The Random Politics Thread

[Captain Wiggles]

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[skinsmarydu]

On 6/25/2020 at 7:34 PM, PokerPacker said:

Forever independent.  Even if a major party did happen to talk the talk in regards to fitting my political ideals, I believe partisan politics are a pox on society so I would not identify myself as a member of said party.

Registered Independent, fiscally conservative but a bleeding heart socially. I just haven't found a Republican worth my vote since I was in the Navy during the Reagan administration...and all I was voting for was a pay increase, which we all knew he was soooooo willing to give. I was also 18 and stupid compared to who I am now. 

(Maybe. )😉

Edited June 27, 2020 by skinsmarydu

[skinfan2k]

On 6/25/2020 at 5:17 PM, Malapropismic Depository said:

Just out of curiosity, are there any Independents, or anyone somewhere in the middle here ?

 

I think the most of us are actually independents but forced to pick between the evil 2 parties.  If you haven't watched this, please do.  This explains everything wrong with our system.  We need to implement a different voting system as well as put in term limits for Congress.  If the President can only work 8 years, why can Congress work forever? How about the SC?

 

 

[Jumbo]

i love mike pence yesterday refusing to wear a mask or even just specifically and clearly advise it for the general population but instead will repeatedly highlight the importance of how he prays every day for the virus to end 

 

i trust many of you know some of the kinds of thoughts i'm not typing  

 

 

[The Evil Genius]

The cure for the virus comes in November. 

 

 

Oh, and pick a side Nancy's. It's a two party system and pretending you're Libertarian Independent is just silly.. 😁

[TradeTheBeal!]

The parties are only as evil as the people in them. The GOP has clearly made the choice to lean in hard with the evil.

 

Not a difficult choice...

[Captain Wiggles]

2 hours ago, The Evil Genius said:

It's a two party system and pretending you're Libertarian Independent is just silly.. 😁

 

Libertarians are the vegans of the political world. #Smug 

[PokerPacker]

12 hours ago, clietas said:

Libertarians are the vegans of the political world. #Smug 

That is a rather smug comment.

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[skinsmarydu]

I haven't read anything new in the threads today, I'm watching Ari Melber...

Michael Cohen has got to be the dumbest person on the planet. 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

Anyone seen Kellyanne Conway's daughter on Tik Tok?...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ut oh, I just saw that she's 15...she looks MUCH older. Nevermind lol...

 

 

 

Edited July 9, 2020 by Califan007

[TK]

I'm going to leave this here, since it's the "random" thread. 

 

I was headed up the mountain today to Christiansburg. I pulled over at the store right by Dixie

(**** are they gonna have to change their name too?) Caverns for a drink. There a vendor saying he couldn't believe he had to take back this entire display at the store owners request because ONE MAGA Moron was offended. The store owner had completely sold out the entire first case of these, but now is bowing to one idiot being "offended".

 

What's the item in question? Take a look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

1 hour ago, TK said:

ONE MAGA Moron was offended

Cancel culture strikes again.

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by Cooked Crack

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

No real place for this one but the results are not surprising.

[Renegade7]

^^^

 

Sigh, this is what happens when folks aren't told the full story and have to find the worst chunks on their own and dissect it themselves.

[Captain Wiggles]

Which founders? There were a lot n we usually only hear about a select few. I honestly don't know jack about more than ten mayhaps. 

 

Villains seems like a stretch. 

 

Except for histories greatest monster William Whipple of course. 😐

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Jumbo]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/powerful-ohio-lawmaker-arrested-following-154716715.html

 

Powerful Ohio lawmaker arrested for role in 'largest bribery scheme' in state history, officials said

 

Quote

 

Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four cohorts were arrested on Tuesday in what prosecutors called the “largest bribery scheme" in state history. FBI agents raided Householder’s farm in Glenford, about 45 miles east of Columbus, according to Perry County Sheriff’s deputies who assisted in the operation on Tuesday morning. The 61-year-old Householder, regarded as one of the state's three most powerful lawmakers, was taken into custody and charged with racketeering conspiracy, officials said.

 

Also arrested and charged were the speaker's adviser Jeffrey Longstreth, 44, former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matthew Borges, 48, and prominent lobbyists Neil Clark, 67, and Juan Cespedes, 40, authorities said. The defendants are behind "what is likely the largest bribery, money laundering scheme ever perpetrated against the people of the state of Ohio," U.S. Attorney David DeVillers told reporters.

 

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called on his fellow Republican Householder to step down and labeled Tuesday "a sad day for Ohio."

 

"Because of the nature of these charges, it will be impossible for Speaker Householder to effectively lead the Ohio House of Representatives," DeWine said in a statement, "therefore, I am calling on Speaker Householder to resign immediately."

 

The charges are connected to House Bill 6, officials said, a bill signed into law last year that bailed out two nuclear power plants in northern Ohio to the tune of $1.5 billion. The lawmaker played a key role in passing the financial rescue, which included new fees on electricity bills in Ohio and will direct more than $150 million annually, through 2026, to the plants near Cleveland and Toledo. Throughout the day, there was no answer at Householder’s Columbus office and its voicemail box was full.

 

A representative for the Ohio GOP did not immediately return email and phone messages seeking comment on Tuesday. The center of the scheme, officials said, was the formation a tax-free non-profit called Generation Now that was supposed to be a social service organization. Instead, it was allegedly Householder's personal account, funded by an energy company, to wield political power and pass the bailout, authorities said.

 

Generation Now was allegedly used to funnel $61 million in "dark money," DeVillers said. "Make no mistake, these allegations are bribery, pure and simple," DeVillers said. "This was a quid pro quo. This was pay to play." As a tax-exempt social welfare organization, deposits could be made into Generation Now with no required disclosure, authorities said. Payments into the fund were made between March 2017 and May 2020, FBI Special Agent Blane Wetzel wrote in the criminal complaint.

 

"The millions paid into this entity are akin bags of cash," Wetzel wrote. The Republican Householder is now on his second stint as House speaker, having held that position from 2001 to 2004. He served in the House from 1997 through 2004 and left due to term limits. He won election back to the chamber in 2016 and assumed the speakership again last year.

 

DeVillers took preemptive aim at any critics who might accuse him of any political motive, because this probe is targeting top GOP figures. "I'm a Trump appointee and these are a bunch of Republicans," he said. "I don't care what party they're in, I don't care who they work for, this is what this office does." The defendants made an initial appearance in court on Tuesday but were not required to enter a plea. A judge ordered Householder released on his own recognizance. The Ohio lawmaker's arrest comes one day after a former New York politician of similar stature, one-time Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison for a bribery scheme.

 

 

  more at link

[PleaseBlitz]

Matt Gaetz is a piece of work.  

 

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/22/gaetz-florida-house-ethics-rules-377098

 

Quote

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has privately engaged in several spending practices in his nearly four years in office that appear to be in conflict with the House’s ethics rules, a POLITICO investigation has found.

 

Gaetz, a close ally of President Donald Trump from the Florida Panhandle, improperly sent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to a limited liability company linked to a speech-writing consultant who was ousted from the Trump administration, in direct conflict with House rules.

In another possible violation, a private company installed a television studio in his father’s home in Niceville, Fla., which Gaetz uses when he appears on television. Taxpayers foot the bill to rent the television camera, and the private company that built the studio — which Gaetz refuses to identify — takes a fee each time he appears on air, his office said. It’s unclear how much it cost the private company to construct the studio.

 

This may run afoul of the House gift rule, which prohibits any lawmaker, aide, and their family members from accepting gifts worth more than $50. The official definition of a gift is very broad and covers virtually any good or service with monetary value.

Gaetz’s office denies wrongdoing in both cases. Gaetz’s aides said the House Ethics Committee approved both arrangements but declined to produce any evidence that that was the case.

 

His latest actions suggest a broader pattern by the second-term lawmaker of pushing the bounds of — if not outright defying — restrictions intended to guard against corruption and conflicts of interest.

 

The Florida Republican concedes that he improperly sent $28,000 in taxpayer funds to a limited liability company connected to the speech-writing consultant, Darren Beattie, a former White House aide who was ousted after appearing at a convention known as a forum for racist and white supremacist views. Gaetz’s aides said it was a clerical error that they are now working to reverse. House rules explicitly prohibit spending taxpayer dollars on speech-writing consultants.

 

Gaetz’s office likewise declined to detail the television studio arrangement or produce documentation that it was approved. House officials and experts on the chamber's rules said it was extraordinarily unusual and likely violates the gift ban rule.