mspart

https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2024-01-16/cocaine-residue-was-found-on-hunter-bidens-gun-pouch-in-2018-case-prosecutors-say WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors urged a judge on Tuesday to reject Hunter Biden’s efforts to dismiss the gun charges against him, revealing that investigators last year found cocaine residue on the pouch the president’s son used to hold his gun. In pressing for the case against President Joe Biden’s son to proceed, prosecutors said “the strength of the evidence against him is overwhelming" and pushed back against Hunter Biden's claims that he is being singled out for political purposes. So why were they willing to drop the gun charges earlier in the sweetheart plea deal. Can someone tell me that? Has this been a huge deal in the media. I haven't heard about it until now. It just keeps getting better and better. What else is DOJ not divulging until absolutely necessary on this case. It sounds to me like it is a slam door case against Hunter in both the gun and tax charges. But because he is Joe's son, he was given a sweetheart plea deal that thankfully was not upheld in court. Of course there is nothing wrong here I can hear it now. mspart

Jonathan Turley takes down aspects of the media with facts and data. The media says don't do your own research, you will be wrong. Listen to us and don't research. This is really a very interesting article by Turley. The case is the laptop of Hunter Biden. Is it Russian Disinformation or Real? Some are still saying it is misinformation when even the DOJ has said it is real. https://jonathanturley.org/2024/01/18/trust-us-were-the-media-the-biden-laptop-is-proven-authentic-as-past-deniers-double-down-on-media-controls/ After years of suppressing the story and casting doubts over its authenticity, many in the media in the last year have belatedly and reluctantly acknowledged that the Hunter Biden laptop is real. Some of us reached that conclusion years ago due to the self-authenticating emails confirmed by third parties. However, the denials and doubts have continued, including most recently by Rep. Dan Goldman (D., N.Y.) in hearings. The Justice Department has now again confirmed the authenticity and added details on why these denials are unsupported. This week, the Justice Department confirmed that the laptop was authenticated through forensic examination and a search warrant on Hunter’s Apple iCloud. Hunter’s electronic devices were backed up on the Cloud and “the results of the search were largely duplicative of information investigators had already obtained from Apple.” That is only the latest such confirmation, but some have continued to desperately cast doubts the laptop, which Hunter himself said might be the product of Russian intelligence. Once again, the last dogs in this fruitless fight are the most partisan among us. Rep. Goldman, for example, recently lambasted witnesses who referenced the laptop and challenged the credibility of a journalist who cited the laptop. Goldman attacked Journalist Michael Shellenberger and declared “You have no idea, you know hard drives can be manipulated. Hard drives can be manipulated by Rudy Giuliani or Russia. There is actual evidence of it, but the point is it’s not the same thing.” Goldman has never revealed the “actual evidence” showing that the laptop is fake or why the Justice Department and FBI are making the same false claim in court if such evidence exists. The same week that the Biden Administration again confirmed the authenticity of the laptop, one of the loudest laptop deniers wrote a telling column on why the public should avoid researching such questions on their own. The Washington Post’s Philip Bump has repeatedly pushed false stories from Lafayette Park to Russian collusion to the laptop. Even after many in the media admitted that the laptop was authentic, Bump was still declaring that it was a “conspiracy theory.” Recently, in response to a column on these false claims, the Post remarkably declared that Bump’s original claims on Lafayette Park, the Hunter Biden laptop, and Russian collusion were true and they stand by them. This week, Bump warned citizens that they needed to continue to get their news from the media and not try to learn the truth on their own. In a column titled “Doing your own research is a good way to end up being wrong,” Bump states without an sense of self-awareness that citizens will often “embrace dubious information supporting their belief than information that corroborates the allegations” — precisely what critics have accused Bump of doing for years on the laptop and other false stories. Bump’s column is a must read for understanding the sense of entitlement of columnists in today’s age of “advocacy journalism.” It is consistent with what Bump said in an interview last year before he walked out after being confronted about false stories. In a podcast interview with Noam Dworman, Bump became exasperated and said “I’m gonna lose my mind” when Dworman offered facts contradicting his view. Ironically, when Dworman noted that half of the country does not believe his positions, Bump shot back “I know, because half the country doesn’t actually dig into the issues.” However, Bump does not believe that they should actually dig into the issues but accept his view. He chastised Dworman and the public “because you don’t listen to the press. I’m sitting here and I’m telling you, you’re wrong about these things, and you don’t listen … you refuse to listen to what I’m saying to you. You asked me on to present evidence. I keep telling you.” Indeed, Bump and others kept telling people that the laptop was a “conspiracy theory” and possible Russian disinformation. Now, he is reminding people not to do their own research as the Post expressly declared that the prior false claims in his columns were actually true. This is why, at the start of our Republic, alternative media sprang up with pamphleteers like Thomas Paine. Citizens rejected the state-supporting media and searched for their own sources. Today citizen journalists can be found on the Internet in blogs and other sites that carry opposing views or accounts. The media is already moving to be sure that the public is limited in what they are allowed to see or hear. After Donald Trump won the Iowa caucuses, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow explained to viewers that the network had decided that they should not hear Trump’s victory speech because he would only tell them “untrue things.” As noted by Bump, citizens are much safer to just accept what they are given and avoid the temptation to do their own research. Censorship is now actually proclaimed as a form of virtue signaling, assuring viewers that they will not have to hear certain opposing views or figures. There is little tolerance for those who insist on seeking out such news. After all, as the Post’s Bump explained, “I’m telling you, you’re wrong about these things, and you don’t listen.” mspart

More of that danger to democracy stuff we keep hearing about. Now NH will have no representation to the convention or say in who should be the democratic contender. Perfectly in line with their current line of thinking. mspart

I think it is a combination. Dimon is fairly non political. However, I also believe he must lean D because what he said was to Biden and his idiots to grow up and listen. Stop calling people names. Not helpful. It may also be that he was just making an observation of what people are thinking. Bret Stephens did the same in the article I posted. Bret Stephens obviously is not a Trump acolyte. Interesting how both came out about the same time. It might be time for Ds to listen to the concerns. If they decide not to, there might be electoral consequences. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/ The trends are separating. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4416654-trump-leads-biden-with-independent-voters-by-11-points-poll/ Trump leads Biden with independent voters by 11 points: Poll The trends suggest Dimon and Stephens may be on to something. mspart mspart

Dake does make a strong case. But I think undefeated is a stronger case. mspart

In the name of cordiality, I would say the bold is not patently false, but much of the time it is. mspart

Dang, I didn't make the cut!! mspart

I would agree fairly cordial, but I see condescension that is not helpful in discussions. Your examples I honestly do not remember. I have heard that Biden is creepy with women and nibbled on a little person's ear like a grandpa would. He has been creepy with women and he did nibble on an ear like a grandpa would. But there is a difference between your grandkid and a kid you don't know. I chalk that up to senility or dementia really. Biden is doing nothing. In fact, the House passed a resolution with 14 Ds condemning his handling of the Border. Was that orchestrated by Biden? Doubtful. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4414432-house-approves-resolution-denouncing-bidens-open-border-policies/ Would you call that an example of him working across the aisle? He has gotten flack for supporting Israel from the progressives (which shows where they are) and drilling for oil? https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/29/politics/biden-offshore-drilling-plan-climate/index.html yeah, a few oil leases to be sold over the next 5 years. Really gonna do something. The article states, The five-year drilling plan “represents the smallest number of oil and gas lease sales in history,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. That's a real strong endorsement of him wanting to drill, LOL. I think it is very interesting that this thread is about at least listening to concerns from the other side, there was immediate push back. It is obvious that Dimon and later Stephens are correct. And they are talking from a position that does not want Trump to succeed. Then why the push back. Seems like sage advice. mspart

Then don't complain about it. mspart

I also attended the 1980 championships in Corvallis. The last match of hte night was an incredible match. Howard Harris of Oregon State Pinned Big Bruce. Harris pinned his way through the tourney and also won the Gorrarian award and Outstanding Wrestler. mspart

I lived in MN at the time when the NCAAs were in Minneapolis. I made a big deal about it and my parents, my wife's parents and her brother came. Only the males went to the championships. Anyway, I saw Les Gutches for the first time, I think he won his second. My in laws are from Oregon and my brother in law was really watching Gutches the whole time. I remember that the hwt final was between Walter of WI and Hardy of UNC. Hardy kept clubbing the Walter, actually throwing punches. Walter kept his composure through a brutal match that I don't remember any takedowns. There could have been. I was just so impressed that the other guy kept his cool and as a result won. Worst case of poor sportsmanship I have ever seen in wrestling. The UNC coach would have done well to pull him off the mat. It was stupid. Everyone was booing and when the match ended they cheered extremely loudly for the winner. It would have been the 1996 championships. I just watched it and it looked worse from the stands. Ha ha. My other favorite was the McIlravy match he lost in the finals to Marianetti. Great match. Very similar to the Gable Owings match. mspart

I can't, got tendinitis in my shoulder. But to my point that you dismissed, where are you aiding in this discussion? jross and a few others are but you are not, yet you complain they are not aiding this discussion. Projection is what they call that. mspart

To your points. I have not heard anyone call Biden a child eater. Dementia yes. Senile yes. I'm happy you have people in your life you can discuss things rationally with. It does not seem to carry over here though. Dimon is not saying every progressive needs to talk to every conservative, he is saying the powers that be need to listen to the concerns of those leaning towards Trump and address those issues positively. That is just practical politics. The fact he had to say the Ds should grow up, shows that this will be more difficult in practice than on paper. mspart

Dimon sees there is a danger to the Biden Presidency continuing due to his positioning of all things Trump are evil. Everyone associated with those ideas are evil. And that is essentially what they are saying with their rhetoric of "Democracy is at stake here". So the obvious remedy to that is to decrease democracy and curtail the ability to vote for who is running. Everyone can see this and sees different motives for this. Bret Stephens says it well here. https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2022/07/25/bret-stephens-i-was-wrong-about/ Bret Stephens: I was wrong about Trump voters Telling voters they are moral ignoramuses is a bad way of getting them to change their minds. ...What were they seeing that I wasn’t? That ought to have been the first question to ask myself. When I looked at Trump, I saw a bigoted blowhard making one ignorant argument after another. What Trump’s supporters saw was a candidate whose entire being was a proudly raised middle finger at a self-satisfied elite that had produced a failing status quo. I was blind to this. Although I had spent the years of Barack Obama’s presidency denouncing his policies, my objections were more abstract than personal. I belonged to a social class that my friend Peggy Noonan called “the protected.” My family lived in a safe and pleasant neighborhood. Our kids went to an excellent public school. I was well paid, fully insured, insulated against life’s harsh edges. Trump’s appeal, according to Noonan, was largely to people she called “the unprotected.” Their neighborhoods weren’t so safe and pleasant. Their schools weren’t so excellent. Their livelihoods weren’t so secure. Their experience of America was often one of cultural and economic decline, sometimes felt in the most personal of ways. It was an experience compounded by the insult of being treated as losers and racists — clinging, in Obama’s notorious 2008 phrase, to “guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them.” No wonder they were angry. Anger can take dumb or dangerous turns, and with Trump they often took both. But that didn’t mean the anger was unfounded or illegitimate, or that it was aimed at the wrong target. ... This was the climate in which Trump’s campaign flourished. I could have thought a little harder about the fact that, in my dripping condescension toward his supporters, I was also confirming their suspicions about people like me — people who talked a good game about the virtues of empathy but practice it only selectively; people unscathed by the country’s problems yet unembarrassed to propound solutions. I also could have given Trump voters more credit for nuance. For every in-your-face MAGA warrior there were plenty of ambivalent Trump supporters, doubtful of his ability and dismayed by his manner, who were willing to take their chances on him because he had the nerve to defy deeply flawed conventional pieties. Nor were they impressed by Trump critics who had their own penchant for hypocrisy and outright slander. To this day, precious few anti-Trumpers have been honest with themselves about the elaborate hoax — there’s just no other word for it — that was the Steele dossier and all the bogus allegations, credulously parroted in the mainstream media, that flowed from it. But I would also approach these voters in a much different spirit than I did the last time. “A drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall,” Abraham Lincoln noted early in his political career. “If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend.” Words to live by, particularly for those of us in the business of persuasion. He is saying essentially what Jamie Dimon said. There are concerns out there that Trump addresses that the Democrats spit on. There are independents that have concerns that Trump addresses and the Ds spit on them too. At their peril. It would be wise for the Ds to consider these concerns and address them. They are doing that with the border but I think it is too late because of all the damage done over the past 3 years. I think it is too late for the admin to say, "look we did something positive here" after 3 years of saying the border is closed, the border is safe, the border is under control. Tell that to the folks in NYC and Chicago and every other D controlled sanctuary city that is receiving thousands. It is now too late to reverse what has been done to this country because the admin really didn't care to control the border. There are other things that folks are alarmed about with the Ds and by calling them all racists, MAGA haters, the issue is not resolved. Hillary did herself no favors with her deplorables comment. You would think there would be some learning going on but apparently not. Biden does the same without using that word, but the same intent is there. mspart

She just needs to pay the carbon offset and all is well. As a Disney, she should be able to do that and absolve herself. mspart

Interesting read from the foremost authority on climate and weather of PNW at U of WA. https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-cold-truth-about-renewable-energy.html The Cold Truth About Renewable Energy in the Pacific Northwest Renewables no good in extreme cold weather. And for that matter, hot also here in the PNW. mspart

Whatever makes you feel good. mspart

This is a horrible bait and switch situation that the government, in their infinite wisdom, and with clear conscience, have pushed on us. I'm glad it is called out. More evidence the government is screwing the public over. mspart

Like you are aiding the discussion? mspart

Pretty damning. This should come out in the campaign and let them answer for it. mspart

https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/hunter-biden-faces-up-to-17-years-in-prison-if-convicted-201777733504 Hunter Biden faces up to 17 years in prison if convicted I would be concerned but I'm not Hunter. He's brave enough to arrive at the Capitol and rail on and on about the deposition he is there not to give on the day he is to give it. That takes some chutzpah. And so far, nothing has happened to him so well played I guess. Except he also crammed it down their throats in the contempt hearing he attended unnanounced. Major chutzpah there I might add. I hope he gets held accountable for these behaviors. His lawyer should but he has otherwise been just defending him telling him these would be good ideas. mspart

Vak - it is really hard to make a coherent argument on this point. You're statement is just sour grapes. Since when has Dimon been political? I have never seen it. He advocates in front of Congress for Wall Street and to be left alone. And his statement seems to say that the Ds should listen or they will lose this election because of their obtuseness. If anything, he is trying to tell the Ds what to do to not screw this up. mspart

So the laptop was not Russia Disinformation. The peddlers of disinformation disinformed the public on this front. Not only that, but the laptop that everyone knew about is corroborated by the i-cloud data that the DOJ received some time ago. So DOJ has known all along about all this and have slow walked it all. 1. They have Hunter dead to rights on tax evasion and slow walk that one until the statute of limitations happened and they did nothing to keep the case going which they easily could have done. 2. They dropped all of the gun charges on Hunter that are now pending due to the plea deal being blown up. 3. They dropped most of the tax charges except the weak ones that he pled guilty to originally in the plea deal that blew up. Now all of the sudden he is not guilty of those as his new plea. So now that this is out there, what is the DOJ to do? This will determine how corrupt the DOJ is in my mind. They have Hunter dead to rights for a long prison sentence. Will they pull the trigger? We shall see. mspart

Well Nikki is certainly more centrist than the other two that are still in the running. And I remember both Rs and Ds playing games in the primaries to get desired results for the main election. Just last time in 2022, numerous Ds voted for Trump candidates in the Primary so they could beat them in the general because some were felt to be weak candidates. This happened, and the Ds got the R candidates they wanted so they could be beaten. Trumps candidates did well in the primaries but not the general election. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/11/15/democrats-boosted-trump-gop-primaries-helping-midterms/10670042002/ mspart

https://thehill.com/business/4413609-dimon-democrats-should-grow-up-listen-to-trump-supporters/ Dimon: Democrats should ‘grow up,’ listen to Trump supporters JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon slammed Democratic messaging about MAGA, or “Make America Great Again,” Republicans on Wednesday, telling Democrats to “grow up” and “listen” to supporters of former President Trump. “When people say MAGA, they’re actually looking at people voting for Trump and … they’re basically scapegoating them,” Dimon told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I don’t like how [Trump] said things about Mexico … but he wasn’t wrong about some of these critical issues, and that’s why they’re voting for him,” Dimon continued. “And I think people should be a little more respectful of our fellow citizens.” “I mean, really, can we just stop that stuff and actually grow up and treat other people with respect and listen to them a little bit,” he said, adding, “I think this negative talk about MAGA is going to hurt Biden’s election campaign.” Dimon has stayed out of politics but I think what he is saying here is true. People who support Trump are concerned about things. People who support Biden are concerned about things. Best to listen to all of them and deal with all the concerns. This is a nice fresh take and I hope the nation gets it. mspart