Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America. Please take a moment to click the ❤️ and restack this post. The oligarchs’ platforms are trying to keep stories like the ones below from hitting your feeds, and this helps us break through.
MAGA was left stunned after Donald Trump openly thirsted over a male Republican senator at a wild campaign rally. Video has surfaced of Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton partying in Dubai with two federal fugitives. Kimberly Guilfoyle has resigned as ambassador to Greece at the president’s request after scathing misconduct reports surfaced. And Trump’s new press secretary appears to have lied about being a licensed attorney.
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Trump Tells Rally He “Examined” a Male Senator’s Body and “Looked at His Ass”
The party that wants to ban drag shows just watched its leader check out a senator’s ass on live television.
Trump spent much of his rally in Youngstown, Ohio, talking about Republican Senator Jon Husted’s physique. The president told the crowd he had just learned that Husted played college football, and then described in detail how he had studied the senator’s body from top to bottom, including his backside.
Trump said he doesn’t normally do this with men, but that he began “examining his body” after he learned of Husted’s athletic background. He told the crowd to look at Husted’s jawline and described his hands as looking like “claws.”
Newsmax host Rob Schmitt appeared visibly stunned in the studio after his network aired Trump’s comments. Schmitt then misattributed the comments to the wrong person, pinning them on former NFL coach Jon Gruden, who had introduced Trump at the rally.
Husted, a 59-year-old former All-American cornerback at the University of Dayton, was appointed to the Senate in January 2025 to replace JD Vance. He’s currently trailing his Democratic challenger, former three-term Senator Sherrod Brown, by 6 points in a CNN poll.
Video Shows Ken Paxton Partying in Dubai with Federal Fugitives
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Two federal fugitives, a mistress, and the attorney general of Texas walked into a Dubai penthouse…
Video reviewed by The Wall Street Journal shows Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ringing in New Year’s Eve 2024 in a luxury high-rise overlooking the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. His girlfriend, Tracy Duhon, and two men who had been indicted months earlier on federal healthcare fraud charges stood at his sides.
Anosh Ahmed and Sameer Suhail were each charged with helping divert more than $15 million from a Chicago hospital through fake payments. Ahmed is also charged separately in a scheme involving $195 million in faulty Covid-19 tests sold to the government. Both were indicted and spent time outside the country, but have since returned and are in federal custody.
Ahmed donated $190,000 to Paxton’s campaign, including $25,000 days after his own indictment. There’s no public record of Paxton returning any of the money.
Asked about the Dubai gathering, Paxton’s campaign declined to comment, saying he has been “politically persecuted.” Polls show him in a tight race against Democrat James Talarico, who reacted to the video on X by saying: “A party with multiple fugitives and Ken Paxton is still the sketchiest guy in the room.”
Kimberly Guilfoyle Resigns as Ambassador to Greece at Trump’s Request
Trump sells gold sneakers out of the White House, but the Amex bill was too tacky.
Kimberly Guilfoyle has resigned as U.S. Ambassador to Greece at the administration’s request after a series of Wall Street Journal reports alleging bribery, threats against a foreign official, and other abuses of her position. White House press secretary Katie Zacharia confirmed the request during her first briefing.
The request came after Trump said yesterday he was “looking at” firing Guilfoyle and was “not happy” about the allegations. A senior U.S. official told the Associated Press that Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were “extremely pissed off” by the reports.
Since late September, the Wall Street Journal has published several stories about Guilfoyle, including allegations that she threatened a Greek government official and promoted the business interests of a local construction company. Guilfoyle asked a Trump donor to pay a $100,000 credit card bill before her confirmation hearing, promising him access to administration officials in return, the outlet reported last week.
The State Department’s inspector general is investigating the allegations, although it’s unclear if a formal investigation has been launched. Guilfoyle’s lawyers have denied wrongdoing.
Rubio initially defended Guilfoyle but grew combative as more reports emerged during his visit to Athens last week. He scolded reporters for asking about the allegations, telling them that “just because some source told you something and you reported it” did not make it true.
Trump’s New Press Secretary Appears to Have Lied About Being a Lawyer
Lying about being a lawyer is actually the most fitting qualification for this job.
An investigation by Popular Info’s Judd Legum reveals that the new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, is not licensed to practice law in the U.S. Legum checked bar association databases in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and found no record of Zacharia ever passing the bar exam.
Zacharia graduated from Pepperdine Caruso School of Law in 2011, and was listed as “general counsel” for a nonprofit run by Ric Grenell. When asked about the discrepancy, the White House referred reporters to a Trump post on Truth Social that identified Zacharia as “an attorney” and a graduate of Pepperdine.
In a statement Tuesday, Zacharia lied that she passed the bar when she “moved to China,” where she lived from 2011 to 2013. We know this is a lie because foreigners are not allowed to take the bar exam or practice law in China.
Zacharia also used Truth Social to promote the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which falsely accused top Democrats of running a child trafficking ring out of a Washington pizzeria. She has also claimed that the abortion pill mifepristone was developed in Nazi Germany, which isn’t true either.
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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Country Artist Torches Kristi Noem After Rallying With James Talarico. Kacey Musgraves and former DHS secretary Kristi Noem had a public spat on X this week after the country singer hosted Democratic Texas Senate nominee James Talarico at her Dallas show over the weekend. Talarico posted pictures from the front row, including a selfie Musgraves took with him wearing a bedazzled Dallas shirt. Noem, who was fired by Trump earlier this year, reposted the pictures and said she’d take country singer Ella Langley over Musgraves and Ken Paxton over Talarico. Musgraves shot back Monday, citing the passage in Noem’s memoir where the former South Dakota governor confessed to shooting her 14-month-old dog, Cricket, for behavioral issues. “I don’t think you have a dog in this fight but if you did you would have shot it,” Musgraves wrote.
Springfield, Massachusetts Is Cracking Down on Aggressive Door-to-Door Salespeople. Springfield, about 90 minutes west of Boston, is weighing a new ordinance that would require businesses that hire door-to-door salespeople to register with the police department and limit their workers to knocking between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. The ordinance would also require sales reps to wear an identification badge and carry proof of registration. Fines for aggressive tactics would increase from $50 per infraction to $300. The rules would apply only to sales for profit so political candidates, so nonprofits and charities would be exempt. The proposal was brought forward by City Councilor Gerry Martin, after he received complaints from residents while canvassing neighborhoods during his own campaign last year.
Flock Safety Is Cutting 18% of Its Workforce Amid Growing Public Backlash. Atlanta-based surveillance startup Flock Safety plans to lay off around 270 people, or 18% of its workforce, according to Reuters. The company has a network of about 120,000 AI-powered cameras in 49 states, but it is facing growing opposition from communities and lawmakers who say the technology invades privacy. Flock, which saw 93 cities and counties drop their contracts in August alone, rolled out a voluntary buyout program in September that offered employees severance packages worth tens of thousands of dollars and months of health insurance. At the time, sources told WIRED layoffs would be inevitable.
California Strawberry Farmers Are Using Steam Instead of Chemical Fumigants. At the University of California, Santa Cruz, researchers are working with farmers to replace chemical fumigants with steam-injection technology that kills soil-borne diseases and weeds without creating health problems for farmworkers and nearby residents. The technique was originally developed for greenhouses, but last fall four California growers tried it out in open strawberry fields, and one longtime farmer reported that his plants were still producing fruit long after the normal end of harvest. California produces nine out of 10 strawberries grown in the U.S. Researchers think the technology could also work for lettuce, carrots and other high-yield crops.
“Thirsted”?! Afraid to use the usual verb for such behaviour?
There goes her credibility on Day 1!