... and 2 are about trees.
Tucked away at the bottom of the front page is one new story about impeachment, "Gaetz’s effort to make the impeachment hearing about Hunter Biden’s problems backfired spectacularly." There seems to be something about getting Gaetz today (I guess because he went after Hunter Biden). At WaPo, the second "most read" article is "Where is Matt Gaetz’s humanity?"
From the WaPo piece (a column by Dana Milbank):
His voice dripping with derision, young Gaetz, a leading defender of President Trump, read from a July New Yorker profile of Joe Biden’s son in which Hunter Biden confessed his decades-long struggle with substance abuse.According to Milbank, "Exploiting this man’s addiction shows only that Gaetz has lost his soul."
After Hunter was involved in a car accident in 2016, the rental car company Hertz found “a crack pipe in the car and, on one of the consoles, a line of white-powder residue,” Gaetz read. “Officers filed a narcotics- offense report listing items seized in the car, including a plastic bag containing a white powdery substance, a Secret Service business card, credit cards and Hunter Biden’s driver’s license.”
“That is what we would call evidence,” Gaetz exulted. “I don’t want to make light of anybody’s substance abuse issues,” he added, doing just that, “but it’s a little hard to believe that [Ukraine’s] Burisma hired Hunter Biden to resolve their international disputes when he could not resolve his own dispute with Hertz rental car over leaving cocaine and a crack pipe in the car.”
Keyboards began clicking. Some Democrats shook their heads in disbelief. Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s jaw dropped. Was he really doing this?
Yes, Gaetz was. There really is no bottom.
Gaetz went on, mockingly, about how Hunter “asked a homeless man . . . where he could buy crack” and “returned to buy more crack a few times that week.” Said Gaetz: “Again, I’m not . . . casting any judgment on any challenges someone goes through in their personal life” — of course not! — “but it is just hard to believe that this was the guy wandering through homeless encampments buying crack that was worth $86,000 a month to Burisma.”
Here. Judge for yourself whether Gaetz has a soul:
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So if Adam Schiff can read a ridiculous "parody" into the Congressional Record, why can't Gaetz get Hunter Biden's drug issues in?
At the very least, Gaetz was telling the truth and Schiff was blatantly lying.
Civility bullshit.
"Gaetz’s effort to make the impeachment hearing about Hunter Biden’s problems backfired spectacularly.”
But his efforts to make press reports about it succeeded very well thank you. Insert Scott Adams/Dale Carnegie analysis here of who actually won. A lot of Scot Adams shtick is really about applying literary criticism and a knowledge of literary techniques to life.
Shouldn't this rate your civility BS tag? Isn't DM haranguing Gaetz for lack of civility?
The press really think that Americans accept their reassurances of “no wrongdoing” but the Democrats I know IRL, Jewish Democrats and Sandernistas think the Hunter Biden thing stinks to high heavens [Another vintage chiché]
As I was saying, you learn to be human. It's not a matter of birth. You can lose your humanity.
All of which has to do with relations to others, do you have them or not.
With babies we agree to pretend they're fully human, which pretending lets them learn while simultaneously assuring them care and bringing out the parents' own humanity.
Make a fetus cute and you can push back the abortion limit to that point by majority vote.
It would be a joke with a truth in it, to say of a newborn, he hardly seems human.
Relations to others.
What's cute has relations to others, society takes an interest.
He was reciting information that is public, right? In my book of rules on polite society and politics, that is fine, especially as compared to making lies about a person public and using them to attack someone's character.
We, as mortals, are unqualified to judge the condition of our fellow human's souls. What does it say about the soul of a person that chooses to question the state another's soul?
Scott Adams isn't literary. He's narrowly persuasion.
So they want to say Hunter Biden is cute. After all he's a child. Somebody's child, anyway.
What I remember as say-foring (which seems to actually mean something else so I wonder what term I'm after), with a toddler the parent takes on the toddler's voice, as to saying thank you to people and so forth.
Everybody acts as if the toddler said it, so the role is all acted out for him, how he fits in.
He's fully human when he does it himself.
Civility bullshit is important in a child's learning to be human.
So they're infantilizing Gaetz.
Do you still have a soul if you've made a deal with the devil?
Your body and soul are still together for now, but is it your soul anymore or is it the devil's soul now?
You take the family to dinner and the 4yo wants to pay. You give him the money and the 4yo hands it to the cashier. Did he pay for the meal?
Not fully but everybody lets him have the role. Someday he'll be proud to do it himself.
“but it’s a little hard to believe that [Ukraine’s] Burisma hired Hunter Biden to resolve their international disputes when he could not resolve his own dispute with Hertz rental car over leaving cocaine and a crack pipe in the car.”
Whose take is gonna “play in Peoria”? [Vintage cliché]
Democracy Dies in Darkness!
Soul always means relations to others.
Animals have souls, among people who notice what animals do. It's the only word at hand for that cluster of actions.
"Scott Adams isn't literary. He's narrowly persuasion.”
Good writing is all about persuasion and always has been. Writing technique is also about the technique of persuasion. Bad writers are bad at it. I am not really interested in what Adams thinks he is doing all that much.
Denying animals have souls is a defense of a strictly dogmatic use of soul, a theological picture.
Instead of taking the theology itself as a story about relations to others.
I'm thinking "Because I have a soul" is what "journalists" like Milbank tell themselves when they cover for Democrats like the Bidens.
Of course the real reasons are money and status.
Good writing is all about persuasion and always has been
There's probably an exception or two here and there, if not everywhere.
They're denying him a soul. He doesn't relate to others.
Although if somebody were to come to me for advice about writing fiction, I would say that they could learn something from some of the ancient wisdom that Scott Adams has helpfully curated. His fiction, Dilbert, was very good.
Dana Milbank no more has a soul than he has a clue.
"There's probably an exception or two here and there, if not everywhere.”
If you can’t make readers like some characters and dislike others, you are not going to get very far. I should have said good storytelling.
How about Congressman Hank Johnson, he who thinks Guam will tip over if we send more Marines....saying Trump has Zelensky's daughter duct taped in his basement?? WTF??? This is surreal.
"Where is Matt Gaetz’s humanity?"
Gaetz probably should have kept the smile off his face, but failing to do so was very human.
I decided that the video of Gaetz was effective when I saw "how dare he" tweets talking about his own past DUI issue. If the talk was being perceived badly on its own, they wouldn't need to bring up anything else to fight it.
The more complaints there are about it, the more it will be viewed. That's a win for him.
Fascinating.
Begging the Republicans not to call Hunter Biden as a witness.
So, he's guilty as hell.
But, he's their sweet lovable child and should get a pass because he has problems.
That might be the reason Nadler suddenly recessed the hearing and scheduled a vote for 10AM today with no warning. The minority were not consulted and had plans and airline reservations.
Kangaroo court. Biden was kicked out of the Navy for drug use after getting an unheard off commission in the Navy Resave at age 33.
an unheard off commission in the Navy Resave at age 33.
43!
So, Dems, why did Burisma hire Hunter Cokehead Biden?
I heard it live. While it made me uncomfortable, he did not say it in a mocking tone.
It's hard to believe you can be searching homeless encampments for crack and making millions sitting on a foreign board and not have something wonky going on.
I think that I shall never see
A Vox article about a tree.
So the Children of a President are Off Limits* rule also applies to the children of a declared candidate for President. Even if they're old enough to be an adult. It's the Chelsea Clinton Rule...
*Offer not valid for Republicans.
So, Dems, why did Burisma hire Hunter Cokehead Biden?
For the same reason the Navy hired him.
"How about Congressman Hank Johnson, he who thinks Guam will tip over if we send more Marines....saying Trump has Zelensky's daughter duct taped in his basement?? WTF??? This is surreal.”
He uses colorful metaphors. So what? But I guess pretending not to understand them is fair politics given what we have seen re Trump.
For some perspective on what it takes to get into the service at that age.
"how dare he"
When I see those words, I always hear it in Indiana Jones' fake Scottish accent in The Last Crusade
Gaetz is a happy warrior.
He reminds me of someone.
Milbank is a moron. He reminds me of morons.
Aren't these the same people who mercilessly mocked the Bush twins for some underage drinking?
Well,if MS-13 members have a spark of divinity within..... Oh,he's a Republican?
Then, no soul, nope, none at all.
/sarc
Skylark: "The press really think that Americans accept their reassurances of “no wrongdoing” but the Democrats I know IRL, Jewish Democrats and Sandernistas think the Hunter Biden thing stinks to high heavens [Another vintage chiché]"
This represents a fascinating scenario for Bernie.
In 2016, Hillary's lifetime of corruption was front and center and most visible in terms of her emails.
Bernie was literally told by the mediavand hillary to "not go there"....so the little commie obeyed and the dem establishment screwed him. If he had hit Hillary hard he might have won the dem primary.
In 2020 Bernie again sees the clear corruption of the dem primary leader, and once again he is being told by the dem establishment and media to leave Poor Little Hunteer alone at the very moment a direct assault against Biden on these grounds would easily knock him out of the race......and I'm betting Bernie does not have the guts to do it. And he will lose again.
Why did Hunter want to join the Navy? Did Joe plan to run in 2016?
Hunter Biden is a flaming mess. This isn't standard rich kid affluenza or a DUI. Cocaine, strippers, illegitimate kid, shady business deals, nepotism. He touches all the baseness. He's the kid that they wish Trump had. I don't see how Joe Biden can distance himself from his son. It's a legitimate issue, no matter who raises it......The fact that none of the other Democrat candidates raise this issue is more indicative of complicity than of soulful consideration for their fellow humans.
I watched this live and thought Gaetz was sufficiently respectful of Biden's substance abuse struggles. (Last name only is intentionally used because I am not respectful of père and don't mind tarring him with the sins of his enabled son.)
I only watched briefly and gave up when Lee began her stupidity.
"Where is Matt Gaetz’s humanity?"
Lol.
I can't read anything but the headline, but that's a big enough laugh to get the morning off to a jolly start. Does the word "decency" come up in the article?
Does WaPo have any non-buffoons on its staff?
Angle-Dyne, Samurai Buzzard said...
Does WaPo have any non-buffoons on its staff?
No.
The Democrats who assure us that the earth will die in 12 years if we don’t stop using oil and gas...
Are all trying to set their kids up in no-show jobs with oil and gas companies.
Corrected title: We really really desperately want Gaetz's attack on Hunter Biden to backfire spectacularly, so we'll pretend it did until you believe it too.
I'm betting Bernie does not have the guts to do it. And he will lose again.
Bernie got a nice house out of it and will probably have another nice house in 2021, if he lives that long and his wife stays out of prison.
When Hunter Biden decided to cash in on his father’s position—getting the Navy commission, investing China’s money, Burisma—he became a public figure and fair game. Similarly, Greta Thunberg chose to make herself a public figure. Welcome to the arena, mamma-jammas.
I watched and was disappointed in Gaetz. Not for him going after Hunter Biden by bringing up his no shoe job and drug issues. No, it was because he didn't bring up Biden fucking his dead brothers widow. The question is not does Gaetz have a soul....it's does Hunter. And the answer is no.
Gaetz was caught speaking the truth in public. So he is being attacked by the cover up everything true and live in our fantasy or else guys. Making a crime out of disclosure of the 50 year experts named Biden as the Dem point men for stealing billions of dollars of American Foreign Aid loot is easy. Just rely on a soul less Media that attacks truth tellers.
...but no one thinks Bernie has it in him to be a long-term leader in this country...
Bernie Sanders futures trading at .21 cents, up from .07 cents in mid October. Either some people do or some people think some people do.
His fiction, Dilbert, was very good.
It is good because it is based on reality. He recently had a cartoon concerning contracts and the fact that the customer did not know what the requirement was. I have that conversation almost daily. I then get accused of not being a team player because I won't go forward with an action when program has no idea what they need, and can't provide a basic Statement of Work, schedule of items or cost estimate.
"His fiction, Dilbert, was very good."
As above, its not fiction, quite. Much of it is based on cases he saw for himself, or were sent in by his fans. My old boss, 20+ years ago, used to correspond with him quite a lot and send him material. I know people who knew him in the old Pac Bell, and ditto.
Consider that body of work as a management text, not fiction. An ongoing criticism of management culture and practices.
"When Hunter Biden decided to cash in on his father’s position—getting the Navy commission, investing China’s money, Burisma—he became a public figure and fair game."
When Democrats sought to impeach Trump by claiming there was no possible legitimate motive to investigate Hunter Biden, he became fair game. To claim that Republicans aren't allowed to discuss Hunter Biden is to demand that Republicans accept the Democrat's impeachment without rebuttal.
Their entire impeachment rests on the absurd notion that Hunter Biden is pure as driven snow. It really does. That's why Milbank is begging the question (the actual correct meaning of that phrase) so hard here. The only way "Hunter is obviously innocent" can pass a smell test is if no one is ever allowed to inhale within a hundred miles of the scumbag.
By choosing to pursue impeachment over Trump's request for an investigation into Hunter Biden's appointment to the Burisma board, Democrats made Hunter Biden's background a issue for exploration.
If Dana Milbank were honest, he would admit that and drop the fake outrage.
OK. Gaetz made his point in a rather heavy-handed and humorless attempt at humor.
1. I don't believe anything I read in American Pravda. Vox is part of American Pravda.
2. Hunter Biden had and has some real problems. Why is he on the public stage? BECAUSE HOW ELSE WAS JOE GOING TO PROFIT FROM HIS POSITION.
3. Trump wouldn't have raised this now if Biden hadn't bragged about getting the prosecutor fired.
4. I read the transcript of the call with Zelensky. It's perfect.
"He recently had a cartoon concerning contracts and the fact that the customer did not know what the requirement was. I have that conversation almost daily. *I then get accused of not being a team player *”
I had that job for a long time, but was also responsible for delivery. Nothing trains you to be a careful reader better and critical thinker better than that situation except directing combat, I would guess, where the stakes are higher.
If anybody in power had ever commented on my commitment to the "team” as a rebuttal for a question I had about a requirement, I would probably have resigned. Fortunately I was never in a situation that dysfunctional. Everybody got a listen on my team, and people were sometimes overruled, but always reluctantly, and if that person was later proven right about their objection, it just meant that their stock went up.
The worst thing was getting yesed, and only finding it out later when shit went pear shaped.
Spent the night with the daughter. 35 YO wife, mother of 2. 99.9% of her energy goes into her marriage, children, and job. A little TV time with kids, a couple of personal projects that gratify her. News? No, not so much.
She asked about the impeachment, asked what President Trump actually did. We talked a bit, I gave bland middle of the road responses. She said it sounds like Trump is doing what every President does. Is unable to find any wrong doing.
A couple of things. Work-a-day Americans are busy with their own lives, they don't have time to plop down and watch debating talking heads on TV. Rational people, when exposed to coverage of the impeachment hearings, declare a pox on both their houses, and move on with their life. Democrats have overplayed their hand, AND failed to define an articuable wrong. My daughter at the end asked how much more prosperity and peace do people thing they can have? President Trump is crude, and done nasty things, but life is good for her circle of life. I asked how bad was Trump, as compared to Kennedy and Clinton? She had no idea about the slime that defined those two men. She's 35, and has a life.
OK Dana
The press is just upset because they know that soon they will actually, finally have to report on Hunter Biden's adventures.
When it comes to questioning someone’s humanity and whether they have a soul, any member of the media needs to sit that one out.
Zero credibility after lying to the American people everyday for three years.
GO F#&k Yourself Dana Milbank.
I know people who knew him in the old Pac Bell, and ditto.
I've been reading him since the 90s and he used to do his cartoons early in the morning before work at PacBell. His coworkers were his original sources. The Boss in the cartoons is a caricature of his boss.
Gaetz was accurately quoting an article that appeared in the New Yorker on July 1, 2019–a long interview that Hunter Biden willingly, eagerly agreed to in order to preempt negative stories about his drug use that might jeopardize his father’s campaign.
When I first read the New Yorker story I was amazed that Hunter Biden was so forthcoming and also amazed at how damaging the story was and how damaged Hunter Biden was. But then crickets. The press sort of ignored the salaciousness.
Thank you Matt Gaetz for reading this New Yorker interview to the Democrats.
CNN:
"Toobin acknowledged Biden is news but he is unsure "what our responsibility is as journalists" to cover the story.
"What struck me about this hearing was how Donald Trump in a way has already won," Toobin said Thursday. "How much did we hear about Hunter Biden? Over and over again about Hunter Biden. That's what the Republicans are talking about constantly. And, you know, there are questions about Hunter Biden's behavior. So this incredible shift of emphasis -- and you know it's going to be a real challenge for us as journalists to decide how much to follow along with this."
"The idea that we are sitting here debating the country, the country, the House Judiciary Committee is debating the impeachment of the president of the United States, and over and over again we get how all these questions about the behavior of Hunter Biden, the president's perhaps most likely opponent, the son of [Joe Biden] and I just don't know what our responsibility is as journalists because it's not the point, but this is the news. And this is what's there," Toobin said."
Oh fuck you Toobin. Hunter's job in the Ukraine was obviously corrupt and Trump asked about it. It is *Democrats* who forced this conversation by claiming Trump's questions could have no legitimate motive. Republicans are talking about Hunter Biden because it is *directly* responsive to Democrat accusations. In fact I can't think of any substitute for it that would remain directly responsive at all.
The reason subtle persuasion is important in story telling is that without it you end up with Snidely Whiplash and Dudley Doright fighting over Little Nell. You get melodrama. Hollywood has a whole language of subtle persuasion. Almost every decent movie could support a lengthy paper on the techniques employed. Everything from the color palette with respect to the leading lady, to how good looking the actors are in the various roles, to the kinds of things the various characters do. One of Hollywood’s biggest problems now is that most of them have forgotten this in pursuit of heavy handed propagandization. Andrew Carnegie had the rule that nobody can be persuasive if they don’t appear persuadable. Or as Andrew Sullivan said in that piece in NY Mag, “Don’t underestimate the calming power of honestly hearing somebody out."
If any Republican of national stature had a child such as Hunter Biden, there would be several major motion pictures about his life and times. Soulful Democrats, more in sorrow than in anger, would inform us how Republican values inevitably leads to such moral collapse. I wonder who would play the stripper in the movie version and whether they would include a dildo scene....Lots of movies about Roger Ailes, but there's yet to be a movie about Matt Lauer's awkward attempts to find true love on the NBC set.
"Oh fuck you Toobin”
Exactly. The man who disgraced his high office in this little melodrama is Joe “Nobody told me it was wrong” Biden.
"Here. Judge for yourself whether Gaetz has a soul"
On second thought, forget the whole thing. It's all so tiresome and partisan and thus completely predictable and pointless. Everyone knows what a column by Dana Milbank is going to say, and there is no reason to waste time or effort in reading it. Same with all the talking heads on both sides (to say nothing of the politicos) droning on about Trump and his faults (real and imagined). Fortunately, the large segment of the public that is not obsessed with politics or partisanship has tuned it all out -- no one is paying attention to either side of this charade. Common sense in action.
Further proof that God loves America.
Where is the civility bullshit option?
The whole basis for impeaching Trump rests on the claim that he had no legitimate purpose in asking for an investigation. Gaetz is making the (fairly reasonable) argument to the contrary. This shouldn't be hard to understand.
Politicians minor, retarded and/or drug-addicted children should be off limits for attack.
Oh, I see now. Trump's problem is that he hasn't fired up the crack pipe while getting a BJ in the oval office. You have to be willing to do what it takes to be vulnerable if you want the Democrats' love.
Trump is so arrogant. He thinks he's above cocaine, and sexing up interns at work. He probability doesn't even have a private server in his bathroom. What an elitist fuck.
"Bernie Sanders futures trading at .21 cents, up from .07 cents in mid October. Either some people do or some people think some people do."
This has to do with Warren's recent decline. The two candidates really need the other to drop out ASAP- they are in the same ideological lane. However, it is far more likely that Warren would drop out if she can't finish at least 2nd in New Hampshire, than would Sanders if he similarly failed in New Hampshire.
The Ukrainians are not dumb and didn't give Hunter Biden all that money just to be nice to the VP's son. That's the narrative the Democrats want us to believe. "Nobody did anything wrong." The Ukrainians expected something, what was it? I think that's what Trump wanted to find out. Yes, the amount he was paid is scandalous but I want to know what the Ukainians got in return. Gaetz points out it wasn't Hunter Biden's legal expertise. Biden was genuinely out to lunch.
I don't see the need to protect Hunter Biden, a grown man, as valid. Like they say, the truth shall set you free.
Judaism teaches everyone and everything in nature has a soul because everything was created by God, out of God. Genesis. Isn't that what Jesus teaches Christians and why you should love everyone? I'm surprised this is a question.
The Cokehead Son saga isn’t going away.
Gaetz blows we’re above the belt. He left out the Baby Daddy who isn’t paying child support and lied about his son’s Baby Momma. He’s not bringing up Cokehead Son’s Less Han Zero teenage years.
If Cokehead Son hadn’t been a Bagman for international graft for the Swamp, this would be gratuitous. But the Swamp are corrupt imbeciles. Cokehead Son was an obvious liability. Romney’s Stepford Sons are more reliable and discreet Bagmen.
I'm not sure of the exact figure but I read that Hunter Biden's compensation for being on Burisma's board was over 5x the compensation of the highest paid Exxon board member.
Gaetz's comments were all relevant in establishing that there was no reason other than family connections for Burisma to have paid Hunter Biden $50K/month.
And Hunter Biden is no kid, he is an adult with a track record, and the thick stench of corruption all about him--not to mention John Kerry's kid.
Unlike, say, snarking about Barron Trump's name, or that W's daughters liked to party, which had no political relevance and was just mean for the sake of being mean.
If you're taking flak, it means you're over the target. And as the Dem field narrows with Biden still leading the polls, it'll get nastier.
I love how the left thinks they can still try to shame us into silence.
That doesn't work anymore.
The deposition the baby mama demanded and got is next week. She wants to know about Ukraine and Burisma.
Should be fun.
To paraphrase Professor A, Dana Milbank can take the civility bullshit and shove it up his...
Dana Milbank clutching his pearls in shock is as believable as Hunter Biden being a saint.
The question is: When will Democrats among politicians and media stop their ruse about pretending to believe in and invoking Christian orthodoxy? Nowadays they just do it to push around weak-kneed Republicans sceered to be called names which I guess is what they're trying here. We'll see if Gaetz is as weak and/or mendacious as his cohorts. Doesn't appear so, so far.
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