SpankyMcFarland

One small step I’d like to see: taking threats like this much more seriously: https://globalnews.ca/news/7734158/china-pressure-activists-canada-uyghur-hong-kong-tibet-spying/

Well, stop yelling at me then.

Exiting is what you should do with all that other guff. Gaetz is toast. His political career is done. Why you feel obliged to defend every shameless yob in the party is what is interesting.

When did I say they were the exclusive preserve of any party or country? Of course, they are not. As I pointed out earlier, there are many US Republican politicians that would greatly surprise me as the subject of such rumours.

You’re derailing the thread - changing the subject because you know your position is weak and now you’re resorting to rudeness as well, another telltale sign. When a public figure is besieged by multiple, distinct accusations from those around him, there’s usually something to it. I’m as concerned as anybody about connections to China other people may have but I’m not going to discuss it here.

If you want to talk about somebody else, start a separate thread.

Whatever happens on the criminal side, I don’t see Gaetz recovering from so many different stories of sleazery. His Republican friends have thrown him under the bus with considerable gusto. Of course, he shouldn’t be saying anything at the moment - it’s just leaving more evidence for prosecutors. There must a strong possibility they will flip Greenberg and get him to testify against Gaetz. Praise the lord for plea bargaining.

Female lobbyists are in an awkward spot already without having to deal with dirtbags like these. The lack of support from Gaetz’s colleagues so far says it all.

It’s a very small risk but a basic principle of medicine is primum non nocere, first do no harm. A brain clot is an extremely serious harm. Presumably, the frequency of less severe and sub-clinical clots is much higher. There’s a lot of grey in such decisions. On the pro-AZ side, here is the opinion of a physician who described a large series of such cases: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/what-the-doctor-who-found-the-link-between-blood-clots-and-the-astrazeneca-vaccine-wants-you-to-know-1.5370015 Here is the report by Greinacher. 9 patients in this series of blood clots or VIPIT (vaccine induced prothrombotic immune thrombocytopenia) after AZ vaccine: 8 females, 1 male. 4 died. A Prothrombotic Thrombocytopenic Disorder Resembling Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia Following Coronavirus-19 Vaccination

I can see why Canada would suspend AZ for women under 55 as more evidence has emerged of CVST cases in that group. As a non-female I would still happily take that jab ASAP.

CNN claim multiple sources and the hula hoop allegation is a specific detail. Republican politicians aren’t going to risk breaking ranks this early to publicly denounce a prominent Trumpster. Anyway, I’m sure we’ll see whether the story has legs in the coming months. If it’s true, we’ll be seeing much more about it. If not, it will die.

They are not relevant to any crime but they do show what sort of person Gaetz is. Can you imagine Mitt Romney doing something like that? Or Ben Sasse? Or Adam Kinzinger? Would you do it?

Alleged crimes aside, do you think CNN is making up the stories about him showing off naked pics to other Republicans in Congress?

No matter what happens to the investigation, we’ve got a sleazebag on our hands here: When did such behaviour become normalized? https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/01/politics/matt-gaetz-photos-women/index.html Another highly plausible story. Carlson is furious Gaetz tried to drag him into this scandal as a potential witness during the interview: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/31/media/tucker-carlson-matt-gaetz-reaction/index.html

It’s very difficult to win defamation cases in the US. Why doesn’t Gaetz sue the Beast for saying he’s fond of illegal drugs? https://www.rawstory.com/matt-gaetz-and-drugs/ https://www.thedailybeast.com/republicans-have-been-waiting-for-a-matt-gaetz-scandal-to-break?ref=scroll He isn’t exactly getting a rush of full-throated support from his colleagues. There were weak noises from Jordan and Greene who have problems of their own and virtually nothing from McCarthy. His hero Trump has been quiet so far too. A traditional Christian conservative he certainly ain’t, at least not a discreet one. Republican pols are muttering about ‘a proclivity for younger women’, no doubt completely legal.

How can Powell work as a lawyer after this? https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/22/politics/sidney-powell-dominion-lawsuit-election-fraud/index.html

In the UK, as Murdoch knows full well, Fox, Rudy and Powell wouldn’t have their underpanties left at this point: Dominion and Co. would have taken everything for such psychotically false and highly damaging statements. There needs to be a limit on the crazy down there.

There’s not much point arguing the specific facts at this early stage but Gaetz’s performance on Fox was strange by any standard. If there’s nothing at all to the case, ie neither illegal nor barely legal, he should save his indignation for later. When it comes to sex, anything is possible. I think it is fair to say that party affiliation isn’t a great predictor of behaviour.

Offhand, I can’t recall a similar event. Great TV but Gaetz won’t endear himself to interviewers this way.

Whatever the facts of matter, I’d be slow to bring Mr. Gaetz onto my show to explain himself. Twice in the interview above he tried to drag Tucker Carlson into the actual story, a most peculiar state of affairs. When he said the 17 year old didn’t exist, a lot of further questions could have been asked on that theme.

One Conservative leader I would definitely vote for if he ever got the top job: Michael Chong.

The English in these tweets is invariably all over the place as well. Can’t they get one of their many Ivy League grads to review them first?

The insults are getting really retro now: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/29/china-canada-justin-trudeau-tensions-escalate

O’Toole is inherently likeable and, unlike Trudeau, has a life story ordinary Canadians can identify with. For me, he comes across as less prim and proper than Scheer which is a good thing. Any Conservative leader has an uphill struggle in Canada. If the party replaces him with a right-wing firebrand, the Liberals will be very pleased.

One modest local contribution we can make is to radically jack up rare earth production and reduce global dependence on China and Myanmar.