[News] Post a Political News Story

Ongoing discussion of the political news of the day. This thread is for 'smaller' stories that don't call for their own thread. If a story blows up, please start a new thread for it.

A writer at Wonkette described it
like "Apparently, unlimited campaign contributions to Republicans is protected speech but actual political speech is communism."

I honestly have no clue what that threat actually implies. Is he going to raise taxes on companies? Enact stricter regulations? Or are we going straight into banana republic showtrials?

I like how the GOP is freaking out over a 28% corporate tax rate, when that is still historically low and not even close to what it needs to be for this economic system to be fair.

"BUT THAT MEANS CORPORATIONS WILL JUST MOVE OVER SEAS!"

They already do that. Ever heard of making your HQ in Europe, and it's just an empty lot in a strip mall?

Looks like pizzagaetz wanted to "preemptive pardon".

Paleocon wrote:

Looks like pizzagaetz wanted to "preemptive pardon".

He's too young to Epstein!

He probably should have taken a cue from the religious right and Epsteined until marriage.

Totally something an innocent person would do.

So it looks like Gaetz (aka Real American Douchebag) opposed an anti revenge porn bill because he thought the images were the property of the ex lover to do with what they wanted.

When Florida legislators passed a bill aimed at preventing people from sharing sexually explicit photos of their ex-partners online, then-state Rep. Matt Gaetz cast one of just two House votes against it.

Six years later, with the now-congressman accused of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and sharing photographs of nude women with fellow lawmakers, the sponsor of the Florida legislation says Gaetz opposed it because he believed recipients of such images could use them however they wanted.

Tom Goodson, a Republican who retired from the Florida state House in 2018, told the Orlando Sentinel on Monday that Gaetz was the leading opponent of the nonconsensual pornography bill he spent years trying to pass. He described a meeting in which Gaetz said that if a person gives an intimate photo to a romantic partner, the image becomes the property of the recipient.

“Matt was absolutely against it. He thought the picture was his to do with what he wanted,” Goodson said, according to the newspaper. “He thought that any picture was his to use as he wanted to, as an expression of his rights.”

A Trump loyalist being an unrepentant douchebag and entitled prick who treats others like they are dirt on their shoes?!

No. I never saw that coming.

Some free communications advice for Rep. Gaetz.

When your spokesperson resigns "out of principle" as you're being investigated for sex trafficking and raping a teenager don't think you can wing it by putting out an anonymous "statement" from "the women of U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz's office" that reads like you're standing just off camera with a gun pointed at them.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/TuTUqDj.png)

Doubly so when your wingman in all of this just cut a plea deal with federal prosecutors and is going to be singing like a canary.

They are so confident and supportive that they... had to ... be... anonymous? Seems legit!

Daily Beast: Gaetz paid accused sex trafficker, who then Venmo'd teen:

In two late-night Venmo transactions in May 2018, Rep. Matt Gaetz sent his friend, the accused sex trafficker Joel Greenberg, $900. The next morning, over the course of eight minutes, Greenberg used the same app to send three young women varying sums of money. In total, the transactions amounted to $900.

The memo field for the first of Gaetz’s transactions to Greenberg was titled “Test.” In the second, the Florida GOP congressman wrote “hit up ___.” But instead of a blank, Gaetz wrote a nickname for one of the recipients. (The Daily Beast is not sharing that nickname because the teenager had only turned 18 less than six months before.) When Greenberg then made his Venmo payments to these three young women, he described the money as being for “Tuition,” “School,” and “School.”

No, you see, it's fine because this other lady says he didn't try and sex traffick her.

Rat Boy wrote:

Daily Beast: Gaetz paid accused sex trafficker, who then Venmo'd teen:

In two late-night Venmo transactions in May 2018, Rep. Matt Gaetz sent his friend, the accused sex trafficker Joel Greenberg, $900. The next morning, over the course of eight minutes, Greenberg used the same app to send three young women varying sums of money. In total, the transactions amounted to $900.

The memo field for the first of Gaetz’s transactions to Greenberg was titled “Test.” In the second, the Florida GOP congressman wrote “hit up ___.” But instead of a blank, Gaetz wrote a nickname for one of the recipients. (The Daily Beast is not sharing that nickname because the teenager had only turned 18 less than six months before.) When Greenberg then made his Venmo payments to these three young women, he described the money as being for “Tuition,” “School,” and “School.”

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/vrNwZ5n.png)

Greenberg’s lawyer, Fritz Scheller, said his client was “uniquely situated” to help prosecutors and was seeking a deal “with the least exposure possible.” Scheller added: “I’m sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today.”

Looks like Alabama Amazon workers are voting against unionizing.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Looks like Alabama Amazon workers are voting against unionizing.

IMAGE(https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/5bad93d2200000e500ff0d8c.jpeg?ops=scalefit_630_noupscale)

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Looks like Alabama Amazon workers are voting against unionizing.

I have no doubt a large part of that is due to the outright lies that Amazon has been telling them.

Yeah, I don't understand why they wouldn't unionize. If you're forced to skip bathroom breaks and/or have to pee in bottles to meet a quota, why would you not unionize to gain some leverage?

Because:
a) It's Alabama
b) I'm sure they are worried about losing their crappy but decent paying jobs

Conservatives have spent years and years telling folks that making their life better would actually hurt them. Their reasons vary but it is a pretty consistent pattern.

JC wrote:

Yeah, I don't understand why they wouldn't unionize. If you're forced to skip bathroom breaks and/or have to pee in bottles to meet a quota, why would you not unionize to gain some leverage?

BCUz UniON FAtCATz wILl tAKE alL YouR WageZ

Gaetz loses another staff member because....

(CNN)Devin Murphy, the legislative director for Rep. Matt Gaetz, has resigned his post, making him the second staffer to leave the Florida congressman's office as the pressure continues to mount surrounding a federal investigation into sex trafficking allegations.
A source directly connected to Murphy said he left the job, not specifically because of Gaetz's legal troubles, but because the "media circus" surrounding the Republican made it difficult to accomplish "meaningful congressional work."

Suuure.... Now it's too much for you?

How long till critical mass is reached and Gaetz, "finds jesus and decides to take some time to spend with his family"

JC wrote:

How long till critical mass is reached and Gaetz, "finds jesus and decides to take some time to spend with his family"

His fellow Republican, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, already used that excuse this week. Gaetz'll have to find another.

Merrill got in trouble because he vigorously denied reports that he was having a multi-year affair with a legal assistant, which was becoming a problem for his US Senate run. He tried to claim that he didn't know the woman and accused her of stalking him.

Then the woman dropped the receipts, which included recorded phone conversations about their various sexual escapades and graphic text messages. In one of the messages Merrill used language that the Atlanta shooter would have found very familiar, saying “I am not able to stay away from you, so that’s the reason why I have to have help in order to do that … the help is coming from the Lord.”

Merrill got some conservative media heat in 2019--while he was having the affair--by claiming that America lost its moral core because people are "preoccupied with homosexual activities" and "wife swap shows." Not to kink shame him, but while he was publicly claiming that bullsh*t the text messages show he was asking his mistress to finger and peg him because apparently there is no greater power in the world than shameless conservative hypocrisy.

Speaking of which Merrill is still claiming that another revelation that the woman dropped--that he repeatedly referred to Alabama's Black residents as "coloreds"--was untrue so I guess we'll just have to wait for another tape to drop before this pious man of tremendous conservative moral character will again be forced to admit he's a lying sack of sh*t. But even after all of this has come out Merrill still refuses to resign. His term ends in 2023.

Over/Under on Gaetz suddenly getting very sick to the point that he cannot make public appearances, and therefore all updates will be done sporadically and through his legal representation?

Vrikk wrote:

Over/Under on Gaetz suddenly getting very sick to the point that he cannot make public appearances, and therefore all updates will be done sporadically and through his legal representation?

He's speaking at the Save America Summit conference at Trump's Doral golf resort tonight.

The conference is organized by Women for Trump, the same folks who had Trump speak at the insurrection. Women for Trump are charging $500 for a special dinner and drinks with Gaetz tonight. I don't know if they accept Venmo.

Women paying Gaetz for HIS time is at least novel.

OG_slinger wrote:
Vrikk wrote:

Over/Under on Gaetz suddenly getting very sick to the point that he cannot make public appearances, and therefore all updates will be done sporadically and through his legal representation?

He's speaking at the Save America Summit conference at Trump's Doral golf resort tonight.

The conference is organized by Women for Trump, the same folks who had Trump speak at the insurrection. Women for Trump are charging $500 for a special dinner and drinks with Gaetz tonight. I don't know if they accept Venmo.

Can someone please explain to me the obsession that conservatives have with Dr. Seuss?

EVENING – Cocktails & Dinner, followed by Moonlight Putting (Dr. Seuss Low Country Boil – One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish)
JC wrote:

Can someone please explain to me the obsession that conservatives have with Dr. Seuss?

Not in any way that makes rational sense, no.

JC wrote:

Can someone please explain to me the obsession that conservatives have with Dr. Seuss?

EVENING – Cocktails & Dinner, followed by Moonlight Putting (Dr. Seuss Low Country Boil – One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish)

It's all part of their culture war "cancel culture" bullsh*t.