Jump to content

US Politics: Sorry, we do make the rules.


LongRider

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Dunno how you come to that conclusion. I can expect that whatever happens to Biden will happen to Trump where the alleged sin falls in the same ballpark. After all they enjoy the same ruling elite class and status privilege. I don't expect the current system to apply the same consequences to presidents and ex-presidents that apply to the person on the street. But I do expect ex-presidents to be subject to at least the same consequences as sitting presidents.

That's not how the US political system works.  It's not about fairness, or correctness, or anything of that nature.  I think there is a good chance that the Republican House majority will end up impeaching Biden on his mishandling of classified material.  But there is zero chance that a Republican House would impeach Trump for his own mishandling of classified materials.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Mudguard said:

That's not how the US political system works.  It's not about fairness, or correctness, or anything of that nature.  I think there is a good chance that the Republican House majority will end up impeaching Biden on his mishandling of classified material.  But there is zero chance that a Republican House would impeach Trump for his own mishandling of classified materials.

Well, @The Anti-Targ is right about one thing - if the Republican House impeaches Biden over this it'd be a terrible political move.  Which means they probably will.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Dunno how you come to that conclusion. I can expect that whatever happens to Biden will happen to Trump where the alleged sin falls in the same ballpark. After all they enjoy the same ruling elite class and status privilege. I don't expect the current system to apply the same consequences to presidents and ex-presidents that apply to the person on the street. But I do expect ex-presidents to be subject to at least the same consequences as sitting presidents.

Oh man, this antipodean dry humor is incredible!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Mudguard said:

I don't really care about the media coverage of these stories.  Sure, Trump is worse, but Biden's handling of confidential information is bad.  That Trump is worse doesn't absolve Biden of being so sloppy. 

To me, the real problem is that sloppy handling of top secret and SCI can damage national security, and in the worse case, get people killed.  Hopefully, that hasn't happened in either Trump or Biden's cases, but we'll never know because they can't disclose the contents of the information.  Generally speaking, there needs to be some sort of punishment when breaking protocol to deter people from treating this information so sloppily.

Yeah, this whole thing is an exercise in some truly supreme comedic screenwriting. I didn't believe in god until just now, when the scope of the hilarity was finally revealed to me. 

Guys, this is fucking great. 

I mean, c'mon. Like we all know that Donald Trump is a Chinese agent. And a Russian agent. And a Saudi agent, an Iranian agent, a North Korean, South Korean, and I'm sure an equatorial Korean agent as well. Because he's the agent of the person who is standing closest to him, hand unseen. That's just who the dude is. It's not even _entirely_ that he's a weak little pissant who couldn't even get pissed on by a fucking ant if he wasn't paying for it. That's actually not it. 

He's just a fucking traitor. He's a piece of shit. An opportunist of the highest quality. VeRy hIgH quality. We all know this. I'm not saying anything we don't know. Yo, he's not in there rifling through papers looking for what Xi (his delegate) wants, the delegate is just fishing in Donnie DumDum's maelstrom of personality deficiencies that permineralized away his white and grey matter decades ago. And if you use the right baits, a good hook, and the delegate (from Xi, or whomever) brought along a slave who actually knows how to use that mouth of hers DING! <By the way, I'm going to request that you don't remove that slave bit, because there's 50 million slaves in the world right now and men like Donald Trump make use of them directly or indirectly every day :) > 

Meanwhile, oh poor President Biden. Seriously. He's a good American. I don't think highly of politicians, but Joe just ain't got it in him to be a scumbag. He's too honest. Just can't do it. Be dumb? Totally. Weird? Absolutely. Excessively Familiar? You Betcha. Behind the Times? Motherfucker was born behind the Post. 

 I think he's a good man. I appreciate that when Gondor's need was most dire, he gathered up his Green Ghostly Bones and marched out of the dimholt road to fulfill his oath. 

But goddaMMIT JOE!

And you know the fuckin sad thing? Folks are right, up thread about how this happens all the time. Because it does. Because whatever. But goddamn if he wasn't probably taking those documents because he actually did want to read them. 

He's fucking old. We all know what's up. And like a good goddamn man he was almost certainly actually trying to do his job. And he'll suffer more for it, because he actually cares when he fucks up, than Donald ever did for anything. 

 

9 hours ago, Gaston de Foix said:

Hang ___

9 hours ago, Mindwalker said:

Say what you will about Merrick Garland, but I always said he could be quick and efficient as long as the alleged culprit was a Democrat.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, DMC said:

Well, @The Anti-Targ is right about one thing - if the Republican House impeaches Biden over this it'd be a terrible political move.  Which means they probably will.

Okay...

Let's muddle forward a bit here...

The Republican House really, really wants to impeach Biden on something. Anything. And the missing document scandal is actually something legitimate. So, likely, they'll go with it.

Then we have Biden, who has looked a bit long in the tooth for a second term ever since before he was sworn in. Additionally, while far from perfect, Biden is also far more ethical than Trump - and far more of an institutionalist than the vast majority of R's. 

Now, at this point, a House Impeachment conviction of Biden is likely - but probably not for most of another year, what with the Special Consul stuff. 

So... suppose the Impeachment does happen, the verdict getting handed down in year or so, give or take. What does Biden do?

To proceed in office means scandals and a potentially embarrassing campaign - his age and all, plus his health WILL become an issue. So, suppose he steps down in favor of Harris? Not likely, but legit, ethical, and backed by precedent.

I suppose Harris would then get to appoint the VP?

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, ThinkerX said:

So... suppose the Impeachment does happen, the verdict getting handed down in year or so, give or take. What does Biden do?

To proceed in office means scandals and a potentially embarrassing campaign - his age and all, plus his health WILL become an issue. So, suppose he steps down in favor of Harris? Not likely, but legit, ethical, and backed by precedent.

I suppose Harris would then get to appoint the VP?

Getting impeached by the House Republicans means jack shit and indeed would almost certainly help Biden's reelection chances.  I've always said I prefer Biden doesn't run, but this is an overreaction to today's news.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, DMC said:

Getting impeached by the House Republicans means jack shit and indeed would almost certainly help Biden's reelection chances.  I've always said I prefer Biden doesn't run, but this is an overreaction to today's news.

If Biden does run again, I see this as being a sort of echo or rerun of the scandals that sank Hillary's campaign. The R's merely have to sow credible doubt, which is what this scandal does. 

Plus, by this time next year there will undoubtedly be other at least semi-legitimate Biden scandals for the R's to exploit. Harris, though...that could blindside them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Mudguard said:

That's not how the US political system works.  It's not about fairness, or correctness, or anything of that nature.  I think there is a good chance that the Republican House majority will end up impeaching Biden on his mishandling of classified material.  But there is zero chance that a Republican House would impeach Trump for his own mishandling of classified materials.

Fortunately it's not up to the House, Dem or Rep, to do anything about Trump, unless he wins in 2024. Ex-presidents, for better or worse, are subject to to civilian justice. All my good friends here say he'll never be called to account, and while Biden remains un-charged with anything I agree. If the Republicans actually try to remove Biden from office over these docs the rules of the game suddenly change, no president and ex-president have every been accused of the same crime at, more or less, the same time. There's no precedent for what's happening with these presidents. Though I guess history suggests nothing will actually happen to either of them.

I'd love to see what happens if the DoJ comes out and says both Biden and Trump have cases to answer for alleged violations under of the same Act.

 

3 hours ago, Kalnestk Oblast said:

Oh man, this antipodean dry humor is incredible!

Well it's fookin' wet down here right now, and disappointingly cool, so a bit of dry would be welcome. I'm supposed to be coming to DC and Ottawa in Feb, I wonder if I will notice a difference.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, ThinkerX said:

If Biden does run again, I see this as being a sort of echo or rerun of the scandals that sank Hillary's campaign. The R's merely have to sow credible doubt, which is what this scandal does. 

It's a misnomer to think "scandals" are what sank Hillary's campaign.  She lost because she wasn't well liked - and never was.  The impact of the "scandals" was simply the Comey letter 9 days before the election.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, DMC said:

It's a misnomer to think "scandals" are what sank Hillary's campaign.  She lost because she wasn't well liked - and never was.  The impact of the "scandals" was simply the Comey letter 9 days before the election.

But everyone around her says she's so likable, just like everyone around Mitt said the same thing.

Moral of the story, be yourself, not some poll tested robot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

But everyone around her says she's so likable, just like everyone around Mitt said the same thing.

Moral of the story, be yourself, not some poll tested robot.

Howard Dean says…well, you know what he says. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, DMC said:

It's a misnomer to think "scandals" are what sank Hillary's campaign.  She lost because she wasn't well liked - and never was.  The impact of the "scandals" was simply the Comey letter 9 days before the election.

And on the opposite side, Trump benefited from being a newcomer politically speaking. This benefited him enormously in all sorts of ways. He was able to convince some voters for example he wouldn't be a typical Republican on the economy and entitlements. There was no mention that he was planning to put little kids in cages or use riot-control measures on Americans to get a photo op. He's now a known quantity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Talking Points Memo: Fwd: Dispatch No. 24: Santos Embraced by GOP Far Right

Quote

 

We knew it was going to be a bumpy ride with the fractious House Republican caucus limited to a four seat majority. Nancy Pelosi could manage those numbers and pass major legislation. Not Kevin McCarthy. But we’re now seeing more detail of how this highly unstable situation is going to play out over the next two years: particularly the heady interplay of ego, power, corruption and extremism.

You might think disgraced Rep. George Santos would be booted from Congress straightaway. Far from it. Kevin McCarthy and the House leadership are giving him a wide berth, even going so far as to suggest that Santos is hardly the only member of the House who’s “embellished” his resume. McCarthy needs Santos’s vote. If he resigned he’d most likely be replaced by a Democrat in a special election. But that’s not a certainty.

The more interesting development is the House Crazy Caucus’s growing embrace of Santos. I mean Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert. He was cozying up them last week and it’s paying off. They’re embracing him as a “fighter.” That’s the topic of my Dispatch today and I also want to direct your attention to Emine Yücel’s write up of Matt Gaetz’s interview with Santos on Steve Bannon’s show, which gives you more of a flavor of where this is going.

My own hunch remains that only subpoenas and indictments are going to drive Santos from office.

Santos Embraced by GOP Far Right
­
We’ve mentioned a few times that during Kevin McCarthy’s marathon week of votes to become speaker, George Santos was conspicuously cozying up to far-right players like Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. Those are the kind of people you want to have on your side if you’re girding for a battle with the “fake news” media and the “GOP establishment.” It seems to be paying off. Yesterday Matt Gaetz interviewed Santos on Steve Bannon’s show and the spin was pretty clear. “One thing I know about this town, they come for the fighters,” Gaetz said opening the interview, “And they’re coming for George Santos like nothing I’ve seen in quite some time.”

(Emine Yücel has the full run-down of the interview here. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/gaetz-santos-steve-bannon-war-room-interview?   But that’s the gist.)

The fact that Santos would go down this path isn’t surprising. He needs friends desperately. McCarthy and Scalise are covering for him so far. But that support is contingent and tactical. The real crazies are the people most likely to throw Santos a lifeline. What wasn’t totally clear was whether the hardcore Trump faction in the House would take up his cause. But it appears Santos’s gambit has paid off. It’s not just Bannon’s show. Infowars is backing Santos too. Now Santos isn’t a comical, pathological liar. He’s one of “the fighters”.

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...