GOP House investigation of President Joe Biden follow along thread

Politics & Elections
81

In a nutshell, they feel that their country has fucked them over, and they’re just fucking back.

In some ways, such as the off-shoring of manufacturing jobs, or encouraging young people to take on enormous debt for college education, or the exploitation of by corporations of the desire of home ownership or the lure of addition, they’re quite justified. In other ways, such as fear that they might lose their privileged status if other people are lifted up, or that ‘the gays’ might force everyone to be homosexuals, or that somebody is ‘treading’ on them by expanding voting rights, they are not justified (at least, not in the context of an egalitarian democracy). In many cases, the outrage is just an expression of fear, uncertainty, and doubt fostered by many decades manipulation of public opinion by bad actors like Newt Gingrich who has taught the Republicans the secret sorcery of semantic manipulation. And all of them want to “win” more than they want fairness or reason. And to be clear, this is the norm rather than the exception of humanity.

As for the culture of adorationism of Trump in particular, I am at a lost to explain or understand it. While his ability to say and do whatever he wants without consequence appeals to the would-be bully in many people, he is such a gross, inchoate, gormless mess of a figure who has failed so frequently and publicly by undermining his own interests I find it hard to believe that anyone would follow or celebrate him or the clown car of rotating imbeciles who booster him. But people want to be part of a movement, especially one that they think reflects their own innate desires, and apparently a lot of people would like to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, grab women by the pussy, and run waterfront casinos into the ground repeatedly.

“You know, people like blood sausage, too. People are morons.” — Phil Connors, Groundhog Day

Stranger

82

I saw one of the Republican congress members on CNN or elsewhere talking about these plans to investigate everything to do with the Biden administration but not talking about any plans to introduce any legislation.

83

It’s astounding. We’re talking about people that have just enough self awareness to be offended when you state the obvious- that they’re not very smart. When the pandemic was raging, and the numbers of positive tests were staggering, Democrats wanted to lower those numbers by attempting to reduce the numbers of people that were getting infected. Trump wanted to lower those numbers using the method Stop The Testing, and these people ate that shit up. But I guess it’s divisive to call them stupid.

84

The Republican party has become so devoted to ostructionism that they can’t get out of their own way to pass legislation even if it advances their ostensible agenda. To some degree this is deliberate; if you don’t actually do anything you can’t be blamed if it goes wrong, and the mainline Republican philosophy now sounds like a Nick Offerman parody of extreme libertarianism. Never mind how they’re always in favor of corporate handouts of ‘taxpayer money’, particularly when it comes to ‘defense’ spending or subsidizing the oil and gas concerns that back them. But their primary goal at this point is just to slander everybody who disagrees with their agenda as “Communists” or “pedophiles”. And may the gods help you if you wear a “tan suit”.

Stranger

85

:notes: … tan shoes with pink shoelaces
A polka-dot vest, and man, oh man!

86

In many ways, obstructionism and breaking things is easy. It’s difficult to craft legislation or come up with ideas on how to improve things.

It’s dead easy to just say “nuh uh” to any proposal, or shout insults.

87

Hubs has recently said things that indicate some disillusionment with trump. He has also indicated that he feels our elections are fair and honest.

I’m just telling you this for a bit of encouragement because four years ago, hubs swore that trump was the best president America has ever had. There might be hope for your folks…

Oh, and @Stranger_On_A_Train please do not describe trump as gormless. My cat’s name is Gormless George and it would suck to have to hate you because you keep insulting my cat. :slight_smile:

88

I do really appreciate hearing this, for both our sakes. It tore my heart when you shared before that you had nearly lost your marriage over the split.

It is encouraging to hear the fever may be finally breaking for your hubs, and I am happy for you. :slight_smile:

I wonder if he will support the Republicans in their quests to dirty up Joe Biden with these “investigations.”

89

And heap scorn on the heads of those who are trying to do something good for the country. Or sue them. Or investigate them. :roll_eyes:

90

Those are all EASY.

But proposals? plans? God forbid, legislation? I don’t think today’s version of Republican politicians actually has any clue how bills are passed. I think they should all be forced to watch old schoolhouse rock videos

91

At least we can look forward to an unhinged Gym Jordan, his sleeves rolled up, peering over his glasses, spittle flying out of his mouth, as he smashes and breaks the glass top of the panel table (like some gavelling judge did, a ways back, IIRC), and railing at the Forces of Socialism, Pronouns and Tan Suits, with hopefully weekly frequency, as Meadows pretends to look on, concernedly, his eyes skittishly askance.
You just know ole Gohmert’ll show’em a thing or two. Sic’em! :poodle:

92

Flirting With Decency
By Mitt Romney

Available now on Amazon.

93

It’s not the first time this has happened. I’ve been reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and this quote stood out:

“I myself was to experience how easily one is taken in by a lying and censored press and radio in a totalitarian state. Though unlike most Germans I had daily access to foreign newspapers, especially those of London, Paris and Zurich, which arrived the day after publication, and though I listened regularly to the BBC and other foreign broadcasts, my job necessitated the spending of many hours a day in combing the German press, checking the German radio, conferring with Nazi officials and going to party meetings. It was surprising and sometimes consternating to find that notwithstanding the opportunities I had to learn the facts and despite one’s inherent distrust of what one learned from Nazi sources, a steady diet over the years of falsifications and distortions made a certain impression on one’s mind and often misled it. No one who has not lived for years in a totalitarian land can possibly conceive how difficult it is to escape the dread consequences of a regime’s calculated and incessant propaganda. Often in a German home or office or sometimes in a casual conversation with a stranger in a restaurant, a beer hall, a café, I would meet with the most outlandish assertions from seemingly educated and intelligent persons. It was obvious that they were parroting some piece of nonsense they had heard on the radio or read in the newspapers. Sometimes one was tempted to say as much, but on such occasions one was met with such a stare of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one had blasphemed the Almighty, that one realized how useless it was even to try to make contact with a mind which had become warped and for whom the facts of life had become what Hitler and Goebbels, with their cynical disregard for truth, said they were.”
― William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

There’s something in some people, sometimes a lot of people, that just makes it possible for them to believe utter nonsense, at least for a while. It took WWII to knock some sense into the Germans like this, and even then, some of them spent the rest of their lives pining for Hitler. I have no idea what it will take to get the MAGAts to give their heads a shake.

94

Some leopard biting their nose off.

95

Biden’s fault. This will probably make the list for his upcoming impeachment in the House.

96

I was speaking from personal experience:

97

What does it mean, “Eating people’s faces”?

98

“‘I never thought leopards would eat MY face,’ sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.”

99

Updated:
"…It was obvious that they were parroting some piece of nonsense they had heard on the radio or read in the newspapers FOX News. Sometimes one was tempted to say as much, but on such occasions one was met with such a stare of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one had blasphemed the Almighty, that one realized how useless it was even to try to make contact with a mind which had become warped and for whom the facts of life had become what Hitler and Goebbels Trump et al., with their cynical disregard for truth, said they were.”

100

There was an interesting article on this subject in the UK Sunday Times. I read the print version and the online article, for me at least is paywalled. Here’s the link anyway:

The article was a feature article from Gabriel Gatehouse. I’ve not heard of him before. He’s associated with the BBC, but apparently has good US Republican connections.

He reviewed the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop and also discussed its provenance. Hunter dropped his laptop off for repair in a Wilmington, Delaware shop owned by John Paul Mac Isaac in April 2019. He never retrieved it. (So, just as a comment, anyone who is trying to deny that Hunter Biden is an idiot is denying evidence to the contrary.) Isaac, after deciding the laptop was abandoned property, reviewed its contents. He found what he thought was “political dynamite”. He copied the laptop’s hard drive and then reported the laptop to the FBI who took it into custody.

Later Isaac sent a copy of the hard drive to Steve Bannon, who passed it along to a tech-savvy subordinate Vish Burra. Burra found emails identifying conflicts of interest between Joe Biden and Hunter Biden’s business interests. These emails were forwarded to news media sources, including the New York Post, who published the “Biden’s Secret Emails” report.

The New York Post had continued reporting of the contents of Hunter Biden’s hard drive, and copies of the hard drive were made available to other media sources. Even so, in October 2020, less than a month before the presidential election, there was a public letter from “50 former CIA officers and other retired spies” “saying the laptop story had ‘all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation’”. No evidence of a Russian disinformation operation has since emerged. While this was happening, Facebook and Twitter both blocked or suppressed users from spreading news about this story. This was in the month before a presidential election, decided by “43,000 votes in three states”.

I’ll quote Gatehouse’s assessment: "They were there in the inbox. So were financial records detailing money he made from his overseas business ventures, running into the millions of dollars. It is clear from the laptop that Hunter was leveraging his family name and his father’s position to make money.’

'There are also suggestions, in text messages with family members, that Hunter felt pressure to make money for the family. But there is no evidence on the laptop that Joe Biden benefited from any of his son’s businesses, or that he used his position to help further those interests. There is no smoking gun."

My assessment: There’s not a case for Biden to be impeached based on the contents of the laptop described in the article. But, as for an investigation, there was an incredibly low bar set by the Democrats for investigations of Trump’s conduct. The Steele Dossier contained far less factual information, but was used as a source to support an investigation against Trump. If the dividing line test for a Congressional investigation is Trump’s interactions with Russia and colleagues who had dealings with Russia, then Joe Biden’s interactions with his son and Hunter’s dealing based on his last name and the potential of his father’s influence also pass that dividing line test.