Yes, news fans, you read that right. With everything else going on in Washington DC, two Congressional panels are going to conduct a joint investigation into the Justice Department’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
But wait! There’s more! Congressman Devin Nunes just announced that the House Intel Committee is opening an investigation into the US-Russia-Uranium deal struck under Clinton.
I have no doubt Nunes is responding to Rush Limbaugh’s recent aired massive conspiracy theory implicating President Barack Obama, Special Counsel Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the Clintons and the Russians over a uranium sale from years ago that’s going to blow the lid off everything.
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My theory about these announcements is they were made at the behest of executives at Fox News, who need something (anything!) to distract from the incompetence, cruelty, and kleptomania in the Trump administration. But it also could be true that prosecuting Hillary Clinton could be the ultimate Trumpian response to all the allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. #Sad!
Let’s take a tour of few of the saddest and sometimes absurd newly reported events taking place in the U.S. worthy of Congressional investigations.
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The largest contract for repair and reconstruction of the Puerto Rico’s electrical infrastructure has been awarded to Whitefish Energy, which just happens to be based in the Montana hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
Despite having all of two full-time employees as of late September and a track record including just three projects, the largest of which was replacing a 4.8-mile transmission line in Arizona, the company was awarded the job without a formal bidding process.
Rather than activate the “mutual aid” arrangements it has with other utilities, the Puerto Rican power authority (PREPA) opted to hire Whitefish.
From the Washington Post:
Under the contract, the hourly rate was set at $330 for a site supervisor, and at $227.88 for a “journeyman lineman.” The cost for subcontractors, which make up the bulk of Whitefish’s workforce, is $462 per hour for a supervisor and $319.04 for a lineman. Whitefish also charges nightly accommodation fees of $332 per worker and almost $80 per day for food.
Only eight contracts larger than $20 million have been approved for Puerto Rico by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers, with half of those for shipments of food and bottled water. Whitefish’s contract surpasses the $240 million contract the Army Corps awarded to engineering giant Fluor to “augment ongoing efforts” to repair the power grid.
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@TaylorLorenz/Twitter jpg
The rate of abortions has declined by 25% over the last eight years, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health. And the Trump administration is ready to solve this problem.
Here’s the plan, via Salon:
…the Trump administration has spent an inordinate amount of energy trying to reduce access to contraception, both by limiting health care access more generally and by way of specific attacks on contraception access through insurance plans and government programs. In the memo leaked to Crooked Media, it becomes clear that these attacks aren’t about “small government” or “religious liberty” but an ideological opposition to contraception.
The memo recommends cuts to family planning programs and suggests requiring “equal funding for fertility awareness methods” in foreign aid programs. “Fertility awareness” is pseudo-scientific jargon for the rhythm method, beloved by anti-choicers both because it doesn’t really work and because its mechanism requires refraining from sex at certain times. If they can’t make you celibate, they’ll settle for reducing the amount of sex you can have…
…In another section, the memo recommends shutting down all teen pregnancy prevention programs, and replacing them with “sexual risk avoidance and fertility awareness methods.” (“Sexual risk avoidance” is right-wing-speak for celibacy.)
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Credit: Bentley Smith / Flickr
A new poll by the Military Times of more than 1100 active duty personnel has some alarming findings.
- Those surveyed said White Nationalism is a national security threat, more dangerous than Iraq, Syria, or Afghanistan.
- Nearly 5% of the responses were from service members openly admitting to being White Nationalists, defending it as an ideology, and using the survey to voice disparaging remarks about minorities and civil rights movements.
- According to the poll, 1-in-4 troops (and 42% of non-white troops) personally knew of a White Nationalist serving in uniform with them.
This news isn’t so surprising when you remember the 2008 FBI report finding that “white supremacist leaders are making a concerted effort to recruit active-duty soldiers and recent combat veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The self-described leader of the Vanguard America neo-Nazi hate group, whose members were photographed marching with White Nationalist protests in Charlottesville alongside car killer James Alex Fields Jr., was a recently discharged Marine recruiter.
Dillon Ulysses Hopper spent a dozen years in the service, reportedly being open about his political inclinations since 2012.
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Finally, there’s this, taken at the California GOP Convention this past weekend.
That’s the racist—oops, I meant white nationalist–hand signal both of Bannon’s partners are flashing.
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Doug Porter
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Divert the plebs attention with more on the Dem they love to hate. Shame on the GOP.
By electing the Twit-in-Chief the Republicans have finally stepped in their own dookie, and the majority of them are more worried about their shoes than their country.
Valley Boy (Nunes) needs to get a REAL hobby – preferably one outside Congress. Tulare, you’re better than this – SHOW IT!!
Bannon photo. The “okay” gesture is a symbol white nationalism? I’m not aware of this meaning? What is your source on this?
This is complicated.The OK symbol started as a spoof on 4 Chan. Various nationalist types started making the sign to troll the media. Now the trolling has turned into a meme, because if you repeat a lie often enough, people take it as truth. Here’s a bit of the history: https://www.wired.com/2017/05/alt-rights-newest-ploy-trolling-false-symbols/
so now, to continue, these two guys have punked Steve Bannon by flashing a supposed “bad” handsign right next to him. they’re juveniles playing games is all.
I guess like most things its meaning is contextual. Like the closed eye with circle, or upside down pyramid signs. Not sure what to make of those supposed “illuminati” hand signs or exactly what / who is the illuminati. Perhaps the bigger picture is to exhaust people/ confuse meaning? Anyway it reaffirms the more direct and sincere in our communication the better off we all will be. (although satire has its place.)
Soooo… if I’m half Jewish and half Catholic, and I make the peace sign — being careful to follow the diagram — I’ll actually be considered anti-semite and a Sicilian Catholic mafioso? What should I be reading?