News bits: What the GOP knew about Santos, MTG gets high-level assignment, etc.

Prominent fascist Kevin McCarthy knew Santos was a fraud but kept it quiet: Congressman Dan Goldman (D-NY) comments in a press release:

“Speaker Kevin McCarthy yesterday admitted to having direct knowledge of George Santos’s web of lies intended to dupe his voters into electing him, confirming reporting by the New York Times that House Republican leadership was aware of Mr. Santos’s fraudulent campaign while it was happening due to internal research that exposed his lies.

“Unfortunately, Speaker McCarthy’s confirmation of his knowledge of Mr. Santos’s deceit was itself deceptive and sparse, and he has still not explained what his response was to learning about the results of a ‘vulnerability study’ described in the Times about fabrications related to Mr. Santos’s educational background, his work for a Ponzi scheme, multiple evictions and a suspended driver’s license.

“Without further explanation, the public has no choice but to believe that Mr. McCarthy and his super PAC were complicit in concealing Mr. Santos’s lies in order to flip a seat in a win-at-all-costs effort to gain power.

This is more evidence of the blatant moral rot and anti-democracy fascism among Republican Party elites and leadership. When voters vote on the basis of deceit, their power to vote on the basis of truth has been taken away. That is authoritarianism (fascism IMO), not democracy.

For context, consider this:

“When political representatives or entire governments arrogate to themselves the right to lie, they take power from the public that would not have been given up voluntarily. .... But such cases [that justify lying] are so rare that they hardly exist for practical purposes. .... The consequences of spreading deception, alienation and lack of trust could not have been documented for us more concretely than they have in the past decades. We have had a very vivid illustration of how lies undermine our political system. .... Those in government and other positions of trust should be held to the highest standards. Their lies are not ennobled by their positions; quite the contrary. .... only those deceptive practices which can be openly debated and consented to in advance are justifiable in a democracy.” 

“[Johnson repeatedly told the American people] ‘the first responsibility, the only real issue in this campaign, the only thing you ought to be concerned about at all, is: Who can best keep the peace?’ The stratagem succeeded; the election was won; the war escalated. .... President Johnson thus denied the electorate of any chance to give or refuse consent to the escalation of the war in Vietnam. Believing they had voted for the candidate of peace, American citizens were, within months, deeply embroiled in one of the cruelest wars in their history. Deception of this kind strikes at the very essence of democratic government.”   -- Sissela Bok, Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life, 1999

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Prominent fascist Kevin McCarthy puts prominent fascist coup attempt supporter MTG on the House Homeland Security committee: The Independent writes:

The news broke on Tuesday as committee assignments for the 118th Congress were released following the marathon vote to confirm Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. Ms Greene notably did not join anti-McCarthy rebels on the right in an attempt to block his bid in what many speculated was a bid for his favour.

She will now have access to potentially sensitive classified information, a significant change of fortune for the Georgia congresswoman who was stripped of her committee memberships during the last Congress after a Facebook account in her name was found to have “liked” comments endorsing violence against Democrats including Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker.

This is more evidence of the blatant moral rot and anti-democracy fascism among Republican Party elites and leadership. The Foxes are now guarding the henhouse. 

Nothing can go wrong now. /s

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Republican National Committee complaint about social media censorship is rejected: Ars Technica writes:

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has rejected a Republican National Committee (RNC) complaint claiming that Google violated US law by using Gmail's spam filter on Republican campaign emails. Republicans had claimed Gmail's spam filtering amounted to "illegal in-kind contributions made by Google to Biden For President and other Democrat candidates."

But an FEC decision last week, which Google provided to Ars today, said the commission found "no reason to believe" that Google made prohibited in-kind corporate contributions. The FEC, an independent agency of the US government, also found no evidence that the Biden for President campaign committee knowingly accepted illegal in-kind contributions in the form of spam filtering preference.

The FEC told Google in a letter that it has "closed its file in this matter" and that documents related to the case will be placed on the public record within 30 days.

This is more evidence of the blatant moral rot and anti-democracy fascism among Republican Party elites and leadership.

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Capitalism doing politics the old-fashioned way -- make the workers unknowingly pay to keep their wages low: The NYT writes:

How Restaurant Workers Help Pay for Lobbying 

to Keep Their Wages Low

The National Restaurant Association uses mandatory $15 food-safety classes to turn waiters and cooks into unwitting funders of its battle against minimum wage increases

For many cooks, waiters and bartenders, it is an annoying entrance fee to the food-service business: Before starting a new job, they pay around $15 to a company called ServSafe for an online class in food safety.

That course is basic, with lessons like “bathe daily” and “strawberries aren’t supposed to be white and fuzzy, that’s mold.” In four of the largest states, this kind of training is required by law, and it is taken by workers nationwide.

But in taking the class, the workers — largely unbeknown to them — are also helping to fund a nationwide lobbying campaign to keep their own wages from increasing.

The company they are paying, ServSafe, doubles as a fund-raising arm of the National Restaurant Association — the largest lobbying group for the food-service industry, claiming to represent more than 500,000 restaurant businesses. The association has spent decades fighting increases to the minimum wage at the federal and state levels, as well as the subminimum wage paid to tipped workers like waiters.

Make ’em pay to lobby against themselves!!

Capitalism, it sure is inventive, feisty and deceitful!