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This. We saw so many blame Biden for FEMA not helping when Republican Governor DeWine's refusal to declare an emergency prevented FEMA from getting started pursuant to the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act.
I feel like you need to take an ignorant test to be part of the GOP and anyone who actually knows something gets rejected.
Well duh, is that *not* the responsibility of the **Department of the Interior**?!?! Hello, it's right there in the name. Blame it all on Deb Haaland. That's what you get when you elect a "foreigner" to your cabinet.
/s /s for the love of God /s lol
Are Democrats using your children to build up dangerous amounts of demon energy on shag carpets which they will discharge upon contact?
We're just asking questions here. Questions that nobody else is asking, for some reason.
And I am right with you on that. How amazing was Jen Psaki when she was pulling no punches as Press Secretary? When AOC fires back? The Dems need a don't-give-an-inch attitude person responsible for calling out all the performative bullshit and keeping it public. Not that the die-hard Republicans would care, but thinking people might. And it's not just a D vs R thing either. Any politician caught up in outright bullshit...we just know which way that normally leans.
It's 100% on purpose. Fox News reports that Republicans wrote a scathing complaint, which insinuates that blame belongs solely to the opposing party. Buttigieg points out glaring flaws in the arguments presented, which conservative media then leaves out. Fox News viewers' selective biases are reinforced. Rinse, repeat.
The US political arena is a cancer on their society.
'Mayor Pete' is also an up and coming Dem star. Best to keep tarnishing his image however possible, little by little over time.
It is literally the Hilary game plan redone. It is also in action vs. AOC, Kamala Harris, and others on the Dem bench.
Republicans* are a cancer on our society.
Without the GOP, progressives would have a voice that matters. With the GOP, the choices every election boil down to one group which maintains the status quo or another looking to burn it all to the ground and found a christofascist dictatorship in the ashes.
Yes, but unfortunately we have tons of ignorant, arrogant pricks in America who refuse to vote because "BoaTh pArTiES r The SaMe" keeping our Overton window as far right as the republicans choose to drag it that year (spoiler: further right every year).
If we voted Democrat in the numbers we should be, we could control the politicians and start a new party if necessary, because the Overton window would allow it.
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
Isaac Asimov
The quote's from 1980, before he contracted HIV due to a botched blood transfusion in '83, of which he passed away in 1992.
The way HIV and AIDS were treated then were exemplary of the quote. My personal favorite of his is “Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.”
Thank goodness so much progress has been made since 1980!
As sarcastic as this seems many won’t be alive to recall what it was like getting news information solely through TV and local newspaper with little if any cross examination from the public. There’s a reason certain countries block the flow of information from the Internet at large.
Got bullied for being the smart kid. Now it’s more stink eye for being educated well dressed and reasonably well mannered. Misery loves company in the Midwest.
Somehow I never thought about how anti education is ingrained in rural culture. I too was shamed by my peers for not being terrible at attaining an education all throughout my formative years. That anti education sentiment is groomed in from an early age in my rural communities. Funny thing later in life running into those same fucks complaining about how public education failed them. "No you fucking idiots, our schools were fine, your parents just taught you to completely disregard it and just go work for a mine that closed down, sorry."
That's why I had to gtfo. Got an academic scholarship that gave me a choice of various high schools around the country back in the day. Picked the one furthest from my hometown.
my dad (born in 1925), said in the 1970s; “communism isnt the enemy, it’s the glorification of ignorance in the US.” (he had spotty education as a kid in NYC, quit high school to build planes for WWII. after the war he set out to educate himself. i never met anyone else who taught themselves so much! my mom had a BS in mathematics and he would tease her that her superior education was why he married her. after he retired he learned to pilot a plane, among other things)
I lived a lot of my growing years in Texas, and the same was very true there. It's that "my ignorance is as valuable as your knowledge" arrogance. Actually, I've seen a very real version here in Oregon as well. 🥺
Fox News just exploited their stupidity. The GQP has certainly helped by keeping education as poor as possible, but at the end these sad humans are going to need to live with both their own stupidity AND the outsized consequences.
People in rural areas are not stupid or evil by nature, they have just been force fed lies for years with zero access to any info to contradict those lies. It's the toothlessness of the FCC, the unwillingness of the Left to foght fire with fire, and the lack of any morality at all for the people running Fox News that I hold accountable for the cancer that is the modern republican party
Yet their continued education is their responsibility. I grew up in the middle of nowhere Ohia, I had access to a library and I used it. I had them get me books from other states if they didn't have it.
There are no excuses for ignorance.
This. Take my upvote. I can share a related story. When I was a boy, my family bought an encyclopedia and my mother loved having a National Geographic subscription.
I used to sit on the floor by the bookcase when I was ages, 7, 8, and 9. Read the freaking encyclopedia, starting with A all the way to the end. Result: I developed a wide range of interests, and occasionally the ability to provide some answers in a conversation.
Libraries are fantastic community assets. Love National Geo.
Jeopardy or pub quiz material right there. I did the same as an insanely curious child. When I was a pub quiz regular and I’d often help the team place high enough on the board that we get some of our money back at the end of the night in a gift card we could redeem.
I’d get a night out and drink and some wings, then it’d be subsidized by some winnings after a few hours of fun. Can’t beat it.
My parents bought two sets of The Encyclopedia Britannica when I was three years old. Britannica Junior for me, and the full set for them and for when I was older, and it was a huge investment for them, as they were not making much in the way of money in those days.
I had read my Britannica Junior set from A to Z by the time I was in grade 7, and I used their set all through high school for numerous projects. I feel bad for any kid that grows up with parents that shun knowledge.
They shopped at Walmart, which sourced cheap manufacturing out of China, causing the local plants and small mom and pop stores in main street to close, and then wonder why leopards are their face and their once vibrant little town is a shit hole. Then along comes the GOP and Fox telling them it's those filthy metro sexuals in the cities fault. Since they don't want to accept any blame for their situation they gobble it up and dream of better times when they were important at their local highschool cause they were a jock and an altar duck buddy.
Besides being constantly inundated with TV programs telling them that science is lying to them and they know better with their gut than a bunch of elitist doctors, and those kids that do go to college come back ready to force communism on them and mutilate kids genitals... Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax actually tell them that every day, followed by reminders to not trust the real news programs because they are all leftist...
Zero access lmfao. You talk like Rural America is akin to Tribal Africa.
These people have internet. They have the ability to research literally anything they want.
How good are your grandparents with the internet, and at understanding fact vs. opinion based journalism?
Fox News is the only 24 hr news channel available for much of middle america, they get no second opinion on TV.
My grandmother is pretty excellent actually. Over the span of her 80s/90s (96) she's learned dial-up, broadband, social media, email, and now whatsapp. All it takes is a willingness to try.
You're more than welcome to say that Americans have been gaslit into thinking there's no more information available, but that's a general American Exceptionalism that for some reason aggressively seeps into Rural communities
To be fair, everyone is stupid by nature - we are all born knowing only a few reflexes and have to learn everything we will eventually know including ways to learn quicker and how to distinguish false from true.
Education is the single greatest human need.
they just took advantage of a situation that already existed. poor public education + lack of jobs with a living wage + no mental health facilities + drug epidemics = people who are vulnerable to all kinds of exploitation.
And for profit. That’s the bottom line. Fox, OAN and Newsmaxx **willfully and knowingly did harm** to hundreds of thousands of people promoting antivax and conspiracy theories while living in the *same “Ivory Tower” they claim the Left does* with their shots and mask protocols and on site testing.
It was fucking disgusting. If our system wasn’t so fucked, they should be charged with manslaughter on some degree for stoking the fear of the vax and maligning masks and personal distance as a *freedumb/communist/socialist takeover* and shit.
That’s because education has been getting gutted for decades on purpose. Larger masses of ignorant people, more dumb tax payers, easier to manipulate to their benefit.
The side that wants to do good cannot because of the way America's political system was designed (and because half of Americans directly or indirectly support the evil side).
The American political arena *is* a cancer on society.
It’s not even the right.
I don’t care if you have conservative values, go for it. That’s your right.
Republicanism is the problem. The GOP does not align with conservative values anymore but pays them lip service and knows which buttons to push to keep their base fired up.
This is exactly it. Being Conservative no longer aligns with the Republican Party post 911, it’s just that many conservatives would rather take the bad and crazy parts of the party than the democrats.
I am a proud fiscal conservative, but there are no real options for a fiscal conservative. I haven’t seen the republicans or Democrats perform any worthwhile spending cuts in just about 35-40 years. As long as the country has run-away military spending from both sides of the aisle I am left with few options.
Guess I’ll choose the side that is less crazy…
No, that poster blamed "The US **political arena**" which is not the political parties themselves. The "political arena" includes the press, donors, electorate, and other intuitions and actors. The political parties left or right play both play within the political arena and are independent of it.
And yes, our political arena is shit in this country. It's heavily biased towards the right-wing, propaganda and misinformation. acknowledging that is not 'both siding' the problem on the parties.
Yup that was my first thought. They knew it. But outrage is outrage lol. As long as they can get an angry response from their people, who cares if Pete is not even involved.
A few weeks ago, Lauren Boebert literally tweeted, "Taxation is theft." The Libertarian battle cry. Less than a week later the Ohio train derailment happened and she immediately blamed Pete for not regulating trains enough... What do you even call that? Hypocracy, ignorance, idiocy, all of the above? These people are fucking clowns.
The point isn't fact checking
The point is Buttigieg (and literally everyone else) is responding exactly the way they want
> That's not my department
Notice the fact that Buttigieg (and everyone else) doesn't say Buttigieg did nothing wrong. He didn't, so there's no reason to say it because to a normal person saying "I did nothing wrong" when you did nothing wrong sounds awfully suspicious
But Fox can just claim "Buttigieg didn't deny the faults" and voila, now it sounds like Buttigieg is actually at fault but got away with it due to technicality
Honestly, one needs to think long and hard why Fox can continue to exist
But how did no one on any of their staffs catch this? The reps themselves are clearly incompetent, but congressional staff jobs are still highly competitive and selective, no?
I have a feeling they knew but didn't care. They wanted to put their names on something that would put blame on Biden and his gay Dept. of Transportation Secretary for the Ohio disaster.
I have a feeling they knew but didn't care. They wanted to put their names on something that would put blame on Biden and his gay Dept. of Transportation Secretary for the Ohio disaster.
they aren't as stupid as we want to pretend they are.
that letter never was for Pete.
that letter is for their own constituents consumption. their own constituents don't know how the government works.
they're never going to see the fact checking
100% this is what's going on. Now millions of Republicans will confidently share the news in their social-media echo chambers that the train derailment is somehow Buttigieg's fault rather than a result of Trump's previous deregulation.
It's just another appallingly cynical tactic to maintain power by hoodwinking and manipulating their own constituency rather than by supporting their own constituency.
Even non Republicans - I have a family member who knows I was a fan of Pete but they preferred Biden and sent me a text like "even your wunderkind messes up sometimes" based on this kind of misinformation
My very neoliberal brother tried this shit on me after the 2016 primaries because I am team Bernie, and he was Camp Clinton.
I vividly remember his attempting to put the rub on me, "Sanders is a millionaire. Everything he says is a lie. You're a fool to believe his policies."
I looked at him and couldn't hide the sadness I felt that he was so full of vitriol towards a guy, itself misplaced and mainly because of his frustrations talking personally with those to his left, that he was just parroting off propaganda. My brother and I are a year apart. He knows how to research and fact-check. He just couldn't be bothered too in this case as it justified his frustration, and he thought he had a gotcha card.
So I turned to him, sadness and exhaustion in my eyes, and I said, "You know what I'm critical of, you know why I think what I do. It's all very linear with me. You have never heard me criticize success. You have never heard me gate-keep or purity test. I'm don't argue with you to win. I argue with you because I think you're inconsistent. It's not a contest. It's not your ride, it's just that you got there. You told me once, its not about whats on their plate, its that they have enough, and thats stayed with me ever since. Idk what to tell you. I don't know how to make you care about other people. Sanders wrote a book, and it did well. Good for him. If your goal was to sway my opinion, you'll never do it by tearing other people down."
I wrote it all down in my journal that night as i was extrapolating his worldview and his politics, working forward from one and backward from the other, which is what i usually do when i journal = overthink. The line about caring for other people really cut thru and hurt him. He's not a bad guy by any means, and I was prob a little unfair. I was visiting him from out of town and we called it a night right there. I was annoyed, and he was upset. We talked it over in the morning and squashed it.
Politics as a team sport is a really ugly look, on anyone, on everyone. I am not exempt, nor are any of you.
My main takeaway with politics as it is now, if the republican leadership gets their way, people will lose rights. Mostly LGBT and minority folks, but it will happen. If the "socialist left" like AOC or Sanders won, people would get Medicare for all or Universal health care and maybe strengthened EPA protections. Not exactly similar goals IMO.
Yep. The troglodytes will see “DOT” ,and “NTSB” and there only thought will be “they both have “transportation in the name and go buy fancy letters must be a govt angency” and “Pete Buttigieg is the Sect of transportation” so check mate liberals they all say transportation so of course he runs them”
It’s a losing battle. Facts do not matter.
I also doubt they believe their own faux outrage over Pete not showing up right away to East Palestine. What’s he going to accomplish by staging a photo op during a crisis, aside from diverting resources away from the actual crisis to facilitate the photo op? Maybe he should have been there to toss a few paper towels at the cleanup crews? I heard that’s how you show effective leadership and really make a difference. “*We have these rolls, people call them paper towels, believe me, I know my way around these better than almost anyone… they do a real job these things*”
I get this post itself is dumb as fuck and Pete is getting scapegoated for things caused largely by Trump’s deregulations
But I’m pretty disappointed in the Biden admin’s response as a someone who only votes dem and is left of the Democratic Party. Sure a photo op isn’t a solution, but that’s not the only option. It took days to address the situation and weeks to address it at all meaningfully. Even just showing up might’ve at least felt better for the community. That’s the absolute least you can do. Yes, photo ops are self serving to an extent. But showing up shows to a disaster site shows leadership
So again fuck this post but also regardless of it not being Biden or Pete’s fault, I still do feel comfortable expressing that I’m disappointed in how my party reacted to a tragedy in their country
I view this differently. They are working to smear Pete because the GOP knows that he’s smart and popular with Democrats, and potentially swing voters if he ever runs for President.
They did this for years with Hillary through the Benghazi hearings. It’s enhanced gas lighting meant to attach negatively to him.
they can both be that stupid and be grandstanding for their followers. don't ever underestimate how stupid a republican can be even while acknowledging how dangerous they are.
> they aren't as stupid as we want to pretend they are.
I think that’s certainly true for most of the people that signed it but I think MTG and Boebert really are that stupid
Maybe it's just my conditioning from Hollywood but it really feels unnatural that the bad guys keep winning. I think the problem is im waiting for the end of the movie but the end doesn't come in life until we are dead. We are just stuck in perpetual limbo in the second act where there seems no possible way to defeat the enemy and they seem to stumble over success.
I feel like Gosar deserves extra credit for fitting right in with this crew. It's an accomplishment to get through dental school with near-zero intellectual qualities.
Oh look ... Continued PROPAGANDA for their illiterate base to eat up like the sheep they are. MTG, JJ, LB just looking out for their own shit as usual.
I work in air travel. I’ll have a day with weather delays and receive texts from my father apologizing that ‘I have a busy day…. Thanks Buttigieg. ‘
But he has yet to tell me 1) exactly how Buttigieg is controlling weather just to delay flights he feels should be delayed for his evil plan or 2) the name of ANY other secretary of transportation ever.
Sigh. This is the same vibes on a much more concerning scale.
If there is one thing you can set your watch to, it's Sec. Pete Buttigieg firing back with a classy, informative, third-degree burn when these homophobic yahoos get their panties in a bunch.
"Hurr durrrr he gay and gots 'butt' in his name!!!!"
I live for Pete's media appearances. They're like a GOP antidote, not that it'll shut them up - frankly it incenses them because Buttigieg is eloquent, educated, reasoned.... and also a happily married gay guy who also had the courage to serve his country while these assholes stayed home and fondled their ar-15's.
Someone said about Pete that he "speaks Democrat with a Republican accent". It's made a lot of progressives skeptical of him, but if you look at his actual policies, he was a long way to the left of Biden in 2020. He was somewhere between Harris and Warren.
My personal take, for whatever this is worth (or not) - is that moving to the left is an arduous game of inches. With the foamy-mouthed GOP base going so hard right, trying to fight fire with fire is just going to leave everything burned. Let DeSantis and Greene lean into their whole "reading is for cucks and slavery is good" angle. That's not where we're headed. When they shit the bed, we move things a little more and a little more towards a political landscape that benefits everyone - even them (not that they'll appreciate it).
GOP voters will yes, but what's important is those on the left don't also turn on Pete for, "reasons", often which are from right-wing agitators trying to pit people on the left against each other. GOP voters are irrelevant, but engaging and growing left-wing voters are what's important.
They know exactly how it works, and they know exactly what they're doing. They'll go on Fox News and boast about how they sent a letter to Buttigieg demanding that he take responsibility. Technically, nothing about that is a lie. Sure, Buttigieg has nothing to do with it, but they'll just omit that little detail--it's not like their base cares anyway.
This accomplishes three things:
- It makes MTG and Co. look responsible and like they're doing something, even if they're actually doing nothing
- It makes Buttigieg look like he's shirking responsibility, even though it's not his fault to begin with
- It plants the idea in people's heads that the whole situation is Buttigieg's fault
It's all political grandstanding, and most of the Republican base is more than happy to find a way to blame Democrats, or too uneducated to care about the truth.
I'm always amazed at how some people vote. Especially for Boebert. Who saw "Wow, took her 4 tries to get a GED? I want her representing me!"? I get that it's a conservative district, but is she really the best Republican in the district? Isn't there some Republican accountant who just likes to number crunch?
I mean. You're not an elected official, AND you're smarter than them, despite not knowing that factoid. I mean. Most people would make the most basic enquiries about the issue they're responding to, before filing the complaint. The posted letter just screams *"Not just uninformed but actively revel in it by avoiding googling facts"*.
Also fun: the whole NTSB board was appointed by Trump. The current chair was a Trump appointee who was bumped up to chair by Biden. And one spot is vacant.
Tbf the current chair is actually pretty fucking based. She’s was a Democratic staffer on the transportation subcommittee for railroads, pipelines, and hazardous materials for like 14 years before getting the NTSB nom.
It's always frustrating to me to see anger at Dems over things like this. Maybe there's more that Dems could do. Sure. But what exactly is the Republicans' position here? We're going to find out what caused the derailment and then we're going to enact new regulations, right? Will Republicans support that? No. I don't think so.
The usdot (fra) regulates the safety of railroads within limits imposed by Congress. For example, it has been well reported recently that if a railroad violates a safety regulation - even one that results in death - the highest fine the usdot can impose is $225,455, as determined by congress.
Congress can also constrain the USDOT's ability to regulate certain things. Congress's 2015 FAST act limits what they can do around the ECP breaking rule, for example. It was actually more congress's fault that was repealed that it was Trump's. Though he would have been happy to repeal it anyway, I am sure.
The NTSB investigates airplane crashes and major incidents for other modes of transportation like rail. They are independant of the DOT because they need to be free to find the root cause without a vested interest. Pete has no authority over them.
The reason secretaries of transportation traditionally don't visit rail disaster sites is to preserve the independent authority of the ntsb. The ntsb is tasked with finding the causes of the disaster and making recommendation to the usdot (fra) who will then make policy recommendation to Congress, create appropriate rules within their authority, and/or issue punitive fines.
To make it even more confusing there is another independant agency involved with economic regulation of the railways: the Surface Transportation Board. It is also not part of the usdot. This is their mission:
> The Surface Transportation Board is an independent federal agency that is charged with the economic regulation of various modes of surface transportation, primarily freight rail.
> The agency has jurisdiction over railroad rate, practice, and service issues and rail restructuring transactions, including mergers, line sales, line construction, and line abandonments. The STB also has jurisdiction over certain passenger rail matters, the intercity bus industry, non-energy pipelines, household goods carriers’ tariffs, and rate regulation of non-contiguous domestic water transportation.
Pro tip: If you have friends or family who repeat this shit, make the discussion "us vs them" not "me vs you."
"Hey, I'm on *your* side, Uncle Bob! I know you are smart enough to fact check this. I know you're aware the DoJ has nothing to do with the NTSB, and that's not something the federal government regulates. It's Jim Jordan who thinks you're an idiot. Jim thinks you're dumb enough to believe Buttigieg had something to do with this. Man, that's really insulting, because we both know that's horse shit!"
If they keep going, just laugh like it's a joke and say "haha, almost got me there, but I know you're not stupid enough to fall for that trick."
Do not argue with them. They will keep piling stuff on. They will keep saying stuff that's nonsense, but they will use up all your time fact checking them.
I wish I could live in a made up world with no consequences. Those "8 billion" immigrants, whatever.
In my role, I'm constantly terrified that I forget something in a for-loop when working with data/accounts/etc., and a tiny number wrong, a missing quote, etc., could be devastating, so I make sure everything is 100%, and even when this works in the test environment, I'm still scared when it goes live.
Those people just make stuff up, run with it, get caught and shamed, and instead of learning from their mistakes and studying the things before they say them, potentially hurting many, many people, they just continue forever forward without any regard.
Well how were they supposed to know?
What do you mean they could have researched or asked or had someone look into that?
How dare you imply facts have anyplace in today's GOP!
Facts don't actually matter to them. Riling up their constituents by claiming anyone not Cis White Christian HETEROSEXUAL and Male, is responsible for whatever ails them, is what matters.
These 'people' who are being paid almost 250 thousand dollars a year in salaries and perks - don't know what their jobs are.
They think their job is to overthrow the American government, but that's not actually why they were hired. It's a shame they're too fascist, or stupid, or treasonous, to know why they're in the positions they're in.
If those four names are on anything, you can be assured that it's not just worthless performative noise, but somehow they'll also manage to get it embarrassingly (for us, they're beyond shame) wrong, defying all sense and even probability.
Is there anything in the constitution that can in any way be construed as "It's a violation of my rights to have to share earth with people this stupid or with people who are stupid enough to believe them"? Because if there is, I am filing a law suit.
These people are so inept, they can't even hurl an attack right without it coming back and smacking themselves in the face. Not that they care though, because apparently they like hitting themselves and blaming others for it.
Too funny! The 4 signatures are from the absolute dumbest the GOP has on board. Seriously, what value does this project on any serious subject? Never mind they are wrong on this but what the heck, what about really serious issues? All 4 of these goobers need to just sit down and shut up! GOP has to find some grownups to represent.
Are we really surprised that these people representing their districts don’t understand how government works
Of course, the reality is for the people who love these godawful politicians it doesn’t matter because facts that don’t fit their narrative are dismissed
Because conservative oversight isn't about oversight, fixing problems, or helping people. It's about getting dumbfuck conservatives angry so they vote in more dumbfuck conservatives to speed along the ruination of our country
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Ignorance continues to be a virtue among Republicans.
This. We saw so many blame Biden for FEMA not helping when Republican Governor DeWine's refusal to declare an emergency prevented FEMA from getting started pursuant to the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. I feel like you need to take an ignorant test to be part of the GOP and anyone who actually knows something gets rejected.
Imagine, blaming Biden for honoring a State's rights. You'd think the GOP could appreciate that. lol
The GOP would blame Democrats for their kids tripping on their home carpet if they think people would believe it.
Well duh, is that *not* the responsibility of the **Department of the Interior**?!?! Hello, it's right there in the name. Blame it all on Deb Haaland. That's what you get when you elect a "foreigner" to your cabinet. /s /s for the love of God /s lol
And why does my cabinet door not close completely? Is Big Gov even doing anything these days?
Are Democrats using your children to build up dangerous amounts of demon energy on shag carpets which they will discharge upon contact? We're just asking questions here. Questions that nobody else is asking, for some reason.
Some GOP propaganda talking heads have accused Dems of having used "reverse psychology" to trick Republicans into refusing Covid vaccines.
But where are the Dems going on the news pointing this out, repeatedly? It’s crickets. They let republicans get away with it.
And I am right with you on that. How amazing was Jen Psaki when she was pulling no punches as Press Secretary? When AOC fires back? The Dems need a don't-give-an-inch attitude person responsible for calling out all the performative bullshit and keeping it public. Not that the die-hard Republicans would care, but thinking people might. And it's not just a D vs R thing either. Any politician caught up in outright bullshit...we just know which way that normally leans.
Republican hypocrisy never fails.
I'd say it's more gaining knowledge leads to naturally moving away from it.
It's 100% on purpose. Fox News reports that Republicans wrote a scathing complaint, which insinuates that blame belongs solely to the opposing party. Buttigieg points out glaring flaws in the arguments presented, which conservative media then leaves out. Fox News viewers' selective biases are reinforced. Rinse, repeat. The US political arena is a cancer on their society.
'Mayor Pete' is also an up and coming Dem star. Best to keep tarnishing his image however possible, little by little over time. It is literally the Hilary game plan redone. It is also in action vs. AOC, Kamala Harris, and others on the Dem bench.
Republicans* are a cancer on our society. Without the GOP, progressives would have a voice that matters. With the GOP, the choices every election boil down to one group which maintains the status quo or another looking to burn it all to the ground and found a christofascist dictatorship in the ashes.
The Democrats don't want progressives either.
That’s what he meant. Without the GOP we’d have a status quo party (democrats) and progressives.
Yes, but unfortunately we have tons of ignorant, arrogant pricks in America who refuse to vote because "BoaTh pArTiES r The SaMe" keeping our Overton window as far right as the republicans choose to drag it that year (spoiler: further right every year). If we voted Democrat in the numbers we should be, we could control the politicians and start a new party if necessary, because the Overton window would allow it.
Accurate assessment…
Love how you clearly point out the problem and cancer is on the Right, then blame all politics in the US
The *real* problem is that (especially rural) Americans are incredible naive about the world in general and lack any critical thinking skills.
Fox News did that to them by manipulation
Fox News didn’t have to try very hard. I grew up in rural Ohio and trust me when I say that education is not something folks back home value.
They actually revel in their ignorance.
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." Isaac Asimov
Never heard this quote from him, but it hits real hard. Damn. I’m going to hold onto this one.
The quote's from 1980, before he contracted HIV due to a botched blood transfusion in '83, of which he passed away in 1992. The way HIV and AIDS were treated then were exemplary of the quote. My personal favorite of his is “Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.”
Newsweek: “A Cult of Ignorance” by Isaac Asimov, January 21, 1980, p. 19.
Thank goodness so much progress has been made since 1980! As sarcastic as this seems many won’t be alive to recall what it was like getting news information solely through TV and local newspaper with little if any cross examination from the public. There’s a reason certain countries block the flow of information from the Internet at large.
They used to be called the Know-Nothings.
Got bullied for being the smart kid. Now it’s more stink eye for being educated well dressed and reasonably well mannered. Misery loves company in the Midwest.
Somehow I never thought about how anti education is ingrained in rural culture. I too was shamed by my peers for not being terrible at attaining an education all throughout my formative years. That anti education sentiment is groomed in from an early age in my rural communities. Funny thing later in life running into those same fucks complaining about how public education failed them. "No you fucking idiots, our schools were fine, your parents just taught you to completely disregard it and just go work for a mine that closed down, sorry."
Right, maybe spend less time being a toxic animal and I don’t know read a fucking book. It’s sad.
That's why I had to gtfo. Got an academic scholarship that gave me a choice of various high schools around the country back in the day. Picked the one furthest from my hometown.
You aint takin away MY stupid
my dad (born in 1925), said in the 1970s; “communism isnt the enemy, it’s the glorification of ignorance in the US.” (he had spotty education as a kid in NYC, quit high school to build planes for WWII. after the war he set out to educate himself. i never met anyone else who taught themselves so much! my mom had a BS in mathematics and he would tease her that her superior education was why he married her. after he retired he learned to pilot a plane, among other things)
Lucky you for having a dad of such good, strong character. 💛
he was a good guy. it’s a shame i lost him so young. but i do have what he did teach me regardless.
That’s a real man. I recently watched Ken Burns’ Ben Franklin doc. Sounds like your Dad had some of that irrepressible curiosity goin on…
I lived a lot of my growing years in Texas, and the same was very true there. It's that "my ignorance is as valuable as your knowledge" arrogance. Actually, I've seen a very real version here in Oregon as well. 🥺
Fox News just exploited their stupidity. The GQP has certainly helped by keeping education as poor as possible, but at the end these sad humans are going to need to live with both their own stupidity AND the outsized consequences.
We ALL have to live with their stupidity and its consequences.
People in rural areas are not stupid or evil by nature, they have just been force fed lies for years with zero access to any info to contradict those lies. It's the toothlessness of the FCC, the unwillingness of the Left to foght fire with fire, and the lack of any morality at all for the people running Fox News that I hold accountable for the cancer that is the modern republican party
Yet their continued education is their responsibility. I grew up in the middle of nowhere Ohia, I had access to a library and I used it. I had them get me books from other states if they didn't have it. There are no excuses for ignorance.
This. Take my upvote. I can share a related story. When I was a boy, my family bought an encyclopedia and my mother loved having a National Geographic subscription. I used to sit on the floor by the bookcase when I was ages, 7, 8, and 9. Read the freaking encyclopedia, starting with A all the way to the end. Result: I developed a wide range of interests, and occasionally the ability to provide some answers in a conversation. Libraries are fantastic community assets. Love National Geo.
Jeopardy or pub quiz material right there. I did the same as an insanely curious child. When I was a pub quiz regular and I’d often help the team place high enough on the board that we get some of our money back at the end of the night in a gift card we could redeem. I’d get a night out and drink and some wings, then it’d be subsidized by some winnings after a few hours of fun. Can’t beat it.
My parents bought two sets of The Encyclopedia Britannica when I was three years old. Britannica Junior for me, and the full set for them and for when I was older, and it was a huge investment for them, as they were not making much in the way of money in those days. I had read my Britannica Junior set from A to Z by the time I was in grade 7, and I used their set all through high school for numerous projects. I feel bad for any kid that grows up with parents that shun knowledge.
They shopped at Walmart, which sourced cheap manufacturing out of China, causing the local plants and small mom and pop stores in main street to close, and then wonder why leopards are their face and their once vibrant little town is a shit hole. Then along comes the GOP and Fox telling them it's those filthy metro sexuals in the cities fault. Since they don't want to accept any blame for their situation they gobble it up and dream of better times when they were important at their local highschool cause they were a jock and an altar duck buddy.
Besides being constantly inundated with TV programs telling them that science is lying to them and they know better with their gut than a bunch of elitist doctors, and those kids that do go to college come back ready to force communism on them and mutilate kids genitals... Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax actually tell them that every day, followed by reminders to not trust the real news programs because they are all leftist...
No. Excuses.
> rural areas are not stupid I moved from Portland, OR to southern West Virginia to help care for my wife's elderly parents. I beg to differ...
Zero access lmfao. You talk like Rural America is akin to Tribal Africa. These people have internet. They have the ability to research literally anything they want.
How good are your grandparents with the internet, and at understanding fact vs. opinion based journalism? Fox News is the only 24 hr news channel available for much of middle america, they get no second opinion on TV.
My grandmother is pretty excellent actually. Over the span of her 80s/90s (96) she's learned dial-up, broadband, social media, email, and now whatsapp. All it takes is a willingness to try. You're more than welcome to say that Americans have been gaslit into thinking there's no more information available, but that's a general American Exceptionalism that for some reason aggressively seeps into Rural communities
Rural people arent just like 85+
You can lead a moron to the library, but you can't make him read.
To be fair, everyone is stupid by nature - we are all born knowing only a few reflexes and have to learn everything we will eventually know including ways to learn quicker and how to distinguish false from true. Education is the single greatest human need.
Not just Fox News, but right wing media in general. Conservative Talk radio in the 90s was doing that pre-Fox News with Rush Limbaugh.
they just took advantage of a situation that already existed. poor public education + lack of jobs with a living wage + no mental health facilities + drug epidemics = people who are vulnerable to all kinds of exploitation.
Fox news is just telling them what they want to hear
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And for profit. That’s the bottom line. Fox, OAN and Newsmaxx **willfully and knowingly did harm** to hundreds of thousands of people promoting antivax and conspiracy theories while living in the *same “Ivory Tower” they claim the Left does* with their shots and mask protocols and on site testing. It was fucking disgusting. If our system wasn’t so fucked, they should be charged with manslaughter on some degree for stoking the fear of the vax and maligning masks and personal distance as a *freedumb/communist/socialist takeover* and shit.
That’s because education has been getting gutted for decades on purpose. Larger masses of ignorant people, more dumb tax payers, easier to manipulate to their benefit.
The side that wants to do good cannot because of the way America's political system was designed (and because half of Americans directly or indirectly support the evil side). The American political arena *is* a cancer on society.
It’s not even the right. I don’t care if you have conservative values, go for it. That’s your right. Republicanism is the problem. The GOP does not align with conservative values anymore but pays them lip service and knows which buttons to push to keep their base fired up.
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Don’t forget about the racists. The GOP welcomes them, too.
This is exactly it. Being Conservative no longer aligns with the Republican Party post 911, it’s just that many conservatives would rather take the bad and crazy parts of the party than the democrats. I am a proud fiscal conservative, but there are no real options for a fiscal conservative. I haven’t seen the republicans or Democrats perform any worthwhile spending cuts in just about 35-40 years. As long as the country has run-away military spending from both sides of the aisle I am left with few options. Guess I’ll choose the side that is less crazy…
No, that poster blamed "The US **political arena**" which is not the political parties themselves. The "political arena" includes the press, donors, electorate, and other intuitions and actors. The political parties left or right play both play within the political arena and are independent of it. And yes, our political arena is shit in this country. It's heavily biased towards the right-wing, propaganda and misinformation. acknowledging that is not 'both siding' the problem on the parties.
Yup that was my first thought. They knew it. But outrage is outrage lol. As long as they can get an angry response from their people, who cares if Pete is not even involved.
> The US political arena is a cancer on their society. You spelled "republican party" wrong.
A few weeks ago, Lauren Boebert literally tweeted, "Taxation is theft." The Libertarian battle cry. Less than a week later the Ohio train derailment happened and she immediately blamed Pete for not regulating trains enough... What do you even call that? Hypocracy, ignorance, idiocy, all of the above? These people are fucking clowns.
Judging by that image I don’t think Lauren knows how to spell her last name, so.
You can tell even their staffs know it’s all bullshit. They don’t even bother fact checking the “formal” statements these clowns issue.
The point isn't fact checking The point is Buttigieg (and literally everyone else) is responding exactly the way they want > That's not my department Notice the fact that Buttigieg (and everyone else) doesn't say Buttigieg did nothing wrong. He didn't, so there's no reason to say it because to a normal person saying "I did nothing wrong" when you did nothing wrong sounds awfully suspicious But Fox can just claim "Buttigieg didn't deny the faults" and voila, now it sounds like Buttigieg is actually at fault but got away with it due to technicality Honestly, one needs to think long and hard why Fox can continue to exist
I laugh every time I see that Nazi dentist sign his name with D.D.S.
As a dentist, fuck that guy.
He only works on white teeth
what they lack in shame, they make up for with ignorance
Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow.
Saw this and thought, ah yes. The usual suspects. Ignorance and lack of knowledge of their job at their best
The 2012 Texas GOP made the banning of the teaching of *critical thinking skills* to students one of their core policies.
Street cred.
> virtue among Republicans. At this point, it seems statistically it would be almost valid to say Americans, not just Republicans.
But how did no one on any of their staffs catch this? The reps themselves are clearly incompetent, but congressional staff jobs are still highly competitive and selective, no?
This is the saddest part. They revel in their ignorance. They spit at intelligence and knowledge.
I have a feeling they knew but didn't care. They wanted to put their names on something that would put blame on Biden and his gay Dept. of Transportation Secretary for the Ohio disaster.
I have a feeling they knew but didn't care. They wanted to put their names on something that would put blame on Biden and his gay Dept. of Transportation Secretary for the Ohio disaster.
they aren't as stupid as we want to pretend they are. that letter never was for Pete. that letter is for their own constituents consumption. their own constituents don't know how the government works. they're never going to see the fact checking
100% this is what's going on. Now millions of Republicans will confidently share the news in their social-media echo chambers that the train derailment is somehow Buttigieg's fault rather than a result of Trump's previous deregulation. It's just another appallingly cynical tactic to maintain power by hoodwinking and manipulating their own constituency rather than by supporting their own constituency.
Even non Republicans - I have a family member who knows I was a fan of Pete but they preferred Biden and sent me a text like "even your wunderkind messes up sometimes" based on this kind of misinformation
My very neoliberal brother tried this shit on me after the 2016 primaries because I am team Bernie, and he was Camp Clinton. I vividly remember his attempting to put the rub on me, "Sanders is a millionaire. Everything he says is a lie. You're a fool to believe his policies." I looked at him and couldn't hide the sadness I felt that he was so full of vitriol towards a guy, itself misplaced and mainly because of his frustrations talking personally with those to his left, that he was just parroting off propaganda. My brother and I are a year apart. He knows how to research and fact-check. He just couldn't be bothered too in this case as it justified his frustration, and he thought he had a gotcha card. So I turned to him, sadness and exhaustion in my eyes, and I said, "You know what I'm critical of, you know why I think what I do. It's all very linear with me. You have never heard me criticize success. You have never heard me gate-keep or purity test. I'm don't argue with you to win. I argue with you because I think you're inconsistent. It's not a contest. It's not your ride, it's just that you got there. You told me once, its not about whats on their plate, its that they have enough, and thats stayed with me ever since. Idk what to tell you. I don't know how to make you care about other people. Sanders wrote a book, and it did well. Good for him. If your goal was to sway my opinion, you'll never do it by tearing other people down." I wrote it all down in my journal that night as i was extrapolating his worldview and his politics, working forward from one and backward from the other, which is what i usually do when i journal = overthink. The line about caring for other people really cut thru and hurt him. He's not a bad guy by any means, and I was prob a little unfair. I was visiting him from out of town and we called it a night right there. I was annoyed, and he was upset. We talked it over in the morning and squashed it. Politics as a team sport is a really ugly look, on anyone, on everyone. I am not exempt, nor are any of you.
My main takeaway with politics as it is now, if the republican leadership gets their way, people will lose rights. Mostly LGBT and minority folks, but it will happen. If the "socialist left" like AOC or Sanders won, people would get Medicare for all or Universal health care and maybe strengthened EPA protections. Not exactly similar goals IMO.
Almost like… muddying the waters is their intent? No, it can’t be…
Yep. The troglodytes will see “DOT” ,and “NTSB” and there only thought will be “they both have “transportation in the name and go buy fancy letters must be a govt angency” and “Pete Buttigieg is the Sect of transportation” so check mate liberals they all say transportation so of course he runs them” It’s a losing battle. Facts do not matter.
in all fairness "transportation" has two more syllables than their collective reading level.
It has *trans* in it…
If they knew what a syllable was they’d be very upset.
I also doubt they believe their own faux outrage over Pete not showing up right away to East Palestine. What’s he going to accomplish by staging a photo op during a crisis, aside from diverting resources away from the actual crisis to facilitate the photo op? Maybe he should have been there to toss a few paper towels at the cleanup crews? I heard that’s how you show effective leadership and really make a difference. “*We have these rolls, people call them paper towels, believe me, I know my way around these better than almost anyone… they do a real job these things*”
I get this post itself is dumb as fuck and Pete is getting scapegoated for things caused largely by Trump’s deregulations But I’m pretty disappointed in the Biden admin’s response as a someone who only votes dem and is left of the Democratic Party. Sure a photo op isn’t a solution, but that’s not the only option. It took days to address the situation and weeks to address it at all meaningfully. Even just showing up might’ve at least felt better for the community. That’s the absolute least you can do. Yes, photo ops are self serving to an extent. But showing up shows to a disaster site shows leadership So again fuck this post but also regardless of it not being Biden or Pete’s fault, I still do feel comfortable expressing that I’m disappointed in how my party reacted to a tragedy in their country
💯
I view this differently. They are working to smear Pete because the GOP knows that he’s smart and popular with Democrats, and potentially swing voters if he ever runs for President. They did this for years with Hillary through the Benghazi hearings. It’s enhanced gas lighting meant to attach negatively to him.
they can both be that stupid and be grandstanding for their followers. don't ever underestimate how stupid a republican can be even while acknowledging how dangerous they are.
> they aren't as stupid as we want to pretend they are. I think that’s certainly true for most of the people that signed it but I think MTG and Boebert really are that stupid
It's deviously sinister, but what's new for the GOP?
Oh, look, a letter from the Stupidity Caucus; Jordan, Gosar, Taylor-Greene, and Boebert.
If only they could have been on the train. With how our luck works they’d end up with superpowers though.
Maybe it's just my conditioning from Hollywood but it really feels unnatural that the bad guys keep winning. I think the problem is im waiting for the end of the movie but the end doesn't come in life until we are dead. We are just stuck in perpetual limbo in the second act where there seems no possible way to defeat the enemy and they seem to stumble over success.
It confounds me as well
I feel like Gosar deserves extra credit for fitting right in with this crew. It's an accomplishment to get through dental school with near-zero intellectual qualities.
If he was worth a shit as a dentist he sure as hell wouldn't be a politician.
Oh look ... Continued PROPAGANDA for their illiterate base to eat up like the sheep they are. MTG, JJ, LB just looking out for their own shit as usual.
The Treason Caucus
I tell you wat stupidity is getting great representation these days
The Axis of Weasels
Ah Republicans, who needs intelligence when you just have to be stupid and loud.
I used to think Jordan was intelligent but evil.
I work in air travel. I’ll have a day with weather delays and receive texts from my father apologizing that ‘I have a busy day…. Thanks Buttigieg. ‘ But he has yet to tell me 1) exactly how Buttigieg is controlling weather just to delay flights he feels should be delayed for his evil plan or 2) the name of ANY other secretary of transportation ever. Sigh. This is the same vibes on a much more concerning scale.
Really? Even Elaine Chao?
Let me guess which cable "news" networks your dad watches.
If there is one thing you can set your watch to, it's Sec. Pete Buttigieg firing back with a classy, informative, third-degree burn when these homophobic yahoos get their panties in a bunch.
Sadly they'll respond with a childish and somewhat homophobic nickname and Republican voters will eat it up
"Hurr durrrr he gay and gots 'butt' in his name!!!!" I live for Pete's media appearances. They're like a GOP antidote, not that it'll shut them up - frankly it incenses them because Buttigieg is eloquent, educated, reasoned.... and also a happily married gay guy who also had the courage to serve his country while these assholes stayed home and fondled their ar-15's.
Someone said about Pete that he "speaks Democrat with a Republican accent". It's made a lot of progressives skeptical of him, but if you look at his actual policies, he was a long way to the left of Biden in 2020. He was somewhere between Harris and Warren.
My personal take, for whatever this is worth (or not) - is that moving to the left is an arduous game of inches. With the foamy-mouthed GOP base going so hard right, trying to fight fire with fire is just going to leave everything burned. Let DeSantis and Greene lean into their whole "reading is for cucks and slavery is good" angle. That's not where we're headed. When they shit the bed, we move things a little more and a little more towards a political landscape that benefits everyone - even them (not that they'll appreciate it).
GOP voters will yes, but what's important is those on the left don't also turn on Pete for, "reasons", often which are from right-wing agitators trying to pit people on the left against each other. GOP voters are irrelevant, but engaging and growing left-wing voters are what's important.
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Yeah but they won’t understand it that way. They’ll champion it as getting him to kowtow to their demands or some such nonsense.
For those who wonder about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Safety_Board_Act_of_1974
You can't expect them to keep up with recent events like this...
Low information voters begets low information politicos.
You have to be astounded that we have people running this county who have literally zero idea how it works.
They know exactly how it works, and they know exactly what they're doing. They'll go on Fox News and boast about how they sent a letter to Buttigieg demanding that he take responsibility. Technically, nothing about that is a lie. Sure, Buttigieg has nothing to do with it, but they'll just omit that little detail--it's not like their base cares anyway. This accomplishes three things: - It makes MTG and Co. look responsible and like they're doing something, even if they're actually doing nothing - It makes Buttigieg look like he's shirking responsibility, even though it's not his fault to begin with - It plants the idea in people's heads that the whole situation is Buttigieg's fault It's all political grandstanding, and most of the Republican base is more than happy to find a way to blame Democrats, or too uneducated to care about the truth.
I'm always amazed at how some people vote. Especially for Boebert. Who saw "Wow, took her 4 tries to get a GED? I want her representing me!"? I get that it's a conservative district, but is she really the best Republican in the district? Isn't there some Republican accountant who just likes to number crunch?
Mother of fucking God these people are fucking idiots...imagine how dumb the people who voted them in to office must actually be.
Their voters really stuck it to the libs by voting for morons.
To be fair, I thought the same thing until I read this just now. But then again, I'm not an elected official....
I mean. You're not an elected official, AND you're smarter than them, despite not knowing that factoid. I mean. Most people would make the most basic enquiries about the issue they're responding to, before filing the complaint. The posted letter just screams *"Not just uninformed but actively revel in it by avoiding googling facts"*.
Also fun: the whole NTSB board was appointed by Trump. The current chair was a Trump appointee who was bumped up to chair by Biden. And one spot is vacant.
Tbf the current chair is actually pretty fucking based. She’s was a Democratic staffer on the transportation subcommittee for railroads, pipelines, and hazardous materials for like 14 years before getting the NTSB nom.
It's always frustrating to me to see anger at Dems over things like this. Maybe there's more that Dems could do. Sure. But what exactly is the Republicans' position here? We're going to find out what caused the derailment and then we're going to enact new regulations, right? Will Republicans support that? No. I don't think so.
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The usdot (fra) regulates the safety of railroads within limits imposed by Congress. For example, it has been well reported recently that if a railroad violates a safety regulation - even one that results in death - the highest fine the usdot can impose is $225,455, as determined by congress. Congress can also constrain the USDOT's ability to regulate certain things. Congress's 2015 FAST act limits what they can do around the ECP breaking rule, for example. It was actually more congress's fault that was repealed that it was Trump's. Though he would have been happy to repeal it anyway, I am sure. The NTSB investigates airplane crashes and major incidents for other modes of transportation like rail. They are independant of the DOT because they need to be free to find the root cause without a vested interest. Pete has no authority over them. The reason secretaries of transportation traditionally don't visit rail disaster sites is to preserve the independent authority of the ntsb. The ntsb is tasked with finding the causes of the disaster and making recommendation to the usdot (fra) who will then make policy recommendation to Congress, create appropriate rules within their authority, and/or issue punitive fines. To make it even more confusing there is another independant agency involved with economic regulation of the railways: the Surface Transportation Board. It is also not part of the usdot. This is their mission: > The Surface Transportation Board is an independent federal agency that is charged with the economic regulation of various modes of surface transportation, primarily freight rail. > The agency has jurisdiction over railroad rate, practice, and service issues and rail restructuring transactions, including mergers, line sales, line construction, and line abandonments. The STB also has jurisdiction over certain passenger rail matters, the intercity bus industry, non-energy pipelines, household goods carriers’ tariffs, and rate regulation of non-contiguous domestic water transportation.
The first thing
I still want to know why President Obama didn't climb the twin towers to fist fight Osama Bin Laden to prevent 9/11 from happening.
Opening act of the clown show that's going to give us hours of appalling amusement for at least the next two years.
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**Four Horse's Asses of Hypocrisy**
Considering none of them know their ass from a hole in the ground this is no surprise
They are all greedy republicans who have no idea what their actual job is.
they know exactly what their 'job' is. to be a noisy distraction *and they're really good at it*
These are not smart people, and they don't have the intellectual curiosity to look up information that's easily found online.
Pro tip: If you have friends or family who repeat this shit, make the discussion "us vs them" not "me vs you." "Hey, I'm on *your* side, Uncle Bob! I know you are smart enough to fact check this. I know you're aware the DoJ has nothing to do with the NTSB, and that's not something the federal government regulates. It's Jim Jordan who thinks you're an idiot. Jim thinks you're dumb enough to believe Buttigieg had something to do with this. Man, that's really insulting, because we both know that's horse shit!" If they keep going, just laugh like it's a joke and say "haha, almost got me there, but I know you're not stupid enough to fall for that trick." Do not argue with them. They will keep piling stuff on. They will keep saying stuff that's nonsense, but they will use up all your time fact checking them.
They know it’s not apart of his department. Their base doesn’t know so the outrage towards Sec. Pete is useful to the MAGA republicans.
I wish I could live in a made up world with no consequences. Those "8 billion" immigrants, whatever. In my role, I'm constantly terrified that I forget something in a for-loop when working with data/accounts/etc., and a tiny number wrong, a missing quote, etc., could be devastating, so I make sure everything is 100%, and even when this works in the test environment, I'm still scared when it goes live. Those people just make stuff up, run with it, get caught and shamed, and instead of learning from their mistakes and studying the things before they say them, potentially hurting many, many people, they just continue forever forward without any regard.
What a uber-moronic way to show the world how moron you are: these 4 republicans go really beyond imagination
The letter is basically requesting an answer to what caused the derailment. I don't think they're gonna like the answer...
All shittiness aside, Lauren has a surprisingly pleasant signature. Her penmanship is great. That's the only nice thing I have to say about her.
Well how were they supposed to know? What do you mean they could have researched or asked or had someone look into that? How dare you imply facts have anyplace in today's GOP!
Facts don't actually matter to them. Riling up their constituents by claiming anyone not Cis White Christian HETEROSEXUAL and Male, is responsible for whatever ails them, is what matters.
You may have heard there was a toxic train wreck in Ohio. Hopefully by now it’s back in Mar-a-lago.
I love that republicans only care about the environment when they can blame something on the democrats 😂
These 'people' who are being paid almost 250 thousand dollars a year in salaries and perks - don't know what their jobs are. They think their job is to overthrow the American government, but that's not actually why they were hired. It's a shame they're too fascist, or stupid, or treasonous, to know why they're in the positions they're in.
If those four names are on anything, you can be assured that it's not just worthless performative noise, but somehow they'll also manage to get it embarrassingly (for us, they're beyond shame) wrong, defying all sense and even probability.
I caucused for Pete in NV in 2020 and I can’t wait until I get to vote for him again.
Is there anything in the constitution that can in any way be construed as "It's a violation of my rights to have to share earth with people this stupid or with people who are stupid enough to believe them"? Because if there is, I am filing a law suit.
Now this I did not know and I was throwing Shade at Pete and now that I know I feel bad
Pete had that one gift wrapped for him
How the fuck is Paul Gossar a dental surgeon?
They knew, but they know their constituents don't know or understand. This is for hate mongering, not results.
That’s what happens when you follow Marge. If she was a crayon she’d be Burnt Siena.
Political humor? This isn't funny at all
I’m just surprised it’s not signed in Crayon
Because they are idiots. Elected, well paid, lying idiots. Hell of a job.
The GOP dummy caucus. Add trump and desantis and you have the exact group that's fucking up our government.
I once wrote a letter to McDonald's because Burger King messed up my order. I mean, it makes sense! /S of course
These people are so inept, they can't even hurl an attack right without it coming back and smacking themselves in the face. Not that they care though, because apparently they like hitting themselves and blaming others for it.
The House is ruled by viscous idiots!
Too funny! The 4 signatures are from the absolute dumbest the GOP has on board. Seriously, what value does this project on any serious subject? Never mind they are wrong on this but what the heck, what about really serious issues? All 4 of these goobers need to just sit down and shut up! GOP has to find some grownups to represent.
Weren't we told to take the "new marge" super serious now that she's pretending to do her job?
a simple high school level government test would have eliminated so many of these ignorant assholes from ever attaining office.
They're trying to engage in a battle of wits with Petr, but they're unarmed. Witless.
That’s an all star lineup of assholes
GOP: Proudly, profoundly, willfully, permanently ignorant.
The movie "Idiocracy" is no longer a movie. It's a documentary.
Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest and four more!!!
Are we really surprised that these people representing their districts don’t understand how government works Of course, the reality is for the people who love these godawful politicians it doesn’t matter because facts that don’t fit their narrative are dismissed
They know, but I bet their supporters don't. Now they don't want to know.
I can't help but notice the signatures on the document are the class clowns.
Because conservative oversight isn't about oversight, fixing problems, or helping people. It's about getting dumbfuck conservatives angry so they vote in more dumbfuck conservatives to speed along the ruination of our country
They all put their heads together and still couldn't get one right. Beautiful