2022 U.S. Congressional (and Other) Elections
- RoseMorninStar
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Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
Rep. Matt Gaetz was the only congressperson to vote against the Anti-human Trafficking Bill.
My heart is forever in the Shire.
- elengil
- Cat-egorical Herbitual Creativi-Tea
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Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
This is my shocked face.
The dumbest thing I've ever bought
was a 2020 planner.
"Does anyone ever think about Denethor, the guy driven to madness by staying up late into the night alone in the dark staring at a flickering device he believed revealed unvarnished truth about the outside word, but which in fact showed mostly manipulated media created by a hostile power committed to portraying nothing but bad news framed in the worst possible way in order to sap hope, courage, and the will to go on? Seems like he's someone we should think about." - Dave_LF
was a 2020 planner.
"Does anyone ever think about Denethor, the guy driven to madness by staying up late into the night alone in the dark staring at a flickering device he believed revealed unvarnished truth about the outside word, but which in fact showed mostly manipulated media created by a hostile power committed to portraying nothing but bad news framed in the worst possible way in order to sap hope, courage, and the will to go on? Seems like he's someone we should think about." - Dave_LF
- Voronwë the Faithful
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Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
A little more detail about the Gaetz investigation:
The DOJ is investigating if Matt Gaetz misused campaign money to fund travel
The DOJ is investigating if Matt Gaetz misused campaign money to fund travel
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
- RoseMorninStar
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Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
Why does this not surprise me. What is the old saying about he who speaks loudest/points fingers has the most to hide?
My heart is forever in the Shire.
Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
My dad said once that people tend to criticize in others where they are weakest themselves. People who howl and scream about morality tend to have messy personal lives. People who make a huge deal about sensitivity tend to be jerks. People who demand respect fail to see it as a two-way street. Etc. It takes some attention but it's a pretty reliable method for sussing out a weakness. This leads to some pretty sad and spooky places. What you do with what you learn is, of course, entirely up to you and the situation you're in.
I think about that whenever a particularly loud and obnoxious public figure falls from grace.
I think about that whenever a particularly loud and obnoxious public figure falls from grace.
When you can do nothing what can you do?
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Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
The second story I've seen today about how Gaetz's colleagues have long viewed him as disreputable (whether or not this week's allegations are true):
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/01/politics ... index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/01/politics ... index.html
- Voronwë the Faithful
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Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
Full Onion.
Sent from my VS988 using Tapatalk
Sent from my VS988 using Tapatalk
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
- RoseMorninStar
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Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
Full onion? I'm not familiar with the phrase.
My heart is forever in the Shire.
- Voronwë the Faithful
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Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
Meaning there is no difference any more articles that would appear in satirical publications like The Onion, and real media outlets like CNN.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
- RoseMorninStar
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Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
Ah.. gotcha. Truth is as strange as fiction should be, or in this case, satire.
My heart is forever in the Shire.
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Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
Other reporters are pointing to photos like this to argue that Gaetz was hardly being ostracized by his colleagues. In other words, now they don't want to be associated with him, but before, despite the lurid stories in the CNN article, they were fine with him:N.E. Brigand wrote:The second story I've seen today about how Gaetz's colleagues have long viewed him as disreputable (whether or not this week's allegations are true):
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/01/politics ... index.html
- RoseMorninStar
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Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
I really don't like to judge people based on how they look, but he strongly reminds me of a televangelist.
My heart is forever in the Shire.
- Voronwë the Faithful
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Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
I have often thought that. Looks can sometimes be deceiving, but in this case I think that is an apt observation.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
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Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
"Not all televangelists."
Meanwhile, the New York Times tonight reports that Matt Gaetz is also being investigated for solicitation of prostitution (possibly using official funds?), and the Times reporters have seen receipts for payments that Gaetz and his associate, former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg (who has been charged with numerous other offenses in a series of idictments that started last July and continued through yesterday), and that those women say the payments were for sex with the two men and some other unnamed Florida Republican official. The women also say that Gaetz used ecstasy during these encounters.
Chris Hayes points out that these would be significantly lesser crimes than sex trafficking of a minor, which was reports from a couple days ago indicated Gaetz was being investigated for. (Even so, it shoudl be noted Gaetz denies to the Times that he ever paid anyone for sex.) And yet there is the hypocrisy to consider: Gaetz has championed efforts to drug test people who receive financial assistance from the government.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/01/us/p ... d=tw-share
Meanwhile, the New York Times tonight reports that Matt Gaetz is also being investigated for solicitation of prostitution (possibly using official funds?), and the Times reporters have seen receipts for payments that Gaetz and his associate, former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg (who has been charged with numerous other offenses in a series of idictments that started last July and continued through yesterday), and that those women say the payments were for sex with the two men and some other unnamed Florida Republican official. The women also say that Gaetz used ecstasy during these encounters.
Chris Hayes points out that these would be significantly lesser crimes than sex trafficking of a minor, which was reports from a couple days ago indicated Gaetz was being investigated for. (Even so, it shoudl be noted Gaetz denies to the Times that he ever paid anyone for sex.) And yet there is the hypocrisy to consider: Gaetz has championed efforts to drug test people who receive financial assistance from the government.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/01/us/p ... d=tw-share
Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
Hey, that's where I live! Woohoo, my town is in the news! Oh wait....Investigators believe Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector in Seminole County, Fla., who was indicted last year on a federal sex trafficking charge and other crimes
So I only really started hearing about the Gaetz scandal yesterday and I'm trying to understand what's going on. Am I correct in saying that the mai8 accusation is that he hired a prostitute under the legal age? Or is there more to the story?
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists
Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
I think those are separate charges. Sex with a minor, compounded by taking her across the state lines, resulting in a federal sex trafficking charge. Also using official (campaign?) funds to pay for sex. It is not clear if the person involved in the second one was of age.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
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Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
One or more of the crimes that former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg has been charged with pertains to his apparently having made improper use of out of state or expired driver's licenses that were surrendered to his office by people getting new licenses.
And now reporting from the Orlando Sentinel suggests that Gaetz may also have been involved:
And now reporting from the Orlando Sentinel suggests that Gaetz may also have been involved:
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politic ... story.htmlJoel Greenberg and U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz on at least one occasion several years ago were recorded together entering the Seminole County Tax Collector’s Office when it was closed on a weekend night, according to a person familiar with office operations who saw the videotape.
The person said the footage showed Greenberg and Gaetz walking into the Tax Collector’s Lake Mary office on Primera Drive. Greenberg was seen going through baskets where driver’s licenses, turned in by residents for disposal, were stored and later went into a back room, the person said.
- Dave_LF
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Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
I thought crooked used car salesman, but it's basically the same thing.RoseMorninStar wrote:I really don't like to judge people based on how they look, but he strongly reminds me of a televangelist.
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Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
And apparently it was text by Greenberg about IDs that first led investigators to look into Gaetz?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/these-tex ... matt-gaetz
https://www.thedailybeast.com/these-tex ... matt-gaetz
Re: 2022 U.S. Congressional Elections
Not sure where to put this, but Boehner on the GOP freshmen class of 2010 or, how we got here.
In the 2010 midterm election, voters from all over the place gave President Obama what he himself called “a shellacking.” And oh boy, was it ever. You could be a total moron and get elected just by having an R next to your name—and that year, by the way, we did pick up a fair number in that category.
Retaking control of the House of Representatives put me in line to be the next Speaker of the House over the largest freshman Republican class in history: 87 newly elected members of the GOP. Since I was presiding over a large group of people who’d never sat in Congress, I felt I owed them a little tutorial on governing. I had to explain how to actually get things done. A lot of that went straight through the ears of most of them, especially the ones who didn’t have brains that got in the way. Incrementalism? Compromise? That wasn’t their thing. A lot of them wanted to blow up Washington. That’s why they thought they were elected.
When you can do nothing what can you do?