Luna, "if it needs to be done."

"I really don't want to have to end anybody's life for the good of the people of the United States of America," Republican William Braddock can be heard saying in the clip (below). "That will break my heart. But if it needs to be done, it needs to be done. Luna is a f—ing speed bump in the road. She's a dead squirrel you run over every day when you leave the neighborhood."

Braddock on Monday filed to run for the seat of U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL), who is not seeking re-election next year so he can run for governor. Luna (photo, top) is also running for that seat, and lost to Crist in 2020 but managed to get 47 percent of the vote.

"During a 30-minute call with a conservative activist that was recorded before he became a candidate, William Braddock repeatedly warned the activist to not support GOP candidate Anna Paulina Luna in the Republican primary for a Tampa Bay-area congressional seatbecause he had access to assassins," Politico reports.

"In the recording, Braddock early in the call brought up the alleged assassins. He also made rambling statements about getting financial help from fellow Freemasons or by somehow importing millions of dollars from Malta and Gibraltar."

"I have access to a hit squad, too, Ukrainians and Russians," he said about three minutes into the call, adding "don't get caught out in public supporting Luna. … Luna's gonna go down and I hope it's by herself."

"She's gonna be gone. Period. That's the end of the discussion," Braddock can be heard saying.

Asked how that will happen, he replies: "I call up my Russian — Ukrainian hit squad, and within 24 hours, they're sending me pictures of her disappearing."

"No, I'm not joking," he adds. "Like, this is beyond my control this point."

"Russian mafia. Close-battle combat, TEC-9s, MAC-10s, silencers kind of thing. No snipers. Up close and personal. So they know the person – they know that the target has gone."

He goes on to say, "I know what I'm doing is noble, and I'm just trying to remain a humble servant of God."

The recording was made "just after midnight lastWednesday," Politico says, and the activist who made it "promptly turned it over to St. Petersburg, Florida, police and gave a heads-up to her friend Luna, who filed a petition for an injunction against Braddock."

Below is the audio published by Politico. The activist who recorded it says it was not altered. Braddock told Politico "there is no proof" it is his voice in the recording and called it "a dirty political tactic that has caused a lot of people a lot of stress and is completely unnecessary."

(The captions on the audio appear to be auto-generated and are a poor representation of what is clearly audible, including graphic, offensive, and vile language.)