US Politics Thread

[Sharpshooter]

 

[Alflives]

1 minute ago, Sharpshooter said:

 

IMHAO the Americans have no chance. Their glorification of gun violence is ingrained and they believe it’s in the constitution. They will continue to suffer these horrible losses. 
We have a chance though. Our legislators need to make laws that restrict guns to only those who actually need them. And shooting balloons is not a frighin’ reason! 

[Sharpshooter]

Just now, Alflives said:

IMHAO the Americans have no chance. Their glorification of gun violence is ingrained and they believe it’s in the constitution. They will continue to suffer these horrible losses. 
We have a chance though. Our legislators need to make laws that restrict guns to only those who actually need them. And shooting balloons is not a frighin’ reason! 

 

 

[Sharpshooter]

 

[Sharpshooter]

 

[Warhippy]

36 minutes ago, Sharpshooter said:

 

I wasn't sure but

 

[4petesake]

1 hour ago, Sharpshooter said:

 

 

 

[the destroyer of worlds]

11 minutes ago, 4petesake said:

 

 

So authorities are going to dig deep to find out how someone with mental health issues got a gun?  Right?

[Bob Long]

9 minutes ago, the destroyer of worlds said:

So authorities are going to dig deep to find out how someone with mental health issues got a gun?  Right?

Could be more of an issue of why didn't they take his guns away when they knew he had a problem.

[4petesake]

1 hour ago, the destroyer of worlds said:

So authorities are going to dig deep to find out how someone with mental health issues got a gun?  Right?

 

Heavy.com recorded the suspect’s Twitter account before it was shut down tonight. A few interesting follows and likes such as the following post by a conservative poster named Catturd.

 

Good morning …When you don’t have the will of The People … you cheat, lie, fudge numbers, force lockdowns, illegally change election laws, run out of ink, make sure the voting machines don’t work in Republican areas only, hire 2000 mules, call voter ID racist, shut down counting on election night, do ballot dumps in the middle of the night which miraculously have 99% Democrat votes, have your propaganda communist media lie for you, count for weeks until you get your candidate to pull ahead then immediately shutdown counting, and arrest your political opponents to win.

 

https://heavy.com/news/robert-card-x-twitter-politics/

 

 

[Canuckle]

2 hours ago, Alflives said:

IMHAO the Americans have no chance. Their glorification of gun violence is ingrained and they believe it’s in the constitution. They will continue to suffer these horrible losses. 
We have a chance though. Our legislators need to make laws that restrict guns to only those who actually need them. And shooting balloons is not a frighin’ reason! 

 

I know you guys all think I'm a cynical asshole but here's the deal:

 

Arms manufacturers and their lobbyists have hell of a lot of power in the US.  And unfortunately nothing will change until we get money out of politics.

What is the United States ‘gun lobby’ and how powerful is it?

What is the US ‘gun lobby’?

 

"The so-called gun lobby in the US is a broad term that encompasses efforts to influence both state and federal policy on guns, usually through supporting candidates who have pledged opposition to gun control measures.

 

It includes direct contributions to legislators, efforts to independently support elected officials, and campaigns to sway public opinion on issues related to firearms. Such lobbying is often carefully calibrated to navigate US election finance laws.

 

Several investigations have shown that major anti-gun control lobbying groups – notably the most prominent, the National Rifle Association (NRA) – have close ties with the multibillion-dollar firearms industry in the US.

 

The NRA and similar groups often frame themselves as civil rights defenders, pointing to the Second Amendment of the US Constitution that establishes “the right of the people to keep and bear arms”.

Meanwhile, gun control groups like the Giffords organisation, founded by former US Congresswoman and gun violence victim Gabby Giffords, accuse NRA lobbyists of solely being motivated by the goal “to sell more guns and pad the bottom line of gun lobby executives”.

 

Gun control advocates have long blamed the lobby’s power for the dearth of federal gun control measures passed in the US in recent years, despite a series of prominent mass shootings and a recent spike in active shooter incidents.

 

Gun control advocates also blame lobbyists for helping to loosen firearms restrictions in Republican-dominated state legislatures across the country.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz, as well as former US President Donald Trump, are set to speak later this week at a meeting in Texas hosted by the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, the organisation’s self-described “lobbying” arm.

 

How influential is the ‘gun lobby’?

 

It is difficult to quantify the influence of the constellation of groups that make up the gun lobby, which provide both political cache and millions of dollars in direct support to candidates across the country. The NRA, which has run into financial hardship in recent years, has long maintained a grading system for politicians and undertakes advertising campaigns in support of its interests.

 

From 1998 to 2020, pro-gun groups paid $171.9m in lobbying to directly affect legislation, according to OpenSecrets, a non-profit that tracks spending in US politics. Since 1998, the NRA alone paid $63,857,564 in that category.

 

Meanwhile, pro-gun groups have paid a whopping $155.1m in a 10-year span from 2010 to 2020 on so-called outside spending, according to OpenSecrets. Since 2000, the NRA has paid more than $140m in such spending, which includes all spending that supports – but is not directly coordinated with – a candidate.

 

Unlike direct contributions to candidates, there is no cap on outside spending for corporations and non-profits following the 2010 Citizens United v FEC Supreme Court ruling.

In 2016, the NRA reportedly spent $50m in outside spending in support of Trump and six Republican candidates for Senate.

 

The money assured that one in every 20 TV ads that aired in October of 2016 in the influential swing state of Pennsylvania was sponsored by the NRA, according to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity. In North Carolina, one in every nine ads was sponsored by the NRA that month, while in Ohio, one in every eight ads pushed the group’s pro-gun interests.

 

The NRA’s overall spending jumped $100m in 2016 over the previous year with “no politician benefiting more” than Trump, OpenSecrets reported.

Trump repeatedly promised to support gun rights, in 2017 telling the NRA “I will never, ever let you down.”

 

Pro-gun organisations have also paid a total of $54.4m in direct campaign contributions, a category subject to restrictions on donations, from 1990 to 2020, according to OpenSecrets. The contributions in recent years have been almost entirely to Republicans.

 

The top recipients so far in 2022 in the US Congress were Republican Senators Rand Paul and John Kennedy, who each received over $38,000 from pro-gun groups, according to OpenSecrets. US House of Representatives Minority Whip Steve Scalise received $25,610 from pro-gun groups during that period.

In 2018, during his re-election bid, Texas Senator Cruz received $311,151 in direct contributions from pro-gun groups. In 2020, vulnerable Republican Senators Martha McSally, David Perdue, and Kelly Loeffler received over $516,000, $307,000, and $298,000 respectively from pro-gun groups, according to OpenSecrets.

 

How powerful is the ‘gun control lobby’?

 

Efforts to legislate gun control on a federal level have made little headway in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, but advocates have pointed to a growing gun control movement that they say could lead to change.

 

That movement was “essentially nonexistent” in 2013, when efforts to expand federally required background checks for firearms sales failed in the US, Senator Chris Murphy, who represents Connecticut, told the New York Times in mid-May.

 

“It’s all about political power, and political muscle, and we’re in the process of building our own,” he told the newspaper.

 

Meanwhile, lobbying for gun control, while still dwarfed by pro-gun movements, has grown since 2013, led by groups like Giffords, the Mike Bloomberg-backed Everytown for Gun Safety, and the Sandy Hook Promise.

 

Overall annual spending on lobbying by gun control advocates jumped from $250,000 in 2012 to $2.2m in 2013.

In 2021, gun control groups spent $2.9m on lobbying."

Edited October 26, 2023 by Canuckle

[Canuckle]

10 minutes ago, 4petesake said:

 

Heavy.com recorded the suspect’s Twitter account before it was shut down tonight. A few interesting follows and likes such as the following post by a conservative poster named Catturd.

 

Good morning …When you don’t have the will of The People … you cheat, lie, fudge numbers, force lockdowns, illegally change election laws, run out of ink, make sure the voting machines don’t work in Republican areas only, hire 2000 mules, call voter ID racist, shut down counting on election night, do ballot dumps in the middle of the night which miraculously have 99% Democrat votes, have your propaganda communist media lie for you, count for weeks until you get your candidate to pull ahead then immediately shutdown counting, and arrest your political opponents to win.

 

https://heavy.com/news/robert-card-x-twitter-politics/

 

 

Lovely. Another alt-reich terrorist.

 

What are the odds of that eh

[4petesake]

7 minutes ago, Canuckle said:

 

I know you guys all think I'm a cynical asshole but here's the deal:

 

Arms manufacturers and their lobbyists have hell of a lot of power in the US.  And unfortunately nothing will change until we get money out of politics.

 

100% on both.

Nah, I kid.

But 100% on getting money out of politics. REPEAL CITIZENS UNITED

[Canuckle]

22 minutes ago, 4petesake said:

 

100% on both.

Nah, I kid.

But 100% on getting money out of politics. REPEAL CITIZENS UNITED

 

The thing is the money benefits both sides of the aisle. Sure, maybe gun legislation is one point of contention, but other issues not so much. There are other interested parties and their lobbyists that Democrats are willing to back. Democrats in the house and senate wouldn't want to repeal it anymore than Republicans do-- It would hit ALL of them hard in the pocketbooks, and I don't believe for a second they would unite to make themselves poorer any time soon.

 

Just one big happy wealthy family doing the corporate bidding in different ways.

Edited October 26, 2023 by Canuckle

[4petesake]

6 minutes ago, Canuckle said:

 

The thing is the money benefits both sides of the aisle. Sure, maybe gun legislation is one point of contention, but other issues not so much. There are other interested parties and their lobbyists that Democrats are willing to back. Democrats in the house and senate wouldn't want to repeal it anymore than Republicans do-- It would hit ALL of them hard in the pocketbooks, and I don't believe for a second they would unite to make themselves poorer any time soon.

 

Just one big happy wealthy family doing the corporate bidding in different ways.

 

Oh absolutely it’s both sides but I’ll give credit to Adam Schiff and a sparse few Dems.Schiff has introduced an amendment to repeal every year since 2013. No doubt the voting records are out there to lay bare who was for or against. It’s shameful that a Lobbyist is a real job.

 

The amendment, which was also introduced by Reps. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), would also allow states to set up public campaign financing systems that could restrict the influence of private wealth.

 

 

[Ilunga]

43 minutes ago, 4petesake said:

 

Oh absolutely it’s both sides but I’ll give credit to Adam Schiff and a sparse few Dems.Schiff has introduced an amendment to repeal every year since 2013. No doubt the voting records are out there to lay bare who was for or against. It’s shameful that a Lobbyist is a real job.

 

The amendment, which was also introduced by Reps. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), would also allow states to set up public campaign financing systems that could restrict the influence of private wealth.

 

 

 

Guess what ?

Here in Aus political majority of political " lobbyists " are 

" Former political insiders " 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/16/in-the-family-majority-of-australias-lobbyists-are-former-political-insiders

 

While this article is five years old nothing has changed.

 

Not exactly sure of the situation in the US however this is one ex lobbyists story 

 

https://www.vox.com/first-person/2017/6/29/15886936/political-lobbying-lobbyist-big-money-politics

 

This is something that has pissed me off for decades. 

 

Edit 

Thought I would add this in for good measure

 

https://johnmenadue.com/lobbyists-are-undermining-public-trust-in-our-political-institutions/

 

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by Ilunga

[Canuckle]

39 minutes ago, 4petesake said:

Adam Schiff and a sparse few Dems

That's what I mean. Like a mouse fighting a gorilla.

 

The US political system (especially so in its current form) is simply an inadequate means to change the sociopolitical and socioeconomic landscape in truly meaningful ways. Most any proposed legislation which would help the vast majority, but hurt the wealthy minority (and their business interests) rarely ever gets far. And  lobbying aka legal bribery is a big big part of that. Always just comes back to this:

 

The US is an oligarchy, not a democracy

 

"The US is dominated by a rich and powerful elite.

 

So concludes a recent study by Princeton University Prof Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Prof Benjamin I Page.

 

This is not news, you say.

 

Perhaps, but the two professors have conducted exhaustive research to try to present data-driven support for this conclusion. Here's how they explain it:

Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

 

In English: the wealthy few move policy, while the average American has little power.

 

The two professors came to this conclusion after reviewing answers to 1,779 survey questions asked between 1981 and 2002 on public policy issues. They broke the responses down by income level, and then determined how often certain income levels and organised interest groups saw their policy preferences enacted.

 

"A proposed policy change with low support among economically elite Americans (one-out-of-five in favour) is adopted only about 18% of the time," they write, "while a proposed change with high support (four-out-of-five in favour) is adopted about 45% of the time."

 

On the other hand:

 

When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organised interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the US political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favour policy change, they generally do not get it.

 

They conclude:

 

Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But we believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organisations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America's claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened."

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by Canuckle

[Bob Long]

6 hours ago, Canuckle said:

 

I know you guys all think I'm a cynical asshole but here's the deal:

 

Arms manufacturers and their lobbyists have hell of a lot of power in the US.  And unfortunately nothing will change until we get money out of politics.

What is the United States ‘gun lobby’ and how powerful is it?

What is the US ‘gun lobby’?

 

"The so-called gun lobby in the US is a broad term that encompasses efforts to influence both state and federal policy on guns, usually through supporting candidates who have pledged opposition to gun control measures.

 

It includes direct contributions to legislators, efforts to independently support elected officials, and campaigns to sway public opinion on issues related to firearms. Such lobbying is often carefully calibrated to navigate US election finance laws.

 

Several investigations have shown that major anti-gun control lobbying groups – notably the most prominent, the National Rifle Association (NRA) – have close ties with the multibillion-dollar firearms industry in the US.

 

The NRA and similar groups often frame themselves as civil rights defenders, pointing to the Second Amendment of the US Constitution that establishes “the right of the people to keep and bear arms”.

Meanwhile, gun control groups like the Giffords organisation, founded by former US Congresswoman and gun violence victim Gabby Giffords, accuse NRA lobbyists of solely being motivated by the goal “to sell more guns and pad the bottom line of gun lobby executives”.

 

Gun control advocates have long blamed the lobby’s power for the dearth of federal gun control measures passed in the US in recent years, despite a series of prominent mass shootings and a recent spike in active shooter incidents.

 

Gun control advocates also blame lobbyists for helping to loosen firearms restrictions in Republican-dominated state legislatures across the country.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz, as well as former US President Donald Trump, are set to speak later this week at a meeting in Texas hosted by the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, the organisation’s self-described “lobbying” arm.

 

How influential is the ‘gun lobby’?

 

It is difficult to quantify the influence of the constellation of groups that make up the gun lobby, which provide both political cache and millions of dollars in direct support to candidates across the country. The NRA, which has run into financial hardship in recent years, has long maintained a grading system for politicians and undertakes advertising campaigns in support of its interests.

 

From 1998 to 2020, pro-gun groups paid $171.9m in lobbying to directly affect legislation, according to OpenSecrets, a non-profit that tracks spending in US politics. Since 1998, the NRA alone paid $63,857,564 in that category.

 

Meanwhile, pro-gun groups have paid a whopping $155.1m in a 10-year span from 2010 to 2020 on so-called outside spending, according to OpenSecrets. Since 2000, the NRA has paid more than $140m in such spending, which includes all spending that supports – but is not directly coordinated with – a candidate.

 

Unlike direct contributions to candidates, there is no cap on outside spending for corporations and non-profits following the 2010 Citizens United v FEC Supreme Court ruling.

In 2016, the NRA reportedly spent $50m in outside spending in support of Trump and six Republican candidates for Senate.

 

The money assured that one in every 20 TV ads that aired in October of 2016 in the influential swing state of Pennsylvania was sponsored by the NRA, according to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity. In North Carolina, one in every nine ads was sponsored by the NRA that month, while in Ohio, one in every eight ads pushed the group’s pro-gun interests.

 

The NRA’s overall spending jumped $100m in 2016 over the previous year with “no politician benefiting more” than Trump, OpenSecrets reported.

Trump repeatedly promised to support gun rights, in 2017 telling the NRA “I will never, ever let you down.”

 

Pro-gun organisations have also paid a total of $54.4m in direct campaign contributions, a category subject to restrictions on donations, from 1990 to 2020, according to OpenSecrets. The contributions in recent years have been almost entirely to Republicans.

 

The top recipients so far in 2022 in the US Congress were Republican Senators Rand Paul and John Kennedy, who each received over $38,000 from pro-gun groups, according to OpenSecrets. US House of Representatives Minority Whip Steve Scalise received $25,610 from pro-gun groups during that period.

In 2018, during his re-election bid, Texas Senator Cruz received $311,151 in direct contributions from pro-gun groups. In 2020, vulnerable Republican Senators Martha McSally, David Perdue, and Kelly Loeffler received over $516,000, $307,000, and $298,000 respectively from pro-gun groups, according to OpenSecrets.

 

How powerful is the ‘gun control lobby’?

 

Efforts to legislate gun control on a federal level have made little headway in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, but advocates have pointed to a growing gun control movement that they say could lead to change.

 

That movement was “essentially nonexistent” in 2013, when efforts to expand federally required background checks for firearms sales failed in the US, Senator Chris Murphy, who represents Connecticut, told the New York Times in mid-May.

 

“It’s all about political power, and political muscle, and we’re in the process of building our own,” he told the newspaper.

 

Meanwhile, lobbying for gun control, while still dwarfed by pro-gun movements, has grown since 2013, led by groups like Giffords, the Mike Bloomberg-backed Everytown for Gun Safety, and the Sandy Hook Promise.

 

Overall annual spending on lobbying by gun control advocates jumped from $250,000 in 2012 to $2.2m in 2013.

In 2021, gun control groups spent $2.9m on lobbying."

 

Your are 100% correct on there being too much money in us politics. 

 

Take that away and you have a very frustrated gun lobby like we have in Canada.

[Bob Long]

4 hours ago, Ilunga said:

 

Guess what ?

Here in Aus political majority of political " lobbyists " are 

" Former political insiders " 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/16/in-the-family-majority-of-australias-lobbyists-are-former-political-insiders

 

While this article is five years old nothing has changed.

 

Not exactly sure of the situation in the US however this is one ex lobbyists story 

 

https://www.vox.com/first-person/2017/6/29/15886936/political-lobbying-lobbyist-big-money-politics

 

This is something that has pissed me off for decades. 

 

Edit 

Thought I would add this in for good measure

 

https://johnmenadue.com/lobbyists-are-undermining-public-trust-in-our-political-institutions/

 

 

 

If I were running things for one day I would eliminate all closed door lobbying. If it's truly public interest it can be done out in the open.

 

[Warhippy]

11 hours ago, Canuckle said:

 

I know you guys all think I'm a cynical asshole but here's the deal:

 

Arms manufacturers and their lobbyists have hell of a lot of power in the US.  And unfortunately nothing will change until we get money out of politics.

What is the United States ‘gun lobby’ and how powerful is it?

What is the US ‘gun lobby’?

 

"The so-called gun lobby in the US is a broad term that encompasses efforts to influence both state and federal policy on guns, usually through supporting candidates who have pledged opposition to gun control measures.

 

It includes direct contributions to legislators, efforts to independently support elected officials, and campaigns to sway public opinion on issues related to firearms. Such lobbying is often carefully calibrated to navigate US election finance laws.

 

Several investigations have shown that major anti-gun control lobbying groups – notably the most prominent, the National Rifle Association (NRA) – have close ties with the multibillion-dollar firearms industry in the US.

 

The NRA and similar groups often frame themselves as civil rights defenders, pointing to the Second Amendment of the US Constitution that establishes “the right of the people to keep and bear arms”.

Meanwhile, gun control groups like the Giffords organisation, founded by former US Congresswoman and gun violence victim Gabby Giffords, accuse NRA lobbyists of solely being motivated by the goal “to sell more guns and pad the bottom line of gun lobby executives”.

 

Gun control advocates have long blamed the lobby’s power for the dearth of federal gun control measures passed in the US in recent years, despite a series of prominent mass shootings and a recent spike in active shooter incidents.

 

Gun control advocates also blame lobbyists for helping to loosen firearms restrictions in Republican-dominated state legislatures across the country.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz, as well as former US President Donald Trump, are set to speak later this week at a meeting in Texas hosted by the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, the organisation’s self-described “lobbying” arm.

 

How influential is the ‘gun lobby’?

 

It is difficult to quantify the influence of the constellation of groups that make up the gun lobby, which provide both political cache and millions of dollars in direct support to candidates across the country. The NRA, which has run into financial hardship in recent years, has long maintained a grading system for politicians and undertakes advertising campaigns in support of its interests.

 

From 1998 to 2020, pro-gun groups paid $171.9m in lobbying to directly affect legislation, according to OpenSecrets, a non-profit that tracks spending in US politics. Since 1998, the NRA alone paid $63,857,564 in that category.

 

Meanwhile, pro-gun groups have paid a whopping $155.1m in a 10-year span from 2010 to 2020 on so-called outside spending, according to OpenSecrets. Since 2000, the NRA has paid more than $140m in such spending, which includes all spending that supports – but is not directly coordinated with – a candidate.

 

Unlike direct contributions to candidates, there is no cap on outside spending for corporations and non-profits following the 2010 Citizens United v FEC Supreme Court ruling.

In 2016, the NRA reportedly spent $50m in outside spending in support of Trump and six Republican candidates for Senate.

 

The money assured that one in every 20 TV ads that aired in October of 2016 in the influential swing state of Pennsylvania was sponsored by the NRA, according to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity. In North Carolina, one in every nine ads was sponsored by the NRA that month, while in Ohio, one in every eight ads pushed the group’s pro-gun interests.

 

The NRA’s overall spending jumped $100m in 2016 over the previous year with “no politician benefiting more” than Trump, OpenSecrets reported.

Trump repeatedly promised to support gun rights, in 2017 telling the NRA “I will never, ever let you down.”

 

Pro-gun organisations have also paid a total of $54.4m in direct campaign contributions, a category subject to restrictions on donations, from 1990 to 2020, according to OpenSecrets. The contributions in recent years have been almost entirely to Republicans.

 

The top recipients so far in 2022 in the US Congress were Republican Senators Rand Paul and John Kennedy, who each received over $38,000 from pro-gun groups, according to OpenSecrets. US House of Representatives Minority Whip Steve Scalise received $25,610 from pro-gun groups during that period.

In 2018, during his re-election bid, Texas Senator Cruz received $311,151 in direct contributions from pro-gun groups. In 2020, vulnerable Republican Senators Martha McSally, David Perdue, and Kelly Loeffler received over $516,000, $307,000, and $298,000 respectively from pro-gun groups, according to OpenSecrets.

 

How powerful is the ‘gun control lobby’?

 

Efforts to legislate gun control on a federal level have made little headway in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, but advocates have pointed to a growing gun control movement that they say could lead to change.

 

That movement was “essentially nonexistent” in 2013, when efforts to expand federally required background checks for firearms sales failed in the US, Senator Chris Murphy, who represents Connecticut, told the New York Times in mid-May.

 

“It’s all about political power, and political muscle, and we’re in the process of building our own,” he told the newspaper.

 

Meanwhile, lobbying for gun control, while still dwarfed by pro-gun movements, has grown since 2013, led by groups like Giffords, the Mike Bloomberg-backed Everytown for Gun Safety, and the Sandy Hook Promise.

 

Overall annual spending on lobbying by gun control advocates jumped from $250,000 in 2012 to $2.2m in 2013.

In 2021, gun control groups spent $2.9m on lobbying."

The longest line ups in Washington exist the day after a new senator or congress person is elected for the first time.

 

Lobbyists will queue for days to ensure their money is well spent.

 

People pretend it doesn't happen here but it sure as hell does

[NewbieCanuckFan]

 

 

[Warhippy]

Just now, NewbieCanuckFan said:

 

 

I still don't understand how one man refusing to nominate or allow the promotions towards the armed forces isn't run out of office.  In America of all places.

 

Leaving the US armed forces not only under staffed but criminally under utilized with a lack of credible and viable leadership in a time of conflict has to go against every US patriots beliefs doesn't it?

[NewbieCanuckFan]

8 minutes ago, Warhippy said:

I still don't understand how one man refusing to nominate or allow the promotions towards the armed forces isn't run out of office.  In America of all places.

 

Leaving the US armed forces not only under staffed but criminally under utilized with a lack of credible and viable leadership in a time of conflict has to go against every US patriots beliefs doesn't it?

Because their base believes whatever the grifters tell them.

 

Look how they (GOP) somehow enacted gun control legislation (because of "reasons") with the support of the NRA in California under Ronnie Raygun.

[nuckin_futz]

Senate Finance Committee probe into Clarence Thomas finds that he didn’t disclose loan for RV

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed to repay a “significant” portion of a $267,230 loan from a friend that allowed him to buy a luxury motorcoach in 1999, according to a memo issued Wednesday by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee.

 

But hours after the report appeared on the committee’s website, a lawyer for Thomas disputed its findings in a rare statement.

 

“The loan was never forgiven,” Elliot S. Berke, a lawyer for Thomas, said in a statement, adding that “any suggestion to the contrary is false.”

 

Berke’s statement appeared at odds with the committee’s findings.

 

The committee said in the memo that documents it reviewed showed Thomas only paid some interest on the loan. The committee also said the omission from the justice’s financial disclosure forms raises fresh questions about whether he “properly reported the associated income on his tax returns.”

 

But Berke said that Thomas and his wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, made the necessary payments.

 

“The Thomases made all payments to Mr. Welters on a regular basis until the terms of the agreement were satisfied in full,” he said. Berke declined to provide additional information.

 

The New York Times first reported the congressional memorandum Wednesday and in August, on the financial arrangement between Thomas and his friend Anthony Welters, which triggered Democrats on the Senate committee to launch their investigation.

 

The committee’s revelations are the latest to dog Thomas. The justice has come under fire in recent months from critics who charge him with skirting ethics rules by accepting lavish trips and rides on private jets without always disclosing them on his annual financial disclosures he’s required to submit.

 

more in the link https://www.yahoo.com/news/senate-finance-committee-probe-clarence-231312783.html

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by nuckin_futz

[Cerridwen]

39 minutes ago, nuckin_futz said:

Senate Finance Committee probe into Clarence Thomas finds that he didn’t disclose loan for RV

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failed to repay a “significant” portion of a $267,230 loan from a friend that allowed him to buy a luxury motorcoach in 1999, according to a memo issued Wednesday by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee.

 

But hours after the report appeared on the committee’s website, a lawyer for Thomas disputed its findings in a rare statement.

 

“The loan was never forgiven,” Elliot S. Berke, a lawyer for Thomas, said in a statement, adding that “any suggestion to the contrary is false.”

 

Berke’s statement appeared at odds with the committee’s findings.

 

The committee said in the memo that documents it reviewed showed Thomas only paid some interest on the loan. The committee also said the omission from the justice’s financial disclosure forms raises fresh questions about whether he “properly reported the associated income on his tax returns.”

 

But Berke said that Thomas and his wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, made the necessary payments.

 

“The Thomases made all payments to Mr. Welters on a regular basis until the terms of the agreement were satisfied in full,” he said. Berke declined to provide additional information.

 

The New York Times first reported the congressional memorandum Wednesday and in August, on the financial arrangement between Thomas and his friend Anthony Welters, which triggered Democrats on the Senate committee to launch their investigation.

 

The committee’s revelations are the latest to dog Thomas. The justice has come under fire in recent months from critics who charge him with skirting ethics rules by accepting lavish trips and rides on private jets without always disclosing them on his annual financial disclosures he’s required to submit.

 

more in the link https://www.yahoo.com/news/senate-finance-committee-probe-clarence-231312783.html

 

 

YESSS!!! It's about time all the slimy behaviors of Clarence Thomas were revealed and consequences dealt out. Like Trump & Co, Clarence Thomas has played fast and loose with ethics, morals, the TRUTH and the law for YEARS.

 

I mean, seriously, does ANYONE believe either Thomas' comments about the loan "not being forgiven"??? Where are THOSE records?

Let's do Ginny Thomas next... lock HER up for her part in organizing and plotting the Jan 6th Insurrection and attempted coup/overthrow of a duly elected President.

 

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by Cerridwen