There's a part of me that's disappointed that Hunter failed as an influence peddler and was largely a sketchy conman overselling his influence. I wouldn't have minded seeing more There there, if only to establish a punishment and a precedent that it's not kosher for the families of Presidents and other people in power to try and monetize that influence. I would have loved to use that precedent to look into not only Hunter's dealings, but to really dive deeply into the influence operation Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are running NOW[1] on the off-chance that Poppa Trump is back in power before too long.
(And let's not forget the sketchiness between Jared, Qatar, the Saudi blockade, and the fate of the 666 Fifth Avenue building.[2])
This Will Be Inconsequential, To The Trump Cucks On Capitol Hill ( Like Jim Jordan And Margery Taylor Green ). Nope, The Trump Cucks, Both On Capitol Hill And In The Trump Cuck Voter Base, Will Pretend That They've Discovered The
" Smoking Gun " And Proceed, Forward, With Impeachment, While Ignoring Reality.
After All, As You Alluded To In Your Column, It's All About Petulant, Bitter, Butt-Hurt, Sore - Headed Revenge. Yep, It's All About Petty Political Revenge Because The Capitol Hill Trump Cucks Are Still Sore About Their Orange - Faced, Dear Leader Being ( Rightfully ) Impeached, Not Once, But Twice.
It's, Also, About Establishing Fake Moral Equivalency, For Donald Trump, Ahead Of The 2024 Presidential Election. When Pressed, By Debate Panel Members, On Televised Presidential Debates, About His Double Impeachments, Donald Trump Wants To Be Able To Shrug And Say " So What. Joe Biden Has Been Impeached, Twice, Too. I'm No Worse Than Joe Biden. Besides, Being Impeached Doesn't Matter Anymore. Richard Nixon Was Impeached. Bill Clinton Was Impeached. Joe Biden Was Impeached. And Yes, I, Donald Trump, Was Impeached. Impeachment Is, Now, Normal Presidential Experience. Being Impeached Is, Now, Irrelevant. ". Yep, That's What Donald Trump And All Of His, Fanatical, Trump Cuck Supporters, On Capitol Hill, Want Donald Trump To Be Able To Say, On The Debate Stage, In September And October Of 2024.
Again, It's All About Petty Revenge And Fake Moral Equivalency. That's Why Jim Jordan, Margery Taylor Green And All The, Other, Fanatical Trump Cucks, On Capitol Hill, Will Ignore The Inconvenient Testimony Of Their " Star Witness " And Plow, Forward, With An Impeachment Attempt, While Gaslighting Their Trump Cuck, Zombie Audience, On Fox News, Newsmax And OANN, With The Lying, Bull Excrement Line Of " Smoking Gun!!! We Found The Smoking Gun!!! Hunter Biden's Business Partner Just Gave Us The Smoking Gun Proof Of Hunter Biden's Criminal Links To His Corrupt, Crooked Father, Joe Biden!!! Who Needs Any More Evidence???!!! It's Impeachment Time!!! ".
I'm in favor of removing Biden from office but attempting impeachment would be a waste of time. Congress would better serve the nation by balancing the budget, keeping the military strong, controlling the border, decreasing the reliance on foreign energy, encouraging domestic manufacturing and ensuring a reliable supply of critical materials and components. Of course, no progress can be made toward those goals because they would be killed in the Senate or vetoed by Biden.
Vote Biden out of office. Elect a President who will appoint a bulldog prosecutor to go after Biden corruption to the same degree Trump has been hounded and persecuted. See how well Biden fares under legal assault in a venue other than DC. If such a prosecutor can't be found, write it off.
Sorry, what? Have you paid no attention to how much investment in domestic manufacturing has increased during the Biden Administration (nice chart at https://www.axios.com/2023/06/16/manufacturing-supercycle), or the moves by the Biden Admin to have critical components be produced here (CHIPS Act, for example), or that oil production levels are back to their pre-COVID highs (https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPUS2&f=M)? I know the latter point has been pointed out many times: why do you keep stating anything other than that is occurring?
The CHIPS Act is a great start. I would feel better about it if it did not present the potential of wasting a significant amount of its funding on green energy projects, DEI, underserved communities, labor union concessions, etc. More encouragement of domestic manufacturing is needed for large and small critical commodities. Since bipartisan support is needed to pass such bills, I’m sure it will not take long for any hiccups that develop to be blamed on corporate welfare pushed by Republicans.
Domestic petroleum production has increased but so has demand post COVID. Obviously the Biden administration has not done enough because the price of gasoline has gone up over 30% and will get worse because Saudi Arabia has decreased production. The administration has withdrawn its offer to purchase large quantities of oil to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve which they recklessly drew down for political show. We are overly reliant on the global petroleum supply.
Gas prices went up because of increased demand world-wide AND because Russia invaded Ukraine. The thing the Biden Admin can't do is force oil companies to pump more, nor to refine more. The companies were burned in the past when supply outstripped demand: they will now not produce more than they need to in order to maintain their profits. Unless you're suggesting that POTUS be able to force private industry to act differently via some un-Constitutional means...which seems pretty darn contrary to how you want POTUS/Congress to act in general.
So please: some reality in the statements above.
Attacking "woke" is one thing, because "woke" means nothing at this point. Attacking "diversity" and "inclusion" though is another, because those words have
As I said, we are too reliant on global production. The boom or bust cyclic nature of petroleum production is largely a result of government policies. Shutting down the economy in an ineffective effort to control COVID. Shutting down oil fired generating plants. Environmental regulations. Shutting down pipelines. Workers deserting the petroleum industry for more stable occupations. Pushing electric vehicles.
The oil companies are now at the mercy of the stock market and government regulations.
DEI, underserved communities, programs to combat sexism in STEM studies, green energy, climate programs and other social justice causes that drain funding from legislation such as the CHIPS Act are wasteful duplication. There are already laws covering those policies that are separately funded.
Biden has recently allowed more drilling in Alaska. We're increasing manufacturing of solar and wind electrical generation, and installing more of it: that's reducing reliance on global production.
Again, unless you're proposing to disallow oil exports (which to my understanding violates the idea of free markets) then what exactly do you want to have happen that is in any way tied to reality?
Oil companies have always been at the mercy of the stock market and government regulations: the question is what regulation(s) are you thinking are having a negative impact on prices? Be specific, please: no more generic "regulations are the problem", tell us exactly which one(s) should be curtailed or eliminated and why.
Who controls energy generation: the Federal government, or local utilities and their respective State energy boards? Which types of carbon-burning plants have closed, and which have opened (coal plants are basically gone, natural gas replaced those)?
You're right. I'm all over the place on this one. There are too many pieces and parts. I do not believe central station solar and wind will meet the needs of many users - only those who have their own land area and other resources. There are more options for power. The recent administrations have been pretty good at promoting nuclear power, but the fact remains that only one nuclear power generating unit (Vogtle 3, last month) has achieved commercial operation in the last 30+ years. There are very efficient (thermally and financially) oil and gas fired combustion turbine combined cycle options available.
States generally control investor-owned public utilities. The utilities are required to provide reliable power at a reasonable cost with a reasonable rate of return on investment (ROI). EMCs are customer owned and controlled. The customers elect a board of directors who hire a management team. EMCs obtain power from a number of sources such as TVA, Corps of Engineers, investor-owned utilities and sole ownership of generation or part ownership of generation operated by investor-owned utilities. Municipalities operate somewhat like EMCs except the management team is a department of the municipality.
Is this too much like a Kamala Harris speech?
All I can say about the price of oil in the USA is that it is dependent on the economy which is dependent on government policy. EVs will not meet the need of more than about 75% of the population and that's stretching it - assuming most city dwellers do not wish to go elsewhere very often.
Yeah Curtis you are right. The senate will ignore the corruption in their own party. Biden's failure at the border and internationally are dooming this country His pursuit of giant government to ruin our lives makes it imperative that we get him out of the whitehouse.
You guys are a hoot. Seriously boys, telling us all about the "Biden crime family," has as much credibility as Comer and his breathless announcements over the "proof' that never materialized from his "bombshell witness." Another dud wasn't it?
Even after he was done testifying, not a scintilla of facts or admission he saw anything he could hang his hat on.. Yet they were still singing the tired old versus of spin and more spin. I guess they know trump supporters won't read his testimony, just rely on the old talking heads telling them what to think. Amazing.
On the other hand, your boy trump is knee deep in facts and documentation. The really great news is, as Jack Smith told the world, he is innocent until proven guilty. What a great country eh?; living under the rule of law that works equally, irrespective of party affiliation.
BTW, if Hunter is guilty of something/anything that can be proved, lock him up. Who the bleep cares? One can only chuckle over allegations of "influence peddling" after the trump family fire sale while he served as president.
I'm not a big Trump fan. To me he is preferable only to candidates such as Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Gavin Newsome. During the 2016 campaign I was pulling for Jim Webb to get the democrat nomination so I would have someone to vote for instead of against.
But I would be very surprised if a thorough financial analysis of Biden family finances does not disclose Joe as culpable or more so than Trump.
What evidence of Trump's criminality, there is as much evidence of that criminality as there was evidence of him committing impeachable acts as President. Remember that, he called Ukraine to get some details on the Biden corruption which has now been documented and then there is the Jan. 6th mostly peaceful riot at the capital that the Left tried to blame on him. I feel pretty comfortable with Trump getting through this, he is innocent and even if the democrats on the jury corrupt the procedure he will be able to pardon himself as the President (#47).
On a side note, just listened to the parents of those military individuals sacrificed so that Joe Biden can get out of Afghanistan before september 11th. They are bitter and can't get answers to the questions of why they decided to evacuate by sending the military out before the civilians in the face of Taliban threats. No one should be allowed to reside in the Whitehouse after making stupid and deadly decisions like that.
I try and avoid the back and forth LP but in your case i will make an exception: You raised the Afghanistan issue and just this morning on The Bulwark Linda Chavez addressed that very issue. Nope, not defending how or what Joe did, but the devil is always in the detail isn't it?
Here's two paragraph's from it as it is paywall protected:
"The Afghan Adjustment Act would give permanent residence to Afghans who have been paroled into the United States. It’s not a heavy lift. Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar introduced the latest, bipartisan legislation in July with four other Democrats and five Republican cosponsors; Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks introduced a similar measure in the House with two dozen cosponsors from both sides of the aisle. The Klobuchar bill includes tough vetting measures to ensure that deserving Afghans receive protection while those who may pose a security threat are weeded out.
Yet neither the Senate nor House has been able to move, largely because of objections by Sen. Chuck Grassley, who blocked a similar bill in committee last year, and Sen. Tom Cotton, who has submitted a competing bill this year. Cotton wants to tie Afghan readjustment to severely restricting the president’s powers to grant future humanitarian parole to others fleeing wars or political oppression."
Interesting isn't it? If the republican's really gave two shits about those Afghan's. you would think they would quit playing political games and help secure their safety. But alas, politics is what politics is...people be damned.
There's a part of me that's disappointed that Hunter failed as an influence peddler and was largely a sketchy conman overselling his influence. I wouldn't have minded seeing more There there, if only to establish a punishment and a precedent that it's not kosher for the families of Presidents and other people in power to try and monetize that influence. I would have loved to use that precedent to look into not only Hunter's dealings, but to really dive deeply into the influence operation Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are running NOW[1] on the off-chance that Poppa Trump is back in power before too long.
(And let's not forget the sketchiness between Jared, Qatar, the Saudi blockade, and the fate of the 666 Fifth Avenue building.[2])
[1] https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/jared-kushners-money-saudi-arabia-comes-sharper-focus-rcna70367
[2] https://www.justsecurity.org/69094/timeline-on-jared-kushner-qatar-666-fifth-avenue-and-white-house-policy/
This Will Be Inconsequential, To The Trump Cucks On Capitol Hill ( Like Jim Jordan And Margery Taylor Green ). Nope, The Trump Cucks, Both On Capitol Hill And In The Trump Cuck Voter Base, Will Pretend That They've Discovered The
" Smoking Gun " And Proceed, Forward, With Impeachment, While Ignoring Reality.
After All, As You Alluded To In Your Column, It's All About Petulant, Bitter, Butt-Hurt, Sore - Headed Revenge. Yep, It's All About Petty Political Revenge Because The Capitol Hill Trump Cucks Are Still Sore About Their Orange - Faced, Dear Leader Being ( Rightfully ) Impeached, Not Once, But Twice.
It's, Also, About Establishing Fake Moral Equivalency, For Donald Trump, Ahead Of The 2024 Presidential Election. When Pressed, By Debate Panel Members, On Televised Presidential Debates, About His Double Impeachments, Donald Trump Wants To Be Able To Shrug And Say " So What. Joe Biden Has Been Impeached, Twice, Too. I'm No Worse Than Joe Biden. Besides, Being Impeached Doesn't Matter Anymore. Richard Nixon Was Impeached. Bill Clinton Was Impeached. Joe Biden Was Impeached. And Yes, I, Donald Trump, Was Impeached. Impeachment Is, Now, Normal Presidential Experience. Being Impeached Is, Now, Irrelevant. ". Yep, That's What Donald Trump And All Of His, Fanatical, Trump Cuck Supporters, On Capitol Hill, Want Donald Trump To Be Able To Say, On The Debate Stage, In September And October Of 2024.
Again, It's All About Petty Revenge And Fake Moral Equivalency. That's Why Jim Jordan, Margery Taylor Green And All The, Other, Fanatical Trump Cucks, On Capitol Hill, Will Ignore The Inconvenient Testimony Of Their " Star Witness " And Plow, Forward, With An Impeachment Attempt, While Gaslighting Their Trump Cuck, Zombie Audience, On Fox News, Newsmax And OANN, With The Lying, Bull Excrement Line Of " Smoking Gun!!! We Found The Smoking Gun!!! Hunter Biden's Business Partner Just Gave Us The Smoking Gun Proof Of Hunter Biden's Criminal Links To His Corrupt, Crooked Father, Joe Biden!!! Who Needs Any More Evidence???!!! It's Impeachment Time!!! ".
I'm in favor of removing Biden from office but attempting impeachment would be a waste of time. Congress would better serve the nation by balancing the budget, keeping the military strong, controlling the border, decreasing the reliance on foreign energy, encouraging domestic manufacturing and ensuring a reliable supply of critical materials and components. Of course, no progress can be made toward those goals because they would be killed in the Senate or vetoed by Biden.
Vote Biden out of office. Elect a President who will appoint a bulldog prosecutor to go after Biden corruption to the same degree Trump has been hounded and persecuted. See how well Biden fares under legal assault in a venue other than DC. If such a prosecutor can't be found, write it off.
Sorry, what? Have you paid no attention to how much investment in domestic manufacturing has increased during the Biden Administration (nice chart at https://www.axios.com/2023/06/16/manufacturing-supercycle), or the moves by the Biden Admin to have critical components be produced here (CHIPS Act, for example), or that oil production levels are back to their pre-COVID highs (https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPUS2&f=M)? I know the latter point has been pointed out many times: why do you keep stating anything other than that is occurring?
The CHIPS Act is a great start. I would feel better about it if it did not present the potential of wasting a significant amount of its funding on green energy projects, DEI, underserved communities, labor union concessions, etc. More encouragement of domestic manufacturing is needed for large and small critical commodities. Since bipartisan support is needed to pass such bills, I’m sure it will not take long for any hiccups that develop to be blamed on corporate welfare pushed by Republicans.
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/592E23A5-B56F-48AE-B4C1-493822686BCB
Domestic petroleum production has increased but so has demand post COVID. Obviously the Biden administration has not done enough because the price of gasoline has gone up over 30% and will get worse because Saudi Arabia has decreased production. The administration has withdrawn its offer to purchase large quantities of oil to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve which they recklessly drew down for political show. We are overly reliant on the global petroleum supply.
Gas prices went up because of increased demand world-wide AND because Russia invaded Ukraine. The thing the Biden Admin can't do is force oil companies to pump more, nor to refine more. The companies were burned in the past when supply outstripped demand: they will now not produce more than they need to in order to maintain their profits. Unless you're suggesting that POTUS be able to force private industry to act differently via some un-Constitutional means...which seems pretty darn contrary to how you want POTUS/Congress to act in general.
So please: some reality in the statements above.
Attacking "woke" is one thing, because "woke" means nothing at this point. Attacking "diversity" and "inclusion" though is another, because those words have
real meaning - and minorities pay attention (https://twitter.com/TheValuesVoter/status/1685825790473031681?s=20).
As I said, we are too reliant on global production. The boom or bust cyclic nature of petroleum production is largely a result of government policies. Shutting down the economy in an ineffective effort to control COVID. Shutting down oil fired generating plants. Environmental regulations. Shutting down pipelines. Workers deserting the petroleum industry for more stable occupations. Pushing electric vehicles.
The oil companies are now at the mercy of the stock market and government regulations.
DEI, underserved communities, programs to combat sexism in STEM studies, green energy, climate programs and other social justice causes that drain funding from legislation such as the CHIPS Act are wasteful duplication. There are already laws covering those policies that are separately funded.
You are all over the place on this one.
Biden has recently allowed more drilling in Alaska. We're increasing manufacturing of solar and wind electrical generation, and installing more of it: that's reducing reliance on global production.
Again, unless you're proposing to disallow oil exports (which to my understanding violates the idea of free markets) then what exactly do you want to have happen that is in any way tied to reality?
Oil companies have always been at the mercy of the stock market and government regulations: the question is what regulation(s) are you thinking are having a negative impact on prices? Be specific, please: no more generic "regulations are the problem", tell us exactly which one(s) should be curtailed or eliminated and why.
Who controls energy generation: the Federal government, or local utilities and their respective State energy boards? Which types of carbon-burning plants have closed, and which have opened (coal plants are basically gone, natural gas replaced those)?
You're right. I'm all over the place on this one. There are too many pieces and parts. I do not believe central station solar and wind will meet the needs of many users - only those who have their own land area and other resources. There are more options for power. The recent administrations have been pretty good at promoting nuclear power, but the fact remains that only one nuclear power generating unit (Vogtle 3, last month) has achieved commercial operation in the last 30+ years. There are very efficient (thermally and financially) oil and gas fired combustion turbine combined cycle options available.
States generally control investor-owned public utilities. The utilities are required to provide reliable power at a reasonable cost with a reasonable rate of return on investment (ROI). EMCs are customer owned and controlled. The customers elect a board of directors who hire a management team. EMCs obtain power from a number of sources such as TVA, Corps of Engineers, investor-owned utilities and sole ownership of generation or part ownership of generation operated by investor-owned utilities. Municipalities operate somewhat like EMCs except the management team is a department of the municipality.
Is this too much like a Kamala Harris speech?
All I can say about the price of oil in the USA is that it is dependent on the economy which is dependent on government policy. EVs will not meet the need of more than about 75% of the population and that's stretching it - assuming most city dwellers do not wish to go elsewhere very often.
Yeah Curtis you are right. The senate will ignore the corruption in their own party. Biden's failure at the border and internationally are dooming this country His pursuit of giant government to ruin our lives makes it imperative that we get him out of the whitehouse.
You guys are a hoot. Seriously boys, telling us all about the "Biden crime family," has as much credibility as Comer and his breathless announcements over the "proof' that never materialized from his "bombshell witness." Another dud wasn't it?
Even after he was done testifying, not a scintilla of facts or admission he saw anything he could hang his hat on.. Yet they were still singing the tired old versus of spin and more spin. I guess they know trump supporters won't read his testimony, just rely on the old talking heads telling them what to think. Amazing.
On the other hand, your boy trump is knee deep in facts and documentation. The really great news is, as Jack Smith told the world, he is innocent until proven guilty. What a great country eh?; living under the rule of law that works equally, irrespective of party affiliation.
BTW, if Hunter is guilty of something/anything that can be proved, lock him up. Who the bleep cares? One can only chuckle over allegations of "influence peddling" after the trump family fire sale while he served as president.
I'm not a big Trump fan. To me he is preferable only to candidates such as Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Gavin Newsome. During the 2016 campaign I was pulling for Jim Webb to get the democrat nomination so I would have someone to vote for instead of against.
But I would be very surprised if a thorough financial analysis of Biden family finances does not disclose Joe as culpable or more so than Trump.
What evidence of Trump's criminality, there is as much evidence of that criminality as there was evidence of him committing impeachable acts as President. Remember that, he called Ukraine to get some details on the Biden corruption which has now been documented and then there is the Jan. 6th mostly peaceful riot at the capital that the Left tried to blame on him. I feel pretty comfortable with Trump getting through this, he is innocent and even if the democrats on the jury corrupt the procedure he will be able to pardon himself as the President (#47).
On a side note, just listened to the parents of those military individuals sacrificed so that Joe Biden can get out of Afghanistan before september 11th. They are bitter and can't get answers to the questions of why they decided to evacuate by sending the military out before the civilians in the face of Taliban threats. No one should be allowed to reside in the Whitehouse after making stupid and deadly decisions like that.
I try and avoid the back and forth LP but in your case i will make an exception: You raised the Afghanistan issue and just this morning on The Bulwark Linda Chavez addressed that very issue. Nope, not defending how or what Joe did, but the devil is always in the detail isn't it?
Here's two paragraph's from it as it is paywall protected:
"The Afghan Adjustment Act would give permanent residence to Afghans who have been paroled into the United States. It’s not a heavy lift. Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar introduced the latest, bipartisan legislation in July with four other Democrats and five Republican cosponsors; Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks introduced a similar measure in the House with two dozen cosponsors from both sides of the aisle. The Klobuchar bill includes tough vetting measures to ensure that deserving Afghans receive protection while those who may pose a security threat are weeded out.
Yet neither the Senate nor House has been able to move, largely because of objections by Sen. Chuck Grassley, who blocked a similar bill in committee last year, and Sen. Tom Cotton, who has submitted a competing bill this year. Cotton wants to tie Afghan readjustment to severely restricting the president’s powers to grant future humanitarian parole to others fleeing wars or political oppression."
Interesting isn't it? If the republican's really gave two shits about those Afghan's. you would think they would quit playing political games and help secure their safety. But alas, politics is what politics is...people be damned.