Tag: mitch mcconnell

Waste of the Day: Senators Earmarked Cash for Their Former Schools

Topline: Nearly every university relies on donations from its former students, but those with alumni in the Senate can solicit money straight from taxpayers’ wallets.

Twenty-four U.S. senators requested earmarks in the 2026 federal budget for the colleges they attended as students, totaling $614 million, according to Open the Books’ audit of congressional disclosures.

Some of the earmarks have been removed during congressional debate, but others will make their way into the final appropriations bill Congress must pass before Jan. 31 to avoid another government shutdown.

Key facts: The 125 earmarks are spread across 21 states.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stands out with $165 million in requests, far more than any other senator. McConnell once supported a complete ban on earmarks but has recently become one of the GOP’s most pork-hungry senators, with 60 requests filed this year.

McConnell asked for four earmarks worth $100 million for the University of Louisville, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1964, and three earmarks worth $65 million for the University of Kentucky, where he graduated law school. Some of the money would be used to build “state-of-the art” research facilities and buy “high-end” lab equipment.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) requested the second most money with $60 million for the University of Kansas and its hospital.

Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV) asked for nine separate earmarks totaling $57.5 million for Marshall University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree and Master of Business Administration.

Justice, once the richest man in West Virginia according to Forbes, previously donated $5 million of his own money to Marshall University. Today he has a net worth of “less than zero,” per Forbes, because of crippling debt and liabilities.

He has spent the last few years funneling government funds to Marshall University instead of using his personal wealth. As governor of West Virginia, he gave the school $45 million for a cybersecurity program and $14 million for a baseball stadium.

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Federal THC ban sends hemp companies scrambling

The Senate late Monday passed a funding package that would reopen the government and fund the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. Tucked into the funding bill is a provision that would re-criminalize many of the intoxicating hemp-derived products that were legalized by the 2018 Farm Bill.   

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) waged a last-minute fight to try to keep the provision out, threatening to drag out the process of debating the underlying bill until he got a vote on an amendment to strip the language.  

He got the vote on Monday; Paul and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) were the only Republicans who voted in favor. 

“The bill, as it now stands, overrides the regulatory frameworks of several states, cancels the collective decisions of hemp consumers and destroys the livelihoods of hemp farmers,” Paul said on the floor ahead of the vote. “And it couldn’t come at a worse time for America’s farmers. Times are tough for our farmers.” 

The provision “prevents the unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived products, including Delta-8, from being sold online, in gas stations, and corner stores, while preserving non-intoxicating CBD and industrial hemp products,” according to a Senate Appropriations Committee summary. 

The proposal was first included in the House’s funding bill for the Department of Agriculture, but it was removed from the Senate version over the summer following a disagreement between Paul and his fellow Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell.  

Hemp industry representatives and lobbyists have spent months campaigning against the language. Many said they were caught by surprise when the funding bill text was unveiled on Sunday.  

McConnell was a champion of legalizing hemp in the 2018 Farm Bill. But he’s since soured on what he says is a “loophole” that companies use to take legal amounts of THC (or tetrahydrocannabinol) from hemp and turn it into intoxicating substances.  

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Farmers Tell Mitch McConnell His Push To Ban Hemp Products With THC Will Cause ‘Catastrophic Consequences’

Dozens of hemp farmers from Kentucky are urging their state’s senior U.S. senator to back off from his push to recriminalize some products that are derived from their crops.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who successfully championed the federal legalization of hemp through the 2018 Farm Bill, has been working this year to roll back that policy by prohibiting hemp derivatives with a “quantifiable” amount of THC, saying that he never intended to allow a market for intoxicating cannabis products.

The recriminalization proposal has advanced in both the House and Senate this session, though a push by McConnell’s home state colleague, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), got the provision removed from their chamber’s bill ahead of its final passage. Paul has cautioned, however, that prohibitionist forces are working to include the ban in other legislative vehicles—which he said could potentially be enacted within weeks.

“If Congress moves to eliminate the end markets that make our crop viable, we will suffer immediate and catastrophic consequences,” the 58 farmers who have agreements to sell hemp crops they have harvested this season wrote to McConnell in the new letter on Monday. “We have taken out loans, hired the necessary help, planted the crop, and contracted with processors and/or brands. Any legislative change that pulls the rug out from under this market—especially mid-season—is a direct blow to our farms, families, and rural communities.”

The farmers, who are requesting an in-person meeting with McConnell, wrote that “hemp is the foundation of our diversified, sustainable farm operations that helps us weather tough commodity cycles, diversify away from tobacco and empower profit in an uncertain economy”—adding that its federal legalization in 2018 gave them a new crop with “real economic opportunity” for the “first time in decades.”

While the letter signatories do not support a ban along the lines of what McConnell has pushed in Congress this year—which they say would “empower the illicit market and destroy American farm income in the process”—they do back “responsible regulation” for the crop.

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Mitch McConnell’s billionaire sister-in-law Angela Chao drowned in sinking Tesla because its strengthened glass windows were ‘impossible to break or open’ after she reversed into pond

Chao, who was the CEO of shipping company Foremost Group, died last month after her car entered a body of water on a private ranch in Texas.

Disturbing details have since emerged detailing the frenzied rescue mission to save the 50-year-old. 

In a report by the Wall Street Journal, the outlet detail how Chao had drove her Tesla home from an evening with friends when she accidentally put the car in reverse.  

Due to the type of glass used in the vehicle, attempts to smash into the vehicle proved redundant. 

According to testing done by the American Automobile Association, the type of glass used on the vehicle is nearly impossible to break underwater.

Chao had been making a three-point turn before the deadly accident and put the car in reverse instead of drive, sending it down an embankment and into a pond.

As the car dipped below the water line, Chao called a friend in a panic to explain her situation and over the next several hours rescuers tried in vain to rescue her. 

Shortly after making her call, one friend jumped into the pond to attempt to rescue her before responders arrived on the scene.

As the car dipped below the water line, Chao called a friend in a panic to explain her situation and over the next several hours rescuers tried in vain to rescue her. 

In an incident report obtained by the WSJ, one fire department crew arrived on the scene 24 minutes after getting a call. 

One responder described the vehicle as being completely submerged, with some deputies from a sheriff’s department even able to stand on it as they attempted to rescue Chao. 

Lighting had to be set up, and dive teams had to be brought in to aid the rescue mission as well as a tow truck. 

Despite arriving on the scene, the truck didn’t have a cable long enough to reach the car and the driver was also said to have been afraid of being electrocuted.

After the vehicle was eventually pulled from the water, hundreds of gallons rushed out as the doors were opened, with Chao being found unresponsive. 

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International Intrigue on a Ranch in Texas – The Angela Chao Story

Angela Chao, the sister of Elaine Chao (wife of retiring Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican Senate Minority Leader), died in her car on February 11, 2024.  Angela was found in a submerged car, unresponsive, first responders attempted to revive her, but were unsuccessful.  The pond was on a ranch close to Johnson City in Blanco County, Texas, about 40 miles west of Austin.  The ranch was reportedly owned by a business entity of Chao’s husband, Jim Breyer, a Venture Capitalist who has offices in Austin.

The Sheriff of Blanco County is Don Jackson, and the matter has now been deemed a criminal investigation, which blocks the release of many details to the public.  In a letter to Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, Sheriff Jackson said, “This incident was not a typical accident.”.

Angela Chao was also the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Foremost Group, a privately held business entity that was the largest American owner of bulk shipping merchant vessels (all the vessels were flagged in other countries).  The ships alone were valued at $1.2B five years ago, but there were other activities of the Foremost Group that because it is privately held, are not fully known.  Power, wealth, international connections, privately held business group, China, Taiwan, America; there are many branches and sequels to this story and now a criminal investigation is ongoing.

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Death of McConnell sister-in-law Angela Chao now ‘criminal investigation’

The recent death of American shipping magnate Angela Chao, the sister-in-law of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is now a “criminal investigation,” according to the Texas sheriff’s office investigating matter. 

Chao, the CEO of the Foremost Group was found dead shortly after midnight on Feb. 11 when pulled from a car that had gone into a pond on a private ranch about 40 miles from the Texas city of Austin, CNBC reported Thursday.

“This incident was not a typical accident,” the Blanco County Sheriff’s Office told state Attorney General Ken Paxton in a letter. “Although the preliminary investigation indicated this was an unfortunate accident, the Sheriff’s Office is still investigating this accident as a criminal matter until they have sufficient evidence to rule out criminal activity.”

As a result in the change of status in the case, investigators and state prosecutors reportedly intend to withhold further release of  related reports, 911 logs, audio and video evidence and other related material.

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Blanco County officials not releasing records into Angela Chao’s death investigation

Blanco County authorities investigating the death of Angela Chao, the Foremost Group CEO who died last week at a private Central Texas ranch, have repeatedly declined to provide basic information or records in days since the fatal incident.

Chao, 50, is believed to have drowned Feb. 11 after her car entered a body of water on the property, a law enforcement source told the American-Statesman. An investigation by the Blanco County sheriff’s office remained ongoing Tuesday, a county spokesperson said.

The circumstances of the death are unclear. Other than a brief statement on Feb. 15 describing the incident as an “unfortunate accident,” sheriff’s office officials have declined to provide additional information, including any relevant reports requested by the Statesman under the Texas Public Information Act.

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McConnell Ups Pelosi’s $10 Billion for Ukraine to $14 Billion – Where’s It All Going?

Earlier today it was reported that Pelosi wanted to give $10 billion to Ukraine.  This evening RINO Mitch McConnell decided to up that amount to $14 billion.  No one really knows where this money will actually go. 

We reported earlier that corrupt Speaker Pelosi wanted $10 billion for Ukraine.  The country is in shambles and is being taken over by Russia.  The government is basically not in charge but Pelosi wanted to give the country, whoever that may be, $10 billion.  This is more than all but a few hundred corporations make in a year in the US.  It is so much money to be going to where?  The past few years it appeared that the money to Ukraine went to US politicians and George Soros.

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How Democrats and Beltway pundits just helped Mitch McConnell undermine Bernie Sanders’ push for direct aid to millions of Americans facing eviction, starvation and bankruptcy.

It was always a possibility that Democrats would get too scared to halt a major Pentagon bill in order to help millions of Americans get $2,000 survival checks — in fact, as wewrote earlier this week, it was very likely that they would back down the moment any bad-faith critic so much as waved a flag and said “support the troops.” 

And capitulation became even more likely when Clinton-era Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, corporate Democratic pundits and billionaire-owned elite media outlets began parroting a series of eerily similar let-them-eat-cake talking points against the survival checks — which McConnell promptly used to bludgeon proponents of the bipartisan initiative. 

But even appreciating all of this — and also knowing that many Democratic leaders still cling to an outdated austerity ideology — the sheer scale of Wednesday’s Democratic surrender was truly a sight to behold. And it probably ended the chance for more immediate aid to millions of Americans facing eviction, starvation and bankruptcy. 

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