Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
[Out of necessity, this is being written on Tuesday. So feel free to bring up anything that happened later in the week.]
Let’s go!
First news item
A Republican-aligned group is making a new push to turn the tide of GOP opinion on US aid for Ukraine as Congress gears up for what could be a major spending fight when it returns from recess next month.
“Republicans for Ukraine,” a project of the conservative non-profit Defending Democracy Together, is launching a $2 million campaign that will include an ad airing nationally on Fox News during next week’s Republican presidential primary debate in Milwaukee…The group behind the campaign, led by conservatives and so-called never-Trump Republicans Bill Kristol and Sarah Longwell, warns that former President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies have eroded what it says are traditional Republican values.
Why are Republicans against continuing aid to a sovereign and modern democratic state that was viciously invaded by a brutal leader determined to wipe Ukraine off the map? Why does the political party long known for supporting the spread of freedom and democracy throughout the world, now say “no” to a country which has been heroically fighting for its very existence for over a year? Consider:
Before Donald Trump, Republicans were not the type to abandon a fight for a strategic partner’s democracy, handing a potential victory to Russian President Vladimir Putin. We were the warriors of the Cold War who brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union.
With Trump, who has embraced Putin, some Republicans are learning to let go of America’s role as the bulwark of democracy and freedom. These Republicans are choosing, instead, the tragic isolationism of those who opposed joining the fight against Hitler. Back then, radio priest Charles Coughlin had a powerful voice among do-nothings. Today, they find comfort on Fox News.
Second news item
Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, wants to be tried in federal court:
In a 14-page petition in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Meadows’ attorneys argued that he had the right to be tried in a different court because his alleged criminal activity “all occurred during his tenure and as part of his service as Chief of Staff.” Going further, his lawyers went on to insist, “Nothing Mr. Meadows is alleged in the indictment to have done is criminal per se: arranging Oval Office meetings, contacting state officials on the President’s behalf, visiting a state government building, and setting up a phone call for the President. One would expect a Chief of Staff to the President of the United States to do these sorts of things.”
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, given that Fani Willis said she plans to try all 19 defendants together.
Third news item
While it’s true that language is always in flux, I’m just going to say that I’m glad I’m old. It’s all gotten to be too much :
People may use neopronouns for the same reason someone else uses “she” and/or “they” — neopronouns may better align with one’s identity. Some people may use a common pronoun, like “she” or “they,” in addition to a neopronoun.
Neopronouns are ultimately a “reflection of (someone’s) personal identity,” according to the Human Rights Campaign, and thus the “number and types of neopronouns a person may use (are) limitless.”
Examples and how to use them:
xe/xyr (commonly pronounced zee/zeer)
I asked xyr to come to the movies. Xe said yes!
ze/zir or ze/hir (commonly pronounced zee/zeer or zee/heer)
The teacher graded zir paper today, and ze got an A!
Ze said hirself that I’m hir favorite neighbor.
fae/faer (commonly pronounced fay/fair)
Fae told me that faer best friend is in town this week.
ey/em/eir (commonly pronounced aye/em/air)
I’m taking em to the park today. Ey wants to bring eir camera to capture the garden for emself!
ae/aer (commonly pronounced aye/air)
Ae is my best friend — most of aer’s weekday evenings are spent at my house.
Fourth news item
Trump’s delusional take on the latest “witch hunt” against him:
“A Large, Complex, Detailed but Irrefutable REPORT on the Presidential Election Fraud which took place in Georgia is almost complete & will be presented by me … on Monday of next week in Bedminster, New Jersey,” the post said. “Based on the results of this CONCLUSIVE Report, all charges should be dropped against me & others. … They never went after those that Rigged the Election. They only went after those that fought to find the RIGGERS!”
How is it possible that the Republican Party continues to back a candidate who is facing 91 criminal charges against him under five indictments? What does it say that GOP leadership continues to come to his defense? I’ll tell you what it says: absolutely nothing good – about the individuals and about the Party as a whole:
Republicans rallied to Donald Trump’s defense after the former president was indicted on 13 criminal charges in Georgia over his attempt to overturn his defeat there by Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the US House, said: “Justice should be blind, but Biden has weaponized government against his leading political opponent to interfere in the 2024 election.”
…[H]e dominates Republican primary polling, leading his closest challengers nationally and in early voting states by about 40 points.
Referring to Fani Willis of Fulton county, McCarthy continued: “Now a radical [district attorney] in Georgia is following Biden’s lead by attacking President Trump and using it to fundraise her political career. Americans see through this desperate sham.”
You know what’s also a real shame? The Trump will milk this indictment for every last penny they can get. And unfortunately, sycophants and true believers will obediently cough up what they can to help their savior defeat the uh, mysterious and undefinable Deep State:
On Monday night, after charges were filed in Georgia, an email soliciting donations bemoaned a “FOURTH ACT of Election Interference on behalf of the Democrats in an attempt to keep the White House under Crooked Joe’s control and JAIL his single greatest opponent of the 2024 election”.
Friday morning update from JVW: Guess what? Team Trump has cancelled the press conference where they were to lay out the “Large, Complex, Detailed but Irrefutable REPORT.” What a surprise. I just feel bad for all of the suckers who continue to believe the nonsense that comes out of Mar-a-Lago.
Fifth news item – from JVW
We wrap up the Women’s World Cup this weekend with a third-place match of Sweden taking on the host nation Australia followed by a championship final of reigning European champ England being challenged by a rising young squad from Spain. This is a as good a time as any to address the longstanding claim — first popularized as far as I can tell during my boyhood when the late, great Pelé chose to spend the golden years of his career playing in the nascent North American Soccer League — that soccer will soon overtake the Big Three sports in the United States and become our nation’s favorite sport. A new study pours a great deal of cold water on that conventional wisdom:
The numbers are startling. According to annual reports by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play, in the last decade, the proportion of boys and girls aged six to 12 involved in team sports slumped to 36.8 percent, down from 41.4 percent. Among the five top team sports tracked by Aspen, that represents a loss of about 2.8 million participants—or nearly one-fifth of all players. Among high-school-age kids engaged in team sports, the share of those participating similarly dropped to 41.7 percent, from 45.4 percent.
These represent big declines for some of our biggest sports. Soccer, the country’s third-most-popular team sport among kids, has sustained the largest losses. Participation has slumped by more than a quarter of all players, or about 800,000 kids aged six to 12, from a peak of 3 million players in 2010. The number of children aged six to 12 playing basketball has declined to about 4.2 million in 2021, down from a peak of 4.5 million in the same period. Baseball now suits up slightly under 3.7 million participants between the ages of six and 12, a sharp fall from almost 4.5 million in 2008.
Some of this can probably be attributed to the Baby Bust, a poor decision regarding age classification made by the youth soccer federation, and our nation’s predilection for taking youth sports far too seriously. Certainly the pandemic wrought havoc on sports, including soccer, by delaying team formations for kids born in 2014-15, giving more casual players an easy out for quitting the sport, and in general turning kids into couch potatoes.
Inside of three years from now our continent will host the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, so we’ll see if that can be the shot in the arm that the sport needs in this country. But they have their work cut out for them.
Sixth news item – from JVW
Hunter Biden’s cozy plea arrangement with his dad’s Department of Justice appears to be dead, though the attorneys for the scuzzy son are insisting that the very favorable gun deal still needs to be honored. The original defense attorney, Christopher Clark, has resigned from the case, claiming that he may end up being called as a witness with respect to the aforementioned sweetheart deal offered to the irksome Biden whelp. This likely buys more time for Team Biden to push any court proceedings beyond November 2024, though it does raise the possibility that Hunter could be going to trial as soon as next summer, right as the campaign season heats up.
How we ended up with these two jamokes leading our two biggest parties is beyond mortal comprehension.
Seventh news item – from JVW
For all of the media caterwauling about “the return of fascism” every time a party slightly more conservative than Rockefeller Republicans is on the verge of winning office in Europe, it’s important to be reminded that some of the worst actors on the international stage come from the hard left. Meet the nasty Julius Malema of South Africa:
“Shoot to kill! Kill the Boer, the farmer! Kill the Boer, the farmer! Brrrr! Pah! Pah!” These were the words chanted in fine voice by Julius Malema to a rapturous crowd of 100,000 at South Africa’s biggest stadium in Johannesburg on Saturday July 29. Malema was celebrating the tenth birthday of the EFF, the political party he founded and leads.
EFF stands for Economic Freedom Fighters. It is dedicated to fighting economic slavery. It declares itself Leninist-Marxist, wants to seize private property (as Malema’s hero Robert Mugabe did in Zimbabwe), plans to nationalize the banks and the mines and enforce total state control. The EFF is the fastest-growing political party in South Africa and Malema the most forceful political leader. After the general election next year, he could become the deputy president of South Africa. Anybody thinking of investing in the country should know this.
Mr. Malma and EFF’s policy proscription is a mix of Mugabe-style seizure of land from white farmers, ostensibly to be reappropriated to poor black South Africans but in practice given over to political allies who then become feudal lords, along with the usual hodgepodge of Marxism, Maoism, Putinism, and extreme brutality, with a predilection for torture and cruelty when dispatching their perceived enemies. Mr. Malma himself preaches solidarity with the working classes and poor but outfits himself in Italian suits and luxury watches, then drives his children to expensive private schools in his Mercedes-Benz or Range Rover.
Mr. Malma’s political rise has been accelerated by the utter incompetence and corruption of the African National Congress, the party which made Nelson Mandela the first post-apartheid President of South Africa. Since that memorable moment, it has all gone downhill:
The ANC has been a disaster for South Africa, and especially for ordinary black people, whom it has impoverished while making a tiny ANC elite fabulously rich. In 1994, for all the cruelty and stupidity of apartheid, South Africa had excellent infrastructure and reasonably advanced industry. Eskom, the state electricity utility, provided the cheapest electricity in the world, very reliably; there were good passenger trains for workers; the freight trains carried ores to the port. The ANC has wrecked it all with looting, corruption, incompetence and a plethora of racist policies, appointing people on the basis of skin color and political connections rather than merit.
Goods and services are procured not on competitive pricing and quality but on Black Economic Empowerment, which means awarding contracts for shoddy services at high prices to ANC cronies. Eskom has been wrecked, and as a result we have hours of blackouts almost every day. Meanwhile the passenger trains hardly run at all; the freight trains cannot deliver our export minerals to ports. The economy is stagnant, industry is shrinking and unemployment is catastrophic, now at 42 percent (including those who have given up looking for work).
Into this breach steps parties like the EFF, whose politics of resentment and brutish operations have been appealing to a country that remains stubbornly poor, corrupt, and backwards. The academic/media/bureaucratic left doesn’t care to acknowledge when tranquility (such as it is in Africa) is threatened by a leftist totalitarian, especially one from a “historically marginalized” community. This may not end well at all.
[It’s JVW here, gang. I so badly wanted to end this update with some sort of light-hearted or whimsical item, especially given how the items I have contributed to this thread are so overwhelmingly negative. But I can’t seem to come up with anything particularly interesting in these ridiculous times. So if you are willing, any nice stories or humorous anecdotes would be quite welcome.]
Have a great weekend.
–Dana
AS for south africa sow the wind reap the whirlwind. We had to fight a civil war. Maybe steve biko could have done better.
asset (e9f987) — 8/18/2023 @ 3:08 pmhttps://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/11122022_GA_Investigation_Report_SecondEdition.pdf
Nov 2022
Sammy Finkelman (bdd397) — 8/18/2023 @ 3:21 pmThe Dispatch has a piece on the Jones Act, a law that should’ve died decades ago and is costing our manufacturing base and cruise line industry, and it’s another example of failed protectionism that didn’t result in more American-built ships.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/18/2023 @ 3:22 pmTrump canceled his Mon press conf on legal advice he said – he will definitely not be at the debate – instead he will be interviewed by Tucker Carlsen
Sammy Finkelman (bdd397) — 8/18/2023 @ 3:27 pmThis is not an upbeat assessment of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, because there’s no way the Ukrainian freedom fighters can reclaim Melitopol this month.
I still maintain that it would be a major victory if the Ukrainians can get back this important logistical hub by Thanksgiving, and I hope they can do that. So far, progress is slow but there is progress.
Actually, I think Mike Martin has a better update than the WA Post, here. I read somewhere that the Ukrainians don’t have to actually reclaim Melitopol is they can take out the dozen or two bridges into and out of the city.
Also, the cluster munitions are working.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/18/2023 @ 3:42 pmTrump may have cancelled his presser and his “Large, Complex, Detailed but Irrefutable REPORT” but that hasn’t stopped Mike Lindell:
Comedy Gold!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/18/2023 @ 4:08 pmMore from Lindell’s summit:
What could possibly go wrong?
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/18/2023 @ 4:23 pmHere’s a pretty interesting story from City Journal that I probably would have included had I noticed it earlier. It’s titled “Empire Snub” and is all about some tension between New York State Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams:
The whole thing is quite the indictment, not only of Mayor Adams wishful thinking about NYC’s ability to function as a “Sanctuary City” but also the degree to which the notoriously bureaucratic and corrupt city government is completely unequipped for dealing with such an intricate problem. And both Albany and Washington apparently get this, and are fine with telling Broadway & Chambers Street to get lost. Pretty remarkable.
JVW (1ad43e) — 8/18/2023 @ 4:47 pmThis piece about DeSantis and the Heritage Foundation tells me two things: (1) How far Heritage has descended into the Trump Vortex, especially regarding Russia-Ukraine, and (2) DeSantis’ poor judgment in listening to them.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/18/2023 @ 5:19 pmHere’s another Dispatch piece, and it puts all the swirling allegations regarding Joe and Hunter into perspective.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/18/2023 @ 5:24 pmOne of the most ridiculous phrases I’ve heard in recent months is “Biden crime family”, because the only criminal activity for which there’s actually evidence involves one Hunter Biden, but that’s the FoxNews propaganda that’s being used to deflect from Trump’s well-documented criminality.
One of the most ridiculous phrases I’ve heard in recent months is “Biden crime family”, because the only criminal activity for which there’s actually evidence involves one Hunter Biden. . .
Oh dear lord. At this point I have to actively believe you are either trolling us or that you have some real misplaced affection for the Bidens. The fact that you chalk all of this up to “FoxNews propaganda” tells me a lot about your disposition here. You’re going to have to bear with me continuing to refer to this clown car as the Biden Crime Family, because I think at the very least it is clear that they are trying to hide something.
JVW (1ad43e) — 8/18/2023 @ 5:39 pmI don’t care at all to take lectures on Republican values from Bill Kristol. I was a Weekly Standard subscriber for almost 15 years. Him lecturing others on betraying their values is comical.
Eliot (d137fd) — 8/18/2023 @ 5:50 pmOkay, JVW what evidence do you have that Joe committed a crime, or crimes?
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/18/2023 @ 5:51 pmBecause the only person who has committed a crime and has “Biden” for a last name is Hunter. That’s not “family”, that’s one person, singular. Either words have meaning or they don’t, and it’s not a “real misplaced affection for the Bidens” to point that out. If new evidence comes out, I’ll change my opinion accordingly.
If there’s an issue where I actually agree with Joe, it’s the high-tech restrictions he’s placed on the Xi regime and maybe 75% of his Ukraine policy, and that’s about it.
I sort of like the Fulton County judge, or at least the high version of him (link). Anyone who can play a Hendrix-style version of Star Spangled Banner with a cello has my respect.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/18/2023 @ 7:21 pmRIP guitarist Sixto Rodriguez (81). Known simply as Rodriquez, he was the subject of the 2012 Oscar-winning documentary Searching for Sugar Man, which revived his musical career.
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/18/2023 @ 9:07 pmThe main reason the “Crime Family” thing is silly is that the the phrase was originally used to to describe the Mafia. A crime family was a gang with loose family connections that organized specifically to commit crime. Even if you believe that Joe, Hunter, and Joe’s brother were breaking the law implying they’re a mafia like organization is silly.
Its decent political marketing by the GOP though and I don’t think expect they’ll stop using it.
Fwiw I believe Hunter is clearly corrupt and has very likely committed several crimes; Tax evasion, FARA violations, and the gun possession violation.
I haven’t seen compelling evidence that Joe has committed any criminal acts, but I think the GOP investigations are a good thing, even if highly politicized. The evidence I’ve seen makes it clear he at /least/ tolerated Hunter trading on his name to make money through the implication it allowed Hunter to impact policy. The one issue I have researched (Burisma) showed plenty of evidence that the actions Joe took were based on US policy. But the GOP should keep digging and see what they find.
Time123 (8bb3cb) — 8/19/2023 @ 3:24 amI have my own ideas of which combined New York crime family, in the Godfather sense, federal RICO was enacted for. But it evolved from Godfather to Godfather III since 1946 and the Organization has only faced civil judgments and fines while only its minions have gone to jail so far.
nk (0093eb) — 8/19/2023 @ 5:20 amI wish Hunter was more sympathetic or that the DOJ were being a bit excessive. I really do think a norm around scrutinizing nepotism and influence peddling conducted by the relatives of elected officials is a good thing.
Archer’s testimony lauded to it when he talked about “navigating dc” but Hunters ability to open doors / get meetings for his clients was also what the was selling. JOE didn’t need go do or say anything for lesser officials to take a meeting and listen to his son’s client.
Time123 (b029c1) — 8/19/2023 @ 6:12 amOne of the things that bothered me was Joe taking twenty of Hunter’s calls on speaker while the son’s business associates were present, but it bothers me less that the calls were over a span of ten years, per the Dispatch link, meaning that some calls occurred while Joe was VP and others when he was a private citizen. Either way, I still don’t like it, because Hunter is a skeezbag and Joe was skirting the edges.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/19/2023 @ 8:07 amMorning Consult Republican Primary Tracking Poll-8/15/23
This obviously is why Trump won’t be at the Milwaukee debate-why raise the profile of your minor opponents and suffer their slings and arrows when showing up would only drive down your own numbers. Trump’s voters won’t be the ones watching the debate, only those supporting his opponents or not already supporting Trump.
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/19/2023 @ 8:21 am“why raise the profile of your minor opponents and suffer their slings and arrows”
He also has 4 criminal indictments and by making public statements, he may actually incriminate himself. It would be extremely awkward for Trump to have to answer hard and embarrassing questions from Christie. Sure he would lie and prosecutors would be watching. He won’t attend because he’s scared and teh cult will continue to protect him.
AJ_Liberty (2efe2c) — 8/19/2023 @ 9:24 amI don’t understand Mr. Lindell’s comments about Louisiana. Trump won nearly 60% of the votes in 2020.
Mark (6562ef) — 8/19/2023 @ 9:48 amOn another topic, I do believe that it would be better for our youth to play more sports, not less.
The ISW pushed back on the WA Post’s reporting on Melitopol.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/19/2023 @ 9:49 amBottom line: There’s more than one way to cut off supply lines between the mainland and Crimean peninsula.
All things being equal, I don’t think Trump would have attended even if he hadn’t been indicted.
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/19/2023 @ 9:52 amYes, I’m NeverRamaswamy. Add him to my list of other “nevers”: Trump, Biden, Hillary, Cruz, and now Vivek.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/19/2023 @ 10:04 amMore on the Milwaukee “debate”:
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/19/2023 @ 10:09 am“He won’t attend because he’s scared and teh cult will continue to protect him.”
He won’t attend largely because he has a commanding lead, and has nothing to gain from a debate. This is true for Trump as it is for Biden, who also won’t debate. But it is also true the indictments add an extra element, and I would expect Christie or some other opponent (and also moderators) to ask questions or make points crafted to cause Trump to walk a legal tightrope if he responds. To some, that is all the more reason to goad him into debating. For others, this is all the more reason to suspect the motivation and timing of the indictments.
lloyd (eebc41) — 8/19/2023 @ 10:14 amBiden won’t debate because incumbents haven’t debated since the format began in 1948.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/19/2023 @ 10:22 amTrump made the cowardly choice that not debating (instead taking slow-pitch softball questions from Tucker) would better his chances (and incriminate himself less) than showing up and facing his rivals.
Trump won’t debate for three reasons:
nk (0093eb) — 8/19/2023 @ 10:33 am1. He’s too lazy to prep for it.
2. He does not have the physical stamina to stand up there for two hours.
3. He does not have the mental agility to give unrehearsed responses. Not coherent ones, anyway.
Can’t Win With Trump, Can’t Win Without Trump:
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/19/2023 @ 10:50 amFox News National Poll 8/16/23
Toplines and cross tabs.
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/19/2023 @ 11:21 am“He won’t attend largely because he has a commanding lead, and has nothing to gain from a debate.”
But primaries are also for prepping for the general election. Trump won’t be able to duck Biden….and at some point he will need to answer adversarial questions about January 6th, classified documents, Georgia interference, porn star payoffs, sexual assault judgments, what he means about retribution, what are his plans for executive agencies, and who he might consider for cabinet-level positions. I think the GOP electorate deserves to hear how he plans to answer these questions or whether he will need to plead the 5th throughout the general election. So, it will be fair for the other candidates to call Trump out this week…sternly. The 46% of the GOP electorate not currently supporting Trump deserves to hear from the front runner. This is not a sitting incumbent President who could argue that he is too busy to debate. This is last election’s loser….with multiple indictments….who is polling below Biden….and perilously hemorrhaging moderates and independents. The party should be able to test its front runner. The lead is big only because the field is broad and there have not yet been any defining debates. Eventually the field will coalesce….and previous “Lilliputians” will gain status. Previous election cycle polls are of marginal value when the front runner faces serious time.
AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 8/19/2023 @ 11:26 amDon’t count on it. Among those who have appeared to qualify (Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Mike Pence, and Doug Burgum) only two (Christie and now Pence) have fully embraced the anti-Trump mantle. All of the remaining candidates have defended Trump and attacked the DOJ and FBI, going so far to offer “first day of administration” pardons of Trump if he is convicted. Ramaswamy has even offered to write an amicus brief supporting Trump.
Who knows what Nikki Haley believes? Her current position appears to be sticking her fingers in her ears and saying “Neener neener neener I can’t hear you!”
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/19/2023 @ 11:55 amWhich goes to show how weak political party organizations are-they can’t make anyone do anything. And Trump’s lead isn’t big because of a large field (you would think it would be narrower with so many choices), it’s big because the vast majority of Republican voters want Trump to be the nominee. Republican voters aren’t buying what the Lilliputians are selling.
The only reason for a change in the dynamic is if Trump is forced to leave the race. And without a trial and conviction in early 2024, that is unlikely to happen. Even then Trump may not leave. The RNC has no power to force him out, another consequence of deliberately weakening party organizations.
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/19/2023 @ 1:04 pm“have fully embraced the anti-Trump mantle.”
You don’t have to go NeverTrump to criticize Trump for not being able to be at the debate because of…at least in part….the overwhelming amount of legal jeopardy that he is in. I expect DeSantis to make this argument. I suspect the basic point will be echoed by Haley and Scott too.
“it’s big because the vast majority of Republican voters want Trump to be the nominee”
Around 50%…only….even with his vast name recognition. Some voters still really don’t know who Haley and Scott are. That’s why you have debates. People are still circling the wagons for Trump. The dynamic will change…especially with the absence of Trump from the debate this week. I still acknowledge that FNC will need to start to go soft on Trump. Saw it last week with Brett Baier guests concluding that the indictments make it really difficult for Trump to win in Nov. Again, none of it might matter….but there’s a reason Trump’s not up at 80% with only Christie and Hutchinson being quite negative. The reality of potentially nominating a felon is a tough pill to swallow but it will start to sink in.
I think at best one case will be active before Nov….but when that evidence gushes out….it ain’t gonna be pretty.
AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 8/19/2023 @ 1:59 pmNot in 2023.
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/19/2023 @ 2:07 pmTrump’s approval among Republican voters is 76%, according to the Morning Consult poll at post 20. And against eight other candidates, he leads with 56%. Any other politician with these numbers would be considered invincible. The only thing holding back Trump with these numbers is Trump himself.
And when the evidence “gushes out” and the Republicans end up nominating a felon, TrumpWorld won’t care, because Trump took the hit for them.
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/19/2023 @ 2:25 pmQuinnipiac University National Poll 8/16/23
When only 12% of Republicans polled think Trump should be prosecuted for his actions on January 6th, you can understand why he thinks his poll numbers are so high and he can run and win the Republican nomination.
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/19/2023 @ 2:44 pmNikki Haley’s one and only chance to break with Trump is at this debate. If she’s going to do it, she needs to be in full control of the message, and debates are where candidates can speak directly to the voters. If she fails to do so, she becomes a disappointing asterisk, like a number of the others.
Kevin M (da4fb2) — 8/19/2023 @ 3:43 pmHey asset, thought of your interest in women race car drivers when this came across…
https://www.autoweek.com/racing/more-racing/a44857895/tony-stewart-racing-driver-ashlea-albertson-dies-in-apparent-road-rage-incident/
urbanleftbehind (330b13) — 8/19/2023 @ 3:51 pmThe Trumpites who said things like “There’s nothing he could do that would make me stop supporting him” were absolutely serious about it. In MAGA eyes, Trump is the ultimate standard of patriotic righteousness, and nothing done by him could ever be as wrong as the sin of faulting him for it.
One of the early “intellectual” arguments for Trump was that Christians were so grievously injured by attacks on their religious values that they flocked to Trump in desperation for a champion to defend their faith. It was a weird argument from the start. It’s even more ludicrous in view of reports about MAGA evangelicals hearing the teachings of Jesus as “liberal talking points,” and openly favoring the morality of Trump instead.
MAGAs apparently weren’t looking for someone to defend their religious values so much as they were seeking a new religion more to their liking.
Radegunda (1399d5) — 8/19/2023 @ 4:26 pmhttps://www.nationalreview.com/2023/08/the-chicanery-of-the-hunter-biden-plea-bargain/
Oof. Remember the Biden apologists on here who tried to excuse Hunter Biden’s criminal behavior claiming he only had the illegal firearm for a mere week. Yeah, about that…
The scales of justice… yeah, okay.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 8/19/2023 @ 5:25 pm@36, Of course I meant next year…but before the election.
@37, Your # for Trump has crept up from what you posted above: 53%. You also keep referencing this with respect to past elections. I keep trying to emphasize that we’ve never had a situation like the current one where a candidate can be literally found guilty of a crime before the election and possibly before the convention. You’re a little too glib that this elephant doesn’t matter. I disagree. And Tuesday is the first inflection point where it can start to erode support.
Of the 76% that have a positive view of Trump, how many have an objective unbiased understanding of any of his criminal charges? I think we are still in the information gathering phase of the campaign for many people….eg, everyone I spoke today really haven’t decided and don’t even know some of the candidates. You essentially say that none of the 76% will watch the debate and that none are open to persuasion or any changes in messaging or any changes from the media.
Maybe, but why continue to revel in it or drown in cynicism? What does it accomplish? If Trump is nominated, it’s a truly horrible event and may signal tragic consequences for our democracy, especially if the justice system convicts him and violence erupts. I favor giving the system as much time as required to move people. It’s not clear if anyone can catch fire but I want to believe that someone can. I hope you’re able to indulge that….
AJ_Liberty (d45f6c) — 8/19/2023 @ 5:36 pmTrump’s personal approval among Republican voters is 76%, he leads the Republican primary field with 53-57% share (depending on the poll). That’s the difference between the two numbers, they measure different things.
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/19/2023 @ 6:00 pmI don’t think so, do you have a quote?
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/19/2023 @ 6:01 pmI’m sure some will watch it, whether they are persuadable is another question. Some may be and hopefully that will be reflected in subsequent polling. But the true diehards will be watching whatever counter event Trump has planned.
It doesn’t matter if the 76% that approve of Donald Trump have an “ objective unbiased understanding of any of his criminal charges.” They obviously don’t think the indictments are important and are probably are not persuadable on the indictments alone. Like some here, they like his positions on issues they care about which overrides any concerns about the indictments.
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/19/2023 @ 6:21 pmhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12424753/Joe-Biden-quietly-selling-Trumps-border-wall-700-30ft-steel-tubes-auctioned-150-000-President-hurries-bill-passes-forcing-EXTEND-barrier-against-migrants.html
Just aiding and encouraging the invasion of the United States.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 8/19/2023 @ 6:36 pm“I don’t think so, do you have a quote?”
In essence, history tells us that such a lead is insurmountable. To that effect. History hasn’t seen this.
“Like some here, they like his positions on issues they care about”
What “issues” has Trump meaningfully discussed in the past 3 years? No, It all revolves around him and his personality. He mined Talk Radio, cribbed it, and mixed in a heavy dose of outrageous drama. Like 70% say they thought Covid restrictions were harmful, yet 70% also say that Trump’s Covid restrictions were not harmful (in AllahNick’s recent piece).
At some point as actual votes get close, enough people will pay more attention….and won’t want to lose. This isn’t 2016. Moderates aren’t so charmed by his personality….and they won’t want to bet on a felon….
AJ_Liberty (d45f6c) — 8/19/2023 @ 7:41 pmMore about Vivek Ramaswamy’s foreign policy vision:
Like DeSantis and Trump, Ramaswamy wants to distance the US from intervening on behalf of friendly governments and formal alliances. Here is an interview from Monday with Hugh Hewitt on his foreign policy perspective.
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/19/2023 @ 7:51 pmWe’ll see when Trump starts polling in mid-40s against the Republican primary field. Before that happens, he is the leading candidate for the Republican nomination. My view is that if Trump wins in Iowa (current RCP average lead +27), New Hampshire (+31) , and South Carolina (+26), it’s game over.
All of the leads are over DeSantis.
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/19/2023 @ 8:13 pmThere’s a long exchange here starting at post 117 that explains why people support Trump despite everything else.
Rip Murdock (3aaf7e) — 8/19/2023 @ 8:39 pm@41:
So, where did Jesus argue that the Romans should force people to feed the poor? Because that’s the actual “liberal” talking point. They may try to fuzz that little detail up, of course.
Kevin M (da4fb2) — 8/19/2023 @ 9:05 pmI doubt that many of Trump’s supporters have spent much time looking at the charges. They are reacting to the spin that Trump (and some erstwhile opponents) have put on it … the witch hunt meme. At some point the actual charges will penetrate, and some of them will look for an alternative.
This will be hampered some by #nevertrump calling them morons or suggesting their grievances aren’t real.
Kevin M (da4fb2) — 8/19/2023 @ 9:16 pmNice strawman, but “forcing people to feed the poor” does not sum up the MAGA-evangelical rejection of Christian values. Biblical words of Jesus have drawn a negative response from Trump-loving evangelicals — even when they’re told where the words came from.
People who have studied white evangelicals say they are largely an identity group in which politics is more defining than religion. Many are not regular churchgoers.
Reverence for Donald Trump in itself bespeaks a rather thin commitment to religious or ethical values.
Radegunda (ff5e4e) — 8/19/2023 @ 9:56 pm66 year old woman shot and killed when anti-gay bigot demands she take down gay pride flag. (arrowhead calif.)
asset (2b694f) — 8/19/2023 @ 11:33 pmHunter biden got plea deal when his lawyers threaten to put president biden on witness stand.
asset (2b694f) — 8/19/2023 @ 11:35 pmPaul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/19/2023 @ 10:04 am
Among the other things he said was that the United States only has an interest in defending Taiwan till 2028, because after that, there’ll be other places to get chips.
The only thing of value in that respect is deterrence working because if there’s a war it’s hard to see how chips could continue to be imported from Taiwan while the war is going on.
China’;s fertility rate has dropped some more, and China has stopped releasing statistics on that also
Among the reasons NOT given by people who write about this is increasing lack of freedom and the possibility of a war (even if that is somewhat irrational, as the possibility of a war is for a time a lot less than 20 years from now)
Sammy Finkelman (c22349) — 8/20/2023 @ 12:35 pm8..
Some person working for the city told the New York daily News last Monday and Thursday that the vacant beds were for ordinary homeless (paraphrase) because the migrants and the regular homeless are different populations. That is the first clear statement that they are being segregated.
I’ve suspected that especially because Mayor Adams came up with the idea of making migrants reapply for shelter after 60 days. What for except to put them in a different place.’
The regular shelters contain criminals and emotionally disturbed people. People don;’t want to go there because of danger and theft and som =me because they can’t take drugs there,
I=when any migrant dies it gets more attention and I think adams doesn;t want to call attention to the situation in the homeless shelters.
Sammy Finkelman (c22349) — 8/20/2023 @ 12:44 pmAdams is also wasting money with his homeless care system. They are soending $383 per day per migrant ($256 fr=or shelter, the $127 for food, medical care etc)
He only wanted to get reimbursed.
There a=were just over 100,000 foreign people who entered the shelter system in the last 15 months or so, of which about 57,000 are still in it. That’s about equal to the old shelter population. One thing the progressive city council wants to do is let people go into public housing sooner, which Mayor adams opposed but now favors but he opposes all their other ideas. The city has historically opposed this I think because it creates of incentives for people to declare themselves homeless and beat the waiting list for public housing.
Now the nayor;s office is coming up with all sorts of possible ideas for housing the migrants, but some ideas are not being heard.
This has nothing to do with being a sanctuary city, because a sanctuary merely means they are not arrested. It has a little to do with a “right to shelter” which is based on vague language in the state constitution and applies only to NYC because of a court settlement decades ago.
Sammy Finkelman (c22349) — 8/20/2023 @ 12:54 pmasset (2b694f) — 8/19/2023 @ 11:35 pm
No, it’s been reported that he wouldn’t even have been charged (with the tax offenses maybe?) if it hadn’t been for the whistleblowers testimony to Congress. Maybe just the gun charge – that would explain why the immunity from all prosecution was included with the gun charge
Now Hunter’s lead lawyer has withdrawn because he wants to be a witness, claiming that the prosecutor made an irrevocable commitment not to prosecute him. I suppose like with Bill Cosby.
Sammy Finkelman (c22349) — 8/20/2023 @ 12:59 pm66 year old woman shot and killed when anti-gay bigot demands she take down gay pride flag. (arrowhead calif.)
asset (2b694f) — 8/19/2023 @ 11:33 pm
That’s horrible. Law enforcement ended up shooting the shooter.
Like I said, more and more of these nutjobs will out themselves as the election approaches.
norcal (36391c) — 8/20/2023 @ 1:09 pmI hope everuone in California is ok. A hurricane and an earthquake is bad.
DRJ (8d831d) — 8/20/2023 @ 3:34 pmI’m sure this issue will come up in the Republican debate:
Rip Murdock (14415d) — 8/20/2023 @ 7:07 pm@63 the republican party and media does not want to talk about abortion. Try calling a national conservative talk show and tell the screener you want to talk about how the kansas and ohio abortion votes will have on the 2024 election. Abortion is doing to republicans (voting against every republican on ballot) that gun control has done to democrats for the last 50 years and republican leadership knows it. Since the base is rabidly pro-life they are hoisted on their own petard so they try not to discuss abortion so what happened to linzy graham doesn’t happen to them!.
asset (c47f33) — 8/20/2023 @ 8:06 pm@DRj@62 5.1 isn’t too bad, it sounds like there wasn’t much damage. I’m NorCal, so I might get a bit of rain tomorrow, but nothing significant. I hope the SoCal people are battened down.
Nic (896fdf) — 8/20/2023 @ 10:00 pmNice strawman, but “forcing people to feed the poor” does not sum up the MAGA-evangelical rejection of Christian values. Biblical words of Jesus have drawn a negative response from Trump-loving evangelicals — even when they’re told where the words came from.
Show me where they argue against charity, or for any tolerance that Christ Himself showed? There were things that He did not approve of, you know.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/20/2023 @ 11:22 pmI hope everyone in California is ok. A hurricane and an earthquake is bad.
See Heinlein’s “Year of the Jackpot.”
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/20/2023 @ 11:24 pmCalling something a strawman, with no evidence it is a strawman is not an argument at all, but a sly ducking of the question.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/20/2023 @ 11:26 pmLink
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/20/2023 @ 11:34 pmto have someone come up after to say
So, you extrapolate from one, or a few, to all. Sorry, doesn’t work for me.
I’m sure that I could find just as many who would argue that Jesus wanted high taxes. Yes, it’s stupid, but so is your example, cherry-picked to make just your point.
Talk about strawmen.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/20/2023 @ 11:58 pmI don’t extrapolate from some to all. I extrapolate from some to some.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/21/2023 @ 12:54 amIt seemed to me you were asking for an example, Kevin. I remembered one from the other thread, so I linked it. How about not trying to read my mind or motives, OK?
And if saying that people argue that Jesus wanted high taxes is stupid, why did you say pretty much that, or words to that effect, in this very thread?:
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/21/2023 @ 1:19 amSo now we learn from Hunter Biden’s lawyer that the sweetheart deal was even sweeter. No guilty plea. No jail time. Only pay the taxes owned on the 5 years of current lookback after they ran out the clock on previous theft.
Good deal if you can get it. Must be nice to have people in power leveraging for you.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 8/21/2023 @ 6:17 am@73
But remember Rob, his dad, the President of the United States of America, has zero input into this.
The defenders are asking us to be stupid.
Just like the arguments that Joe Biden isn’t in “trouble” regarding the corruptions we’re finding because, there’s no bloody ‘bribe check’ with his name on it.
The simplest way to test this, is to answer the following question:
Would any of the Bidens make as much money has they had during Biden’s VP/POTUS years had Joe Biden NEVER been VP/POTUS?
There’s your answer.
Again, they’re asking us to be dumb.
Just call their dumb arguments out.
whembly (eafcf2) — 8/21/2023 @ 6:47 amThere was heavy flooding in the deserts, which received a year’s worth of rain in a couple of hours. Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley was especially hard hit, as were the mountain burn areas from the past few years of fires.
Rip Murdock (14415d) — 8/21/2023 @ 6:53 am<a
Rip Murdock (14415d) — 8/21/2023 @ 7:06 amLink to post 76.
Rip Murdock (14415d) — 8/21/2023 @ 7:08 amAnd if saying that people argue that Jesus wanted high taxes is stupid, why did you say pretty much that, or words to that effect, in this very thread?:
Because a number of lefties, including asset here, have made that claim (fuzzing it up some to imply that advocating charity is the same as forcing charity).
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/21/2023 @ 7:24 amwhembly:
You guys do get out over your shoes with the Hunter Biden case in ways that trashes your case. Y’all want so desperately to insinuate that Joe Biden was taking bribes (preferably from Burisma, so that Trump’s actions in the first impeachment can be papered over), that you lose credibility. Something stinks with the way the H. Biden case was prosecuted and what was persued and not persued. If the Congressional committee could stick with that and focus on that, you’d be better off. Frankly, Biden’s support of his son’s business by simply appearing in conversations at key moments feels corrupt to me. Alas, that doesn’t seem enough for your investigators.
If your party could fall out of love with your desperately corrupt leader, it would have a lot more credibility on all matters Biden. Otherwise, the stink of hypocracy is all over this investigation — and is easy to charactarize as just the usual garbage from Donald and his slander brigade.
Appalled (03f53c) — 8/21/2023 @ 7:30 amAppalled,
focus on the corruption of the individual in power. Your whataboutism to paper over it is noted.
NJRob (0bc74c) — 8/21/2023 @ 8:21 amA little late, but to Elizabeth Francis: Happy Birthday!
She’s currently the second oldest in the US, seventh in the world.
Jim Miller (ea859e) — 8/21/2023 @ 8:26 am@79
Yeah, go play in the highway with that bs.
You are demanding that I play dumb.
Again, go play in the highway. This isn’t about “papering over” Trump’s actions.
This is about applying the same bloody rules and standards that were applied to the Trumps to the Bidens.
If the Steele document was enough to open up an investigation into an active political campaign and following active administration, that which eventually lead to a Special Counsel on the barest, flimsiest predicate… then, there’s more than enough for the DOJ to investigate the Bidens. Which, I’ll add, that there are far more credible evidences now to pursue a vigorous investigation than at ANY f’n point during the Trump administration.
I’m not some Trumper Humper… as, I thought he should’ve been impeached/removed on J7.
You look silly with this, as we now know via leaks of email correspondences between Hunter’s lawyers and the DOJ (which had to be Hunter’s lawyer to pressure the DOJ) that the DOJ worked with the lawyers initially do NOT charge Hunter with anything, so long has he backpays everything. It was *ONLY* the IRS whistleblower who made the DOJ/Hunter’s lawyers to revise the plan that ended up in the recent the plea deal, as the original plan would’ve made the DOJ untenably corrupt.
Same prosecutor, Wise, is now Special Counsel.
Wise is now going to delay as long as he can, so long he can say “still investigating, so can’t comment” which will allow the statue of limitation to expire (as Hunter still hasn’t been indicted).
So, please, don’t ask me to be dumb.
This is text book case of “the fix was in”… and “how do we mitigate the political risks?”
Both Wise and Garland should be impeached on this alone. As this is not a debate about “policy differences” no “prosecutorial discretion”.
This is straight up government malfeasance and corruption.
No. There must be two things.
1) Crimes that Hunter committed must face the law. If he escapes, the political accountability must be exacted.
2) As a political matter, all things should be on the table, including impeachment.
There’s no “appearing” to be corrupt. It is defacto corrupt. Hunter having his dad on the phone call with his associates *IS* the deliverable. That shows Hunter’s business associates that they have access to POTUS.
I’m not sure where you’re going with “Alas, that doesn’t seem enough for your investigators”… GOP Congress has latched on this hard.
We know the DOJ, itself, won’t investigate because a) DOJ reports to Biden, and b) You cant indict a sitting President.
So, we’re left with GOP committees having the barest margin of Majority in the house to investigate, hopefully with full impeachment hearings.
I’ve been agitating for a not-Trump candidate for quite a while…
But, again, don’t ask me to play dumb and NOT be able to separate whatever issues surrounding Trump to Biden’s own problems.
Trump don’t matter in this conversation.
I think the “but Trump” you exhibit is simply a reflection that you DON’T want to acknowledge that our current President is corrupt via Hunter’s bagman activities so that you don’t want to be part of any effort to “paper over” Trump’s own issues.
So, you’d rather bury you head in the sand.
All you need to do is brush the sand out of your eyes… and simply look.
whembly (5f7596) — 8/21/2023 @ 8:37 amIf
This isn’t accurate. There were multiple predicates for investigating the Trump campaigns involvement in Russia’s hack of the DNC server and the special counsel was appointed after Trump said he fired the head of the FBI to stop the investigation.
Hunter is clearly corrupt and Joe clearly tolerated it, at best.
Time123 (53d999) — 8/21/2023 @ 9:40 amTime continuing to rehash the past rather than focus on the present.
The current administration is abusing it’s power and that is spitting in the face of the law and Americans that are currently under its thumb.
No amount of whataboutism is going to hide that fact from all except the true believers.
NJRob (bd6e37) — 8/21/2023 @ 9:53 amWhembly, It may not have been access to VPOTUS. It may have been having Hunter use that relationship to open lesser doors for them.
Still very corrupt.
Time123 (53d999) — 8/21/2023 @ 9:53 amNBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll 8/21/23:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/21/2023 @ 9:56 amSorry for the formatting error. The above comment is my own.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/21/2023 @ 9:58 amWhat do the British bettors think?
That Trump currently has a 70 percent chance of winning the nomination:
Mike Smithson, who runs the Political Betting site thinks those odds are too high:
I often find the discussions at Poltical Betting interesting, though some of the regulars have pictures of American politics much like the pictures you get from fun house mirrors.
(I should add the discussions often don’t stick to the topic for long.)
Jim Miller (ea859e) — 8/21/2023 @ 10:11 am@83
No, I disagree Time.
The “predicate” for all those investigations are so minute, that’s it’s equivalent to “breathing”. All that means, is that it doesn’t take much to open up and investigate. The problem with it, was that it was ran by “the 7th Floor”, meaning, it was orchestrated by political appointees. There was no “leadership” to act in as a check against over-zealous investigations, as it was the 7th Floor doing the investigation.
Trump has every power and right to stop any investigation and every power right to fire Comey. None of which should’ve spawned a Special Counsel. The check against an abusive POTUS actions, if you believed it so, is either in courts, or power of the purse of Congress, the ballot box and impeachments.
The Biden’s had/has evidence that is liked getting hit in the face. It’s indisputable. But, you and every other critic are refusing to approach the Biden’s with the same zeal as you did against Trump.
THAT, my friend, is very troubling. THAT, is how you get the sentiments of two-tiers of justice, no matter if that sentiments is justified or not.
whembly (5f7596) — 8/21/2023 @ 10:15 amAs if good faith would stop Trump from swearing fidelity to the Constitution. If only someone who swore in bad faith would burst into flames.
Discussions here also veer off the subject frequently, but that can be a feature, not a bug. 😉
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/21/2023 @ 10:18 amYou could say Trump did that too by trying to overturn a legitimate election and calling on his followers to march to the Capitol on his behalf, intimidating poll workers, etc., etc. I think a lot of us are not so much looking back but are rather focused on the here and now as Trump is being held accountable in the courts for his actions. Consequences don’t always happen immediately after an event.
Dana (169625) — 8/21/2023 @ 10:18 am@85
Yeah no.
1) Simply look at Hunter’s Burisma activities WHILE Biden was VP.
Corrupt to the core.
2) Simply look at Hunter’s associates with Chinese officials WHILE Biden was VP. Who regularly rode with is dad on AF2 to China.
Both are corrupt to the core, and even more blatant that the Trumps.
whembly (5f7596) — 8/21/2023 @ 10:20 amHouse Freedom Caucus rolls out demands to avoid shutdown
……….
The group of roughly three dozen Republican lawmakers said it would oppose any short-term stopgap unless leadership meets a slew of their demands. ……..
……..
In addition to vowing to oppose a so-called clean short-term funding bill, the Freedom Caucus is also planning to vote against any spending legislation that doesn’t meet certain priorities of the party’s right flank. That would mean including, according to the announcement, a sweeping GOP border bill that has stalled in the Senate; addressing “the unprecedented weaponization” of the Justice Department and FBI and ending “woke” Defense Department policies.
……..
The group also said it would oppose a “blank check” for Ukraine after the Biden administration’s new request for billions in additional aid. ……..
The conservative group, in its statement, said it would “oppose any attempt by Washington to revert to its old playbook of using a series of short-term funding extensions designed to push Congress up against a December deadline to force the passage of yet another monstrous, budget busting, pork filled, lobbyist handout omnibus spending bill at year’s end.”
And members hinted they would be willing to use procedural votes to prevent a mammoth year-end spending package from coming to the floor at all, saying that they would “use every procedural tool necessary to prevent that outcome.”
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/21/2023 @ 10:22 am……….
GOP need to articulate 2 or 3 specifics to extract from Democrats to get their votes.
Otherwise, it’s just for show.
Part me of wants the Gaetz and MTG of the world and simply be the holdouts that leads to shutdown. (only way that works if Democrats collectively don’t vote for it…so, has to be over something toxic to them… so, maybe prohibition of Military of paying for out of state abortions. Something like that).
Let the shutdown…commence!
whembly (5f7596) — 8/21/2023 @ 10:32 am“It’s indisputable.”
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 8/21/2023 @ 10:43 am@95 Then you have know concept of what corrupts means.
Frankly, I think Trump’s support, outside of small hardcore MAGA-ites, is largely a reaction to people like you who ignores democrat’s bad behavior.
whembly (5f7596) — 8/21/2023 @ 10:50 am88.
That sounds about right. Not too high, not too low.
Many people would think 70% is too low, but I think it’s about right. A lot of things could ensue so as to stop him> They are just not that likely. But definitely possible.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/21/2023 @ 11:35 am89. Isn’t the 7th floor the command center of the State Department?
Main Justice has 7 floors, but I don’t know where wither the Attorney General or the Criminal division is.
The New York Times has a whole story today on the Hunter Biden case. It’s not strictly in chronological order (and their stories never are)
It also doesn’t tell you the name of the person who quit or was fired right before Weiss started to get tougher on Hunter Biden:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/19/us/politics/inside-hunter-biden-plea-deal.html
Someone new was brought in:
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/21/2023 @ 11:49 amThe NYT article is kind of fair although it has little inaccuracies:
Hunter Biden wasn’t “addicted” to crack only after his father was no longer in office – he was taking cocaine at least as far back as 2013.
When his father and his brother puled strings to get him into the Navy reserve, he didn’t last because he failed a driug test.
But this is a fair summary:
The shakedown invoked his father but his father wasn’t necessarily really there. Hunter had every reason to lie sf his father had every reason not to get involved in such things.
David Weiss did not talk to the NYT, but a lot of other people did. some of whom contradicted things others said.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers are asking that Justice Department people who leaked be prosecuted (they seem to free to spin)
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/21/2023 @ 12:04 pmWhembly, I’m not now, nor have I in the past, denied that Hunter is corrupt. Also, I’m happy that this investigation continue and look forward to what we will find. At this point the evidence seems to supprt that Hunter was corrupt and Biden allowed it. Looking forward to evidence of corrupt actions by Joe.
Disagree with you about investigating Trump / Russia. There was plenty of evidence at the time to support a reasonable suspicion.
Also, he wasn’t just shutting down the investigation of his campaign. He was shutting down the investigation of Russian criminal interference. The DNC was hacked. A crime had been committed that merited investigation.
Time123 (d25545) — 8/21/2023 @ 12:32 pmOn the “Trump has Fans” thread, someone reposted a transcript from James Comey’s very smug “buy my book” tour. I’ll toss Comey a bone here because he was pitching his book to Trump haters and Comey read the audience well and threw the red meat- to make a buck. I’d suggest listening to the audio rather than reading the transcript. Comey, the interviewer, and the audience ooze smug condescension. When I first heard that interview I thought of the Strzok-Page texts and thought wow. There is now an even larger group who have more reasons now to be convinced the FBI and DoJ were out to get Trump the minute the results were in. Comey came off like everything he did was motivated by his desire for the best for the USA, but then they got to listen to the smug laughter of Comey and his audience while Comey was grubbing for money at a book signing. Comey’s words, actions, and tone set a narrative in stone in many more minds than before.
Many of the great stories told over and over and over through history are of people ground up by the insatiable beast of rulership and Comey brought the red meat.
Hollywood gave us the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Braveheart etc. Religion gives us martyrs who die for you down to the level of the immortal soul. People like Comey did not make Trump a martyr, but they sure to make it easy for Trump to act like he is one. Trump does not have to cross a high bar standard or be Rumpelstiltskin spinning straw into gold for the peoples first born child, Trump only has to take the ground red meat people who hate him have been bringing to the party every day for 3 years and make hamburgers.
Now I think it is too late. The Democrats used Trump and Never Trump to splinter the GOP, insisted the GOP run “purity from Trump stink” on all its candidates and now I think it is inevitable that Biden’s 2024 VP candidate, or someone like Gavin Newsom will be elected. Most of this is Trump fault for intentionally being so divisive and selfish but GOP and neverTrump did put all their eggs into this Justice system basket and that gambit looks like it not only failed to contain or eliminate Trump before the election, it made him stronger. There is no longer any doubt in my mind that Trump will be on the ballot in 2024 even if his name has to be handwritten on to it. If Trump has to go write-in he may set a write in record, certainly drawing enough votes away from the GOP candidate in Electoral College swing states for the Democrats to win.
steveg (b6fcc8) — 8/21/2023 @ 12:32 pm“Frankly, I think Trump’s support, outside of small hardcore MAGA-ites, is largely a reaction to people like you who ignores democrat’s bad behavior.”
There’s no evidence that Joe Biden took money as part of some sort of shakedown. The fact that some people want it to be true does not make it true. Maybe there is the appearance of corruption. Maybe Joe being at meetings becomes circumstantial evidence, but does it prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed extortion? No. A prosecutor could face great criticism for bringing such a weak case. If dumb people want to use that reasoning to vote for Trump then we deserve what we get.
AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 8/21/2023 @ 12:36 pmHunter’s corruption seems pretty clear to me. If he’d take the usual steps to start /join a law, consulting, or lobbying firm he’d have the usual fig leaf. But he didn’t so it’s very clear. “Indisputable” seems like a reasonable adjective.
Time123 (d25545) — 8/21/2023 @ 12:36 pmThis candidates certainly isn’t boring.
Jim Miller (0ff13d) — 8/21/2023 @ 12:37 pmAJ, I agree that there isn’t evidence of a criminal act by joe.
But it strains credulity to asset he was unaware of what his son was doing; trading on his name and proximity to power to make money.
Hunters corrupt, Joe almost certainly knew. They’re both corrupt to different degrees. But neither isn’t corrupt.
How corrupt / acceptable you find what Joe did will vary. I think it’s sadly common for the family of elected officials to trade on their family name like this. So even if you think Joes corruption was of the common place variety it’s still not honest.
Time123 (d25545) — 8/21/2023 @ 12:40 pmAs I’ve said before, Biden is horrible and only won because he was running against Trump. Had he run unopposed he’d have lost.
Time123 (d25545) — 8/21/2023 @ 12:41 pmForgot to say that I think there is a 66%-34% chance that as soon as the Democrats win in 2024, they will find a way in early 2025 to settle for a Trump a slap on the wrist for one of the more minor charges because they got what they wanted, which was a 2024 win. I’d be happy to be wrong, but am cynical
steveg (b6fcc8) — 8/21/2023 @ 12:44 pmI’d be happy to accept a slap on the wrist for Trump if it came with a clear and public confession and retraction of his lies about the 2020 election.
Time123 (d25545) — 8/21/2023 @ 12:50 pmwhembly,
James Comer has no evidence that Joe Biden took bribes. But he wants to insinuate he did, and he comes back to Burisma and the whole Ukraine thing:
https://comer.house.gov/2023/8/icymi-comer-on-hannity-archer-confirms-joe-biden-lied-when-he-denied-knowledge-of-hunter-biden-business-dealings
https://comer.house.gov/2023/6/comer-oversight-committee-s-investigation-into-the-bidens-influence-peddling-continues
Because Comer goes for the most drastic charge available, he diminishes his credibility on what he can prove. It’s par for the course in MAGA-world.
Appalled (03f53c) — 8/21/2023 @ 12:54 pmHere is Trump’s bond conditions in Georgia:
https://www.ajc.com/politics/trumps-bond-set-for-200000-in-fulton-county/YVM7QOLFL5FDRGIVL6A7FR6JMI/
Appalled (03f53c) — 8/21/2023 @ 1:01 pmTime, I agree that Biden likely knew that Hunter was monetizing the Biden name….at minimum. The ethical standard should be not even the appearance of influence peddling. So Biden should have stepped aside and let someone else take the lead on Ukraine…though I don’t think Biden did anything wrong with Burisma. He should also have had an impenetrable wall between himself and Hunter’s business associates to disabuse any notion of influence generally.
So what does a voter do with that? Some here will conclude, well, if they are both corrupt, that inoculates my support for the one that I at least agree with on policies. The problem is that Trump has his own conflict of interest problems with Jared Kushner and Saudi money, except with a few more zeros on the dollar amounts. It’s interesting that our corruption detectives see no problem there.
The tie break comes down to who lied and tried to cheat the election…and who refused to turn over classified documents when asked…and who generally weakens our rule of law. Biden is awful…except when put next to Trump. I won’t vote for Biden, but can understand independents who would conclude that he is in fact the lesser of two evils. If that analysis drives up Trump’s GOP support, so be it. Indictment (and potentially conviction) trumps the possibility of some corruption. This isn’t hard…
AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 8/21/2023 @ 1:28 pm103. Time123 (d25545) — 8/21/2023 @ 12:36.
Actually, Hunter did join a law firm, although he didn’t do any work himself, and the firm charged Burisma.
That has emerged only as a slight addition to the news coverage.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/analysis-hunter-bidens-hard-drive-shows-firm-took-11-million-2013-2018-rcna29462
, IIRC, Hunter Biden was ostensibly hired, and/or put on the board, as an expert on corporate governance.
That was before he had a chance to make a lot oi money. There may have been some criminal activity in Soviet days but most of the corrupt money was made by people after 1991 (possibly relying on prior contacts)
I think Hunter is misleading people by tracing it back to before 1991.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/21/2023 @ 1:29 pmLOL!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/21/2023 @ 1:33 pmNot the Democrats problem. The Republicans are in the majority, let them figure it out. If McCarthy makes a deal with the Democrats, he kiss his speakership goodbye.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/21/2023 @ 1:35 pmAJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 8/21/2023 @ 1:28 pm
I think Joe Biden may be the only source that he did take the lead on Ukraine.
It was part of his tall tale on he was instrumental in firing the prosecutor, using his vice-presidential super powers.
He was told by George P. Kent (now silenced by his job as as Ambassador to Estonia) who was deputy political counselor
and later deputy chief of mission in Kyiv, Ukraine, from 2015 to 2018, that Hunter’s presence on the board of Burisma was interfering with U.S. efforts to combat corruption (because it made it look like the United States government had been bought off. What was important was the appearance of corruption by people in Ukraine.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/diplomat-tells-investigators-he-raised-alarms-in-2015-about-hunter-bidens-ukraine-work-but-was-rebuffed/2019/10/18/81e35be9-4f5a-4048-8520-0baabb18ab63_story.html
Of course, what Trump did was more serious.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/21/2023 @ 1:41 pmTrump’s bond in Georgia election interference case set at $200,000
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/21/2023 @ 1:44 pmThat’s never going to happen.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/21/2023 @ 1:45 pmIt’s a plausible tactic to destroy his political career.
The Turkish Sultan pardoned the false Messiah, Shabbati Zevi (in Hebrew as pronounced by Askenazic Jewry Shabsei Tzvi) on the condition he converted to Islam. That destroyed the movement. There can’t be anything more antithetical to Judaism than that.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/21/2023 @ 1:49 pmTrump bond order.
Eastman bond order.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/21/2023 @ 1:49 pmhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=9hc7IRfFIBQ
George Kent appeared but only under subpoena.
The first thing Giuliani did was cause the Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch to be removed (that didn’t help Putin) The second thing was cause people to be excluded from Zelensky’s government. The third thing was he was supplied with Biden’s statement in the Q&A portion of his speech to the Council on Foreign Relations the about firing the prosecutor, which was given a twist by Giulani’s sources
All that Putin got for that was a 55-day suspension of aid to Ukraine.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:07 pmI see that if any of the charges against Trump are dropped or dismissed, his bail gets lowered. All but one carried $10,000 bail.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:09 pm4732 children were killed by fire arms last year (record high)
asset (43335f) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:14 pm@109
Does it change your calculous that the Biden’s shared at least one bank account?
Recall, that the abandoned Hunter laptop revealed correspondence that they both shared at least one bank account and paid each other’s bills.
If Hunter’s proceed from his business flowed into those shared accounts, Joe Biden is corruptly involved.
You’re looking for something that amounts to a check from Xi with Biden’s name on it with a note that says “for our deals”. You are setting an dumb threshold and you’re asking everyone you respond to play dumb.
I’m done.
whembly (5f7596) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:16 pm@100
Unfortunately, the only way we’d see corruption from Joe, is if the House starts impeachment hearings. Outside of that, good luck.
I don’t disagree with them opening the investigation, Time.
What I disagree with you, it seems, is that they keep looking for something that wasn’t there. There were several career investigators wanting to close the investigation, but the political leadership wanted to keep it open, and it was used to ‘politically’ damn the Trump administration.
In short, the DOJ went political.
whembly (5f7596) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:22 pm@122
And?
whembly (5f7596) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:23 pmIs there actual evidence of that?
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:32 pmwhembly (5f7596) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:16 pm
That information appears to date from about 2010.
It is not sharing any bank account, I think, but using the same person to manage both their accounts and him sometimes using Hunter’s account to pay Joe’s bills (maybe repaying it)
It’s been pointed out that for someone of Biden’s age, giving money to his family members is a lot like giving money to the person himself.
Here’s an interesting thing that came u (I only read of it secondhand)
Back around 1995, Joe apparently got Hunter a job with a credit card company that Hunter used, not only to pay his student loans, but to also pay his older brother’s student loans also!
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/25/us/politics/25biden.html
Recently there has been something about Hunter paying off his brothers student loans.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:33 pmWhembly,
So Comer is ignoring evidence to prove the point that he wants to insinuate? Why? He hasn’t got to it yet? Or is the laptop data possibly suspect?
Engage, my friend. Don’t just be annoyed that someone doesn’t see things the way you do.
In the meantime, I will be looking up your stuff.
Appalled (6c67af) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:40 pmDavid Weiss’s career (including a murder case he had a role in getting a conviction)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/08/20/hunter-biden-david-weiss-special-prosecutor-delaware
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:41 pmIf McCarthy makes a deal with the Democrats, he kiss his speakership goodbye.
There are few who could replace him. There’s maybe 10 who would vote against him, but about 200 Republicans would not vote for who those 10 want.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:43 pmA Russian space =probe crashed into the moon. hey cant do what they in 1976,
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:44 pm122 In the USA?
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:44 pmBoth are corrupt to the core, and even more blatant that the Trumps.
I would really like to see what trades Mr Kushner made, compared to news the next day out of the White House.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:45 pmY’all want so desperately to insinuate that Joe Biden was taking bribes (preferably from Burisma, so that Trump’s actions in the first impeachment can be papered over), that you lose credibility.
Consider it possible that Trump was out over HIS skis. It’s not like he’s a detail kind of guy. Someone may have told him about Hunter, Burisma and Ukrainian officials and he gave it the same kind of due diligence that Hillary’s minions gave the Steele Dossier (none to speak of).
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:48 pmI’ve always thought that the first Trump impeachment was weak, and mostly informed by a visceral dislike of Trump.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:49 pmWhat do the British bettors think?
That Trump currently has a 70 percent chance of winning the nomination:
I take this as good news. I thought it was higher.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:51 pmI’ve always thought that the first Trump impeachment was weak, and mostly informed by a visceral dislike of Trump.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:49 pm
Not me. “We need you to do us a favor, though.” THAT is a shakedown.
Nice little country you have there. Please give me a stick with which I can beat Joe Biden.
norcal (49c57f) — 8/21/2023 @ 3:00 pmEnemy of the People Mainstream Media has got the Luna-25 story all wrong.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/21/2023 @ 3:03 pmSo your anecdotes excuse you doing it, but mine don’t? Either the thing you called stupid was stupid when both of us did it or neither. I don’t really care which one. You just can’t have it both ways.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/21/2023 @ 3:26 pmI can think of two right off the top who could be compromise candidates: Steve Scalise or Jim Jordan. At least half of this group would vote against McCarthy-that’s 22 votes right there. And no Democrat would support him.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/21/2023 @ 3:32 pmBetter link to House Freedom Caucus membership.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/21/2023 @ 3:34 pmSo your anecdotes excuse you doing it, but mine don’t? Either the thing you called stupid was stupid when both of us did it or neither. I don’t really care which one. You just can’t have it both ways
Keep digging.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/21/2023 @ 3:52 pmSteve Scalise or Jim Jordan
Perhaps Scalise, but Jordan is a crazy person.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/21/2023 @ 3:53 pmThe House Freedom Caucus is a pack of nutters.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/21/2023 @ 3:53 pmYes, yes, the Republicans should shut down the government and absolutely not send old people their Social Security or give the military their pay and promotions. That will show those RINO, Trump-hating, China-loving, Koch Brothers, Deep State elites.
nk (fa8f0a) — 8/21/2023 @ 4:38 pmI’m digging? Lol.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/21/2023 @ 5:42 pmVivek Ramaswamy, 1/6 and 9/11 Truther:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/21/2023 @ 5:59 pm@125 do you really want that to be your answer on the killing of 4732 children by fire arms?
asset (553216) — 8/21/2023 @ 6:02 pmWhat’s your answer to the killing of 1,000,000 children by abortion?
nk (6c45b4) — 8/21/2023 @ 6:14 pm104, “what is she about?” That’s a 1990s Chicago way of asking what gang you are in? If Bukele is the model, you need a non mestizo or even a non pure Iberian to clean things up down there.
urbanleftbehind (af5644) — 8/21/2023 @ 7:38 pmWe’re Number Two!, We’re Number Two!
Rip Murdock (14415d) — 8/21/2023 @ 7:46 pmRIP John Warnock (82). Co-founder of Adobe Systems and developer of the PDF document format.
Rip Murdock (14415d) — 8/21/2023 @ 7:58 pm@149 they are fetuses not children. Late term abortion is rare ;but if you wish to make the argument that late term abortions should only be done to protect the life of the woman I will gladly listen to your argument. My favorite is the fundo conservative who says abortion is murder ;but oppose welfare as theft and say once your born kid your on your own go live in a garbage dump like they do in catholic latin america.
asset (394834) — 8/21/2023 @ 8:02 pm@149 they are fetuses not children.
“They’re Jews, not people” — Nazi Germany.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/21/2023 @ 9:15 pm@148
Ok…and?
Simply throwing out numbers is pointless. I can go to wikipedia for that.
whembly (5f7596) — 8/22/2023 @ 7:16 am@125 do you really want that to be your answer on the killing of 4732 children by fire arms?
Mostly by other children.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/22/2023 @ 8:53 amI said I would go looking for some of the material Whembly believes points to Joe Biden taking bribes. I am surprised how difficult it is for someone to right a simple, clean story about this. Part of that may be that the Biden’s family finances are awfully tangled. Part of it may be that those who had access to the Biden laptop have chosen to spin a disconnected story from it. The one here covers the most ground:
https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/contrary-earlier-portrayals-joe-biden-referred-business
I read that and have no real understanding of the back and forth movement between Hunter’s accounts and Joe’s (and what was actually shared). What I have mentioned before is that Comer, who I believe has all this stuff, has not been trumpeting any message from the laptop material. Given that the House is anxious to develop an impeachment case against Biden, I don’t see why the links on the laptop have not been developed past the insinuation level.
Comer has certainly demonstrated three things: (1) Hunter Biden is an influence pedding sleaze; (2) Joe Biden has full knowledge of that and has enabled Hunter’s influence peddling business; and (3) the IRS and DoJ has not prosecuted this as aggressively as one should expect.
Comer has not proved that Joe Biden took a bribe. We have a maybe that Joe and Hunter may have paid some of each other’s bills. (I don’t see an actual joint checking account — I see a joint account with the cellphone company).
And when we’re done, I only see one likely Presidential candidate who tried to steal an election. Whembly, I know you are not a Trump supporter. The reality is, though, he will be the candidate and I will vote against him. And that’s true even if Biden did take a bribe.
Appalled (03f53c) — 8/22/2023 @ 9:08 amPart of it may be that those who had access to the Biden laptop have chosen to spin a disconnected story from it
Part of it may be that peer pressure in the newsroom discourages exposing Democrats. Someone that “gets” Biden is going so see his career top out almost immediately.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/22/2023 @ 9:16 amKevin M:
Fox and the NY Post have professional reporters. But their stories on this are piecemeal or vigorously so-what-ish.
Appalled (03f53c) — 8/22/2023 @ 9:22 am@156
Cool.
My calculous is this: Despite the fact that I reject the whole framing of Trump “tried to steal an election”, his behavior was still unacceptable. Compared to Biden, very likely, was involved in corrupt influence peddling that he and his family benefited, I’m going to consider them a “wash” as far as bad deeds go.
And no, we don’t require a law enforcement/court ruling to make that determination. Political determination should be made outside of ‘law enforcement/court ruling’, because politicians can do a lot of things wrong, but may not necessarily fit a penal violation. (hence while impeachments and contempt of congress is a thing).
So, I’m just left with which politician is going to advance my preferred policies.
Because, I refuse to engage in an American Idol competition and vote for a candidate who I personally like.
I treat politicians like I do to rental cars. I use them to get to point A to point B, and when done, I forget about it.
whembly (5f7596) — 8/22/2023 @ 9:27 amI am glad this nailbiter has been resolved. I would have never guessed which criminal you preferred but I should have known it was the one that, if true, takes bribes from communist China. As an added bonus he is an open borders and baby killing advocate. But, to quote AJ, his heart is in the right place. ❤️
BuDuh (3f3b66) — 8/22/2023 @ 9:33 amEastman surrenders in GA, and states that what he and others did was not illegal. I think that this will be the crux of their defense — the state may prove that they committed the alleged acts, but that they were not actually illegal. Criminalizing legal advice and/or acting ON legal advice, isn’t as straightforward as, say, bank robbery.
Are there laws explicitly referring to falsely claiming to be an Elector? Or is that a political statement that the Congress has the sole power to judge? People have claimed to be elected to Congress and been denied by a vote of the House majority.
Similarly for the DC charges. The classified papers case is really the only headshot.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/22/2023 @ 10:35 amJohn Solomon and his Just the News outfit are as pro-Trump as they come (and Solomon was in cahoots with Giuliani in trying to find fraud in Ukraine and was instrumental in the sacking of a US Ambassador there), and there’s nothing about a shared bank account and certainly nothing about Joe getting cash income from Ukraine or China or other foreign entity, but it is weird that Hunter was paying Joe’s phone bills, but it confirm that Joe knew more about Hunter’s business dealings than he let on.
The NYT mentioned a shared bank account, but concluded that there wasn’t one.
While looking for stuff on Hunter and Weiss, I found the following, and it only bolsters my initial opinion that someone other than Weiss should be Special Counsel.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/22/2023 @ 11:03 amSo, the argument that Weiss was appointed by Trump doesn’t mean he was a Republican, but that he was a crook?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/22/2023 @ 11:07 amStill, replacing Weiss would set the investigation back to the beginning, and would likely run out the statute of limitations on some matters.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/22/2023 @ 11:08 amDavid Weiss is a Republican, appointed to his US Attorney slot by Trump. He picks the best people, so Trump told me.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/22/2023 @ 11:25 amSolomon was also named by Trump as his liaison to the National Archives and was illegally given access to classified documents without the required security clearances (except those in Trump’s head).
Comedy Gold!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/22/2023 @ 11:41 amThe “Blame Trump’s Lawyers” Strategy:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/22/2023 @ 11:53 amGuys,
At this point, I am interested if the documentary stuff these guys assemble support the charge. Accuracy is fight for another day. I would say that the documentary evidence that the Biden’s shared an an account, as proffered by the most anti-Biden source available is confusing, and boils down to one guy paying bills for another and vis versa. The NYT gives a good explanation of why that might be going on.
Appalled (d106e8) — 8/22/2023 @ 11:55 am@166
Don’t forget that the Delaware Senators have a say, and both are far left Democrats, so it’s not like Trump could’ve picked a GOP/Trump friendly prosecutor.
So that talking point is worth diddly.
whembly (5f7596) — 8/22/2023 @ 12:27 pmBlue slips are a toothless courtesy, whembly, and thanks to Grassley and McConnell, they won’t stop a nominee from getting out of committee, especially now that the filibuster is adiosed.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/22/2023 @ 1:33 pmMore Voter Fraud:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/22/2023 @ 1:33 pmSee a steel magnolia at work:
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23923832/email-from-fani-willis-to-john-moran.pdf
I hope Mr Meadows can get down here by Friday, bless his heart.
Appalled (04e20b) — 8/22/2023 @ 1:53 pm“Criminalizing legal advice and/or acting ON legal advice, isn’t as straightforward as, say, bank robbery.”
Presidents put forth executive orders all the time that do not pass constitutional muster: Biden’s private company covid vaccination requirement and Trump’s first Muslim ban come to mind. Those get adjudicated and reversed as required. I would argue that Biden probably knew and got legal advice that the order was likely unconstitutional. The question becomes with Trump is whether there was uncertainty with regards to the Electoral Count Act…and would that uncertainty excuse going forward with the new Electoral Vote slates? And does the flawed reading of the ECA excuse any conspiracy?
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 8/22/2023 @ 2:05 pmApparently Congress didn’t share your view that there was a clear reading of the ECA:
The article also has ideas to fix the ECA lack of clarity at the state level as well.
But Trump….shenanigans..et al…
BuDuh (4214e4) — 8/22/2023 @ 2:15 pmJohn Eastman had an argument that the Electoral Count Act, or at least some of its details, was unconstitutional, but there is an even greater argument that what he proposed to do was blatantly unconstitutional/
But one thing that is getting lost is that the substitution of electors, which seems to be what both the federal and state election fraud conspiracy charges are resting their cases on, was never actually attempted in the end! (Now the Atlanta case maybe includes some other things.)
https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-august-13-2023-n1307028
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mike-pence-face-the-nation-aug-6-2023-transcript
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/22/2023 @ 2:23 pmThe false electors charge is, like preparing a fraudulent tax return that was never filed.
Even if some other fraudulent tax return, with slightly different premises was prepared (but not signed by the accountant who was needed to sign it)
The substitute electors was one of several invalid legal theories Eastman and other gamed out.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/22/2023 @ 2:27 pm172. It’s a violation of state law. Not federal. The state of Ohio could actually have permitted this if it wanted to, especially in presidential elections, although the double voter would also have to contend with what Florida law said.
The Supreme Court has said that states can require up to 30 days to change state of residence.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/22/2023 @ 2:32 pmow we ended up with these two jamokes leading our two biggest parties is beyond mortal comprehension.
Campaign finance regulation, plus Buckley v. Valeo for Trump.
There are too few candidates, and no new candidates can effectively enter once the campaigns get seriously under way.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/22/2023 @ 2:38 pm@171
Nope. Blue slips can still slow/stop down the nomination if one Senator objects.
What you’re referring to is that Grassley and McConnell did away with blue slips for Appellate Court nominations.
Blue slips are still very much en vogue for Federal Presecutors.
whembly (5f7596) — 8/22/2023 @ 2:42 pmThe Fulton County trial will be televised. Good.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/22/2023 @ 2:43 pmNow if Cannon and Chutkan can do the same.
162. Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/22/2023 @ 10:35 am
Probably not, but in a case nobody ever formally did and I didn’t hear or read anything about the false electors being indicted.
You can claim that they whole thing was part of a broader scheme to steal the election under color of law.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/column-trump-criminal-charges-go-heart-kkk-act-2023-08-07
It would still be very novel to apply this to the gaming out of various legal approaches.
– Mike Pence.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/22/2023 @ 2:53 pmIt probably depends on the state. Fake Trump electors have been indicted in Michigan and are unindicted co-conspirators 2 and 8-19 in the Georgia case.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:10 pm16.
The actions he said he took.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:10 pm183. So they’re counting them as overt acts even though the fake electoral certifications were never actually submitted to Congress or used.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:12 pmEight of the fake Georgia electors took plea deals with Fulton County.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:12 pmIt is not required that a criminal conspiracy be successful in order to be crime.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:13 pm109.
I think Devon Archer said more like the opposite. That Shokin was not considered a major problem by Burisma.
https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-releases-devon-archers-transcribed-interview-transcript%EF%BF%BC
Not included in the excerpt:
Later:
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:29 pmUnless it ends up in federal court. Removal to federal court seems likely. Whether it will be remanded to state court is the question.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:32 pm187. Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:13 pm
Well, can somebody be indicted for preparing a false tax return that was ultimately never filed? (although the effort to falsely claim lower taxes continued)
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:34 pmFrom post 168:
My emphasis. Kemp certified the results of the presidential vote in favor of Biden on November 23, 2020. The fake electors met on December 14, 2020. They knew it was wrong.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:34 pmApples and oranges, unless it is part of a conspiracy. Unless you are arguing that if the government discovered a conspiracy, they shouldn’t act unless the conspiracy was implemented?
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:37 pmIf the Atlanta case is removed to federal court, there will be a bigger jury selection pool, and different rules for voir dire, but it will be prosecuted under state law (no presidential pardon possible) and by Fulton County DA Fani Willis.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:37 pm192. Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:37 pm
It depends maybe on what stopped the conspiracy.
What stopped the conspiracy here was the unwillingness of many people to take part in it. And none of it was very secret.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:40 pmMy sources tell me that his heart is in the right place…
BuDuh (3f3b66) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:44 pmRip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:34 pm
The Trump people had a legal theory under which the certification could be reversed, even after December 14. They were arguing in court still. Some may have had more conditions in mind than others.
The false electors knew their ballots could very well not count I don’t think they thought of it as attempted fraud.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:44 pmSounds like Jan 6th, Chief Sund, IC community talk.
BuDuh (3f3b66) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:46 pmI was thinking like the Michigan Wolverine Watchmen kidnapping conspiracy plot.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:53 pm134. Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/21/2023 @ 2:48 pm
Someone did. Trump also said he heard the recording both on the July 25 2019 telephone call (Trump seems to say that) and later at a press conference in September 2019 at the United Nations.. Trump said he thought it was incredible that Biden would say that.
He somehow didn’t notice, or didn’t care, that while Biden said he caused the firing of the prosecutor, he did NOT say he did it to stop an investigation!
That particular spin was probably added by Vladimir Putin through Russian intelligence who may have been Giuliani’s sources’ sources.
Giuliani himself said that Biden left out the detail that it was to stop an investigation. But Trump may have been told that and missed the fact that Joe Biden did not say that in the recording
https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-president-zelensky-ukraine-bilateral-meeting-new-york-ny
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/22/2023 @ 3:57 pmNow what Biden actually said on January 23, 2018:
https://www.cfr.org/event/foreign-affairs-issue-launch-former-vice-president-joe-biden
Nothing there about getting him fired to stop an investigation
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/22/2023 @ 4:00 pmIn his phone call with Zelensky on July 25, 2019, Donald Trump wanted to know if it was true that Biden had caused the firing of a prosecutor to stop an investigation.
This would not be of any value to Donald Trump unless it was true That’s why he wanted the story checked out.
Zelensky knew, of course, that Joe Biden had not caused the firing of the Prosecutor General. This was a very public event in Ukraine.
But he didn’t want to disabuse Donald Trump of that idea.
Trump was withholding aid. But he thought the Ukrainians did not know about that. But they were told by some people.
Trump’s aides tried to get that reversed. Eventually Gordon Sundland. Ambassador to the EU, came up, in September, with the idea of trading resumption for an announcement of an investigation of Burisma (not Biden) Trump rejected the idea. Sundland pursued it anyway.
Trump also wanted some Ukrainian officials he was told were against him – and corrupt – Putin always supplied a noble reason as well – fired. They were already eliminated from his government – it was only a few people – but Trump did not know that because he was not in routine contact with Giuliani. That was Trump’s main request.
The checking out of Biden’s story, or what Trump thought was Biden’s story, was merely an additional favor.
When the “hold” became public it was removed. Doing that in secret was against the aw and aid to Ukraine was extremely popular in Congress.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/22/2023 @ 4:12 pm#195 “My sources tell me that [John Eastman’s] heart is in the right place…”
It probably is on the left side, since dextrocardia is quite rare. His head, however, needs some serious help. And we should try to offer it to him, as we would offer help to the victims of any other con man.
The Loser has damaged, and even ruined, the lives of so many people.
Jim Miller (30b3da) — 8/22/2023 @ 4:18 pm“Everyone, on the count of three, PULL!”
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/22/2023 @ 4:22 pmJim, tell me more about Kari Lake’s hairstyle.
BuDuh (3f3b66) — 8/22/2023 @ 4:30 pmJohn Eastman ‘absolutely’ believes the 2020 election was stolen
I believe the Earth is flat.
norcal (bb7fa5) — 8/22/2023 @ 5:27 pmThat broad term is meant to capture the various, creative mechanisms that can be used to suppress fundamental rights,
This kind of “capture” is often called unconstitutionally vague, as no one knows when they violate it.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/22/2023 @ 5:35 pmJohn Eastman ‘absolutely’ believes the 2020 election was stolen
I don’t care what he believes. What I care about is whether he broke a law that clearly made his behavior criminal.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/22/2023 @ 5:35 pmDon’t forget that the Delaware Senators have a say, and both are far left Democrats, so it’s not like Trump could’ve picked a GOP/Trump friendly prosecutor.
But they might have OK’d a crook.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/22/2023 @ 5:39 pmProbably not, but in a case nobody ever formally did and I didn’t hear or read anything about the false electors being indicted.
My real question is whether the sole power to judge the elector’s credentials lies with Congress, or whether a state official has the presumptive authority to name electors. In 1876 that did not seem to work.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/22/2023 @ 5:42 pmEvery day trump rises in the polls and his minions get angrier. On their sites they are talking about how to answer jury questions correctly to get on trump’s jury. Supposed lawyers are telling them what to say.
asset (10c559) — 8/22/2023 @ 8:40 pmDO they realize that perjury is a felony which means they lose all their guns?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/22/2023 @ 11:10 pm@211 these are trumpsters. One trumpster has just been arrested for making death threats against trump judges. The mensa’s phone number was on judges caller ID!
asset (10c559) — 8/23/2023 @ 12:53 am@207. Kevin, I believe there is an intent requirement that will be very hard to prove if the jury thinks the defendants truly believed what they were saying.
Time123 (011ecd) — 8/23/2023 @ 6:07 amThe New York Post has a front page headline that assumes the truth of Joe Biden’s claim, back in 2016 (to the Atlantic) and in 2018 (in the Q&A session of a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations) that he got Prosecutot General Viktor Shokin fired. The news hook is that Obma officials weren’t pushing for him to get fired. there are memos (probably leaked by the Republicans to John Solomon) where Obama officials wrote they were “impressed” by the “progress” Shokin had made (in fighting corruption).
There was also, of course, no tie between the loan guarantees and action againt SHikin,,
But Biden made the whole story up! Shokin was not fired near any time Biden was in Kyiv,,,,,,, and Biden was not in charge of U.S. government policy on Ukraine. Is there any mention of that in the memoes?
Sammy Finkelman (50331e) — 8/23/2023 @ 6:41 amThe idea of a Vice President with superpowers and no contemporary record of it is implausible. Equally implausible is the notion that Donald Trump wanted Ukraine to falsely accuse Joe Biden of protecting corruption.
Sammy Finkelman (50331e) — 8/23/2023 @ 6:44 amActually that seems quite plausible.
Rip Murdock (6347cf) — 8/23/2023 @ 6:50 amSince (according to witnesses at the January 6th Committee) Eastman admitted that his scheme to have Pence replace the legitimate electors with the fake ones was probably illegal, it would be tough for to say he truly believed it:
Rip Murdock (6347cf) — 8/23/2023 @ 7:07 amMorning Consult Republican Primary Tracking Poll 8/22/23
Yawn.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 9:28 amCongratulations to India, which successfully landed a robot at the Moon’s South Pole (a first for anyone).
Last few seconds of landing: https://www.youtube.com/live/DLA_64yz8Ss?feature=share&t=2640
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/23/2023 @ 9:31 amEastman admitted that his scheme to have Pence replace the legitimate electors with the fake ones was probably illegal
He did no such thing. He admitted that he thought it was a losing legal argument, but never that it was a violation of law. No court had ruled on the matter as yet, even though it happened before.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/23/2023 @ 9:34 amWe’ll see.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 9:36 amMy problem with Eastman is that he was willing to throw the election and succession into such chaos. For that he should be disbarred for general “moral turpitude” reasons. But it may not have been a crime.
They may convict him, of course, but the conviction might ALSO lose at the Supreme Court 9-0 (as did the conviction of Conrad Black). Does that make the conviction “illegal”?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/23/2023 @ 9:38 amWe’ll see.
We’ll see if “illegal” and “lost at the Supreme Court” are synonyms? Admit you’re wrong for once.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/23/2023 @ 9:39 amMorning Consult: Most Voters Want Trump’s Georgia Case Handled by Election Day 2024
……….
According to our latest survey, 68% of voters say it is important to them personally that a verdict is reached in the Fulton County case, including 46% who said it is “very important.” This sentiment is shared among independent voters: 2 in 3 want the case decided by next November.
……….
Our latest survey asked voters how willing they would be to support Trump in the event of a hypothetical conviction, sentencing or imprisonment. In each scenario, roughly 3 in 5 potential Republican primary voters said they would be willing to support the former president, both in the primary or a general election, even if he is behind bars. Roughly 4 in 5 Trump supporters said the same.
……..Among the larger electorate, roughly half of voters said they would be “very” unwilling to support Trump if he’s convicted, sentenced or imprisoned.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 9:43 am……..
……..(T)he bulk of the electorate (47%) said the Georgia grand jury’s decision reflects evidence that he committed a crime, 9 percentage points higher than the share who said it reflects motivation to damage his political career (38%).
……..
@215 Why do you feel that Trump wanting a false accusation is implausible? We’re talking about a man who put fake magazine covers with himself on the cover on his office wall and put a fake civil war battle plaque at a golf course. The man is famously dishonest.
Seems very plausible to me that he wanted an accusation he could use for political gain and cared not at all if it was true or not.
I sort of recall some documentary evidence that Trump wouldn’t be satisfied if they opened an investigation and was insisting they announce it that would support my interpretation of his intent …but my memory is a bit fuzzy.
Time123 (011ecd) — 8/23/2023 @ 9:57 am“We’ll see” means that I (and everyone else) don’t know the totality of the evidence regarding Eastman’s state of mind-there may be emails, text messages, meeting notes, etc. that reveal more than his one statement regarding “losing at the Supreme Court.”
In other Eastman news, his California disbarment hearing has resumed. It was put on hold after beginning in June until yesterday. He was granted a two-day extension so he could surrender to Georgia authorities. Eastman has also argued that the hearing should be postponed since any evidence could be used against him by the Special Counsel:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 10:03 amThe paragraph order for the article excerpt in post 226 is incorrect. Below is the corrected excerpt.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 10:14 amSee here for the State Bar’s main motion opposing an additional three-month delay in Eastman’s disbarment hearing.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 10:31 amInstead of defenestration, Prigozhin “fell” from a greater height. I’m surprised he lived as long as he did. The “chef” never did have decent air power.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/23/2023 @ 10:34 amDoug Brugum may be out of the “debate” tonight.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 10:35 amSAD!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 10:36 amThat’s big news, Paul.
nk (6040dd) — 8/23/2023 @ 10:40 amMight not be an accident, either.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66599733
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/23/2023 @ 10:46 amYahoo News/YouGov Poll 8/22/23
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 10:49 amTo quote the Hitchcock film North by Northwest:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 10:53 amTass confirmed that Russian military shot down the jet.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/23/2023 @ 10:54 amMore here.
After the moon crashed into Luna-25, General Surovikin is out, too, but his exit from Aerospace Forces was less fiery.
However, it is telling that Eastman asked for a pardon. Not dispositive…and possibly trying to head off even the possibility of a case…but still interesting. I love how he expressed it to Giuliani
“I’ve decided that I should be on the pardon list, if that is still in the works,”
Hubris?
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 8/23/2023 @ 11:10 amBut as he groped against the wall, two hands upon him fell,
The King behind his shoulder spake: “Dead man, thou dost not well!
‘Tis ill to jest with Kings by day and seek a boon by night;
And that thou bearest in thy hand is all too sharp to write. But three days hence, if God be good, and if thy strength remain,
Thou shalt demand one boon of me and bless me in thy pain.
For I am merciful to all, and most of all to thee.
My butcher of the shambles, rest—no knife hast thou for me!”
****
hey sought the King among his girls, and risked their lives thereby:
“Protector of the Pitiful, give orders that he die!”
“Bid him endure until the day,” a lagging answer came;
“The night is short, and he can pray and learn to bless my name.”
Before the dawn three times he spoke, and on the day once more:
“Creature of God, deliver me, and bless the King therefor!”
They shot him at the morning prayer, to ease him of his pain,
And when he heard the matchlocks clink, he blessed the King again.
Which thing the singers made a song for all the world to sing,
nk (3560eb) — 8/23/2023 @ 11:34 amSo that the Outer Seas may know the mercy of the King.
Comedy Gold!
Polling shows DeSantis continuing to sink like a rock (see here and here); Doug Brugum may not attend due to a basketball injury.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 11:45 amMost people are going to be disappointed.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 11:47 amhttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66599733
They just showed him on a video, that seemed to be shot in Africa.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/prigozhin-video-africa-wagner-russia-rcna101130
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/23/2023 @ 12:27 pm#240 —
There is no way the Georgia trial starts before election day. Fani W’s RICO cases are complicated and take forever to get to trial and actually try. If folks want action on a true January 6 indictment, they will need to put their hopes on the case in the DC Circuit.
If Trump wins, things will get real weird here in Georgia.
Appalled (b9a8ad) — 8/23/2023 @ 12:32 pmTime123 (011ecd) — 8/23/2023 @ 9:57 am
Because it would be useless to him. Who, in the United Sates, would attach any credibility to an accusation coming from Ukraine, a country notorious for corruption?
It would be of worth to Trump – maybe – only if it was factual = backed up.
Yes, but it needs to be believed.
Now Trump maybe may have been lying when he claimed he did not think that Biden was actually likely to be his 2020 opponent. I don’t know that he ever said something publicly about that in 2019 or if anything came out. But he anyway, of course, could not be certain it would be Biden. (if he was calculating, it would also be worth it to him, if the he did not bring it up until after Biden had clinched the nomination, or maybe later.)
He couldn’t use a false accusation coming from the Ukrainian government.
A true accusation – that’s another matter, because it would be backed up by all sorts of evidence. And it would be especially useful if he banked it – but that’s more a tactic for a Democratic scandal machine.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/23/2023 @ 12:38 pmDonald Trump and his voters.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 12:44 pmTrump was not involved in these negotiations in September 2019 by Gordon Sondland. Gordon Sondland was trying to guess what would satisfy Trump and get him to lift the hold on Ukrainian aid. (Trump did not give anybody else in the U.S> government a reason for the hold, resulting in his underlings resorting to guessing because they all wanted to lift the unannounced hold..)
The Ukrainian government had been slandered to him by Russian intelligence, operating through Giuliani’s sources.
Whenever asked, and Trump was asked both by Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland (who came up with the idea of tying the lifting of the hold to Burisma) and by Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, Trump said he was not interested in a quid pro quo. The Ukrainians should do this (investigate Burisma) on their own initiative was his feeling.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/23/2023 @ 12:49 pmRepublicans Gather To Debate Who Will Lose To Trump In A Distant Second
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 1:14 pmWho, in the United Sates, would attach any credibility to an accusation coming from Ukraine, a country notorious for corruption?
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 12:44 pm
Donald Trump didn’t need any help from Ukraine with the voters he already had.
He needed that or wanted that, to get other voters – and that would only be of worth if it was true – provable. Something more than the Ukrainian government saying that.
Now if Trump was really calculating, he’d want to bank the evidence and only trot it out at the best possible moment – after Biden had clinched the nomination or even later.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/23/2023 @ 1:27 pmTrump even had Biden on tape (although he may have missed the “subtlety” (possibly because of spin he got with the recording) that Biden never said he caused the firing of the prosecutor in order to stop an investigation
This is what he had: (A longer excerpt is at #200)
https://www.cfr.org/event/foreign-affairs-issue-launch-former-vice-president-joe-biden
This whole story, by the way, is a figment of Joe Biden’s imagination.
It didn’t happen in March, 2016 (the month Viktor Shokin’s dismissal was voted for by the Ukrainian
Parliament); it didn’t happen in December, 2015 (the month Joe Biden last visited Kyiv before March);it didn’t happen in June 2016, (the month the third batch of loan guarantees was announced at a press conference in Kyiv – with the U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt speaking but Biden wasn’t there; it didn’t happen in November, 2015, the month the withholding of the loan guarantee was announced by the Obama Administration; it didn’t happen any place you might choose to place Joe Biden’s tall tale in a timeline.
But today Jonathan Turley fell for it.
https://jonathanturley.org/2023/08/23/joe-bidens-ukraine-defense-falls-apart/comment-page-2
It was a speech, with his co-author, Michael R. Carpenter about an article they had written in the January/February 2018 issue of Foreign Affairs entitled “How to Stand Up to the Kremlin: Defending Democracy Against Its Enemies,” and this was said in the Q&A portion of his appearance there on January 23, 2018.
Continuing with Turley:
A total lie.
Sammy Finkelman (7a85f9) — 8/23/2023 @ 1:54 pmAny guesses as to the ratings breakdown between tonight’s debate and Tuckyo’s pre-recorded puff sitdown with Trump?
norcal (3fd450) — 8/23/2023 @ 2:14 pmIn his telephone call on July 26, 2019 Trump also mentioned having heard a recording. This was not in the transcript because it was produced by an automatic process similar to the way a voicemail is transcribed to email, supplemented and corrected by people who had been listening in based on their memory and notes and the punctuation is sometimes a little bit wrong.
Missing words (either because they were unclear or inaudible) are indicated by ellipses.
The New York Times writes:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/09/25/us/politics/trump-ukraine-transcript.html
Trump was actually more interested in finding out about the DNC server, which had supposedly been moved to Ukraine, which would prove that the Russians had not hacked the DNC.
But here he is about Biden firing the prosecutor:
What probably sounded horrible (at the UN Trump used the word “incredible”) was Biden claiming to have fired the prosecutor – Trump missing the fact that Biden didn’t say he fired him to stop an investigation.
As you can see, all that Trump wants here is information because that Biden would tell that story to his audience in public sounds too incredible to believe. Even if Trump probably did not even catch, or know, where Biden had said that.
Trump is asking for the truth. Now in September it was something else that Sondland wanted. (an announcement on CNN that Burisma was being investigated – not an answer to Trump’s inquiry about Biden firing the prosecutor to stop an investigation, which Sondland maybe did not even know about)
Zelensky responds (to this and other things Trump said) in somewhat bad English:
Zelensky deflects and asks Trump to supply more information if he has it..
Sammy Finkelman (7a85f9) — 8/23/2023 @ 2:18 pm249 norcal (3fd450) — 8/23/2023 @ 2:14 pm
Trump’s interview will not be rated, although people could be polled about it, because it is being streamed on
TwitterX.It is hard to say. Not that many people will be interested in what Trump has to say – but not that many people will be interested in the debate without Trump. The debate will be exposed to a much bigger audience and be covered more by the media. Trump might get more coverage if he says something interesting.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/23/2023 @ 2:23 pmTurley: Yet we now know the State Department had found progress was being made on corruption and Shokin was praised in private correspondence.
Earlier, in 2015. He was after all eventually fired under foreign pressure..
Turley:
This would have been after August 29, 2016. She was forced out because of Giuliani on May 20, 2019
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/23/2023 @ 2:30 pmTrump’s interview will not be rated
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/23/2023 @ 2:23 pm
I mean comparing Nielsen ratings for the debate with number of views on Twitter for Trump’s tryst with Tucker.
Both are measurable, and there will be numbers for both.
norcal (3fd450) — 8/23/2023 @ 2:42 pm“Puff?” Why so cynical? I look forward to a fearless voice of neutrality sitting down with our once and future greatest, smartest and most selfless president, statesman, and moral authority… a man I’ll sleep well again when his steady and not at all deranged finger is back on the nuclear button. Who would miss that?
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/23/2023 @ 4:08 pmI expect that most GOP primary voters will watch the Fox debate, if they watch anything. Even if they say they support Trump, they know in their hearts that it’s time to move on.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/23/2023 @ 4:18 pmWhy so cynical?
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/23/2023 @ 4:08 pm
Hello Mr. Pot. My name is Kettle.
norcal (3fd450) — 8/23/2023 @ 4:20 pmEven if they say they support Trump, they know in their hearts that it’s time to move on.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/23/2023 @ 4:18 pm
I suspect only the most devout (i.e., dumbest) cultists will watch Tuckyo and skip the debate.
norcal (3fd450) — 8/23/2023 @ 4:24 pmLOL!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 4:29 pm@234 You can only fool some of the people (12%) all of the time. A. Lincoln. Its hard to like a blood sucking tick.
asset (be39e1) — 8/23/2023 @ 4:35 pm@258 In their hearts they hate the same people trump hates. I am non-ignorant southern white trash democrat populist like sanders and AOC who are also populists who call themselves democratic socialists (not real socialists) and native american. I have lived around them all my 74 years I understand who they hate and why. Trump represents them and is their symbol.
asset (be39e1) — 8/23/2023 @ 4:43 pm@260 See Barnum’s Laws.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/23/2023 @ 5:01 pmPutin will worry now every time he boards an aircraft. Karma is a bit*h.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/23/2023 @ 5:04 pmPutin will worry now every time he boards an aircraft. Karma is a bit*h.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/23/2023 @ 5:04 pm
Easy fix. Just take family members of military leaders with him whenever he flies.
norcal (3fd450) — 8/23/2023 @ 5:12 pmEasy fix. Just take family members of military leaders with him whenever he flies.
That will probably deter Biden.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/23/2023 @ 5:17 pmPurported video of Prigozhin’s plane falling from the sky.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 5:30 pmIt’s a long way down…….
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/23/2023 @ 5:32 pmPutin was coughing the other day, so they quietly (it was obvious though) dubbed a video of him addressing the BRICS gathering:
https://www.newser.com/story/339312/putins-voice-bizarrely-dubbed-in-world-speech.html
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/24/2023 @ 2:47 pm161. BuDuh (3f3b66) — 8/22/2023 @ 9:33 am
Hunter Biden took a bribe, or maybe extorted money, from someone who’s now in the Chinese Gulag.
Why should that make Joe Biden friendly to Xi Jingping?
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/24/2023 @ 3:35 pmnorcal (3fd450) — 8/23/2023 @ 2:42 pm
Tucker Carlson had, at one point, 130 million views on ex-Twitter.
Not the same thing as unique persons viewing it for at least five minutes.
I don;t know what ratings Fox got. I couldn’t hear it Neither Bloomberg radio nor WABC 770 broadcast the debate straight – and besides I was trying to watch Star Trek on Heroes and Icons – Legacy on TNG (featuring the character Tasha Yar’s sister) and Trials and Tribble-ations on DS9
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Legacy_(episode)
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Trials_and_Tribble-ations_(episode)
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/24/2023 @ 3:46 pmThe New York Times op-ed against elections was not for liberals, but cited William F. Buckley. It’s called sortition
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/21/opinion/elections-democracy.html
It said we have this with the jury system, and it was used by Ireland for their 2012 constitutional convention, where they had 33 politicians and 66 randomly chosen citizens. France, Britain and Germany also ran lotteries to select citizens to work on climate change policies. (that’s bias)
It’s not a good idea for filling posts, but perhaps could be used to seed people into primaries, or maybe give them money to contribute one time.
Or maybe allow the lottery winner to pick a substitute candidate. Only a small fracton of people would be truly suitable.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/24/2023 @ 3:58 pm263. Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/23/2023 @ 5:04 pm
The Wagner Group, or their media people, has threatened revenge,
Two planes took off from Moscow. Only one was shot down or whatever.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/24/2023 @ 4:11 pmand
Is whataboutism good, Rob, or is it bad?
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/26/2023 @ 8:36 pmOops, wrong thread! (I’ll repost the question on this week’s thread.)
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/26/2023 @ 10:05 pm