Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
Let’s go!
First news item
Ahead of Trump surrender, Republicans opened an investigation into Fani Willis:
The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee opened an investigation into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis Thursday over whether her prosecution of former President Trump is “politically motivated.”
In a letter to Willis announcing the probe, Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) asked Willis to turn over a series of documents to the committee by Sept. 7.
State of play: “Your indictment and prosecution implicate substantial federal interests, and the circumstances surrounding your actions raise serious concerns about whether they are politically motivated,” Jordan wrote in the letter.
Jordan added that it was “noteworthy” that Willis had launched a reelection website that highlighted her investigation of Trump prior to announcing the indictment.
It’s become common practice for House Republicans to go after any individual or agency that attempts to hold Donald Trump accountable. So, no surprise here.
Second news item
After Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was assassinated, Vladimir Putin, the war criminal known for being an oh-so compassionate leader, paid his respects:
Vladimir Putin has praised Yevgeny Prigozhin as a “talented businessman”, but criticised him for making “serious mistakes” in his first remarks since the Wagner leader’s death.
“I knew Prigozhin for a long time, from the early 1990s. He had a difficult path and made serious mistakes in his life. But he got results – for himself, and when I asked him,” Putin said in a televised address.
The Russian leader expressed his condolences to the victims of the plane crash, which occured on Wednesday evening in the Tver region north-west of Moscow. A total of 10 people died, including six passengers and three crew members.
Putin said that the Wagner members killed in the incident had made a “significant contribution to our common cause of fighting the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine”.
Putin did not comment on the cause of the crash, and said they would have to await the outcome of an official investigation.
[Narrator: The Kremlin says that Putin didn’t order the plane crash that killed Prigozhin.]
Ah:
1/ Yevgeny Prigozhin may be poised to take posthumous revenge on Vladimir Putin. A source suggests that Prigozhin was keeping sensitive information – kompromat – on the regime, which may now become public. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/kQEK1sopSQ
— ChrisO_wiki (@ChrisO_wiki) August 24, 2023
Additionally: “According to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, a source says that “Prigozhin was sure that Putin would forgive him everything and was not afraid of anything. He said he knew a lot…””
Third news item
This is an embarrassment for the Republican Party:
“You all signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee,” said moderator Brett Baier. “If former President Trump is convicted in a court of law, would you still support him as your party’s choice? Please raise your hand if you would.”
Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence raised their hands, saying they would support Trump as the party’s nominee – even if he was convicted.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchison did not raise his hand and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made a hand motion and later clarified he was not raising his hand in support of Trump.
To his credit, Chris Christie, who was booed for not raising his hand, hit the nail on the head:
“Someone’s got to stop normalizing this conduct,” said Christie. “Whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong, the conduct is beneath the office of President of the United States.” Christie was met with both cheers and boos, to which he responded: “That’s the great thing about this country, booing is allowed — but it doesn’t change the truth.”
The chaos that the modern Republican Party has embraced and normalized with Trump will be to its everlasting shame.
Fourth news item
Chinese diplomat in New York endorses forced assimilation of Tibetan children:
Chinese consul-general Huang Ping, Beijing’s most senior diplomat in New York, this week defended the Chinese Communist Party’s forced assimilation of Tibetan children.
A report by the Tibet Action Institute, a nonprofit focused on human rights in the region, recently published a report detailing Beijing’s policy of forcing children to attend Chinese-government boarding schools, where they are effectively stripped of their Tibetan identity and required to parrot CCP propaganda. Estimates say that some 1 million Tibetan children have been forced into the schools.
Unbelievably, the report notes that while Secretary of State Blinken announced that the State Department would impose visa restrictions on officials involved in the re-education campaign, “Earlier this month, Huang Ping appeared on the same stage with over a dozen prominent New York Democrats, including Mayor Eric Adams and Representative Grace Meng, at a festival hosted by Hong Kong government agencies in Flushing, Queens. Earlier this year, he marched with Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul at a parade in Chinatown, and the office of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg held a ceremony with the Chinese consulate-general to mark the repatriation of looted antiquities to China.”
Not a good look, Democrats. Not a good look at all.
Fifth news item
Speaking of Democrats, at least one is saying the quiet part out loud:
Dean Phillips is getting a little fed up with his party. The third-term Democratic congressman is on a “crusade,” he says. “I’m saying we need presidential diversity on the stage.”…Phillips has had a lot more media hits in recent weeks ever since he said Democrats need to challenge President Joe Biden in the presidential primary. In his words, he’s “just giving voice to private conversations” (he wouldn’t say with whom). The Democratic Party—and the country—shouldn’t just gamble on an octogenarian with a roughly 42% approval rating to beat Donald Trump, Phillips tells me.
“I came from the business world, and anybody in business knows you don’t just produce a product and then hope there’s a market for it,” he says. “What we tend to do as Democrats is kind of identify the product, and then try to convince people to buy it. I’m not trying to compare people to products, but that’s the analogy. And that’s what happened in 2016.”
…
“I love Joe Biden. I think he’s an extraordinary man. I think he saved the country. His policies, I voted for every single one of them, and I’ve helped market them. [I am] not someone who’s objecting to the past. I’m simply making an argument for the future. And I believe that we should, if he’s intent on being one of the products, I just think we should also offer some others.”
Phillips’s primary concern is Biden’s age. “Age is the main issue in this election, because we have two men who are older than Bill Clinton, who was president when I was in college.”
Sixth news item
The former president left the Fulton County Jail at 7:55 p.m. Thursday, and for the first time in his four indictments on felony charges, authorities took — and released — Trump’s mug shot. By 9:22 p.m., the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee was selling T-shirts, mugs, beverage coolers, bumper stickers and other merchandise with Trump’s face and the words “never surrender.”
The mug shot products range from $12 for a bumper sticker to $36 for long-sleeve T-shirts.
Seventh news item
Sure, keep giving parents more reasons to pull their kids out of public schools:
A federal court in Maryland decided Thursday that parents can’t opt their kids out of reading books with LGBTQ+ content in Montgomery County Schools.
In Tamer Mahmoud v. Monica B. McKnight, parents sought to reinstate a MCPS policy that would allow them to opt their children out of reading and discussing books with LGBTQ+ characters in elementary schools. The parents argued the content in these books was a form of indoctrination that violated their families’ religious beliefs.
The court disagreed. Judge Deborah L. Boardman, a Biden appointee, concluded that the parents’ “asserted due process right to direct their children’s upbringing by opting out of a public-school curriculum that conflicts with their religious views is not a fundamental right.”
The judge denied the parents’ request for a preliminary injunction that would allow them to opt-out their kids when school begins on August 28.
Note: “The LGBTQ+ books added to the district’s curriculum are included in pre-K through eighth-grade classrooms and feature references to gay pride parades, gender transition and pronoun preference.”
Have a great weekend.
–Dana
Happy Friday!
Dana (4020dd) — 8/25/2023 @ 8:40 amDana, I wish you had posted some calming photographs. The world has gone mad.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 8/25/2023 @ 8:53 amA couple years from now I expect to see news reports about the “far-right takeover” of the Montgomery County School Board.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/25/2023 @ 9:00 amAny Republican candidate who is actually seeking the nomination, as opposed to using the process as a pulpit, has to avoid alienating the 30% of GOP voters who live and die for Donald Trump while attempting to persuade the rest. It’s called practical politics.
They might not expect Trump to be the nominee, but they have to at least pretend that they’d support him if he was. And if he IS the nominee, they’ll have to at least go home and STFU or they’ll have no future as a Republican when the time comes to rebuild.
The alternative is a party split. I don’t see that coming.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/25/2023 @ 9:11 amI think Frum is absolutely correct here:
Dana (e425d5) — 8/25/2023 @ 9:25 amWho says the hand raisers are pretending? All of them are on record as supporting a Trump pardon and attacking the “weaponization” of government to some extent (vanity candidacies like Doug Burgum don’t count.).
Trump must have been laughing his head off at that moment.
Rip Murdock (6347cf) — 8/25/2023 @ 9:39 amI actually more or less agree with the school board case. While I don’t think such material appropriate I also don’t believe parents should have any power to opt out of individual lessons the school plans. Public school is an all-or-nothing offer.
Soronel Haetir (238272) — 8/25/2023 @ 10:07 amIt’s completely possible for there to be a legitimate case against Trump in Georgia and For there to be a legitimate reason for Congress to investigate Fani Willis. The two are not mutually exclusive. She started her investigation in February 2021, and virtually all of the evidence that she needed to indict has been available and in the public domain for years. The timing of her indictment is absolutely and blatantly politically motivated, and her shotgun approach to the indictment (indicting some federal officials for doing things that are clearly within the scope of their duties) is extremely flawed.
There are no saints on either side of this one. Some of the charges against Trump may be justifiable, but that doesn’t mean that Willis is blameless.
Observer (397d6a) — 8/25/2023 @ 10:15 am“… a way to display on your body that you reject democracy and the rule of law.”
Well I suppose that’s one way to look at it.
Then again, some might think the Swamp and the Democrats have weaponized the government against the their political opponents, and see those actions as a rejection of democracy and the rule of law…
I’m old enough to know there’s enough corruption and room for graft/grift to go around. Those in power try to keep it, and those out of power try to recapture it. But they all line their pockets along the way and piss on our heads and tell us it’s raining.
Harvey’s Potted Plant (fb25e0) — 8/25/2023 @ 10:27 amBret Baier (01:12:05): You all signed a pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee. If former President Trump is convicted in a court of law, would you still support him as your party’s choice? Please raise your hand if you would.
Here’s where I have to cut the candidates a little bit of slack. This was a bit of a trap by tying their answer to the pledge to support the nominee. In effect, were you lying when you said that? Now the exit from the trap is that a criminal conviction is a pretty significant change in the facts on hand…and there can be no way that a party puts forward someone found guilty of a felon who is facing prison time.
Now how FNC did this was terrible. A more interesting question might be how the party as a whole should deal with a potential nominee who is facing prison time. No stupid hand raising that in the end doesn’t mean anything. “Support” means what exactly? It does not compel fundraising, campaigning, or even guaranteeing a vote. It’s irrelevant especially when the leading candidate would likely not take the same pledge seriously. FNC treated the whole line of questioning as a burden and irritant that had to be done as fast as possible…..
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 8/25/2023 @ 11:07 amSarah Palin, Tucker Carlson, and Donald Trump, Egging On Their Supporters:
Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson on their interview on X:
Rip Murdock (6347cf) — 8/25/2023 @ 11:28 am@11, this is a direct repudiation of the rule of law. An adult needs to emerge to frame the moral peril here. We either trust our justice system…or we don’t. If we don’t, then we need to decide where we go from here. Clearly Bolling, Palin, and Tucker are fanning flames. We just have to weather them.
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 8/25/2023 @ 12:04 pmDana, I think it’s less about Biden’s age and more about his VP, who is not ready for primetime and probably never will be. If she says “no” to a 2nd term (and it has to come from her), Biden can pick someone younger and incompetent, and he’d be a shoo-in, IMO.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/25/2023 @ 12:19 pmPalin et al. are always caterwauling about a “two-tiered system of justice.” Indeed, it is two-tiered. Any ordinary Joe who did even a fraction of what DJT has done would have been behind bars long ago. There are people languishing in jail for lesser crimes. DJT has, if anything, been treated with kid gloves.
Roger (b8f0d1) — 8/25/2023 @ 12:30 pmHere’s a Ukraine update and, yes, their counteroffensive is progressing.
Who’s ayden, you may ask? Another American pro-Putin grifter.
Speaking of American pro-Putin grifters, Pekka from Vatnik Soup has a breakdown on Ramaswamy, who made his money off-shore as a “pump and dump” stock promoter.
Lastly, Prigozhin wasn’t the only thing erased by Putin, because the little Russian autocrat is erasing the rest of Wagner, akin to Chairman Xi with Tibet, and like Putin in conquered Ukraine.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/25/2023 @ 12:33 pmI remember when Rush Limbaugh said he wanted Obama to fail and was excoriated. Democrats and neverTrump (some of the same people that were appalled by Limbaugh’s remarks) went about wishing failure on trump without any sense of the irony.
steveg (ea52cb) — 8/25/2023 @ 1:29 pmNot new. No party out of power wants the party in power to succeed.
Rip Murdock (6347cf) — 8/25/2023 @ 1:43 pm@17
But it was a controversy during Obama years as it was re-spun as “hating that black guy”.
whembly (5f7596) — 8/25/2023 @ 1:46 pm> If we don’t, then we need to decide where we go from here.
If we successfully destabilize trust in the legal system, then we justify its replacement by a system run by authoratarian diktat.
aphrael (4c4719) — 8/25/2023 @ 1:47 pm“If we successfully destabilize trust in the legal system, then we justify its replacement by a system run by authoratarian diktat.”
classic false alternative fallacy
the choice isn’t between corrupt and authoritarian, unless the point is to justify corrupt
lloyd (44fceb) — 8/25/2023 @ 1:55 pmHe said that if Trump was convicted of aa crime before the election, the Republican National Committee would remove him as the nominee and maybe he would even be disqualified..
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/fox-news-republican-presidential-primary-debate-transcript
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/25/2023 @ 1:57 pmThe timing of her indictment is absolutely and blatantly politically motivated
Observer (397d6a) — 8/25/2023 @ 10:15 am
As a former government employee, I can tell you that the wheels of justice grind slowly. When prosecuting a former President, even more time is needed to make sure all the ducks are in order.
norcal (7cc572) — 8/25/2023 @ 2:00 pmthe choice isn’t between corrupt and authoritarian
lloyd (44fceb) — 8/25/2023 @ 1:55 pm
Correct, but only because Trump was both, and took both to new levels.
norcal (7cc572) — 8/25/2023 @ 2:02 pmWhat Asa Hutchinson said was a different lie than the others.
https://jewishworldreview.com/0823/feldman082423.php3
The obvious reasons are that there’s the issue of whether the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol an “insurrection” and did Trump participate or give aid and comfort to the “enemies” of the Constitution not to mention he could be convicted of an unrelated offense.
But here he argues it is not self-executing and requires a determination by Congress or a law giving a procedure for determining that and so Chief Justice Chase ruled as a circuit judge.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/25/2023 @ 2:07 pmBiden can pick someone younger and incompetent
Indeed.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/25/2023 @ 2:11 pmIndeed, it is two-tiered.
His real complaint is that it’s not two-tiered enough.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/25/2023 @ 2:12 pmWhen prosecuting a former President, even more time is needed to make sure all the ducks are in order.
But not so much time as to miss the election season. Is is just coincidental that all that delay — in 4 separate cases — amounted to perfect timing for Joe Biden?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/25/2023 @ 2:17 pmnorcal (7cc572) — 8/25/2023 @ 2:00 pm
The trial is now scheduled for October 23 because of Kenneth Cheesbro. This Wisconsinite was one of the lawyers gaming things out – and also, in one message used the word “wild” – saying the prospect of violence (probably meaning between pro and anti-Trump demonstrators -might get the Supreme Court to decide, one way or the other, on the legality of something before Jan 6 – and on Jan 6 he went to the Capitol and spent his time filming the organizers of the rally (Ali Alexander and Alex Jones) telling people not to attack the police and to go to a certain place to hear Trump speak.
Trump wants it later.
I wonder if this means that the cheese brother will force a severance of his case (maybe including anyone else willing to go to trial Oct 23)
I think nobody has been indicted in either of the election indictments that involve Trump either fr the riot or for going to court.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/25/2023 @ 2:22 pmWhy was this included?
I would suspect it was at the behest of British libel lawy3rs even though this article, as published, says nothing about the cause of the crash.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/25/2023 @ 2:27 pm“What Asa Hutchinson said was a different lie than the others.”
So he lied?
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 8/25/2023 @ 2:31 pmUnited States sources have said it was not a missile because spy satellites detected no heat trail (sounds like somebody has been leaking classified information and will get into no trouble – but maybe this was authorized by President Biden) and probably was a bomb or other sabotage.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/prigozhins-body-medical-examiners-office-kremlin-remains-silent/story?id=102525074
I don;t knwif the mention of the spy satellite was authorized
https://www.wsj.com/world/russia/wagner-prigozhin-russia-assassinated-intelligence-3e456fab
The source for the missile theory is the Wagner Group or some web material purporting to come from the Wagner Group..
The missile theory actually had a little bit of implausibility to it, or required further explanation, because it would have meant regular members of the Russian military would have taken part in it. Could Putin assure them they would be protected by law? A bomb or sabotage could be more tightly held and would be done by people already doing secret things.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/25/2023 @ 2:37 pmI wonder =r did Putin decide to kill Prigozhin earlier but put it off because he couldn’t be sure he’d get all his chips in a row and/or Prigozhin changed his plans a few times and/or he was trying to make sure the damaging information about himself did not become public?
Sammy Finkelman (7a85f9) — 8/25/2023 @ 2:40 pm30. AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 8/25/2023 @ 2:31 pm
His out was the unlikely possibility that Trump might be removed as the nominee by the Republican party. He lied about the likelihood and he lied about the grounds.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/25/2023 @ 2:44 pmSeveral republicans in congress have asked trump to tell his shock troops to stand down. Trump: why? Good luck with that they didn’t buy all of those guns for nothing.
asset (d517e1) — 8/25/2023 @ 3:09 pmGood luck with that they didn’t buy all of those guns for nothing.
asset (d517e1) — 8/25/2023 @ 3:09 pm
There you go again with your violent fantasies.
norcal (7cc572) — 8/25/2023 @ 3:21 pmPutin is the law.
Rip Murdock (6347cf) — 8/25/2023 @ 3:26 pmPutin could make them scapegoats. They would need, at least, a legal defense defense, mainly in case somebody else came along
Sammy Finkelman (d8b7dc) — 8/25/2023 @ 3:49 pmThe number os missing in Hawaii has been reduced to 388.
Sammy Finkelman (d8b7dc) — 8/25/2023 @ 3:50 pmHawaiian electric took the long term view in trying to prevent wildfires: Make a futile attempt to reduce the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. They ignored everything practical including on the day of the fire, when they were told for hours about downed poles Maybe they did shut off some of the electricity..
Sammy Finkelman (d8b7dc) — 8/25/2023 @ 3:53 pmAsa Huchison mumbled something about RNC rules (that no one ineligible for the presidency can get the nomination)
It doesn’t, and can’t, apply – and then he went beyond that.
Sammy Finkelman (d8b7dc) — 8/25/2023 @ 3:56 pmWell, Trump meets the Constitutional requirements to be President, so that’s not an issue.
Rip Murdock (6347cf) — 8/25/2023 @ 4:34 pmLOL!
Rip Murdock (6347cf) — 8/25/2023 @ 4:36 pmBeing a member of the Russian security services or special forces means never having to explain anything.
Rip Murdock (6347cf) — 8/25/2023 @ 4:46 pmWhile I sympathize with the annoyance of finding students a place to go when their parents opt them out of stuff, parents really should have the right to opt out of a unit.
Nic (896fdf) — 8/25/2023 @ 4:47 pm@35 I am only pointing out what republican members of congress have said. Trump tell your supporters to stand down. The voice of our guns speak the sounds of justice I thought was the S.L.A.’s motto not trumpsters.
asset (a87ae1) — 8/25/2023 @ 4:55 pmThe Plight of the Rich Men North of Richmond. Well done.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/25/2023 @ 6:24 pmWhile I sympathize with the annoyance of finding students a place to go when their parents opt them out of stuff, parents really should have the right to opt out of a unit.
The question I have is what is the school district doing in forcing these issues into grammar school classrooms. They may decry the parents’ religiosity, but the parents are not the ones proselytizing.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/25/2023 @ 6:39 pmThe Plight of the Rich Men North of Richmond. Well done.
Absolutely brutal.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/25/2023 @ 6:43 pmMaybe they did shut off some of the electricity..
The state refused to give the firefighters access to water and blocked the only road out of town. But let’s blame the utility.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/25/2023 @ 6:45 pmPutin is the law.
“L’État, c’est moi”
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/25/2023 @ 6:46 pmMy guess would be that they have a lesson on people being different but being nice to everyone and maybe a book where some of the characters mentioned are gay or implied gay. I think Coraline has a gay couple and one of the Shoes books has an implied gay couple. In our 8th grade curriculum they also have a choice to read a book where the protagonist is very confused about a large number of things, including his sexuality, it isn’t graphic though.
Nic (896fdf) — 8/25/2023 @ 6:51 pmUkraine Doesn’t Have To Reclaim Melitopol, Part II, and Telenko links to Professor Kallberg.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/25/2023 @ 6:56 pmI’m cautiously optimistic about their progress, because they’re making progress, but I’ll feel much better when the Crimean peninsula is cut off from the mainland, preferably before Thanksgiving, only three short months away.
My guess would be …
a guess, same as mine. I’m willing to bet that there are liars on both sides.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/25/2023 @ 6:58 pmWhen does Fauci get arrested for violating the law and funding gain-of-function research that led to millions of deaths?
NJRob (eb56c3) — 8/25/2023 @ 7:18 pm@kevin@53 It’s an educated guess, though, in my case.
Nic (896fdf) — 8/25/2023 @ 7:28 pmMaybe place the blame where it belongs, the communist Xi regime and the military wing of their Wuhan lab, because the evidence against Fauci is thin to anorexic.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/25/2023 @ 7:36 pmPaul,
it’s clear as day he funded the lab because he couldn’t do the terroristic “research” here. China needs to be held accountable and so does Fauci.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 8/25/2023 @ 7:39 pm“The Plight of the Rich Men North of Richmond. Well done.’
https://www.thedailybeast.com/rich-men-north-of-richmond-singer-oliver-anthony-rips-use-of-song-at-fox-news-debate?ref=home?ref=home
Davethulhu (76e6bd) — 8/25/2023 @ 7:46 pmThe complete Georgia mugshot collection, lead by President Mugshot himself.
Collect the whole set!
Rip Murdock (8455d0) — 8/25/2023 @ 7:53 pmIt’s like when Republican candidates (like President Mugshot) play Born in the USA at their rallies without listening to the lyrics.
Rip Murdock (8455d0) — 8/25/2023 @ 7:56 pmAnother bold, solid and true statement from Ms. Haley. Well done.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/25/2023 @ 8:28 pmI’d take a Haley ticket or a Christie ticket at this point. They are both throwing interesting truth-bombs, even if not the same ones.
Nic (896fdf) — 8/25/2023 @ 8:42 pmI agree, Nic.
So far, Haley is doing a masterful job of walking that fine line between Trumpers and Never Trumpers.
Christie said the right things, didn’t flinch when booed, and also showed some charm with the UFO question.
norcal (8c6442) — 8/25/2023 @ 10:00 pm@62 and 63,
As I said in the other thread, I agree with that 100%, right up until Nikki raises her hand confirming that if Trump wins the nomination she’ll support him even if he’s convicted of multiple felonies for attempting to wreak the Constitution. To my mind that’s a bridge too far. I’m left with Christie.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/25/2023 @ 11:38 pm@58 the plight of the poor both north and south of richmond doesn’t need to be sung about the corporate (wealthy) establishment democrats are barely hanging on to older black women and less so with older white women as he tells the left base I will give you what you want just don’t run against me in the primaries! RFK will get some votes ;but is out in the political and media wilderness.
asset (e55ac5) — 8/26/2023 @ 1:44 am“I agree with that 100%, right up until Nikki raises her hand confirming that if Trump wins the nomination she’ll support him”
Again, I think the question was a gotcha, because Baier prefaced it with reminding them that they signed a pledge to support the eventual nominee. Further, if Trump gets convicted and wins the nomination, we have much deeper problems with the GOP as a viable party then whether Nikki Haley pledged some nebulous support.
Don’t get me wrong, my initial reaction was the same as your’s: the party simply can’t nominate a criminal, pledge or no pledge. The GOP can’t give up on the criminal justice system to continue to fetishize Donald Trump. I still feel the same, though I dismiss the snap hand-poll as being less informative than an actual thoughtful answer that probes the outrageousness of the bsae selecting a criminal. Moving the +50% away from Trump is a process and you have to be in-the-game to have any relevancy to that endeavor. This was the cynical price for being on subsequent stages to influence the discusion. Yes it was a missed opportunity, but it was a no-win gotcha.
Now, what of the crowd reaction to the hand poll? One could see the cultish behavior of the audience as they couldn’t hide their glee as candidate after candidate pledged their odious support to the syndicate….and lost their soul. It was creepy and devoid of any self awareness of what they were cheering. The problem is monstrous. Let’s see if we get to the place where the convention sullies itself. In the interim, someone still needs to persuade Trumpists to choose someone else….
AJ_Liberty (382115) — 8/26/2023 @ 7:22 amFurther, if Trump gets convicted and wins the nomination, we have much deeper problems with the GOP as a viable party then whether Nikki Haley pledged some nebulous support.
Indeed.
Now, what of the crowd reaction to the hand poll?
The crowd was selected from “GOP voters” not the normal “voters apportioned to the several debaters.” In essence half the crowd was Donald Trump’s cult in action. Considering that some of them were politely listening, rather than cheering or booing mentions of Trump, the vocal reaction is not a good measure.
Now the cult IS a problem for the GOP, in that they represent many of those remaining in the party. Some of them are able to change their minds, others are fanatic worshipers of the anti-Christ. We’ll see what happens going forward.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/26/2023 @ 7:59 amI believe that, should the GOP Convention nominate a convicted felon, there will be a party split and more than one current Republican will be on some state ballots.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/26/2023 @ 8:01 amGood luck qualifying a new Republican Party on state ballots in such a short time. Any alternative candidate would need to run as an independent.
Rip Murdock (8455d0) — 8/26/2023 @ 8:16 amI like this idea:
And hope Florida has some success with it.
(Here’s the state site, if you want to begin preparing for next year, or are just curious: https://flpythonchallenge.org/participate/required-online-training/ )
Jim Miller (c86b9f) — 8/26/2023 @ 8:57 amRIP long time game show host Bob Barker (99).
Rip Murdock (8455d0) — 8/26/2023 @ 10:25 am“The price is wrong, b–ch.”
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/26/2023 @ 10:33 amAnd then Mr. Barker whooped Happy’s butt.
RIP.
Here’s yet another reason why FoxNews is FoxPropaganda, with Brian Kilmeade giving a softball interview with Mr. Shokin, the sacked Ukrainian Chief Prosecutor who still proclaims he was investigating Burisma despite the lack of evidence that he did so.
You know it was softball because there’s no mention of the UK investigation into Zlochevsky’s money-laundering scheme that Shokin effectively shut down, and no mention of Devon Archer’s testimony where he said that things were “under control” for Burisma with Shokin in place. I DVR’d the program, so we’ll see if Kilmeade brings up those two issues.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/26/2023 @ 11:02 am@lurker@64 I realize this is either cynical or overly hopeful of me, but I think several of the people who raised their hands were lying
Nic (896fdf) — 8/26/2023 @ 11:12 am#75 Nic – From time to time over the years I have found myself hoping that politicians were lying to me. It’s an embarrassing feeling, but, I like to think, an honest one.
Jim Miller (f8867b) — 8/26/2023 @ 12:31 pmhttps://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/hdfeds-urged-biden-give-ukraine-loan-guarantee-he
Contradicts the leftwing narrative.
NJRob (8d79b6) — 8/26/2023 @ 1:05 pmNow do the DOJ and Hunter Biden. Come on. I know you can do it.
NJRob (8d79b6) — 8/26/2023 @ 1:15 pmBronny James Diagnosis:
Rip Murdock (8455d0) — 8/26/2023 @ 1:55 pmNow do the DOJ and Hunter Biden. Come on. I know you can do it.
NJRob (8d79b6) — 8/26/2023 @ 1:15 pm
Yes. It happens on both sides. You have to weigh everything on both sides, and determine which candidate is less bad. Right now, on balance, Joe is less bad than Donny. You may see it differently.
norcal (3783f0) — 8/26/2023 @ 2:25 pmReuters/Ipsos poll
Not much change
IOW, 81% went with their previous position (assuming that the 19% who watched it watched much of it).
This is really part of the problem and why we have Trump. Very few people are engaged, and only get snippets of news as they surface from their entertainment bubbles. And Trump entertains.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/26/2023 @ 3:57 pmPeople complain about the saturation ads before elections (and the superficial content of those ads). But really it takes that kind of saturation to break into the entertainment bubbles and even when you do complex messaging will be ignored.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/26/2023 @ 4:00 pm“You have to weigh everything on both sides”
Yes, but everytime I weigh something these days, it inscrutably comes up as 215lbs.
AJ_Liberty (c23008) — 8/26/2023 @ 5:50 pmI’ve done it, but maybe your on hyperpartisan beer goggles were strapped on and you didn’t see my multiple comments.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/26/2023 @ 7:19 pmNoted, your link was written by the right-wing hack who was neck deep with Giuliani, using pro-Russian hacks for sources, and who was supposed to have some custodial kind of role regarding the documents Trump took to Mar A Lago (until the FBI stepped in and got them back), and retained Trump’s hack attorneys DiGenova-Toensing (who also represented Shokin and dirty Ukrainian oligarch Firtash). They’re all partisan sows belly-rolling in the same corrupt sh-t filled sty.
Bottom line, it wasn’t just Biden who made these demands about Shokin, it was also…
Also regarding Shokin, his MO was well documented years ago.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/26/2023 @ 7:29 pmOTD five years ago, McCain succumbed to gioblastoma. Four years before that, he spoke with nearly prescient clarity regarding Putin, Ukraine, Europe and our pathetic efforts in helping Ukraine defend itself.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/26/2023 @ 7:35 pmThank you for that McCain link, Paul.
DRJ (2b49a4) — 8/26/2023 @ 7:54 pmIf accurate, this is telling, unfortunately:
Dana (4020dd) — 8/26/2023 @ 8:32 pmand
Is whataboutism good, Rob, or is it bad?
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/26/2023 @ 8:39 pmOkay, I just watched Kilmeade’s
interview ofattempt to resuscitate a discredited Shokin.One, Kilmeade said exactly nothing about the Shokin’s stonewalling the UK investigation into Zlochevsky for his laundering $23 million.
Two, Kilmeade flat-out lied about Devon Archer’s testimony, that Shokin posed a “threat” to Burisma. Archer didn’t testify to that. Rather, he testified to this.
Mykola is Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of Burisma.
Three, Kilmeade basically took Shokin at his word despite the well documented record that Shokin was not investigating Burisma or Zlochevsky or Hunter. Kilmeade didn’t challenge a single thing Shokin said, taking the same tack as Bartiromo interviewing Trump. This isn’t journalism, it’s advocacy, it’s political manipulation.
Kilmeade’s segment is a pathetic and dishonest whitewash of a patently and provably corrupt Ukrainian official. FoxNews is FoxPropaganda, especially when hacks like Kilmeade get so much airtime.
I’ll go even further: FoxNews is a reason (not the reason) why Cult Trump is as large as it is, IMO, because let’s face it, a substantial segment of America is in this cult, like this person. Opinions may differ, but I don’t like cults.
Last comment. The best thing that can be said about Joe Biden is that he had an appearance of a conflict of interest in conducting foreign policy with Ukraine because his son had a no-work job from a Ukrainian oligarch that paid him six figures per year, and it speaks directly to Joe’s poor judgment, even though there was nothing wrong with our policy regarding Shokin. There is no evidence that Joe did anything worse, but Joe put himself in that position by agreeing to be Obama’s emissary to Ukraine.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/26/2023 @ 8:52 pmMaybe a red flag law could’ve prevented the Jacksonville dollar store shooter from getting a semiautomatic weapon, given that he was detained by law enforcement for mental health reasons.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/26/2023 @ 9:23 pm“Kilmeade’s segment is a pathetic and dishonest whitewash of a patently and provably corrupt Ukrainian official. FoxNews is FoxPropaganda”
This is what maintains Trump at over 50% in the GOP. Propaganda keeps too many Republicans ignorant or confused over basic facts. Then we have elected officials play up the confusion and make claims that ultimately they have to back away from. They lie and add more clutter onto the radar screen. They let partisanship drive who these people choose to believe. There is no accountability. If a past journalist did as inept a job as Kilmeade, that person would be fired. The out now is that, well, he’s not a journalist. He’s an entertainer and this is what his audience wants to see. The problem is that it’s all blurred and made to appear legitimate. You’re mixing a news network with advocacy that is dangerously misleading. Tell the truth. One would think the Dominion lawsuit would start to change the culture. Doesn’t look like it…
AJ_Liberty (c23008) — 8/26/2023 @ 9:34 pmI was really hoping this wouldn’t happen, but more people watched Tuckyo’s puff piece with Trump than watched the debate.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/tucker-vs-fox-news-the-numbers-are-in/ar-AA1fO6vf?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=34324cd633b3452c925c17429c12087a&ei=6
You see, Sammy? I told you there would be numbers to compare.
A simple “You were right” will suffice. 😁
norcal (374d92) — 8/26/2023 @ 9:36 pmI’m coming back to this, Rob, as a recap (and placeholder), and to refresh your obviously spotty memory.
My comments on the DOJ can be broken into three administrations.
Obama.
1. Hillary should’ve been prosecuted for gross negligence, IMO, which I’ve stated a lot more than once, which you’ve conveniently forgotten. Comey didn’t go far enough when he settled with “extremely careless”, which sounds bad but has no legal standing.
2. Comey broke FBI protocol when he made two public statements about Hillary in July 2016 and later in October, both of which helped Trump and hurt Hillary. Funny how you and the rest of Cult Trump didn’t give Comey credit for that. Loyalty uber alles, jawohl Rob?
3. The IG well documented the FBI’s shortcomings regarding the Russia counterintelligence investigation, and I fully agree with his report. Clinesmith forged an email and, IMO, should’ve been disbarred (unfortunately, his law license was only suspended), and the FBI made seventeen errors and omissions regarding the Carter Page FISA warrants. I also agree with IG Horowitz that bias wasn’t an issue, and that the FBI investigation into Russian electoral mischief was properly predicated.
Trump.
1. Sessions did the right thing and recused, therefore left it to Rosenstein to appropriately appoint Mueller as Special Counsel. Mueller conducted a solid investigation and wrote a solid report, only bolstered by the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee investigation and report. I’ll also note that Durham was favorable toward the Mueller report.
2. If there was a DOJ issue under Trump, it was Barr’s lies and deceptions about the Mueller report before anyone had a chance to read it. No, Trump was not exonerated.
3. Barr caved to Trump’s efforts at retribution, to investigate the investigators, by appointing Durham and later elevating him to Special Counsel. It was unnecessary, given the results, but I don’t regret that the investigation happened, because it only gave Horowitz’s report more credibility and standing, and made Durham and Barr and Trump look the fools in the attempt.
4. After Barr, Trump was trying to force the DOJ to do his bidding when he pushed Jeffrey Clark into the Acting AG role, but DOJ leadership threatened a mass walkout, to their credit.
5. The Hunter investigation started in 2018, where Barr appointed Weiss (and presumably with Trump’s blessing), but nothing happened under Trump or Barr. That’s two-plus years of Hunter being investigated under Trump, Rob. Why aren’t you complaining about that?
5. Why didn’t Barr and Trump try to disbar Clinesmith? The guy broke the law in Obama’s presidency or the first year of Trump’s.
Biden.
1. If anything, Garland wasn’t aggressive enough, IMO, which I take as deference to an ex-president. Things only accelerated after Trump (beyond reasonable doubt) willfully retained national defense materials and obstructed their return, thus precipitating the appointment of Jack Smith last November, which was the right call.
2. Garland did the right thing, appointing Jack Smith to investigate events leading to the J6 insurrection and related fraud.
3. Garland did the right thing, appointing Hur as Special Counsel.
4. Garland did the right thing, appointing a Special Counsel, but he did the wrong thing in picking Weiss for the role.
5. Clinesmith’s law license was only suspended under Garland.
Hunter.
It’s not a “scandal of unprecedented proportions” as you stupidly said over 13 months ago.
His “tax affairs” are still an open case, as is his crime when he lied on a gun application. The only new thing is whether he violated FARA, and I don’t know if there’s evidence of a violation or not. We’ll see. If there’s evidence that establishes a crime, the prosecute him for that.
His other business affairs are irrelevant. He used his last name to fatten his pocketbook, which is skeezy but not illegal or rare. Mr. Ivanka Trump is getting $20 to $40 million a year from some Saudi r@gheads who gave him a $2 billion investment fund to play with.
Also, to this day, no one knows how many millions bin Salman gave Trump to host multiple sports-washing golf events at his country club, or how much Ivanka eventually pulled in when she sold Trump trademarks to ChiCom entities.
Are you satisfied, Rob? Or do you want to whatabout some more?
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/26/2023 @ 11:19 pm@93 never trumpers want to believe they are not outcasts. Try clicking your heels 3 times like dorthy.
asset (fb878e) — 8/27/2023 @ 12:30 amAgain, I think the question was a gotcha, because Baier prefaced it with reminding them that they signed a pledge to support the eventual nominee.
I sympathize with why the question bothered you, but I don’t consider it a gotcha. It certainly did put the candidates on the spot. Whether they raised their hand or not was sure to p1ss off either pro- or anti-Trump voters. But the immediate culpability for that lies with Ronna McDaniel, not Bret Baier. Making them take that stupid loyalty pledge was guaranteed to embarrass every candidate but the one who made it seem necessary, and whose word is worthless anyway. Once they were on record with the pledge, not asking them if they would stand by it if the party’s nominee, its current leader, was convicted of multiple felonies for attempting to overthrow the constitutional transfer of power, would have been journalistic malpractice.
Also remember, the candidates on that stage aren’t just running for president. The nominee also becomes de facto head of the party. Knowing where candidates seeking those positions stand on their party nominating a criminal who sat in the White House cheering on the rioters who stormed the Capital could hardly be more relevant to their qualifications. I suspect Baier would have asked it even without the pledge, but the pledge made it more inevitable and, I’d argue, important.
For what it’s worth, I’d have preferred he posed it to the candidates individually, giving each one a chance to explain their answer. But that would have taken a lot more time than it seems Fox wanted to devote to all things Trump, which isn’t the worst of reasons.
Of course the greatest responsibility for all of this lies with a faction of voters that seems committed to sinking the GOP morally and electorally rather than renounce their fealty to the most loathsome and dangerous politician this country has seen in a century and a half. That commitment is a moral rot which must be torn out root and branch before the GOP will deserve to lead again.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/27/2023 @ 2:54 amForgot the html tag. Just so it’s clear, I’ll post it again. Apologies for the repetition.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/27/2023 @ 2:56 amI sympathize with why the question bothered you, but I don’t consider it a gotcha. It certainly did put the candidates on the spot. Whether they raised their hand or not was sure to p1ss off either pro- or anti-Trump voters. But the immediate culpability for that lies with Ronna McDaniel, not Bret Baier. Making them take that stupid loyalty pledge was guaranteed to embarrass every candidate but the one who made it seem necessary, and whose word is worthless anyway. Once they were on record with the pledge, not asking them if they would stand by it if the party’s nominee, its current leader, was convicted of multiple felonies for attempting to overthrow the constitutional transfer of power, would have been journalistic malpractice.
Also remember, the candidates on that stage aren’t just running for president. The nominee also becomes de facto head of the party. Knowing where candidates seeking those positions stand on their party nominating a criminal who sat in the White House cheering on the rioters who stormed the Capital could hardly be more relevant to their qualifications. I suspect Baier would have asked it even without the pledge, but the pledge made it more inevitable and, I’d argue, important.
For what it’s worth, I’d have preferred he posed it to the candidates individually, giving each one a chance to explain their answer. But that would have taken a lot more time than it seems Fox wanted to devote to all things Trump, which isn’t the worst of reasons.
Of course the greatest responsibility for all of this lies with a faction of voters that seems committed to sinking the GOP morally and electorally rather than renounce their fealty to the most loathsome and dangerous politician this country has seen in a century and a half. That commitment is a moral rot which must be torn out root and branch before the GOP will deserve to lead again.
(Again, apologies for the duplication, but I hope this one makes more sense.)
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/27/2023 @ 3:02 amMom gets the leftist mob to attack her and get her fired for speaking out against sexual indoctrination of her children including her 10 year old.
How many of you will wake up to what is being done to society or will you just wait till your gone and pretend to be above it all while leaving the ruins for future generations.
Here’s the slant from leftist Newsweek.
https://www.newsweek.com/california-mom-says-fired-objecting-gender-lessons-1820167
https://www.foxnews.com/media/california-mother-claims-lost-her-job-opposing-sexual-ideology-schools-absolutely-devastating
NJRob (eb56c3) — 8/27/2023 @ 4:29 amIt’s not whataboutism in the slightest, but you know that. It just doesn’t support your agenda so you ignore it.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 8/27/2023 @ 4:32 amPaul,
it is a scandal of unprecedented proportions. 1 in 6 people said if they knew about the laptop being genuine they wouldn’t have voted for Biden. That is the election. It was changed due to government putting their thumb on the scale of justice with the full support of the pravda media and continues to this day.
That you are so blind you post over and over again about Trump without seeing what’s happening in the nation says all anyone needs to know about you.
Have a nice day.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 8/27/2023 @ 4:37 amPaul,
you’ve minimized the connections in DC protecting Hunter and by definition his father. You ignore all the coverups and waiting for the statute of limitations to run out. You ignore that the higher ups in the FBI and DOJ were working against Trump from the get go yet act like he’s the reason people weren’t prosecuted.
Your bias and propaganda are well noted.
Have a nice day.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 8/27/2023 @ 4:39 amGet some help.
You will destroy the country to save it. Got it.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 8/27/2023 @ 4:41 amThere might have been a time when a hacked and stolen video of a 50-year old guy getting a Lewinsky from a prostitute might have kept his six-term Senator two-term Vice President father from being elected President, but that was a time when the mention of Donald Trump as President of the United States would only have elicited a snicker.
nk (455448) — 8/27/2023 @ 8:08 am6’3″, 215 lbs, strawberry blond hair. Heh!
nk (455448) — 8/27/2023 @ 8:10 amthe most loathsome and dangerous politician this country has seen in a century and a half.
Hmmm. That’s a bit far back, I think. Disregarding any number of Dixiecrats (Thurmond, Maddox, George Wallace), or Henry Wallace who missed the Presidency by a few months, there was the Kingfisher himself, Huey Long. Only his providential assassination kept him from challenging FDR in 1936 as a socialist populist in the middle of the Depression.
Who did you have in mind 150 years ago anyway?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 9:40 amlurker,
My disagreement with you is not about Trump or his behavior, but about practical politics which do not seem to enter your decision process. In an ideal world, sure, all of them should throw Trump to the curb. But if instead your desire is to save the GOP from the sewer, you have to make do with what you have.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 9:43 amstrawberry blond hair
That’s what it says on the label.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 9:44 amGirls with penises, meat made from plants, Teslas, and Trumps in the White House. We’re passing through a warp in the space-time continuum.
nk (455448) — 8/27/2023 @ 9:48 am@104:
Or the Lewinsky matter itself. There was a time when a president committing obvious, provable perjury and sending his minions out to tamper with evidence and witnesses would have got him convicted in the Senate and removed from office.
Had that happened, I suggest that Trump would have been convicted as well, at least in 2021.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 9:48 am@109:
Almond milk. Once you accept that (almonds to not lactate) all manner of oxymorons are possible.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 9:51 amit is a scandal of unprecedented proportions
Really?
XYZ Affair
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 10:00 amCredit Mobilier
Teapot Dome
Watergate
Iran-Contra
What is really a scandal is we have a presidential candidate (not Trump) who not only says the 2020 election was stolen, but that if he were in charge, it would have been re-run under federal control in January 2021.
—Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on whether Vice President Mike Pence did the right thing on January 6, speaking to National Review on August 23
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 10:11 amVivek Ramaswamy was quizzed on Meet the Press about something he wrote in a book Sept 2022, He said he stood by everything he wrote about Donald trump was a sore loser who played the victim
Sammy Finkelman (f37bf5) — 8/27/2023 @ 11:40 amWell he also meant Stacy Abrams
Sammy Finkelman (f37bf5) — 8/27/2023 @ 11:41 amVR said there should be one day in person Election Day voting with ID just to quiet doubts
Sammy Finkelman (f37bf5) — 8/27/2023 @ 11:44 amPaul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/26/2023 @ 11:19 pm
A well-stated, detailed, and nuanced take.
It deserved a better response than you got.
norcal (5898d0) — 8/27/2023 @ 11:51 amNJRob (eb56c3) — 8/27/2023 @ 4:37 am
People say all kinds of things which aren’t true, easy to say,
Sammy Finkelman (f37bf5) — 8/27/2023 @ 11:52 amNo, I’m just into your game of hyperbole and bullsh-t, Rob. You’re like the rest of the gang with Hunter Derangement Syndrome, you’re heavyweight on allegation and featherweight on evidence.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/27/2023 @ 12:06 pm…not into your game…
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/27/2023 @ 12:06 pmGood grief, talk about “you are so blind”.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/27/2023 @ 12:08 pm1 in 6 people said if they knew about the laptop being genuine they wouldn’t have voted for Biden.
A poll taken in 1975 had a majority saying they had voted for McGovern.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 12:51 pmRe: Burisma — Shokin *did* seize some of Zlochevsky’s assets (yes?). So does this put the lie to the idea that he wasn’t investigating Burisma? Or is the idea that he wasn’t investigating very aggressively? or that he was using the assets as leverage to get bribes but not really interested in rooting out corruption? Or that once upon a time he investigated but then he stopped?
I’m asking, Paul Montagu, because you seem to have your head around the facts and you said that Shokin wasn’t investigating Burisma. But at some point he did seize Zlochevsky’s assetts.
The whole thing makes my head spin. Joe Biden should have steered way clear of that.
JRH (fa2fc2) — 8/27/2023 @ 1:36 pmMore on why no candidate polling less than 10% has a chance of winning the Republican nomination:
Rip Murdock (f27d0c) — 8/27/2023 @ 1:39 pmBTW, the “one in six would’ve changed their vote” assertion is a load of crap, Rob.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/27/2023 @ 2:06 pmTake the goggles off.
The Washington Post has an excellent editorial today:
Although I will admit that the eidtorial is another example of better late than never. This is not a new problem.
Green superstition has held back mining and processing in the US and — ironically — caused unnecessary damage to the environment. Some of the places where these materials are now mined and processed do not, to put it gently, meet US standards.
Jim Miller (f2956e) — 8/27/2023 @ 2:28 pmThese were assets that were seized due to a tax issue, which occurred shortly before Shokin became Chief Prosecutor and was status unchanged while he was in charge. The case was later resolved in November 2016, months after Shokin was sacked.
The reality is that, while Shokin was in his job, any investigations of Burisma (and Friends of Poroshenko, whose wagon Shokin was hitched to) were dormant. US diplomats raised this issue…
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/27/2023 @ 2:29 pmEl Segundo (CA) outscores Curaçao 6-5 with a walk off home run in the Little League World Series.
Rip Murdock (f27d0c) — 8/27/2023 @ 2:34 pm@127:
Aiko Toyoda, who retired as CEO of Toyota Motors this spring, thinks that the rush to EVs is premeature, at best.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/targeting-toyota-for-its-electric-vehicle-heresy-akio-toyoda-hybrids-ev-climate-change-b5f67d6c
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 2:39 pmTrump continues to embrace the January 6th insurrectionists:
Rip Murdock (f27d0c) — 8/27/2023 @ 2:57 pmThe dinner benefited the Patriot Freedom Project, the controversial nonprofit that supports those criminally charged in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, who they describe as ‘political prisoners.’
Bet you the money goes to Defendant Uno.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 3:05 pmThe New York Post had a big front page headline yesterday about Hunter and Joe being bribed (to fire the prosecutor) and an editorial and this was covered by Fox News Sunday as well.
They are actually using a careful selection of facts, because Joe Biden made the whole story up about causing the firing of Viktor Shokin (but can’t say so) and he was not in charge of Obama’s Ukrainian policy and the loan guarantees were not made until June, 2016.
Viktor Shokin was interviewed (where he says he doesn’t want to go beyond what he knows) by kilmeade and Jonathan Turley said on Fox News it was interesting that Shokin said he was not interviewed before – but he was interviewed by Giuliani in 2019 – maybe that doesn’t count.
Sammy Finkelman (f37bf5) — 8/27/2023 @ 3:29 pmThe cost of holding it at Bedminster probably left very little for the prisoners.
Rip Murdock (f27d0c) — 8/27/2023 @ 3:29 pmhttps://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/trump-special-counsel-jack-smith-involved-lois-lerner-irs-scandal
Memories.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 8/27/2023 @ 3:32 pmSammy,
you keep pounding that square peg into that round hole. It’s strange.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 8/27/2023 @ 3:33 pmPaul,
thanks for citing a leftist cite to support a leftist lie. I would’ve expected nothing less.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 8/27/2023 @ 3:34 pmIt’s not whataboutism in the slightest, but you know that. It just doesn’t support your agenda so you ignore it.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 8/27/2023 @ 4:32 am
The most charitable explanation I can fathom for the claim that “Now do the DOJ and Hunter Biden” isn’t whataboutism is being honestly ignorant of what whataboutism is. “Now do [X],” without addressing the merits of the argument you’re responding to is the very definition of whataboutism. “Now do” has the same evasive effect as “whatabout.”
Stop embarrassing yourself, Rob, and stop mind-reading the motives of anyone who points out a fallacy in your tribal blather. You don’t do yourself any favors with that either.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/27/2023 @ 3:55 pmSo, Hunter Biden was on the board of a corrupt company under a corrupt Ukraine government and we are arguing about what happened after the Ukrainian leader was deposed? That the new investigator was corrupt, too, does not change the sewer that Hunter Biden found so lucrative.
Trump wanted the new regime to investigate Hunter and Burisma. All this fighting over Shokin is at best misdirection. Trump didn’t particularly care who investigated, he just wanted the obvious dirt to be made public. Biden didn’t want that.
The Ukrainians did not want to get between Trump and Biden, of course. I really don’t care about the details.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 4:38 pmTo my knowledge there’s no authoritative standard of political dangerousness. My ad hoc measure is the intersection of lawless authoritarian aspiration on one axis, and the power to implement it on the other. Comparing the aspirations of individuals from different eras is dodgy at best, but the other axis, i.e., power, makes this assessment easy IMO.
No doubt there are countless miscreants who, given the ability, would do more harm than Trump. Fortunately, most of them will never leave their mothers’ basements. The individuals you mentioned did get pretty high in the political order, but the leap from where they landed to President of the United States is still categorically huge. By becoming President, Trump’s power to implement his depraved, anti-constitutional agenda so dwarfed that of anyone else with comparably evil aspirations that I’m comfortable declaring him the most dangerous. Of course, YMMV.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/27/2023 @ 6:05 pmBy most measures I’m an extreme pragmatist. I have neither party nor ideological affiliation. Crazy though it may sound nowadays, I still believe leaders from across the political landscape should cooperate to implement the best policies they can cobble together, wherever the votes come from, and whoever’s ox is gored. But even my pragmatism has limits. I may not bow to party or ideology, but I do have principles. At some point my pragmatism gives way to my principles.
One of those principles is the supremacy of the rule of law. Refusing to categorically repudiate someone who broke a law or three, e.g., Nixon and Clinton, I can live with. But refusing to repudiate someone who breaks laws with reckless abandon, routinely expresses contempt for the rule of law itself, and indeed actively attempted to overthrow the constitutional transfer of power, well that crosses my red line. That’s where my pragmatism gives way to my principles. Again, YMMV.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/27/2023 @ 6:12 pmThat’s incorrect. He wanted them to announce an investigation. He didn’t care if they actually performed it. For purposes of his culpability, that difference is determinative.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/27/2023 @ 6:14 pmA Fool for A Client:
Rip Murdock (f27d0c) — 8/27/2023 @ 6:20 pmThe Republican Party will never go back to what was; it has been fundamentally transformed by Trump. See here as to how it has changed.
Rip Murdock (f27d0c) — 8/27/2023 @ 6:31 pmThe Republican Party will never go back to what was; it has been fundamentally transformed by Trump.
Mostly true. But not entirely true. For example, there is still some hope that it won’t be all swindlers and con men. IF it is, if they cannot get rid of Trump himself, the GOP will be consigned to the ash heap of history and some new center-right party will form.
When Jackson took over the Democrat-Republican Party, the era of Good Feelings ended and the party fractured in the Democrats and the National Republicans. The latter fell apart, reformed as the Whigs, fell apart again and reformed as a coalition opposed to slavery. THAT party ruled for half a century, with only one Democrat President between 1861 and 1912.
Not sure what follows the GOP, but nominating a multiply-convicted felon will be the end of it. Hopefully a party based on federalism, but it might not get back into the game for decades and meanwhile EVERY SINGLE THING that Trump supporters care about will be gone, down to private property.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 6:48 pmThat’s incorrect. He wanted them to announce an investigation. He didn’t care if they actually performed it. For purposes of his culpability, that difference is determinative.
I agree with the first part. Not sure what you mean by the second, or the antecedent of “his” in the last sentence.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 6:51 pmOne of those principles is the supremacy of the rule of law.
I agree, and think that not convicting Trump in 2021 was a crime. But Trump stands on the backs of countless con men here; the Rule of Law would not have allowed Trump’s attack had it not been so badly and frequently wounded.
Case in point: the idea that an executive can pick and choose what laws, or parts of laws, to enforce. Once that became acceptable, the Rule of Law no longer existed. All that was left was its use as a weapon.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 6:56 pmGreat comments, lurker.
DRJ (2b49a4) — 8/27/2023 @ 7:09 pmRob, anything to the left of Boehner is left-wing and socialist in your right-wing hyperpartisan brain, so I’ll take your idiot comment with all the weight it deserves.
Pulling the thread a little further on that “one in six” poll, and because you’re too close-minded to actually read the link because it’s “leftist”, here’s the actual poll question…
The question itself is a lie, because no evidence existed on or before the 2020 election–and there still isn’t any evidence–of any direct financial links to Joe Biden. It’s a bullsh-t dishonest question, in a “poll” filled with politically manipulative questions, and any dolt from FoxNews (I’m looking at you, Kilmeade) who cites this poll is, once again, showing you that they’re FoxPropaganda, not FoxNews.
I remember a time when the Dems used to be referred as the Mommy Party and the GOP the Daddy Party, because the GOP was supposed to be less emotional and more factual, but today’s GOP is the Emotional Hormonal Angry Sullen Teenager Party. It’s sickening.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/27/2023 @ 7:27 pmBTW, I agree with Sammy that Biden was lying about his role in the firing of Shokin. Biden was dishonestly trying to sound like a tough guy, that he could get sh-t done. It’s not a big issue, but it’s an issue of his dishonesty. Using local references, does his Cherry Creek Falls of lies compare to Trump’s Snoqualmie Falls of lies? No, but Biden’s lies still need to be called out, while still noting that Trump is basically a conveyor belt of bullsh-t and falsehoods.
And while we’re on Biden, his responses to the Lahaina wildfire were beyond lame, from initially saying “no comment”, which is stupid, to likening the Maui inferno to a small kitchen fire at his house that threatened his precious ‘Vette. It was good that he went there, but he mostly mentally checked out.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/27/2023 @ 7:42 pmIn case Pat is looking for a substack topic, I offer the following:
How does the Rule of Law survive when enforcement of Laws is optional? How do legislatures compromise when the executive can later ignore those parts of the law he doesn’t favor?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 8:21 pmI agree with the first part. Not sure what you mean by the second, or the antecedent of “his” in the last sentence.
I meant Trump’s desire that Ukraine announce but not perform an investigation proves he was corruptly motivated by personal political benefit, not the furtherance of U.S. government policy.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/27/2023 @ 8:39 pmThanks, DRJ! Coming from you, that’s high praise.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/27/2023 @ 8:39 pmSupreme court justice kagan we need ethic rules like other judges. Justice sammy the fish alito: we don’t need no stinking ethics rules! Were republicans we have always followed the golden rule. Those with the gold rule! Saint reagan.
asset (15dd95) — 8/27/2023 @ 10:38 pmhe was corruptly motivated by personal political benefit
Now there’s a first for a president! Or any politician. Why do you suppose presidents put tariffs on steel imports, or fund boondoggle bullet trains from Bakersfield to Modesto?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 10:58 pmThere are lots of things to fault Trump for, but mundane poltical transgressions are not really very interesting. Which is why I thought the first impeachment was nothing but counting coup.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 10:59 pmblockquote>Case in point: the idea that an executive can pick and choose what laws, or parts of laws, to enforce. …….
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 6:56 pm
The Supreme Court has long recognized the right of the Executive Branch to prioritize the enforcement of laws. For example, in US v. Texas (2023), Texas and Louisiana sued the federal government to compel enforcement of sections of the Immigration and Naturalization Act they read to require the arrest of certain noncitizens upon their release from prison (8 U. S. C. §1226(c)) or entry of a final order of removal (§1231(a)(2)):
Rip Murdock (f27d0c) — 8/27/2023 @ 11:36 pmMundane political transgression? To refresh our memory, we’re talking about Congressionally appropriated funds needed by a burgeoning democracy to resist Putin’s project to conquer it piecemeal and absorb it into Russia. And Trump held those funds hostage for the sole purpose of extracting a promise, never delivered, to make a sham announcement of a non-existent investigation. And he did it solely for his personal benefit, and contrary to our national policy as articulated by both Congress and the White House. And then of course — because why wouldn’t he? — he lied about the “perfect conversation,” and has been doing so ever since.
Whether all that was impeachable is debatable*, since everything about what’s impeachable is debatable. But I’d hope we could all at least agree that, impeachable or not, what he did was evil and corrupt. To my mind, as political transgressions go, that one was more than mundane.
(* I thought the stronger counts that should have been brought, but never were, were for the obstructions of justice detailed in the Mueller Report.)
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/28/2023 @ 2:47 am“but mundane poltical transgressions are not really very interesting”
His advisors and staff understood clearly that he was doing something wrong and tried to hide the phone call evidence. I think we’re all just numb to a president who is willing to act this recklessly. He knew the Senate wouldn’t do a damn thing…and he was right. The GOP has had so many opportunities to get rid of Trump, yet we continue to listen to the most vile amongst us.
AJ_Liberty (47987f) — 8/28/2023 @ 4:58 amWell said, lurker, and I also agree about Trump’s obstruction of justice, which Barr effectively killed with his lies about the Mueller report.
I would add that whenever Trump uses the word “perfect”, mentally replace the term with “dumpster fire”, as in, those were dumpster fire calls with Zelenskyy and Raffensperger.
The other part of his “evil and corrupt” and “do us a favor” call with Zelenskyy was his enlisting the Ukrainian president to look into this Crowdstrike server that was supposedly somewhere in Ukraine, which not only does exist there but exemplified Trump’s ongoing denial that Russia was behind the DNC hacking operation and instead implied that Ukraine was somehow involved. It’s an overflowing barrel-load of sh-t and again captured his delusional take on events and gave Putin the benefit of the doubt.
Oh, and thank you norcal and DRJ for the feedback.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/28/2023 @ 5:10 amSo mamy angels on the head of a pin.
I love the way so many pretend to want to hold people accountable while bending over backwards to protect the criminal Biden enterprise.
Then they claim to be nonpartisan… with a straight face no less.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 8/28/2023 @ 5:21 amRob, show us the evidence that Joe Biden took this money.
This isn’t about me or others “bending over backwards to protect the criminal Biden enterprise”, it’s about you and rest of the Trump goose-steppers backing up your claim.
Don’t burden-shift, man up and prove your case. Serious allegations should require serious proof.
BTW, the first segment on Fox & Friends this AM was the replay of Kilmeade’s uncritical softball interview of Shokin, which only furthered the dishonest propaganda coming out of this so-called news channel.
And for the record, I never claimed to be “nonpartisan”. I’m a Republican and NeverTrump and NeverBiden and NeverHillary and NeverRamaswamy and, if the TX Senator ever crawls out from his political rock and runs for prez, NeverCruz.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/28/2023 @ 5:29 am“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”
nk (3e90f3) — 8/28/2023 @ 5:43 amRob, do you ever clean your own house or is it only your neighbor’s house that requires cleaning?
AJ_Liberty (3c0ca6) — 8/28/2023 @ 6:05 amRegarding the Heritage Foundation, which has taken a disturbing non-conservative populist change turn on policy, Randy Mott notes the time when the think tank reversed its pro-Ukraine stance to pro-Hungarian (and, by extension, pro-Putin).
Heritage has a one-voice policy, that if they make a statement on an issue, all Heritage staffers are forbidden from publishing dissenting views, which is something Orban would approve of.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/28/2023 @ 6:31 amWhat some comrades do not grasp is that they no longer need Joe Biden to be The Person Worse Than Trump. They have Vivek Ramaswamy.
nk (beabc9) — 8/28/2023 @ 6:43 amAJ,
deflecting yet again. I’m not surprised. It’s your go to and how you can defend Biden over and over again while pretending to be a Repubkican that only attacks Republicans.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 8/28/2023 @ 7:25 am@164, the answer to your question is “No”. Even if a member of his team did something bad admitting it would be way to painful for him to even contemplate.
Time123 (39dd7d) — 8/28/2023 @ 7:39 amIn a lighter note this is hilarious!
Time123 (39dd7d) — 8/28/2023 @ 7:45 amThe Supreme Court has long recognized the right of the Executive Branch to prioritize the enforcement of laws.
Prioritize does not mean “ignore them entirely for ideological reasons.” To do so is in gross violation of the oath to “faithfully execute.”
A CATO paper that makes all my points argues the following basic principle [citations omitted]:
Question: If a GOP president told the IRS not to enforce the Alternative Minimum Tax, or even the Capital Gains Tax, and to remit any monies paid under them, would that be a problem? Is the only remedy impeachment? Or can a court order him to “prioritize” IRS activity differently?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 8:13 amSo, when a president starts a trade war with Europe or Asia, as a result of imposing tariffs on some commodity like steel, it’s not corrupt? Because presidents of both parties have done things like that before elections to gain electoral votes in states (e.g. PA) where domestic industries are helped by the protectionism. There are definite effects on foreign relations and partnerships, and whole industries worldwide are affected.
I’m not defending Trump vs Zelensky. Not only was it corrupt, it was ham-handed (a Trump trademark) and stupid. But it was not different in kind than many things that our presidents have done in the past. Most attempt more subtlety, of course, and we do not know what they say on those calls most of the time. I imagine a conversation between Obama and Pakistan, circa 2010, might have been testy and involved threats.
You argue that it was different in degree, and you may have a point (much of what has been done before is not open to inspection). Is it up there with, say, the Gulf of Tonkin deception or Kennedy’s last-minute betrayal at the Bay of Pigs? Or even Obama’s unilateral withdrawal from Iraq to help his re-election?
Probably not.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 8:32 amIn a lighter note this is hilarious!
And brutal.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 8:37 amHeritage Foundation
I have never been impressed by anything they have said. They’re as predictable and as malleable as the NY Times editorial page discussing the filibuster.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 8:39 amImpeachment would be the appropriate response as the Court in Texas (2023) has said (referring to immigration enforcement priorities) “courts generally lack meaningful standards for assessing the propriety of enforcement choices…….” The same would hold true regarding tax policy.
I noticed in the CATO paper there are very few legal citations supporting their position, the citations are mostly media or White House press releases.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 8:44 amOr when a Presidential candidate proposes to do so……
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 8:51 amNJRob (eb56c3) — 8/27/2023 @ 3:33 pm
I don’t know which of the things i say different you are referring to. But people have all sorts of thigs all wrong.
Joe Biden made the story up. Trump never tried to strike a bargain with Ukraine in exchange for resumption of military aid – Mick McValney (probably) and Gordon Sondland and they did not have Trump
Sammy Finkelman (f37bf5) — 8/28/2023 @ 8:57 ams buy-in into that — only hope. There’s other things wrong.
Breaking-
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 9:00 amIt’s gonna be a busy day……..
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 9:04 amThey know which way the wind blows, and the wind blows from Mar-A-Lago. The Claremont Institute is another think tank that has bowed to the MAL winds.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 9:08 am@91
No.
Red flag laws isn’t the panacea for this.
All red flag laws does is bar legal purchases of firearms. If evil doers are wanting to mass murder people, they’ll ignore the legal prohibitions.
whembly (96342a) — 8/28/2023 @ 9:23 amIt may or not be corrupt, but it is illegal under the 52 US Code 30121 to enlist a foreign power to assist in an American electoral campaign.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/28/2023 @ 9:27 amFar as I know, a president has the authority under law lift or levy tariffs.
@139
That’s the gist as I see it.
Trump engaged in the aged-old-political-tactics of trying to dig up dirt on a likely political opponent (Biden hasn’t announced yet), using the pretext of “rooting out corruption”.
The Biden’s and connected allies successfully garnered political outrage that led to the 1st impeachment.
The State’s department muddied the waters because they’ve spent so much resources in ousting the previous Ukrainian Putie-poo government and fought like the dickens to maintain status quo.
The media had a feeding frenzy that makes it neigh impossible to determine what actually happened, who actually had authority, did he or did he not investigate. The media really doesn’t have any credibility to ‘appeal to authority’ here.
And the Ukrainians absolutely didn’t want to get in between any US political squabbles that may threaten the gravy train.
whembly (6c6692) — 8/28/2023 @ 9:37 amImpeachment would be the appropriate response as the Court in Texas (2023) has said (referring to immigration enforcement priorities) “courts generally lack meaningful standards for assessing the propriety of enforcement choices…….” The same would hold true regarding tax policy.
I started this talking about the damage done to the Rule of Law. If the ONLY way to stop a President from gross maladministration favoring chosen groups or individuals is impeachment (generally impossible) then we must admit that the “Rule of Law” has been replaced by arbitrary diktats from a sovereign ruler.
The only bound is that the ruler must not be so arbitrary as to piss off too much of his own party, a bound that Trump has seemed to stretch to the breaking point and Biden is continuing the damage.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 9:44 amAnd the Ukrainians absolutely didn’t want to get in between any US political squabbles that may threaten the gravy train.
This I quibble with. The Ukrainians at that point were faced with an existential threat and the goodwill of the United States was critical to their survival. They did not want to become a chew toy for out partisan struggles.
I think that Trump siding with Putin is just another example of his vindictive nature. He remains angry that they didn’t investigate Hunter and that is the SOLE point of decision for him. The problem with Trump is not his pressure on Ukraine, but his incredibly self-centered decision-making process in general.
I am far more concerned with his approach to problems than I am by the tools he uses to solve them.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 9:51 amHaley, Pence get huge bump after debate, Trump declines, DeSantis, Ramaswamy flat.
https://emersoncollegepolling.com/august-2023-national-poll-trump-debate-snub-may-open-door-for-other-candidates/
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 9:57 am@141
Yeah, I will object to the framing of “overthrow the constitutional transfer of power” till the day I die.
Trump and his flunkies tried to political twist arms, make their cases in court and made their case in public opinions. Talking about Trump here, these were in many cases morally reprehensible, but legal. (I’m excluding certain individual who obviously broke the law, like that one guy stealing voting data and nothing in the indictment links this person’s illegal acts to Trump imo.)
We dun “f’ed” up in not convicting Trump on J7 at the 2nd impeachment trial. Trump and his flunkies were outrageous wrong and the proper political consequences should’ve been him convicted, and forever barred in future offices.
But… yes, there’s a but here…
I feel like this current conversation is about the pragmatic choice of Trump v. Biden (imma vomit)…
I can make the case that Biden, is/was just as bad as Trump morally during his presidency. These are not to be distilled as “policy differences” that we must afford to our political adversaries simply because we disagreed with a particular policy.
Nay, Biden has flouted the law and is in direction of his duties as POTUS to faithfully uphold the law. Some examples are:
-Eviction moratorium
-School loan relief
-Southern Borders
I can spend all day listing out how Biden is totally unqualified for POTUS.
Special mention is the Afghanistan withdrawal… that was just pure stupidity for naked partisan desires that costs lives.
All of which, is impeachable. To me, I don’t care about how the Biden’s chose to enrich themselves as it’s a sideshow. Biden’s own policies and his dereliction of duties is impeachable enough.
If, again, we’re facing candidate Trump versus Joe Biden… when you pit these two uniquely unacceptable choices. Yes, pragmatism should rule the day.
For me, pragmatism demands to I should focus on which candidate would advance my preferred policies, as the time to fight for your desired candidate is during my party’s primary season. After that, I must support the candidate, as Democrat these days seeks to fundamentally change how I and my family must live with.
The weakest candidate in this election has to be Trump. That’s why I’m adamant that we must select someone, other than Trump, in this Primary. Any of those yahoos can easily beat Biden (and even someone like Gavin Newson).
whembly (96342a) — 8/28/2023 @ 9:57 am@162
Paul,
How about you explain how is it that Joe Biden is fabulously wealthy being in government since most of us was born?
It doesn’t add up.
The most charitable explanation is this: he was able to leverage is Congressional years to engage in “insider trading” that Congressman cannot be charged with.
Or, he and/or his wife got plenty of “speaking engagement” fees.
Still. Doesn’t quite add up.
I’m sure you were all interested in how the Trumps were making their money. Why not the Bidens?
whembly (96342a) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:11 amBTW, I watched that entire debate and it was excellent, at least as far as seeing the candidates positions and ability to think on their feet.
My takeaways:
Nikki Haley is a force to be reckoned with.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:11 amVivek Ramaswamy is an attention-seeking troll.
Tim Scott is not bright enough to be president.
Chris Christie is a stand-up guy. He would be a great Cabinet Secretary, but he cannot help win elections this time around.
Ron DeSantis is a bit weird and his focus is on the Culture War.
Mike Pence has a HUGE stick up his ass, but I do not doubt his convictions. He would bore America to death.
Doug Bergum could not tell me why he is running.
Asa Hutchinson is far too moderate for today’s GOP. He reminds me too much of Mr Rogers.
Impeachment isn’t the only remedy. Congress can pass a law repudiating a President’s policy choices, and we have seen the courts blocking enforcement of Trump’s and Biden’s executive orders.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:14 amYeah, I will object to the framing of “overthrow the constitutional transfer of power” till the day I die.
Well, that’s your right, of course, but Trump’s pressure on Pence to do exactly that is pretty persuasive that was his intention. I also believe that he instigated the invasion of the Capitol and was pleased by it. His unwillingness to put a stop to it despite please from everyone close to him is informative on that point.
Do you think that the riot surprised him?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:16 amLOL! See my posts 118 here and 125 here why this is so funny.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:19 amCongress can pass a law repudiating a President’s policy choices.
2/3rds vote in each house. Right.
and we have seen the courts blocking enforcement of Trump’s and Biden’s executive orders.
Most of those judicial acts have been political, not based on law either (e.g. those Hawaiian judges who blocked Trump’s lawful orders based on their opinion of Trump’s motives). The disease is metastasizing.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:20 amLOL! See my posts 118 here and 125 here why this is so funny.
Those posts were indeed pretty funny. Last month’s conventional wisdom usually is.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:21 amDid you watch all of the debate, Rip?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:22 amThe weakest candidate in this election has to be Trump. That’s why I’m adamant that we must select someone, other than Trump, in this Primary. Any of those yahoos can easily beat Biden (and even someone like Gavin Newson).
Actually, there are other weak candidates (Hutchinson, Bergum, Pence) and one (Vamaswamy) who would be worse than Trump in office. Christie would normally be a strong candidate, but may get too many Republicans to stay home this cycle.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:27 amYes, and I saw nothing to suggest that any of the Lilliputians have the stomach to either take on Trump (with the exception of Christie and Hutchinson, both non-entities.) Aside from wishcasting, there is no evidence of any movement of Republican support from Trump to the Lilliputians. You can be impressed as much as you want, but we’ll see what the polling is a month from now. I will guess it won’t be much different that it is today.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:30 amOr between Lilliputians.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:30 am“Fabulously”? No.
Joe gained most of his wealth after his VP gig was over, like any other ex-prez or ex-VP. If you want to note someone who really cashed in, Obama is worth a cool $70 mil.
Also, and I don’t have to explain anything, even though I did so as a courtesy, because you’re burden-shifting. It’s on you to prove Biden took bribes while VP (or illicit or ill-gotten cash after he was out of office). Like I said, a serious allegation merits serious evidence, and you have none. You and Comer and Rob and Jim Jordan don’t have it. Like I also said, if there is evidence establishing that Joe took a bribe while he was VP, I’ll join you in calling for his impeachment.
“That which is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.”
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:34 am–Christopher Hitchens
Off-topic:
If you are looking for something to stream, AMC’s Dark Winds is an interesting look at New Mexico’s Diné (Navajo) culture, through the eyes of the Navajo Police.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:35 amRip, see today’s Emerson poll, linked @185.
Or here: https://emersoncollegepolling.com/august-2023-national-poll-trump-debate-snub-may-open-door-for-other-candidates/
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:38 amAfter seeing him on CNN this AM, talking about China and energy and trade, he communicated quite clearly to me that he knows he can run the country better than the rest of the slate. The two times I’ve seen him talk longer than a soundbite (the debate and earlier today), I came out more impressed than when I came in.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:40 amKevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:16 am
If he did, it was by means other than his speech. No evidence has emerged that he did and he was not indicted for that. (despite Asa Hutchison’s confusion)
I don’t think he was pleased. But, in a comment or two, he tried to make lemonade out of lemons.
His biggest concern was that the riot could cause members of Congress to withdraw their objections. That’s why he called Senator Tommy Tibervillw, to try to make sure he still would object.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/08/politics/mike-lee-tommy-tuberville-trump-misdialed-capitol-riot/index.html
Trump was not asking for something unplanned to happen. he was asking for the game plan for the day not to be abandoned. You know, the whole Jan 6 committee hearings made as little mention as possible of the schedule for the day (6 objections and debate on each of them) as they could because it spoiled their picture.
It wasn;t thst he was unwilling to put a stop to it, He was unwilling to put a stop to it by means of calling on the people there to leave.
He was quite willing, and did, call upon them to stop attacking the police. He was told that wasn’t good enough and that only he could call the whole thing off.
The Jan 6 committee left out that compromise position from their spin. Made it out like he did nothing at all for 3 hours.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/28/2023 @ 11:06 amTo whembly:
yes, of course it did, and the Jan 6 committee actually proved it. At the trim=time of the first impeachment it was argued by many that Trump lied when he said to the people at the Ellipse that he would be there with them at the Capitol. But they brought forth Cassidy Hutchison’s testimony that (however wrong she may have gotten some of the details about it) that Trump strongly wanted to go to the Capitol himself and was stopped by his aides and the Secret Service.
He would not have wanted to go there had he thought there would be a riot. He was not Teddy Roosevelt wanting to boldly lead the Rough Riders.
He wanted to address the crowd and then maybe walk into the Capitol to personally lobby members of Congress.
Now the rally was semi legal. There were actually 9 permits for separate rallies of at most 50 people, not a crowd of 8,000 or so, of whom some 1.000 burst into the building.
Now one thing very interesting we have is indicted lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, the first person maybe to suggest substituting electors, going to Capitol after Trump’s speech at the Ellipse to film Alex Jones and Ali Alexander urging the crowd not to attack the police and to go that-a-way to hear Donald Trump speak. Sounds like he knew something. But I don’t think Trump did.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/18/us/politics/kenneth-chesebro-jan-6-trump.html
What ws Kennth Cheebro filming Alex Jones doing – working very hard to document it:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/what-conspiracy-theorist-alex-jones-said-in-the-lead-up-to-the-capitol-riot
Sammy Finkelman (7a85f9) — 8/28/2023 @ 11:10 amI have, and it is one poll out of dozens (the operative word is “may”). I would give the Lilliputians about a month to show any “progress”.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 11:20 amWe’ll see next month whether the dip is blip or not.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 11:27 amBoth the Repubiican spin and the Democratic spin keep trying to put square pegs into round holes.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/28/2023 @ 11:29 amelp me God.
RIP Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka “Joe the Pumber” (49).
In any other context the “Joe the Plumber” nickname would suggest a Mafia hitman.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 11:31 amlurker (cd7cd4) — 8/27/2023 @ 8:39 pm
That was what Ambassador to the the EU Gordon Sondland (a post he had pretty much paid for) had negotiated with Ukraine in September, 2019, just before the “hold” on aid to Ukraine became public. Ukraine was just about two days away from implementing it in an interview scheduled for Sept 13 with Fareed Zakaria on CNN, which was cancelled.
Incidentally, there was nothing in it about Ukraine nit actually investigating – that was partisan spin.
Sondland was acting independently of Donald Trump based on his judgement of what would get Donald Trump to lift the secret (and therefore illegal) hold. When it was put to him, Donald Trump had rejected any kind of quid pro quo for restoring aid. Trump had given his subordinates no reason for his hold. It was probably really that Vladimir Putin, acting through Giuliani’s informants, had poisoned his mind against the Ukrainian government and Trump wanted it completely cleared of what he thought were corrupt anti-Trump elements.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/28/2023 @ 11:46 am.
“..elp me God.” was part of a discarded message about the presidential oath of office.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/28/2023 @ 11:48 am91.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/26/2023 @ 9:23 pm
Nota red flag law.
A green light law.
Compulsory insurance (could be $1,000 each by people who have ether cash, maybe in retirement accounts, or access to credit – they would lose their own money if the gun was used in a crime within 3 years of purchase, even if stolen) by 10 -12 people of both sexes who know him.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/28/2023 @ 11:52 am@190
I think it initially surprised… I vaguely recall a witness saying he was “appreciative” of the initial riot.
That’s why it took him too long, to communicate to calm the situation (on twitter, as if, that’s “enough”).
whembly (96342a) — 8/28/2023 @ 11:55 amRe: First News Item–
“…….to protect the integrity of our elections, restore Americans’ faith in our government, and dismantle our nation’s two-tiered system of justice……..”
Newspeak.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 11:58 am150. Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/27/2023 @ 7:42 pm
The version that got to Trump is attributed by the whistleblower complaint to Shokin’s successor:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/09/26/us/politics/whistle-blower-complaint.html
Trump, by the way, did not praise Lutsenko – he was asserting the previous prosecutor (Shokin) was good. The “whistleblower” (probably Eric Ciaramella) had not been in on the call.
By the way, he had to stretch things to make this a complaint about intelligence work, which qualified for whistleblower protection, rather than presidential conduct, which did not, and probably worked it all out with Adam Schiff as a way of making the “hold” public.
Schiff later proceeded to misrepresent what Trump had said in the July 25, 2019 telephone call with Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky and I think it was in response to that that Trump made the transcript public.
Biden’s people are now saying that he did not hear the question, so that the lie there would be pretending that his hearing was better than it was. But the no comment could be genuine.
Biden has told the story of that kitchen fire so that it sounds much more serious than it was.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/28/2023 @ 12:18 pmTrump’s has made the claim in the documents case that he did not actually have (or maybe it’s did not necessarily have) the Pentagon paper about Iran with him at the time he said he did.
But Mark Meadows wrote in an early draft of his book that Trump had laid it on the sofa in front of his publisher and his ghostwriter/researcher. (he took it out of the book so as not to harm Trump.)
Meadows is claiming that he was acting as a federal official. If all he did was listen in and lace the call, Id; say that might qualify as without the scope of his duties as Chief of Staff. Jeffrey Clark maybe has the best case for removal to federal court. But the 3 would-be electors by definition could not be federal officials if they were to pretend to be Electors at the same time.
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript
Even if some Trump lawyers (and they were not government lawyers) told them they needed to sign a declaration that they were chosen as electors, they did not become federal officials.
They were probably indicted because they didn’t co-operate
Kenneth Cheesebro, Sidney Powell have opted for a speedy trial and probably John Eastman will. It must be granted. There are legal reasons – for one ting maybe it makes it easier for a jury to acquit – but a factor with Eastman could be the cost of paying a lawyer to spend days in court.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/28/2023 @ 12:35 pm@198
Yeah, my point is you are not arguing in good faith.
With the institution is designed to protect certain groups/people, aka the DOJ here in protecting the Bidens, it’s almost impossible to get to the level that you’re demanding.
So, its going to have to be done in the public court of opinions to put pressure on Congress to conduct it’s impeachment investigation.
Because, you do have evidence. Yes, alot of it circumstantial, but you’re so incurious about it frustrates the hell out of me.
Evidence:
-FBI internal doc that states that the Burisma owner had documentary evidence of protection scheme.
-This same Burisma officials stated that they wanted Hunter on the board to protect his interests, at the same time Biden was VP.
-Hunter’s WhatsApp where he said that “my father is sitting here” extorting Chinese officials.
-Hunter’s own private correspondence stating that “unlike my dad, I’m not asking you for 50%”.
-The “10% for the big guy”.
-According to whistleblowers, the DOJ obstructed their investigation by preventing investigators from looking into who’s “the big guy”.te
-Documented statements that Hunter had his dad call him in front of his clients to prove that he has “access”.
Do I need to list out more things here? These are evidence that’s worth chasing down to determine if Biden was involved in influence peddling.
My frustration isn’t the fact that the Biden’s are doing this. That’s the dark underbelly of politics. I wish we can curtail this, but easier said than done. My frustration is the application of the law.
You cannot ignore the dynamic where one side of the political spectrum is engaging in partisan lawfare. If this keeps happening, the “what goes around, comes around” axiom will manifest.
When you have half the country willing to support/engage in these sort of things, while hypocritically covering their own side. Bad things will start to happen.
I don’t like where this country is going.
whembly (6c6692) — 8/28/2023 @ 12:41 pm#127 follow-up: The “obscure minerals” are needed, not just for our economy, but for our military, too.
In the July 15th issue of the Economist, there is a grim article, with this takeaway: “A dozen obscure minerals are key to Western armies. China controls their supply.”
The minerals named in the “Mission-critical” article: gallium, niobium, tungsten, vanadium, rare earths*, cobalt, beryllium, indium, titanium, antimony, tantalum, and zirconium.
As the article notes, during the Cold War the US had large stockpiles of strategic minerals, worth tens of billions of dollars. That a series of presidents, Biden, Trump, Obama, and possibly more, have failed to insure our security by making sure we have access to these minerals shows that we again need serious discussions of our long-term security problems.
*Rare earths are neither particularly rare, nor earths. (However, economic minable deposits are rare, and separating them was difficult, until the 1950s and 1960s.) There are 15 of them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth_element
Jim Miller (a31430) — 8/28/2023 @ 12:45 pmFrom I think a generally reliable source – they knew about the hold before anybody else did.
Article dated March 29,, 2016.
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/shokin-s-revenge-ukraine-s-odious-prosecutor-general-fires-honest-deputy-before-parliament-sacks-him
Sammy Finkelman (7a85f9) — 8/28/2023 @ 12:46 pmFIFY
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 12:46 pmPost 218 corrected to show change:
Even then these “allegations “are pretty weak-depending on convicted/absconded felons, Russian supporting foreigners, correspondence from known liars, etc. Just because Hunter Biden wrote it down doesn’t make it true.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 12:50 pmPaul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:34 am
The evidence consists of a confidential source re-interviewed in 2020, who said that Zlochevky said in 2016 that he had paid $5 million to one Biden and $5 million to another Biden (who could be Jim) and an allegation that IRS agents were not notified of this lead. Plus some woman informant in Ukraine about money laundering.
Now Shokin claims this (not on the basis of personal knowledge) And also claims that Biden was responsible for Russia annexing Crimea (?)
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/28/2023 @ 12:53 pmWow. That’s definitive. 🤣
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 12:56 pmIf Hunter was falsely claiming that Joe was part of a scheme (in 2017) to help a Chinese company, he might make up an interest that Joe Biden supposedly would have.
But why conceal it after he was no longer in office?
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/28/2023 @ 12:57 pmThat informant I mentioned already said Zlochevsky claimed he had 17 recordings – 15 of Hunter and 2 of Joe. Multiple levels of hearsay.
They wanted people to believe that. Appearance of corruption was valuable to Burisma. They needed to scare off peoole in Ukraine.
Could easily be a lie. And now it’s extortion not bribery. Hunter was getting desperate.
P.S. it seems he got the money.
(This did not come from his laptop. by the way)
“half my salary”
Jan 3,2019 text message to his daughter Naomi who was asking him for money, Most logically would refer to some time in the past when his father advanced him money – or maybe it was for getting him that job with MBNA in 1995.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/28/2023 @ 1:07 pmEurope enforcing immigration laws, not quite successfully:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/16/opinion/europe-tunisia-migration.html
Sammy Finkelman (7a85f9) — 8/28/2023 @ 1:10 pmNo weighing of means against ends.
They are in denial than comfortable but may be pushed into being comfortable – and being comfortable has that has further ramifications.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/28/2023 @ 1:16 pmOne word: Bullsh-t.
Every single bullet point you put down is allegation, not evidence, including the FD-1023 that is hearsay of a hearsay.
There is no record of a 10% or even a 1% going to Joe Biden. Just a one-off comment in an email with nothing to show for.
The majority of your points deal with other parties such as Hunter or DOJ, not Joe.
Disappointing, whembly. Disappointing.
The FD-1023 is not evidence, Sammy, it’s hearsay upon hearsay. An FBI agent got the story from a confidential source who got the story from Zlochevsky, a fugitive from justice whereabouts unknown (last known location Monaco), and this fugitive from justice produced zero evidence of a bribe, just claimed that he had this evidence and these recordings. Maybe he has it, maybe not, but it actually needs to be produced, not naively taking a swindler’s word.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/28/2023 @ 1:18 pmThe poll showed a six point drop for Trump, but the poll has a margin of error of +/- 3%, so Trump’s decline may be imaginary.
Did you read the Reuters/Ipsos poll that you linked here? It showed Trump with 52%, a marginal increase from his previous 47% from early August (but close to outside the MOE). And the MOE for that poll is a gargantuan 6 points, so any movement among the candidates is just polling noise.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 1:22 pm“Just because Hunter Biden wrote it down doesn’t make it true.”
It doesn’t make it true. It makes it worth investigating, if we are to apply the same level of scrutiny set when Trump’s hacking of emails and colluding with Russia was investigated. The same level is scrutiny won’t happen, of course, but ascribing this to a lack of credible evidence is to be taken seriously only by those most broken by partisanship.
lloyd (dbb57d) — 8/28/2023 @ 1:31 pmAmerican Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce/Harris X Poll 8/21/23
Crosstabs.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 1:56 pmDoesn’t Hunter have a Special Counsel investigating him? That’s a certain amount of scrutiny.
norcal (345e4d) — 8/28/2023 @ 1:57 pmIf there was ever a thread that needed BuhDuh….
AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 8/28/2023 @ 1:59 pmThe Pope is some sort of weird Russophile. The days of “Great Russia” were never that great. It was a feudal empire chock-filled with brutality.
lloyd, this is why I supported a Special Counsel for Hunter. I just didn’t expect it would be Weiss.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/28/2023 @ 2:01 pmI just sit back and read how much you need me, AJ.
Patterico grew tired of my style (not that I blame him), so watching the in-fighting is my new pastime. I won’t participate.
BuDuh (abc770) — 8/28/2023 @ 2:13 pmDesatan booed at jacksonville memorial of racist shooting. His attempt to fool people fails again! Maybe he can try hunting pythons.
asset (20511f) — 8/28/2023 @ 2:22 pmPaul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/28/2023 @ 5:10 am
Thanks.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/28/2023 @ 4:17 pmMike Martin has an update on Ukraine’s counteroffensive strategy. The key plan is to cut off Russian logistics, specifically by (1) cutting off Tokmak, a major rail hub, (2) getting within artillery range of the M14 highway between Melitopol and Mariupol and (3) striking the three main bridges into the Crimean peninsula, which includes the big one over Kerch Strait.
Tokmak is in sight, and the Ukrainians have been striking all three bridges. If they can advance another 15-20 miles south, the M14 is hittable.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/28/2023 @ 4:27 pmAmerican Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce/Harris X Poll 8/21/23
Before the debates and no longer relevant.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 4:37 pmIt was a feudal empire chock-filled with brutality.
Next up, praising Cromwell and King Billy in Ireland.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 4:38 pmIt may or not be corrupt, but it is illegal under the 52 US Code 30121 to enlist a foreign power to assist in an American electoral campaign.
Violated every time a President gets the Israeli PM over to the WH before an election.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 4:41 pmYeah, I was iffy on posting it.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 4:43 pmPart of the problem is that only 1 in 5 GOP voters watched any part of the debate. The pollsters seem to conflate “heard about” or “read accounts” with being fully informed. This isn’t unexpected, still early days.
Most voters have spent nearly no time looking at the candidates or their positions, running instead on inertia. That might never change, of course, and we get Biden vs inmate P01135809. The Republican voters who think they are “stinking it to the man” would be impaling themselves, not that they will ever admit it. Just another stolen election….
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 4:50 pmUm, no. That’s good diplomacy and good politics, and all legal.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/28/2023 @ 4:52 pmBottom line, Trump doesn’t have the self-control or humility to not break the law. He wants he wants, rule of law and the Constitution be damned.
There is no rule of law and Trump is just a symptom of that.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 4:53 pmJust for fun, I wonder how far I’d get hawking SpamGPT.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 4:54 pmComedy Gold!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 4:55 pmSerial Election Fraud:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 5:03 pm“Today a biased, Trump Hating Judge gave me only a two month extension, just what our corrupt government wanted, SUPER TUESDAY,” Trump complained.
“I will APPEAL!” Trump vowed.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/28/2023 @ 4:55 pm
Are bad grammar and excessive capitalization necessary components of grifting?
norcal (345e4d) — 8/28/2023 @ 5:10 pmI am offended as a lover of the English language.
norcal (345e4d) — 8/28/2023 @ 5:21 pmWhen you talk about Abraham Lincoln, will you mention
1) Keeping the Union together;
2) Freeing the slaves;
3) The Sandy Creek massacre?
The Pope was talking to idealistic young people and he appealed to their idealized vision of their history. If that does not quite conform with how others view Russia, they can say so to their audience.
nk (512d97) — 8/28/2023 @ 5:29 pmSand Creek. No “y”. That’s what happens when you let grammar influence memory.
nk (512d97) — 8/28/2023 @ 5:31 pmSo, the possible case:
1. Trump is convicted of actual felonies.
2. Trump is nominated as the GOP candidate.
3. Trump wins.
WHat would this say about our country?
A. That a terrible, no good criminal is sitting in the WH?
B. That voters ignored all his crimes and voted for him out of spite?
C. That people are so incredibly fed up with the ruling class that they voted for a wrecking ball?
All of the above?
There is a deep and abiding anger in the people, not just on the Right. For every die-hard Trumpist there’s a Bernie Bro cultist fighting the hordes of capitalism. Trump was elected because of it (so was Obama to some extent). Neither was effective, or even all that interested, in forcing change. Biden isn’t the answer either, just less blatant about his corruption.
I fear that we are doomed to trundle down this ride until the wheels come off. The Trolley Problem would be an improvement.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/28/2023 @ 6:21 pmWHat would this say about our country?
That Biden ran a lousy campaign.
The fault, dear Kevin, is not in our country but in our politicians.
nk (2c1a3c) — 8/28/2023 @ 6:26 pm@246 I assume republican let me know if I am wrong.
asset (03b895) — 8/28/2023 @ 6:27 pmThe fault, dear nk, is not in our politicians but in our voters. 😛
norcal (345e4d) — 8/28/2023 @ 6:31 pm@249 Number (2) Gen. benjamin butler who was a strong abolitionist forced lincoln’s hand by first freeing the slaves in norfolk va. in 1861 and new orleans in 1862.
asset (03b895) — 8/28/2023 @ 6:37 pmA quick reminder that if you want to know about Joe Biden’s finances, he released several decades of tax returns which are now posted online. Any of us can read them, we don’t have to speculate.
Nic (896fdf) — 8/28/2023 @ 7:01 pmNic (896fdf) — 8/28/2023 @ 7:01 pm
Whatever, Nic. You’re just blind to Biden’s badness. He wants to destroy America and pervert our children, in addition to many other vile and evil things.
Your whataboutism is noted. Carry on.
norcal (345e4d) — 8/28/2023 @ 7:09 pmI agree with that. It also hints at why I dispute your assertion that the perfect phone call differs from actions routinely taken by other Presidents only by degree.
Motive is what distinguishes much that’s impeachable or criminal from similar behavior that’s permissible, sometimes even laudable. Lying to the American people may be well within the scope of a President’s duty when, for example, the purpose of the lie is to deceive our enemies who are also listening. Lying to obscure one’s own misdeads on the other hand, e.g., Nixon and Clinton, is corrupt and impeachable.
Likewise, testing the limits of executive power to advance a stated policy goal is within the normal give and take of the separation of powers. Our legal checks and balances are well designed to correct any overreaches, e.g., Trump’s DACA cancellation and Biden’s student loan forgiveness. Conversely, there’s nothing normal about the perfect phone call’s abuse of power for selfish, non-policy ends. It’s the very definition of corrupt.
It seems self-evident to me that the difference between bad things which are normal and not corrupt and bad things which are abnormal and corrupt is one of kind, not degree.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/28/2023 @ 7:11 pmDo you really believe that? Like all human creations, the rule of law generally and our legal system in particular are imperfect. They have good days and bad. That doesn’t negate their essential value, much less their existence. Try imagining this country actually lawless; then tell me the rule of law is dead.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/28/2023 @ 7:14 pm@norcal@257 I feel like you are mocking someone.
Nic (896fdf) — 8/28/2023 @ 7:36 pmMore Comedy Gold!
LOL! The only candidate that is threatened by Ron DeSantis (12%) in latest Emerson poll is Vivek Ramaswamy (9%), not Donald Trump (50%). Given the poll’s 3% margin of error the two are functionally tied.
Rip Murdock (f27d0c) — 8/28/2023 @ 7:36 pmAnother one left holding the bag:
<blockquote………….
(Peter) Navarro, Trump’s one-time trade adviser, testified Monday in his defense during a key pre-trial hearing in his case. He’s facing charges for defying subpoenas issued to him by the House select committee that investigated the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, claiming he did so because Trump asserted executive privilege in the matter.
But during the nearly three-hour hearing before US District Judge Amit P. Mehta in Washington, DC, the judge appeared highly skeptical of Navarro’s testimony, noting it’s from one side of the conversation.
“I still don’t know what the president said,” Mehta told Navarro’s attorney Stanley Woodward, referring to a February 20, 2022, call during which Navarro said it was made clear the former president was invoking executive privilege. “I don’t have any words from the former president.”
“That’s pretty weak sauce,” the judge added, referring this time to a comment Navarro says Trump made to him about regretting not letting him testify. The comment had been used by Navarro and his team to bolster their argument that Trump did invoke privilege because his subsequent regret indicated as much.
………….
Woodward said during a hearing earlier this month that Trump is not expected to testify on behalf of Navarro, potentially undercutting a key defense.
……………..
Navarro’s criminal case is set to go to trial next month.
During his testimony on Monday, Navarro said that in conversations with Trump following the issuance of the committee subpoena on February 9, 2022, the former president made it known that he didn’t want Navarro to cooperate with the committee.
“It was clear during that call that privilege was invoked – very clear,” Navarro said at one point, referring to a call he said took place on February 20, 2022.
Rip Murdock (f27d0c) — 8/28/2023 @ 8:10 pm……………
Sad!
There’s as much credibility to Navarro’s privilege order from Trump as there was Trump’s standing order to declassify the classified materials he took from the White House.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/28/2023 @ 8:42 pmIt’s the same problem as Trump’s “massive fraud” claims and Joe Biden allegedly taking bribes while VP: Just because they’re asserted, don’t mean they’re true, or that there’s any evidence in support.
And now Navarro will spend time behind bars, just like Bannon. What a pair.
Your bias and propaganda against people who note things are noted.
Have a nice day.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:11 pmJoltin joe liberman sez no labels party will nominate harld ford and tulsi gabbard in april at houston texas. Joe biden and DNC will have to change their depends if it happens!
asset (03b895) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:13 pm@lurker@264 A plot! A plot I say! A foul conspiracy!
Nic (896fdf) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:37 pmNic (896fdf) — 8/28/2023 @ 7:36 pm
Trust your feelings, Nic.
I wouldn’t try that on just anyone, but I know you have a sense of humor.
norcal (133a3a) — 8/28/2023 @ 10:44 pmIs make big joke, eh, comrades? Okay, I laugh. Ha, ha, ha!
Nobody in the history of the United States has monetized his political office more than TOG (The Orange Grifter). Nobody.
nk (5719ec) — 8/29/2023 @ 3:35 amDo you really believe that?
What I believe is that the Rule of Law has been hammered down by nearly everyone when it got in their way. That has consequences, and some of those are making it easier and easier to hammer it down more, for lesser and lesser reasons.
It might not be dead, but it sure is pining for the fjords.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/29/2023 @ 7:49 am@mods, I think my previous post broke it (#270). I included email addresses (with ampresand). Here it is again w/o that formatting.
Eagerly waiting for an innocent explanation for this….
https://www.slfliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2023/08/20230828-Complaint-WITH-exhibits.pdf
In its filing, SLF’s legal team made clear that it was requesting documents that NARA already admitted holding: “By its own admission, Defendant has possession, custody, and control of the records to which SLF seeks access.”
The lawsuit seeks NARA, under FOIA to release emails of the President’s pseudonym of: robinware at gmail.com, JRBWare at gmail.com, and Robert.L.Peters at pci.gov.
This is actually old news as first reported by NYPOST:
https://nypost.com/2022/04/29/joe-biden-used-alias-of-kgb-spy-from-tom-clancy-novels-hunter-emails/
But, hey, conducting official business under a pseudonym is small potatoes you guys. We shouldn’t be inferring anything nefarious here. /sarc
whembly (6c6692) — 8/29/2023 @ 8:07 amKevin M (ed969f) — 8/27/2023 @ 6:48 pm
There was no Democratic-Republican party. That was a term invented by Congress, sometime between about 1875 and 1925, when they published a history of the membership of Congress, and they called Jefferson’s party “Democratic-Republican” and it has been followed ever since in U.S. government publications and by almanacs etc.
But in reality, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe called their party simply the “Republican” party and when the current Republican Party was founded in 1854, they went back to Jefferson’s old name. (it renamed itself the Union party for the election of 1864)
A histr=orian’s name for the election of 1820 after the Federalist party died and there was practically no competition for the re-election of James Monroe.
It split into factions and there was no party associated with any of the 1824 presidential candidates.
In 1828 Jackson called his party the Democratic Party and John Quincy adams called his party the National Republicans. His father, of course, had ben a Federalist.
In 1832 Henry Clay ran as the candidate of the National Republican Party, but by 1836 the opposition party was the Whigs. (going by the designation in old Information Please almanacs)
The parties are now very strong institutionally. The Great Depression should have killed off the Republican Party, but it didn’t, although it nominated an outsider who was a recent ex-Democrat (Wendell Wilkie) as its candidate in 1940.
Sammy Finkelman (f37bf5) — 8/29/2023 @ 8:30 amPierre Delecto says tsk-tsk.
I agree that using a false name in emails is sketchy, particularly since they’re held by NARA, so they’re presumably presidential records under the PRA. Is it illegal? I don’t know, but at the very least it’s sketchy. The Daily Mail did good work.
The other question is about the contents of those emails. They should be made public.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/29/2023 @ 9:14 amComedy Gold!
The idea that with every indictment Trump’s poll numbers have gone up is not quite true:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/29/2023 @ 9:17 amSo when a local prosecutor decides not to charge, for example, a police officer borderline case of brutality that has enraged the community, do you think everyone should be charged no matter the strength of evidence, or should the prosecutor make a judgement not to charge?
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/29/2023 @ 9:20 amYahoo News/YouGov Poll 8/25/23
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/29/2023 @ 9:38 amRip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/29/2023 @ 9:38 am
Only 41%? The idea is completely crazy, That’s because talk radio, right wing cable TV, and some other surces keep on repeating it.
Everybody seems to entitled to their own facts.
Editorials are full of errors!
Joe Biden used his secret power to withhold loan guarantees to fire a good prosecutor!
Or, on the other wis=de, the Jan 6 2021 storming of the Capitol was an attempt by Donald Trump to prevent the certification of the election of Joe Biden as president., (he had a different plan to slow it down, which this disrupted, and which the Jan 6 committee never talked about and going past noon on Jan 20 would only have made House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Acting president – it would not have extended his term by a single second,)
Sammy Finkelman (f37bf5) — 8/29/2023 @ 9:51 am………..
Even more, that a favorable plea bargain had to be withdrawn, There are signs of a cover-up,
Which the Inspector General cannot invesigate:
https://nypost.com/2023/08/22/doj-ig-cites-potential-limitation-in-review-of-hunter-biden-coverup-claims
It probably belongs to the Office of Professional Responsibility,
Sammy Finkelman (f37bf5) — 8/29/2023 @ 9:57 amJoe Biden does nt have to be guilty of any crime himself to want to protect his son from prosecution or jail.
Sammy Finkelman (f37bf5) — 8/29/2023 @ 9:58 am@273
Nah, Daddy Biden didn’t know nuthin about Hunter’s bidness.
It’s all good and for funzy. Get wit it Paulie!
whembly (5f7596) — 8/29/2023 @ 9:59 amSo, there’s been this Congressional Committee hard at work. They are really concerned about the Biden Briber Scandal. They mean to get to the bottom of this. And they issue all these memos and press releases and stuff. And they have access to that laptop and the goo on it. How else could they put the porn in their meeting notes?
But, but…All of these stories the Biden folks have got come from the NY Post and the Mail. Why won’t whatever committee is doing these investigations take these into account in some meaningful way and follow up leads and get to the bottom of it? Why don’t they have anything, except the usual Burisma blather, that truly suggests the bribery they are so desperate to insinuate?
Among all the cats that are screeching there lullabys, there is the persistent non-barking of dog.
Appalled (a4d5ca) — 8/29/2023 @ 10:55 amThe Consolidation of the Republican Field Has Begun:
Comedy Gold!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/29/2023 @ 10:58 amPardon the typos in my 280. I am just puzzled the people who have all this evidence of Biden bribes can’t seem to connect to the GOP congresscritters that so badly wants an excuse for an impeachment. My guess is that the “evidence” works better on the insinuation level.
Appalled (a4d5ca) — 8/29/2023 @ 11:03 amIt makes Joe a liar, which has been established.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/29/2023 @ 11:07 amDoes it make it illegal? Like I said about this thing called evidence.
Does it warrant further investigation? Yes.
Sammy Finkelman (f37bf5) — 8/29/2023 @ 8:30 am
A pile of pedantry that changes nothing.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/29/2023 @ 11:08 amThe other question is about the contents of those emails. They should be made public.
New rule: Official correspondence by high officials is subject to FoI requests. Unofficial correspondence is released to the public domain whenever discovered.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/29/2023 @ 11:10 amMorning Consult Republican Primary Tracking Poll 8/29/23
The survey was conducted Aug. 25-27, 2023.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/29/2023 @ 11:11 amSo when a local prosecutor decides not to charge, for example, a police officer borderline case of brutality that has enraged the community, do you think everyone should be charged no matter the strength of evidence, or should the prosecutor make a judgement not to charge?
Way to go from “give green cards to undocumented immigrants who have no legal basis to remain in the country” to “remove all discretion whatsoever for any reason.”
Absurd. “Faithfully execute the law” means just that. And exceptions, when considered individually and faithfully, do not violate that, nor do decisions based on resources. But wholesale ignoring of laws, as in “I won’t change people with shoplifting” is not the same as individual decisions like “I won’t charge this hungry child, here, with stealing a candy bar.”
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/29/2023 @ 11:17 am(O)nly 41% of Americans think Hunter “funneled millions of dollars to his father in a long-running scheme to help Joe Biden profit off of his position.”
“Only” 41% think the President took bribes? Do you think that diminishes the charge?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/29/2023 @ 11:20 amJoe Biden does not have to be guilty of any crime himself to want to protect his son from prosecution or jail.
For him to DO so, using the power of his office, IS a crime. For him to let 41% THINK that he was guilty of a criminal conspiracy as a result is worse than a crime, it’s a blunder.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/29/2023 @ 11:22 amMiami Mayor Francis Suarez ended his long shot presidential bid
He got some more name recognition for his upcoming campaign for governor. Objective achieved.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/29/2023 @ 11:23 amHaley saw a boost in positive buzz following the debate. About 3 in 10 potential primary voters heard something positive about her while 13% heard something negative — though the bulk of the GOP’s primary electorate (68%) reported hearing nothing at all.
Most of this is a lack of listening, and/or allowing the MSM to filter the debate down to a few buzzwords.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/29/2023 @ 11:25 amThat percentage is driven by the Trump voters:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/29/2023 @ 11:46 amAmong 2020 Trump voters, that number soars to 86%. Among 2020 Biden voters, it plummets to just 9%.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/29/2023 @ 11:46 am
This is how you get a poo-flinging contest.
norcal (48b8e7) — 8/29/2023 @ 11:57 amFrom the poll:
The poll’s margin of error is 3.4%, so all of the candidates expect Trump and DeSantis are polling between 0% and the poll results.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/29/2023 @ 12:04 pmCorrection:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/29/2023 @ 12:06 pmAt this point, FL should just do Jungle primaries, they would end up with 2 Rs in most if not all state races, the opposite of CA.
urbanleftbehind (a790f6) — 8/29/2023 @ 2:04 pmIt’s Deja Vu All Over Again:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/29/2023 @ 2:50 pmIt doesn’t work that way. True, it is very hard for polls to measure anything whose true value is, let’s say, below 5%, but that is because of people giving random answers or just lying.
The margin of error is 3.4% of the percentage. At 50% it is 3.4% (with say a 95% percent probability of being within that range if any error is solely due to sampling error; at 5% it is about 1/6 of 1% – maybe more because it is so low, but it is not that it as a high probability of being zero.
It is very hard to find something discussing margin of error where the result you get is nowhere near 50%.
Low sample size, yes.
I’m probably not using the right search terms,
Sammy Finkelman (c5132f) — 8/29/2023 @ 3:02 pm297. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeCyYJYvMLs&t=31s
Sharpton answered that no you shouldn’t vote for the person with the least political experience, but actually he had the most political experience – he’d been involved in the political movement since age 12.
Don’t confuse a person who has a job (titleholders) with
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeCyYJYvMLs&t=31s
Al Sharpton was fast on is feet says someone on MSNBC. One talked to him – he has no memory of that exchange – he talked to voters every day.
Sammy Finkelman (c5132f) — 8/29/2023 @ 3:15 pmSF: Joe Biden does not have to be guilty of any crime himself to want to protect his son from prosecution or jail.
289. Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/29/2023 @ 11:22 am
Not the same kind of crime that was polled about. That was about whether Hunter “funneled millions of dollars to his father in a long-running scheme to help Joe Biden profit off of his position.” The percentage of people who believe it is Covering up for Hunter That is possibly less than 41%
and it’s not a blunder if it is true that was trying to use the power of his office to protect his son. Right now the matter is very much in doubt. Clearing this up wouldn’t help him if it turns out to be true.
As for the funneling, the more attention drawn to Hunter the worse for him. First, he clearly tolerated and facilitated Hunter’s influence peddling, even if he did not profit from it, and second, it could come out that he lied when he said:
https://www.cfr.org/event/foreign-affairs-issue-launch-former-vice-president-joe-biden
There’s not a word of truth in all that, except for the fact that Shokin, at some point, got fired, and he was replaced, temporarily, by Lutsenko, whom Biden acknowledges there was not good.
I think Biden believes that’s a hand grenade that could destroy his candidacy. He skated in 2020 but it’s not guaranteed that his words could be re-examined and checked against reality.
He’s keeping George Kent, quiet. George Kent is familiar with how Shokin got fired and what Biden was doing, employed by the U.S. government as Ambassador to Estonia (the same tactic Bill Clinton did by keeping Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky in U.S. government employ – except that he made the blunder f sending them both to the exact same office! They were keeping totally different things secret. (Linda Tripp about Vincent Foster’s sudden change of mood)
The only defense Biden has tolerated being made is that, in urging the firing, he was carrying out Obama Administration policy, and that Viktor Shokin was not investigating Burisma.
But he can’t tolerate too much attention being paid to that matter.
I think he feels like it could explode like a hand grenade.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 8/29/2023 @ 3:47 pmhttps://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-claims-have-literally-convinced-strom-thurmond-vote-civil-rights-act-21-years-old
I think Biden may mean the Voting Rights extension of 1982 – did Strom Thurmond vote for that?
Sammy Finkelman (c5132f) — 8/29/2023 @ 3:55 pmThe margin of error is 3.4% of the percentage
No, it is not. There is a complex formula, which (for a confidence factor of 0.95) is:
M0E = 1.96 * (√(P * (1-p))) / (√N)
where P is the percentage given for the choice and N is the total sample size.
So, for N = 1000 and a candidate with a 50% preference, the MoE is about 3.1%
In the same poll, a candidate with a 5% result has an MoE of 1.35%
The way reporters use these numbers in comparisons is really only valid in close two-person races.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/29/2023 @ 4:07 pmThe poll’s margin of error is 3.4%, so all of the candidates expect except Trump and DeSantis are polling between 0% and the poll results.
THis is not even close to being right, but not for the reasons Sammy gives. A candidate polling 5% in an N=1000 poll is 95% likely to be within 6.35% and 3.65%
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/29/2023 @ 4:10 pmThe reasons that polls disagree so much has more to do with methodology and introduced bias due to “corrections.”
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/29/2023 @ 4:12 pmFor example, a poll that only calls landlines, then tries to correct the age bias introduced has many sources of errors other than randomness.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/29/2023 @ 4:14 pm@306
There’s also inherent bias by the sheer fact that the poll was done on landlines. I can’t think of any of my friends/family members having a landline. o.O
whembly (3b98b6) — 8/29/2023 @ 5:09 pmMore in the brewing SC cases on social media censorship:
There are already two cases likely for next term regarding similar [FL and TX] state laws regulating social media actions against user content (the services claim their freedom of speech allows blocking user’s speech; the states disagree), now that the federal government has replied to the court’s inquiry by suggesting that the court decide the cases.
Now, a California case tries to connect the dots between California asking Twitter to take down posts, and the posts being taken down.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/29/2023 @ 7:07 pmMore good news for the Ukrainians about Tokmak, a town of strategic importance.
This is similar to what happened in Kherson last fall.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 8/29/2023 @ 7:25 pmEven more good news………
Sad!
Rip Murdock (c66d82) — 8/29/2023 @ 8:14 pmPhotos and video at link.
Rip Murdock (c66d82) — 8/29/2023 @ 8:15 pmBecause why wouldn’t he?
And of course there’s this classic.
Now if I don’t see a moose in a Miata, I’m going to be disappointed.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/30/2023 @ 9:33 pmNow if I don’t see a moose in a Miata, I’m going to be disappointed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=mAu9-KSI_Ik
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/30/2023 @ 10:50 pmBecause why wouldn’t he?
I’m curious about the vehicle code section they cited.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/30/2023 @ 10:51 pmKevin M (ed969f) — 8/30/2023 @ 10:50 pm
Not a Miata, but well played.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 8/31/2023 @ 1:03 amMore Good News From Ukraine:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/31/2023 @ 8:46 amPrediction: Next month, the US State Department will make a report on PEPFAR, a program that has saved, so far, more than 20 million lives. (Bill Gates recently said 25 million.)
The report will receive little attention from ABC, CBS, NBC, the NYT, the Guardian, or even the BBC.
The BBC is the news organization best suited to give this program the coverage it deserves, since so many of the people saved live in former British colonies.
And I would love to have the BBC prove me wrong.
Jim Miller (dd40b3) — 8/31/2023 @ 9:19 amSo, let’s assume the following:
1. Before the 2024 election, Trump is convicted in GA for multiple felonies, and is sentenced to 5 years in prison.
2. Trump win the election.
3. Trump is incarcerated before January 20th, 2025.
4. Georgia courts refuse to release Trump, despite being President-elect.
Does this constitute an “inability to serve”, invoking the 25th Amendment?
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/31/2023 @ 9:23 amI’m sure they can install a phone and fax machine in his cell.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/31/2023 @ 9:25 amThe report will receive little attention from ABC, CBS, NBC, the NYT, the Guardian, or even the BBC.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and Trump will denounce it.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/31/2023 @ 9:26 amIf Obama had started PEPFAR, we’d be hearing about it’s success daily. But it was W who did it, so crickets.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 8/31/2023 @ 9:28 amMore “compassionate conservatism.”
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/31/2023 @ 9:51 amTo the tune of $110,000,000,000 (so far.)
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 8/31/2023 @ 9:53 amNovember of 2022 the Department of State laid out the plan:
Maybe they would prefer the DEI aspect stays under the radar.
BuDuh (7772c6) — 8/31/2023 @ 9:58 amThis can only happen if bail is revoked.
Sammy Finkelman (f37bf5) — 8/31/2023 @ 10:41 am309. In order for Ukraine to prevail, it must have a military success by surprise, not only for Russia, but also for the United States (because President Biden is unlikely to authorize delivery if Ukraine could maybe win by it, as opposed to preventing a Ukrainian loss.
But Putin will not choose use of nuclear weapons over stopping the war, because, for one thing, use of nuclear weapons is very dangerous for Russia (not to mention poisoning the air Putin and people close to him will breathe) and the consequences very unpredictable but not likely to help him.
Sammy Finkelman (f37bf5) — 9/1/2023 @ 9:46 am