Billy Suratt

#MidSouth photojournalist, #Kentucky writer, political junkie & eNinja™

[Billy Suratt @surattb]

George Orwell, 1984: "The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." WAKE UP, people! #NoKings https://t.co/OYDtVNflCW

[Boston Smalls @smalls2672]

This needs to be played everywhere 24/7

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

Follow the money on this one. It is rotten to the core.

The Pentagon just lent $620,000,000 to a tiny North Carolina startup called Vulcan Elements. The company is two years old.

It had fewer than 50 employees.

And three months before the deal was announced, Donald Trump Jr.’s venture firm quietly took a stake in it.

Here is the part the administration tried to bury.

Of the dozens of companies the Pentagon was weighing, Vulcan was the only deal initiated by a top White House aide. That aide was Peter Navarro, a close friend of Trump Jr. The order came down to move fast.

One official put it plainly: The call came from the White House. We have to get this done.

Staff worked late nights to push it through in weeks. Deals like this normally take many months of vetting. And when it closed, Vulcan’s valuation jumped from about 200 million dollars to roughly 2 billion.

A windfall for the investors, including the president’s son.

This is public money. Your money.

Routed through the Pentagon to enrich the president’s family and their friends. The Bush administration’s own chief ethics lawyer called it corruption we pay for.

And there is more coming.

A drone parts company Trump Jr. holds a stake in is also under Pentagon review.

This is not a one-off. It is a pattern. The president’s family is treating the federal Treasury like a private bank, and the bill lands on every taxpayer.

https://t.co/4kB1cZNmlE

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

There is no world in which this is okay.  

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito did not recuse himself from cases involving Trump’s Treasury Department while his own son was secretly working there as a political appointee and attorney. 

His son's employment was hidden so thoroughly that his name appears nowhere on the Treasury Department website, he has no public resume, and his bar listings are outdated. 

If Alito had recused himself, the secret would have come out. He didn’t recuse himself. 

This is a clear conflict of interest, and the American people deserved to know about it. 

The federal recusal standard is clear: a justice must step aside in any case where there is a reasonable basis to question whether he or she can be impartial. A justice ruling on cases involving the department where his son works fails that test. The Treasury Department sits at the center of some of the biggest legal fights of this administration, and challenges to Trump’s $1.776 billion January 6 slush fund could be headed to the Court next. 

The Supreme Court is the only court in America with no binding code of conduct. That is completely unacceptable, and it has to change NOW. 

Congress controls the Power of the Purse, and therefore the Court’s funding. If the Court will not adopt a binding code of conduct with real recusal review on their own, I support withholding their funding until they do. 
 https://t.co/FV2Tkpz7Dk

[Hillary Clinton @HillaryClinton]

This is what Trump's done to the people's house:

A third of it is rubble.

Another third is a cage match.

What a metaphor.

[Billy Suratt @surattb]

@JoshMalina

[Thomas Massie for Congress @MassieforKY]

I filed with FEC for the 2028 House race.

This allows me to raise funds to continue my political operations supporting my position as a current office holder and as a potential candidate for federal office.

I haven’t made a final decision about which office to seek, if I run.

[Billy Suratt @surattb]

Just watched the end of The @colbertlateshow then canceled @paramountplus Premium. Rot in hell, @Skydance. Here's hoping @JimmyKimmelLive gets a Colbert Bump while we're still waiting on those Trump-Epstein Files™.

[Billy Suratt @surattb]

@jpalmiotti 250 years was a good run. 🤷 Fade in: https://t.co/uBWdcjqhJz

[Billy Suratt @surattb]

How much does it cost to buy a congressional seat? About $32 million, apparently. Perhaps Thomas Massie should run for president; it's become obvious over the past year #KY4 didn't deserve him. https://t.co/y9pBVpGTU9

[Billy Suratt @surattb]

"If only I had a little humility, I’d be perfect." RIP Ted Turner, dead at 87. https://t.co/uTug8QJnUB

[Billy Suratt @surattb]

@atrupar So... No. 🤦

[Billy Suratt @surattb]

@RpsAgainstTrump I'm not sure anyone's considered Sean Hannity a Catholic in a long, long time.

[Billy Suratt @surattb]

If they'd make this an annual event, I might remember to watch the Olympics again.

[Billy Suratt @surattb]

@jpalmiotti Did I win metaphors for the week? When I saw where they were all standing, I could NOT find a place to park and run fast enough. Plus, my camera battery died. lol https://t.co/CRyYxCPnFj

[Billy Suratt @surattb]

@tedcruz So, you're saying anyone who doesn't want to be poor anymore should start voting for Democrats? Interesting idea. Perhaps everyone will try it in the midterms.

[Billy Suratt @surattb]

@JoshMalina Amen.

[Billy Suratt @surattb]

@SpeakerJohnson Which is something the felon-in-chief would already know if he were actually a Christian as he claims. #trumpisanationaldisgrace

[Billy Suratt @surattb]

@GeraldoRivera This makes me wonder if your account's been hacked.

[Billy Suratt @surattb]

@RpsAgainstTrump The amount of mental illness in Congress is truly astonishing.

[Billy Suratt @surattb]

@NotSoFoolish @Matt_Pinner Not a whole set, but I thought everybody had at least one volume from the grocery store. lol