also admitting that all the spilled ink and investigations and also Trumps foreign policy interventions on the subject were all baseless.
No. Hunter's resume and the behavior of the people hiring him look a lot like he's selling political favors. The investigations were well deserved. Adding to that the whole sex, drugs, and criminals angles made them doubly so.
But ultimately it’s a gesture, as I originally said, of fear and despair from Joe who doesn’t believe the Justice system under Trump will be Just towards his son.
This is total nonsense.
Biden had the ability to pardon him for anything Trump could have done but also let Hunter serve his time for the things his own justice department found. Biden could have also not pardoned him for the things he's already been found guilty of but then zapped everything else.
Hunter has been given a breathtakingly large scope of a pardon when normally those are extremely narrow. It was also done without involving the people who normally vet and write these things.
But the conclusion is only that Joe is clean. According to the Biden Justice department, Hunter is not.
And this wouldn't have come up if Hunter himself (yes, and the GOP) hadn't shined a spotlight on this.
The legal system is then faced with the problem of what to do. If we follow the normal laws and rules, Hunter ends up doing time.
This is pretty normal for someone who burns his life down, does a lot of things we've criminalized, and then writes a book about it.
That's what the pardon is protecting him from. Not the GOP weaponizing the justice system, but the justice system functioning as it normally would at this point.
I think Biden would have pardoned Hunter no matter what happened. His own Justice department has found enough to lock him up for years, and that's bad enough.
Hunter went through a period of time when he burned his life down. He's much better now.
The argument for a pardon isn't that the GOP is coming after him. With Biden stepping down there is no point and we saw what Trump did with HRC after she lost power, i.e. nothing.
Hunter's problem has been with the Joe Biden Justice department. Trump won't change that... but as part of burning his life down he crossed lines and then his tell all book broadcast them.
The argument is that he is a different person now and deserves a second (or 3rd, or however many chances Joe has given him) chance. Joe Biden has been helping him his entire life, this is just once more.
Charges were -only- brought on these cases because of who Hunters’ father was.
Hunter has lived his life capitalizing on his father's political influence. That's everything from his highly paid college "internship" to his series of jobs for various people who pretty nakedly want to influence his father.
He then wrote a tell all book going over his coke addition and some of the things he did during that time.
It is awkward to claim he's not a player when he's clearly been claiming the reverse for his entire adult life. It's also awkward to claim there is no evidence when he wrote a book about the things he's charged with.
"The plan" hadn't been created yet and was still subject to negotiations and pressure by various interested parties.
There is no one, other than Biden, who has the ability to select one specific candidate and/or rules and the party needs to be unified.
We're also going to have the problem of "what is wrong with Harris" and not taking her isn't going to sit well. Her supporters will claim it's because she's a black female. Figuring out that she's really bad at this will take longer than they have.
Never put down to malice what can be explained with incompetence.
Biden was forced to step down. It probably never occurred to him that Team Blue wanted someone other than Harris to step in and he was just being a team player.
Either it was less than clear to him that she wasn't ready or he didn't care or he didn't see any alternatives. To be fair, time pressures made the alternatives ugly.
After having a crazy quick nomination contest, with no notice, they'd need to then unify Team Blue behind someone.
Joe will ride off into the sunset. Not sure what his life expectancy is considering his age related mental decline but he's never going to be in office again.
Last I checked, there are something like 3x more people being born in Gaza than dying. If Israel is engaging in "genocide" then they aren't doing a good job.
Gaza is a war. Mislabeling it as something else is not helpful. Further the desired solution seems to be that Hamas gets a pass for terrorism rather than they're forced to surrender.
It is better to respond to an over extension than to over extend yourself.
Trump's big skill is spinning people up by running his mouth, he almost never follows through. Responding to everything he "might" do is giving him a super power that he will abuse.
As recently as the Trump peace plan, we've had the Palestinians assert there can't be peace without a right to return, which is also the right to destroy Israel.
The right wing of Israel is a serious problem, but they're not the rate limiting step because the root issue is the Palestinians won't accept any peace that doesn't destroy Israel.
That total refusal creates a power vacuum that is filled by the Right Wing. For example when Hamas attacked those peace lovers on 10-7, they were proclaiming that peace isn't an option.
They still have a point that their claim to that land is as valid as Israel’s.
These sorts of issues are normally resolved with wars. If we're going to have wars but still insist that the issue is unresolved, then we'll have more wars.
Donald Trump who originally created the concept of lawfare in American politics with his calls to “lock her up” in 2016.
Ignoring that the term was invented in 1975 and used centuries before that, W Bush had to deal with "legal" efforts to prevent his "illegal" acts in Afghanistan. Like blowing up the occasional US citizen.
Then Obama took over and showcased that there really was no alternative because it's a battlefield where we can't use the police to arrest people.
Further the US has always refused to join the ICC because we've expected lawfare.
Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/ FASH-iz-əm) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy (wiki)
RE: unforced errors.
Is she running on "four more years" or is it "change"? She claimed the later but can't say what she'd change.
Same issue with is she running on "supreme advisor of Biden" or "out of the room when that was decided against her will"? Either way she should be able to claim some successes from Biden or point to failures and say it wasn't her fault.
With her being accused of being an empty suit, using word salad to avoid answering questions looks really bad. Note "unforced error" is the best possible spin, the worst is she really is an empty suit who doesn't know basic things.
She's refusing to define herself but she did the opposite in 2020 when she was running as far Left. The strong implication is she's still far left and knows her views are amazingly unpopular. If that's not correct then it's an unforced error and if it is correct then she had no businesses trying to be the lead candidate.
When she has clearly changed from 2020 (example: fracking) she should be very open about why. Presumably open doesn't mean "there is a swing state that uses this as a core to their economy" but rather "the war with Russia has changed her mind on the effects of being dependent on Russian gas".
What she did instead was this song and dance where she tried to pretend she hadn't changed her mind which got her the worst of both worlds. This assumes she actually had changed her mind and wasn't planning on banning fracking her first day in office.
"Unforced errors" is the best possible spin on all this. "Empty suit" is worse. Still worse would be "unelectable if even slightly truthful and knows it".
I have a problem with looking at a weak, inexperienced candidate making unforced errors and then concluding none of that mattered as we also insist it was a close election.
This was a political statement, i.e. "we the world doesn't like the war" trying to masquerade as a legal one.
They're going to try to arrest two Jews and a dead man for war crimes when Israel is fighting an openly genocidal terror group. The dead man is in there for balance so it doesn't look like they're only going after Jews.
The entire point of having the court is to provide law where there is none. Israel has functional courts, Gaza does not. If they're going to lower the bar far enough that they can arrest Bibi then they should have long ago tried to arrest Hamas leadership and not just dead men.
Russia Withdraws Ratification of Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
In an unprecedented move, Russian President Vladimir Putin officially rescinded Russia’s ratification of the treaty banning nuclear test explosions anywhere in the world Nov. 2.
That was Nov 2, 2023. That was saber rattling because we're backing Ukraine. So there's no reason to not test a nuke and every reason to do so.
Unless of course, he can't test a nuke because all of his went stale a few years after they stole the maintenance needed to keep them functional.
We spend $10B a year keeping ours functional.
They don't have the ability to upgrade their flagship aircraft carrier which has been openly sitting in dry dock for years. They don't have the ability to get military grade tires for their military trucks. They don't have the ability to do basic maintenance on anything.
On a system that broken and corrupt, they really spent Billions on nukes they'd never use and never test? Someone pocketed the money and lied about how functional their nukes are.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “From the New York Post: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot outside Hilton hotel in Midtown in targeted attack: cops”
Cops now say no ebike.
On “Joe Biden Pardons Local Man”
The "out of fear" explanation doesn't cover what Biden actually did.
For that to work, we need to believe Hunter is an innocent lamb and Joe Biden's Justice Department's findings and actions were politically motivated.
This is a helicopter parent saying "not my child".
"Out of fear" is an excuse, not an explanation.
"
also admitting that all the spilled ink and investigations and also Trumps foreign policy interventions on the subject were all baseless.
No. Hunter's resume and the behavior of the people hiring him look a lot like he's selling political favors. The investigations were well deserved. Adding to that the whole sex, drugs, and criminals angles made them doubly so.
But ultimately it’s a gesture, as I originally said, of fear and despair from Joe who doesn’t believe the Justice system under Trump will be Just towards his son.
This is total nonsense.
Biden had the ability to pardon him for anything Trump could have done but also let Hunter serve his time for the things his own justice department found. Biden could have also not pardoned him for the things he's already been found guilty of but then zapped everything else.
Hunter has been given a breathtakingly large scope of a pardon when normally those are extremely narrow. It was also done without involving the people who normally vet and write these things.
This was a favor to his son.
"
Sure. All of that is true.
But the conclusion is only that Joe is clean. According to the Biden Justice department, Hunter is not.
And this wouldn't have come up if Hunter himself (yes, and the GOP) hadn't shined a spotlight on this.
The legal system is then faced with the problem of what to do. If we follow the normal laws and rules, Hunter ends up doing time.
This is pretty normal for someone who burns his life down, does a lot of things we've criminalized, and then writes a book about it.
That's what the pardon is protecting him from. Not the GOP weaponizing the justice system, but the justice system functioning as it normally would at this point.
"
I think Biden would have pardoned Hunter no matter what happened. His own Justice department has found enough to lock him up for years, and that's bad enough.
Hunter went through a period of time when he burned his life down. He's much better now.
The argument for a pardon isn't that the GOP is coming after him. With Biden stepping down there is no point and we saw what Trump did with HRC after she lost power, i.e. nothing.
Hunter's problem has been with the Joe Biden Justice department. Trump won't change that... but as part of burning his life down he crossed lines and then his tell all book broadcast them.
The argument is that he is a different person now and deserves a second (or 3rd, or however many chances Joe has given him) chance. Joe Biden has been helping him his entire life, this is just once more.
"
Charges were -only- brought on these cases because of who Hunters’ father was.
Hunter has lived his life capitalizing on his father's political influence. That's everything from his highly paid college "internship" to his series of jobs for various people who pretty nakedly want to influence his father.
He then wrote a tell all book going over his coke addition and some of the things he did during that time.
It is awkward to claim he's not a player when he's clearly been claiming the reverse for his entire adult life. It's also awkward to claim there is no evidence when he wrote a book about the things he's charged with.
On “Open Mic for the week of 12/2/2024”
That. That exactly.
On “Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.”
The key point is this is why we have VPs.
We don't have time for a full state-by-state. We don't use the smoke filled room anymore.
I think they didn't think it through. These are people who knew Harris. Ergo they knew she wasn't a great choice.
"
"The plan" hadn't been created yet and was still subject to negotiations and pressure by various interested parties.
There is no one, other than Biden, who has the ability to select one specific candidate and/or rules and the party needs to be unified.
We're also going to have the problem of "what is wrong with Harris" and not taking her isn't going to sit well. Her supporters will claim it's because she's a black female. Figuring out that she's really bad at this will take longer than they have.
"
Never put down to malice what can be explained with incompetence.
Biden was forced to step down. It probably never occurred to him that Team Blue wanted someone other than Harris to step in and he was just being a team player.
Either it was less than clear to him that she wasn't ready or he didn't care or he didn't see any alternatives. To be fair, time pressures made the alternatives ugly.
After having a crazy quick nomination contest, with no notice, they'd need to then unify Team Blue behind someone.
On “Joe Biden Pardons Local Man”
Joe will ride off into the sunset. Not sure what his life expectancy is considering his age related mental decline but he's never going to be in office again.
On “Open Mic for the week of 12/2/2024”
Last I checked, there are something like 3x more people being born in Gaza than dying. If Israel is engaging in "genocide" then they aren't doing a good job.
Gaza is a war. Mislabeling it as something else is not helpful. Further the desired solution seems to be that Hamas gets a pass for terrorism rather than they're forced to surrender.
On “Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.”
They're throwing Biden under the bus. Again.
On “Making Lawfare Great Again”
It is better to respond to an over extension than to over extend yourself.
Trump's big skill is spinning people up by running his mouth, he almost never follows through. Responding to everything he "might" do is giving him a super power that he will abuse.
On “Open Mic for the week of 12/2/2024”
As recently as the Trump peace plan, we've had the Palestinians assert there can't be peace without a right to return, which is also the right to destroy Israel.
The right wing of Israel is a serious problem, but they're not the rate limiting step because the root issue is the Palestinians won't accept any peace that doesn't destroy Israel.
That total refusal creates a power vacuum that is filled by the Right Wing. For example when Hamas attacked those peace lovers on 10-7, they were proclaiming that peace isn't an option.
They still have a point that their claim to that land is as valid as Israel’s.
These sorts of issues are normally resolved with wars. If we're going to have wars but still insist that the issue is unresolved, then we'll have more wars.
On “Making Lawfare Great Again”
Donald Trump who originally created the concept of lawfare in American politics with his calls to “lock her up” in 2016.
Ignoring that the term was invented in 1975 and used centuries before that, W Bush had to deal with "legal" efforts to prevent his "illegal" acts in Afghanistan. Like blowing up the occasional US citizen.
Then Obama took over and showcased that there really was no alternative because it's a battlefield where we can't use the police to arrest people.
Further the US has always refused to join the ICC because we've expected lawfare.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawfare#Examples
On “Joe Biden Pardons Local Man”
which pretty much almost ever lead to indictments in the first place
The lesson to learn is if you're going to commit crimes, then don't write a tell-all book about you committing those crimes.
On “I Told You So”
You oppose it by insisting on good government.
However huge parts of the "liberal" agenda are opposed to good government.
Government unions hit the radar as corrupt out of the box. Ditto insisting that equality of outcome is a thing the gov should be enforcing.
Big parts of the country view Trump as less corrupt, or only as corrupt, as Team Blue.
"
DavidTC: Why do you think that Trump will not be able to find people competent enough to create and empower death squads this time?
My strong expectation is we will make it through the Trump presidency without any attempts to create death squads (like last time).
My other strong expectation is whoever the GOP picks to run as his replacement will face similar accusations.
"
Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/ FASH-iz-əm) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy (wiki)
On “Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.”
RE: unforced errors.
Is she running on "four more years" or is it "change"? She claimed the later but can't say what she'd change.
Same issue with is she running on "supreme advisor of Biden" or "out of the room when that was decided against her will"? Either way she should be able to claim some successes from Biden or point to failures and say it wasn't her fault.
With her being accused of being an empty suit, using word salad to avoid answering questions looks really bad. Note "unforced error" is the best possible spin, the worst is she really is an empty suit who doesn't know basic things.
She's refusing to define herself but she did the opposite in 2020 when she was running as far Left. The strong implication is she's still far left and knows her views are amazingly unpopular. If that's not correct then it's an unforced error and if it is correct then she had no businesses trying to be the lead candidate.
When she has clearly changed from 2020 (example: fracking) she should be very open about why. Presumably open doesn't mean "there is a swing state that uses this as a core to their economy" but rather "the war with Russia has changed her mind on the effects of being dependent on Russian gas".
What she did instead was this song and dance where she tried to pretend she hadn't changed her mind which got her the worst of both worlds. This assumes she actually had changed her mind and wasn't planning on banning fracking her first day in office.
"Unforced errors" is the best possible spin on all this. "Empty suit" is worse. Still worse would be "unelectable if even slightly truthful and knows it".
"
I have a problem with looking at a weak, inexperienced candidate making unforced errors and then concluding none of that mattered as we also insist it was a close election.
On “Open Mic for the week of 11/18/2024”
Every day that goes past without a mushroom cloud showing they're serious makes the gamble less of a gamble.
They would lose nothing by a test and gain a lot. Far as I can tell, the only reason to not test is if they can't.
On “ICC Follows Through on Arrest Warrants for Israeli PM Netanyahu & Others”
This was a political statement, i.e. "we the world doesn't like the war" trying to masquerade as a legal one.
They're going to try to arrest two Jews and a dead man for war crimes when Israel is fighting an openly genocidal terror group. The dead man is in there for balance so it doesn't look like they're only going after Jews.
The entire point of having the court is to provide law where there is none. Israel has functional courts, Gaza does not. If they're going to lower the bar far enough that they can arrest Bibi then they should have long ago tried to arrest Hamas leadership and not just dead men.
On “Open Mic for the week of 11/18/2024”
Russia Withdraws Ratification of Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
In an unprecedented move, Russian President Vladimir Putin officially rescinded Russia’s ratification of the treaty banning nuclear test explosions anywhere in the world Nov. 2.
https://www.armscontrol.org/blog/2023-11/nuclear-disarmament-monitor
That was Nov 2, 2023. That was saber rattling because we're backing Ukraine. So there's no reason to not test a nuke and every reason to do so.
Unless of course, he can't test a nuke because all of his went stale a few years after they stole the maintenance needed to keep them functional.
We spend $10B a year keeping ours functional.
They don't have the ability to upgrade their flagship aircraft carrier which has been openly sitting in dry dock for years. They don't have the ability to get military grade tires for their military trucks. They don't have the ability to do basic maintenance on anything.
On a system that broken and corrupt, they really spent Billions on nukes they'd never use and never test? Someone pocketed the money and lied about how functional their nukes are.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.