Stories & Opinions Worth Knowing but Maybe Not Quite Threadworthy 7/27

[SVPete]

J6 Celebrity Cop Appears Uninjured in New Video Despite Testimony He Was Going to "Die" on January 6

https://www.declassified.live/p/j6-celebrity-cop-appears-uninjured

For nearly two years, Capitol police officer Aquilino Gonell was off the job or on partial duty, insisting the severe physical and mental injuries he sustained on January 6, 2021 prevented him from doing his job as a federal law enforcement officer.

In news interviews and on social media, Gonell has told his sob story about how violent rioters inflicted debilitating foot, shoulder, and head injuries that day. He routinely posts images of those alleged injuries, including several photos of a foot with stitches and surgical tape and pictures of his ongoing shoulder therapy.

... Gonell—who is occasionally a government witness—said in a victim impact statement filed in May that he was “bleeding from both hands, [had] a maimed foot, hit on the head, sprayed with pepper and bear spray, beaten, punched, pushed, pulled, and assaulted by many other rioters” on the afternoon of January 6.

But new video published by reporter Joe Hanneman at The Epoch Times this week contradicts Gonell’s claims. For more than seven minutes, Gonell, highlighted in the video below, is seen moving and walking with no sign of pain. (This segment begins at roughly 4:50 p.m. after confrontations with police and protested had ended.)

Both shoulders appear to have full mobility; he is seen at one point kicking a medical kit and walking around without any indication either foot is injured. His hands look unscathed.

If the LIEden DOJ were actually about justice, Gonell would already be in prison for perjury and attempted disability fraud. But Hate-Trump narrative.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Mehdi Hasan wants you to 'imagine' if the Democrats had a propaganda arm

Prepare for a cascade of stupidity, as MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan replies to a tweet by serial fabulist Aaron Rupar.

Hunter Biden has already been mentioned at least 104 times *this morning* on Fox News and Fox Business, according to a transcript search. It's not 10am eastern yet.

The president's son going to court is kind of newsy. How many times did they mention Hunter Biden's name on CNN? MSNBC?

Imagine if liberals or the Dems had a nationwide messaging apparatus, an actual propaganda arm, which pumped out Jared Kushner’s name and alleged misdeeds daily, 100s of times. Then you start to understand the messaging imbalance in this country & how GOP gets away with so much.

This has got to be a joke. Hasan is a cog in a nationwide messaging apparatus for the DNC, called MSNBC. He's asking us to "imagine" something that already exists. There's a "messaging imbalance" in the country? Really. That must explain why all the fact-checkers have taken the past two years off.

https://twitchy.com/brettt/2023/07/26/mehdi-hasan-wants-you-to-imagine-if-the-democrats-had-a-propaganda-arm-n2385756

[SVPete]

Supreme Court reinstates major gas pipeline in blow to environmental groups

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-reinstates-major-gas-pipeline-blow-environmental-groups

The Supreme Court struck down a lower court ruling from earlier this month that blocked construction of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) from proceeding.

In a short, unsigned order issued Thursday morning, the Supreme Court vacated the July 10 stay orders from the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, in which the lower court sided with plaintiffs — environmental groups Wilderness Society and Appalachian Voices, which had sued to stop the pipeline construction. The 4th Circuit ruling was opposed by the Biden administration, bipartisan lawmakers and the fossil fuel industry.

"Whatever benefit respondents or the court of appeals might believe would be gained by having the agencies again reconsider the challenged actions, Congress has determined that further reconsideration is unwarranted and has prioritized MVP’s 'timely' completion over interests addressed by any other federal statutes," the Department of Justice wrote in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court last week.

[ADsOutburst]

Mehdi Hasan wants you to 'imagine' if the Democrats had a propaganda arm

Prepare for a cascade of stupidity, as MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan replies to a tweet by serial fabulist Aaron Rupar.

The president's son going to court is kind of newsy. How many times did they mention Hunter Biden's name on CNN? MSNBC?

This has got to be a joke. Hasan is a cog in a nationwide messaging apparatus for the DNC, called MSNBC. He's asking us to "imagine" something that already exists. There's a "messaging imbalance" in the country? Really. That must explain why all the fact-checkers have taken the past two years off.

https://twitchy.com/brettt/2023/07/26/mehdi-hasan-wants-you-to-imagine-if-the-democrats-had-a-propaganda-arm-n2385756

One's knee-jerk reaction might be to call Hasan stupid, but I personally think his take is so bad it can't be explained by stupidity. It surpasses all human capacity for stupidity. It has to be dishonesty, and an attitude that no amount of favoritism is ever enough.

[SVPete]

Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-batteries-range/

In March, Alexandre Ponsin set out on a family road trip from Colorado to California in his newly purchased Tesla, a used 2021 Model 3. He expected to get something close to the electric sport sedan’s advertised driving range: 353 miles on a fully charged battery.

He soon realized he was sometimes getting less than half that much range, particularly in cold weather – such severe underperformance that he was convinced the car had a serious defect.
...
Ponsin contacted Tesla and booked a service appointment in California. He later received two text messages, telling him that “remote diagnostics” had determined his battery was fine, and then: “We would like to cancel your visit.”

What Ponsin didn’t know was that Tesla employees had been instructed to thwart any customers complaining about poor driving range from bringing their vehicles in for service. Last summer, the company quietly created a “Diversion Team” in Las Vegas to cancel as many range-related appointments as possible.

The Austin, Texas-based electric carmaker deployed the team because its service centers were inundated with appointments from owners who had expected better performance based on the company’s advertised estimates and the projections displayed by the in-dash range meters of the cars themselves, according to several people familiar with the matter.

It's kind of funny. Consumer mags used to make a big deal about how EPA gas economy numbers for vehicles were inflated due to unrealistic test vehicles and conditions. I've not seen corresponding media complaints wrt EV range claims. Maybe I've just not seen what is "out there". Anyway, EV buyers really should be made aware that battery performance suffers in cold weather, hot weather, and when climbing hills/mountains. If Tesla "has to" hide customer complaints like this, it's pretty obvious to me that Tesla dealers are not informing their customers about these caveats.

[Ptarmigan]

Video: Mitt Romney Argues That It Shouldn’t Be Illegal For Government To Use Big Tech For Censorship
https://summit.news/2023/07/27/video-mitt-romney-argues-that-it-shouldnt-be-illegal-for-government-to-use-big-tech-for-censorship/

During a Senate hearing Wednesday, Mitt Romney argued against an amendment proposed by Rand Paul to make it illegal for government to use social media and big tech companies to censor the views of Americans.

Paul put forth the case that “the First Amendment really isn’t about protecting the speech of government workers the First Amendment says Congress shall make no law it’s about limitations on government involvement with speech.”

Paul continued, “if Twitter says bad things about me and puts up bad things and takes me down I have no recourse against Twitter, same with Facebook. I’m mad, I hate that YouTube has taken my speeches down I don’t do business with them anymore, because I think they’re bigoted, biased and wrong-headed on this.”

“As far as threats, what we do know from the Twitter files is that the government was making threats,” Paul continued, adding “there were threats of Anti-Trust action against the companies if they didn’t take the material down, there was also threats of we will remove your 230 protection. Section 230 gives them liability protection and there were overt threats and threats in writing basically saying if you don’t take this down you know your 230 protection of liability could go away.”

Mitt Romney is no different from a leftist.

[ADsOutburst]

Video: Mitt Romney Argues That It Shouldn’t Be Illegal For Government To Use Big Tech For Censorship
https://summit.news/2023/07/27/video-mitt-romney-argues-that-it-shouldnt-be-illegal-for-government-to-use-big-tech-for-censorship/

Mitt Romney is no different from a leftist.

No different? Hell, Romneycare was a basis for the ACA, was it not?