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State of American Politics: 2024


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3 hours ago, Slotback Right said:

The title of the video is misleading. Trump actually says Putin is smart, but that the main problem is that our leaders (Biden and company) are dumb.

Our leaders who want to stop Putin are dumb but the ones who support him are smart?!?...nice world you live in...🙄

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22 hours ago, DBP66 said:

Our leaders who want to stop Putin are dumb but the ones who support him are smart?!?...nice world you live in...🙄

Good comeback, Potts.

The video is only 27 second, bright boy. Watch it, and then even you can see that that is exactly what he said. If not, maybe get your mommy to explain it to you.

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1 hour ago, Slotback Right said:

Good comeback, Potts.

The video is only 27 second, bright boy. Watch it, and then even you can see that that is exactly what he said. If not, maybe get your mommy to explain it to you.

LOL..we all know how much Donny loves and admires Putin...no need to see a silly video...and who could forget Donny's famous Helsinki speech when he told the world he believed Putin and not American intelligence agencies?!?....did you forget champ??....😪

May be an image of 1 person, money, phone and text that says 'You need $83 Million? Right now?!??'

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Impeachment Witnesses Keep Undermining Corruption Allegations Against Joe Biden

Arthur Delaney
Updated Wed, January 31, 2024 at 4:13 PM EST·6 min read

WASHINGTON — All the witnesses Republicans called in for depositions as part of their impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden in January said that they knew of no corruption on Biden’s part.

Eric Schwerin, a Biden family friend who partnered with the president’s son Hunter Biden in business and also did bookkeeping for the father, told lawmakers on Tuesday that he was not aware of Joe Biden benefiting financially from his son’s work.

“Given my awareness of his finances and the explicit directions he gave to his financial advisers, the allegation that he would engage in any improper conduct to benefit himself or his family is preposterous to me,” Schwerin said in an opening statement obtained by HuffPost.

Four other Hunter Biden associates also told lawmakers this month that they’d never witnessed improper behavior by the president, nor efforts by his son to entangle him in a foreign business deal.

It’s a continuation of the pattern set in motion last year by House oversight committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), who has struggled to prove his accusations that the president enriched himself by participating in his son’s alleged “influence peddling” schemes.

“We have a consistent pattern of witnesses coming in and telling us that Joe Biden just was not involved in any of the business affairs that the Republicans are talking about,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the oversight committee, told HuffPost.

Comer said Tuesday that Schwerin’s testimony actually did reveal something bad: that Schwerin, while he was in business with Hunter Biden, provided bookkeeping services to the elder Biden when he was vice president — for free. (Schwerin’s involvement in the family finances has long been known.)

“This guy was doing Joe Biden’s books, paying his electric bills and depositing his paycheck and his income tax refund, and he never charged Joe Biden — that is a gift, that is a clear ethics violation by Joe Biden,” Comer said on Fox News. “There was not a wall between Joe Biden and Hunter Biden and his schemes like the president has always said.”

Ethics rules generally forbid gifts (including discounted goods or services) to executive branch officials, though there are exceptions, including for gifts that are based on a personal or family relationship. It’s possible Schwerin’s bookkeeping would qualify for an exception.

“A gift of free bookkeeping assistance from a family friend would seem to fall within the scope of the personal relationship exception that applies to government employees under applicable ethics gift rules,” Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel with the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in a statement to HuffPost.

The White House declined to comment.

Nevertheless, commingled bank accounts and free bookkeeping are a far cry from the bribery schemes that Republicans have alleged — including a Ukrainian quid pro quo that supposedly involved $5 million in bribes to the father and son in exchange for official favors. Republicans have obtained thousands of pages of Biden family bank records, and all they’ve revealed so far is that Joe Biden helped his son buy a truck in 2018.

The younger Biden entered into multiple foreign business relationships during and after his father’s time as vice president, including a lucrative contract with a Ukrainian gas company and an ill-fated venture with a company backed by a Chinese energy firm. Hunter Biden wrote in his 2021 memoir that the 2015 death of his brother, Beau Biden, spurred him toward high-paying jobs that fueled his crack cocaine addiction until he sobered up in 2019. Republicans have said that his lack of experience in the energy sector suggests that foreign nationals were only paying him to get to his father.

As for the favorable testimony from Biden associates, it’s not surprising that longtime friends might defend the family from corruption allegations, but they’re doing so under threat of criminal penalty for untruthful testimony while speaking to lawmakers who already have receipts. In other words, if they lied, they could get caught and sent to prison. So their testimony matters.

  • Rob Walker told lawmakers last week that he started working with Hunter Biden in 2008. “In business, the opportunities we pursued together were varied, valid, well-founded, and well within the bounds of legitimate business activities,” Walker said in an opening statement. “To be clear, President Biden-while in office or as a private citizen-was never involved in any of the business activities we pursued.”

  • Mervyn Yan, a real estate consultant who worked with Hunter Biden in 2017 on possible investments with the Chinese energy company, testified that Joe Biden wasn’t involved in the business, according to a source with knowledge of the deposition, and that he never expected the elder Biden would benefit. Yan’s attorneys said in a letter that their client was “unaware of any involvement President Biden may have had with his son’s business pursuits.”

  • Kevin Morris, who became friends with Hunter Biden in 2019 and covered his expenses as he launched an art career, said that he did not have “any expectations of receiving anything from Hunter’s father or the Biden administration in exchange from helping Hunter, nor have I asked for anything from President Biden or his administration.”

  • George Bergès, a gallery owner who has sold Hunter Biden’s artwork, said that there was nothing political about his relationship with the president’s son, and that he actually dropped him as a client last year because the political backlash had been such a headache. “When I first met him, I never thought ― I think his dad hadn’t even decided to run, so I never thought he would run, win the nomination, and then be a sitting President,” Bergès said, noting that he had donated repeatedly to Republican Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Next month lawmakers will hear from the president’s brother James Biden as well as Hunter Biden. Republicans want to talk to several other people, including Tony Bobulinski, a former Hunter Biden business associate whom the Trump campaign recruited to participate in an event before a 2020 presidential debate.

It’s unclear if Republicans have set a date for interviewing Bobulinski, but it’s possible that his testimony would cast Hunter Biden’s work in a different light.

“I’ve heard Joe Biden say that he’s never discussed business with Hunter. That is false,” Bobulinski said at the 2020 event. “I have firsthand knowledge about this because I directly dealt with the Biden family, including Joe Biden.”

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14 hours ago, DBP66 said:

...and who could forget Donny's famous Helsinki speech when he told the world he believed Putin and not American intelligence agencies?!?....did you forget champ??....😪

I'm glad you brought that up because it demonstrates just how naive you and your ilk are. You all wanted President Trump to confront Putin about whether or not Russia meddled in our 2016 election. Overlooking the fact that every country who can, does interfere in the elections of other countries...(even the USA), Trump went ahead and confronted Putin about it. Putin denied it. Even though it contradicted the FBI's views (and we all know the FBI is as trustworthy as a convent full of nuns), President Trump noted Putin's answer and moved on to other summit issues. 

How DARE he accept Putin's denial! 

It's at this point you fruit loops lose it. How DARE Trump accept that? Obviously he should have grabbed Putin by the collar and crotch, and picked him up and slammed him to the floor, right?

Then he should have stormed out of the summit and gone home right?

Ever hear of tact and diplomacy? Sheesh...Naive Pinkos!

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24 minutes ago, Slotback Right said:

I'm glad you brought that up because it demonstrates just how naive you and your ilk are. You all wanted President Trump to confront Putin about whether or not Russia meddled in our 2016 election. Overlooking the fact that every country who can, does interfere in the elections of other countries...(even the USA), Trump went ahead and confronted Putin about it. Putin denied it. Even though it contradicted the FBI's views (and we all know the FBI is as trustworthy as a convent full of nuns), President Trump noted Putin's answer and moved on to other summit issues. 

How DARE he accept Putin's denial! 

It's at this point you fruit loops lose it. How DARE Trump accept that? Obviously he should have grabbed Putin by the collar and crotch, and picked him up and slammed him to the floor, right?

Then he should have stormed out of the summit and gone home right?

Ever hear of tact and diplomacy? Sheesh...Naive Pinkos!

Spot on! 💯

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The media is all excited about a pill that says a majority in swing states won’t vote for Trump if he is convicted of a crime.  Not surprising, that has always been the default position of the electorate.  But remember the Clinton impeachment.  Polling showed that if certain things happened, they thought Clinton should resign.  And as those things happened, the public changed its mind.  If voters decide that Trump will do a better job, all this noise will not dissuade them.  Biden can lose, he is that unpopular.  More importantly, there are a lot of people who think he is not up to the job.  And telling them things are great when people feel otherwise is a ticket to getting Jimmy Carter’d.

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10 hours ago, Slotback Right said:

I'm glad you brought that up because it demonstrates just how naive you and your ilk are. You all wanted President Trump to confront Putin about whether or not Russia meddled in our 2016 election. Overlooking the fact that every country who can, does interfere in the elections of other countries...(even the USA), Trump went ahead and confronted Putin about it. Putin denied it. Even though it contradicted the FBI's views (and we all know the FBI is as trustworthy as a convent full of nuns), President Trump noted Putin's answer and moved on to other summit issues. 

How DARE he accept Putin's denial! 

It's at this point you fruit loops lose it. How DARE Trump accept that? Obviously he should have grabbed Putin by the collar and crotch, and picked him up and slammed him to the floor, right?

Then he should have stormed out of the summit and gone home right?

Ever hear of tact and diplomacy? Sheesh...Naive Pinkos!

LOL..so our Pres. says to the world he believes Putin and NOT American intelligence agencies and you're good with that??....wtf...we know for a fact he interfered in the election because he told us he wanted Trump to win....he has his Intelligence agencies working social media and they spent millions on social media to get Trump elected....fact.

What should have Trump done??....lets see...maybe say he says he believes and trusts American Intelligence agencies and NOT Putin???....a little common sense here and Patriotism would have worked real well....BUT he decided to kiss Putin ass in front of the world while Putin sat back and smiled the best he could....a DISGUSTING moment in American history brought to you by Trump and his boyfriend...and you're happy about that??....you're a "fake" American...🙄

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3 minutes ago, Crusader12-0 said:

Good riddance. The RNC had better have a good replacement on hand. 

Donny wants her gone...and now she'll disappear...and have nutty Trumpers threaten her the rest of her life...that's what happens in today's republican party....SAD!

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27 minutes ago, DBP66 said:

Donny wants her gone...and now she'll disappear...and have nutty Trumpers threaten her the rest of her life...that's what happens in today's republican party....SAD!

I’ll give you this…you are passionate…blinded but passionate.  It’s no wonder you are a Cowboys fan.  
 

Trump - we’ll get him this time!

 Cowboys- SB is next year!


hopeless optimist!

prayers for your well being come November. St John Bosco…PRAY FOR HIM!  🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

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The New York Times

Dysfunction Reigns in Congress as GOP Defeats Multiply

Catie Edmondson
Wed, February 7, 2024 at 7:44 AM EST·5 min read
6.8k
 
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) takes questions during the weekly Democratic Party luncheon news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024. (Anna Rose Layden/The New York Times)
 
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) takes questions during the weekly Democratic Party luncheon news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024. (Anna Rose Layden/The New York Times)

WASHINGTON — Republicans in Congress suffered a humiliating series of setbacks Tuesday on critical elements of their agenda, turning the Capitol into a den of dysfunction that has left several major issues, including U.S. military aid to Ukraine and Israel, in limbo amid political feuding.

As Republicans in the Senate torpedoed a border deal they had demanded, the bid by their counterparts in the House to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, collapsed amid Republican defections.

Then came one last bruising blow. Minutes after Republicans fell one vote short of impeaching Mayorkas — a punishment the party has promised its base ever since winning the majority — the House defeated legislation they put forward to send $17.6 billion in military assistance to Israel. The measure fell to opposition from Democrats who called it a cynical political ploy to undermine efforts to pass a broader foreign military aid bill including Ukraine. They were joined by a clutch of hard-right Republicans, who opposed the measure because the money was not paired with spending cuts.

Taken together, the events that unfolded on Capitol Hill on Tuesday offered a vivid portrait of congressional disarray instigated by Republicans, who are bent on opposing President Joe Biden at every turn but lack a large enough majority or the unity to work their will.

They have sought to kill bipartisan efforts to send more military aid to Ukraine and to forge a compromise to secure the border against an influx of migrants, proposing instead to help only Israel and to push for the removal of Biden’s top immigration official. The back-to-back defeats Tuesday showed that while they are adept at thwarting action on critical issues, they are hard-pressed to address any.

The paralysis left the fate of aid to Ukraine and Israel in peril, closing off what had been seen as the best remaining avenue on Capitol Hill for approval of critical military assistance to U.S. allies. A broad measure that includes both is expected to fail in a Senate test vote Wednesday, raising immediate questions about whether Congress could salvage the emergency aid package — and if so, how.

And it amounted to a disastrous day for Speaker Mike Johnson roughly 100 days into his speakership, highlighting his razor-thin majority and the unwieldiness of his conference.

In a statement, Johnson blamed Democrats for opposing the aid to Israel, which he said sent a “rebuke to our closest ally in the Middle East at their time of great need.” He said Republicans had only unveiled an Israel aid bill devoid of spending cuts as “a major concession” given “the gravity of the situation.”

But he left the Capitol without addressing what appeared to be a calamitous miscalculation on the impeachment vote, which had been little more than a political exercise given that the Democratic-led Senate would be all but certain to acquit Mayorkas.

Instead of a show of Republican unity for impeaching Biden’s top immigration official, the vote devolved into an extraordinary scene of chaos on the House floor that highlighted GOP disarray, as leaders scrounged for the support to push through the charges against Mayorkas but were thwarted by their tiny majority.

They vowed to try again as soon as Wednesday.

“House Republicans fully intend to bring Articles of Impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas back to the floor when we have the votes for passage,” Raj Shah, a spokesman for Johnson, wrote on social media.

Tuesday’s failure underscored Republican divisions over the impeachment. Three GOP lawmakers opposed the resolution, warning that it would set a dangerous precedent of impeaching administration officials for policy differences.

In a dramatic denouement, Democrats brought out Rep. Al Green of Texas, still in a hospital gown from having undergone emergency surgery, to vote against the bill after he had missed previous votes. That deadlocked the tally, dooming the impeachment effort, which required a simple majority to pass.

Hard-right Republicans were livid, and expressed bafflement that their leaders did not seem to know exactly what their vote count would be on a major vote.

“I would have thought that they would know that,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. “It isn’t that hard.”

Norman laughed when asked how he could explain the vote to his constituents.

“The conservative base is going have a real problem with this,” he said. “And they should.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who has led the charge for impeaching Mayorkas, said she expected House GOP leaders to hold the vote again in coming days after calling Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 Republican, back to Washington. Scalise had been away from the Capitol recovering from treatment for multiple myeloma.

Greene predicted that the Republicans who sunk the measure would “be hearing from their constituents.”

The dysfunction is set to continue Wednesday in the Senate when Republicans are expected to block a bill tying a border compromise to aid for Israel and Ukraine, after most of their members — even those who led the charge to negotiate it — turned against the package that House Republicans refused to consider amid opposition from former President Donald Trump.

“Joe Biden will never enforce any new law and refuses to use the tools he already has today to end this crisis,” said Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 3 Republican. “I cannot vote for this bill. Americans will turn to the upcoming election to end the border crisis.”

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This sounds like Hannity at work....Trump's puppet...😪

Sen. Lankford says a 'popular commentator' threatened to 'do whatever I can to destroy you' if he negotiated a border deal during a presidential election year

Bryan Metzger
Wed, February 7, 2024 at 3:05 PM EST·2 min read
  • Sen. James Lankford was the top GOP negotiator on the failed border security deal.

  • He claims a "popular commentator" warned him not to solve the crisis during an election year.

  • "I will do whatever I can to destroy you," Lankford said.

Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma spoke on Wednesday about the political challenges he's encountered while serving as the top GOP negotiator on a bipartisan border security deal.

In a speech shortly before the expected failure of the deal, Lankford bemoaned the fact that some fellow Republicans were objecting to the bill for purely political reasons.

"Some of them have been very clear with me," Lankford said of his GOP colleagues, "they have political differences with the bill. They say it's the wrong time to solve the problem. We'll let the presidential election solve this problem."

Lankford went on to say that a "popular commentator" — without naming any names — threatened to "destroy" him if he negotiated the deal during a presidential election year, regardless of what was in it.

"I will do whatever I can to destroy you, because I do not want you to solve this during the presidential election," Lankford recounted the commentator saying.

"By the way, they have been faithful to their promise, and have done everything they can to destroy me," he added.

Ahead of the release of the text of the deal — which was negotiated following GOP demands to attach border security provisions to a bill to provide billions in aid to Ukraine and Israel — right-wing media outlets like Fox News promoted false claims about the deal, claiming it would amount to "amnesty."

And some Republicans admitted that politics was a key factor for them.

"I cannot vote for this bill," said Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the third-highest ranking GOP senator, in his statement on the deal. "Americans will turn to the upcoming election to end the border crisis."

Following the expected failed vote, the Senate is expected to take up a bill to send billions in aid to Ukraine and Israel, but without any border security provisions.

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16 minutes ago, Crusader12-0 said:

Im not that into late night talk shows, but Jon Stewart really nailed it here. 

And not surprisingly the “Vote Blue No Matter Who” Cult is absolutely melting down over this. “How dare you criticize Biden!!!”

Lol.  Melting down?  Don't think so but it was funny.  

Serious question.  I know you do not support Trump or Biden but do you understand why those on the left can't vote for Trump?  

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1 hour ago, World Citizen said:

Lol.  Melting down?  Don't think so but it was funny.  

Serious question.  I know you do not support Trump or Biden but do you understand why those on the left can't vote for Trump?  

Yes, I understand why those on the left won’t vote for Trump, but what I don’t understand is why they continue to support Biden. The Democratic Party has millions of younger and healthier people that they could run. Biden’s cognitive decline is plainfully obvious and very dangerous. The fact that Biden won’t take a cognitive test is pretty much an admission that he is hiding something. Yet they deny it & go scorched earth against anyone who even slightly acknowledges it. The Democrats only hurting their chances of winning by keeping Biden out there. A young & healthy candidate could easily win 35 states against Trump. 

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