US Politics: Ballot Mainetenance

[kissdbyfire]

1 minute ago, Fragile Bird said:

I see Hunter Biden is refusing to meet behind closed doors before a congressional impeachment committee hearing, saying he’ll appear in public but not in secret. And the Republicans are threatening him with contempt charges.

So why are the Republicans refusing to hold the hearing in public? Wouldn’t that be a great forum for attacking the president?

But wouldn't that only work if you actually had something to attack him with? 

[Fragile Bird]

4 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

But wouldn't that only work if you actually had something to attack him with? 

They have lots to attack him with, and even if they didn’t, they’d simply ask accusatory questions that would be reported and paint both of them as criminals.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

2 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

They have lots to attack him with, and even if they didn’t, they’d simply ask accusatory questions that would be reported and paint both of them as criminals.

They have a lot to attack Hunter Biden with, but they want to use him as a tool to attack his father and distort the closed door testimony for the Faux News audience. Which harder to do in public hearing, when the actual testimony is on record. Not that it would matter that much for their audience, but it might make it harder to smear Uncle Joe for the non-braindead.

[Phylum of Alexandria]

1 hour ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

They have a lot to attack Hunter Biden with, but they want to use him as a tool to attack his father and distort the closed door testimony for the Faux News audience. Which harder to do in public hearing, when the actual testimony is on record. Not that it would matter that much for their audience, but it might make it harder to smear Uncle Joe for the non-braindead.

Yeah, last time they had a live questioning they had their asses handed to them, with Democrats getting the witnesses to admit there was no evidence against Joe Biden. They need some privacy to manufacture this BS.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

It would completely blow up in their faces if Republicans agreed to a public hearing. Hunter basically did the 8 Mile approach and admitted he's done a lot of shitty thing in his personal life, but they're not connected to his father and Republicans know they can't link them to him. Furthermore, most Democrats would just paint him as sympathetic recovering drug addict and/or pivot and talk about Jared's way more scandalous behavior. It's a lose-lose for Republicans which is why they want it behind closed doors so they spin it, but even that would gain them nothing outside of making Trump happy. 

Edited December 13, 2023 by Tywin et al.

[Phylum of Alexandria]

Also @A Horse Named Stranger, kudos, I only now got your dad joke title...

[ThinkerX]

So, Hunter testifies in private, walks out the door, then holds a press conference laying out all of the republican skullduggery right there on the steps, calling them iiars and cowards. 

[Zorral]

It doesn't matter what Hunter would say.  The closed door allows them to lie, just like they cherry picked the first special counsel's report on fascist traitor chief back three-four years ago saying it found nothing on him.

[The Anti-Targ]

5 hours ago, Zorral said:

That's just dumb.  See my post above.  He's constantly affecting people's lives in every way, and affecting our government on every level from local to federal because he's continually voicing and behaving in the way his base adores, as they attempt to fulfill his goals.  For gods sake why do you think judges have issued gag orders on him?  You just don't understand what's going on here, the actual, real violence that goes on.  Try living through with this shyte as one of his specific targets.  People actually have to hide where they are, get security and all the rest. And others are actually killed as random adjacent targets of what he wants his acolytes to do -- all to get him back as POTUS.  And then what do you think we'll be seeing? 

I guess I need to take the blame for not writing a paragraph to say it thinking people will be able to contextualise a phrase. He's not in a position to affect people's lives in a way that is electorally accountable, i.e. the policy, judicial, public spending and regulatory decisions one makes as POTUS or any other elected position with those powers. There is a huge difference between a rich arsehole with a megaphone talking about how women should not be allowed to have abortions and a president appointing anti-abortion judges to the supreme court, or a state legislature passing anti-abortion legislation, or a state governor not vetoing said legislation. The rich arsehole is affecting people's lives, but not to anything like the extent that legislative and judicial decisions do.

[Zorral]

2 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

The rich arsehole

Silly -- he's affecting the people who do make these appointments and legislation, so they make the appointments and legislation that he likes and will make it easier all the way around for him to return to overt power and continue what he's doing.  Why do you not understand this basic thing?

Before continuing your opining of what is and isn't going on here, you should come and make a long visit to the various parts of the country and see what it is like here in a nation that's nearly a half continent, not an island on the other side of the world.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Zorral

[TrackerNeil]

18 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

They have lots to attack him with, and even if they didn’t, they’d simply ask accusatory questions that would be reported and paint both of them as criminals.

I'm not so sure. Yes, the OAN crowd would eat that stuff up, but I'm far from certain that average Americans would do the same. 

Unless Republicans can link Biden to some kind of actual malfeasance, they're really just saying, "Ha ha, Joe Biden's son is a mess." And that may be true, but lots of Americans have kids who have screwed up their lives. I think it's more likely the average voter will sympathize with a guy trying to help a son get his life together, not make fun of him.

Ultimately, I think Republicans started with the conclusion--impeach Biden--and are now just working backward to find a reason. They have no reason, of course, but that's never stopped them before. After all, when they engage in debt-ceiling shenanigans, or shut down the government, they usually don't have a list of concrete, reasonable demands. Instead, it's a grab-bag of wishes, inchoate desires, or plainly nutty schemes like, "Repeal Obamacare, Social Security, and the Bill of Rights."

[IheartIheartTesla]

Don't know why all the visible Indian-Americans in politics are batsh*t crazy loonies like Vivek, and to a lesser extent Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal (lets not forget Gabbard, on second thoughts lets forget about her). Would be nice if Ro Khanna and Pramila Jayapal could take equal prominence on the left, but they are more low-key and actually get things done.

Edited December 14, 2023 by IheartIheartTesla

[IheartIheartTesla]

Double post pre-coffee

Edited December 14, 2023 by IheartIheartTesla

[Phylum of Alexandria]

1 hour ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Don't know why all the visible Indian-Americans in politics are batsh*t crazy loonies like Vivek, and to a lesser extent Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal (lets not forget Gabbard, on second thoughts lets forget about her). Would be nice if Ro Khanna and Pramila Jayapal could take equal prominence on the left, but they are more low-key and actually get things done.

In the ethnonationalist market, vanilla and nut are the only options available.

[Fragile Bird]

2 hours ago, TrackerNeil said:

I'm not so sure. Yes, the OAN crowd would eat that stuff up, but I'm far from certain that average Americans would do the same. 

Unless Republicans can link Biden to some kind of actual malfeasance, they're really just saying, "Ha ha, Joe Biden's son is a mess." 

I watched an interview with Jim Jordan yesterday, which was interesting for a couple of reasons. First of all, he attacked and threatened Hunter for refusing to appear before the committee, rather funny considering he refused to appear before the January 6th investigation committee, and no one charged him with contempt. But he also grasped at the wording Hunter used in his press conference. He said his father “was not financially involved” in his business. According to Jordan, this was a huge change in position, one that implies President Biden had been involved in other ways, and therefore Hunter must submit to being questioned by the committee.

That’s what I mean by accusatory questions that will paint both Bidens as criminals.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

3 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I watched an interview with Jim Jordan yesterday, which was interesting for a couple of reasons. First of all, he attacked and threatened Hunter for refusing to appear before the committee, rather funny considering he refused to appear before the January 6th investigation committee, and no one charged him with contempt. But he also grasped at the wording Hunter used in his press conference. He said his father “was not financially involved” in his business. According to Jordan, this was a huge change in position, one that implies President Biden had been involved in other ways, and therefore Hunter must submit to being questioned by the committee.

That’s what I mean by accusatory questions that will paint both Bidens as criminals.

Jim Jordan is the Platonic ideal of political hypocrisy and cowardice.

[TrackerNeil]

7 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I watched an interview with Jim Jordan yesterday, which was interesting for a couple of reasons. First of all, he attacked and threatened Hunter for refusing to appear before the committee, rather funny considering he refused to appear before the January 6th investigation committee, and no one charged him with contempt. But he also grasped at the wording Hunter used in his press conference. He said his father “was not financially involved” in his business. According to Jordan, this was a huge change in position, one that implies President Biden had been involved in other ways, and therefore Hunter must submit to being questioned by the committee.

That’s what I mean by accusatory questions that will paint both Bidens as criminals.

Sure, he can paint all he likes, but that doesn't mean Americans will buy the color. And that's really the rub; if Americans don't get behind the reasons, Republicans are going to find that impeachment is likely an electoral loser. The GOP is trying this in an election year, too, which really raises the stakes. I guess they forgot the lessons of 1998.

Maybe this fishing expedition will actually hook something of value, who knows? However, unless Republicans have more than "Hunter Biden is a sleaze", I think they may come to regret this move.

[IheartIheartTesla]

40 minutes ago, Phylum of Alexandria said:

In the ethnonationalist market, vanilla and nut are the only options available.

The vanilla part is understandable because of the stereotypes certain ethnic groups have to confirm to lest they be accused of being 'difficult'. The crazy part is a bit harder to fathom, but since the GoP cherishes that, its the only way to float to the top.

[kissdbyfire]

I think maybe this congress is much worse than people in general realise...

 

 

Edited December 14, 2023 by kissdbyfire

[Phylum of Alexandria]

13 minutes ago, TrackerNeil said:

Maybe this fishing expedition will actually hook something of value, who knows? However, unless Republicans have more than "Hunter Biden is a sleaze", I think they may come to regret this move.

I hope that's the case. But I think one of the lessons that the GOP learned from the Hillary/Benghazi nonsense was that talking about smoke loudly and often did effectively create a vague sense that there was smoke and probably fire.