“He is juggling buckets of issues and is doing it quite well.”
He’s doing the best he knows how to do under trying circumstances.
Doing quite well? The majority of those polled do not seem to agree.
From NBC
“And during the nation’s largest inflation spike in 40 years, overwhelming majorities said they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and disapproved of the president’s handling of the economy.
Those are some of the major findings of the new national NBC News poll, which found that Biden’s overall job approval rating had declined to 40 percent, the lowest level of his presidency.
The erosion in Biden’s approval rating has been across the board among key demographic groups, including Black respondents (from 64 percent approve in January to 62 percent now), women (from 51 percent approve to 44 percent), Latinos (from 48 percent to 39 percent) and independents (36 percent to 32 percent).
Seventy-one percent of Americans said they believe the nation is headed on the wrong track, compared to 22 percent who said they believe it’s headed in the right direction, which is unchanged from January’s poll.“
Polls measure perceptions, not necessarily reality. People expect instant solutions to long-term problems, as if there is a "magic pill" that will fix an economy that has been sliding towards disaster for decades, and very nearly reached that point during the last administration. The reality is that there are no magic solutions, and sometimes we have to make sacrifices to resolve our problems.
The other issue is that the President is dealing with a sharply divided Congress, and Republicans who refuse to even consider ANY solution that would require their rich donors to pay even a dime more in taxes. Never mind the faction that refuses to recognize the President as the legitimate President.
He's also dealing with the over-educated, under-intelligent, otherwise-unemployables of the Washington Press Corpse - all of whom rate a minimum of 10 chucktodds (a chucktodd being an internationally-recognized unit of measure of political moron stupidity).
I ceased watching Meet the Press after he was appointed as "moderator". I also change the channel if I'm on NBC or MSNBC and he shows up. Cannot stand that person.
Same for me. There are a few others (including Blitzer) who ask cringeworthy questions and make embarrassing comments. Easy to turn the tv off or change channels.
I think you nailed it. People have become so used to instant gratification and on-demand that they think that is the way the world works, and it doesn't. Biden inherited a mess and he's trying to clean it up. The Republicans ... I don't know. They just seem like a depressing bunch. You would think all their money would make them happy, but it doesn't seem to be working. What a waste of resources.
Also, I think people rely too much on polls and not enough on their own observations. Joe Biden is a decent person and he should have our support. Otherwise, we will just tear ourselves apart, which appears to be what we want right now.
Joe Biden is a decent person but he’s not an inspirational leader. He’s no Churchill, no Roosevelt. He’s not even a President Obama. He just can’t seem to get Americans to rally around the flag.
More of a Mister Rogers gone to Washington.
When he kept repeating time and again that Mitch McConnell was his friend and believed that Manchin could find him ten good Republican Senators, I knew that he was living in an alternate reality. Not in todays bare knuckle brawling political world.
Voted for him last time, and if he runs in ‘24, I’ll do it again. Just because he’s a nice guy.
He’s far more capable and knowledgeable than anyone gives him credit for. Look what he restored with our European leaders? A consensus after TFG tried to destroy years of work.
People on a steady diet of Fox have no idea what the truth is. He is not senile, but he is old. His cognition is intact, and I wish I had half his energy. We are so lucky to have him. No one else could have done what he’s done with an obstructionist GOP. The media indeed needs to report the successes. They won’t garner near the attention that negative stories do, but it’s true that hearing it often enough causes it to be accepted.
I'm tired of reading about his poll ratings and inflation. Why can't they talk about actions and accomplishments? Even NPR got on the ratings bandwagon with the headline that Zelensky is more popular than Biden.
What the hell? We don't really know Zalensky and we do know Biden. This really gets my goat. The Biden Administration is trying to get a number of things done on all fronts. While the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has become a daily reality tv horror show, The Biden Administration continues to fight for social and political justice at home. Help him out or we will be eating Republican toast come November. Don't let this happen.
I think people are getting sick of nothing but negative, sensationalist headlines. I think we need to change that perception. I think there are lots of decent, intelligent people out there that are hungry for a different kind of reporting, one that champions the wins, not just the obstruction and losses. Let's get behind the Biden Administration and push. Try a fresh approach and champion the good once in a while.
Yes, do it because he’s a nice guy—caring, good character but also because of his vast experience, his historical knowledge. That can’t be emphasized enough. He remembers the past. He’s grounded in experience and has deep and long lasting ties in politics.
Two things to remember always:
Shakespeare wrote: “ What is past is prologue,”
and George Santayana wrote: “ Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Hey, Susan. I have observed that nothing makes the R's happy, at least in the public eye. They were busy crying even back when 45 was occupying the WH and they controlled the Senate, with a majority SCOTUS. Sad.
Thanks, Susan. Yes, it's all baed on the people's perception and what channel they watch. Do the polls even ask/report the respondents what things the administration has done? I don't think people know what this administration has done. The polls, therefore, are doing a disservice! They are part of media-bashing the Dems are experiencing.
Lots of Americans had huge hopes and dreams based on Biden’s campaign promises. Tax reform, immigration reform, crime reduction, expanded voter participation, more free stuff, on and on and on.
When I was in the business world, we lived by the saying “Under promise: over produce “
For a variety of reasons Biden has underproduced. Manchin and Sinema standout as among the primary causes.
I read opinion pieces from a wide variety of sources and have yet to read one, not even one, that predicts that Democrats will hold the House majority come midterms. Will that be Biden’s fault? Not really but it will happen anyway.
Again and again, the same colossal problem facing democracy, today's voters' naïve gullibility, their inability to think even a single step beyond the first issue facing them, let alone to seek the causes. Elections call for thought, nothing terribly demanding, but a refusal to think undermines the entire process. And here the voter is up against politicians whose approach is that of bank robbers creating a diversion; the voter pays attention to the diversion while the robbers complete their heist.
There is something exceptional about this particular deception: the media don't usually help bank robbers, yet here they do their damnedest to help political mountebanks bamboozle the public.
Another way of looking at it: I'm reminded of the schoolkid asked about the causes of thunderstorms who answered: "It's because God's angry with us".
Here, however, it's not God who's angry but the voter who treats the President like a god that's failed to come up to expectations, so he wants to return him to the store and buy a new one. However, the real effect of his angry vote in midterm elections is to cripple this presidential god supposedly endowed with magical powers, depriving him of the means to do anything for anyone.
How absurd. And, since many voters today seem so uneducated and uneducable as to be incapable of anything as complex as a game of billiards, let alone chess... let alone poker... we're up against a structural problem that makes the land ungovernable and plays into the hands of the country's enemies, especially those within the gates.
Only bigger carrots -- greed -- and fear of an even bigger stick stand any chance of showing voters the consequences of their actions.
But then, look at how deeply Putin and his robber band (duly blessed by KGB Patriarch) despise the people... of Russia and Ukraine, look at how Orban Drumpf and DeSantis scorn the voters they manipulate...
Good government demands respect for citizens, including fools, if not for all they think, say or do. When it comes to voting we can judge a politician's suitability by the respect and self-respect he or she shows.
Only... people who've been watching too many third-class soaps couldn't tell a real human being from a fake... Hence the perfect simulacrum, Reagan. Hence Agent Orange.
Is this because the average voter thinks only of himself/herself rather than the community? What's good for the whole community (besides myself)? We live in a country that has been raised on independence and pulling yourself up by your own boot straps. I personally know people in the $100,000 earnings range who begrudge paying taxes b/c they don't realize how the taxes benefit them. Yes, people just don't get it.
From all the responses, Peter, I would guess that America has an extremely difficult lesson to learn from an extremely difficult teacher. Of course the oligarchies can buy their way out of danger, float above the clouds of destruction, playing their supercilious game of chess, or Monopoly, pushing us little mute pons around the square game board, winner take all. But, what if we don't play the game, make up our own, like Zelenskyy, and call it democracy?
In trial by jury, the judge issues instructions, guiding jurors step by step through the different items of evidence they must consider, asking them to weigh up on that basis which case is the most convincing. This isn’t foolproof—nothing is—but it does at least help ensure that jurors take account of all relevant factors and are at every stage guided by evidence rather than their prejudices.
There are no such safeguards when it comes to elections—there should be, but even if there were it’s doubtful that they would have the slightest influence over most voters’ decision as reason and commonsense have little weight in these proceedings. If the issue were one of rendering justice, chances are it would be more like a lynching or the mob’s trial of Jesus… which was, of course, presided over by a politician…
Passion, prejudice, I like/don’t like his/her face, together with entertainments called “debate” that are more like a boxing match than anything involving reasoned argument—remember that flabby hunk with the orange-peel skin and the strange hair circling around Mrs. Clinton like an all-in wrestler looking for a hold and which way to throw her off the stage?—and millions of dollars get thrown to the four winds… but the political arena remains a largely thought-free zone. Such thoughts as get through have a rough time competing with Big Money.
#
I’d almost forgotten when it was that I wrote of today’s America in terms of the Nika Riots. So I just checked and, yes, it was well before January 6th 2021. In fact it was in January 2017, just after that geriatric Caligula thought he’d been made Emperor.
A few excerpts from my notes at the time. First, from an excellent essay by Amanda Taub in the New York Times of January 11th 2017: The real story about fake news is partisanship.
“In his farewell address as president Tuesday, Barack Obama warned of the dangers of uncontrolled partisanship. American democracy, he said, is weakened ‘when we allow our political dialogue to become so corrosive that people of good character are turned off from public service, so coarse with rancor that Americans with whom we disagree are not just misguided, but somehow malevolent’.”
#
“Partisan tribalism makes people more inclined to seek out and believe stories that justify their pre-existing partisan biases, whether or not they are true.”
Here, I jotted down: “A mix of video game automatisms and tribalism”. My notes continued:
“In this context, the word ‘tribalism’ sounds all too appropriate. It's supposedly politics that are divisive, but may not politics provide a perfect alibi, the screen onto which people project their hatreds? And, for that, any other screen would do the trick.”
I went on to wonder about the kind of things that can happen once politics have become sidelined by public entertainment. It starts with ritualized warfare but…
“What I wonder is whether the mass folly now engulfing country after country is not a repeat performance of what nearly brought down Byzantium, with Blues and Greens coming close to destroying the city and overthrowing the emperor. And whether, given modern armaments, at least in America, we don't risk something infinitely worse than the Nika riots and the mass killing that put an end to them.”
[Curious. Read this in the light of current events near Kyiv.]
#
“…Interesting that our political parties should be distant descendants of the Byzantine Blues and Greens. Violence and partisan support for teams were of the essence, political causes, secondary. Just issues to latch onto as a pretext for a fight.
Thanks for your post. I hadn't read about the Niko riots. I was thinking more of the Italian city republics, local monarchy living in towers.
"In 1277 the popular organization of Padua forbade the presence of the election officials of all sailors, gardeners, agricultural labourers, landless men and herdsmen' and various other categories, including all men assessed for taxation at less than100 L.". Presumably the danger was that the powerful might use them to intimidate the electors.".
As Koch and friends are currently rounding up the wild Mustangs by helicopter on our public lands and shipping them off to Mexico and Canada under horrible conditions for meat, I doubt if we'll see chariot races very soon. On the other hand, bashing towers seems to be a popular way to for an autocrat to start an inserrection. Mussolini used a fire to advance his career, Hitler used the Reightxdmstsge (sp?) Fire, 911 seemed like an attempt to start a war...
The Italian City,-Republics, by Daniel Waley, World University Library, 1973.
Thank you, Karen, but it doesn't make me happy to say these things...
On the one hand, we're up against the press-button pop-a-pill mentality that demands instant satisfaction while guaranteeing dissatisfaction. On the other, it's the tribal voter who believes that because the party for which she is voting has the same name as the party Dad and Granddad voted for, it's the same party.
Nowadays, that can be like Little Red Riding Hood casting her vote for the Wolf that's swallowed Grandma and stolen her clothes..
One conclusion of the petulant toddler faced with failure of his/her instant demand for satisfaction; "you're not my mommy!" equating dissatisfaction with responsibility of the parent. Literally, the voter equates "hard times" with bad leadership. Bad leadership makes good times harder, bad times even worse. Good leadership responds to bad times rationally, exhorts the public to reasonable and necessary sacrifices to set things on a more stable course, reminds of us of our interdependence, even as the political toddlers continue to bemoan their fate, equated to the responsibility of the leader of the moment.
I understand Peter. It is disheartening to see so many people expecting this “powerful”person to fix everything yesterday. Unfortunately, that mindset (along with Putin) got Trump elected. After all “he alone could fix it”. We have seen the “dumbing down” of America since the Regan years. And his Secretary of Education, Bill Bennett, gutted the Federal support for Civics education. Consequently, so many people today don’t have a clue about engaging in the political process, or the rights and responsibilities of citizens. That creates the perfect scenario for an authoritarian President.
That said, depressing as it may be, I am hopeful that with work we can hold on to our democracy. It seems like there are so many things going in the wrong direction, but we are not. I learn so much from Heather and all of this group, as well as others I follow on Substack. It is reassuring to know so many that are aware, concerned, and doing what they can to hold on to our democracy.
In addition to what Susan Radke points out is the fantasy Americans have bought into because of television that all problems will be resolved within a 50 minute time period (allowing 10 minutes for commercials of products you just have to go out and buy). The murder can be discovered, the autopsy performed, the blood/digestive contents analyzed, the DNA determined and matched (or not) through multiple data bases, witnesses found and interviewed, tire tracks matched and the vehicle found, the bad guys & gals located & arrested, lawyers found, juries seated, and a trial conducted with an appropriate sentence issue - ALL within 50 minutes. And the very people who expect 4 years of internal and international damage corrected, (not to mention a pandemic brought to heel) done and dusted within 15 months are the ones who are most resistant to looking at reality and the details of what is possible when there are not enough Democrats in the Senate to offset the wall of obstruction that has been the mission of the Republican leader since 2007. Now, let's mix in a single dictator who thinks he has the right to invade an innocent nation and our justifiable outrage. Piece of cake, right?
Thank you, but I don't think it's just TV that gives the impression all problems can be solved in 50 minutes or less. Politicians make elaborate promises to fix all our problems within 100 days in or der to get votes, but once in office all is forgotten, and reality rears its ugly head once again!
You refer to Ukraine as "innocent," and you refer to Putin as a "dictator." I'll suggest that both of those are debatable at best. Why do you use those two words?
I used the word "innocent" in reference to Ukraine because it did nothing to justify this invasion by Putin. There were no Nazis or Nazi-type government in Ukraine - Putin just used a flash word to try to get the Russian people aggravated and supportive. He couldn't use the Donbas region as an excuse; the Russians and Ukrainians had been fighting over that land grab for 8 years. The only reason Putin went into Ukraine was because he thought it would be an easy land grab, justified as having once been part of the USSR and Putin wants to get back to that level of world power (and "respect"). Ukraine was declared a democracy and independent nation after the USSR was broken up - back in Reagans time. Putin was in the wrong and the world is standing up and saying so.
I used the word "dictator" for Putin because it fits. A dictator is a ruler with total power over a country, an autocrat, a tyrant (as in everyone is afraid of telling him the truth when it is not what he wants to hear), an absolute ruler, an oppressor. The military actions in Ukraine have employed nothing less than a scorched earth policy. The kidnapping and absconding of thousands of children and women, taking them into unknown places in Russia (kidnapping), the bombing of well known/identified hospitals and residential areas, children's schools - none of these were a threat to his troops and materials. These are not the actions of a responsible leader. They very much are the actions of someone who believes he has supreme rights - a dictator. I'll stand by what I said, John.
Thank you Rusty for your very patient, educational and eloquent explanation to John. Good grief! Debatable???????“Innocent” people are being murdered!!! Would you want to “debate” that if it were you or your loved ones being slaughtered? . Unbelievable.
Beyond that, the Ukrainian military has been slaughtering innocent ethnic Russians in the Donbass by the thousands, going on for eight years, and Putin finally put a stop to it. The Ukrainians were massed for a full-scale invasion of the breakaway area when the Russians invaded Ukraine first, just after the Ukrainians publicly talked about developing nuclear weapons.
The hypocrisy of people who choose to ignore U.S. culpability for the most far-reaching genocide in history (with tens of millions of victims).
Quoting from Davison Budhoo's 100-page resignation letter from the International Monetary Fund:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. Mr. Camdessus, the blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers."
"The charges that I make are not light charges - they are charges that touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishing and maintaining international economic order and global efficiency."
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance."
"In guilt and self-realization of my own worthlessness as a human being, what I would like to do most of all is to so propel myself that I can get the man-in-the-street of North and South and East and West and First and Second and Third and Fourth and All Other Worlds to take an interest in what is happening to his single planet, his single habitat, because our institution was allowed to evolve in a particular way in late twentieth century international society, and allowed to become the supra-national authority that controls the day-to-day lives of hundreds of millions of people everywhere."
"We get away with our works of Dracula hiding behind the mask of Superior Technocracy and a Greater Wisdom striving for “financial balance” and “structural adjustment” in the Third World."
"And so it goes on and on and on. And nothing changes in the developing world except more death and destitution for the people in the slums, and more power for the Fund. And with the passing of every meeting our staff becomes even more reinvigorated; they wield a sharper and more bloodied tool; an even more terrifying Executor’s Axe stand poised for service everywhere in the South. And the children scream, Sir; my God, how they scream!"
(Budhoo is referring here to the incessant screaming of starving infants. When they stop screaming, you know that death is near.)
Find something more contemporary, then find something that suggests it's more dominant in Ukraine than in other Eastern European nations. The do yourself a favor (oops, I'm being peremptory again) and figure out how many in the right-wing also support Russia and Putin.
Your rudeness is palpable. May the derivatives markets be liquidated through bankruptcy proceedings, and may a stake be driven through the heart of the international floating exchange rate system.
Zelensky was brought to power by an oligarch who funded the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion:
Your most recent replies just give me reason to laugh.
You can have the last word - it's obvious you aren't serious and may not even be a real person, so wasting more more time with you, as others here have suggested, won't be happening.
Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union for 70 years. I have no doubt that considerable similarities remain. Ukraine has had 30 years to chart it's own path; up until 2013 it followed a path not unlike that of Russia. It had, and has, pro-Russian elements amongst its population, and yes, there are likely some fascist elements as well. However, that doesn't justify invasion by Russia as a means to influence Ukrainian affairs. Autocratic behaviors in Russia in the last several weeks have been highlighted; arrest and incarceration of political opponents, muzzling of independent news sources, the flight of capital and upwardly mobile, highly educated citizens all speak to something other than a rules-based political system. Ukraine has demonstrated its intent from 2013 and on into the present. Their movement has been towards representative government. Not perfect, not a straight line, but unmistakable and internal. How would we react if Mexico dreamed up justification to support separatist elements in Texas, then invaded from the south to "de-Nazify" the US , establish international borders between Texas and surrounding states and "keep the peace" for Texans of hispanic descent? Would we legitimize their just efforts to avoid "genocide" of Hispanic populations in Texas? And, how would the world react?
I could write a lengthy rebuttal, covering points that I've made already. For now I'll just mention one thing: The thug regime in Ukraine recently suspended ALL opposition parties, and you didn't know that.
No, they haven't. Only the parties that openly support subjugation to Russia, and at this point, giving political comfort and aid to Russia is clearly treason.
It's a shame they haven't evolved beyond that Soviet era behavior. It's hard to imagine legitimizing Russian military intervention as a solution to that, however...
You are a semi-literate moron who can't write three consecutive words that make sense, like every other inbred Trump-loving pissant Putin-loving traitor.
Go. Fuck. Off.
And when you get through doing that, go over there and Fuck. Off.
And then go there and Fuck. Off.
And then go catch the Covid hoax and Make America Great Again.
John, please provide evidence, a trustworthy link, or site a reputable author to verify your assertion here. When you use terms like "thug regime" I suspect that you are not too well-versed in the topic but just parroting far-right memes.
Mary - You're correct, but it's even more extreme - John is mostly parroting not just far-right memes, but Sputnik and RT, which are explicitly funded by the Kremlin.
TCinLA - Good idea. Trolls thrive on attention. He's done. But if you want another laugh, and have a good anti-virus/anti-bot/firewall program, check out the "greatgameindia" blog/website.
It's mostly, maybe entirely, nonsense copied from the remnants of Q-Anon media.
With your use of the words "trustworthy" and "reputable," you set yourself to reject anything that doesn't get past your self-imposed blinders. But there is this:
My "self-imposed blinkers" block out obviously biased reporting, John. Re: Hunter Biden if the problem doesn't bear on the nation's security or problematic alliances (Kushner, e.g.), it's a deflection from the real problems at hand. Young Biden's interests fall in that category, Republican/Russian deflection from our real problems.
The real question here (and I haven't read the book) is whether Joe (not Hunter) Biden colluded with the controllers of the mainstream news media to hide from the general public (just before an election) evidence of corrupt dealings with foreign nations, including China.
Yes, of course it is. But, in the meantime, while you and your ilk are searching for mud to sling at Biden, what are you doing to strengthen democracy in the US and around the world? This is what Biden and the rest of us are about right now. What are your hopes and aspirations for a free and democratic country? Your comments indicate nothing but opposition to that effort. You seem to not understand this country and have no sympathy for our democratic ideals of civil rights and human rights. Biden is a major player in the world right now defending that democracy. Why are you not defending him?
You have me confused with someone who is interested in what an inbred quasi-literate Trumpscum has to say about anything. You'll notice I didn't use the word "think" since that implies you possess equipment it is obvious you don't.
And mommy still wants her computer back, little boy.
Clearly this is a loaded question. If Putin is not a dictator, the word has no meaning. I am sure Ukraine just like all countries has its bad actors, but nothing that merited the current blood bath with a daily abundance of war crimes and crimes against humanity. If you want further debate, look elsewhere..........
To blame Biden for inflation seems ignorant. I don’t understand how people can believe that a president can control and fix all things… especially when trying to work with those who refuse to do the work and now persist only to defeat the other “team.”
The media seems bent on perpetuating the trump lies. Robert Reich reports “ upplies and labor -- which are real but expected when an economy goes suddenly from a pandemically-induced deep freeze to meeting the soaring demands of consumers who are emerging from the pandemic. Corporations enjoying record profits in a healthy competitive economy would absorb these costs.
3. Instead, they’re passing these costs on to consumers in the form of higher prices. In many cases they’re raising prices higher than those cost increases, using the cover of inflation to increase their profit margins even more.
4. They’re doing so because they face little or no competition. If markets were competitive, companies would keep their prices down to prevent competitors from grabbing away customers.
5. Since the 1980s, two-thirds of all American industries have become more concentrated. This concentration gives corporations the power to raise prices because it makes it easy for them to informally coordinate price increases with the handful of other companies in their same industry -- without risking the possibility of losing customers, who have no other choice.
6. Corporations are using these near-record profits to boost share prices by buying back a record amount of their own shares of stock. Stock buybacks hit a new record last year. So far this year they’re on track to exceed that record. Stock buybacks are predicted to hit $1 trillion this year -- an all-time high.”
Mr Rose, so what’s your point? Instead of regurgitating statistics as you have, what should the President do instead? We’re all waiting for your wisdom….
It would seem, with both the New York Times and the Washington Post shifting from cover-up mode and now admitting that Hunter Biden's laptop is real (and not Russian disinformation), the Establishment is getting ready to throw Biden under the bus.
WaPo had experts look at the information that was provided to them from a thumb drive. The experts were only able to verify some of the data as real but none of it implied wrong doing. The information had been copied and accessed mulitple times after Hunter Biden dropped off the laptop. What the feds seem to be investigating are problems with taxes. I don't think this equates to Jan 6 and possibly 2billion from the Saudis, let alone all the other 'stuff' during Trump's tenure.
The MSM seems stuck in the look at and trumpet only the bad about everything. It would be nice if they did more comprehensive pieces about the good things happening and potentially happening. Lastly, they just need to stop with the horse race aspect of elections and talk about the candidates and their positions.
Theresa Gauvin, you write like someone who never went to college. The final paragraph of the introduction is the thesis statement of the whole book: All the facts, if there's more than smoke and mirrors, come in the following chapters.
My family name is a cross that I simply must bear. My grandfather, a small businessman, had a reputation for honesty. In his memory, I hope that I may deserve the same.
It's actually a book published a few months ago. If you know of any factual distortions in that book, please share them. In my experience, both Fox and CNN have a lot of fake news, but not all the time.
Hopefully, the news about Jared Kushner’s new equity firm’s influx of $2 billion from Saudi Prince Mohammad will mitigate the outrage about Hunter Biden’s laptop and business dealings.
A forensic analysis by experts found files have been added after Giuliani had possession of the info. The laptop is real; the provenance stinks to high Heaven, and data may have been corrupted/manipulated. There is much to investigate about Hunter Biden, but the laptop info gets smellier and smellier
When Hunter's laptop and his seat on the board of foreign companies returns to the front page, I'll know that our preoccupation with Donald Jr, Eric, Evanka and Jarrod have faded into tabloid irrelevance. Interestingly, Hunter is NOT a senior advisor to the White house. He's treated a bit like the prodigal son, who has still not come home begging to be re-admitted to the family home.
The book "Laptop from Hell" alleged a news media cover-up of Joe Biden's dirty dealings; and that supposedly ensured that Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election.
That's half the issue.
From the publisher:
"This is the unvarnished story of what’s really inside the laptop and what China knows about the Bidens, by the New York Post journalist who brought it into the open.
"It exposes the coordinated censorship operation by Big Tech, the media establishment, and former intelligence operatives to stifle the New York Post’s coverage, in a chilling exercise of raw political power three weeks before the 2020 election.
"A treasure trove of corporate documents, emails, text messages, photographs, and voice recordings, spanning a decade, the laptop provided the first evidence that President Joe Biden was involved in his son’s ventures in China, Ukraine, and beyond, despite his repeated denials."
Let's assume all that dirt is there, AND has been successfully suppressed all this time. Let's assume for the moment that Biden's political history is no cleaner than all of his peers. How does that negate the voice of 156 million votes? 75 million for tfg and 81 million for Biden? How does that address the fact that tfg's own head of the Justice department could not find adequate evidence of widespread voter fraud to warrant taking any action? So, we voted out a belligerent dictator wannabe and voted in an imperfect politician with plans to address a large number of societal issues in short order, on top of a global pandemic and subsequent major regional war on Europe's doorstep? Where IS that laptop? Why not copy the drives in their entirety, release them to every conceivable media enterprise and let them go about tracking down every lead? The story couldn't be any more sordid than what we have endured since 2016. If I have to choose amongst crooks, I'll choose gentle, compassionate and collaborative over the man who would be King every time.
My assessment, even though I could never vote for Trump, was that Biden was/is even worse.
I'll suggest that the rights and wrongs of the laptop are, practically speaking, less important than what the Establishment intends to do with all. They now clearly have the option to throw Biden under the bus and, if they want, bring Trump back for another term.
In what fashion is he even worse? What isn't "out" already? I don't see that his conduct over the last 18 months, even his conduct as VP, warrants equivalence to His Royal Orangeness. Any potentially constructive policy positions tfg might have taken were totally overmatched by his personal revulsiveness and many of them were blatantly aimed at increasing the privilege of the already exalted economic elite. I'm waiting to hear about things Biden has done to deconstruct democracy, reverse socially successful institutions within our political history, widen the gap between the top 2% and the bottom 20% of our economic demographic. I just don't see it. And "the establishment"? Which Cabal are you referring to? The Dems political machine might be divided, ineffectual, rudderless even, but doesn't appear aimed at shielding the most privileged class in America from everyone else...I say that from a place of having enjoyed a great deal of fruits of the American Opportunity as a health care "elite" for 35 years, except for the fact that I witnessed a progressive disenfranchisement of almost every person I cared for at the hands of an ascendent corporate culture whose definition of "efficiency" was squeezing more juice out of an already overburdened system to the benefit of ever increasing layers of management, consultancy, risk management and other fleas on the back of the dog, with less service rather than more delivered to the consumer public per dollar spent. The American capitalist experiment, unconstrained...
“He is juggling buckets of issues and is doing it quite well.”
He’s doing the best he knows how to do under trying circumstances.
Doing quite well? The majority of those polled do not seem to agree.
From NBC
“And during the nation’s largest inflation spike in 40 years, overwhelming majorities said they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and disapproved of the president’s handling of the economy.
Those are some of the major findings of the new national NBC News poll, which found that Biden’s overall job approval rating had declined to 40 percent, the lowest level of his presidency.
The erosion in Biden’s approval rating has been across the board among key demographic groups, including Black respondents (from 64 percent approve in January to 62 percent now), women (from 51 percent approve to 44 percent), Latinos (from 48 percent to 39 percent) and independents (36 percent to 32 percent).
Seventy-one percent of Americans said they believe the nation is headed on the wrong track, compared to 22 percent who said they believe it’s headed in the right direction, which is unchanged from January’s poll.“
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/bidens-job-approval-falls-lowest-level-presidency-war-inflation-fears-rcna21679
Polls measure perceptions, not necessarily reality. People expect instant solutions to long-term problems, as if there is a "magic pill" that will fix an economy that has been sliding towards disaster for decades, and very nearly reached that point during the last administration. The reality is that there are no magic solutions, and sometimes we have to make sacrifices to resolve our problems.
The other issue is that the President is dealing with a sharply divided Congress, and Republicans who refuse to even consider ANY solution that would require their rich donors to pay even a dime more in taxes. Never mind the faction that refuses to recognize the President as the legitimate President.
He's also dealing with the over-educated, under-intelligent, otherwise-unemployables of the Washington Press Corpse - all of whom rate a minimum of 10 chucktodds (a chucktodd being an internationally-recognized unit of measure of political moron stupidity).
Ha. Good definition.
Thanks for ”chucktodd”— now my favorite new expression to replace “dullard.” Never understood how he managed to rise in the newscaster ranks.
I ceased watching Meet the Press after he was appointed as "moderator". I also change the channel if I'm on NBC or MSNBC and he shows up. Cannot stand that person.
Same for me. There are a few others (including Blitzer) who ask cringeworthy questions and make embarrassing comments. Easy to turn the tv off or change channels.
He's impossible.
I think you nailed it. People have become so used to instant gratification and on-demand that they think that is the way the world works, and it doesn't. Biden inherited a mess and he's trying to clean it up. The Republicans ... I don't know. They just seem like a depressing bunch. You would think all their money would make them happy, but it doesn't seem to be working. What a waste of resources.
Also, I think people rely too much on polls and not enough on their own observations. Joe Biden is a decent person and he should have our support. Otherwise, we will just tear ourselves apart, which appears to be what we want right now.
Joe Biden is a decent person but he’s not an inspirational leader. He’s no Churchill, no Roosevelt. He’s not even a President Obama. He just can’t seem to get Americans to rally around the flag.
More of a Mister Rogers gone to Washington.
When he kept repeating time and again that Mitch McConnell was his friend and believed that Manchin could find him ten good Republican Senators, I knew that he was living in an alternate reality. Not in todays bare knuckle brawling political world.
Voted for him last time, and if he runs in ‘24, I’ll do it again. Just because he’s a nice guy.
Me too. Mr Rodgers doesn’t sound like a bad idea today.
Much needed, in fact.
The same problem Jimmy Carter had. Frustrating to see that so many want a publicity hound “rock star,” which explains how 45 got elected.
He’s far more capable and knowledgeable than anyone gives him credit for. Look what he restored with our European leaders? A consensus after TFG tried to destroy years of work.
People on a steady diet of Fox have no idea what the truth is. He is not senile, but he is old. His cognition is intact, and I wish I had half his energy. We are so lucky to have him. No one else could have done what he’s done with an obstructionist GOP. The media indeed needs to report the successes. They won’t garner near the attention that negative stories do, but it’s true that hearing it often enough causes it to be accepted.
I'm tired of reading about his poll ratings and inflation. Why can't they talk about actions and accomplishments? Even NPR got on the ratings bandwagon with the headline that Zelensky is more popular than Biden.
What the hell? We don't really know Zalensky and we do know Biden. This really gets my goat. The Biden Administration is trying to get a number of things done on all fronts. While the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has become a daily reality tv horror show, The Biden Administration continues to fight for social and political justice at home. Help him out or we will be eating Republican toast come November. Don't let this happen.
I think people are getting sick of nothing but negative, sensationalist headlines. I think we need to change that perception. I think there are lots of decent, intelligent people out there that are hungry for a different kind of reporting, one that champions the wins, not just the obstruction and losses. Let's get behind the Biden Administration and push. Try a fresh approach and champion the good once in a while.
Just shut up already, Rose. You’re starting to piss me off.
Yes, do it because he’s a nice guy—caring, good character but also because of his vast experience, his historical knowledge. That can’t be emphasized enough. He remembers the past. He’s grounded in experience and has deep and long lasting ties in politics.
Two things to remember always:
Shakespeare wrote: “ What is past is prologue,”
and George Santayana wrote: “ Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
I'll take a decent person over the vast majority of the current GOP any day!
Hey, Susan. I have observed that nothing makes the R's happy, at least in the public eye. They were busy crying even back when 45 was occupying the WH and they controlled the Senate, with a majority SCOTUS. Sad.
Thanks, Susan. Yes, it's all baed on the people's perception and what channel they watch. Do the polls even ask/report the respondents what things the administration has done? I don't think people know what this administration has done. The polls, therefore, are doing a disservice! They are part of media-bashing the Dems are experiencing.
Lots of Americans had huge hopes and dreams based on Biden’s campaign promises. Tax reform, immigration reform, crime reduction, expanded voter participation, more free stuff, on and on and on.
When I was in the business world, we lived by the saying “Under promise: over produce “
For a variety of reasons Biden has underproduced. Manchin and Sinema standout as among the primary causes.
I read opinion pieces from a wide variety of sources and have yet to read one, not even one, that predicts that Democrats will hold the House majority come midterms. Will that be Biden’s fault? Not really but it will happen anyway.
Then get your lazy ass up and do something about it, Mr Monday Morning Quarterback. You make me sick.
For all that, you can thank the Republicans. Forget the variety of reasons. They are trying to hamstring Biden like they did Obama
❤❤
Again and again, the same colossal problem facing democracy, today's voters' naïve gullibility, their inability to think even a single step beyond the first issue facing them, let alone to seek the causes. Elections call for thought, nothing terribly demanding, but a refusal to think undermines the entire process. And here the voter is up against politicians whose approach is that of bank robbers creating a diversion; the voter pays attention to the diversion while the robbers complete their heist.
There is something exceptional about this particular deception: the media don't usually help bank robbers, yet here they do their damnedest to help political mountebanks bamboozle the public.
Another way of looking at it: I'm reminded of the schoolkid asked about the causes of thunderstorms who answered: "It's because God's angry with us".
Here, however, it's not God who's angry but the voter who treats the President like a god that's failed to come up to expectations, so he wants to return him to the store and buy a new one. However, the real effect of his angry vote in midterm elections is to cripple this presidential god supposedly endowed with magical powers, depriving him of the means to do anything for anyone.
How absurd. And, since many voters today seem so uneducated and uneducable as to be incapable of anything as complex as a game of billiards, let alone chess... let alone poker... we're up against a structural problem that makes the land ungovernable and plays into the hands of the country's enemies, especially those within the gates.
Only bigger carrots -- greed -- and fear of an even bigger stick stand any chance of showing voters the consequences of their actions.
Or as Churchill once put it, "The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter."
But then, look at how deeply Putin and his robber band (duly blessed by KGB Patriarch) despise the people... of Russia and Ukraine, look at how Orban Drumpf and DeSantis scorn the voters they manipulate...
Good government demands respect for citizens, including fools, if not for all they think, say or do. When it comes to voting we can judge a politician's suitability by the respect and self-respect he or she shows.
Only... people who've been watching too many third-class soaps couldn't tell a real human being from a fake... Hence the perfect simulacrum, Reagan. Hence Agent Orange.
Is this because the average voter thinks only of himself/herself rather than the community? What's good for the whole community (besides myself)? We live in a country that has been raised on independence and pulling yourself up by your own boot straps. I personally know people in the $100,000 earnings range who begrudge paying taxes b/c they don't realize how the taxes benefit them. Yes, people just don't get it.
From all the responses, Peter, I would guess that America has an extremely difficult lesson to learn from an extremely difficult teacher. Of course the oligarchies can buy their way out of danger, float above the clouds of destruction, playing their supercilious game of chess, or Monopoly, pushing us little mute pons around the square game board, winner take all. But, what if we don't play the game, make up our own, like Zelenskyy, and call it democracy?
In trial by jury, the judge issues instructions, guiding jurors step by step through the different items of evidence they must consider, asking them to weigh up on that basis which case is the most convincing. This isn’t foolproof—nothing is—but it does at least help ensure that jurors take account of all relevant factors and are at every stage guided by evidence rather than their prejudices.
There are no such safeguards when it comes to elections—there should be, but even if there were it’s doubtful that they would have the slightest influence over most voters’ decision as reason and commonsense have little weight in these proceedings. If the issue were one of rendering justice, chances are it would be more like a lynching or the mob’s trial of Jesus… which was, of course, presided over by a politician…
Passion, prejudice, I like/don’t like his/her face, together with entertainments called “debate” that are more like a boxing match than anything involving reasoned argument—remember that flabby hunk with the orange-peel skin and the strange hair circling around Mrs. Clinton like an all-in wrestler looking for a hold and which way to throw her off the stage?—and millions of dollars get thrown to the four winds… but the political arena remains a largely thought-free zone. Such thoughts as get through have a rough time competing with Big Money.
#
I’d almost forgotten when it was that I wrote of today’s America in terms of the Nika Riots. So I just checked and, yes, it was well before January 6th 2021. In fact it was in January 2017, just after that geriatric Caligula thought he’d been made Emperor.
A few excerpts from my notes at the time. First, from an excellent essay by Amanda Taub in the New York Times of January 11th 2017: The real story about fake news is partisanship.
“In his farewell address as president Tuesday, Barack Obama warned of the dangers of uncontrolled partisanship. American democracy, he said, is weakened ‘when we allow our political dialogue to become so corrosive that people of good character are turned off from public service, so coarse with rancor that Americans with whom we disagree are not just misguided, but somehow malevolent’.”
#
“Partisan tribalism makes people more inclined to seek out and believe stories that justify their pre-existing partisan biases, whether or not they are true.”
Here, I jotted down: “A mix of video game automatisms and tribalism”. My notes continued:
“In this context, the word ‘tribalism’ sounds all too appropriate. It's supposedly politics that are divisive, but may not politics provide a perfect alibi, the screen onto which people project their hatreds? And, for that, any other screen would do the trick.”
I went on to wonder about the kind of things that can happen once politics have become sidelined by public entertainment. It starts with ritualized warfare but…
“What I wonder is whether the mass folly now engulfing country after country is not a repeat performance of what nearly brought down Byzantium, with Blues and Greens coming close to destroying the city and overthrowing the emperor. And whether, given modern armaments, at least in America, we don't risk something infinitely worse than the Nika riots and the mass killing that put an end to them.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/blue-versus-green-rocking-the-byzantine-empire-113325928/
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/circusmaximus/nika.html
Over a year later, I wrote in my notebook that:
“For years, the Kremlin encouraged the growth of gangs of neo-Nazi football supporters, employed as the regime’s freelance roughnecks.”
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/apr/24/russia-neo-nazi-football-hooligans-world-cup
[Curious. Read this in the light of current events near Kyiv.]
#
“…Interesting that our political parties should be distant descendants of the Byzantine Blues and Greens. Violence and partisan support for teams were of the essence, political causes, secondary. Just issues to latch onto as a pretext for a fight.
Too many recent events echo the Nika riots.”
Thanks for your post. I hadn't read about the Niko riots. I was thinking more of the Italian city republics, local monarchy living in towers.
"In 1277 the popular organization of Padua forbade the presence of the election officials of all sailors, gardeners, agricultural labourers, landless men and herdsmen' and various other categories, including all men assessed for taxation at less than100 L.". Presumably the danger was that the powerful might use them to intimidate the electors.".
As Koch and friends are currently rounding up the wild Mustangs by helicopter on our public lands and shipping them off to Mexico and Canada under horrible conditions for meat, I doubt if we'll see chariot races very soon. On the other hand, bashing towers seems to be a popular way to for an autocrat to start an inserrection. Mussolini used a fire to advance his career, Hitler used the Reightxdmstsge (sp?) Fire, 911 seemed like an attempt to start a war...
The Italian City,-Republics, by Daniel Waley, World University Library, 1973.
That’s why that Larry David Super Bowl commercial was so funny “Every one can vote!” “Even the stupid ones?!? Arrrgh!”
Very well said Peter!
Thank you, Karen, but it doesn't make me happy to say these things...
On the one hand, we're up against the press-button pop-a-pill mentality that demands instant satisfaction while guaranteeing dissatisfaction. On the other, it's the tribal voter who believes that because the party for which she is voting has the same name as the party Dad and Granddad voted for, it's the same party.
Nowadays, that can be like Little Red Riding Hood casting her vote for the Wolf that's swallowed Grandma and stolen her clothes..
One conclusion of the petulant toddler faced with failure of his/her instant demand for satisfaction; "you're not my mommy!" equating dissatisfaction with responsibility of the parent. Literally, the voter equates "hard times" with bad leadership. Bad leadership makes good times harder, bad times even worse. Good leadership responds to bad times rationally, exhorts the public to reasonable and necessary sacrifices to set things on a more stable course, reminds of us of our interdependence, even as the political toddlers continue to bemoan their fate, equated to the responsibility of the leader of the moment.
That's it in a nutshell, Nathan.
I understand Peter. It is disheartening to see so many people expecting this “powerful”person to fix everything yesterday. Unfortunately, that mindset (along with Putin) got Trump elected. After all “he alone could fix it”. We have seen the “dumbing down” of America since the Regan years. And his Secretary of Education, Bill Bennett, gutted the Federal support for Civics education. Consequently, so many people today don’t have a clue about engaging in the political process, or the rights and responsibilities of citizens. That creates the perfect scenario for an authoritarian President.
That said, depressing as it may be, I am hopeful that with work we can hold on to our democracy. It seems like there are so many things going in the wrong direction, but we are not. I learn so much from Heather and all of this group, as well as others I follow on Substack. It is reassuring to know so many that are aware, concerned, and doing what they can to hold on to our democracy.
Wonderful analogy! [Wolf in Grandma's clothes].
Democrats fail miserably where the Republicans are pros
- the propaganda department.
The Goebbels department?
It is not politicians but the judiciary that will have to sort out what look to me like professional criminals.
The fate of the country hangs on the action of the Justice Department and on the accused being treated in exactly the same way as lesser miscreants.
In addition to what Susan Radke points out is the fantasy Americans have bought into because of television that all problems will be resolved within a 50 minute time period (allowing 10 minutes for commercials of products you just have to go out and buy). The murder can be discovered, the autopsy performed, the blood/digestive contents analyzed, the DNA determined and matched (or not) through multiple data bases, witnesses found and interviewed, tire tracks matched and the vehicle found, the bad guys & gals located & arrested, lawyers found, juries seated, and a trial conducted with an appropriate sentence issue - ALL within 50 minutes. And the very people who expect 4 years of internal and international damage corrected, (not to mention a pandemic brought to heel) done and dusted within 15 months are the ones who are most resistant to looking at reality and the details of what is possible when there are not enough Democrats in the Senate to offset the wall of obstruction that has been the mission of the Republican leader since 2007. Now, let's mix in a single dictator who thinks he has the right to invade an innocent nation and our justifiable outrage. Piece of cake, right?
Thank you, but I don't think it's just TV that gives the impression all problems can be solved in 50 minutes or less. Politicians make elaborate promises to fix all our problems within 100 days in or der to get votes, but once in office all is forgotten, and reality rears its ugly head once again!
You refer to Ukraine as "innocent," and you refer to Putin as a "dictator." I'll suggest that both of those are debatable at best. Why do you use those two words?
I used the word "innocent" in reference to Ukraine because it did nothing to justify this invasion by Putin. There were no Nazis or Nazi-type government in Ukraine - Putin just used a flash word to try to get the Russian people aggravated and supportive. He couldn't use the Donbas region as an excuse; the Russians and Ukrainians had been fighting over that land grab for 8 years. The only reason Putin went into Ukraine was because he thought it would be an easy land grab, justified as having once been part of the USSR and Putin wants to get back to that level of world power (and "respect"). Ukraine was declared a democracy and independent nation after the USSR was broken up - back in Reagans time. Putin was in the wrong and the world is standing up and saying so.
I used the word "dictator" for Putin because it fits. A dictator is a ruler with total power over a country, an autocrat, a tyrant (as in everyone is afraid of telling him the truth when it is not what he wants to hear), an absolute ruler, an oppressor. The military actions in Ukraine have employed nothing less than a scorched earth policy. The kidnapping and absconding of thousands of children and women, taking them into unknown places in Russia (kidnapping), the bombing of well known/identified hospitals and residential areas, children's schools - none of these were a threat to his troops and materials. These are not the actions of a responsible leader. They very much are the actions of someone who believes he has supreme rights - a dictator. I'll stand by what I said, John.
Thank you Rusty for your very patient, educational and eloquent explanation to John. Good grief! Debatable???????“Innocent” people are being murdered!!! Would you want to “debate” that if it were you or your loved ones being slaughtered? . Unbelievable.
Beyond that, the Ukrainian military has been slaughtering innocent ethnic Russians in the Donbass by the thousands, going on for eight years, and Putin finally put a stop to it. The Ukrainians were massed for a full-scale invasion of the breakaway area when the Russians invaded Ukraine first, just after the Ukrainians publicly talked about developing nuclear weapons.
The hypocrisy of people who choose to ignore U.S. culpability for the most far-reaching genocide in history (with tens of millions of victims).
Quoting from Davison Budhoo's 100-page resignation letter from the International Monetary Fund:
"To me resignation is a priceless liberation, for with it I have taken the first big step to that place where I may hope to wash my hands of what in my mind’s eye is the blood of millions of poor and starving peoples. Mr. Camdessus, the blood is so much, you know, it runs in rivers."
"The charges that I make are not light charges - they are charges that touch at the very heart of western society and western morality and post-war inter-governmental institutionalism that have degenerated into fake and sham under the pretext of establishing and maintaining international economic order and global efficiency."
"Will the world be content merely to brand our institution as among the most insidious enemies of humankind? Will our fellowmen condemn us thus and let the matter rest? Or will the heirs of those whom we have dismembered in our own peculiar Holocaust clamor for another Nuremberg?
"I don’t mind telling you that this matter has haunted me; it has haunted me particularly over the past five years. It has haunted me because I know that if I am tried I will be found guilty, very guilty, without extenuating circumstance."
"In guilt and self-realization of my own worthlessness as a human being, what I would like to do most of all is to so propel myself that I can get the man-in-the-street of North and South and East and West and First and Second and Third and Fourth and All Other Worlds to take an interest in what is happening to his single planet, his single habitat, because our institution was allowed to evolve in a particular way in late twentieth century international society, and allowed to become the supra-national authority that controls the day-to-day lives of hundreds of millions of people everywhere."
"We get away with our works of Dracula hiding behind the mask of Superior Technocracy and a Greater Wisdom striving for “financial balance” and “structural adjustment” in the Third World."
"And so it goes on and on and on. And nothing changes in the developing world except more death and destitution for the people in the slums, and more power for the Fund. And with the passing of every meeting our staff becomes even more reinvigorated; they wield a sharper and more bloodied tool; an even more terrifying Executor’s Axe stand poised for service everywhere in the South. And the children scream, Sir; my God, how they scream!"
(Budhoo is referring here to the incessant screaming of starving infants. When they stop screaming, you know that death is near.)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oJzvpfFzIKu76oE1CkzZlarRiVpYIggFMFzSt6OgHx0/mobilebasic"
I have to respectfully question or outright disagree with literally everything you said in your most recent post.
Regarding entrenched neo-Nazis in Ukraine, here's a starter, from a well-established liberal American source:
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/
Three-year old article.
Find something more contemporary, then find something that suggests it's more dominant in Ukraine than in other Eastern European nations. The do yourself a favor (oops, I'm being peremptory again) and figure out how many in the right-wing also support Russia and Putin.
Your rudeness is palpable. May the derivatives markets be liquidated through bankruptcy proceedings, and may a stake be driven through the heart of the international floating exchange rate system.
Zelensky was brought to power by an oligarch who funded the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion:
https://greatgameindia.com/hunter-biden-zelensky-neo-nazi/
So figuratively, I've touched a troll today. Wow.
Greatgameindia.com as a reliable source?
Even more palpably, that's bottom trolling.
Your most recent replies just give me reason to laugh.
You can have the last word - it's obvious you aren't serious and may not even be a real person, so wasting more more time with you, as others here have suggested, won't be happening.
You dismiss without engaging, parading to all the narrowness of your mind. You will not be missed.
Go back to taking that eyeball tour of your colorectal system, you Trumpmoron.
Having a heckuva time ❤️ing people’s replies! 😤Great response TC!
TCinLA - Mr. Schmeekle called me "imperious" and I wasn't even as blunt as you!
Welcome to the club, Steve. :-)
;-)
Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union for 70 years. I have no doubt that considerable similarities remain. Ukraine has had 30 years to chart it's own path; up until 2013 it followed a path not unlike that of Russia. It had, and has, pro-Russian elements amongst its population, and yes, there are likely some fascist elements as well. However, that doesn't justify invasion by Russia as a means to influence Ukrainian affairs. Autocratic behaviors in Russia in the last several weeks have been highlighted; arrest and incarceration of political opponents, muzzling of independent news sources, the flight of capital and upwardly mobile, highly educated citizens all speak to something other than a rules-based political system. Ukraine has demonstrated its intent from 2013 and on into the present. Their movement has been towards representative government. Not perfect, not a straight line, but unmistakable and internal. How would we react if Mexico dreamed up justification to support separatist elements in Texas, then invaded from the south to "de-Nazify" the US , establish international borders between Texas and surrounding states and "keep the peace" for Texans of hispanic descent? Would we legitimize their just efforts to avoid "genocide" of Hispanic populations in Texas? And, how would the world react?
I could write a lengthy rebuttal, covering points that I've made already. For now I'll just mention one thing: The thug regime in Ukraine recently suspended ALL opposition parties, and you didn't know that.
No, they haven't. Only the parties that openly support subjugation to Russia, and at this point, giving political comfort and aid to Russia is clearly treason.
You are sadly misinformed.
It's a shame they haven't evolved beyond that Soviet era behavior. It's hard to imagine legitimizing Russian military intervention as a solution to that, however...
It pays to keep in mind what the other side is saying, which gets routinely ignored by Biden partisans. According to the Russians:
1. Ukraine was building up on the Donbass line of control, preparing to invade.
2. Ukrainian (neo-Nazi) military units had been shelling ethnic Russian villages for years, causing thousands of civilian casualties.
3. Just before the invasion, Ukraine publicly suggested that they would develop nuclear weapons.
4. Russia faced the threat of a replay of the Cuban missile crisis.
You are a semi-literate moron who can't write three consecutive words that make sense, like every other inbred Trump-loving pissant Putin-loving traitor.
Go. Fuck. Off.
And when you get through doing that, go over there and Fuck. Off.
And then go there and Fuck. Off.
And then go catch the Covid hoax and Make America Great Again.
Permanently.
John, please provide evidence, a trustworthy link, or site a reputable author to verify your assertion here. When you use terms like "thug regime" I suspect that you are not too well-versed in the topic but just parroting far-right memes.
Mary - You're correct, but it's even more extreme - John is mostly parroting not just far-right memes, but Sputnik and RT, which are explicitly funded by the Kremlin.
Stop taking this little semiliterate pissant seriously.
TCinLA - Good idea. Trolls thrive on attention. He's done. But if you want another laugh, and have a good anti-virus/anti-bot/firewall program, check out the "greatgameindia" blog/website.
It's mostly, maybe entirely, nonsense copied from the remnants of Q-Anon media.
With your use of the words "trustworthy" and "reputable," you set yourself to reject anything that doesn't get past your self-imposed blinders. But there is this:
https://greatgameindia.com/hunter-biden-zelensky-neo-nazi/
My "self-imposed blinkers" block out obviously biased reporting, John. Re: Hunter Biden if the problem doesn't bear on the nation's security or problematic alliances (Kushner, e.g.), it's a deflection from the real problems at hand. Young Biden's interests fall in that category, Republican/Russian deflection from our real problems.
The real question here (and I haven't read the book) is whether Joe (not Hunter) Biden colluded with the controllers of the mainstream news media to hide from the general public (just before an election) evidence of corrupt dealings with foreign nations, including China.
Yes, of course it is. But, in the meantime, while you and your ilk are searching for mud to sling at Biden, what are you doing to strengthen democracy in the US and around the world? This is what Biden and the rest of us are about right now. What are your hopes and aspirations for a free and democratic country? Your comments indicate nothing but opposition to that effort. You seem to not understand this country and have no sympathy for our democratic ideals of civil rights and human rights. Biden is a major player in the world right now defending that democracy. Why are you not defending him?
You have me confused with someone who is interested in what an inbred quasi-literate Trumpscum has to say about anything. You'll notice I didn't use the word "think" since that implies you possess equipment it is obvious you don't.
And mommy still wants her computer back, little boy.
Clearly this is a loaded question. If Putin is not a dictator, the word has no meaning. I am sure Ukraine just like all countries has its bad actors, but nothing that merited the current blood bath with a daily abundance of war crimes and crimes against humanity. If you want further debate, look elsewhere..........
My initial thought was this: is this a Putin plant, a made-up person who spreads doubt and disinformation?
Richard Sutherland,
This is me, but the photo (taken in Korea, where I was an English teacher) is ten years old:
https://independent.academia.edu/JohnSchmeeckle
EDIT: Spreading doubt is what got Socrates killed.
To blame Biden for inflation seems ignorant. I don’t understand how people can believe that a president can control and fix all things… especially when trying to work with those who refuse to do the work and now persist only to defeat the other “team.”
The media seems bent on perpetuating the trump lies. Robert Reich reports “ upplies and labor -- which are real but expected when an economy goes suddenly from a pandemically-induced deep freeze to meeting the soaring demands of consumers who are emerging from the pandemic. Corporations enjoying record profits in a healthy competitive economy would absorb these costs.
3. Instead, they’re passing these costs on to consumers in the form of higher prices. In many cases they’re raising prices higher than those cost increases, using the cover of inflation to increase their profit margins even more.
4. They’re doing so because they face little or no competition. If markets were competitive, companies would keep their prices down to prevent competitors from grabbing away customers.
5. Since the 1980s, two-thirds of all American industries have become more concentrated. This concentration gives corporations the power to raise prices because it makes it easy for them to informally coordinate price increases with the handful of other companies in their same industry -- without risking the possibility of losing customers, who have no other choice.
6. Corporations are using these near-record profits to boost share prices by buying back a record amount of their own shares of stock. Stock buybacks hit a new record last year. So far this year they’re on track to exceed that record. Stock buybacks are predicted to hit $1 trillion this year -- an all-time high.”
I "liked", but who (apart from those raking in the spoils) can like this parasitical one-way feudalism?
A couple of remarks on greed (which in fact lies at the root of all Putin's politics, leading up to the war on Ukraine):
Greed makes men stupid.
Greed rules the world.
So why be surprised that we are ruled by idiots?
#
"For greed all Nature is too little."
Seneca... who also rubbished another American fetish "success":
"Success is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody."
I never look at any Murdick media.
Wise woman.
That's a first! It only took 73 years.
Mr Rose, so what’s your point? Instead of regurgitating statistics as you have, what should the President do instead? We’re all waiting for your wisdom….
Yeah, I thought so.
H.A Rose - do you think LFAA's April 11, 2022, letter, addresses those polling results?
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-11-2022?s=r
It would seem, with both the New York Times and the Washington Post shifting from cover-up mode and now admitting that Hunter Biden's laptop is real (and not Russian disinformation), the Establishment is getting ready to throw Biden under the bus.
WaPo had experts look at the information that was provided to them from a thumb drive. The experts were only able to verify some of the data as real but none of it implied wrong doing. The information had been copied and accessed mulitple times after Hunter Biden dropped off the laptop. What the feds seem to be investigating are problems with taxes. I don't think this equates to Jan 6 and possibly 2billion from the Saudis, let alone all the other 'stuff' during Trump's tenure.
The MSM seems stuck in the look at and trumpet only the bad about everything. It would be nice if they did more comprehensive pieces about the good things happening and potentially happening. Lastly, they just need to stop with the horse race aspect of elections and talk about the candidates and their positions.
Judy, your impression about Hunter Biden's laptop is strongly contradicted by this source (24 pages available online):
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Laptop_from_Hell/mb0oEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover
Quoting from the concluding paragraph of the introduction:
"The president cannot extricate his family's moneymaking schemes from America's foreign policy imperatives."
John, exactly. President Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared made $640 million while serving in the White House. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-income-b1799464.html?amp
They were representing the US in an official capacity at the time.
Are you sure Ms Devine wasn't writing about the Trump family??
Quoting from the concluding paragraph of the introduction:
"The president cannot extricate his family's moneymaking schemes from America's foreign policy imperatives."
That’s opinion, not fact. Stay in the fact lane please.
Theresa Gauvin, you write like someone who never went to college. The final paragraph of the introduction is the thesis statement of the whole book: All the facts, if there's more than smoke and mirrors, come in the following chapters.
I thought opinions could be shared without stooping to meanness. You, have shown otherwise.
https://youtu.be/P0tLbl5LrJ8
I don’t like where this conversation has gone so I am not going to open a link from you or read any more of your postings.
https://youtu.be/SNZGarhNKbA
I guess if my name was Schmeeckle, I'd be a fucking moron too.
https://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Schmeeckle-Family-Tree-114
My family name is a cross that I simply must bear. My grandfather, a small businessman, had a reputation for honesty. In his memory, I hope that I may deserve the same.
My initials are J.S.S. (name that Hebrew prophet)
Article written by Fox News Contributer Miranda Devine...Just sayin'
It's actually a book published a few months ago. If you know of any factual distortions in that book, please share them. In my experience, both Fox and CNN have a lot of fake news, but not all the time.
Which President is being referred to here?
It says President Trump.
Hopefully, the news about Jared Kushner’s new equity firm’s influx of $2 billion from Saudi Prince Mohammad will mitigate the outrage about Hunter Biden’s laptop and business dealings.
A forensic analysis by experts found files have been added after Giuliani had possession of the info. The laptop is real; the provenance stinks to high Heaven, and data may have been corrupted/manipulated. There is much to investigate about Hunter Biden, but the laptop info gets smellier and smellier
But,but, but, Hillary’s e-mail.
I'll also suggest that the Establishment is playing footsie with Trump, testing if he has what it takes to be the new "comeback kid."
I'll further suggest that what is really going here is a so-called "strategy of tension":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy_of_tension
What rock did you crawl out from under? thanks for the reminder that LFAA should limit comments to those who pay for the privilege.
Get a life elsewhere Schmeeckle, no one is buying what you are hawking on this forum. What time is Tuck C. on?
I wouldn't know; hope you don't miss your show.
He’s not a kid.
When Hunter's laptop and his seat on the board of foreign companies returns to the front page, I'll know that our preoccupation with Donald Jr, Eric, Evanka and Jarrod have faded into tabloid irrelevance. Interestingly, Hunter is NOT a senior advisor to the White house. He's treated a bit like the prodigal son, who has still not come home begging to be re-admitted to the family home.
That's not the real issue.
The book "Laptop from Hell" alleged a news media cover-up of Joe Biden's dirty dealings; and that supposedly ensured that Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election.
That's half the issue.
From the publisher:
"This is the unvarnished story of what’s really inside the laptop and what China knows about the Bidens, by the New York Post journalist who brought it into the open.
"It exposes the coordinated censorship operation by Big Tech, the media establishment, and former intelligence operatives to stifle the New York Post’s coverage, in a chilling exercise of raw political power three weeks before the 2020 election.
"A treasure trove of corporate documents, emails, text messages, photographs, and voice recordings, spanning a decade, the laptop provided the first evidence that President Joe Biden was involved in his son’s ventures in China, Ukraine, and beyond, despite his repeated denials."
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Laptop-from-Hell/Miranda-Devine/9781637581056
Let's assume all that dirt is there, AND has been successfully suppressed all this time. Let's assume for the moment that Biden's political history is no cleaner than all of his peers. How does that negate the voice of 156 million votes? 75 million for tfg and 81 million for Biden? How does that address the fact that tfg's own head of the Justice department could not find adequate evidence of widespread voter fraud to warrant taking any action? So, we voted out a belligerent dictator wannabe and voted in an imperfect politician with plans to address a large number of societal issues in short order, on top of a global pandemic and subsequent major regional war on Europe's doorstep? Where IS that laptop? Why not copy the drives in their entirety, release them to every conceivable media enterprise and let them go about tracking down every lead? The story couldn't be any more sordid than what we have endured since 2016. If I have to choose amongst crooks, I'll choose gentle, compassionate and collaborative over the man who would be King every time.
My assessment, even though I could never vote for Trump, was that Biden was/is even worse.
I'll suggest that the rights and wrongs of the laptop are, practically speaking, less important than what the Establishment intends to do with all. They now clearly have the option to throw Biden under the bus and, if they want, bring Trump back for another term.
In what fashion is he even worse? What isn't "out" already? I don't see that his conduct over the last 18 months, even his conduct as VP, warrants equivalence to His Royal Orangeness. Any potentially constructive policy positions tfg might have taken were totally overmatched by his personal revulsiveness and many of them were blatantly aimed at increasing the privilege of the already exalted economic elite. I'm waiting to hear about things Biden has done to deconstruct democracy, reverse socially successful institutions within our political history, widen the gap between the top 2% and the bottom 20% of our economic demographic. I just don't see it. And "the establishment"? Which Cabal are you referring to? The Dems political machine might be divided, ineffectual, rudderless even, but doesn't appear aimed at shielding the most privileged class in America from everyone else...I say that from a place of having enjoyed a great deal of fruits of the American Opportunity as a health care "elite" for 35 years, except for the fact that I witnessed a progressive disenfranchisement of almost every person I cared for at the hands of an ascendent corporate culture whose definition of "efficiency" was squeezing more juice out of an already overburdened system to the benefit of ever increasing layers of management, consultancy, risk management and other fleas on the back of the dog, with less service rather than more delivered to the consumer public per dollar spent. The American capitalist experiment, unconstrained...
Thanks, Nathan. Wish I could have had all my ducks in a row as you do here, but those were my scattered thoughts. Quack, quack.
Laptop Laptop Laptop Laptop Laptop! What about The All-Important Laptop?