That’s why an inquiry is in order, to find the answers. — NOS4A2

So because some member of Biden's family (Hunter?) received money from some foreign company an impeachment inquiry into Presidential corruption is warranted? That's one hell of a stretch.

It's far more tenuous than any of the allegations against Trump, and yet you railed against them as being politically motivated. Do you recognize the hypocrisy and bias in your approach to this allegation against Biden?

Yes, it’s warranted in my opinion, especially given Biden’s lies about his son’s dealings, many of which occurred while Biden was present and in power. I guess he should not have lied.

Given that the stage has been set by previous impeachments, this is par for the course, anyways. At least the house members you cited are acting in good faith, unlike the last ones.

At least the house members you cited are acting in good faith — NOS4A2

Well that's delusional thinking.

Hunter Biden Statement on Subpoena and Investigation

At least the house members you cited are acting in good faith, unlike the last ones. — NOS4A2

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Hunter is becoming legendary. An Errol Flynn for our political age, sailing the American Main. Like Trump, the more he is pummeled the more he is admired. Pay attention, GOP !!

[

Yes, it’s warranted in my opinion, especially given Biden’s lies about his son’s dealings, many of which occurred while Biden was present and in power. I guess he should not have lied. — NOS4A2

The only "lie" allegation I'm aware of is Joe saying he wasn't involved with Hunter's business, despite being put on speakerphone greeting Hunter and companions at business dinners. Am I missing something?

"Given that the stage has been set by previous impeachments, this is par for the course, anyways."

In the case of Trump's impeachments, there was probable cause: good evidence of crimes having been committed by the President. There's no evidence of a crime involving Joe. Hunter's been indicted for crimes that have nothing to do with Joe,. Beyond that, it's clear Hunter engaged in peddling the perception of influence. However, there's no evidence Joe WAS influenced. Even the ludicrous allegation about his firing of Shokin wouldn't be relevant, because it occurred prior to being President.

I don't care that the MAGA House wants to go on a fishing expedition, but this doesn't seem at all parallel to Trump's impeachments.

Biden pardons marijuana use nationwide.

That's nice of him.

It was his war on drugs and crime bills which put them in jail in the first place. What a nice guy.

Parnas confession or story-telling?

Lev Parnas didn't testify in Trump Ukraine scandal. Will he appear in Biden impeachment?
^{— Antonio Fins · Palm Beach Post · Dec 29, 2023}

(Should this be posted in "Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)"?)

The GOP sham trial are not going to want him too. Saith he:

The whole motive and the whole Biden stuff was never about getting justice, and getting to the bottom of Biden criminality or doing an investigation in Ukraine. It was all about announcing an investigation and using that in the media to be able to destroy the Biden campaign and have Trump win.

I mean, no kidding. We all knew that two years ago.

It goes on:

In the end, Parnas concedes, Shokin's (Shokin being the alleged whistleblower) allegations were "cockamamie stuff" and the whistleblower information tipped to Giuliani was "bull****."

"There is no Joe Biden fraud," Parnas said. "But the (alleged) Joe Biden fraud, basically, was the key that got everyone together."

What resulted, he describes, was a "perfect storm" of individual but interconnected agendas that has caused enormous suffering in Ukraine, and political distortion in America.

Perfect example of Trump handiwork. Take a few grams of bullshit and turn it into wholesale social catastrophe spanning continents. That’s how you Make America Great Again. :victory: And it’s the dead horse those morons in the GOP sham trial committee are trying to flog towards a finish line.

According to a special counsel investigation Joe Biden willfully and knowingly stole classified documents, even some Ukraine documents that he lifted during the time his corrupt son was working for Burisma. But according to the investigator he’s too old and feeble to be prosecuted. Luckily a recent court decision against the immunity of former presidents, and the conduct of his own DOJ, leaves Biden’s prosecution open for when he finally leaves office.

But the worst indictment was of his mind. The most popular president in the history of US politics turns out to be also the most feeble and absent-minded.

It all raises the both hilarious and tragic question of who is in charge of the most powerful country in history?

I’ll put forward one theory. A recent scoop suggests the country is actually run by Biden aides and Jill Biden.

Scoop — Jill Biden after 2022 news conference: "Why didn't anyone stop that?"

Zoom in: It was Jan 19, 2022. President Biden and top aides were gathered in the Treaty Room, the president's study in the executive residence, after a press conference that ran nearly two hours. He made several factual errors.

Suddenly, the group saw Jill Biden in the doorway, Rogers writes in "American Woman":

"She had watched the news conference, and the look on her face told everyone in the room — from the president on down — that they had some explaining to do."

"Why didn't anyone stop that?" she demanded.
Behind the scenes: "This dressing down ... illustrated the degree to which she is her husband's fiercest protector," Rogers continues:

"Everyone stayed silent, looking at one another, and then at her, and back to one another. That included the most powerful man in the world. Her husband essentially played along, not offering an answer, even though aides had slipped him a card suggesting he end the press conference."

"Where were you guys?" the first lady asked the aides. "Where was the person who was going to end the press conference?"

https://www.axios.com/2024/02/09/forthcoming-book-jill-biden-why-didnt-anyone-stop-that

I heard a new campaign slogan for Trump: Vote for Trump! He's competent enough to stand trial.

I think it would be better for the nation if Biden did not run again, but the political good is not the same as the political will and neither has much to do with the unscrupulous game of politics.

Robert K Hur might be a fine jurist but he is not a clinical cognitive neuroscientist and he did not conduct the battery of tests needed to make such a diagnosis. What conclusions would he have drawn from interviewing Trump or anyone else under similar circumstances?

Questions about both the mental and physical health of candidates has long been used as a political weapon. Biden might not remember it but Reagan suffered from Alzheimer's and Trump's mental health has from the start been called into question by mental health professionals - narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and paranoid personality disorder.

Questions about both the mental and physical health of candidates has long been used as a political weapon. Biden might not remember it but Reagan suffered from Alzheimer's and Trump's mental health has from the start been called into question by mental health professionals - narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and paranoid personality disorder. — Fooloso4

Come on... Joe Biden, the guy is like Breznev at the end. Similar vitality!!! Just look at the following and see the similarities.



Now compare to the elan of Biden, when he's talking about Mexico being run by President Sisi and having a border with Israel:



We just had our Presidential election. Two decent candidates, whom many said both could have been good to win.

In the US, I just feel sorry that Americans still believe in these two parties.

Nothing beats the Ultimate Uni-brow!

As I said:

I think it would be better for the nation if Biden did not run again ... — Fooloso4

Speech, demeanor, gaffes, are not sufficient measures of cognitive ability and decision making capacity. Biden has dealt with the problem of stuttering since he was a child. This means that he is always aware of what he is saying. It is similar to talking on the phone is hearing what you said repeated.

As he has acknowledged, the problem gets worse when he is tired. His age is a factor here, but even a much younger person would find his schedule exhausting.I came across a comment about how every other president except Trump appears to have aged when leaving office. The explanation was that unlike the others he spent little or no time briefings, reading intelligence reports, and deliberating. Biden spends many late nights prepping.

In the US, I just feel sorry that Americans still believe in these two parties. — ssu

For many of us it is not a question of believing in these two parties or the electoral college but rather of what it would take to change things. It is not as simple as a third party or independent running. The problem of politicians hanging on past their prime goes well beyond Biden - Trump, Grassley, McConnell and others I am too old to remember. The system is designed to resist change.

The system is designed to resist change. — Fooloso4

Never underestimate just what voters can do.

But yes, the voters can play with the balls given to them and not care about anything else. But once there is a will, there's a way.

Yet actually the GOP ending up with Trump has made people believe in the system of "primaries" and biparty system, where you can change parties from inside.... and not simply have new parties.

Never underestimate just what voters can do. — ssu

And never underestimate what they would need to do to bring about such change.

Yet actually the GOP ending up with Trump has made people believe in the system of "primaries" and biparty system, where you can change parties from inside.... — ssu

I agree. But I think that this is a clear indication that not all change is for the better. In addition, if Trump is as successful as he hopes to be, this may be the end of the two party system. The democratic republic will be replaced by a plutocratic autocracy.

I think there's a resiliency to the American identity, with a particular hang up on democracy (as if they invented it), that you'd sooner have civil war than a full blown autocracy. Currently, the dissatisfaction with everything politics, probably stems from a dissonance between what democratic results should feel like to a politically disengaged population and what they're actually getting, without consciously being aware what it is that's failing them.

a particular hang up on democracy — Benkei

A hang-up?

... you'd sooner have civil war than a full blown autocracy. — Benkei

Most Americans prefer a degree of freedom and choice. Under an autocratic leader both are imperiled. It may not be possible to vote an autocrat out of power. If there is to be civil war success depends a great deal on which side the military takes. Opposition to an autocrat backed by the military and intelligence would be extremely difficult to defeat. Unless the borders are closed and emigration restricted I think much of the population would leave rather than fight a loosing battle.

Added: On the Trump thread you said:

"Thank God for term limits whatever will be the end result."

An autocrat who intends to stay in power will not allow term limits.

:up:

As if the West Coast states are just going to roll over and accept an autocratic regime. I don't think it's at all likely; it will destroy the USA and sooner lead to civil war than Trump being supported to become a dictator. He doesn't have the military connections either to make this remotely likely and a bunch of lawyers arguing for unitary authority (which the GOP had been doing for some time) isn't going to change anything.

I think it's creating an unnecessary boogeyman to imagine Trump successfully becoming a dictator abolishing term limits.

Stoking the fears of the orange man getting into the Oval Office for a second time is sound, albeit cynical political strategy.

As a result, the Biden administration can get away with anything, and they have a lot they need to get away with.

I think there's a resiliency to the American identity, with a particular hang up on democracy (as if they invented it), that you'd sooner have civil war than a full blown autocracy. — Benkei

Yet the paradox here is the extreme faith in the Presidency to be this power of change, if there's something wrong with the system. (The US president is this kind of superstar, that people pin hopes upon. Just look at the Hollywood movies and their portrayal of the US president.) And be it Ross Perot or Donald Trump or anybody else, this is a very far fetched idea, but shows the thinking that the US President is this all powerful person who if not omnipotent, is something nearly so. Especially when the President doesn't have a loyal party backing him or her in the Congress. In short, it seems that many people don't like that power is decentralized.

Thus I personally favour the president / prime minister model: the prime minister being the head of the administration, yet the president having credible power and the ability to blow the whistle and stop things if the prime minister is out of bounds. Because in the US system when the opposition party takes control of both houses, the President is simply a lame duck. Now, should there be a prime minister, that party in control has to do something, not just say no to basically anything the President proposes.

Of course in the Parliamentary model one thing that can be hard for people to accept is that they don't personally choose the prime minister, especially in a multi-party system. The party that got the most votes might not be able to create an administration and there can be an impasse. Something that you perhaps know well.

As if the West Coast states are just going to roll over and accept an autocratic regime. — Benkei

Why the West Coast? Resistance to autocracy is not unique to the West Coast. But how effective would such resistance be without the backing of the military?

The Republican Party is already controlled by Trump. If reelected career bureaucrats and civil servants who constrained Trump last time would be gone under Schedule F. With the implementation of Project 25 and an extreme version of the unitary executive theory federal agencies would be abolished or completely loose their independence. The Justice Department would not simply come under his control but would do his bidding and take revenge against his enemies.

FBI informant charged with lying about Joe and Hunter Biden’s ties to Ukrainian energy company

An FBI informant has been charged with lying to his handler about ties between President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company.

Alexander Smirnov falsely told FBI agents in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016, prosecutors said Thursday.

Smirnov told the FBI that a Burisma executive had claimed to have hired Hunter Biden to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” prosecutors said.

"We identified evidence that the president willfully retained classified materials after the end of his vice presidency when he was a private citizen."

Just how long Joe has been around:

Here with the newly elected conservative leader Margaret Thatcher, before her being prime minister.


Here as a senator (already) with president Carter: