United States Congress of Fail - Part 4

[GrumpyGran]

3 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

For years I voted for the Republican who ran in my Congressional district. She was moderate, worked across the isle and was a decent and kind. I used to figure we needed moderate Republicans to counter act some of the more crazy ones. That was until she signed the 'Contract With America" under the Newt. After that I was done. She lost my support after that.

Fast forward to now. We have a basically moderate middle of the road Governor Larry Hogan. He didn't endorse Trump, didn't go to the convention and wrote in his father's name for president. All well and good, but dear Larry hasn't stood up and denounced Trump. Hogan has opted to just stay silent. Not good enough, not any more.

Part of me is sad to see the old time 'moderate Republican' go. Part of me wonders if that has been a myth all along. All of me is fucking fed up. Larry darling, how will it feel to be a one term wonder?

It's like "Night of the Living Dead" in the Republican party now and we're almost to the end. The true moderate and ethical ones are bailing out instead of staying and fighting. That says it all, there is no longer any allowance for discussion and compromise in that party. Money and NRA call all the shots and none of them can work for their constituents now. Better we set them free, in the long term it will be good for them, it will allow them the space and freedom to re-discover their morals.

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, onekidanddone said:

For years I voted for the Republican who ran in my Congressional district. She was moderate, worked across the isle and was a decent and kind. I used to figure we needed moderate Republicans to counter act some of the more crazy ones. That was until she signed the 'Contract With America" under the Newt. After that I was done. She lost my support after that.

Connie Morella? I remember she was a moderate.

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Connie Morella? I remember she was a moderate.

Yup. She was also my English professor at Montgomery College back in the time of the horse and buggy. 

[GreyhoundFan]

2 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

Yup. She was also my English professor at Montgomery College back in the time of the horse and buggy. 

That's cool! My mom lived in her district and adored her. She always seemed so common-sense oriented. Until the Contract on America.

[JMarie]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/21/politics/kentucky-linda-belcher-trump/index.html

Quote

Democrats claimed a landslide victory in a special election for a Kentucky House district that voted heavily for Donald Trump in 2016.

Linda Belcher, a Democrat, won the special election for Kentucky's House District 49 on Tuesday with 3,386 votes. Rebecca Johnson, a Republican, received 1,561 votes, according to official results from Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes.

Johnson is the widow of Republican state Rep. Dan Johnson, who narrowly defeated Belcher, then an incumbent, in 2016 and committed suicide late last year. The lawmaker had beenaccused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in 2013 in a report by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. He committed suicide a day after he denied the allegations.

Trump won the district with 72% of the vote in 2016. Belcher's win is the 37th Republican-held state legislative seat that Democrats have picked off since Trump took office.

Belcher will serve out the rest of Johnson's term, which ends in December.

According to the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Johnson's campaign manager claimed their election loss was a result of voter fraud. In a statement, Johnson said she had heard about people being turned away from the polls, adding that "it's like we are in a third world country."

Voter fraud!  That's the only reason why a Democrat would win in a district that Trump easily won fifteen months ago.

[Cartmann99]

Remember kids, this jackass is the chair of the HPSCI, which is supposed to be investigating Russia's activities in the 2016 election:

Quote

Devin Nunes joined the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2011 and became committee chairman in 2015. He is a long-standing believer that a constant flow of reliable intelligence is crucial to strengthening America’s security posture, and that the Intelligence Community’s activities must be subject to strict congressional scrutiny. His committee priorities include ensuring that our intelligence professionals have the resources and authorities they need to discover and track foreign jihadists, to monitor belligerent nation-states, to counter the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and to deter foreign attacks on U.S. digital networks. As committee chairman, he has overseen passage in the House of Representatives of the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 and the FY 2016 Intelligence Authorization Act, both of which were enacted into law, as well as the FY 2017 Intelligence Authorization Act.

https://intelligence.house.gov/about/chairman.htm

[onekidanddone]

12 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

Remember kids, this jackass is the chair of the HPSCI, which is supposed to be investigating Russia's activities in the 2016 election:

https://intelligence.house.gov/about/chairman.htm

#nunestreason

[GreyhoundFan]

What a different reaction.

 

[47of74]

Fuck you, Representative

Quote

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) claimed that people who commit mass shootings are often Democrats during a Wednesday discussion about the Florida school shooting.

The first-term Republican congresswoman made the comment after criticizing the government for failing to act on several tips that might have prevented the deaths of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last week.

“It’s interesting that so many of these people that commit the mass murders end up being Democrats. But the media doesn’t talk about that either,” Tenney told WGDJ Talk1300 radio.

Although law enforcement officials said there were “no known ties” between Nikolas Cruz and a particular white supremacist group, the 19-year-old suspected Florida shooter repeatedly expressed racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic views in private group chats, CNN reports.

 

[JMarie]

56 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

Fuck you, Representative

 

I was just about to post this!  Guess who won't be getting re-elected in November?

[47of74]

11 minutes ago, JMarie said:

I was just about to post this!  Guess who won't be getting re-elected in November?

Yeah I sure as fuck hope she's out of a job this time next year.

The nicest thing I can say about Tenney is that she's a fucking idiot. 

[Howl]

Well, it's the dog whistle deal.  Now people will start retweeting as gospel truth that all mass shooters are Democrats.  Sadly, we're so far past wedge politics that it might as well be the Grand Canyon. 

[Howl]

Quote

A teacher asks the NRA spokeswoman explain how she defines a “well-regulated militia” and how “an 18-year-old with a military rifle" is well-regulated

It's about damn time that SOMEONE is mentioning that other part of the 2nd Amendment.

[GreyhoundFan]

Ron Johnson is such a prince. End sarcasm: "Republican Senator Threatens Citizen With Arrest If They Continue Asking For A Town Hall"

Spoiler

A Republican Senator has had enough of his constituents asking him to have a town hall meeting to meet with them. Ron Johnson, Republican US Senator from Wisconsin, has been missing in action in his home state. The citizens have been pestering him to come and talk to them. They have gone to creative lengths to try to get Johnson to interact with Wisconsin voters. The Daily Cardinal reported on February 22nd,

 

“Roughly 500 constituents gathered at what was termed an “empty chair town hall” for Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., at the First Congregational Church in Madison Wednesday night.”

Activists have flooded their representatives’ offices across the country with unprecedented volume of calls on a range of issues. Activists have also jammed town halls since the election, especially for Republican representatives, and reacted strongly to Republican threats to gut the Affordable Care Act, Social Security and Medicare. So Johnson is far from alone in having a set of constituents who are enthusiastic about exercising their right to petition the government for a redress of grievances, as enshrined in the First Amendment.

But in February, he likely became the first Republican representative to begin threatening his constituents for their attempts to petition his office. Citizen Action of Wisconsin posted a letter allegedly postmarked to a Wisconsin citizen whose name is blacked out in the image. The letter reads:

Dear ___________

This Cease and Desist letter is to inform you that any further communication from you to U.S. Senator Ron Johnson’s office can only be done in writing. This means that you are not to call or visit any of Senator Johnson’s staff or any of his offices at any time. 

Our office has done all that we can to assist you with your concerns. This letter acts as written notice of our expectation for you to discontinue your unwarranted telephone calls and office visits. 

If you fail to comply with this notice, then we will have no other alternative but to contact the United States Capitol Police and report your noncompliance. 

Sincerely, 

Ron Johnson’s staff

U. S. Senate

... < copy of the letter >

Threatening to send the police after a constituent for trying to get their voice heard is idiotic. There’s no law that Capitol Police could possibly enforce that says a constituent can’t contact his or her representative, even if it’s frequent. The letter doesn’t indicate that there’s any issue other than a citizen striving to be heard. If this were someone crossing the line, there would be different legal avenues to deal with that. It’s also shocking but sadly unsurprising. This kind of militant authoritarian response to an expression of democracy would have been unthinkable only months ago. But Donald Trump is unleashing the wannabe-tyrant in his fellow Republicans, and outright contempt for democracy and Americans who try to exercise it is becoming the Republican party’s new “normal.”

When a representative of the people begins threatening his own constituents because they are enthusiastically asking him to represent them, that’s a strong sign that voters need to help him find a new career. Unfortunately, Johnson was just reelected in November. So Wisconsinites are stuck his open hostility toward their democratic rights for the next six years.

If you would like to receive your own personal Cease and Desist letter from Senator Ron Johnson’s staff, you can write him at 328 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510, call his office at (202) 224-5323 or email him here.

 

[candygirl200413]

@GreyhoundFan Like your constitute wants you to do your job and you want them to be arrested?! I know among other governments we have I guess one of the best type (not sure if that's the best word) in terms of we can communicate with our representative and should theoretically hold the purse strings when it comes to dealing with them but him among others are just such pos' and little punks who are too scared to comfort their constitutes.

[GreyhoundFan]

"The Frat House of Representatives"

Spoiler

Crotch shots. Infidelity. Secret payoffs. Pants-less octogenarians. And the infamous “Bros Caucus.”

Welcome to the Frat House of Representatives.

The past year in Congress has been a lowlight reel of nonstop unethical — and, in some cases, potentially illegal — behavior. Three House members resigned over alleged misconduct. Four others announced they won’t seek reelection, an option they took to head off party leaders forcing them out.

Just last week, POLITICO reported that Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) is threatening to depose Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) in his divorce case. Turner wants to know about Issa's relationship with Turner's estranged wife, though Issa has denied any improper behavior.

Incidents like these have become seemingly routine, which itself shows how far Congress’ ethical standards have fallen of late.

“It’s been a soap opera, but this adds another chapter,” Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) said of the Turner-Issa drama. Yoho said he’s sick of the scandals that distract from legislative business.

“Infidelity and things like that aren’t felonies, but it’s a lapse of character,” he said. “And I think we have plenty of people you have seen in the news that show a lack of character and a lack of ethics."

"This shouldn't be normal, and it's starting to feel like it is," added Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.).

The Senate hasn’t been immune. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) resigned in January after a slew of sexual harassment allegations, bowing to demands from female and male senators that he step down.

And a bribery case against Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) ended last month when prosecutors dropped the charges after a trial ended in a hung jury. The Senate Ethics Committee is still investigating Menendez’s dealings with a wealthy friend and donor. But he has returned to his post as the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is running for reelection, with the support of New Jersey’s new governor and the entire Senate Democratic leadership.

Yet the House of Representatives — the people’s House — has been home to the most outlandish behavior.

Before the current, 115th Congress started in January 2017, House Republicans voted to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics — the independent ethics watchdog — only to reverse themselves in the face of a public backlash.

The fiasco was a sign of things to come:

• Democrat John Conyers — the “dean of the House” who was first elected when Lyndon B. Johnson was president — resigned in the midst of a sexual-harassment scandal. BuzzFeed reported Conyers secretly used $27,000 in taxpayer funds as a settlement with a former aide who accused him of harassment. Conyers, 88, also reportedly met with aides when he wasn’t wearing pants. And another former aide accused Conyers of “rubbing on her shoulders, kissing her forehead, covering and attempting to hold her hand.”
• Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), a staunch opponent of abortion rights, resigned after it was disclosed that he had asked his mistress to get an abortion. POLITICO followed up that revelation with a report that Susan Mosychuk — Murphy’s long-time chief of staff, with whom Murphy also had a close personal relationship —ran his office like a prison camp, according to multiple former staffers and lawmakers. “There was screaming, intimidation. Nothing you ever did was right,” a former Murphy aide said.
• Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) resigned after a former aide alleged he offered her $5 million to serve as a birth surrogate. The House Ethics Committee launched an investigation into the case, and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told Franks that the veteran lawmaker should resign. In a bizarre resignation letter, Franks acknowledged discussing his wife’s infertility with aides but denied wrongdoing. He blamed the “current cultural and media climate” for his situation and said he didn’t want to put his family and staff through a “hyperbolized public excoriation.” Top Republican sources told POLITICO that some of the women took his surrogate talk as an invitation to have sex.
• Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.), a member of the House Ethics Committee, announced his retirement after The New York Times disclosed that his office had made a secret sexual-harassment settlement with a former female aide. The married Meehan called the staffer his “soul mate,” a phrase that became an instant classic among lawmakers and staffers on Capitol Hill. After the story broke, he also admitted that he may have treated the aide adversely when she rejected his advances and found out she had a boyfriend.
• Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) announced he wouldn’t run for reelection after a former girlfriend posted naked crotch shots of the 68-year-old lawmaker. Barton sent graphic text messages, too. “I want u soo bad,” said one text message. Barton pointed out that he was single when he sent the pictures and messages, and he asked the U.S. Capitol Police to investigate the leaker for posting “revenge porn.”
• In just his first term, Rep. Ruben Kihuen (D-Nev.) announced his retirement in December. According to BuzzFeed, Kihuen allegedly propositioned a former aide “for dates and sex despite her repeated rejections. On two occasions, she says he touched her thighs without consent.” A second former female aide came forward as well to claim harassment. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) led the charge to get rid of Kihuen.
• Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) announced his own retirement after POLITICO disclosed that a former aide, Lauren Greene, had received $84,000 from his office to settle a lawsuit over sexual harassment, gender discrimination and creating a hostile work environment. Greene said another Farenthold aide told her the lawmaker had “sexual fantasies” and “wet dreams” about her. Greene also claimed that Farenthold “regularly drank to excess” and told her in February 2014 that he was “estranged from his wife and had not had sex with her in years.” Farenthold said he would repay the taxpayer payment out of his personal funds, but so far, that has not happened.
• Finally, POLITICO reported last week that FBI investigators were digging into the personal life of Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a former Marine-turned-lawmaker with a reputation for heavy drinking and keeping company with women. A federal grand jury has been hearing testimony from former staffers and subpoenaed Hunter’s family — Duncan Hunter Sr., is a former member — about allegations that his campaign funds were used for personal meals, his children’s schooling and flying a pet rabbit cross-country, among other things. Hunter has pointed the finger at his own wife for campaign spending problems, but his relationships with women in Washington — including in his own office — have also come up in the interrogations.

The fallout from the scandals has yielded varied results. With strong backing from Ryan and Pelosi, the House passed stringent sexual harassment rules that no longer allow secret taxpayer-funded settlements.

Conyers' resignation left Alaska GOP Rep. Don Young as the "dean of the House," its longest-serving member. Young, once investigated by the FBI over corruption allegations, held a knife to former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) during a dispute over spending earmarks years ago. Boehner says he stared Young in the eyes and said, “Fuck you.”

The scandals have come at such a rapid clip that it's hard to keep up with all of them. Some lawmakers are fed up with the relentless headlines and questions from media.

“I find it insulting that this is the way we spend our days,” an exasperated Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.) said last week when asked about the Turner-Issa drama. “We have serious budget challenges, serious defense challenges. And the question of who did what to whom on Thursday is a disappointment. It’s not news!”

Other members argued that the Founding Fathers weren’t angels, or that members of Congress are no worse than most Americans — it just becomes news when they get caught.

"I think you have the same collection of human foibles and frailties that you see in other places, just there's a lot more attention focused on it," said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.).

Yet some lawmakers say members of Congress are, in fact, the problem. Yoho, who once broke off a business relationship when he found out his partner was having an affair, said if a lawmaker cheats on his wife he may be inclined to cheat voters. Yoho also argued that those who cheat are probably too distracted to properly do their jobs in Congress.

“If somebody is having an affair and they’re trying to keep it a secret… how much time can you stay focused on what [you’re] hired to do?” Yoho said. “You want people with moral integrity and character representing you."

 

[GreyhoundFan]

GAG: "Nunes gets conservative award for pushback on Russia probe"

Spoiler

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee predicted a backlash from the release of a Democratic memo about foreign meddling in the 2016 election, telling a yearly gathering of conservatives that “the Democratic-controlled media” had misled Americans about the investigation.

“We actually wanted this out,” said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), addressing the annual Conservative Political Action Conference just as the Democratic memo was released. “It’s clear evidence that the Democrats are not only covering this up, but they’re also colluding with parts of the government to cover this up.”

Nunes’s remarks, part of a Q&A with American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, came at the end of a conference where the inquiries into Donald Trump’s presidential campaign were described as a partisan farce. Nunes was one of several speakers who suggested that the case against the Trump campaign was flimsy and that any investigation into the election needed to focus on whether the Obama administration had unfairly targeted the 2016 Republican campaign.

“We’ve seen no evidence of collusion,” Nunes said.

“We’ve seen no evidence of Republicans colluding,” Schlapp said.

“That’s fair,” Nunes said.

The conference, which unfolded over 3 ½ days at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center just outside Washington, overlapped with breaking news about the long-running Russia investigation. On Friday, Trump campaign official Rick Gates pleaded guilty to two charges related money laundering, and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III filed fresh charges against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.

But at CPAC, the news was received in two ways — as a distraction or as a hoax. According to the conference’s annual straw poll, 60 percent of attendees said the Mueller investigation was unfair. In a Saturday-afternoon speech, Tom Fitton, the president of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch said the probe and the media’s focus on it was designed to distract from scandals around defeated 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

“Stolen and destroyed records. Violations of national security laws. You name it — Judicial Watch has compiled enough evidence to compel the lawful arrest of Hillary Clinton,” Fitton said. “It’s no wonder that the D.C. establishment would rather talk about their made-up garbage about Donald Trump and Russia.”

A Saturday panel about the investigation, bringing together skeptical conservative reporters, was less dismissive. While they criticized some national news media as hyping each turn in the Russia story, they acknowledged that the investigations raise some questions about Trump’s campaign.

“The one thing that’s striking is that he has indicted a lot of people, some people have pleaded guilty, there have been a whole lot of counts — and if you accept the idea that there was a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians to influence the election, he hasn’t charged anybody with being a part of it, yet,” said Washington Examiner columnist Byron York. “I’m not saying it’s not going to happen, because I don’t know the future.”

The Nunes session took a different tone. Cheers of “thank you!” went up as soon as Nunes took the stage, and continued as he described why he released a memo about how research by Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm, was used to justify probes of Trump’s campaign.

“Our memo was for one purpose only, and that was to show that FISA abuse occurred,” Nunes said, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. “They are advocating that it’s okay for the FBI and DOJ to use political dirt paid for by one campaign and use it against another political campaign.”

The rest of Nunes’s remarks focused on coverage of his investigation and the need, as he saw it, for a probe into “whether there’s been abuse or not” by federal investigators looking at the Trump campaign.

“What you’re really seeing is the collapse of the media. It’s really sad,” Nunes said. “Most Americans now understand that no matter where you’re getting your news from, it’s going to be biased.”

Nunes also got a chance to respond to an unnamed “Morning Joe” commentator who criticized his background as a farmer — proof, he said, that the media “despised” people with blue-collar jobs. And when the session ended, he stood to receive the American Conservative Union’s Defender of Freedom Award, conferred on him because of his “lonely pursuit of truth on behalf of the American people.”

 

[fraurosena]

16 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

GAG: "Nunes gets conservative award for pushback on Russia probe"

I wonder if they will make him return his award once Mueller's investigation irrefutably evidences his complicity in the Russian connection cover-up, or will he be allowed to take it with him to jail in remembrance of better times?

[GrumpyGran]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

GAG: "Nunes gets conservative award for pushback on Russia probe"

  Hide contents

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee predicted a backlash from the release of a Democratic memo about foreign meddling in the 2016 election, telling a yearly gathering of conservatives that “the Democratic-controlled media” had misled Americans about the investigation.

“We actually wanted this out,” said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), addressing the annual Conservative Political Action Conference just as the Democratic memo was released. “It’s clear evidence that the Democrats are not only covering this up, but they’re also colluding with parts of the government to cover this up.”

Nunes’s remarks, part of a Q&A with American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, came at the end of a conference where the inquiries into Donald Trump’s presidential campaign were described as a partisan farce. Nunes was one of several speakers who suggested that the case against the Trump campaign was flimsy and that any investigation into the election needed to focus on whether the Obama administration had unfairly targeted the 2016 Republican campaign.

“We’ve seen no evidence of collusion,” Nunes said.

“We’ve seen no evidence of Republicans colluding,” Schlapp said.

“That’s fair,” Nunes said.

The conference, which unfolded over 3 ½ days at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center just outside Washington, overlapped with breaking news about the long-running Russia investigation. On Friday, Trump campaign official Rick Gates pleaded guilty to two charges related money laundering, and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III filed fresh charges against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.

But at CPAC, the news was received in two ways — as a distraction or as a hoax. According to the conference’s annual straw poll, 60 percent of attendees said the Mueller investigation was unfair. In a Saturday-afternoon speech, Tom Fitton, the president of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch said the probe and the media’s focus on it was designed to distract from scandals around defeated 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

“Stolen and destroyed records. Violations of national security laws. You name it — Judicial Watch has compiled enough evidence to compel the lawful arrest of Hillary Clinton,” Fitton said. “It’s no wonder that the D.C. establishment would rather talk about their made-up garbage about Donald Trump and Russia.”

A Saturday panel about the investigation, bringing together skeptical conservative reporters, was less dismissive. While they criticized some national news media as hyping each turn in the Russia story, they acknowledged that the investigations raise some questions about Trump’s campaign.

“The one thing that’s striking is that he has indicted a lot of people, some people have pleaded guilty, there have been a whole lot of counts — and if you accept the idea that there was a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians to influence the election, he hasn’t charged anybody with being a part of it, yet,” said Washington Examiner columnist Byron York. “I’m not saying it’s not going to happen, because I don’t know the future.”

The Nunes session took a different tone. Cheers of “thank you!” went up as soon as Nunes took the stage, and continued as he described why he released a memo about how research by Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm, was used to justify probes of Trump’s campaign.

“Our memo was for one purpose only, and that was to show that FISA abuse occurred,” Nunes said, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. “They are advocating that it’s okay for the FBI and DOJ to use political dirt paid for by one campaign and use it against another political campaign.”

The rest of Nunes’s remarks focused on coverage of his investigation and the need, as he saw it, for a probe into “whether there’s been abuse or not” by federal investigators looking at the Trump campaign.

“What you’re really seeing is the collapse of the media. It’s really sad,” Nunes said. “Most Americans now understand that no matter where you’re getting your news from, it’s going to be biased.”

Nunes also got a chance to respond to an unnamed “Morning Joe” commentator who criticized his background as a farmer — proof, he said, that the media “despised” people with blue-collar jobs. And when the session ended, he stood to receive the American Conservative Union’s Defender of Freedom Award, conferred on him because of his “lonely pursuit of truth on behalf of the American people.”

 

Channel surfing before lights out last night and came upon this shameful display of ass-kissing. I would guess there were actually about 300 people at this thing, some I think paid cheerleaders(not the high school type, the game show type). So it's a mid-sized circle-jerk.

I agree with you, @fraurosena, I want him to go to jail and I think he's put himself in a situation where it ought to at least be investigated.

[Howl]

Quote

Conyers' resignation left Alaska GOP Rep. Don Young as the "dean of the House," its longest-serving member. Young, once investigated by the FBI over corruption allegations, held a knife to former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) during a dispute over spending earmarks years ago. Boehner says he stared Young in the eyes and said, “Fuck you.”

It's come to this.  For enjoyment purposes and schadenfreude, all good.  However, if the Democrats can't come up with a unified and electrifying platform, we're screwed. 

[Cartmann99]

As the article notes, CA-44 is a very Democratic area, so she has a difficult task in front of her. If you are unfamiliar with Stacey's views, here's a couple of videos to get you up to speed:

Spoiler

 

 

 

[JMarie]

42 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

As the article notes, CA-44 is a very Democratic area, so she has a difficult task in front of her. If you are unfamiliar with Stacey's views, here's a couple of videos to get you up to speed:

  Hide contents

 

 

 

Well, she does need something to occupy her time.  She doesn't seem to be acting anymore, and Fox News didn't renew her contract.  Her Wikipedia page says she writes a column for Patheos, but according to their website, she hasn't written anything since last April.  She probably isn't getting any nibbles to do reality competition shows (Dancing with the Stars, America's Worst Cooks, ect), so she'll have lots of time to campaign.

[fraurosena]

This is irrefutable proof of how corruption works in American politics. 

Koch Document Reveals Laundry List of Politcy Victories Extracted from the Trump Administration

Quote

IN THE BACKDROP of a chaotic first year of Donald Trump’s presidency, the conservative Koch brothers have won victory after victory in their bid to reshape American government to their interests.

Documents obtained by The Intercept and Documented show that the network of wealthy donors led by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch have taken credit for a laundry list of policy achievements extracted from the Trump administration and their allies in Congress.

The donors have pumped campaign contributions not only to GOP lawmakers, but also to an array of third-party organizations that have pressured officials to act swiftly to roll back limits on pollution, approve new pipeline projects, and extend the largest set of upper-income tax breaks in generations.

“This year, thanks in part to research and outreach efforts across institutions, we have seen progress on many regulatory priorities this Network has championed for years,” the memo notes. The document highlights environmental issues that the Koch brothers have long worked to undo, such as the EPA Clean Power Plan, which is currently under the process of being formally repealed, and Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, among their major accomplishments. The memo also highlighted administration efforts to walk back planned rules to strengthen the estate tax in a list of 13 regulatory decisions favored by the network.

The network’s political operation includes a polling and research outfit, Capitol Hill lobbyists, several hundred field staff, groups designed to air campaign ads, and an assortment of grassroots groups set up to appeal to certain constituencies. The LIBRE Initiative is a network group geared toward selling Koch policy ideas to Latino communities. Generation Opportunity works to reach out to millennials and college students; Veterans For America for veterans and military-minded voters.

[link to Koch document]

To win support for the Republican tax legislation, the Koch network claims that it organized over 100 rallies in 36 states, contacted over 1.8 million activists, and knocked on over 33,000 doors. The group also spent freely on digital and television advertisements, with $1.6 million in TV spots to support the legislation in Wisconsin alone.

As The Intercept previously reported, the Koch network told its surrogates to downplay concern over the deficit, a major issue they raised during the Obama administration, in order to convince lawmakers to support the package.

Days after the tax bill passed, Charles Koch and his wife donated $500,000to Speaker Paul Ryan’s joint fundraising leadership PAC, which has a heightened threshold for donations.

[link to second Koch document]

Despite some public antagonism over Trump — including flirtations with replacing him as the nominee with Ryan at the Republican National Convention —  the Koch brothers have enjoyed incredible access with his administration. The president’s lawyer, Don McGahn; the president’s chief liaison to Congress, Marc Short; and the president’s counselor, Kellyanne Conway all previously worked for the Koch network before taking their current positions in the White House. Ethics forms reveal that officials across the government, including at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy, previously served at Koch think tanks or other Koch groups. Vice President Mike Pence also maintains a very close relationship with the Koch brothers.

The Koch brothers are also hoping to fundamentally reshape other aspects of American society, including labor unions and the judiciary.

The memo details efforts to weaken the power of labor unions, including a broad attack on private sector labor unions in states controlled by Republicans in 2017. Meanwhile, the memo notes that the Trump administration has shelved a number of Obama-era rules that were viewed as too friendly to workers and labor unions, including the Overtime Rule and the Joint Employer Rule. The latter would have reduced the barriers for workers at franchise businesses, like fast food outlets, to form a union.

“Labor reform is not an overnight process; advancing major federal labor reform requires a long-term strategy,” it adds. To that point, the Koch network plans to press forward with the Employee Rights Act, legislation to extend right-to-work laws nationally and set up new barriers for labor activists hoping to form new unions.

The memo notes that they believe Justice Anthony Kennedy will soon retire, and the effort to replace him will be “far more contentious” than the effort to confirm Justice Neil Gorsuch.

“If President Trump nominates a principled, constructionist nominee for Justice Kennedy’s seat or any other vacant seat, we anticipate engaging with both grassroots and under-the-dome tactics, bringing paid and earned media and events to support the confirmation.” The memo notes that the network sponsored pressure effort on Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.; and Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., all of whom eventually voted to confirm Gorsuch.

In Indian Wells, California, last month, the network held a retreat with 700 donors. Several journalists were invited to attend as long as they promised not to name the donors present.

Operatives from the network also led sessions to explain how to move forward into the midterm elections. The Koch brothers intend to spend $400 million to preserve the Republican majority in Congress and maintain GOP power at the state level.

In recent days, Koch network groups have purchased ads targeting Democratic lawmakers in key elections across the country. This week, a new ad began airing in Missouri criticizing Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, who is up for re-election this year.

“We’ve made more progress in the last five years than I had in the last 50,” Charles Koch reportedly said. “The capabilities we have now can take us to a whole new level.”

This is absolutely scary stuff. 

[Howl]

3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

This is absolutely scary stuff. 

Yeah, it makes the Russians look like amateurs. 

[fraurosena]

What the fuck. I mean, seriously. What.the.FUCK!