Say It Ain't So, Joe

[AdamSmith]

On 10/19/2019 at 11:17 AM, RA1 said:

How very "progressive" of you.  I do see your point but I don't think things work that way.

BTY, things DO work 'that way.'

See as only our most recent proof point in America 'The Gilded Age.' 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age

[RA1]

I wish you could have heard my Problems of Democracy teacher rail against FDR.  I  was taken aback at the time but upon reflection much later realized she had many points in favor of her argument.  Now I think that FDR had good and bad points just like Trump, Obama, etc.  

Do you think there is a "shadow" government.  At the very least others unduly influencing our executive and legislative branches? I think there is that possibility although I am not a big fan of conspiracies.

Best regards,

RA1

[stevenkesslar]

 

[stevenkesslar]

On 10/18/2019 at 8:13 AM, RA1 said:

But the beneficiaries of government largess, what did they do to "earn" or deserve it?  I have no wish for anyone to be deprived of opportunity or suffer health issues which might be addressed.  But I do object to the government taking my money for these purposes. 

I'm gonna go way out on a limb and assume you are not a liberal Democrat.

But even if you are a Republican, even your own party is for "soaking the rich" to help the middle class and have nots.

I'm gonna go even further out on a limb and assume that despite the great promise of trickle down economics, your bootstraps have not pulled you into the class of the ultra-rich who are worth over $50 million.

So the good news is you have nothing to worry about.

[AdamSmith]

2 hours ago, stevenkesslar said:

 

LMMFAO

Bravo!

[AdamSmith]

12 hours ago, RA1 said:

I wish you could have heard my Problems of Democracy teacher rail against FDR.  I  was taken aback at the time but upon reflection much later realized she had many points in favor of her argument.  Now I think that FDR had good and bad points just like Trump, Obama, etc.  

Do you think there is a "shadow" government.  At the very least others unduly influencing our executive and legislative branches? I think there is that possibility although I am not a big fan of conspiracies.

Best regards,

RA1

I would very much like to learn her criticisms of FDR. Please post every detail thereof.

I like very much to learn of the frailties of my ‘heroes.’ I really do. Revising my views, on better information, is my religion.

It really is.

[RA1]

15 hours ago, stevenkesslar said:

I'm gonna go way out on a limb and assume you are not a liberal Democrat.

But even if you are a Republican, even your own party is for "soaking the rich" to help the middle class and have nots.

I'm gonna go even further out on a limb and assume that despite the great promise of trickle down economics, your bootstraps have not pulled you into the class of the ultra-rich who are worth over $50 million.

So the good news is you have nothing to worry about.

For the record I am an independent.  Otherwise, the poll you suggest above smacks of envy.  I believe it is a socialism mantra to take from others.  I happen to believe that it is good for everyone to work and contribute to the welfare of others.  I also recognize that today finding a job for everyone is not so easy.  I have no "easy" solution like medicare for all, free tuition, a guaranteed payment from the government, etc.  If these solutions were to be enacted, confiscating ALL the wealth of the "1%" would not be enough and when that is gone, then what? 

I think you believe in capitalism and these "programs' are not it.

Best regards,

RA1 

[RA1]

11 hours ago, AdamSmith said:

I would very much like to learn her criticisms of FDR. Please post every detail thereof.

I like very much to learn of the frailties of my ‘heroes.’ I really do. Revising my views, on better information, is my religion.

It really is.

Sorry that I brought it up. It was just a random thought. I have no good reason to dig into my memory all those years ago, your request notwithstanding.  Perhaps other random thoughts I might have in the future will be more appealing to both of us. 

Best regards,

RA1

[stevenkesslar]

 

U.S. envoy says he was told release of Ukraine aid was contingent on public declaration to investigate Bidens, 2016 election

Quote

The senior U.S. diplomat in Ukraine told lawmakers Tuesday that President Trump made the release of military aid contingent on public declarations from Ukraine that it would investigate the Bidens and the 2016 election, contradicting Trump’s denial that he used the money as leverage for political gain.

Taylor, a seasoned diplomat, Army veteran and meticulous note taker, provided an expansive description of a series of events at the heart of an investigation that poses the most serious threat to the Trump presidency. One Democrat described the testimony as “damning.”

Taylor contradicted earlier testimony from Gordon Sondland, Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, a key player in the effort to draw Ukraine into the election-related investigations.

Sondland told House investigators last week that he recalls “no discussions” with anyone at the State Department or White House about investigating former vice president and 2020 president candidate Joe Biden or his son, Hunter.

Taylor testified that Trump told Sondland himself in a September 7 phone call that Zelensky must “go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of Biden and 2016 election interference, and that President Zelensky should want to do this himself.”

And why am I not surprised that The Divine Miss Graham is going for her second consecutive Best Supporting Actress Oscar?

'This is a lynching, in every sense': Lindsey Graham says Trump's impeachment description 'accurate'

This is a lynching, in every sense," Graham said. "This is un-American." 

He said lynching involves people "who are out to get somebody for no good reason" and who take "the law in their own hands." 

"Yes, African-Americans were lynched, other people have people lynched throughout history," Graham said. "What does lynching mean? That a mob grabs you, they don't give you a chance to defend yourself, they don't tell you what happened to you, they just destroy you." 

Edited October 23, 2019 by stevenkesslar

[TotallyOz]

Steven, the comments from Graham are disgusting. But, IMHO, there is something the President has on him to get him to be so subservient.

[AdamSmith]

1 hour ago, TotallyOz said:

Steven, the comments from Graham are disgusting. But, IMHO, there is something the President has on him to get him to be so subservient.

The images this calls up are just too uproarious! 

[stevenkesslar]

On 10/22/2019 at 7:39 PM, TotallyOz said:

Steven, the comments from Graham are disgusting. But, IMHO, there is something the President has on him to get him to be so subservient.

Possibly.

The sad thing is that you don't need to go there to explain it.

Miss Graham, like any other politician, is interested in one thing above all else:  survival.  Most politicians have some integrity, and simply would not go this far.

A former client and friend told me he was at some Republican meeting in Orange County that Graham spoke at.  After the speech my friend had a brief chat with Graham.  My friend did a typical little speech of his about how the California Republican Party has too many purists who insist on abortion being illegal - which is why Republicans now can't get elected for dog catcher.  

He says Graham said something like, If I were running for the Senate in California, I'd probably agree with you.  But I'm from South Carolina, so .................

I think this is another example where Graham is as much symptom as cause.  The sad thing is that his base in South Carolina - which are of course the same people who elected Sen. Tim Scott - will stand for this.  How weird is that?

[stevenkesslar]

Hunter Biden's legal work in Romania raises new questions about his overseas dealings

Hunter Biden provided legal advice to a Romanian charged with real estate fraud, at a time when his father was pushing corruption reforms in the country.

 

Quote

“We don’t know what [Hunter Biden] was paid or what he was paid for but it does raise questions of whether this Romanian individual facing criminal charges was actually paying for a connection to the American vice president,” said Kathleen Clark, a Washington University law professor who specializes in government ethics.

Ya think?

Sorry, Joe.  But three strikes and you're out.

1.  Ukraine

2.  China

3.  Romania

My question all along has been why make the father pay for the sins of the son?  But this makes a pattern. 

Whatever anyone things about the substance of this, the optics look fatal for a general election.  It's like a repeat of Crooked Hillary, only this time it actually seems more fair to say it does actually stink.

[AdamSmith]

On 10/22/2019 at 10:04 AM, RA1 said:

Sorry that I brought it up. It was just a random thought. I have no good reason to dig into my memory all those years ago, your request notwithstanding.  Perhaps other random thoughts I might have in the future will be more appealing to both of us. 

Best regards,

RA1

That is not very much of an answer, when you bring up a point that goes to the very heart of our republic.

[RA1]

11 hours ago, AdamSmith said:

That is not very much of an answer, when you bring up a point that goes to the very heart of our republic.

She thought that FDR was leading the US down the road to socialism.  She did not like multiple terms for President.  She did not like social security.  She did not like WPA and the other programs that FDR, according to her, foisted upon the US.  I don't think she liked much of what FDR was doing.  It surprised me that she spoke of it at all in a public school situation but she did.  At the time and now I really don't know what she stood for, only what she was against.  

This was a long time ago and while I remember the situation, some of the details are now fuzzy.

Best regards,

RA1

[stevenkesslar]

Hunter Biden’s Ukraine gas firm pressed Obama administration to end corruption allegations, memos show

 

Quote

In an interview with ABC News last month, Hunter Biden said he believed he had done “nothing wrong at all” while working with Burisma but “was it poor judgment to be in the middle of something that is…a swamp in — in — in many ways? Yeah.”

Solomon, the author of that piece, is a controversial journalist.  And as Hunter says, he did nothing illegal.

But this is another example of the drip, drip, drip of corruption porn we can expect in Fall 2020 if Biden is nominated.

It will weaken Democrat's ability to argue that President Toxic promised to drain the swamp, and instead deepened it.

I assume that if Warren is nominated that at some point the GOP will go after her for some of her corporate legal work decades ago, and try to make it look anti-consumer.

That will be interesting to watch, since it implicitly undercuts their case that she is a raging anti-corporate socialist.

Edited November 5, 2019 by stevenkesslar

[AdamSmith]

11 hours ago, stevenkesslar said:

Hunter Biden’s Ukraine gas firm pressed Obama administration to end corruption allegations, memos show

 

Solomon, the author of that piece, is a controversial journalist.  And as Hunter says, he did nothing illegal.

But this is another example of the drip, drip, drip of corruption porn we can expect in Fall 2020 if Biden is nominated.

It will weaken Democrat's ability to argue that President Toxic promised to drain the swamp, and instead deepened it.

I assume that if Warren is nominated that at some point the GOP will go after her for some of her corporate legal work decades ago, and try to make it look anti-consumer.

That will be interesting to watch, since it implicitly undercuts their case that she is a raging anti-corporate socialist.

Fascinating (& revolting) how the self-righteous 'poor' Bidens turn out in the end to be a near-carbon copy of the neoliberal self-aggrandizing Clintons. [Who at least made very few bones about it!  ]

Quelle surprise.

[stevenkesslar]

 

I do think if Biden drops out, that may give rise to Hillary 2.0. And, while I don't want to see her run again, I'd be happy for her to enter.

That said, hell, I just watched a town hall with Elizabeth, and she was amazing. She is funny, fast and genuine. I am very impressed with everything about her.

Hunter Biden Got a Sweetheart Deal and Everyone Knows It. We Have a Two-Tiered Justice System | Opinion

So are Republicans really going to do this, to entertain Democrats and help Biden, for the rest of 2023 and 2024?  Really? 

Is that really how desperate they are to force Americans to eat shit every day until next November?  Is their thirst for party suicide so acute (with the exception of traditional Republicans with names like Sununu and Christie and Barr - and maybe 1 in 4 actual Republican voters) that they want to kill themselves with bullets even before the pillow fight with lightweight and senile Joe Biden begins?

Please, bring it on!

So I'll get two things out of the way. 

First, Hunter Biden is a piece of shit.  Period.  Sorry, Joe.  I voted for you.  And I will again in 2024.  But I have to say it.  Your one living son is a piece of shit.  I'd be happy to see the little entitled brat in jail.  And, btw, did you read what he said about your "cunt" of a wife, Jill, in those texts?  What a piece of shit! I decided to resurrect this old thread from pre-2020 because I was loud at the time that Hunter was serious enough baggage for Joe that maybe it should have been disqualifying.  But, we now know, it wasn't.  Being a socialist was disqualifying for Bernie.  Bernie made Joe look so much better by comparison on Super Tuesday.  So don't be shocked if Trump does the same, again, in 2024.

Second, the polls say very consistently that most voters view Joe Biden as too old, rather than too criminal.  Donald is the one they really tend to see as too criminal.  Including many Republicans.  But I quoted @TotallyOz above because this really should have been settled back in 2019 or so.  Like Oz, I was singing the praises of Elizabeth Warren back then.  Had she been nominated, historian and always correct Presidential election predicter Alan Lichtman would argue any Democrat (even a woman!) would have beaten Trump in 2020.  If she were running again, we would not be worried about her age.  Or her alleged corruption.  Or even her recipes!!! 

So I was a Warren fan boy.  In part BECAUSE Joe was old in 2019, too.  But I am a realist.  It is what it is.  Joe is the guy.  Even if he dropped dead tomorrow, Kamala would be the girl.  And, whatever you think of her, every single poll shows she'd do worse than Joe in 2024.  At least as of now.  So, Joe's the guy.  Even loudmouths like Gavin Newsom, who I'm sure would like to be POTUS, get that.  

So with those two stipulations, I can't believe Republicans want to dig their hole even deeper by forcing even more shit into the mouths of Americans every day.  Isn't lying about the 2020 election enough?  Isn't lying about raping or sexually harassing women enough?  Isn't Trump lying about his taxes enough?  Isn't Trump lying to the FBI, the DOJ, and even his own lawyers enough?  He has gotten away with murder his whole miserable criminal life.  And he knows he could shoot a cop in the middle of Fifth Avenue, or the US Capitol.  And his ardent followers would blame the crime on the dead cop Trump killed.

So really?  Really?  We're now going to have 15 or so months of this shit shoved into our mouths every day?    About how we have two different systems of justice?  And how Donald Trump is an even bigger victim than Jesus Christ?  Really?  And The Mighty MAGAttes still wonder why Republicans like Christie and Sununu say Republicans lost everything they could have won in 2020 and 2022 because of this miserable, lying, criminal narcissist?  To their credit, Christie and Sununu and Barr believe in the power of conservative ideas to win.  What does MAGA believe in?  That crime should not be punished?

That Newsweek article above is the mildest version of the crap being served in every right wing blog around.  The hard core version is that Biden needs to be impeached, immediately.  Because he is obviously guilt of bribery.  Apparently MTG got the memo.  Of course, Republicans in swing districts and swing states may lose their seats over even more divisive lies in 2024.  But, like those Republicans are saying, who ever accused MTG of being a team player?  Or even of being factually correct?

The massive factual gap between Republicans saying "Lock Her Up" in 2016 and saying "Stop Persecuting Trump" in 2024 is entertaining for Democrats like me.  I love irony.  And it really does suggest they don't have any strategy, or logic, or facts, on their side.  And this just deepens the hole.   62 % of Independents just said in a CNN poll that because of these indictments, Trump should step aside now.  How does whining about being persecuted help Trump with that 62 %?  Trump doesn't want to go to jail.  But when a US Attorney Trump appointed while POTUS decides not to send Hunter Biden to jail, Trump whines.  How does that help win the 62 % that want him to go away now?  How does it even pave the way for Trump to get pardoned when he is found guilty, too?

Whatever people think about whatever "deal" Hunter should have gotten for owning a gun while being a drug addict and cheating on his taxes, Republicans are now on record as being against political "deals."  Which is odd.  Since they seem to want the mother of all political deals for Trump.  They want a pardon.  Or, better, let's just pretend he won in 2020 and never lied about, or lost, anything.  Had Trump cooperated with the Feds like Hunter Biden did, he might well have gotten a slap on the wrist rather than an indictment.  And he still might get a plea deal.  And even if Trump pleads innocent, and is found guilty, most Republicans still want to let him completely off the hook with a pardon.  And the logic of saying that, when they want both Hillary and Hunter locked up,  is ........... ? 

The good news for Trump is that this probably increases the chances that Americans, including Democrats, feel that no matter how criminal he is, we just shouldn't lock Trump's criminal ass up.  He was POTUS, after all.  Maybe we just lock him in Mar A Lago, with lots of documents to sort through.

The deal with Hunter is also implicitly bad news for the Republican case against Senile Criminal Joe Biden. 

I mostly believe Jamie Raskin.  Who claims that by the time Barr and Trump parted ways over Trump's lies and criminality in 2020, Barr's DOJ and Trump's FBI had investigated all the Burisma Bullshit sufficiently enough to decide there was nothing other than Hunter's legal influence peddling there.  Back in 2019 I posted a great Atlantic article on Page 1 of this thread about how legal influence peddling sucks.  I still feel that way about Hunter.  Most people do.  But if we are going to punish him, how do we punish Ivanka?  Like for all those patents she got in China while Daddy was POTUS? Or Billion Dollar Baby Jared, whose Saudi patrons have invested billions in him after he did them four years of policy favors?  What punishment does Jared deserve?  Hopefully nothing involving bone saws!

If Joe Biden took a $5 million bribe, and Bill Barr felt the claim was based on anything other than the flimsiest of allegations - or FBI forms reporting hearsay - it is hard to imagine he would have kicked it out of Trump's DOJ.  Even to a Trump-appointed US Attorney.  But, Barr says he did in fact punt all that stuff to a Trump-appointed US Attorney for "further investigation." We all just learned the results of that investigation.  Would a Trump-appointed US Attorney sweep a $5 million bribe to Hunter and The Big Guy under the rug?  I doubt it.  So, again, Republicans just seem to want to dig their hole deeper before 2024. 

But, hey.  Go ahead, MTG.  Impeach Biden, anyway.  No one ever accused you of having good political judgment.  Or facts.

Being the excellent propagandist that Sean Hannity is (at least when he's not with Gavin Newsom, who rebuts all his BS in rapid fire fact telling), Sean knows that one of the best things Republicans have going for them is that 57 % of Americans think Joe Biden took a $5 million bribe.  I find THAT almost impossible to believe.  Only because it has been so clear, for decades, how the Biden variety of DC legal influence peddling works.  Arguably, even his sister did it, by being a paid campaign chief or top adviser.  For sure his brothers peddled influence. Bro Jim will even state the obvious.  That having the last name Biden doesn't hurt.  Hunter just took it too far.  But even he didn't go far enough, or resist in the way Trump did, that got him slammer time.  His Mom is probably right.  Hunter has poor judgment.  But all of this strongly suggests that Joe Biden's political judgment is good.  And he is an expert at keeping his ass well within the legal lines.   

The thing that worked for Republicans about Hillary and her emails is that even she admitted she had all those emails.  And that same poll Hannity quotes above documents that even half of Democrats, including me, feel Hillary obstructed justice by acid washing her emails.  Meanwhile, lawyers will spend the next year with a constant drip drip drip of facts, facts, and only facts documenting how Trump lied to the FBI, lied to his own lawyers, lied to his own J6 followers who are headed to jail, and lied to the American public in general about losing an election.   And asked other Republicans to lie with him.

So at some point Republicans are going to need proof of Biden's $5 million bribe.  As Joe himself said, "Where's the money?"  So far, they have nada.  Maybe Bill Barr is a crappy lawyer.  And maybe the Trump-appointed US Attorney who just gave Hunter what Trump views as a slap on the wrist sucks, too.  But none of this suggests that there is any evidence whatsoever of Joe Biden taking a $5 million bribe.

I know this whole long post focuses on 1000 % negative crap.  So I'll end with the opposite: an optimistic rant by Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Which is connected to my main points.  I think Arnie is right that people are hungering for something better than this.  And more unifying.  Which may be a reason most Independents want neither Trump, nor Biden.  But, if that is the choice they have, wanting to get beyond the lies and constant divisiveness will probably help Biden again.  Like it seems to have in 2020 and 2022.  We'll see.  But I'd bet on Arnie being right about Trump.

I don't have Arnie's good looks or box office mojo.  But, like him, I'm good at math.  He's right that having the conservative base - or at least the ones who will subordinate raw politics to principles and facts - is just not enough.  You need Independents, too.  What does it tell us that 62 % of Independents (and 85 % of voters who are NOT Republicans) want Trump to drop out now?

[JKane]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Was quite a hearing on all the bombshell evidence Durham managed to collect!

[Pete1111]

On 6/22/2023 at 12:14 AM, stevenkesslar said:

Hunter Biden Got a Sweetheart Deal and Everyone Knows It. We Have a Two-Tiered Justice System | Opinion

So are Republicans really going to do this, to entertain Democrats and help Biden, for the rest of 2023 and 2024?  Really? 

Is that really how desperate they are to force Americans to eat shit every day until next November?  Is their thirst for party suicide so acute (with the exception of traditional Republicans with names like Sununu and Christie and Barr - and maybe 1 in 4 actual Republican voters) that they want to kill themselves with bullets even before the pillow fight with lightweight and senile Joe Biden begins?

Please, bring it on!

So I'll get two things out of the way. 

First, Hunter Biden is a piece of shit.  Period.  Sorry, Joe.  I voted for you.  And I will again in 2024.  But I have to say it.  Your one living son is a piece of shit.  I'd be happy to see the little entitled brat in jail.  And, btw, did you read what he said about your "cunt" of a wife, Jill, in those texts?  What a piece of shit! I decided to resurrect this old thread from pre-2020 because I was loud at the time that Hunter was serious enough baggage for Joe that maybe it should have been disqualifying.  But, we now know, it wasn't.  Being a socialist was disqualifying for Bernie.  Bernie made Joe look so much better by comparison on Super Tuesday.  So don't be shocked if Trump does the same, again, in 2024.

Second, the polls say very consistently that most voters view Joe Biden as too old, rather than too criminal.  Donald is the one they really tend to see as too criminal.  Including many Republicans.  But I quoted @TotallyOz above because this really should have been settled back in 2019 or so.  Like Oz, I was singing the praises of Elizabeth Warren back then.  Had she been nominated, historian and always correct Presidential election predicter Alan Lichtman would argue any Democrat (even a woman!) would have beaten Trump in 2020.  If she were running again, we would not be worried about her age.  Or her alleged corruption.  Or even her recipes!!! 

So I was a Warren fan boy.  In part BECAUSE Joe was old in 2019, too.  But I am a realist.  It is what it is.  Joe is the guy.  Even if he dropped dead tomorrow, Kamala would be the girl.  And, whatever you think of her, every single poll shows she'd do worse than Joe in 2024.  At least as of now.  So, Joe's the guy.  Even loudmouths like Gavin Newsom, who I'm sure would like to be POTUS, get that.  

So with those two stipulations, I can't believe Republicans want to dig their hole even deeper by forcing even more shit into the mouths of Americans every day.  Isn't lying about the 2020 election enough?  Isn't lying about raping or sexually harassing women enough?  Isn't Trump lying about his taxes enough?  Isn't Trump lying to the FBI, the DOJ, and even his own lawyers enough?  He has gotten away with murder his whole miserable criminal life.  And he knows he could shoot a cop in the middle of Fifth Avenue, or the US Capitol.  And his ardent followers would blame the crime on the dead cop Trump killed.

So really?  Really?  We're now going to have 15 or so months of this shit shoved into our mouths every day?    About how we have two different systems of justice?  And how Donald Trump is an even bigger victim than Jesus Christ?  Really?  And The Mighty MAGAttes still wonder why Republicans like Christie and Sununu say Republicans lost everything they could have won in 2020 and 2022 because of this miserable, lying, criminal narcissist?  To their credit, Christie and Sununu and Barr believe in the power of conservative ideas to win.  What does MAGA believe in?  That crime should not be punished?

That Newsweek article above is the mildest version of the crap being served in every right wing blog around.  The hard core version is that Biden needs to be impeached, immediately.  Because he is obviously guilt of bribery.  Apparently MTG got the memo.  Of course, Republicans in swing districts and swing states may lose their seats over even more divisive lies in 2024.  But, like those Republicans are saying, who ever accused MTG of being a team player?  Or even of being factually correct?

The massive factual gap between Republicans saying "Lock Her Up" in 2016 and saying "Stop Persecuting Trump" in 2024 is entertaining for Democrats like me.  I love irony.  And it really does suggest they don't have any strategy, or logic, or facts, on their side.  And this just deepens the hole.   62 % of Independents just said in a CNN poll that because of these indictments, Trump should step aside now.  How does whining about being persecuted help Trump with that 62 %?  Trump doesn't want to go to jail.  But when a US Attorney Trump appointed while POTUS decides not to send Hunter Biden to jail, Trump whines.  How does that help win the 62 % that want him to go away now?  How does it even pave the way for Trump to get pardoned when he is found guilty, too?

Whatever people think about whatever "deal" Hunter should have gotten for owning a gun while being a drug addict and cheating on his taxes, Republicans are now on record as being against political "deals."  Which is odd.  Since they seem to want the mother of all political deals for Trump.  They want a pardon.  Or, better, let's just pretend he won in 2020 and never lied about, or lost, anything.  Had Trump cooperated with the Feds like Hunter Biden did, he might well have gotten a slap on the wrist rather than an indictment.  And he still might get a plea deal.  And even if Trump pleads innocent, and is found guilty, most Republicans still want to let him completely off the hook with a pardon.  And the logic of saying that, when they want both Hillary and Hunter locked up,  is ........... ? 

The good news for Trump is that this probably increases the chances that Americans, including Democrats, feel that no matter how criminal he is, we just shouldn't lock Trump's criminal ass up.  He was POTUS, after all.  Maybe we just lock him in Mar A Lago, with lots of documents to sort through.

The deal with Hunter is also implicitly bad news for the Republican case against Senile Criminal Joe Biden. 

I mostly believe Jamie Raskin.  Who claims that by the time Barr and Trump parted ways over Trump's lies and criminality in 2020, Barr's DOJ and Trump's FBI had investigated all the Burisma Bullshit sufficiently enough to decide there was nothing other than Hunter's legal influence peddling there.  Back in 2019 I posted a great Atlantic article on Page 1 of this thread about how legal influence peddling sucks.  I still feel that way about Hunter.  Most people do.  But if we are going to punish him, how do we punish Ivanka?  Like for all those patents she got in China while Daddy was POTUS? Or Billion Dollar Baby Jared, whose Saudi patrons have invested billions in him after he did them four years of policy favors?  What punishment does Jared deserve?  Hopefully nothing involving bone saws!

If Joe Biden took a $5 million bribe, and Bill Barr felt the claim was based on anything other than the flimsiest of allegations - or FBI forms reporting hearsay - it is hard to imagine he would have kicked it out of Trump's DOJ.  Even to a Trump-appointed US Attorney.  But, Barr says he did in fact punt all that stuff to a Trump-appointed US Attorney for "further investigation." We all just learned the results of that investigation.  Would a Trump-appointed US Attorney sweep a $5 million bribe to Hunter and The Big Guy under the rug?  I doubt it.  So, again, Republicans just seem to want to dig their hole deeper before 2024. 

But, hey.  Go ahead, MTG.  Impeach Biden, anyway.  No one ever accused you of having good political judgment.  Or facts.

Being the excellent propagandist that Sean Hannity is (at least when he's not with Gavin Newsom, who rebuts all his BS in rapid fire fact telling), Sean knows that one of the best things Republicans have going for them is that 57 % of Americans think Joe Biden took a $5 million bribe.  I find THAT almost impossible to believe.  Only because it has been so clear, for decades, how the Biden variety of DC legal influence peddling works.  Arguably, even his sister did it, by being a paid campaign chief or top adviser.  For sure his brothers peddled influence. Bro Jim will even state the obvious.  That having the last name Biden doesn't hurt.  Hunter just took it too far.  But even he didn't go far enough, or resist in the way Trump did, that got him slammer time.  His Mom is probably right.  Hunter has poor judgment.  But all of this strongly suggests that Joe Biden's political judgment is good.  And he is an expert at keeping his ass well within 

I don't have Arnie's good looks or box office mojo.  But, like him, I'm good at math.  He's right that having the conservative base - or at least the ones who will subordinate raw politics to principles and facts - is just not enough.  You need Independents, too.  What does it tell us that 62 % of Independents (and 85 % of voters who are NOT Republicans) want Trump to drop out now?

Funny (HA-HA!!!) how the lamestream media parrots Trump's claims "the indictments have driven up his poll numbers".

Why bother reporting facts any longer when  drama sells?

My sense is the anti Trump floodgates are slowly opening.

The Bret Baier interview on Fox followed by Fox unfavorable commentaries looked pretty bad.  Trump got cooked.  And then Brit Hume rubbed salt in the wounds.

Not a machete up Trump's ass but a good start.

[JKane]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[stevenkesslar]

On 6/24/2023 at 7:54 AM, Pete1111 said:

The Bret Baier interview on Fox followed by Fox unfavorable commentaries looked pretty bad.  Trump got cooked.  And then Brit Hume rubbed salt in the wounds.

Not a machete up Trump's ass but a good start.

Exactly.

It's worth noting that while that was happening a Democrat scored a grand slam on Fox News, explaining the successes of the fourth largest economy in the world.  But that wasn't Biden.  It was my Guv, Gavin Newsom.  😍

It's also worth noting that every Democrat that matters is rallying around Biden/Harris.  Whereas I think you are right.  The knives are out for Trump among most if not all of his primary competitors.  So Christie will be the one who keeps gradually testing the limits of how far others, like DeSantis and Pence, can go.  Thanks, Chris.  Almost everyone agrees it doesn't help you in a general election when you keep being called an indicted criminal, and a liar.

This will be the drip drip drip election in two important regards.

There will be a constant drip drip drip of new facts and probably new indictments against Trump that won't help him.   I can't prove it.  But the constant drip drip drip of Hillary's emails, and the Comey Comet of FBI chatter about Hillary's emails in the week before the 2016 election, almost certainly hurt Hillary.  I suspect the drip drip drip of the J6 hearings in 2022 helped Democrats in the midterms.  So the drip drip drip about Trump trying to get Georgia Republicans to lie to steal an election, and lying to his own lawyers about keeping nuclear secrets at Mar A Lago, will be constant knife wounds.  Even if it's not quite a machete up Trump's ass.

The other relevant drip drip drip that is almost a certainty for Biden is that by November 2024 inflation will keep dripping down.  It's already gone from 9-ish to 4 %.  Which is way lower than [name a large country in Europe, or Canada, or Mexico].  A majority of Americans have been saying all year it feels like we are in a recession.  I assume that's in large part due to the sting of inflation.  Unemployment is 3.7 %, compared to 6.7 % in Nov. 2020 when Biden was elected.  That's not a recession.  So if inflation keeps drip drip dripping down that may help Biden with perceptions about the economy.  

The drip drip drip I think we can almost count on NOT happening is the slowly widening cesspool of how Joe Biden took a $5 million bribe as Veep.  Or POTUS.  Or whenever Rudy and Trump thinks he did.  Trump really is that stupid.  So is Hunter Biden.  Joe Biden isn't.  He has proven that he knows how to play in the influence peddling lines for over half a century.  It may be a blessing we're talking about Biden's $5 million bribe in Summer 2023.  It will be hard for Republicans to keep this going until Fall 2024.

Biden's disapproval rating spiked from a not good 51 % earlier this year to 55 % in May.  I figured that was mostly about Americans not liking to talk about a potential debt crisis.  His disapproval is now about half way between those numbers, at 53 %.  One thing I read that makes sense is that the main purpose of Republicans saying "Biden took a $5 million bribe" a lot is to drive his poll numbers down.  That works if you have the constant drip drip drip of Hillary's emails or Donald's indictments.  I don't think it works if all you really have is Hunter Biden being a clown.  

[JKane]