The Johnson - Schumer Congress Thread

[draynay]

I mean I'm a Californian. This is my local news. Polling showed something like 30% support. A PAC was raising money and making #Calexit" trend. It was widely discussed among genuine leftists as a way to kiss Trump and the red states goodbye.

So do a little more digging if you really believe this reduces to some Russian troll operation. If you need some inspiration, imagine that you were local to some left-wing progressive protest, and an article was written alleging it was an astro-turf George Soros operation. Open Society could have donated money, and maybe even had their own angle, but it cannot be used to outright dismiss the protest any more than you would be forced to deny your fellow left-wingers that supported it.

I hope you can see your way to a partial or full retraction. Reuters has a story, the San Francisco Chronicle has a story, the Sacramento Bee had a story, Investopedia does a summary, LA Times compared and contrasted the pros and cons, and your own mind should recall the reaction to Trump. I hope, because I want to convince myself that there's still hope for the persuadable out there.

Good thing there isn't anybody else from California to call bull shit.

[Cthulhu 2020]

alternatively its just coming from rich right wing americans.....like it always does...

Boeburt went from a nobody with a failing restaurant to an almost millionaire overnight. I realize many prominent right wing personalities are grifters grifting off of their insane personality, getting the cult to donate to them, but Boeburt's rise in fortune was literally almost overnight. Of course now she probably gets donations from the cult, but where did that money come from? Same with Santos, MTG, and several others. They went from nobodies with failed careers to millionaires with political office almost overnight. That doesn't just randomly happen.

[Ivanstone]

Boeburt went from a nobody with a failing restaurant to an almost millionaire overnight. I realize many prominent right wing personalities are grifters grifting off of their insane personality, getting the cult to donate to them, but Boeburt's rise in fortune was literally almost overnight. Of course now she probably gets donations from the cult, but where did that money come from? Same with Santos, MTG, and several others. They went from nobodies with failed careers to millionaires with political office almost overnight. That doesn't just randomly happen.

Nah she had the money already. Her sex offender husband has a cushy oil industry job. It pays well enough to underwrite her failing restaurant.

[tehdang]

Good thing there isn't anybody else from California to call bull shit.

This reminds me of the line, "Who you gonna believe? Me or your lying eyes?

https://abc7news.com/calexit-over-ma...nelli/2203946/



You mean the fairly recent (2015) political party with, according to Wikipedia, a whopping 400 members did a poll and found minority support for their cause? Absent actual methodology (I can't find much on the poll via web search) I'm beyond skeptical.

And as noted, "Calexit" was the movement with concerning ties to Russia. So miss me if I don't take what is fairly easily astroturfed trending hashtags with the utmost seriousness.

You're here arguing this is a real, serious, credible thing. Show your work here, because thus far what you've shown is pretty weaksauce.

You must really forget the Trump years. And, it is kinda shocking to hear that 33% in a population of California could possibly be explained by Russians.

Reuters - poll summary, quotes from Democratic party activist and others
Investopedia summary, links to further information
CNN early article, campaign, protests
LA Times, reminding people that the anti-Trump sentiment is fueling it, and coming out against
KTLA, after Secretary of State approved the signature campaign for proposed initiative
San Diego Union Tribune, on the much-later leadership problems that ended up hurting the campaign
Ballotpedia, polling summary

Let me reiterate. There were protests and many articles in the wake of the Trump victory. There was a PAC that had many donors and considerable attention, far before the Russian connection caused donor pullout. There is polling (Hoover/Yougov & Reuters/Ipsos) that suggests ~25%-32% of Californians and ~32% younger voting-age Californians wanted it. Reminder that this amounts to ~9.8 million Californians. But you're still pretty sure it was just one dude from Russia and not serious? You might honestly believe the PAC campaign was flawed, but the other parts do exist without the critically failed leadership of the PAC. Come back to reason. Admit there was serious, but not overwhelming, support because of anti-Trump sentiment and anti-Republican sentiment. I think you can choose to be reasonable and analytical in this instance, since the actual activity was on the left-wing (though I will chortle a little if you so callously dismiss the left coast's left wing during the Trump years because it's convenient to your position in this argument). Suit yourself if the Trump years fade from your living memory, and require greater efforts than I'm willing to provide in order to revive it.

And recall that the connection to the discussion was just because a forum poster proposed a lunatic prosecutorial response for calls for a national divorce, and you haven't actually weighed in on the subject to that post or its relation to possible prosecutions for Californians.

You mean:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_California

Sourced as being starter to “get the left wing out of our country to build their utopias”. Fuck dude no wonder you didn’t link sources to this bullshit, it’s so divorced from reality you should be paying alimony.

It's simply amazing how little predicate you need to completely retcon the anti-Trump years. People in the West Coast were smashing businesses and torching cars. The #NotMyPresident activity in protests and marches in downtown LA were large. Local news blasted the polls to get California out, and interviewed residents that were angry with Trump's statements on Muslim immigration and expressed their own desire to find a path out of the Trump years.

But, because the PAC leadership had Russian connections, all history must be rewritten to silence left-wing voices from that time. The history must state an unserious, transitory, and Russian-inspired movement was all that it was.

Oh may I never doubt the lengths people in this forum will travel to in pursuit of the smallest of wins. This was six years ago. I can't possibly imagine the views people type about this very day that will be repudiated and declared non-existent in Year 2029!

[Breccia]

This reminds me--

Ignores the part about Greene being made Speaker.

Your entire post is off-topic. This thread is not about a piece of legislation that was never put up for a vote. At best, you have that a petition was approved. Petition.

Meanwhile your party, for today at least, was led by MTG and you ignore it entirely.

Which means you know your party is being run by crazy people, you have no defense, and are going off-topic to deflect.

Shame on you. Please post constructively.

[Edge-]

https://twitter.com/patriottakes/sta...93648304431109

Teenage-mom, married to a man who exposes himself to children, and mother to a shithead kid who tears around the neighborhood at dangerous speeds, argues that schools shouldn't be doing any comprehensive sex-education to teenagers who are largely all horny as hell and don't quite know what to do about that, but have some ideas.

I mean, she dropped out of highschool and look how she's turned out. She's a member of the House of Representatives! And a complete idiot on every conceivable level.

Republicans really seem to want to do as much as they possibly can to increase the rate of teen pregnancy, which we all know is very conducive to getting a good education and setting people up for longterm success in life.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/0...jan-6-00086082

Mere hours after Tucker Carlson’s latest segment minimizing the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, House Republicans were eager to change the subject from the Fox News host’s riot revisionism.

While Carlson continued to roil Washington, many GOP lawmakers who gathered Wednesday morning were celebrating their unexpected win on a bill rolling back progressive D.C. crime laws and plotting their response to Thursday’s White House budget.

Carlson didn’t come up at all during House Republicans’ meeting, according to four members in the room who spoke on condition of anonymity. And not a single GOP lawmaker asked about it when given the chance to speak. In fact, some members were privately surprised by the amiability of this week’s first closed-door huddle — generally because there is usually some drama, but particularly since the Fox News segment has publicly reopened painful cross-party fissures over Jan. 6, 2021.


Yet Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision to let Carlson access thousands of hours of Capitol footage from the riot has left a lingering cloud over his own leadership team, which was repeatedly pressed about the move as Carlson continues to downplay the violence of the siege by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Senate Republicans heaped criticism Tuesday on Carlson’s portrayal of the riot, led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (though few directly dinged McCarthy).

“It seems like some in the press want to talk about Jan 6 every day. So do Democrats. They only want to talk about certain parts of it, though,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters during a press conference where every question focused on the Fox News footage.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who represents a battleground district, said that House Republicans see attention to Carlson’s portrayal of Jan. 6 as “more of a media thing.”

“In the end, everybody should get access,” Bacon added, “but literally, I don’t hear anybody back home talking about it.”

Suddenly, after Carlson was granted exclusive access to footage and allowed to run actual propaganda that was not cleared by the Capitol police chief as McCarthy said all footage would be, and there's largely bipartisan criticism of Carlson's propaganda, House Republicans really really really really really don't want to talk about the whole thing anymore and it's all past history and please stop asking them about it it turned out horribly for them and they'd rather you just forget about it.

Please, Republicans would really like you to -

[Breccia]

“It seems like some in the press want to talk about Jan 6 every day. So do Democrats. They only want to talk about certain parts of it, though,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters during a press conference where every question focused on the Fox News footage.

"Which parts?"
"Well the direct attack on democracy by the head of our party, where a bunch of our voters broke into the building, threatening the lives of elected officials, attempting to stop a legal election, and committing a whole bunch of other crimes. Also, some people died."
"Those sound like really important parts. What parts would you prefer to discuss instead?"
"The part where most of us Republicans were ready to block the same election anyhow based on the same unfounded rumors spread by the leader of our party and Tucker Carlson."

[Edge-]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/house...b018d7c56ec8fc

Surely the House Republicans are a bit less dysfunctional with their investigation into the origins of Covid...yeah?

A House hearing on COVID-19’s origins on Wednesday unraveled almost immediately as Democrats decried one of the GOP’s witnesses: Nicholas Wade, the author of a 2014 book that made outrageous, racist claims about Black people being more prone to violence and Jewish people being more financially successful because of their genetic makeup.

Oh...oh no.

One passage from his book reads, “Populations that live at high altitudes, like Tibetans, represent another adaptation to extreme environments. The adaptation of Jews to capitalism is another such evolutionary process.”

...excuse me? So capitalism is like, a weather condition?

In another passage about Africans’ economic conditions, Wade wonders whether “variations in their nature, such as their time preference, work ethic and propensity to violence, have some bearing on the economic decisions they make.”

Narrator: None of these things are remotely determined by genetics.

“I was alarmed to see someone who wrote a book applauded by white supremacists,” said Ruiz, noting that former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke praised Wade’s book on his radio show in 2014.

That's...exactly the opposite type of person you want supporting you.

Jennifer Raff, author of The New York Times bestseller ”Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas,” tweeted that she reviewed Wade’s book when it came out 10 years ago and shared a link to her review for anyone interested in what a fellow geneticist made of it.

“Wade’s book is all pseudoscientific rubbish,” Raff wrote in her 2014 review on HuffPost, “because he can’t justify his first and primary point: his claim that the human racial groups we recognize today culturally are scientifically meaningful, discrete biological divisions of humans. This claim provides a direct basis for the whole second half of the book, in which he makes speculative arguments about national character. In other words, the entire book is a house of cards.”

As an example of the general consensus in the scientific community on the book. It's treated like the racist trash it sure appears to be, and it's sure curious that Republicans keep inviting open racists and credibly accused murderers to speak as experts or perform ceremonial duties.

[jonnysensible]

Boeburt went from a nobody with a failing restaurant to an almost millionaire overnight. I realize many prominent right wing personalities are grifters grifting off of their insane personality, getting the cult to donate to them, but Boeburt's rise in fortune was literally almost overnight. Of course now she probably gets donations from the cult, but where did that money come from? Same with Santos, MTG, and several others. They went from nobodies with failed careers to millionaires with political office almost overnight. That doesn't just randomly happen.

sadly it does, if you want to get a 6 figure wage, get into politics. You can just look at her opensecrets page. They know how to go viral, its just like a gofundme. Some poor smuck cant go viral, some over know how to game the media and get a national profile and get triple what they needed donated. Everyone you mentioned (bar Santos hes dodgy as fuck) gamed the media, went national and was able to fundraise accordingly. And despite us all thinking these people are dipshits they have their finger on rightwing politics. They absolutely know where rightwing/republican politics are heading, better politicians than the GOP old guard.

[Edge-]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...ling-rcna74097

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was hospitalized after tripping at a hotel, a spokesperson said Wednesday.

“This evening, Leader McConnell tripped at a local hotel during a private dinner. He has been admitted to the hospital where he is receiving treatment,” McConnell spokesman David Popp said in a statement.

McConnell, 81, is serving a seventh term in the Senate, after being first elected in 1984. He was Senate majority leader until early 2021.

Hospitalized for medical care?! How outrageous! Every deserves that kind of care without having to worry about being brankupt.

Anyways, I'm sure the folks that were pearl clutching about Senator Fetterman seeking treatment at a hospital and saying he should resign are also pearl clutching that this 81 year old man and had to go to the hospital for treatment. Those brittle bones! The weak muscles! The joints of a gelatinous consistency!

[Milchshake]

The tWITer fILes:

Lolz WASSERMAN-SHULTZ IS HUMILIATING TAIBBI WITH HIS OWN WORDS IN FRONT OF CONGRESS THIS IS INCREDIBLE.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Journalists should avoid accepting spoon-fed, cherry-picked information if it's likely to be slanted, would you agree with that?
TAIBBI: I think it depends
WS: Really? *plays clip of Taibbi basically agreeing with the premise of her question on Rogan's pod*

This shit should be pay-per-view. Holy fuck it's satisfying to watch him squirm.


"Hypocrisy is the hangover of an addiction to attention" -- Wasserman Schultz does a great job exposing Taibbi's right-wing grift here


Plaskett explaining Ethics in Journalism ... to the human manifestation of Gamergate, and Elon's handpicked journalist Tiabbi.

[Xyonai]

The tWITer fILes:

Lolz WASSERMAN-SHULTZ IS HUMILIATING TAIBBI WITH HIS OWN WORDS IN FRONT OF CONGRESS THIS IS INCREDIBLE.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Journalists should avoid accepting spoon-fed, cherry-picked information if it's likely to be slanted, would you agree with that?
TAIBBI: I think it depends
WS: Really? *plays clip of Taibbi basically agreeing with the premise of her question on Rogan's pod*

This shit should be pay-per-view. Holy fuck it's satisfying to watch him squirm.


"Hypocrisy is the hangover of an addiction to attention" -- Wasserman Schultz does a great job exposing Taibbi's right-wing grift here


Plaskett explaining Ethics in Journalism ... to the human manifestation of Gamergate, and Elon's handpicked journalist Tiabbi.

I've been really on board with Dems being more combative towards bullshit from their Republican Peers, endlessly cathartic if nothing else.

[tehdang]

You linked shit that shows the same increase in secession that I linked earlier, 2 of them even linking it to the same mongoloid right-winger slogan/push. You gotta read the shit you link instead of slapping it straight off google. The delusional old-man rant caps off how divorced from reality you are. Come back when you read the shit you link aye?

You should read all the links instead of selecting the two you most dislike, and pretending that the weight of your dislike justifies the ignorance you demonstrate on the rest. Are you so ready to dismiss the comments from Democratic party voters/activists? Do you actually have a comment on whether 25-32% support for an idea means it's more than a Russian social media campaign? You've only let me know that 1) you dislike two of the links and 2) you dislike me.

[Breccia]

You should read all the links instead of selecting the two you most dislike
25-32% support for an idea means it's more than a Russian social media campaign? You've only let me know that 1) you dislike two of the links and 2) you dislike me.

Reading comprehension fail, self-own backlash. He didn't say he only read two links. He said two of them linked to the same garbage source. You either misread that or intentionally misintrepreted that.

You also did so, while deflecting from the fact that you posted garbage sources that failed to make your point, and you were called out for it.

You have no valid argument, you refuse to respond genuinely to other posters, and this is commonplace behavior for you.

None of the topic about California secession is on topic, as it is not happening in the McCarthy-Schumer Congress.

Your bad faith posts are troling.

Please post constructively.

[tehdang]

The tWITer fILes:

Lolz WASSERMAN-SHULTZ IS HUMILIATING TAIBBI WITH HIS OWN WORDS IN FRONT OF CONGRESS THIS IS INCREDIBLE.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Journalists should avoid accepting spoon-fed, cherry-picked information if it's likely to be slanted, would you agree with that?
TAIBBI: I think it depends
WS: Really? *plays clip of Taibbi basically agreeing with the premise of her question on Rogan's pod*

This shit should be pay-per-view. Holy fuck it's satisfying to watch him squirm.


"Hypocrisy is the hangover of an addiction to attention" -- Wasserman Schultz does a great job exposing Taibbi's right-wing grift here


Plaskett explaining Ethics in Journalism ... to the human manifestation of Gamergate, and Elon's handpicked journalist Tiabbi.

Wasserman Schultz is gonna wasserman schultz. Taibbi and Shellenberger handled themselves well.

On the big picture:
https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/...21323289444352

Opening statement comprising a summary:
https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/...61251926478849

Democrat representative, demonstrating her party's knowledge of the internet. :"It's a series of tubes," step aside:
https://twitter.com/greg_price11/sta...73918351101952

Wasserman Schultz goes after Alaskan Musk (update your 'Elom' vocab, progs):
https://twitter.com/CalebHowe/status...63660228562944

Next up: The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and others are under scrutiny about using their reporting to sell newspapers and magazines:
https://twitter.com/therecount/statu...67549770235905

More on point: The left-of-center belief that ordinary people can't handle difficult truths, so they should be censored online:
https://twitter.com/townhallcom/stat...82190982578176

A little more contextual video around Wasserman Schultz exchange with Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger
https://twitter.com/MillennialOther/...62962686353409
Ms. Wasserman Schultz did need to be reminded that sources often have their own motives for talking to the press. And ... I hate to break it to the audience here that she does not come across as good here. She asserts quite a few opinions to please her party's base (and as I read here, the base service is accepted) in the context of a hearing with invited or subpoenaed witnesses. She is actually embarrassed by her reticence to allow the accused parties a response towards the end. It's pretty plain that she uses her congressional soap-box to preach to the choir what they already want to believe, alternate opinions to hers be damned.

Democrat committee member oscillates between mad and confused that the Twitter Files reporting was published publicly first, and (oh the horror) provided also to the chairman's party on the committee conducting the hearing on the day of the hearing.
https://twitter.com/MillennialOther/...75471938236416

Goldman's questioning reflects progressive thinking on the FBI's role. Assert that any actions in pursuit of an agenda are legitimate, and ask gotcha questions to eliminate potentially nuanced answers. Disagree with indictments? They're just a list of allegations that the creator thinks he can prove in court.
https://twitter.com/MillennialOther/...84093791256617

Lest I forget that things get crazier than the fascist-racist accusations I see on this forum, there is also Stacey Plaskett who thinks the two journalists interviewed on today's hearing "pose a direct threat to people that oppose them." Let me make a reminder to link to this testimony the next time a progressive here gets all up in arms about victimization.
https://twitter.com/greg_price11/sta...54707285237760

Links are to sections of video congressional testimony, question and response, from C-SPAN and other sources.

[jonnysensible]

lol @ the absolute dogshit twitter accounts you link.

[Captain N]

lol @ the absolute dogshit twitter accounts you link.

Considering at least one of them is a "reporter" for The Blaze I wonder how much work I'd have to do to find out that at least half of the clowns he linked also believe January 6th was a peaceful tour.

[Milchshake]

Wasserman Schultz is gonna wasserman schultz. Taibbi and Shellenberger handled themselves well.

On the big picture:

Links are to sections of video congressional testimony, question and response, from C-SPAN and other sources.

Your links are a shitshow of conspriacy cranks, and anti-vaxxers. A normal person would be embarssed writing those links.

But you just like trying to lie to everyone and gaslight the forum. So go fuck off.

[Milchshake]

There is no possible way someone can publicly post this with a straight face.

Some right-wing substacker has a few sock puppet accounts here. They're embarresed because;
Their writing peaked on some d-list gaming forum.
They plagriarize most of their posts, and are afraid of getting caught if posting on main.

/sarcasm

[Breccia]

https://twitter.com/CalebHowe/status...63660228562944

Next up: The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and others are under scrutiny about using their reporting to sell newspapers and magazines:
https://twitter.com/therecount/statu...67549770235905

This is either an attempt to misdirect about unrelated publications "under scruitny" by linking a source that has nothing to do with the description -- that's trolling -- or it's you being sarcastic and deflecting from Taibbi being caught red-handed and you having no defense, so you posted two links that are the opposite of your post's first line and intended point -- that's also trolling.

Since I have personally been infracted, twice, for posting a link and lying about the contents, I am simply going to call out the forum's moderators @Rozz and @Flarelaine to address the issue, and @Radux and @Tziva to watch, as the rules are either explained or enforced.

I've tried reporting, it doesn't work.

I've tried DMing mods, it doesn't work.

So now I'm just going to ask them publicly to clarify the rules, because they do not appear to be enforced the way they are described.