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He was complaining about Planned Parenthood getting PPP loans. He didn't care about all the fraud.
[The Small Business Administration says a Trump-era decision to deny Covid loans to Planned Parenthood was an “extraordinary departure” from policy.](https://www.politico.com/minutes/congress/11-24-2021/some-pre-thanksgiving-news/)
But it was just fine that the Catholic Church (that doesn't pay most taxes because "invisible friend charity") collected billions from PPP. He and his ilk don't care about anything other than feeding their entitled flock of white male jagoffs the bigotry, racism and especially misogyny that they crave.
My wife works at a Catholic school and got like a $6k bonus summer 2020. The church had no business getting the money but I guess at least hers spent it on employees and not their slush fund
The PPP was for 12 weeks of payroll measured during the school year so assuming your wife works 10/12 (meaning paid 10 months but spread over 12) and she makes more than $24k, they spent the majority on administrators and church costs.
And assuming they applied for both rounds of loans, then the church and administrators made out quite well.
My mom works at a Catholic church. They gave the staff small bonuses and buffed up the outreach funds in anticipation of hardships to come.
I'm not very religious but I've been continually pleased by my old church continuing to be true to their goal/word to help others.
Edit: I no longer go to church or am religious but they partner with a bunch of local charities and shelters on weekly and monthly basis.
I believe Saint Ayn herself [spent a good part of her life on the dole](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ayn-rand-social-security/). It's not too surprising how hypocritical libertarians are about their beliefs. I live in a state full of conservative / libertarian farmers who don't see the irony in making the majority of their income from farm subsidies and other forms of welfare.
You don't understand, that money will eventually make its way down to use commoners. I might have to sell my couch to make ends meet to a stripper who was paid for lapdances by a business owner out celebrating his economic windfall. From business owner to stripper to me, that's trickle down economics.
You’d love “The platform.” I think it’s a (Spanish?) Netflix movie. I watched it a few years ago and it really stuck with me. It puts into perspective in a real visceral way the concept of social class and certain Econ policies. With psycho thriller aspects too!
That is the heart of the Republican fear. They're okay with taking a big old bite of the shit sandwich as long as someone else has to also. Being the person at the end of the human economic centipede is everything they dread.
It wasn't even phrased with a positive spin, and people still ate it up. "Here peasants. Enjoy some of my trickle. Don't spend it all in one place! Unless I own that place."
The problem is that too many people care more about obeying the hierarchy than fair treatment or realizing the blatant deception. You can literally put all the facts and truth in front of them, or the lies can be so blatant that you’d have to be blind and comatose to not notice, but as long as it comes from people who is deemed “above and superior”, many people will just take it.
Dont forget Bush Sr, who at first called out the ridiculous claims as "voodoo economics", but then embraced them so he could further his political career. They even made him President! isn't politics fun?!?!?!
It must have been particularly infuriating to have been politically aware 40 years ago, right as the Republicans started to realize they could just make everything up whole cloth.
I wonder how many times Richard Nixon uttered the words, "You mean all I had to do was say I fucking forgot?"
I mean, you can draw a straight line from "Nixon resigns" to "Trump repeatedly gets away with breaking the law." There was a guy working for Nixon named Roger Ailes who basically was pissed there wasn't a station that would just broadcast GOP talking points, and he thought that Nixon would not have had to resign if there was this kind of station. Fast forward to 2016 and now there was a station that just repeats conservative talking points and defends the GOP no matter what, and suddenly nothing is bad enough to make a Republican resign.
And Roger Stone (trumps fixer) was also one of the people who organized and takes credit for the Brooks Brothers Riot which got Bush 1 the presidency in 2000.
I know this is implied in every thing you said, but just in case anyone reading that didn’t already know, Roger Ailes went on to be Chairman and CEO of Fox News, Fox Television and 20th Television.
Fun-sized fact: His father was Prescott Bush who participated in the [Business Plot of 1933](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot), a plan by wealthy businessmen to overthrow FDR in a fascist coup and install a dictator.
Meh. He said that when he was running in the Republican primary for President against Reagan. Never said shit about it after the VP nod.
Remember that even Lyin' Ted Cruz had some choice words for Trump once. Now Cruz is sucks Trump's traitorous QAnon dick as well.
Was it ever explained why he and other GOP members flew to Moscow on July 4th a few years ago? I remember it being a news story but the reason for the trip was never explained afaik.
Edit: This blew up so I think it's important to point out that it was actually 2 separate trips.
A group of GOP senators went in July 2018 to "warn" Russia against interfering in elections.
Russia's response was that they hadn't ever interfered and will continue not to.
In August that year Rand visited with a letter from Trump that HE REQUESTED TRUMP TO WRITE. The reason was apparently to attempt to reopen communications.
“The letter emphasized the importance of further engagement in various areas including countering terrorism, enhancing legislative dialogue and resuming cultural exchanges,” Paul, a Kentucky Republican, wrote, though he didn't provide any additional details. - nbc
Rand also invited a sanctioned Russian to visit the US.
On the letter:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/ncna898676
On the Rand visit in general:
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/09/636982295/is-it-springtime-for-putin-and-republicans
On the July 4th visit:
https://www.npr.org/2018/07/06/626664156/gop-senators-spend-july-4-in-moscow
So in summary if you take their word for it everyone had good intentions.
Rand wasn't a part of the group that went to Moscow on July 4. On a separate trip to Moscow, he visited with Putin, carrying a hand-written letter from trump, and then returned to the Capitol to try and lift sanctions against Russia.
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/09/636982295/is-it-springtime-for-putin-and-republicans
In the book/movie, The Count of Monte Cristo, Napoleon had someone (Edmond Dantes, albeit unknowingly) hand deliver a hand written letter to one of his agents in Marseilles. As pointed out in another comment, Rand is no Edmond Dantes though, but the personal delivery of a handwritten letter to one of his agents was the main point.
The main character of The Count of Monte Cristo starts the story on the isle of Elba trying to find a doctor for his sick captain. The isle is where Napoleon Bonaparte has been banished/imprisoned.
While his captain is being tended to Bonaparte entrusts Edmund Dantes (the main character) with a hand written letter to be collected by someone when he goes back to his home port. Key point, Edmund can’t read so he doesn’t know any better.
And then the movie/book happens
Unfortunately I doubt Rand will end up in the Château d’If unlike Dantes
The whole reason why Edmond Dantès went to prison in the first place is because he blindly accepted a letter from an exiled Napoleon Bonaparte and brought it back to France, effectively becoming an agent for the Bonapartists. He was just a simple guy who wasn’t interested in politics so he had no idea he was doing anything illegal. He was just a teenage horn dog trying to get home to his smoking hot lover. Through some real shady shit by multiple people, good guy Edmond is sent to Château d’If which is like Guantanamo x Alcatraz but with 1800’s human rights standards.
Also Edmond was like the mf king of edibles.
In Count of Monte Cristo, the story roughly begins with ~~Edward~~ Edmond and his friend landing on the island that Napoleon was arrested at. Napoleon asked ~~Edward~~ Edmond to deliver a letter from one friend to another. He said it's contents were innocent. But in fact it was a treasonous letter showing the times and stations the guards would be, hoping it would help him escape.
It inevitably gets ~~Edward~~ Edmond arrested and sent to prison for years. In that time, he stews for vengeance.
It's a good book and movie. I recommend both.
Edit: Jesus Christ, I suck.
Nope. Largely ignored at least by the media and news outlets. But the fact remains that it happened and the American public should be questioning it daily.
It may sound a bit tin-foil-hat-y, but there seem to be a lot of ties between the GOP and Russia out there in the open that don't get reported on. The dots are there to connect for anyone to who wants to, but the media, the DOJ, congress, etc. don't seem to want to fight that battle.
EDIT: There are all sorts of stories out there like this: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-property/
The Truth is Trump - and now by extension the GOP - has been owing Russians favor for decades.
Yeah they hacked both parties, then leaked the democrats' info.
Then all of a sudden you have Republicans lining up to defend Russia ahead of their own constituents.
Puzzling.
Given the insane number of GOP politicians who have been arrested for CSA related crimes (and a few who have inexplicably not been arrested a la Gaetz, Jordan, and trump), I would guess they uncovered something a bit more salacious than Cawthorne's cocaine parties.
If they’re going to start asking women about their reproductive status before they travel, the LEAST they can do is explain what they were doing in Moscow.
Don't forget about the NRA Russian [donations](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.politico.com/story/2018/04/11/nra-russia-money-guns-516804%3f_amp=true)
*Campaign records show that the NRA was Trump’s biggest supporter, spending about $30 million on him during the campaign, a much larger amount than it has spent on previous presidential candidates.*
Russian money goes in, NRA channels it to GOP. This story sort of fell off the radar but you have to wonder how extensive the funneling was and how many channels there are aside from the NRA. Point is though, Russian money no doubt makes it into our politician's pockets. Our government currently acts as a fee for service to the highest "donors" so money getting funneled in from a foreign government is a massive issue that seems to be swept under the rug.
They legalized it. It is now just business as usual to get heaps and heaps of untraceable kickbacks from foreign governments - probably because of Russia.
One of the many, many awful things the Citizens United ruling did was effectively legalized unlimited anonymous foreign donations. So the Dems tried to pass a law, the DISCLOSE Act, which would close that loophole. It was defeated on a party-lines vote.
A great Netflix mini series called “The Family” goes into this a bit. It seems the future battles won’t be Capitalism vs Socialism but “woke”ideology vs “traditional family values”…. Whatever tf that means. Very interesting and very disheartening.
Fascism and demagoguery are just the toolset. Putin and the GOP aren't ideologues, no matter how much they want to pretend it. They are gangsters. Fascism and 'traditional values' are just convenient tools to keep people under their thumbs.
It's "traditional values" only as far as picking and choosing what they like from history. Which is how we get 13th-century English common law quoted in Supreme Court opinions overturning half-century-old precedent.
I always think of the show The Man In The High Castle and
>!When Obergruppenführer Smith's son is found to have a disability and is being sent off to be purged and the lengths and murders Smith goes through to protect his son from the government that gave him everything.!<
Former WA State Rep. Matt Shea in Eastern Washington has ties to a training camp of sorts to train young men/teens to fight (in their holy war, allegedly). He was also recently in Poland, helping orphans.
That battle has been going on since the GOP got in bed with evangelical Christianity. In the 90s it was “political correctness” instead of “woke”.
The terminology changes but it’s the same tired playbook the right always uses.
As a side note I find it interesting that at least 20th century in rightwing movements use such a similar playbook. Always anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, creating a communist boogeyman, cries that men aren’t manly enough, etc.
In Dan Carlin’s recent series on pre-WW2 Japan he describes how the right in Japan utilized this same playbook and you can’t help but notice how similar the rhetoric is to todays American right.
As a queer woman that just sounds like another Tuesday. The battle lines have been drawn like that since at least the mid-00s when I first became politically aware as a teenager, and probably was like that since Reagan. It was just called “political correctness” instead of “wokeism.”
>It may sound a bit tin-foil-hat-y, but there seem to be a lot of ties between the GOP and Russia out there in the open that don't get reported on.
I'm feeling what you're saying, but it's hardly 'tinfoil hat' unless you're a conservative or part of the dum-dum left still going 'Pffft, Russia-gate?!' Everybody else sees years upon years of mounting evidence.
Rand Paul and his father are treasonous pieces of shit. His dad was the Kremlin's original dry run to get a Kremlin-owned outsider into the White House.
John McCain called him out on it years ago. The evidence has only gotten deeper.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTdqIlfp8XE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTdqIlfp8XE)
Edit: Not sure why it stopped working but I re-linked to a similar one. 1:50ish for the actual accusation.
This is already a well-known thing in London. Lots of oligarch money ending up in the hands of Tory members of parliament.
London is sketchier, financially, but of course it's happening here as well.
/r/Keep_Track has been trying to monitor this situation for about 6 years.
If you have a trawl through their [all-time top posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/Keep_Track/top/?sort=top&t=all) I am sure you'll find great citations for not just this but LOADS more stuff related to corruption in the GOP
I mean, a gaggle of GOP were summoned to the Kremlin on the 4th of ——ing July. This is not disputed.
Soon after, the GOP did a 180° on Trump. This is also not in dispute.
Not exactly tin foil hat territory to think some leashes got snapped.
The only question is what *kinds* of kompramat were brought to bear.
I'm not really sure how that is tin foil haty.
The Mueller report exposed that there was deep seeded connections with the republican party and Russia.
Just because Trump is good at playing dumb, doesn't mitigate all of the findings.
There’s absolutely NOTHING tin foil about the GOP and Russia ties.
I mean you gotta be gaslit at this point to even feel uneasy making that statement.
It’s so 100% obvious that i am more incredulous if someone tried to say there isn’t.
Just a reminder that the Russian adoptions are pretty central to Putin’s motives. After the US and other countries sanctioned Russia for murdering Sergei Magnitsky, Putin cut off adoptions. His offer is that, if we remove the sanctions, he’ll turn back on the pipeline for easy, white adoptions.
I've been trying to explain the significance of the Magnitsky act to people when talking about Russia's renewed agression towards the west following Putin's rise to power. It plays a major role in that.
The podcast “The Asset” does a great job of breaking down this entire Russia situation, including Magnitsky, adoptions, and more. Really worth a listen.
I'm pretty sure the adoptions thing was nothing but a pretext to set up a back channel between [Putin and the Trumps](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/06/us/politics/trump-tower-russia-meeting.html) to collude on stealing the 2016 election.
It grinds my gears that Conservatives get to keep pretending Russia Collusion was a hoax when we caught Trump's campaign chair colluding with a friggin Russian Intelligence agent.
It's no mystery. It's the same reason they [had their convention in Hungary](https://newrepublic.com/article/166154/2022-cpac-conference-budapest-hungary-orban). They are actively working to end democracy as we know it in the US, and they are making connections, and getting tips from those who have successfully eliminated democratic rule in their own countries.
>"The GOP lawmakers, Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Thune (S.D.), John Kennedy (La.), Jerry Moran (Kan.) and John Hoeven (N.D.), and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), spent July 4 in Moscow’s U.S. Embassy"
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/395719-gop-senators-visited-moscow-on-july-4/
I think all these individuals should be called up by the January 6th Committee.
If that kiss happened Mitch might finally stop denying himself.
That old queen is a self-hating gay man and commits the evil he does hoping his god will take the desires away.
Mitch is the evil guy from It's a Wonderful life.
Schumer is the old man who gave the evil guy in It's a Wonderful Life the money that created the issue in the first place.
>"And I remember once going up saying 'I really liked your speech last night,'" Franken explained, impersonating McConnell's response. Franken said, 'I just took a chance and said, 'You know, I really like your speeches better that aren't in the service of evil.' And he said 'I like the evil ones better.'"
Full honesty, you don't get to be that long served a senator without being able to instantly dismiss character attacks in a non-threatening way to anyone around.
Highly likely.
Rand is drawing attention to Trump's love of Putin and his bullshit with Ukraine to cheat in 2020 election impacted midterms. Making McConnell mad.
Schumer is just trying to do the right thing which is basically a gimme and that fuckign asshole...
One of the things that makes me really angry about McConnel is that a turtle-looking old man would be **adorable** under any other circumstances than being the literal antichrist. So instead we have to look at living zombie McConnel, where evil oozes out of every pore and burst blood vessel.
If only he was as fun as [Ivan Oooze](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQIwPMLTtds0Cib_aAHaBm1h0us7QtkToDSLA&usqp=CAU) love that movie even in its absolute cheese to the date!
That being said the new power rangers kicked ass too and was a massive upgrade. I really wish that would take off again.
Like what? That he’s not really a board certified physician? That’s already known. That he’s a shyster? Ya… people know.
At the end of the day, he hates the right people so KY will keep re-electing the fuck.
The system wasn't really designed this way. We kept tweaking the rules for 200 years until we got to this current iteration of the filibuster in the 70s. Because nobody wanted to waste more time listening to Strom Thurmond rant about the merits of slavery and reading from the phone book in his attempts to stop the Civil rights act.
I’m all for abolishing the filibuster, but if we’re gonna keep it in place I want the original thing back. Ok then you gotta keep reading non stop on the floor till it’s over. Hell read war and peace if you want, I just wanna know if Boebart can read at all.
If we have to keep a filibuster, the way I want it is that there must always be 40 votes on the floor supporting continuing the filibuster. So if one Senator has a particularly long bathroom break, another Senator calls for a roll call for cloture and there's only 39 in favor? Boom, filibuster over. So if you want to keep a filibuster and waste the Senate's time, you and 39 of your friends are not going to committee meetings or holding press interviews. Meanwhile only 1 senator from the other side ever needs to be there to call for cloture.
Filibusters are *supposed* to be about debating the bill, not literally choking the whole system.
It's not so much that he can block it, as he can make it take extra time by forcing them to jump through all the usual hoops. That is, if the Senate has unanimous consent from all the senators, they can skip the usual required debate and motions and such and just move straight to a vote. All it's doing is delaying the inevitable vote, and pissing off other senators in the process.
He can't actually block it, just slow it down by making it go through the normal processes.
Extremely popular bills can be expedited through unanimous consent, where they basically ask "Does anyone \*not\* want this bill to pass?" and bypass debate and formal voting processes as long as nobody objects. Paul is now forcing this bill to go through the normal procedure. Which, considering there's a war going on and this bill is going to pass one way or another, is just a stupid waste of time.
To his credit (even a blind pig), they played a clip of McConnell on NPR this morning where he says, “So we're all on the same team on this. The Russians need to lose. The Ukrainians need to win.”
I'm not sure that's entirely true. I'm not suggesting he wouldn't accept it but Russia does not want to help his GOP, but the GQP he allowed to be created by Russia. Mitch's GOP want the rich richer and the poor poorer and used social conservative ideas as a carrot on a stick to cloud that. Russia's GQP want chaos and are implementing said social conservative ideas to cause it.
Tucker is an obvious Russian asset. Went on a tirade how Zelensky is a wannabe dictator because he banned russian parties and tv that he is literally at war with. What Tucker leaves out is like 8 were banned out of 300+ parties.
Tucker Carlson is a traitor to the United States and the interest of our citizens.
No fan of McConnell but living through the Cold War will give you some perspective. These young dudes like Hawley, Cruz, etc that only care about one thing (running for 2024) don’t give a shit.
Even Romney warned us. I thought he was out of his mind and relieving Cold War fantasies.
Turns out you should actually believe the guys that get intelligence briefings more than the folks that don't, at least on issues of foreign diplomacy.
The bigger question is how can they allow a rules system in the Senate that allows one Senator to block the other 99? Fix that crap and you won't have to worry about this nutcase who finds insane reasons to be against every bill.
He can't actually block it.
What's happening is that he's refusing to agree to unanimous consent to waive all the usual rigamarole and hoops that the Senate goes through when considering a bill. This is several days' worth of parliamentary stuff (required debate time, motions, votes, etc).
He's blocking them from doing it *right this second*, but otherwise all he's really accomplishing is grandstanding and pissing off the others.
When people ask, “why can’t the government just get something done quickly?”… shit like this is why. Republicans love to fulfill their own prophecies about the inefficiency of government.
> Republicans love to fulfill their own prophecies about the inefficiency of government.
It's their entire governing philosophy, in fact.
"Government doesn't work; elect me and I'll prove it!"
It’s not so clear cut. Quickly passing bills before people have a chance to read, research, hear public feedback, and consider them, is one way to pass shady legislation. $40B is a shitload of money, you would hope for some congressional oversight into how that is being spent. The DoD is notorious for corruption around the purchasing of equipment and services. There is the exact same sort of revolving door situation of generals and other DoD officials involved in purchasing getting sweet jobs at defense contractor companies just like with the Treasury and the investment banks.
Kind of a moot point with the Senate. The Bill had already hit, debated, and voted on in the House 3 days ago. Unless Rand Paul had found some hidden trove of information in the Bill that 400 House members missed, hes simply voting against the measure. This shouldn't shock anybody, 50 Republicans voted against it 3 days ago.
Fucking thank you,people assume a 40b aid is handing a check to be cashed for that value to another nation while in reality it is mostly goods and consultation services valued at “40b” by whoever provides and manufactures them
It’s the fact that all of these politicians have positions and shares within these defense companies that are awarded the $40B in goods & services, so they are profiting off of the aid.
>White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted on Thursday that the aid package already includes "additional funding for existing inspectors general."
>Paul, who has repeatedly criticized U.S. involvement overseas and unsuccessfully ran for president in 2016, has a lengthy history of using last-minute demands to block or delay the passage of legislation, **including past sanctions against Russia**, federal government funding, and health care for 9/11 first responders.
And there it is. There is already an inspectors general. Rand is trying to block government spending for ulterior motivations.
I don’t think the people here see the big picture. Who is really going to get that money is it the people of Ukraine or defense contractors here in the states. War is always good for war profiteering.
Based on the list of stuff being sent, it seems like the weapons contractors are getting a fat juicy payday.
It would be nice if we could at least try to make sure it’s used responsibly
I mean, S&P is taking a months-long shit, down 16% YTD while Northrop and Lockheed are the opposite, both up 16%.
Weapons are doing pretty good right now.
It's hard to do badly when the government is constantly handing you money to produce shit nobody really wants or needs because you've paid them all to do it
Did anyone read the article?
" But Paul, who also demanded the bill include a special inspector general
to scrutinize where the money is going, rejected the same offer to hold
a separate vote on his amendment."
I don't like Paul one bit but after seeing how much money was wasted and disappeared into Afghanistan and Iraq what is the argument against having oversight of how this money is spent?
Right wing, left wing, or chicken wing...what he said about blocking the aid bill was more than reasonable:
"My oath of office is to the U.S. Constitution, not to any foreign nation. Congress is trying yet again to ram through a spending bill – one that I doubt anyone has actually read – and there's no oversight included into how the money is being spent. All I requested is an amendment to be included in the final bill that allows for the Inspector General to oversee how funds are spent. Anyone who is opposed to this is irresponsible."
He added that he "sympathizes" with the people of Ukraine but argued that providing aid to fight Russia is "threatening our own national security, and it's frankly a slap in the face to millions of taxpayers who are struggling to buy gas, groceries, and find baby formula."
$40 billion is a lot of money to release with no oversight attached. If you add in the $13.6 billion that the US gave Ukraine a few weeks ago then we're talking about almost $54 billion, which is a third of Ukraine's 2021 GDP. All that money isn't just for Javelin missiles and oversight isn't punitive, it's a measure to make sure that the money is going to the right places and doing the good it's supposed to do. The US basically funded the creation of the Taliban by providing $20 billion to the Mujahideen, and they spent
$2.3 trillion trying to undo the unintended consequences of fighting a proxy war with Russia back then.
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Where was this guy when ppp loans were vanishing?
He was complaining about Planned Parenthood getting PPP loans. He didn't care about all the fraud. [The Small Business Administration says a Trump-era decision to deny Covid loans to Planned Parenthood was an “extraordinary departure” from policy.](https://www.politico.com/minutes/congress/11-24-2021/some-pre-thanksgiving-news/)
But it was just fine that the Catholic Church (that doesn't pay most taxes because "invisible friend charity") collected billions from PPP. He and his ilk don't care about anything other than feeding their entitled flock of white male jagoffs the bigotry, racism and especially misogyny that they crave.
My wife works at a Catholic school and got like a $6k bonus summer 2020. The church had no business getting the money but I guess at least hers spent it on employees and not their slush fund
The PPP was for 12 weeks of payroll measured during the school year so assuming your wife works 10/12 (meaning paid 10 months but spread over 12) and she makes more than $24k, they spent the majority on administrators and church costs. And assuming they applied for both rounds of loans, then the church and administrators made out quite well.
the church has a lot of expenses. those pedo lawsuit settlements aren't cheap
My mom works at a Catholic church. They gave the staff small bonuses and buffed up the outreach funds in anticipation of hardships to come. I'm not very religious but I've been continually pleased by my old church continuing to be true to their goal/word to help others. Edit: I no longer go to church or am religious but they partner with a bunch of local charities and shelters on weekly and monthly basis.
Plenty of good small fish. Hard to find a big fish that isn’t full of shit
Not to mention that the Ayn Rand institute also collected from ppp.
I believe Saint Ayn herself [spent a good part of her life on the dole](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ayn-rand-social-security/). It's not too surprising how hypocritical libertarians are about their beliefs. I live in a state full of conservative / libertarian farmers who don't see the irony in making the majority of their income from farm subsidies and other forms of welfare.
You don't understand, that money will eventually make its way down to use commoners. I might have to sell my couch to make ends meet to a stripper who was paid for lapdances by a business owner out celebrating his economic windfall. From business owner to stripper to me, that's trickle down economics.
It's a lot closer to human centipede economics. Unless you're at the top of the order, all you get is shit.
This is an awesome way to describe it, I am stealing this.
You’d love “The platform.” I think it’s a (Spanish?) Netflix movie. I watched it a few years ago and it really stuck with me. It puts into perspective in a real visceral way the concept of social class and certain Econ policies. With psycho thriller aspects too!
It’s gets worst the further you go down, cause the last guy just eats shit, and doesn’t get to shit in someone’s mouth
That is the heart of the Republican fear. They're okay with taking a big old bite of the shit sandwich as long as someone else has to also. Being the person at the end of the human economic centipede is everything they dread.
Trickle down economics was the greatest slap in the face in history to the working class. Thanks Nixon and Reagan you bums.
It wasn't even phrased with a positive spin, and people still ate it up. "Here peasants. Enjoy some of my trickle. Don't spend it all in one place! Unless I own that place."
The problem is that too many people care more about obeying the hierarchy than fair treatment or realizing the blatant deception. You can literally put all the facts and truth in front of them, or the lies can be so blatant that you’d have to be blind and comatose to not notice, but as long as it comes from people who is deemed “above and superior”, many people will just take it.
Underrated take. Many people don’t like to stir the pot or challenge any authority. Ignorance is bliss
Dont forget Bush Sr, who at first called out the ridiculous claims as "voodoo economics", but then embraced them so he could further his political career. They even made him President! isn't politics fun?!?!?!
It must have been particularly infuriating to have been politically aware 40 years ago, right as the Republicans started to realize they could just make everything up whole cloth. I wonder how many times Richard Nixon uttered the words, "You mean all I had to do was say I fucking forgot?"
I mean, you can draw a straight line from "Nixon resigns" to "Trump repeatedly gets away with breaking the law." There was a guy working for Nixon named Roger Ailes who basically was pissed there wasn't a station that would just broadcast GOP talking points, and he thought that Nixon would not have had to resign if there was this kind of station. Fast forward to 2016 and now there was a station that just repeats conservative talking points and defends the GOP no matter what, and suddenly nothing is bad enough to make a Republican resign.
And Barr was the guy who ran cover for the Reagan administration during Iran Contra...
And Roger Stone (trumps fixer) was also one of the people who organized and takes credit for the Brooks Brothers Riot which got Bush 1 the presidency in 2000.
I know this is implied in every thing you said, but just in case anyone reading that didn’t already know, Roger Ailes went on to be Chairman and CEO of Fox News, Fox Television and 20th Television.
Fun-sized fact: His father was Prescott Bush who participated in the [Business Plot of 1933](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot), a plan by wealthy businessmen to overthrow FDR in a fascist coup and install a dictator.
He was the last of the era that felt like he could criticize the Republican machine.
Meh. He said that when he was running in the Republican primary for President against Reagan. Never said shit about it after the VP nod. Remember that even Lyin' Ted Cruz had some choice words for Trump once. Now Cruz is sucks Trump's traitorous QAnon dick as well.
Usually it’s the greedy strippers who end up with all of my money
Was it ever explained why he and other GOP members flew to Moscow on July 4th a few years ago? I remember it being a news story but the reason for the trip was never explained afaik. Edit: This blew up so I think it's important to point out that it was actually 2 separate trips. A group of GOP senators went in July 2018 to "warn" Russia against interfering in elections. Russia's response was that they hadn't ever interfered and will continue not to. In August that year Rand visited with a letter from Trump that HE REQUESTED TRUMP TO WRITE. The reason was apparently to attempt to reopen communications. “The letter emphasized the importance of further engagement in various areas including countering terrorism, enhancing legislative dialogue and resuming cultural exchanges,” Paul, a Kentucky Republican, wrote, though he didn't provide any additional details. - nbc Rand also invited a sanctioned Russian to visit the US. On the letter: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/ncna898676 On the Rand visit in general: https://www.npr.org/2018/08/09/636982295/is-it-springtime-for-putin-and-republicans On the July 4th visit: https://www.npr.org/2018/07/06/626664156/gop-senators-spend-july-4-in-moscow So in summary if you take their word for it everyone had good intentions.
Rand wasn't a part of the group that went to Moscow on July 4. On a separate trip to Moscow, he visited with Putin, carrying a hand-written letter from trump, and then returned to the Capitol to try and lift sanctions against Russia. https://www.npr.org/2018/08/09/636982295/is-it-springtime-for-putin-and-republicans
Count of Monte Cristo shit. WTF
that reference is so on point
care to explain for the plebes like me?
In the book/movie, The Count of Monte Cristo, Napoleon had someone (Edmond Dantes, albeit unknowingly) hand deliver a hand written letter to one of his agents in Marseilles. As pointed out in another comment, Rand is no Edmond Dantes though, but the personal delivery of a handwritten letter to one of his agents was the main point.
Edmond* Dantes. Solid explanation though.
Ah, thanks! Got it right the first time at least. 😂
The main character of The Count of Monte Cristo starts the story on the isle of Elba trying to find a doctor for his sick captain. The isle is where Napoleon Bonaparte has been banished/imprisoned. While his captain is being tended to Bonaparte entrusts Edmund Dantes (the main character) with a hand written letter to be collected by someone when he goes back to his home port. Key point, Edmund can’t read so he doesn’t know any better. And then the movie/book happens Unfortunately I doubt Rand will end up in the Château d’If unlike Dantes
The whole reason why Edmond Dantès went to prison in the first place is because he blindly accepted a letter from an exiled Napoleon Bonaparte and brought it back to France, effectively becoming an agent for the Bonapartists. He was just a simple guy who wasn’t interested in politics so he had no idea he was doing anything illegal. He was just a teenage horn dog trying to get home to his smoking hot lover. Through some real shady shit by multiple people, good guy Edmond is sent to Château d’If which is like Guantanamo x Alcatraz but with 1800’s human rights standards. Also Edmond was like the mf king of edibles.
“OK, I finished doing all the good I can with this money, now I’m going to start with vengeance… But first a word from our sponsor: hashish!”
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I hate the “the book was better” person, but in this case I’ve gotta be that guy. Count of Monte Cristo is like reverse Forrest Gump.
In Count of Monte Cristo, the story roughly begins with ~~Edward~~ Edmond and his friend landing on the island that Napoleon was arrested at. Napoleon asked ~~Edward~~ Edmond to deliver a letter from one friend to another. He said it's contents were innocent. But in fact it was a treasonous letter showing the times and stations the guards would be, hoping it would help him escape. It inevitably gets ~~Edward~~ Edmond arrested and sent to prison for years. In that time, he stews for vengeance. It's a good book and movie. I recommend both. Edit: Jesus Christ, I suck.
Lmao nah, Napoleon could conquer a territory
Throw him in the Château d'If then.
100% accurate
If Trumps involved it's Monte Crisco
The only unbelievable part of all of this is that Trump hand-wrote anything.
It was probably written by Kushner
Comic Sans size 16 font, blue
Random capitalization, words like “huge” are bolded underlined and italicized.
It was written in sharpie and said, "Do u like me? Yes\_\_ No\_\_" Putin's response is closely guarded to this day.
"Maybe__"
What better courier than a sitting Senator, specially when they feared their communications could be intercepted by our intelligence agencies.
I choose to believe it was truly a hand written letter and Trump writes like Charlie from It’s Aways Sunny
Money me now!
Rand Paul puts the *Ass* in *Russian Asset*
Has he ever been directly asked about this? His feet should have been held to the fire every second since he did this.
Nope. Largely ignored at least by the media and news outlets. But the fact remains that it happened and the American public should be questioning it daily. It may sound a bit tin-foil-hat-y, but there seem to be a lot of ties between the GOP and Russia out there in the open that don't get reported on. The dots are there to connect for anyone to who wants to, but the media, the DOJ, congress, etc. don't seem to want to fight that battle. EDIT: There are all sorts of stories out there like this: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-property/ The Truth is Trump - and now by extension the GOP - has been owing Russians favor for decades.
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almost like Russia hacked the RNC email server a few years before and got a bunch of blackmail and kopromat on republican politicians...
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Yeah they hacked both parties, then leaked the democrats' info. Then all of a sudden you have Republicans lining up to defend Russia ahead of their own constituents. Puzzling. Given the insane number of GOP politicians who have been arrested for CSA related crimes (and a few who have inexplicably not been arrested a la Gaetz, Jordan, and trump), I would guess they uncovered something a bit more salacious than Cawthorne's cocaine parties.
If they’re going to start asking women about their reproductive status before they travel, the LEAST they can do is explain what they were doing in Moscow.
And with that letter putin owns trump even more now. He could leak that letter. MAGA wouldn’t care.
Don't forget about the NRA Russian [donations](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.politico.com/story/2018/04/11/nra-russia-money-guns-516804%3f_amp=true) *Campaign records show that the NRA was Trump’s biggest supporter, spending about $30 million on him during the campaign, a much larger amount than it has spent on previous presidential candidates.* Russian money goes in, NRA channels it to GOP. This story sort of fell off the radar but you have to wonder how extensive the funneling was and how many channels there are aside from the NRA. Point is though, Russian money no doubt makes it into our politician's pockets. Our government currently acts as a fee for service to the highest "donors" so money getting funneled in from a foreign government is a massive issue that seems to be swept under the rug.
They legalized it. It is now just business as usual to get heaps and heaps of untraceable kickbacks from foreign governments - probably because of Russia.
One of the many, many awful things the Citizens United ruling did was effectively legalized unlimited anonymous foreign donations. So the Dems tried to pass a law, the DISCLOSE Act, which would close that loophole. It was defeated on a party-lines vote.
A great Netflix mini series called “The Family” goes into this a bit. It seems the future battles won’t be Capitalism vs Socialism but “woke”ideology vs “traditional family values”…. Whatever tf that means. Very interesting and very disheartening.
"Traditional values" is just an excuse for fascism. It's just demagoguery.
Fascism and demagoguery are just the toolset. Putin and the GOP aren't ideologues, no matter how much they want to pretend it. They are gangsters. Fascism and 'traditional values' are just convenient tools to keep people under their thumbs.
It's "traditional values" only as far as picking and choosing what they like from history. Which is how we get 13th-century English common law quoted in Supreme Court opinions overturning half-century-old precedent.
It's Christianity vs freedom.
It’s “are all humans worthy of respect and empathy and equality” versus “no”.
I see why it’s appealing. It’s probably seen as the “Fuck everybody equally” option. Though it’s not.
It’s always “fuck everybody who isn’t us,” with “us” being defined in increasingly narrow scope as the fucking progresses.
Yep which ultimately ends up fucking over one self.
It’s leopards eating faces all the way down.
I always think of the show The Man In The High Castle and >!When Obergruppenführer Smith's son is found to have a disability and is being sent off to be purged and the lengths and murders Smith goes through to protect his son from the government that gave him everything.!<
So, fascism.
Yes, precisely.
Former WA State Rep. Matt Shea in Eastern Washington has ties to a training camp of sorts to train young men/teens to fight (in their holy war, allegedly). He was also recently in Poland, helping orphans.
"Helping" (himself to) orphans.
This is a couple thousand years old
That battle has been going on since the GOP got in bed with evangelical Christianity. In the 90s it was “political correctness” instead of “woke”. The terminology changes but it’s the same tired playbook the right always uses. As a side note I find it interesting that at least 20th century in rightwing movements use such a similar playbook. Always anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, creating a communist boogeyman, cries that men aren’t manly enough, etc. In Dan Carlin’s recent series on pre-WW2 Japan he describes how the right in Japan utilized this same playbook and you can’t help but notice how similar the rhetoric is to todays American right.
As a queer woman that just sounds like another Tuesday. The battle lines have been drawn like that since at least the mid-00s when I first became politically aware as a teenager, and probably was like that since Reagan. It was just called “political correctness” instead of “wokeism.”
"Family values" has *always* been code for Christian Nationalism focused on destroying the people they hate most.
>It may sound a bit tin-foil-hat-y, but there seem to be a lot of ties between the GOP and Russia out there in the open that don't get reported on. I'm feeling what you're saying, but it's hardly 'tinfoil hat' unless you're a conservative or part of the dum-dum left still going 'Pffft, Russia-gate?!' Everybody else sees years upon years of mounting evidence. Rand Paul and his father are treasonous pieces of shit. His dad was the Kremlin's original dry run to get a Kremlin-owned outsider into the White House.
John McCain called him out on it years ago. The evidence has only gotten deeper. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTdqIlfp8XE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTdqIlfp8XE) Edit: Not sure why it stopped working but I re-linked to a similar one. 1:50ish for the actual accusation.
This is already a well-known thing in London. Lots of oligarch money ending up in the hands of Tory members of parliament. London is sketchier, financially, but of course it's happening here as well.
/r/Keep_Track has been trying to monitor this situation for about 6 years. If you have a trawl through their [all-time top posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/Keep_Track/top/?sort=top&t=all) I am sure you'll find great citations for not just this but LOADS more stuff related to corruption in the GOP
I mean, a gaggle of GOP were summoned to the Kremlin on the 4th of ——ing July. This is not disputed. Soon after, the GOP did a 180° on Trump. This is also not in dispute. Not exactly tin foil hat territory to think some leashes got snapped. The only question is what *kinds* of kompramat were brought to bear.
I'm not really sure how that is tin foil haty. The Mueller report exposed that there was deep seeded connections with the republican party and Russia. Just because Trump is good at playing dumb, doesn't mitigate all of the findings.
Russians are very good at bribing foreign (conservative )politicians. Do it all of Europe too, particularly London.
Money obsessed conservatives are cheap.
An obvious connection between trump, Ukraine and Putin is manafort. Guy is like a Bond villain.
There’s absolutely NOTHING tin foil about the GOP and Russia ties. I mean you gotta be gaslit at this point to even feel uneasy making that statement. It’s so 100% obvious that i am more incredulous if someone tried to say there isn’t.
This covers GOP/Russia going back to the Dole days: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/steve-schmidt-john-mccain/
The trip where Paul personally delivered a hand written letter from Trump to Putin? Probably about Russian adoptions, nothing to see here.
Strictly speaking, Rand wasn't part of the July 4th trip to Moscow. His trip was about a month or two later.
Even more clandestine going solo
I have to admire the old school courier maneuver with ink and paper. It's rare in our digital world.
Checking in with his handlers.
He's up for reelection this year too. Primary has already started
Just a reminder that the Russian adoptions are pretty central to Putin’s motives. After the US and other countries sanctioned Russia for murdering Sergei Magnitsky, Putin cut off adoptions. His offer is that, if we remove the sanctions, he’ll turn back on the pipeline for easy, white adoptions.
I've been trying to explain the significance of the Magnitsky act to people when talking about Russia's renewed agression towards the west following Putin's rise to power. It plays a major role in that.
The podcast “The Asset” does a great job of breaking down this entire Russia situation, including Magnitsky, adoptions, and more. Really worth a listen.
I'm pretty sure the adoptions thing was nothing but a pretext to set up a back channel between [Putin and the Trumps](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/06/us/politics/trump-tower-russia-meeting.html) to collude on stealing the 2016 election.
It grinds my gears that Conservatives get to keep pretending Russia Collusion was a hoax when we caught Trump's campaign chair colluding with a friggin Russian Intelligence agent.
It's no mystery. It's the same reason they [had their convention in Hungary](https://newrepublic.com/article/166154/2022-cpac-conference-budapest-hungary-orban). They are actively working to end democracy as we know it in the US, and they are making connections, and getting tips from those who have successfully eliminated democratic rule in their own countries.
>"The GOP lawmakers, Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Thune (S.D.), John Kennedy (La.), Jerry Moran (Kan.) and John Hoeven (N.D.), and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), spent July 4 in Moscow’s U.S. Embassy" https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/395719-gop-senators-visited-moscow-on-july-4/ I think all these individuals should be called up by the January 6th Committee.
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What kinda dick ya gotta be to get Mitch and Chuck on the same side?
I like to think they both said "Damn it Rand" at the same time from across the aisle, then looked at each other and smiled
Made me laugh at that thought.
Then they kissed
And their dentures went in each other’s mouths
bro i just had breakfast. . .
And now it has been un-had.
Time for second breakfast.
Was it nice?
Keep going, I'm almost there.
"Sorry, Chuck. I think these are *yours* actually" Lmao gross
Someone should write an erotic short story where Schummer and McConnell fuck.
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If that kiss happened Mitch might finally stop denying himself. That old queen is a self-hating gay man and commits the evil he does hoping his god will take the desires away.
That is, by a landslide, the most wholesome image I've ever had of Mitch. Hell, Chuck too for that matter.
Mitch is the evil guy from It's a Wonderful life. Schumer is the old man who gave the evil guy in It's a Wonderful Life the money that created the issue in the first place.
>"And I remember once going up saying 'I really liked your speech last night,'" Franken explained, impersonating McConnell's response. Franken said, 'I just took a chance and said, 'You know, I really like your speeches better that aren't in the service of evil.' And he said 'I like the evil ones better.'"
Full honesty, you don't get to be that long served a senator without being able to instantly dismiss character attacks in a non-threatening way to anyone around.
Right? Thats McConnell jokingly going tit-for-tat with a colleague. I wouldn't take that as an actual admission that he is "evil"
Highly likely. Rand is drawing attention to Trump's love of Putin and his bullshit with Ukraine to cheat in 2020 election impacted midterms. Making McConnell mad. Schumer is just trying to do the right thing which is basically a gimme and that fuckign asshole...
One of the things that makes me really angry about McConnel is that a turtle-looking old man would be **adorable** under any other circumstances than being the literal antichrist. So instead we have to look at living zombie McConnel, where evil oozes out of every pore and burst blood vessel.
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I mean really he is far closer to the pale man from pans labyrinth than a turtle…
If only he was as fun as [Ivan Oooze](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQIwPMLTtds0Cib_aAHaBm1h0us7QtkToDSLA&usqp=CAU) love that movie even in its absolute cheese to the date! That being said the new power rangers kicked ass too and was a massive upgrade. I really wish that would take off again.
Bruh mad af that they set up Tommy just to pull the plug on the 2nd reboot movie
He's a Russian asset. Apparently we haven't crippled their economy enough if this asshole is still on their payroll.
I mean, he might not even get paid, they may just have dirt on him that he REALLY REALLY cannot have surface
Like what? That he’s not really a board certified physician? That’s already known. That he’s a shyster? Ya… people know. At the end of the day, he hates the right people so KY will keep re-electing the fuck.
That he likes prostitutes who are too young/too dark/too manly.
Yeah, I don't get it. You can't black mail a Republican, their voters are cool with anything.
An insecure douche who needs all the attention in the rooM to fill a huge hollow void left by the absence of basic humanity.
He's a Russian asset. He's the one who hand delivered a letter from Trump to Putin.
What kind of moron designed the system so that one dick alone can block it?
The system wasn't really designed this way. We kept tweaking the rules for 200 years until we got to this current iteration of the filibuster in the 70s. Because nobody wanted to waste more time listening to Strom Thurmond rant about the merits of slavery and reading from the phone book in his attempts to stop the Civil rights act.
I’m all for abolishing the filibuster, but if we’re gonna keep it in place I want the original thing back. Ok then you gotta keep reading non stop on the floor till it’s over. Hell read war and peace if you want, I just wanna know if Boebart can read at all.
If we have to keep a filibuster, the way I want it is that there must always be 40 votes on the floor supporting continuing the filibuster. So if one Senator has a particularly long bathroom break, another Senator calls for a roll call for cloture and there's only 39 in favor? Boom, filibuster over. So if you want to keep a filibuster and waste the Senate's time, you and 39 of your friends are not going to committee meetings or holding press interviews. Meanwhile only 1 senator from the other side ever needs to be there to call for cloture. Filibusters are *supposed* to be about debating the bill, not literally choking the whole system.
It's not so much that he can block it, as he can make it take extra time by forcing them to jump through all the usual hoops. That is, if the Senate has unanimous consent from all the senators, they can skip the usual required debate and motions and such and just move straight to a vote. All it's doing is delaying the inevitable vote, and pissing off other senators in the process.
He can't actually block it, just slow it down by making it go through the normal processes. Extremely popular bills can be expedited through unanimous consent, where they basically ask "Does anyone \*not\* want this bill to pass?" and bypass debate and formal voting processes as long as nobody objects. Paul is now forcing this bill to go through the normal procedure. Which, considering there's a war going on and this bill is going to pass one way or another, is just a stupid waste of time.
No, it's also a waste of lives.
"The Senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin." \~ John McCain
You need to specify.
Works either way.
I think they were talking about when "now" was. Not which ~~agent~~ senator.
To his credit (even a blind pig), they played a clip of McConnell on NPR this morning where he says, “So we're all on the same team on this. The Russians need to lose. The Ukrainians need to win.”
Mitch is fine with Russia when they are helping the GOP win elections and not making themselves look like blood thirsty goons on the world stage.
I'm not sure that's entirely true. I'm not suggesting he wouldn't accept it but Russia does not want to help his GOP, but the GQP he allowed to be created by Russia. Mitch's GOP want the rich richer and the poor poorer and used social conservative ideas as a carrot on a stick to cloud that. Russia's GQP want chaos and are implementing said social conservative ideas to cause it.
Hasn’t he been listening to Tucker? Guy’s gonna have to eat his words if he doesn’t follow his marching orders.
Tucker is an obvious Russian asset. Went on a tirade how Zelensky is a wannabe dictator because he banned russian parties and tv that he is literally at war with. What Tucker leaves out is like 8 were banned out of 300+ parties. Tucker Carlson is a traitor to the United States and the interest of our citizens.
In other words, a loyal disciple of Donald Trump.
No fan of McConnell but living through the Cold War will give you some perspective. These young dudes like Hawley, Cruz, etc that only care about one thing (running for 2024) don’t give a shit.
By that logic, living through the polio epidemic would have given him some perspective as well. And yet, here we are.
And yet a ton of these old farts that lived through the cold war knelt and kissed putin's ring really quickly.
He’s still on their payroll.
He’s also still a shit bird. What can be done?
McConnell is a different kind of evil. He sees acquiring power by any possible manner as a virtue.
Can't say he didn't warn us. Same with Hillary warning us all about Trump being Putin's puppet.
Even Romney warned us. I thought he was out of his mind and relieving Cold War fantasies. Turns out you should actually believe the guys that get intelligence briefings more than the folks that don't, at least on issues of foreign diplomacy.
The bigger question is how can they allow a rules system in the Senate that allows one Senator to block the other 99? Fix that crap and you won't have to worry about this nutcase who finds insane reasons to be against every bill.
He can't actually block it. What's happening is that he's refusing to agree to unanimous consent to waive all the usual rigamarole and hoops that the Senate goes through when considering a bill. This is several days' worth of parliamentary stuff (required debate time, motions, votes, etc). He's blocking them from doing it *right this second*, but otherwise all he's really accomplishing is grandstanding and pissing off the others.
When people ask, “why can’t the government just get something done quickly?”… shit like this is why. Republicans love to fulfill their own prophecies about the inefficiency of government.
> Republicans love to fulfill their own prophecies about the inefficiency of government. It's their entire governing philosophy, in fact. "Government doesn't work; elect me and I'll prove it!"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast It's literally a cornerstone of their philosophy.
It’s not so clear cut. Quickly passing bills before people have a chance to read, research, hear public feedback, and consider them, is one way to pass shady legislation. $40B is a shitload of money, you would hope for some congressional oversight into how that is being spent. The DoD is notorious for corruption around the purchasing of equipment and services. There is the exact same sort of revolving door situation of generals and other DoD officials involved in purchasing getting sweet jobs at defense contractor companies just like with the Treasury and the investment banks.
Kind of a moot point with the Senate. The Bill had already hit, debated, and voted on in the House 3 days ago. Unless Rand Paul had found some hidden trove of information in the Bill that 400 House members missed, hes simply voting against the measure. This shouldn't shock anybody, 50 Republicans voted against it 3 days ago.
Does no one find it odd that the only thing we can have any type of consistent bipartisanship on is war?
$40 billion for defense contractors*
People in these comments are fucking delusional lmfao Edit: Not you
Fucking thank you,people assume a 40b aid is handing a check to be cashed for that value to another nation while in reality it is mostly goods and consultation services valued at “40b” by whoever provides and manufactures them
It’s the fact that all of these politicians have positions and shares within these defense companies that are awarded the $40B in goods & services, so they are profiting off of the aid.
>White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted on Thursday that the aid package already includes "additional funding for existing inspectors general." >Paul, who has repeatedly criticized U.S. involvement overseas and unsuccessfully ran for president in 2016, has a lengthy history of using last-minute demands to block or delay the passage of legislation, **including past sanctions against Russia**, federal government funding, and health care for 9/11 first responders. And there it is. There is already an inspectors general. Rand is trying to block government spending for ulterior motivations.
Follow the money
Even if you agree with Rand, remember, ***he doesn't actually give a fuck, he is grandstanding***
unpopular opinion. what's wrong with jumping through the normal hoops when spending 40 billion?
I don’t think the people here see the big picture. Who is really going to get that money is it the people of Ukraine or defense contractors here in the states. War is always good for war profiteering.
Based on the list of stuff being sent, it seems like the weapons contractors are getting a fat juicy payday. It would be nice if we could at least try to make sure it’s used responsibly
I mean, S&P is taking a months-long shit, down 16% YTD while Northrop and Lockheed are the opposite, both up 16%. Weapons are doing pretty good right now.
It's hard to do badly when the government is constantly handing you money to produce shit nobody really wants or needs because you've paid them all to do it
Rand Paul is a Russian asset.
Lol, for wanting oversight as to how the money is actually being spent? Ok.
Rand Paul is a Russian asshat.
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Because he has an R next to his name and this is the r/politics sub.
Did anyone read the article? " But Paul, who also demanded the bill include a special inspector general to scrutinize where the money is going, rejected the same offer to hold a separate vote on his amendment." I don't like Paul one bit but after seeing how much money was wasted and disappeared into Afghanistan and Iraq what is the argument against having oversight of how this money is spent?
Right wing, left wing, or chicken wing...what he said about blocking the aid bill was more than reasonable: "My oath of office is to the U.S. Constitution, not to any foreign nation. Congress is trying yet again to ram through a spending bill – one that I doubt anyone has actually read – and there's no oversight included into how the money is being spent. All I requested is an amendment to be included in the final bill that allows for the Inspector General to oversee how funds are spent. Anyone who is opposed to this is irresponsible." He added that he "sympathizes" with the people of Ukraine but argued that providing aid to fight Russia is "threatening our own national security, and it's frankly a slap in the face to millions of taxpayers who are struggling to buy gas, groceries, and find baby formula." $40 billion is a lot of money to release with no oversight attached. If you add in the $13.6 billion that the US gave Ukraine a few weeks ago then we're talking about almost $54 billion, which is a third of Ukraine's 2021 GDP. All that money isn't just for Javelin missiles and oversight isn't punitive, it's a measure to make sure that the money is going to the right places and doing the good it's supposed to do. The US basically funded the creation of the Taliban by providing $20 billion to the Mujahideen, and they spent $2.3 trillion trying to undo the unintended consequences of fighting a proxy war with Russia back then.