For all the drama, House Republicans have passed only 22 bills into law this session. One established a commemorative coin, and two renamed medical centers.

  • themeatbridge
    link
    fedilink
    2611 months ago

    The guy who pulled the alarm deserved a censure. You don’t fuck with fire alarms. I’ll agree, Republicans do some stupid, unprofessional shit, and more than a few deserve a censure, but let’s not defend the guy who made the building less safe because he was late to a vote.

    • HubertManne
      link
      fedilink
      211 months ago

      it was one of those door alarms which is the most commone to accidentally activate. im unsure on if it was purposeful.

      • themeatbridge
        link
        fedilink
        811 months ago

        It was a regular fire alarm. He approached the fire door, accidentally knocked a sign down, and pulled the alarm. I buy his story that he thought it would open the doors. I just think that’s still an exceptionally stupid thing to do.

        See photo here

          • themeatbridge
            link
            fedilink
            311 months ago

            Understandable, because you see him push on the bar, but you can’t see the alarm switch on the wall from that camera angle.

    • @Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      -311 months ago

      The guy who pulled the alarm deserved a censure.

      I disagree. Since they can’t fine each other, censure is the strongest condemnation short of being stripped of committee assignments. While what he did wasn’t great, it was nowhere near serious enough to warrant censure.

      You don’t fuck with fire alarms

      Yeah you do. Schoolkids do it all the time.

      but let’s not defend the guy who made the building less safe because he was late to a vote.

      I’m not saying it wasn’t a bad thing to do but he didn’t make the building less safe. That’s a ridiculous hypothetical based on assuming likelihood of an extremely unlikely confluence of events.

      You need to relax with the learned alarmism, pun intended.

      • themeatbridge
        link
        fedilink
        9
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        He did plead guilty and paid a fine, because pulling the alarm is a crime. I’m not being alarmist, activating the fire alarm costs real money, draws the attention of fire fighters, wastes the time of everyone in the building that must evacuate, and reduces the likelihood that anyone will take the next alarm seriously. It’s not a felony, but it’s not harmless.

        It’s a crime when kids do it, too, but usually they don’t prosecute it. However, this is a Congressional Representative. Whether we do or not, we should expect more from our elected officials than we expect of school children.

        I also think you’re putting too much weight into a censure. It has all the teeth of a strongly worded email sent to an unmonitored inbox. You’re correct that it is the strongest form of condemnation, and I do think the GOP is abusing the censure, but I don’t have a problem with Congress formally disapproving of an adult member of Congress pulling the fire alarm. It wasn’t an aide or a teenager on a school trip or a confused septuagenarian Senator.

        The other censures are pure theater, and the more censures they hand out, the less anyone will care.