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Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)


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2 hours ago, unclevlad said:

The police are being pretty reticent about coming out with information on this guy.

 

I'm wondering if they're trying to trace connections to others, at this point, as they'll usually have made SOME statements by now.  

 

Gov. Abbott typically directs his sheriffs to withhold information about mass shootings in order to try and head off any gun control debate. 

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I have now received a total of three mailers for Ron DeSantis, and they are addressed to my family, which makes me think that they're going off of a very old list. I've been registered as an independent since 2017, so I wouldn't be eligible to vote in the Republican primary. Mom was registered Republican in Maine, but I transferred her mail after her death to my address, and I still occasionally receive political stuff addressed to her, even though the last time she was eligible to vote in Nevada was sometime in Bill Clinton's first term.

 

The last mailer's campaigning hard on his little league and college baseball record, which doesn't really translate to any kind of skill in governing that I can see. All of them are pushing very hard the idea that he's for Freedom, though none of them seem to understand what that word actually means. The "not a candidate" certainly doesn't.

 

Happy Ron Desantis GIF by GIPHY News

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I just found this video this morning. It's a very detailed breakdown of the Uvalde police response by a tactical instructor. I'm putting it in spoiler tags for language. It's also very long, at 1:43. There are many F bombs, b/c the speaker is upset, but it's worth watching to gain a greater understanding both of the botched response and what a proper response looks like and why. At the end, he expresses some political opinions pretty strongly. You can stop watching when he pauses at about 1:35 after finishing reading the report if you don't want to hear a rant about defunding the police, BLM, ANTIFA and gun control, as that's not the meat of this anyway:

 

Spoiler

 

 

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7 minutes ago, tkdguy said:

 

And the appeals process will commence shortly.

 

Interesting update on the story...

 

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Judge tells jurors they can now identify themselves publicly but advises them not to

 

Also notes, fine if you want to identify yourself, but you are barred from identifying anyone else on the jury.  Yeah, I would be extremely concerned about retaliation if my name got out.

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30 minutes ago, tkdguy said:

 

I admit my ignorance about this party. I've never heard of it until now.

 

I believe that it was one that promised magic ponies that blew rainbows out of their butt* if Great Britain would leave the EU. Or £350 million per week surplus for things like NHS.

 

 

 

*Magic pony chow not included. Offer not valid in England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland. May have additional fees. Seek medical care if your head of lettuce lasts longer than your PM.Brexit Bus not to scale.

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And its ex-leader Nigel Farage was very pally with Trump which damned him in the eyes of some. Me for example.

 

Farage as leader of UKIP forced the Tories hand and got them to do the referendum vote on whether to stay or leave Europe. That more or less doomed David Cameron and then Theresa May. Consequently it may be argued that it derailed the Tories for near enough the last decade.

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11 hours ago, tkdguy said:

It's a bad day for compulsive liars:

 

DOJ Charges George Santos

 

And now the list of charges is out.  Rather extensive, too.  From NYT:

 

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Mr. Santos was charged with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.

 

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1 hour ago, unclevlad said:

 

And now the list of charges is out.  Rather extensive, too.  From NYT:

 

 

 

According to Santos, he will be representing himself and is assured victory as he passed the bar in all 50 states several years ago and has an extensive history of successful criminal defense cases.

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Just now, Starlord said:

 

According to Santos, he will be representing himself and is assured victory as he passed the bar in all 50 states several years ago and has an extensive history of successful criminal defense cases.

 Thankfully, they are Federal charges, and as the current President, he can always pardon himself.

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7 hours ago, unclevlad said:

 

And now the list of charges is out.  Rather extensive, too.  From NYT:

Quote

Mr. Santos was charged with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.

 

 

It is illegal to make false statements to the House of Representatives?  Why aren't they all in jail?

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6 minutes ago, Ranxerox said:

 

It is illegal to make false statements to the House of Representatives?  Why aren't they all in jail?

 

"Materially false"  What that means is that it's illegal to falsify your financial disclosure forms because that's the equivalent of a affadavit or sworn testimony.  You can lie in session all you want.  

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/heres-why-george-santos-was-able-to-get-away-with-it-for-so-long

 

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I didn’t think it was possible, but if true, New York GOP Rep. George Santos’ exploits were even worse than we thought. And that’s saying a lot.

While most of the headlines scream “wire fraud” and “money laundering,” the 13-count indictment really outlined three big things that caught my attention.

First, Santos, 34, allegedly persuaded donors to give money to an LLC that he controlled, under the guise that it was an outside group solely dedicated to supporting his candidacy. Instead, he treated this money as his personal piggy bank. (Some of that embezzled cash allegedly went toward “designer clothes,” an investment that likely helped him keep his con going.)

Second, the indictment alleges that Santos fraudulently received unemployment insurance, despite the fact that he was gainfully employed by an investment firm.

Under normal conditions, this would be a scummy thing to do, but as Santos allegedly perpetrated this fraud at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is especially contemptible. This means he took advantage of the system at a vulnerable time, and presumably took funds that might have gone to someone who actually needed them. (Incidentally, as a member of Congress he also voted for stricter qualifications for people to receive Medicaid.)

And lastly, he allegedly lied about it on his financial disclosure forms.

For all this, he could face up to 20 years in prison. What we don’t know yet—what an investigation would presumably discover—are the details regarding exactly how he got so much money so fast. But that’s for another day.

 

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4 minutes ago, Cygnia said:

 

What's amazing is that this guy hardly even registers against the background noise of insurrections, hostage taking, blatant corruption, and stochastic terror generated by the modern GOP.  This guy was "merely" one grifter in a party of grifters.

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