US Politics: Guns versus Butter

[Fez]

48 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

From the reports I've seen, his appearance with Tucker Carlson last night was so bad even Carlson couldn't polish that turd.

More that he tried dragging Carlson into it as corroborating witness that nothing bad happened, and Carlson didn't want to get anywhere near it. He also brought up an unfounded rumor from years ago that Carlson had some sort of sex scandal; I guess in an attempt to make a comparison that this is equally meritless. But Carlson mostly just seemed pissed that he brought it up, since its been so many years that almost everyone's forgotten.

At least, that was my impression from the clips I saw.

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, Karlbear said:

They also have significantly better social safety nets and higher overall standards of living than the US, so probably not that bad. 

I've been watching NZ tv after dinner this month, and gotta say, their cities, their infrastructure -- as well as the safety nets -- are so sleek, and modern, so different looking that what we see all over the USA these days.  So, Thank You, President Biden, for your big plans and spending on this!  And in science! BTW, earlier this month the President hosted a conference with US historians -- all masked including himself -- to discuss translating what FDR did and how he did it, in the face of massive pushback and refusal by the other party.  Historians!  Scientists! In the White House.  Talking, not being told what to do!

And people in NZ talk back to cops, push back, all the time, and the cops back down.  Well, that latter -- it is tv.  I admit to knowing nothing about police and policing in New Zealand.

[Makk]

1 hour ago, Fragile Bird said:

This was an issue I always had with Americans I worked with. They’d see a price for something, convert it to US dollars, and say, “hey, nothing wrong with that”. Except outside of the US we all have higher taxes, some kind of VAT, the cost of living is generally higher, food is generally more expensive, and salaries are generally lower. The cost of many items in NZ is way, way higher than the US, for example, because of the cost of shipping and so much is imported. There is no car industry in NZ, for example, and so I understand cars are quite expensive.

Generally correct, although I wouldn't put everything down to shipping. On cars, second hand at least, they are pretty cheap. A lot of 3 year old Japanese imports come in because the Japanese government protects it's industry with a 3 year tax, and since they drive on the left there are only so many places they can go. People consider Japan to be subsidising the NZ economy in this way. 

Food has always been expensive. Even in spite of exporting over 90% of the dairy products we produce things like milk and cheese are more expensive on the shelf than the equivalent product in the US or most other developed places around the world. This sort of indicates it is more down to small and relatively spread out size of the market rather than isolation from the rest of the world. The lack of market size hurts competition across a range of industries as well.

Housing, was cheap once upon a time, but in the last 20 years has gone completely crazy, probably rising towards about 500-1000% over that period. This is basically because of inefficient regulations around land and construction. Our local councils which control consenting are shockingly bad. I, grudgingly, bought my first house halfway through that period thinking I had paid way too much but am so relieved about that now. 

 

[Morpheus]

Gym Jordan, never not defending pedos.

 

 

[Larry of the Lawn]

2 hours ago, Karlbear said:

They also have significantly better social safety nets and higher overall standards of living than the US, so probably not that bad. 

Difficult to overstate much how this [fact] affects that comparison.

[Kalbear]

No way this is going to pass now, but holy shit - this would be one of the biggest pro-labor laws to ever pass.

 

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

3 hours ago, DanteGabriel said:

Who could possibly have suspected this of Matt Gaetz?

From the reports I've seen, his appearance with Tucker Carlson last night was so bad even Carlson couldn't polish that turd.

The signs were there:

 

2 hours ago, Fez said:

More that he tried dragging Carlson into it as corroborating witness that nothing bad happened, and Carlson didn't want to get anywhere near it. He also brought up an unfounded rumor from years ago that Carlson had some sort of sex scandal; I guess in an attempt to make a comparison that this is equally meritless. But Carlson mostly just seemed pissed that he brought it up, since its been so many years that almost everyone's forgotten.

At least, that was my impression from the clips I saw.

Yep. Here's the clip:

There are several different clips of Carlson looking dead shocked at what was being said by Gaetz. It's comedy gold.

[DMC]

17 minutes ago, Karlbear said:

No way this is going to pass now, but holy shit - this would be one of the biggest pro-labor laws to ever pass.

I wouldn't be so sure about that.  I mean, of course, it's not getting 10 GOP votes in the Senate, but it wasn't going to anyway.  The PRO Act the House passed a few weeks ago effectively neutralized right-to-work laws as well and it got all but one Democratic vote, plus five GOP votes.  That vote is a solid indicator such a measure should be close to uniting the Democratic caucus in the Senate as well.  And Manchin actually has a history opposing right-to-work in his own state.

Really, the much more difficult part would be getting such a measure into reconciliation.  If I had to put money on it I'd bet MacDonough rules it violates the Byrd rule, and the GOP is definitely going to make her rule on it.

[Myshkin]

Surprisingly conservative Reddit doesn’t really want to talk about Matt Gaetz. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

34 minutes ago, DMC said:

Really, the much more difficult part would be getting such a measure into reconciliation.  If I had to put money on it I'd bet MacDonough rules it violates the Byrd rule, and the GOP is definitely going to make her rule on it.

Agreed, but say it was allowed, do you think it would survive court challenges? 

[DMC]

18 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

do you think it would survive court challenges?

I don't know, that depends on a lot of things that are currently very to entirely unknown.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

It's worth repeating as many times as possible, it's nice to have normal, decent people back in the WH:

 

[SpaceChampion]

6 hours ago, Trishkin said:

Surprisingly conservative Reddit doesn’t really want to talk about Matt Gaetz. 

Ask if they want to talk about PizzaGaetz.

[Larry of the Lawn]

I cannot stop watching the Gaetz/Carlson interview.  

[OnionAhaiReborn]

I watched only a small clip of the Gaetz interview but it stood out to me that he referred to a 17 year old "woman." He's denying the whole thing, of course, but I think 99% of normal humans with nothing to hide would saying 17 year old "girl."

[DanteGabriel]

So Gaetz is under investigation because the Feds were looking into the mile-wide trail of offenses, from identity theft to child sex trafficking, left behind by his good pal, a former Florida tax collector. TPM has dug into his story, and it's a goddamned doozy.

Quote

There’s the typical Florida Man business: As tax collector, Greenberg allowed his employees — many his personal friends — to carry guns. He wore a badge and once pulled a woman over for speeding. He spent $1 million of taxpayer funds on body armor, weapons, ammunition and other toys. He started a fire with some computers he was using to start a blockchain company based in his office. He’s an open bigot. Yes of course he got COVID. 

But things ramped up with his first grand jury indictment, in mid-June, accusing the then-tax collector of posing as a student and accusing a school employee, a political opponent of his, of sexual misconduct with a student. Greenberg also allegedly made a fake Twitter account that impersonated his opponent and that, according to the indictment, “represented that the school employee was a segregationist and in favor of white supremacy.”

That indictment opened the door: The government arrested Greenberg and executed a search warrant on June 23, prompting him to resign from his office.

Then, in mid-July, a second indictment dropped, accusing Greenberg not only of stalking, but also of producing false documents and identity theft. Greenberg allegedly used the information from licenses surrendered to the tax collector’s office to create fake IDs using his own photo. 

Then, in mid-August, a third indictment, this time alleging the sex trafficking of a child — in this case, a minor between 14 and 17 years old — as well as the use of a state database to look up individuals with whom he was engaged in “sugar daddy” relationships. The indictment specifically alleged that Greenberg knowingly obtained and disclosed the photograph and driver identification number of the minor victim in the sex trafficking charge.

Between May and November 2017, the second superseding indictment alleged, Greenberg did knowingly “recruit, entice, obtain, maintain, patronize and solicit by any means the Minor Victim,” knowing both that the victim wasn’t 18 and that she would be caused to engage in a commercial sex act. 

Greenberg awaits trial. He was arrested earlier this month for violating the conditions of his pretrial release. According to a police report, he drove to South Florida looking for his wife, prompting his mother-in-law to call the police when he showed up at the mother-in-law’s home. Greenberg’s wife told police that she believed he tracked her using a SnapChat account. 

The former tax collector’s legal problems continue to stack up. On Tuesday, a federal grand jury signed off on yet another federal indictment against Greenberg, one that was entered into his online court docket after this article’s publication. According to the indictment, after his arrest, and while he was on conditions of release, Greenberg “conspired with an employee of the Small Business Administration (SBA) and another individual to submit false claims for Economic Injury Disaster Loans and to bribe the SBA employee.”

The indictment is extensive, adding up to 33 counts against him including the 12 charges previously filed. Ten of the new violations are alleged wire fraud. Greenberg is accused of defrauding Seminole County when he was tax collector, in part through a block chain business he set up.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/how-a-thrice-indicted-seminole-county-tax-collector-landed-matt-gaetz-in-hot-water

[Zorral]

28 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

TPM has dug into his story, and it's a goddamned doozy.

"Jerkwaddies Fall In Hot Water!"

[SpaceChampion]

How do people willing to bribe government officials find the government officials willing to be bribed?  Is there a "tell" or can they just smell each other?

[IheartIheartTesla]

I just read that Alabama upheld the ban on teaching yoga in schools on the premise that "it promotes Hinduism". At the same time, some yoga practitioners in India claim that yoga can help cure or prevent COVID (because reasons) so I can truly objectively say the world has grown dumber every where I look.

[Myshkin]

4 hours ago, larrytheimp said:

I cannot stop watching the Gaetz/Carlson interview.  

What I love is that Gaetz doesn’t seem to understand that his “extortion” defense actually incriminates him. I mean, say this whole bizarre extortion story is true, that would suggest that somebody’s got some kompromat on him. How can you be extorted if they ain’t got nothing on you?