Tag: politicians

Two House Members Remain MIA with Unexplained Health Issues, Missing Dozens of Votes

Concern is mounting in Congress about the status of two lawmakers absent from Washington because of mysterious health issues as both a Democrat and Republican have missed weeks of votes.

Reps. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) and Frederica Wilson (D-FL) have been missing in action — and not voted — in more than a month.

Kean, 57, has not cast a vote since March 5 because of what his campaign called a “personal medical issue” without further elaboration, the Hill reported.

Wilson, 83, has not voted since April 17, though she is expected to return to the Capitol next week.

“The absences come as leaders in both parties are encouraging full participation from their members, given the razor-thin margins in the House,” according to the outlet.

Kean’s absence could impact his reelection campaign, which, if unsuccessful, could alter the balance of power in Congress next year. He represents a swing district.

A statement issued April 27 said the New Jersey lawmaker is expected to “return to a full schedule and be at 100 percent” in the “near future,” but Kean was still absent as the House returned this week.

Meanwhile, his website has been highlighting various community projects, including  announcing on May 11 the winners from his district of a Congressional art competition.

Wilson’s four-week absence went unnoticed until reporter Jamie Dupree noted it in a post on X this week, leading reporters to question House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) about it.

Keep reading

Senate approves resolution to withhold senators’ pay during future govt. shutdowns

The Senate unanimously adopted a resolution on Thursday sponsored by Louisiana GOP Senator John Kennedy that mandates a freeze on senators’ pay during any future government shutdowns.

By making federal closures financially uncomfortable for lawmakers, the bipartisan measure aims to create a more urgent incentive for Congress to pass funding bills before critical deadlines.

This agreement follows a period of increasingly frequent and record-long shutdowns, reflecting a growing consensus that legislators should face tangible consequences when they fail to fulfill their core responsibility of funding the government.

The resolution was passed via a voice vote and is scheduled to take effect immediately following the general election on November 3, 2026. Because of this specific implementation timeline, the new rules could be enforced during potential funding lapses at the end of the calendar year, though they would not apply to any shutdown occurring before the current fiscal year expires on September 30th.

Keep reading

Soviet Style Trial in Michigan for Criticizing a Politician – A Horrifying True Story

There is an ongoing case in Michigan that should terrify everyone. Marc Aisen was arrested near his home in December of 2023, extradited to Michigan, and has been held pretrial for over two and a half years.

Most Americans don’t believe the system can be weaponized against ordinary citizens. Judges and prosecutors are given the presumption of innocence and good faith, while criminal defendants are given the presumption of guilt because, “if the government went after them, they must have done something wrong.”

The case of The People of Michigan v. Marc Aisen demonstrates just how far the system can crush a person with the process.

Marc Aisen was gainfully employed and lived independently in Massachusetts. In his spare time, he did what countless Americans have done for generations: he wrote messages to politicians, nonprofit boards, and charity officials, on behalf of himself and others, calling them out for what he sincerely believed was complicity in crimes, immorality, and threats to public safety. He volunteered with various organizations within his religious community and the parents’ rights movement to advocate for policies.

On July 26, 2023, from his apartment in Massachusetts, Aisen sent an email to Bloomfield Township, Michigan, Treasurer Michael Schostak. The subject line was: “Michael Schostak Covered Up Child Sexual Exploitation in Jewish Nonprofit.”  The email was not posted on social media. It was sent directly to 56 email addresses, including 23 official local government emails, 14 officials from community boards and homeowners associations, and 19 private individuals. Here is the full text of that July 26 email:

Michael Schostak’s pedophile buddies are recommending child sex “change” experiments to kids and their parents, bespoking their tiny bodies with genital mutilation to make them more sexually appealing to the gay predators they are introducing them to. Michael Schostak is personally complicit in this evil scheme through his role at the “Secure Communities Network”. He doesn’t deny it. They advertise it on the JewishBoston.com website. “Jewish?” No. Faggotry is against the Jewish religion and this is precisely why.

Schostak received the email and forwarded it to Bloomfield Township Police Chief James Gallagher with the message: “Another email this morning. What are my options here?”

Keep reading

Canada House of Commons Tracks Online Posts About MPs

The House of Commons in Canada is keeping a database of what Canadians say about their elected representatives online and officials are sorting those comments by category, including the tone and identity-based content of social media posts about MPs.

That admission came from Deputy Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Mellon at a parliamentary committee, where he described the operation as a “very robust records management system.”

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the system catalogues incidents involving MPs and allows staff to sort and analyze posts, including those deemed “misogynistic” or otherwise “abusive.”

Mellon told MPs the database tracks “every single incident” and can break complaints down by category, including gender-based harassment.

What the records contain, why they are kept, and who has access to them, none of that was explained. Mellon offered few details. A spokesperson for the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms said files may include both criminal and non-criminal complaints, but declined to disclose specifics, citing security reasons.

So the Commons is logging non-criminal speech about politicians. Citizens posting opinions about their representatives are being filed away in a government system, sorted by category, and held for purposes the government will not describe. The line between a threat and a sharp comment is being drawn by people who answer to the institution being commented on.

The testimony came as MPs pushed for the system to track speech in more granular ways.

Keep reading

Shutdowns Persist Because Congress Pays No Price

Federal workers missed paychecks for over 60 days. Congress missed none.

TSA officers screened 3 million passengers a day this spring. They did it without paychecks. Some sold plasma to pay their bills. Others slept in their cars. Some just quit. Sixty days into the longest partial shutdown in American history, Congress returned from its two-week recess and still has not fixed it.

The Senate did try – passing a funding bill by unanimous consent before recess even began. The House went home anyway. Congress eventually returned, and DHS is now recalling furloughed workers on redirected funds that have no congressional appropriation behind them. The executive branch is essentially running a federal agency on financial improvisation because the legislative branch will not do its job. If that does not alarm you, it should.

This is not a partisan problem. A November NBC News poll found that 52% of voters blamed Trump and congressional Republicans for the 2025 shutdown, while 42% blamed congressional Democrats – the highest share of Democratic blame in NBC polling in over 30 years. Both sides have blocked proposals. Both sides have pointed fingers. Both sides have taken a recess while government employees were working without pay. This is a modern Congress problem, and the pattern predates any single party or president.

To understand why it keeps happening, consider how rare it once was. Between 1995 and 2013, the government did not shut down once. An 18-year stretch of Congress doing the bare minimum. Then came the 16-day shutdown in 2013, the 35-day shutdown in 2018 to 2019, the 43-day shutdown in the fall of 2025, and now this. Each one was treated as an extraordinary crisis. Each one became a template for the next. What was once a last resort is now a governing strategy, and a remarkably consequence-free one at that.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the 2018 to 2019 shutdown shaved 11 billion dollars off the GDP, 3 billion of which was never recovered. The 2013 shutdown cost taxpayers an estimated $2.5 billion dollars in pay for work that never got done. Shutdowns do not save money – they burn it. The bill lands on everyone except the people who caused it: Congress.

Keep reading

Speaker Johnson Addresses ‘Missing’ GOP Lawmaker Who Hasn’t Cast a Vote Since Early March

House Speaker Johnson on Friday provided an update to a GOP lawmaker who hasn’t voted in more than a month.

Rep. Thomas Kean (R-NJ) has missed more than 50 roll call votes.

Speaker Johnson told ABC News that Rep. Kean is dealing with personal health matters.

“I was happy to speak to Tom Kean, Jr. this afternoon by phone. He is attending to a personal health matter and expects to be back to 100% very soon,” Johnson told ABC News.

“Tom is one of the most dedicated and hardest-working Members of Congress, and I am grateful for all he does and will continue to do to serve New Jerseyans and our country,” Johnson said.

ABC News reported:

Republican Rep. Thomas Kean Jr. of New Jersey has missed votes in the House for more than a month without personally providing his constituents with an explanation.

Kean, 57, cast his last vote on March 5. Since then, he’s missed 50 roll call votes.

As House Speaker Mike Johnson navigates a narrow majority, a Republican member’s prolonged absence could impact the ability to move must-pass legislation and President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Johnson is currently trying to pass Department of Homeland Security funding, a long-term extension of FISA and the farm bill — all relying on Republican votes. Johnson can only afford to lose two votes on any party-line bill, and that’s if all members are present and voting.

Speaker Johnson said in a statement provided to ABC News that he spoke to Kean by phone on Thursday, and that he is dealing with an unspecified “personal health matter.”

In 2024, a Republican Congresswoman who had been “missing” for six months was finally found in a dementia care home.

Rep. Kay Granger, 81, had served as the representative for Texas’s 12th Congressional District since 1997.

However, she suddenly disappeared from the public eye in July 2024, when she cast her final vote against an amendment to reduce the salary of Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pesticide Programs to $1.

A curious reporter at the local Dallas Express newspaper did some digging on Granger’s whereabouts and has finally been able to give her constituents some answers.

The reporter learned that Granger was residing at an assisted living facility specializing in memory care.

Granger retired from Congress in January 2025.

Keep reading

House Ethics Committee Releases Public List of Investigative Matters Involving Sexual Misconduct by Members of Congress Amid Swalwell Scandal

The House Ethics Committee on Monday confirmed it has reviewed 20 matters involving allegations of sexual misconduct by a member of Congress over the last decade.

“Over the last decade, the Committee has adopted a more aggressive and robust approach to allegations of sexual misconduct,” the committee said in a statement.

“Since 2017, the Committee has initiated investigations in 20 matters involving allegations of sexual misconduct by a Member. The Committee has also investigated several Members for their handling of allegations of sexual misconduct by their senior staff.”

The House Ethics Committee said it released its findings after a member of Congress engaged in sexual misconduct.

“Whenever the Committee found a Member to have engaged in or fostered an environment where sexual misconduct took place, the Committee released its findings,” it added.

“The Committee has taken the position that conduct that falls short of legal definitions of sexual harassment or assault under federal or state statutes can still be a violation of the Code of Official Conduct, which imposes a higher standard on Members of the House,” it said.

Keep reading

When Did America Quit Electing Adults?

Politicians are not known for being model citizens. Left or right, if you go into a room full of them, after shaking a few hands, you’re likely to really want to find a restroom to wash yours. Even a casual history buff knows that going back 250 years to the nation’s founding, the stereotype of the sleazy elected official is older than the Constitution itself. 

So, this isn’t an issue of good vs. bad. It’s an issue of maturity. Twenty years ago, if you caught a politician with his pants down, literally, he was shamed out of Congress.

In 1987, Democrat presidential contender Gary Hart, a U.S. senator from Colorado, saw his political aspirations go up in smoke when the Miami Herald broke the news that Hart had a “womanizing” problem. The scandal became known as the “Donna Rice affair,” which effectively ended his candidacy and his Senate career.

When all of this became known, Hart did what you’d expect at the time. He quietly took steps to exit the public stage and maintain a lower profile for the rest of his life until today. He’s still with us at 89 years old, by the way.

History is not without its colorful characters. Wilbur Mills was a congressman from Arkansas in 1974 when the U.S. Park Police pulled his car over because it was 2 a.m., and he didn’t have his headlights on. The officer found that Mills was drunk with injuries to his face from a little brawl he had with a Washington, D.C., stripper whose stage name was Fanne Fox. 

She was in Mills’ car at the time of the traffic stop. And so, when police approached the car, she did what any self-respecting stripper would do when sitting in a car driven by a drunken congressman who had just been pulled over. She jumped out of the car and into the nearby reservoir that sits in front of the Jefferson Memorial, better known as the Tidal Basin.

The press had a field day with this, and Fox now had a new name – “The Tidal Basin Bombshell.” As polarizing as politics can be, Democrats and Republicans alike saw the story for what it was. An embarrassing scandal that eventually took Mills down and ended his career. 

Had this happened today, the Democrats would have painted Mills as almost saintly in his efforts to provide support to a “sex worker.” They would dox the cop who pulled him over, and somewhere along the way, they would have found a way to blame President Donald Trump.

Believe it or not, Mills survived this incident and was re-elected after it, but he lost his clout. His errant ways soon caught up with him, and he faded away in disgrace.

The point is, for better or worse, for Hart and Mills, and other politicians of the era, bad behaviors had consequences, and they paid them like adults. Keep in mind, these were the more extreme cases of political controversy. 

Your everyday congressional rep or senator had to actually do something to earn news, not just spontaneously do a selfie video and vomit what was on their minds at the time.

Keep reading

Politicians Think More Zoning Laws Will Fix Housing Prices, But The Data Says Otherwise 

he U.S. Senate has passed a bipartisan bill, titled “The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” aiming to make housing more affordable. However, similar to other misleading pieces of legislation — such as the infamous Inflation Reduction Act, which is actually a massive climate-change bill that worsened inflation — this new housing bill may have the opposite effect on housing affordability than what its title suggests.

The newly introduced bill is co-led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Tim Scott, R-S.C. A key assumption of the bill is that restrictive single-family zoning is a primary cause of limited housing supply and high housing costs. The legislation includes key policy proposals that Warren has previously championed, such as offering grants to state and local governments that reform exclusionary zoning rules and permit more high-density housing in areas previously designated for single-family homes.

However, the bill’s sponsors overlook empirical evidence from left-wing cities and states, such as Minneapolis, Oregon, and California, where Democrat legislatures have already effectively eliminated exclusive single-family zoning in favor of higher-density housing — the kind of reform for which Warren advocates.

A 2023 study found that upzoning resulted in an insignificant housing supply increase of less than one percent within three to nine years, offering no real improvements for low- to moderate-income renters. 

Research about Minneapolis’ zoning reform shows upzoning fueled speculation, driving single-family home prices 3-5 percent higher than in comparable border areas. Similarly, post-single-family home zoning ban analyses show median home values in Oregon continued rising sharply, reaching $509,539 in May 2022, representing an increase of 19.7 percent from a year prior.

Upzoning reforms for which Warren and other Democrats advocate have clearly proven to be ineffective in achieving their goals. Instead of making housing more affordable, these policies have centralized zoning authority, eroding local control and undermining property rights.

Yet despite upzoning reform’s track record, Democrats persist in implementing these same misguided strategies across the nation. In Colorado, the Democrat legislature and Gov. Jared Polis pushed through significant new laws in 2024 aimed at increasing high-density housing and overriding local zoning decisions. HB 24-1313 forces minimum housing densities near transit in select communities, while HB 24-1304 eliminates parking requirements for multifamily developments in urban areas. Additionally, an executive order ties discretionary grants to adherence to these state housing mandates, further diminishing local autonomy.

These new state laws sparked immediate backlash. Cities including Greenwood Village, Aurora, Arvada, Westminster, Glendale, and Lafayette sued, arguing the laws violate home-rule protections in the Colorado Constitution.

In other Colorado municipalities such as Littleton, Telluride, Estes Park, and Greeley, voters overwhelmingly rejected their leftist city councils’ attempt to revise their zoning codes to permit more “middle housing” options — such as duplexes, triplexes, and townhomes — within previously single-family zones. Similarly, in California, residents of San Francisco ousted a local politician from office in a 2025 recall election for his support of upzoning reform.

Keep reading