Name One Thing ‘Congressional Hearings’ Have Accomplished

Remember the lyrics to the song “War” sung by the late Edwin Starr; the 1970s R&B, soul singer that went: “War, good God y’all; what is it good for? Absolutely nothing, say it again – War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. I submit that if we changed the word “war” to “Congressional Hearings” the song would be just as effective.

Specific to my point is the Wall Street Journal post made by my good friend and colleague, John Brinson: “The Zuckerberg hearings exposed a real flaw in our system, and that flaw is Congress. Congress over the years has evolved into a body with extremely rigid rules that allow the Members to take credit for, or deny responsibility for, anything they want. The hearings exposed the Congressmen and Congresswomen as actors looking to shine before the TV cameras, while adding nothing to the issue. And that issue is that Facebook sells private information for the purpose of benefitting liberal/progressive/socialist candidates. Zuckerberg admitted that Silicon Valley is an “extremely left-leaning place.”
Let the market determine the future of Facebook. When the people realize that they are wasting their time and energy posting on Facebook, and allowing others to use and misuse their personal information, they will drop off Facebook. The last thing we need is for Congress to try to fix the problem. Imagine an entirely new agency devoted to policing “hate speech”!” (April 12, 2018)

Congressional hearings are nothing more than a waste of taxpayer money. Name one Congressional hearing that accomplished anything. The Congressional hearings investigating Eric Holder were a joke. Those hearings also exposed how little weight the hearings carried with anyone who wanted to ignore them. Holder made a mockery out of the hearings, the fact that then Speaker of the House John Boehner, along with Eric Cantor, and water-bucket boy Kevin McCarthy, were working feverishly behind the scenes to ensure nothing came of the hearings, notwithstanding. The hearings were supposedly focused on Obama’s illegal gunrunning operation known as “Fast and Furious.”

Holder ignored threats of being found guilty of “contempt of congress.” He was Obama’s Attorney General, a position he operated with all of the integrity of a third-rate hoodlum. Holder should have been indicted on the “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act” (RICO), along with Obama and Hillary Clinton, which many postulate is the reason Holder displayed such contempt and defiant indifference toward the hearings. He knew Clinton-Obama were his thumb his nose cards.

Speaking of Hillary Clinton, what good were the Congressional hearings investigating her involvement in Benghazi? Absolutely nothing. Trey Gowdy scammed the American taxpayers out of $7.1 million and Clinton made a laughing stock out of the hearings; going from one moment having resting her chin on her hand with naked indifference before finally shouting those famous words: “What difference, at this point, does it make?”

The “difference” it made was that $7.1 million were squandered to the benefit of cheap Congressional parlor tricks masquerading as investigative hearings. In the meanwhile Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Tyrone Woods, Glen Doherty, and Sean Smith, were shipped back home in coffins because both Hillary Clinton and Obama allowed them to be murdered.

And now there is or was the Mark Zuckerberg hearings. The extent to which the Zuckerberg hearings amounted to nothing more than Kabuki Theater cannot be overstated.

Even more insulting to the American public, who footed the bill for the sham hearings, is the fact that Zuckerberg practically owned every Congressman in the room.
Over the last 12 years, Facebook has spent $7 million in campaign contributions. Historically, Facebook has donated slightly more to Democrats than Republicans, but overall, the platform’s political footprint is small in Washington, DC relative to its market cap, which is currently calculated at about $400 billion. That’s not unusual for technology companies: Amazon spent $4 million in campaign contributions over 20 years, and it has a market cap of nearly $700 billion. (Note, however, that Alphabet, Inc., with a market cap just over Amazon’s, appears to be outspending Facebook in DC by an order of magnitude.)
According to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, since 2014, Facebook has contributed a total of $641,685 to the members of Congress that Zuckerberg is facing this week. The top recipients of that money include Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA).
The amount of money received didn’t necessarily correlate to the hostility of questions asked by the legislators in Zuckerberg’s first hearing. That said, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) did make a somewhat bizarre pro-Facebook comment, saying, “Some have professed themselves shocked, shocked that companies like Google and Facebook share user data with advertisers. Did any of these individuals stop to ask themselves why Google and Facebook don’t charge for access? Nothing in life is free.” Hatch has taken $15,200 from Facebook since 2014 — the sixth largest amount on the combined committees.
But other senators who have received even larger campaign contributions from Facebook didn’t hold back. Cory Booker, who has received $44,025 from Facebook since 2014 (the largest amount), questioned Zuckerberg on the 2016 ProPublica investigation that showed Facebook allowed advertisers to target by race. Kamala Harris, who took the second largest amount ($30,990) grilled the CEO on why Facebook did not notify users in 2015 that Cambridge Analytica had misused their data, causing Zuckerberg to squirm uncomfortably.
If any senators pulled their punches, it was along party lines, when small-government Republicans like Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) or Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) questioned the necessity of additional regulation. At one point Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) held up a tablet and pointed at the Facebook “privacy” tab, blaming individuals for not properly reviewing their own settings. Wicker has received $10,000 from Facebook since 2014, Tillis has received $7,500, and Sullivan has received a whopping $2,500. (See: Here’s How Much Facebook Donated To Every Lawmaker Questioning Mark Zuckberg This Week; Sarah Jeong and Shannon Liao; theverge.com; 4/11/2018)

It didn’t take the taxpayers money and the charade of importance bestowed upon Congressional hearings, to know that Facebook was dirty and underhanded. It didn’t take sham hearings for We the People to know that Facebook was selling our personal information; nor for us to know that Facebook was actively suppressing conservative opinion; and that Facebook was actively engaged in silencing all Facebook accounts who did not bow to the fake news lying neo-Leninist agitprop mainstream faux-news industry.