• SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I’m not convinced it is a good thing that both are being investigated if the investigation into Buttigieg is just political smearing. HRC’s emails show the cost of abusive investigations. Investigations aren’t cost free, either monetarily or in terms of public trust in institutions. It implies he did something worth investigating, and devalues the seriousness of real investigations, like those against Trump.

    When the review was announced, Buttigieg had flown on FAA planes 18 times out of 138 flights for official trips since becoming secretary early in 2021, according to The Washington Post. He takes commercial flights most of the time, and when he uses FAA aircraft, it’s usually because it’s cheaper than commercial flights, a Department of Transportation spokeswoman said.

    This does not seem to be something worth investigating.

    • squiblet@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      devalues the seriousness of real investigations

      The only thing people like Green or Jordan doing Congress is distract, distract, distract.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Huh?

      If they investigate him, and everything is cool, then it’s cool… Which is what the article sounds like.

      If he’s abusing it, just to a much smaller degree, then that’s still an issue.

      Like, that’s the whole point of not just holding people from your “own team” accountable. If someone might be doing something wrong, you investigate them no matter who they are.

      Do you think an investigation means a huge thing where he testifies in front of Congress? That’s not an investigation.

      • chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The problem with investigating false allegations, aside from the waste of tax payer money, is that the damage is done in the beginning of the investigation. The fascist talking points are now about excessive spending from the Democrats. They won’t even bother retracting statements when they are found to be false.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          What do you think an investigation is?

          It’s just looking at his flights, and seeing if he was flying free when he should have been paying.

          From the article, that’s already been done.

          How much do you think that possibly costs?

          • BURN@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            The republicans don’t care what the outcome of the investigation is. They just want to use it as a political gotcha.

            Government investigations over frivolous things are a waste of taxpayer money and time.

            • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Government investigations over frivolous things are a waste of taxpayer money and time.

              It’s getting concerning no one answers this and acts like it’s a giant thing…

              What do you think an investigation is?

              Like, an audit would take a low GS employee an afternoon…

              What do you think an investigation entails that it’s prohibitively expensive?

              • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Whats wrong is this is retaliation by Republicans. Did you read the article? They’re framing it as taxpayers paying for Pete ro receive gay sex awards. Does that sound like a pressing issue? Or a real thing to you? Does that sound worthy of investigation? The Avengers should have never stopped Thanos.

                • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  They’re framing it as taxpayers paying for Pete ro receive gay sex awards.

                  If I said Donald Trump cheated on his taxes to fund the cloning of hitler in the hollow core of the Earth, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do anything about him cheating on his taxes…

                  I feel like I’m going crazy here, I don’t get why I’m not be clearer here.

                  • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    Because your argument is fucken nuts, bro. This isn’t an excersize in proactivity. Its obvious politcal retaliation.

                  • MooDib@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    I think you’re looking at it from a rational view. However, most people don’t actually look into things and instead just read headlines and make assumptions from there. They should absolutely look into any type of fraud, waste, and abuse but generally it is done behind closed doors. The only reason this is being broadcast out to the world, despite there being seemingly overwhelming evidence of no wrong doing, is to create headlines and a PERCEPTION of wrong doing. That perception is all they care about because to their constituents perception is reality.

              • BURN@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                It’s not just this case. This is a much wider pattern from the republicans to waste taxpayer money investigating things that they have no need to be involved in.

                The same idea applies to the hunter Biden probe. It’s politically motivated investigations that don’t need to be done, but are done because the republicans can use taxpayer money to hash out their problems.

                Nobody is saying this specific audit cost millions of dollars, but it certainly cost a whole lot more than just the salary of a single person for a few hours.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, but when you have obvious and public cases of MASSIVE corruption in “your own team” and you fail to adress that… instead gojng after any “petty” corruption in the other team…

        Yeah. That’s a problem.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          If someone steals 100 million from a charity, it doesn’t mean we dont care if someone else stole 10k…

          And it certainly doesn’t mean we don’t even look if someone stole 10k

          • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            You missed the point.

            Or your ignoring it because you know that your team doesn’t care aboutnl corruption, just scoring political points.

            Either way you slice it, republicans are patently and blatantly corrupt and only going after democrats because they’re democrats.

      • SkepticalButOpenMinded@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        I am not against holding “my own team” accountable if there is some valid reason to think there is something worth investigating. If there isn’t, it is a witch hunt, and witch hunts are harmful. They can be used to harass, waste time, and slander by vague insinuation. More to the point, the public has finite attention. News of pointless investigations can be used strategically to drown out real ones, which is a threat to democracy. That is, I believe, what Republicans are presently doing.

      • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The problem is, Republicans don’t tell the truth. When you actually press the investigative committee into Hunter Biden about the evidence they have, they’ll quietly murmur there isn’t any. But otherwise, they’ll very loudly suggest they have evidence and outright lie.