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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
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    Republican Bomb Thrower

    ...he's not alone: there are dozens of anarchic Republican representatives who are willing to tear down government institutions...

    Thomas Massie is a monster Republicans created


    Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on Capitol Hill on Friday. (Susan Walsh/AP)

    By Dana Milbank
    Columnist

    March 28, 2020 at 5:42 a.m. GMT+7

    Republicans were aghast that one of their own had committed such a monstrously selfish act.

    Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), in purely symbolic opposition to the $2.2 trillion emergency coronavirus legislation, forced hundreds of his colleagues to risk their lives — literally — by flying back to Washington. So what if many of the lawmakers are elderly and at high risk?

    To thwart Massie’s pointless protest, an attempt to force a roll-call vote instead of a simple voice vote, leaders had to summon 216 members to fill the chamber, eerily separated on the floor and in the gallery above to limit infection. This fruitless, immoral gesture by the 49-year-old legislator was in service of another: to thwart a nearly unanimous Congress from dispensing aid to the sick and suffering in the middle of a pandemic.

    President Trump called Massie a “third rate Grandstander” and proposed to “throw Massie out of Republican Party!”

    Joining in bipartisan revulsion, former secretary of state John Kerry shared Trump’s tweet and added: “Congressman Massie has tested positive for being an a--hole. He must be quarantined to prevent the spread of his massive stupidity.”

    But if Republicans are disturbed by Massie, they might pause for self-reflection. Massie is the epitome of the anti-government culture they have nurtured and encouraged. He embodies the drain-the-swamp political philosophy they have embraced.

    “I came here to make sure our Republic doesn’t die by unanimous consent in an empty chamber, and I request a recorded vote!” the bespectacled rebel said in his quickly-stifled stunt.

    “Shut the f--- up,” Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) replied from the gallery, an ABC News journalist heard.

    Massie has it backward. Unanimous consent doesn’t kill the Republic. Unanimity, or at least consensus, is what we need in Washington, and what we have lost. Massie and scores like him in the congressional GOP exist to break up consensus, to throw sand in the gears, to hobble government. Maybe Massie’s antics in this moment of national crisis will help Republicans remember that the government they’ve been demonizing is the only thing they have to save a collapsing national economy and stop a deadly disease.

    Massie, a believer in the “deep state” conspiracy, is a product of the tea party, a protege of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and a collaborator with outgoing Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), who is becoming Trump’s chief of staff, when they tried to oust then-Speaker John Boehner. “I’m ready to be unpopular,” Massie said after his 2012 election, and he has opposed even anti-lynching and human rights legislation — and celebrated when he uses “the process” so that “things die.”

    He is emblematic of the newer Republicans who congressional scholars Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann say have turned the GOP into an “insurgent outlier," rewarding bomb-throwers and making compromise with Democrats all but impossible.

    “Newt Gingrich gave them the theme that the best thing they can do is discredit government and blow up all of government,” Ornstein told me Friday as Massie perpetrated his shenanigans. Massie, he said, “is a monster created by their deliberate attempt to get people to have contempt for government and institutions that are part of government.” That contempt gave rise to Trump, but it also remade the Republican caucus in Congress.

    Massie boasts that Trump named him a co-chair of his reelection campaign in Kentucky, and Trump has retweeted Massie and said that Massie is “doing a great job” and is “so good.”

    No longer. Some on both sides complained about flaws in the legislation during Friday’s debate. And there’s much in the bill to dislike; particularly outrageous is the decision to give the District of Columbia only about $500 million, while less populous and less affected states each get $1.2 billion. But the alternative to the hard-fought compromise — doing nothing — was unthinkable. Massie’s protest served only to turn the House chamber into a petri dish.

    Hand-sanitizer dispensers stood at the doors, and aides wiped down lecterns between speakers. The Post’s Paul Kane and PBS’s Lisa Desjardins chronicled fervent attempts by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to dissuade Massie. “No, no, we are not going to have a recorded vote,” Pelosi told Massie, who walked away.

    “We’re going to have to ring the bells” to summon members, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said. As leaders bought time with speeches, lawmakers arrived and tried to space themselves out.

    Massie, unrepentant, left the Capitol complaining about “a big coverup.” To Trump’s attack, Massie replied: “I’m at least second-rate.”

    Republicans may be spared the question of what to do with Massie, who has a serious primary challenger. But what about all the other Massies in their ranks?

    With luck, Massie’s ugly spectacle, and the exploding public health and economic crises, will cause Republicans to see the limits of their corrosive message that government is the enemy.
    Last edited by tomcat; 28-03-2020 at 01:24 PM.
    Majestically enthroned amid the vulgar herd

  2. #2
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post
    But if Republicans are disturbed by Massie, they might pause for self-reflection. Massie is the epitome of the anti-government culture they have nurtured and encouraged. He embodies the drain-the-swamp political philosophy they have embraced.
    This.

  3. #3
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Massie actually complained that the vast majority of the cash is going to companies, not workers.

    No wonder the rest of the parasitic Republicans hate him.

  4. #4
    fcuked off SKkin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post
    Some on both sides complained about flaws in the legislation during Friday’s debate. And there’s much in the bill to dislike;
    No recorded vote means no idea how your representative voted. But just go along with the herd and ok another massive bailout of the 1%. Take your $1200 and STFU.

    Fuck Dana Milbank and all those like him. For them unconstitutional is ok in a crisis. Once all the details of this monstrosity, rushed through the house, come out it will end in tears. Bet on it.

    What ever happened to bills originating in the House and then moving to the Senate for approval? What did I miss that the House was giving the final approval on this one?

  5. #5
    fcuked off SKkin's Avatar
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    btw...they can keep their shitty little $1200 bribe, I don't want it.

  6. #6
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SKkin View Post
    btw...they can keep their shitty little $1200 bribe, I don't want it.
    ...agree, it's not enough...I'm holding out for $5K and 2 nights in the Kushner Suite at Mar-a-Lago...

  7. #7
    fcuked off SKkin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post
    President Trump called Massie a “third rate Grandstander” and proposed to “throw Massie out of Republican Party!”

    Joining in bipartisan revulsion, former secretary of state John Kerry shared Trump’s tweet and added: “Congressman Massie has tested positive for being an a--hole. He must be quarantined to prevent the spread of his massive stupidity.”
    Dana Milbank, Trump and John Kerry all in agreement here...that should tell you something right there.



    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post
    I'm holding out for $5K and 2 nights in the Kushner Suite at Mar-a-Lago...
    Good luck with that.

  8. #8
    fcuked off SKkin's Avatar
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    Massie was right on point here:

    This stimulus should go straight to the people rather than being funneled through banks and corporations like this bill is doing. 2 trillion divided by 150 million workers is about $13,333.00 per person. That’s much more than the $1,200 per person check authorized by this bill.

  9. #9
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Perhaps Massie saw this coming.... Baldy orange cunto has his grubby mitts on $500Bn and can dish it out to his mates and no-one would know.

    I wonder how much of it will be purloined by the thieving orange bastard.



    President Trump on Friday suggested he has the power to decide what information a newly created inspector general can give Congress, with the watchdog charged with overseeing hundreds of billions of dollars in aid from the new $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.

    The law signed into law on Friday creates a Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery (SIGPR), tasked with tracking loans, loan guarantees and other expenditures made by the Treasury Department. The legislation authorized the position for five years.

    Democrats
    had demanded that the inspector general position be included in the bill. The watchdog, who will need Senate confirmation, is charged with oversight of $500 billion in corporate aid that will be controlled and doled out by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

    As part of its oversight, the SIGPR will have the power to request information from the Treasury Department and other federal agencies while auditing loans and investments made through the fund.

    But in
    a statement Friday evening after signing the stimulus package into law, Trump asserted that the SIGPR would not be allowed to go to Congress if the agencies refused to hand over specific information, saying that it was "unreasonable."

    "I do not understand, and my Administration will not treat, this provision as permitting the SIGPR to issue reports to the Congress without the presidential supervision required by the Take Care Clause," Trump said.

    A Democratic aide
    told Bloomberg that lawmakers had anticipated the president's move and had pushed for multiple forms of accountability, such as a congressional panel, to provide proper oversight of the funds.
    The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/489964-trump-asserts-power-to-decide-info-inspector-general-for-stimulus

  10. #10
    fcuked off SKkin's Avatar
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    This same kind of blind rush for legislation in a crisis is what gave us The Patriot Act and the Dept. of Homeland Security...out of which came ICE and the kids in cages some have been shedding crocodile tears over the last few years. Some people never learn.

  11. #11
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheRealKW View Post
    This.
    This fuxin' stupid linguistic monstrosity has been mercifully slow in raising its head on this forum, but it seems to have somewhow gained traction over the last couple of weeks.

    Please stop it.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    This fuxin' stupid linguistic monstrosity has been mercifully slow in raising its head on this forum, but it seems to have somewhow gained traction over the last couple of weeks.

    Please stop it.
    This?

  13. #13
    fcuked off SKkin's Avatar
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    Imagine that...

    Wealthy real estate developers like Trump score a huge tax break in the stimulus bill
    Wealthy real estate developers like Trump score a huge tax break in the stimulus bill - CNN

    But according to an analysis from law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, taxpayers "with unused losses arising in 2018, 2019 or 2020 that paid tax in one or more of the five preceding tax years will be able to immediately file amended returns."

    That is particularly beneficial for the real estate industry. And that fact is raising alarm bells given the ties that President Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner have to that particular business.

    "As if Jared Kushner's involvement in coronavirus response wasn't already preposterous enough...now we learn that there's a huge tax giveaway for people like him and his family in the stimulus package," said the nonprofit legal aid group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in a tweet.

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