Republicans try to censor big business, LOL

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Republicans will cut your taxes and keep them low. But there’s a price: You have to side with the Party of Trump in political battles, even if it might mean breaking the law.

This latest twist in the GOP’s self-preservation strategy is a threat by the top House Republican, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, to retaliate against any business that complies with requests from the committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. “If these companies comply with the Democrat [sic] order to turn over private information, they are in violation of federal law and subject to losing their ability to operate in the United States,” McCarthy tweeted on Aug. 31. “A Republican majority will not forget and will stand with Americans to hold them fully accountable.”

Before everybody rushes to one corner or the other — Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative — let’s acknowledge the political gamesmanship here. Democrats are investigating the Jan. 6 riots with marginal Republican cooperation, because the GOP’s Trumpers don’t want a fair inquiry that could implicate the former president or any allies who may have enabled or encouraged the rioters. Instead of a bipartisan panel, the Jan. 6 commission consists of 8 Democrats and 5 Republicans. Democrats control it.

The panel has reportedly issued subpoenas to telecom and social-media companies ordering them to preserve communication records for dozens or hundreds of people it may investigate — including McCarthy himself, who spoke with former President Trump by phone during the uprising. The panel is also interested in records relating to Trump, some of his family members, and several fervent Trumpers in Congress, including Reps. Matt Goetz, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan, Mo Brooks, and Louie Gohmert. As far as anybody knows, the panel has not asked any firm to preserve the records of any prominent Democrat.

Laughing yet?

So a Democratically led panel is seeking or may be seeking compromising information on Republicans. That got McCarthy’s dander up and led to his threat to retaliate against the companies, including phone giants Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T), tech behemoths Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) and of course social-media platforms Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TWTR). McCarthy is basically saying that if Republicans retake control of the House in the 2022 midterms — which they have good odds of doing — they’d use their power to harm or harass the companies.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/republicans-try-to-censor-big-business-lol/ar-AAO2c1k

Nice company you have there. Shame if something was to happen to it.

[FoxNewsSucks]

1. Remember QWEST telephone co?

HQ in Omaha. 20 years ago they were the only major communication company that didn't go along with allowing mass spying and data collection of its customers. AT&T, Verizon and all the others did.

QWEST no longer exists. Now republicons are threatening them if they do comply. Typical hypocrisy to cover their guilt.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. QWEST was bought out by Century Link which has since renamed itself Lumen

Lumen still exists. I did a contract job for Lumen last week in downtown Seattle turning up a fiber internet system.

[FoxNewsSucks]

4. I remember when the Qwest arena in downtown Omaha

changed names to CenturyLink.

There was also scandal involving the CEO and the reason for sale. Maybe it was just rumor, but this is one account

https://reason.com/2013/06/13/so-whatever-happened-to-qwest-an-object/

The federal government doesn't need to hammer these companies in a massive public display of authority to get cooperation. It just needs to hammer them in the right way in the right place. Business Insider takes note of the fate of the telecom company once known as Qwest, and its former CEO, currently in jail:

Former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio is currently serving a six-year sentence after being convicted of insider trading in April 2007 for selling $52 million of stock in the spring of 2001 as the telecommunications carrier appeared to be deteriorating.

During the trial his defense team argued that Nacchio, 63, believed Qwest was about to win secret government contracts that would keep it in the black. Nacchio alleged that the government stopped offering the company lucrative contracts after Qwest refused to cooperate with a National Security Agency surveillance program in February 2001.

The PRISM scandal has given Nacchio's claims new life. Arguably, a telecom dependent on federal contracts to survive doesn't deserve to do so. But to further go after Nacchio directly, presuming his defense is even remotely true, sends a scary warning message to any fellow corporate leaders about who is calling the shots.

[C_U_L8R]

3. A question for corporate donors

Why would you ever support a party that would turn on you like this?

Smart money doesn’t bet on GOP.

[Chainfire]

5. Extortion or obstruction, take your pick.