These 2022 Republican campaign ads are deranged. This is somehow worse than Marjorie Taylor Greene’s. Fifteen years ago these would have been a brainchild of a Democrats aiming to mock Republicans in a parody.
Now the parody is reality.
It’s also funny that Trump wouldn’t tell the truth of what his favorite color is (it’s gold, as we all know).
The… ahem… ‘man’ is utterly incapable of telling the truth.
Congressman Jim Banks has been sending letters to federal agencies claiming to be the ranking member of the 1/6 committee, which he refused to join.
This is a crime right? Guess it doesn’t matter. It’s not like he would be charged.
Your summary and the accompanying headline are not borne out by the text of the letter.
So, should the reply to this letter be something along the lines of “Your party has that information; ask Cheney and Kinzinger for your copy”?
Plus, as I understand it, Banks (and Jim Jordan) are simply not members of the committee, rather than “not being allowed to fulfill” (their duties), as the Banks letter would imply. So he would have no standing to ask for this, if my understanding is correct.
This is the part that really bothers me. The major reason for not letting people quiz everybody about their medical history is to protect people who might be discriminated against if their employers, or someone like that, found out they have a medical condition.
But “being vaccinated” isn’t really a “medical condition”, and since the majority of people are vaccinated, you’d have to be an anti-vaxxer idiot to try to discriminate against them. Showing a card that says, “Yes, I’m vaccinated” really doesn’t give away any serious personal information, since it’s essentially the exact same information that applies to over a hundred million people in the US.
It’s like complaining that everyone knows I have a “medical condition” where I have to eat, breathe and sleep.
Well, that might make the part where he asks for the info problematic, but the way he phrases it the request comes solely because he is a member of the minority party and has a right to it. I do not know how accurate that is, but he does not misrepresent himself as the ranking member of the committee, which was the accusation.
Well… he kinda does.
He identifies himself as having been appointed to “to serve as the Ranking Member of the Select Committee” but then says “yet, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to allow me to fulfill my duties as Ranking Member.”
He implies he is a member of the committee, but states that Pelosi is keeping him from his duties - not that his appointment to the committee was vetoed by her, which would make him not a member.
It’s a slight semantic point, but it is there.
Of course, there is the plausible deniability in that, if he is not a member of the committee, he did not in black and white claim to be such.
Right: he says he was appointed, which he was, and then he says that Speaker Pelosi wouldn’t let him serve. That’s factual.
There is no implication, IMO: he flat out says that he is not on the committee.
In context, “refused to allow me to fulfill my duties” is the same as “would not allow me to serve on the committee”.
I guess I can see how an uncharitable reading would think that implies he is on the committee but not the ranking member, but that wasn’t my first thought when I read the letter, even after having that as my expectation.
Well to be fair, I would assume that the discrimination would be against those who are not vaccinated. This is definitely real thing at least technically since they are (with good reason) prohibited from engaging in certain activities that may be allowed for the vaccinated.
Unvaccinated status could in some rare cases be a medical condition if you have a condition that would make it dangerous to get a vaccine. Being one of those people would really really suck because not only are you in danger of contracting the disease and dying, but you also are likely to get lumped in with the group of idiots who refuse to get vaccinated for ideological misinformation reasons many of whom will claim to have your condition in order to get out of having to get the vaccine.
I agree with Bo’s interpretation, and further, I see nothing wrong with his actual request. Let him see the committee info and findings. Who cares?
The only thing that worries me is how badly the linked site spun the news. It felt like I was reading the Left version of OANN.
Under the signature is his name, and “Ranking Member”. Sure seems like he is trying to claim that he holds that position.
I completely missed that; you are correct and I withdraw my objection to the characterization.
As did I.
And I guess I can see how by past actions, the Republican party and its members have squandered any chance for a charitable reading. If people have to parse meaning like a lawyer with a hostile witness, that’s what you get.
Lauren Witzke’s Twitter account is banned, so I don’t know where she posted this. But she claims that she got covid from a vaccinated person, and no hospital would treat her with the quack medicines, but finally she found a quack doctor who prescribed her ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, and now she’s cured.
Who is Lauren Witzke?