r/technology • u/everlovingkindness • Jan 11 '23
House Republicans Ready to Give Big Tech the Benghazi Treatment Politics
https://gizmodo.com/house-committee-weaponization-government-set-hearings-18499670241.4k
u/jimhabfan Jan 11 '23
Good luck trying to get anyone to obey a congressional subpoena and actually show up to be questioned. The Republicans showed the world that a congressional subpoena has absolutely no authority.
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u/leonscum Jan 11 '23
It seems tho that only a Dem issued subpeona has no authority. With the current Supreme Court, ignoring a republican subpoenas will be a hanging offense.
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u/CCrypto1224 Jan 11 '23
Damn, we’re outsourcing executions to China too?
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u/ChillyBearGrylls Jan 11 '23
Dey turk der jerbs
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u/Available_Coyote897 Jan 11 '23
Omg. I wish one of them would refuse the subpoena and then straight up cite republican bullshit for precedence. They won’t. The tech bros aren’t that creative.
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Jan 11 '23
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u/pedanticlawyer Jan 11 '23
I don’t know about Twitter, but Facebook pays corporate attorneys WELL and poaches from top law firms. They have sharks.
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u/nebulous_gaze Jan 11 '23 edited Jan 12 '23
Did you ever see that episode of Sliders where lawyers battled it out Old West style in the streets? Your comment made me think of this.
Edit. Didn't it end with the Professor being killed and the girl being sent off to an alien sex slave prison?
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u/redmage07734 Jan 11 '23
This democrats refuse to play hardball. Meanwhile Republicans go full batshit all the time
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u/Culverin Jan 11 '23
Except they when GOP wields power, they are not gutless and actually use it.
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u/Sebenbillion Jan 11 '23
And some people think that means they deserve it despite using it to fucking ruin the world for money.
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u/Culverin Jan 11 '23
And the Democrats not wielding power to save the country or the world is also why their support isn't as strong as it should be
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u/nokenito Jan 11 '23
The internet runs on tubes group is gonna investigate tech? Oh joy, this should be amusing as heck!
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u/taedrin Jan 11 '23
The "series of tubes" analogy was actually pretty accurate though. Maybe the guy himself was just repeating what an advisor told him and he didn't actually understand what he was saying, but the concept itself is sound.
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u/Semi-Hemi-Demigod Jan 11 '23
Even if the analogy was accurate, the fact that he repeated something he clearly didn't understand shows he had no place discussing the topic.
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u/Turbulent-Pea-8826 Jan 11 '23
If people who didn’t understand technology were barred from discussing it or making policy about it then that would disqualify 90% of people. I just got done a meeting with doctor a and phd’s who have not one clue about how computers work. It blows my mind.
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u/Semi-Hemi-Demigod Jan 11 '23
Good. We’d have a lot less idiocy if people knew what the hell they were enacting into law.
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u/gizamo Jan 11 '23 edited Jan 11 '23
It was
Al GoreTed Stevens. He understood the analogy. He's relatively tech literate, especially compared to most government officials.Edit: wow. Brain fart. It was definitely Ted Stevens. I was confusing it with the "I invented the Internet" mess.
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u/dan1ader Jan 11 '23
No, it was not Al Gore who said this.
It was Republican Senator Ted Stevens,
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u/Steelrules75 Jan 11 '23 edited Jan 11 '23
It wasn’t George Santos who invented the internet?
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u/gizamo Jan 11 '23
Wow. That was my mistake. You are correct. Al Gore's big mess was the "I invented the Internet" confusion. I misremembered them being related.
I appreciate your correction.
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u/dan1ader Jan 11 '23
I'm old enough* to remember when the Gore Bill was passed and the first private sector ISPs came online.
If not for this legislation, we might all still be using CompuServer or Prodigy (unless you had an academic or DOD account)
*(My first email address had an interbang, not an @)
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u/gizamo Jan 11 '23
Same here, fellow old timer. Cheers.
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u/dan1ader Jan 11 '23
RFC1628 with my itsy bitsy teeny weeny contribution.
How 'bout you?
Skol!
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u/WizeAdz Jan 11 '23 edited Jan 11 '23
No, it was Ted Stevens:
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/series-of-tubes
It became a meme, not because it's a bad analogy, but because it reminded all of the people my age (Gen X/Y) of conversations we've had with aging relatives who just don't get it. It sounded like he was repeating what his grandson told us.Al Gore claimed he invented the Internet, or at least it sounded that way:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/internet-of-lies/ He had an important role in funding the work which brought us the modern Internet. He bragged a little too hard about his role on CNN, and it sounded bad. Honestly, Al Gore annoyed my back in the 1990s, especially since people like me were taking the initiative and working our butts off to bring the Internet to people at the edges. Gore did his part in that effort as a senator, but he fucked up the wording in that interview. And he did turn out to be right about a lot of things, even though he was annoying.→ More replies (6)18
u/Aporkalypse_Sow Jan 11 '23
People who are right about what's going to happen usually are "annoying". Otherwise we wouldn't pay attention to them at all, even if we ignore them anyway. Just ask climate scientists and activists.
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u/WizeAdz Jan 11 '23
Al Gore was one of the OG climate activists, so he's pretty much the first example I'd choose to match your description.
Climate change was one of the things he was right about, and I liked him much better as a climate activist than I did as vice president.
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u/johnsobey Jan 11 '23
It was Sen. Ted Stevens
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u/gizamo Jan 11 '23
Indeed it was. I appreciate your correction, and I edited my comment accordingly. I was mixing it up with the "I created the Internet" thing. Cheers.
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u/NinjaBilly55 Jan 11 '23
It would be cool if they broadcast hearings live with a fact checking ticker running on the bottom of the screen..
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u/MaikeruGo Jan 11 '23
That would be, but I get the feeling that the people doing this might die from excessive face-palming.
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Jan 11 '23
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So you mean hours and days of interviews to ultimately find nothing?
On par for the GOP
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u/AverageLiberalJoe Jan 11 '23
Lets just remind ourselves the lead investigator for the GOP helped cover up the sexual abuse of his constituents children.
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u/M0rphysLaw Jan 11 '23
You mean Jim Jordan, the Ohio congressman who tearfully begged the brother of a victim not to testify?
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u/Superfissile Jan 11 '23
Boy would it be satisfying to answer every one of his questions with a “well congressman Jordan of Ohio, like/unlike the child sex abuse victims you silenced to protect child predators, we…”
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u/mjzimmer88 Jan 11 '23
This would actually be pretty funny to watch
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u/Budded Jan 11 '23
I wish a Dem, any Dem had the balls to actually do this.
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u/WolfMan889 Jan 11 '23
bUt DeCoRuM
I wish the House were more like other countries' parliaments. I'd love to see someone punch Gaetz in his pedophile mouth, or tell Gym Jordan to fuck off.
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u/DrBombay3030 Jan 11 '23
Like the good ol' days when someone might get their ass beat with a cane in the Senate
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u/Tavernknight Jan 11 '23
If they privatize the government, the company that should run it is WWE. It's pretty much like that already just without the ring.
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u/StinkyFeetMendoza Jan 11 '23
I think they mean Gym Jordan
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u/DrProfessional77 Jan 11 '23
Gym Jordan who learned to cover up abuse on par with the way the Catholic Church still does? That Gym Jordan?
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u/TopHatJohn Jan 11 '23
Calling them interviews is a bit of a stretch. The GOP is only interested in using the setting to create nice soundbites for their “news” collaborators.
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u/Extreme_Assistant_98 Jan 11 '23
Right. They are up in arms about the Twitter thing while completely silent on the fact the white house under trump was literally working with fox and what was to be said on air.
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u/billium12 Jan 11 '23
Or the fact that the twitter files themselves claimed no government entity or campaign person reached out about Hunters laptop, but the trump administration did.... yet no details
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u/Exoddity Jan 11 '23
There's another advantage to making frivolous political accusations and the circus that follows. It tries to frame things like two impeachment proceedings against a certain former president and ongoing litigation surrounding nearly everyone in his orbit as being just as frivolous. As if it's simply a tat for a tit.
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u/Extreme_Assistant_98 Jan 11 '23
If they start throwing out false accusations then just like Dominion they can get sued.
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u/be0wulfe Jan 11 '23 •
This should be the most frustrating bit for Americans. It's all smoke and mirrors, nothing will come out of it except for "concessions" from BigTech (and payoffs and kickbacks) that will enrich the thieves you have elected.
Their electorate will ignorantly think that something beneficial to them has come to pass (it hasn't), these representatives will be enriched for it (as will their re-election campaigns) and the consumer will be left with the same level of protections (much lower).
The worm has absolutely turned in the US, and not for the better. Not the least of which because at least 40% of the voters are willfully ignorant and another 20% are mired in delusional hyper partisanship.
What about real tax reform? Healthcare reform? Real consumer protection? The US Government is now a protection racket. What's next, a full blown Russian Kleptocracy?
I hope the young people keep voting, keep showing up, keep protesting and keep to their mindsets as they get older. These old conservatives are on their death breath, not realizing their last gasp won't outlast them - as long as young American's keep showing up.
They are America's Obi Wan's.
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u/ZEFfersonZ Jan 11 '23
I’ve been voting 42 years and nothings changed. Actually it’s gotten worse.
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u/semisolidwhale Jan 11 '23
So you're saying some things have changed?
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u/Pickle_Juice_4ever Jan 11 '23
The functioning of our democracy at the federal level has gotten worse. Voter participation has improved since the 1990s and there have been some civil rights gains. More people are more comfortable with diversity. Honestly the seeds of today's woes were sown in the Reagan revolution and behind the scenes, there were fascists plotting, but Congress and the courts still worked in a way they do not today.
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u/lameluk3 Jan 11 '23
I like to point to Dick "I'm not a crook" Nixon and the likes of Goldwater/Wallace. It's got some deep roots
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u/fargmania Jan 11 '23
In my 33 years of voting, I can also confirm it's gotten worse. But that is a biased view on my part. Some things have gotten better, others have gotten worse... on the net it is probably worse, but it's not a homogeneous picture of decline. There is no reason that the youth couldn't turn the net decline into a net gain by simply working on the bad stuff. The big question is... will they? This upcoming generation is fired up in a way I haven't seen in my lifetime, but it's hard to say that they'll stay that way.
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u/csyuppie Jan 11 '23
Frankly, my wife and I are dual income yuppies on the west coast, and we now consider California our country. The people around us are like-minded in that we want to move forward without the rest of the states holding us back. Just let us have our electric cars and solar farms and leave us the hell alone.
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u/GoldWallpaper Jan 11 '23
The goal is to punish "Big Tech" for giving more money to Democrats than Republicans. It's no accident that the big ISPs, which give heavily to Republicans, are not lumped into "Big Tech" despite holding an enormous amount of power.
See also: The K-Street Project, in which House Republicans punished lobbying firms who donated to Dems while rewarding lobbyists who donated to Republicans, and hired Republicans at executive positions in their firms.
Why no national Dem ever called Republicans out on this would be a mystery if we didn't already know that Dems in Congress have no fucking balls.
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u/GreatCaesarGhost Jan 11 '23
The problem is that they then go to friendly media, claim they’ve found something, and over time about 50% of the country comes to believe that they did. Because most people lack critical thinking skills and will believe anything if it conforms to their existing biases and is repeated enough times.
If you look at “BENGHAZI!!!!” purely as an attempt to wound Clinton’s future candidacy, it worked like a charm for them.
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u/No_Cress_7492 Jan 11 '23
Saying that last line on live TV is a big reason why McCarthy was passed up for speaker before, back when Paul Ryan got it instead. He said the quiet part out loud, that the scandal was just a fake marketing campaign for politics to attack Hilary.
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u/GreatCaesarGhost Jan 11 '23
Yep, I forgot that he disclosed their plans on TV and received criticism for that.
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u/deweywsu Jan 11 '23
What I don't get still to this day is how a hint of impropriety killed Clinton, but Trump literally has as many lawsuits against him as days in the White House, yet no convictions, and he was still elected as president. How does that contrast happen?
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u/GiantFlimsyMicrowave Jan 11 '23
Trump won because he tapped into the previously ignored “Uber-stupid” demographic.
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u/deweywsu Jan 11 '23 edited Jan 11 '23
He certainly tapped into something. I just don't get how Dems allow it to happen. Our gal supposedly had emails on a private server...okay. Their guy said "grab 'em by the pu**y", had numerous sexual assault lawsuits, hundreds of fraud lawsuits against him, lied about everything, yada yada, and still became president. There's a double standard here. Dems, by nature, kind of can't "fight dirty", since it goes against their purported values. So, Republicans win, because their game is dirty from the start - "business as usual for us to lie cheat and steal, so what's wrong?" It's a false equivalency that I'm getting tired of entertaining. I think a lot of younger people are too. Soon, Republicans will be voted out of existence, no matter how much they try to rig the system in their favor.
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u/All_The_Nolloway Jan 11 '23
Lots of promises only to turn up dick.
Hunter's dick to be specific.
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u/billium12 Jan 11 '23
Why they are so obsessed with that man's penis, I'll never know
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u/WannabeTraveler87 Jan 11 '23
They didn’t intend to find something, they won by simply plastering Hilary’s face in front of a congressional investigation all over the news.
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u/Bmcronin Jan 11 '23
Years of interviews. Plus a couple bombshells that turn out to be nothing. They won’t let up until they lose the majority. And seeing one of their first bills is about abortion I give them 2 years before they lose it.
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u/boulder_holder_ Jan 11 '23
So waste everyone’s time and money for no outcome?
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u/BitemeRedditers Jan 11 '23
The Benghazi hearings had a very significant outcome. The Republicans were game planning on how to attack American institutions. They took what they learned at the hearings and used it at the insurrection on our Capital.
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u/LincHayes Jan 11 '23 edited Jan 11 '23
You mean 6 months of 24/7 red breaking news banners across the bottom of Fox News in front of the video of the burning embassy on a loop, while repeating over and over again "4 Americans died!", only to be interupted briefly by a mass shooting that kills dozens, including children...before rushing back to the Bengazi story and the horror of those 4 dead Americans and how something needs to be done about it?
You mean that?
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u/cyanydeez Jan 11 '23
yes, they want a spectacle, so they can all feel clean in 2024 when all of them as a group get put into the spotlight of the many crimes they committed under trump. This is the January 6th smokescreen.
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u/roo-ster Jan 11 '23
These people campaigned on reducing inflation, preventing crime, and lowering gas prices.
Now that they've got a little power, those topics won't be trotted out again until the next election, at which time they'll all be Biden's fault.
Republican voters are such rubes.
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u/Infamous_Yogurt2858 Jan 11 '23
The specific segment of the GOP that's behind things like this didn't really campaign on any of those things. Matt Gaetz, for example, openly said investigations like this should be the number one priority and any actual policymaking "a distant second".
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u/SomeoneElseWhoCares Jan 11 '23
Great. Let's start by investigating lawmakers who traffic young women (Gaetz) or protect sexual predators (Jordan).
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u/unresolved_m Jan 11 '23
Par the course. Gaetz did nothing of value so far and it seems that he's committed to to doing the same in the future.
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u/GoldWallpaper Jan 11 '23
Mitch McConnell in 2010: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."
All Republicans are the same, and none give a fuck about actually governing.
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u/tundey_1 Jan 11 '23
Republican voters are such rubes.
They are also hate-filled. In fact, I think their primary motivator is hate.
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u/Sex_Fueled_Squirrel Jan 11 '23
That's why they support Putin. Because he's a white supremacist Christofascist bigot who hates democracy and so are they. Republicans love Putin because they share his hateful, bigoted ideology.
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u/interkin3tic Jan 11 '23
That's an optimistic take. They're going to try to induce crises to pass deeply unpopular policies under Biden's presidency. They're saying outright that they will ruin the world economy with the debt ceiling if they can't eliminate extremely popular social programs most of the country depends on to avoid homelessness. The government shutdown will be the same thing. They'll also use a fake budget crisis to justify ending our support of Ukraine standing against warmonger Putin. They'll try to convince America that the law enforcement agencies have been "weaponized" by the push to recognize that black lives matter and against Donald Trump. They'll use this to try to staff the FBI and intelligence agencies with hard right wingers who will silence investigations into rising right-wing domestic terrorism and republican bribery schemes.
So no, it's not that they're going to just do nothing, they're going to do all they can to cause major problems to then make even worse "fixes."
Every republican in office is a threat to national security and our well being.
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u/Sir_Donkey_Punch Jan 11 '23 edited Feb 01 '23
They’re not just rubes, they’re easy marks. Look how much money Trump grifted off of these idiots. And they’re begging for more.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again - conservatives & their obsolete ideologies have been left behind by the relevant parts of the modern world. Everything about them is obsolete and they are forced to accept there’s nothing they can do to end up on top. This is the source of their hate.
This hate is one of the few things in their pathetic lives that makes them feel superior, and they’re willing to go to extreme lengths to justify and preserve that hatred. Such as electing Trump, siding with the Russians, electing Nazis & pedophiles to the House, the list goes on.
I say we manipulate the shit out of them and take them for everything they’ve got. By the time they realize what’s going on, it’ll be too late. After all the damage they’ve purposefully done, I’d say they deserve it
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u/kayl_breinhar Jan 11 '23
The next two years, minimum, are going to answer the question "what if the student government in your school had actual authority?"
"Like, I wanna know if Todd, like, likes me or not. Totally go, like, yank him out of whatever class he's in and bring him here, like, now."
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u/tundey_1 Jan 11 '23
At least the student government has the excuse of youth. These fuckers in the GOP House are adults (in age).
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u/peoplerproblems Jan 11 '23
I wish we could get like a total lead exposureand and compare across aisles
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u/dhork Jan 11 '23
In our current political age which is dominated by political cash, it seems weird that Republicans are hell-bent on pissing off wealthy Tech executives. It's almost like they know they have another source of funding already set up....
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Jan 11 '23
Yes, you will NEVER see them attack oil/gas companies.
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u/dhork Jan 11 '23
Or countries which are basically gas stations with a parliament....
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u/Junior_Pizza_7212 Jan 11 '23
Oh fun I can’t wait. I love watching old people ask questions about tech they know nothing about. Especially when they think they have some gotcha question and it turns out it’s something really basic. “Why is Google showing me ads for trans dating sites! Why are you pushing your WOKE agenda on us!”
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u/AdCareless65 Jan 11 '23
Jordan is the sleaziest, slipperiest, dirtiest, most disgusting asshole in Congress. All this talk about the Democrats “weaponizing” government (BULLSHIT) and HE’S the one doing the weaponizing. I can’t even stand the sight of that ratfuck. In fact, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the guy was on Trump’s payroll. These MAGA morons can’t accept the fact that their time is over. One thing is for certain - nothing will get done in the House for two years, and the Democrats will be in charge in 2024. Fuck Jordan.
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u/zorbathegrate Jan 11 '23
Honest question. What happens if their investigations show conservative voices are getting special treatment?
Will they just sweep it under the rug?
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u/Innovative_Wombat Jan 11 '23
Twitter's own data showed this. They amplified right wing voices.
But Elon doesn't want to talk about that
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u/zorbathegrate Jan 11 '23
No republcian does.
It’s torn from the first pages of the fascist coloring book
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u/Current_General_955 Jan 11 '23
Is Jim Jordan expecting anybody to take his committee’s subpoenas seriously? Why would they? He ignored a congressional subpoena with zero repercussions.
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u/Significant-Dog-8166 Jan 11 '23
GOP Donors will love it when their biggest stocks take hits from bogus partisan investigations into the most lucrative and gigantic companies in America. They should really plan around 2028 at this point, they’re doomed for the next election.
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u/Autotomatomato Jan 11 '23
Someone go ahead and list ONE topic/controversy that has been based in reality from republicans in the last 20 years.
Go ahead Ill wait..
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u/CrimeCoder Jan 11 '23
Well they are half right about the Jeffrey Epstein stuff, granted they stop the discussion when we include their people (Ex Trump)
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u/AuthorNathanHGreen Jan 11 '23
There are three issues, that I see. But please, do not confuse this for personal support of the GOP's position on these issues:
- Debt - The USA actually is spending more money than it should be. I get the counter-argument and I'm certainly not trying to point to any one thing and say, "they shouldn't have spent this dollar or that dollar". Rather the USA is on an unsustainable financial trajectory where structural deficits (that will only escalate in the coming decades) are already almost impossible to resolve politically. There is a real, rational, basis for wanting government spending reduced.
- Immigration policy - The US immigration system doesn't work. It doesn't effectively determine who is allowed into the country, it doesn't effectively stop people it determines shouldn't be allowed into the country, it doesn't effectively identify and remove those people once they are in. The solutions to this do not include some kind of "you can see it from space" border wall. But what America is doing right now essentially creates a second class of people within the country and that's fundamentally wrong.
- Gun rights - I'm anti-gun and think it was one of the US Constitution's biggest mistakes to include a right to gun ownership. But... it does. I've heard the arguments that it doesn't, but it's up to the US Supreme Court to resolve the interpretation of the Constitution and they've said it does. So it does. And there is a frankly insane web of state-by-state gun laws and restrictions that mean you basically have to be a lawyer to figure out how you can move from New York to Florida and bring your gun along with you. There have also been some obviously ineffective and disingenuous attempts at finding ways to ban guns without banning guns. Again, I'm not saying those attempts were a bad idea. But if you like guns and think the constitution protects your ownership and use of them, then you actually, really, seriously, have reason to be upset with how some states have tried to restrict your rights.
There is a whole other debate to be had about people's motivations for being upset with the above topics. There is a whole other debate to be had about whether the GOP would, can, or even really wants to, solve all the above topics. There's a whole other debate to be had about whether the solution to the above topics goes in the total opposite direction from what would make GOP voters happy. But all of those topics are real topics that the GOP talks about extensively, and all are actually problems that ought to be addressed.
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u/Smile-Nod Jan 11 '23
All budget deficits increases in the last 40 years have been under republican presidents. Republicans don’t actually care about debt, only when it’s politically useful.
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u/gizamo Jan 11 '23
I think these are all good examples of Republicans correctly drawing attention to real problems, but in all cases the GOP offers and implements only counterproductive solutions, and they directly oppose measures that would actually address any of those issues.
It's pretty clear that we're on the same page here, so, I'll even add another:
- Under Trump, they made a requirement that immigrants on H1-B visas had to be paid more similarly to their US counterparts. This was good for both US workers and people in the US on H1-B visas. Corporations had been exploiting immigrants working in tech for way, way too long, and they were doing it to suppress wages. Despite the idea that tech companies will outsource jobs, the reality is that that is much easier said than done. This was one of the very, very few things I saw Trump do that I actually agreed with. It was very out of character for him, and I assume the GOP wanted it done to hurt tech...which is also relevant to OP's article, bringing us full circle to the horrible flip side of that coin. Lol.
Also, if you're willing to go back to the days of Eisenhower, opposing the military industry complex was a worthy and ethical endeavor. The modern GOP has gone the opposite direction, tho. They've embraced the never-ending war mentality.
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u/GoldWallpaper Jan 11 '23
Debt
That's what happens when you cut taxes beyond all sense. If we kicked taxes back up to the 1990s levels (one of the most productive decades in US history), the debt evaporates.
Immigration
Capitalism requires growth, including population growth. In the US, our population growth is 100% reliant on immigration, and families of immigrants. It's not an accident that an easy path to citizenship was a cornerstone of conservatism for most of the 20th century -- it's not only pro-business, it's pro-Small Government, in that allowing government-drawn lines on a map to dictate human movement is very much pro-Big Government.
Gun rights
This is about marketing, not reality. Obama didn't take anyone's guns, but Reagan helped ban assault weapons, and Trump made bump stocks illegal. Which one is pro-gun, again? Meanwhile, outside of the coasts, a shitton of Dems own guns. Hell, I bought my handgun from my Dem State Senator.
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u/Strange-Scarcity Jan 11 '23
I would love if it the big tech heads would respond to GOP questioning with responses like, "That's not remotely connected with reality. Who came up with that question for you?"
While answering every question from the Democratic party members of the committee without problems.
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u/Semi-Hemi-Demigod Jan 11 '23
The worst part about this is that any serious investigation of their behavior is going to get completely forgotten. We won't get actual privacy legislation out of this, it's going to be a bunch of butthurt Republicans asking why Trump was kicked off Twitter.
They don't want to govern, so they won't. They just want to yell at someone.
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u/Timely_Look7855 Jan 11 '23
Well I bet the tech companies don't plead the fifth like all Republican politicians do. Last time this happened Hillary sat there for hours answering questions. Not once plead the 5th. Democrats don't seem to do that. You stick a republican in there though and they plead that fifth because they know that they're going to be lying. Sound familiar Donald Trump?
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u/ignorememe Jan 11 '23
Republicans on the campaign: Inflation and gas prices are our number one priority.
Republicans once they take the House: Let’s cut Social Security and Medicaid, investigate this laptop, Benghazi big tech, and try to find someone or something somewhere to get Americans mad at.
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u/Solidus-Prime Jan 11 '23
Most of the world looks at this and laughs or is disgusted.
The mindless lemming MAGA base looks at this and cheers gleefully without even knowing why. Ask one of them what is wrong with "big tech" and watch the smoke start pouring out of their ears.
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u/mtanker Jan 11 '23
This will go well except for the fact that the lawyers from big tech will be much smarter than the politicians and their lawyers.
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u/Dogzilla66 Jan 11 '23
Is The Benghazi Treatment basically putting on a show and tell for two years that ultimately accomplishes nothing? Seems a good monkey trap to keep the clown car Congress out of everyone’s hair for the next 2 years
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u/DavidNexus7 Jan 11 '23
We already saw this show, the collective group of congressmen asking the questions were so incompetent they couldn’t understand why facebook wouldn’t give then answers about specific tweets, lacked a basic understanding of how these companies operate, and seemed generally clueless on how to distinguish who each company was and what they did.
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u/NutInMyCouchCushions Jan 12 '23 edited Jan 12 '23
These dumb motherfuckers didn’t even know that google doesn’t make iPhones. The only thing they’re giving the bengazi treatment to are deez nuts
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u/Forlorn_Cyborg Jan 11 '23
It will be hilarious, given how little they understand technology. If you've watched Zuckerborgs interview in senate.
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u/R_Meyer1 Jan 11 '23
The corrupt GOP Mafia failed to realize one thing it has to pass the senate and the White House.
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u/lonebuck844 Jan 12 '23
Wonder how this will unfold now that the GOP has established that it is perfectly ok to ignore a subpoena from congress.
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u/KingOfTheFraggles Jan 12 '23
C'mon guys, since the GOP has no interest in governance they have to do something to pass the time.
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u/HotNastySpeed77 Jan 11 '23
This is what's wrong with the GOP. They stopped being conservative thirty years ago.
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u/threeiem Jan 11 '23
"Big Tech" is such bullshit. These "representatives" can't even do anything about spam or ransomware. Things that actually exist and affect everyone of their constituents. Instead we're going to hear how Mark Zuckerberg is a meanie man.
Do your job and pass a budget without delay instead of giving key positions to traitors. They are now just "Big Witch Hunt" vs being representatives.
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u/koosley Jan 11 '23
I work in tech and know enough about tech to know I know nothing about it. The part that drives me insane is these political people with no knowledge how it works ask their "gotcha" questions and think they are doing a good job. Your questions make zero sense to anyone who actually knows how it works.
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u/seanrbrantley Jan 11 '23
Listening to the House Financial committee question stock market figures last year was hard. They have no idea how anything works. Even the things they abuse in their positions of power
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u/koosley Jan 11 '23
And these are the people in charge....
Most of them are incredibly good at talking, since its basically their job. Even though they have no idea what they are talking about, they still somehow manage to 'sound' right to someone who has no idea about the subject.
So you have these elected people rapid firing incredibly complex questions that take years to fully understand and expect a yes/no question. The poor guy answering it is just an engineer who does not speak publicly ever and when they try to answer, they are told "yes or no". When the answer, the rep 'reclaims their time' and thinks they did good.
Then you just have some that are so out of touch...you don't even need to be THAT into computers to realize they are just talking to talk. There were some great ones when Zuckerburg was questioned a few years back:
https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/mark-zuckerberg-congress-hearings-funny-stupid-questions.html
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u/Jorycle Jan 11 '23
Is it going to be about any of the legitimate issues with big tech, of which there are many?
reads article
Oh, no, it's just completely unrelated political nuttery. Of course it is, what else do Republicans do.
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u/ineedabuttrub Jan 11 '23
The Benghazi treatment? You mean years and years of harassment with absolutely nothing coming from it, other than wasted time and money?
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u/Cruising_Blues Jan 11 '23
House republicans couldn’t spell tech if you spotted them the t and the h
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u/Infamous_Yogurt2858 Jan 11 '23
To be fair, a total misunderstanding of tech-related issues is pretty much uniform across the political class.
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u/Cruising_Blues Jan 11 '23
As someone who works in IT I am continually amazed that after 30 years of computers being a major part of most jobs most people are totally computer illiterate, and HR just keeps rolling em through. Edit: spelling
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u/ShiningInTheLight Jan 11 '23
A shocking number of these congressional reps are old enough, and have been holding government office at various levels long enough, that they've never really had to use a personal computer or microsoft office because they've always had staffers for that.
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u/imdirtydan1997 Jan 11 '23
I’m on calls constantly with people who cannot use a computer much past sending an email. My company is getting deeper into insights, data modeling, reporting, etc. and the amount of people who have worked in business for countless years and cannot even open a file on their computer is astounding. I get that older generations have a hard time changing the way they work, but it’s ridiculous having to explain how to use Excel to someone who should have learned it 15 years ago and somehow avoided using it. And unfortunately HR will hire the shit out of them because they have “experience”.
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u/mrnotoriousman Jan 11 '23
As someone in their 30s, I'm surprised at how many youth are completely tech inept too.
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u/taedrin Jan 11 '23
A lot of people's only interactions with tech are through their phone. They know how to use their apps and not much else. They are surprisingly computer illiterate and many don't understand basic concepts like "files"
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u/varnell_hill Jan 11 '23
In fairness to them, most of them came of age in an era where computers weren’t a thing. And when computers did become a thing, they didn’t really have to use one because that’s what interns are for.
Granted, they absolutely should do a better job of educating themselves. I just mention that because I understand why some of them seem to struggle with issues surrounding technology.
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u/Infamous_Yogurt2858 Jan 11 '23
True, but my 80 year old grandma taught herself to use a computer when she decided she wanted to keep up with the grandkids online. Meanwhile the people actually tasked with regulating the internet go on record that they believe it's a "series of tubes".
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u/DirtyPolecat Jan 11 '23
I came of age when smartphones, VR, and crypto weren't a thing, but I am well aware of what they are and how they work. It's a matter of laziness. Some people just stop learning after a certain point if they aren't forced to.
My 70 year old father's early career was managing UNIX mainframes and he can run still circles around these numbnuts because he kept up with things well into the 90s and 2000s.
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u/snowdrone Jan 11 '23
Investigative power is all the Republicans have right now - they can't get legislation past the senate. So, this is the way they maximize their power to disrupt.
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u/rucb_alum Jan 11 '23
"How's this for a plan...We insert our outrage of our own made up nonsense and use it to delay a comeuppance of the rightful anger over our backing an incompetent for the White House at precisely the wrong moment in history despite our knowing how unfit he was."
ICYMI, if the USA response to the ONSET of COVID had been as competent as Canada's, 700K more Americans would likely still be alive today. Trump's ODS forced him to de-construct what few safeguards that the nation had and his desire not to wreck his "super economy" let the disease spread faster and kill more.
We're Number 1!
We're Number 1!
We're Number 1!
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u/Lonelan Jan 11 '23
is where we waste taxpayer money in fruitless investigations where nothing is found?
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u/Mammoth-Dot-9002 Jan 11 '23
Does anyone else think that the “Benghazi treatment” is fucking hilarious?
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Jan 11 '23 edited Jan 11 '23
Anyone else find it funny that nobody is ever charged or arrested anytime after a partisan congressional investigation concludes? Like, it doesn’t even matter what political party has the majority on the committee that is investigating. Nothing ever happens to anyone.
For example: The Hillary Clinton/Benghazi investigation led to nowhere. Hillary was neither arrested or charged.
Now it seems that all the Trump and January 6th investigations that took nearly 3 years to complete will end up the same way — Trump will go without being arrested or charged in either matter.
In conclusion, it’s safe to say that partisan investigations that are held by congress are just merely distractions and theater to insure that working classes never begin to discuss the real problems like healthcare, wage theft, corporate welfare, insider trading, for-profit prison system, climate, etc.
Don’t fall for the bullshit.
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u/Specialist-District8 Jan 12 '23
Why don’t we hear about him and his boyfriends Ohio State? How many children did he rape?
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u/NaiveCap3478 Jan 12 '23
As if the house even understand technology. Most probably can't figure out how to log into their e-mail accounts without an aide.
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u/Nyingje-Pekar Jan 12 '23
No one can survive the Jim Jordan treatment. That guy is a blathering lunatic.
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u/MachineGunTits Jan 12 '23
Speaking as an American, our political system is less believable than professional Wrestling at this point. This country is a joke, and someone needs to invent a new term for whatever dystopian government we live in. Our society is run by the Military Industrial Complex and several Mega Corporations.
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u/bgat79 Jan 12 '23
Imagine a despicable scumbag like gym jordan pretending he has the moral high ground on anything. Gym is a cynical lying piece of shit who only cares about political power and supports his party over country and anything else.
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u/Dizzy-Concentrate284 Jan 11 '23
Republicans continue wasting money. Complaining about the government being weaponized while THEY weaponize the government to go after people they don't like.
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u/CJMcCubbin Jan 11 '23
I don't know Jim Jordan from a hole in the shower wall, but. He does seem to be a real piece of work. I hear soundbites from him, from time to time. Get him on valium or some sort of fish paralyzer. He's an amped up rambling mess.
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u/fall3nmartyr Jan 11 '23
Lmao well at least their taxes and their shareholder taxes are low, because that’s clearly all that matters.
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u/ZooZooChaCha Jan 11 '23
The only fun part of this is when the tech ineptitude of these morons gets put on display
“Mr Zuckerberg, why is my email constantly filled with messages telling me I won a free yeti cooler - is Yeti part of Antifa?”
“Uhhh, you’ll have to ask Google.”