Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats

Denbrought

Denbrought

Frank said:


Bought and paid for SCOTUS
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The following 2 tweet's screenshots are also very relevant. The first one covers his answer to the exact question of where the downpayment money came from.



To wit:
  • "Our annual income and financial worth substantially increased in the last few years as a result of a significant annual salary increase for federal judges; a substantial back pay award in the wake of class litigation over pay for the Federal Judiciary; and my wife's return to the workforce (..). The back pay award was excluded from disclosure on my previous financial disclosure report based on the Filing Instructions (..) which excludes income from the Federal Government. We have not received financial gifts other than from our family (..) [n]or have we received other kinds of gifts from anyone outside of our family, apart from ordinary non-reportable gifts related to, for example, birthdays, Christmas, or other personal hospitality."
  • "The Thrift Saving Plan loan that appears on certain disclosure reports was a Federal Government loan to help with the downpayment on our house in 2006."
  • "Finally, it bears repeating that financial disclosure reports are not meant to provide one's overall net worth or overall financial situation. They are meant to identify conflicts of interest. Therefore, they are not good tools for assessing one's net worth or financial situation."
So... 50k loan from TSP, 150k from the class action lawsuit (minus whatever income taxes that had), a pay raise, adding a second income to the house, and a decently wealthy family helping their first-time homeowning kids... It all very plausibly adds up to 245k.

AshburnerX said:
He can't even explain where the money to pay off his gambling debts came from.
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Which gambling debts? He explicitly denies having any (see the first tweet I posted, third screenshot, "I have not had gambling debts or participated in "fantasy" leagues"). He does mention buying sports tickets and having friends pay him back to the dollar.
 
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DarkAudit

DarkAudit

USA Today headline writers need several punches in the mouth. This weekend's topper: "Is what someone does at age 17 relevant?"

We're more than willing to sentence 17 year olds to life without parole, so what the fuck do YOU think?
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
DarkAudit said:
USA Today headline writers need several punches in the mouth. This weekend's topper: "Is what someone does at age 17 relevant?"

We're more than willing to sentence 17 year olds to life without parole, so what the fuck do YOU think?
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I saw an interview that talked about the background checks done on potential FBI agents. One thing they noted is that if any candidate has ever taken drugs, other than marijuana, that alone is grounds for disqualification. Doesn't matter when, or how much. Once in high school is enough to taint their record, irrevocably. How can we hold a SCOTUS judge to a much weaker standard?
 
Gared

Gared

figmentPez said:
Alaska man pleads guilty to assaulting woman and gets a 'pass'

The prosecutor said that the man losing his job was "like a life sentence" and was thus punishment enough for choking a woman unconscious, kidnapping her, and sexually assaulting her. Apparently the judge agreed, as the scum will not serve any jail time, nor will he have to register as a sex offender.
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At least it's making the fucking news this time. How many times has this combo judge and prosecutor refused to punish rapists?
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Ravenpoe said:
@figmentPez I believe the term for this is dog whistling.
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A mighty strange way to do it. The usual tactic is to say something yourself that has an explicit meaning that is reasonable, but an implied connotation that your followers recognize. (i.e. "I support family values.") It's really strange to promote a very reasonable argument that your opponent is making, because that's basically handing the middle ground over to your opponent. The reason "dog whistle" statements exist is because you can use them to say nice sounding things to moderates, while still promising hardline partisan politics to the "core voters" at either political extreme.

That's why I'm confused. Has Cruz just completely given up on winning moderate voters?
 
Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

figmentPez said:
A mighty strange way to do it. The usual tactic is to say something yourself that has an explicit meaning that is reasonable, but an implied connotation that your followers recognize. (i.e. "I support family values.") It's really strange to promote a very reasonable argument that your opponent is making, because that's basically handing the middle ground over to your opponent. The reason "dog whistle" statements exist is because you can use them to say nice sounding things to moderates, while still promising hardline partisan politics to the "core voters" at either political extreme.

That's why I'm confused. Has Cruz just completely given up on winning moderate voters?
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I have to assume he has fallen so far into his own ass that a guy saying black people shouldn't be shot is scandalous to his mind.
 
Frank

Frank



Read the whole thing.

Die alone and afraid anyone that would defend a rapist.

It's not an indiscretion, it's an act of violence with lifelong consequences.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
But, of course, we shouldn't do anything to ruin Kavanaugh's life. That would be wrong.

Oh, and there's not a "/s" big enough to post on this.
 
Frank

Frank

That's the most galling white male privilege bullshit ever too. This fucking prick's life is ruined when he's not granted a lifetime position of nearly unparalleled control of a nation's laws? Holy shit.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
I don't remember. Did anyone post here that Lindsey Graham saying that he doesn't care what comes out in the sexual assault allegations, he's going to vote for Kavanaugh anyway? He doesn't want to "ruin his life over this".
 
Tress

Tress

Denbrought said:
This CNN article implies the next hearing is this coming Thursday, so presumably he wouldn't be confirmed until at least next week. Do you mean something other than a confirmation vote?
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No, I think they were talking about the recent GOP push to confirm him literally today before any testimony about the fact that he’s a monster reaches the public.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

It's always surprising to me how hypocritical people can be. "Does it really matter when it happened 37 years ago?" isn't something they consider when it's about a black guy having smoked one joint when he was 18. "We shouldn't destroy someone's life over this sort of thing" isn't something they find important when it's a woman being slandered and ridiculed for coming forward. "This post is too important to remain vacant" wasn't a problem when it was Obama appointing someone. "Won't someone think of the children!" isn't an issue when it's 14 year old girls being fondled and abused. And so on and so forth.

It's definitely not just Republicans, and it's not even just white privileged men, or anything, they're just the current obvious examples, but really. The "snitching is bad" mentality is toxic, the "we have to stick together with people like us" mentality is beyond reprehensible, the "our freedoms are more important than your rights" idea is so wrong it's making actual liberal philosophers spin in their graves, etc etc.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
To me it completely depends on what the action was. Did the guy drop n-bombs because that's how he was raised but now he's realized how racist that was? Okay, you get the pass.

Did he say racist things to specific people and harassing them, but now knows how wrong it was? You get a pass if the victim(s) of the harassment forgives you as well.

Were you speeding and acting like a douche but nobody was hurt? Okay, you get a pass.

Speeding and ran into a family of four? No pass for you.

Did you rape or sexually assault someone? No pass for you.
 
Tress

Tress

It’s kinda like the Corey Booker thing. Sen. Booker has a similar incident from his past where, while in high school, he tried to force himself on a woman before she was finally able to push him away. But the difference is that he admits it was wrong, wrote about how horrible it was when he was in college years before he was famous, and has learned from his mistake. If Kavanaugh has displayed even some of that growth/remorse, I would be more sympathetic.
 
Gared

Gared

Not just a rapist, but a serial rapist. Way to go, fuckers. How about if all of the people pushing for his confirmation just go out and off themselves now and do us all a giant fucking favor?
 
ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

I still can't get over the hypocrisy that the GOP delayed the supreme court nomination chosen by Obama for nine months, for a reasonable candidate, and yet are willing to rush the confirmation of a possible rapist / abuser, because now we just don't have time for some reason to actually put some real investigators on this. What the fuck... Let the FBI handle a proper investigation. If it comes out this was all false, then the democrats look bad for spreading false information and you can complete your fucking confirmation with a clear conscious. But no, make this into a shit show.
 
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jwhouk

jwhouk

"Does it really matter what happened 37 years ago?"

My response: "Does it really matter what happened 78 years ago?"*


1940 was when Auschwitz was opened.
 
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