The Frankish Reich

To these you may also add Ashlii (sic) Babbit, the official Martyr (from the AP) Her Twitter account, which was taken down after her death, was rife with references to the QAnon conspiracy theory, which centers on the baseless belief that Trump has secretly battled deep-state enemies and a cabal of Satan-worshiping cannibals that includes prominent Democrats who operate a child sex trafficking ring. “Nothing will stop us,” Babbitt tweeted Jan. 5. “They can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours....dark to light!” Among Q followers, “The Storm” refers to the predicted day Trump would finally unmask the pedophile cabal, arrest and execute those deemed traitors and restore America to greatness. And the favorite Twitter monkey of some posters here, the legendary Jack Posobiec of Pizzagate fame. You know, where the child sex slaves were held in the basement of a pizza join? The one that actually didn't even have a basement? (from his wikipedia page) Posobiec has promoted many falsehoods,[34] leading to Philadelphia calling him the "King of Fake News" in 2017.[23] He was one of the most prominent promoters on social media of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which falsely claimed that high-ranking officials were involved in a child-sex ring centered at a Washington, D.C., pizzeria.[23][19] He live-streamed an investigation of the pizzeria and was asked to leave after attempting to broadcast a child's birthday party being held in a back room.[65] Posobiec later said he had always thought the Pizzagate theory was "stupid" and had filmed his visit to debunk it.[23] Posobiec attempted to discredit anti-Trump protesters in November 2016 by planting a sign at a protest reading "Rape Melania".[66][67][68] Posobiec denied his involvement to BuzzFeed News, but the same phone number was used in his contact with the website and the text messages he reportedly sent.

What did he lie about? I've seen the argument that Pence was too cautious (Trump called him weak), but where's the lie? He said he was convinced, after seeking the advice of his counsel, that he lacked authority to reject electoral slates. Are you saying that's a lie? Then I guess his counsel is a liar too. I guess Trump is the last honest man in America. Including you.

No. Trump was a Man of Peace. He couldn't have done that. He also never threatened Little Rocket Man with fire and fury such that the world has never seen before. He always favored negotiation over the exercise of U.S. military power or the threatened use of U.S. military power.

That says more about Republican voters today than it says about Pence.

Pence is the rare Christian in politics who actually believes his oath, sworn on the Bible, means something.

I've been pointing out for a while now that a lot of these right wing anti-LGBT activists have a creepy "every man hates what he has to deny" quality about them. Thank you for posting the latest exhibit in support.

Maybe we need to be clear about what a "conspiracy theory" is. An allegation that Joe and Hunter Biden discussed Hunter's Burisma deal is not a "conspiracy theory." It is an allegation that is subject to proof. And now we're getting some proof, but the questions remain "what did Joe know and when did he know it, and when and how did he involve himself in aiding Hunter's deals." A conspiracy theory is a whole different animal. It is something like "COVID was manufactured as a ruse to allow the government to take more control of our lives." The difference? Absolutely zero proof and reason to believe that happened. And such a thing wouldn't have required just a few people (Joe and Hunter and Burisma's leader) involved. It would have required a massive international conspiracy with hundreds of actors involved - governments, businesses, individuals. Hence the term "conspiracy theory."

And so Trump tariffs on Chinese imports (we call that "protectionism") that have the effect of juicing American refrigerator manufacturing are somehow "real" jobs, and not an artifact of a tax on the American people? Because that's what a tariff is. "Free market demand" isn't exactly the clarion call of the Trumpies either. The proper term is "comparative advantage."

Well, true. For a lot (most?) of our high level elected officials. I was a public servant at various times, and I (and almost everyone I worked with) never thought for a second about improperly enriching ourselves by association with our public employment. I guess this is why I (even as one of the ostensible "liberals" here) am personally offended by this type of behavior, when impeachable (or even illegal at all) or not.

Digression re the laptop. People here like to mock those who initially thought (or pretended to think) that the laptop was a dirty political trick. I am one of those people who thought it did bear the earmarks of a dirty trick. Why? I mean, I wasn't born yesterday, and I've worked alongside law enforcement agencies for a lot of my career, so I thought I'd seen it all. Here's why: - the story seemed too good to be true. Hunter drops off a laptop at a mom and pop repair shop. Forgets to pick it up. Laptop tech sees all sorts of things on the hard drive. I've worked these cases when they've involved kiddie pr0n. It happens. It usually gets reported to local law enforcement, then if a possible federal crime to FBI/DHS. - but this guy "reports" it through political channels, eventually landing in the lap of one Rudy Giuliani, who seems to gloat even before the NY Post story is written about some kind of bombshell about to drop. It seemed to good to be true (at least "too good" if you're Giuliani). But even though I know perfectly well in my head that drug addicts do incredibly, preposterously stupid things all the time (i.e., the reason they're caught), I didn't fathom exactly how far gone Hunter really was. So yes, he really did leave an incriminating laptop at a repair shop for over 30 days. He also left a crack pipe in a rental car return. And it just so happened that the repairman probably really didn't like Joe Biden or really did like Donald Trump, and so he pursued a weird channel to publicize its contents. In retrospect, I don't think I was a fool to be skeptical about the initial claims. But that's because the true scenario is so outrageous that if it had been written in a Hollywood script the editors probably would have rewritten it because it was so laugh-out-loud implausible ...

And nobody ever does. What has Dan Quayle been up to?

Why do I say he let his guard down, or alternatively decided - late in life, when his "knew" his public life was coming to an end - to cash in? Because he did, by modern DC standards, live a fairly modest upper middle class existence throughout his years in the Senate. In fact, if I remember correctly, he was one of the "poorest" members of the Senate by net worth. But people are waving money at you and you've already run your last race? (Or so you think?) Why not take it!

Yes, that's why it's influence peddling. But at the risk of being accused of what I just decried - "whataboutism" - that's why relatives of presidents and vice presidents always seem to fall into money. In my lifetime: Donald Nixon. Billy Carter. Neil Bush. Jared Kushner (how this Orthodox Jew suddenly became a great friend to the sheikhs is a good story). Hunter Biden. Influence peddling, or trading on one's names/associations is unfortunately the norm, not the exception. It's a blurred line, but there's still a line between one's sleazy relative influence peddling and you yourself taking an active role as an active office holder.

What a shock.

Maybe. At a minimum he wasn't as careful as he should have been. Aren't there stories about Hunter introducing his dad to various unsavory actors at functions, etc? But again, the line between "unsavory" and "high crimes and misdemeanors" - did Joe approve of his name being dropped? Help his son in arranging these meetings? And the big one: actually receive money or gifts in kind in exchange for allowing his name to be dropped? Or maybe I'm not a liberal after all. Actually, I am kind of an old fashioned good governance centrist. And whether rising to the impeachable level or not, I'm still idealistic enough to be offended by what politicians think is o.k.

Agreed. Right now we know - actually, we have an admission - that Joe was on a call with Hunter and his slimy funders AFTER Joe had "retired" from public life. The other shoe that may or may not drop: what about 2016? 2015? 2014?

Also true. But I don't want to fall into the trap of "the other guy did it, even worse" trap. Whataboutism is a distraction whichever side it's coming from.

Yeah, that 1-2 year course of treatment doesn't sound very appealing ...

My issue is this: as soon as Obama was reelected in November 2012, Joe "knew" his life in office was coming to an end. Hunter was trading on his name by 2014. We can assume Joe knew this, but other than a stern talking to, I'm not sure there was anything he could do about it. But did it go beyond looking the other way? Looping Joe in on a phone call while he was veep is a whole different animal than doing it in 2017.

I hear they're good eatin

Don't know about you, but I'm starting a prophylactic course of ivermectin before my next trip to the Sunshine State.

Plays into my notion that Joe really thought his public life was over after 2016. He got drafted into running for president because he still carried with him some of the allure (for Democrats) of the Obama years. Politicians today seem to think they have a right not just to a comfortable ex-presidency/vice presidency, but also to accumulation of wealth for themselves and their children.

There is some hint that it may be related to immigration from countries in which it is endemic. Haiti is one such country. I'm not looking forward to the anti-immigrant backlash, but yes, we do need to be aware that these things may be related and discuss what that means for immigration law and policy and appropriate screening/public health responses.

DeSantis seems to have had an epiphany - he is running in part as the competent adult in the room. So maybe it's time that his campaign reflects that.