I imagine every morning that Meghan McCain wakes up, rolls over, and thinks “I suppose that the world out there is desperately wondering what I think about ${whatever}.” And that wake-up flash of lucidity is shared by most members of the pundit class, who mistake their dominance of the media landscape for interest on our part.
I would be interested if she died in a fire, but only for about a second, as I performed the same mental flip talking heads do: “if that happened to me, what would I think? Oh, it’d suck, dying in a fire. Over to you, Joe.”
Biden occupies part of that media landscape, as well. He’s a creepy-looking older guy who can’t seem to decide if he’s a lounge lizard or an executive. The result is a 4 alarm-bell warning from my subconscious that he may actually have literal skeletons in his closet. He’s too fumbling and emotionally needy to be a high-level vampire but he’s diligent and does his masters’ bidding quickly and mostly efficiently. Who is his master vampire? We’ll know eventually.
Roughly this is the idea I want to project. Just add politicians. [src]
I remember back when Hillary Clinton’s sketchy commodities trading was big news, until suddenly it wasn’t. Because, at that time, until it was made explicitly illegal, “here let me make you a ton of money on the market” was a popular way of funneling vast wealth to a politician. Before the hounds broke into full hue and cry, the story was taken out back and shot because if Hillary was going to get pilloried for that, the rest of Congress was going to have trouble explaining their gym-bags full of un-earned cash. That story started to surface but then vanished leaving a small trail of bubbles.
Then, there was the “foundation” and “trust fund” news: it was big news that Bill Clinton had been accepting anonymous gym bags of money from anyone and everyone and storing them in a shipping crate in the desert along with his partner Mr White. That news started to break then vanished because, basically, every politician in Washington controls a foundation or a fund – it’s a way that they can move money around without the obvious tax consequences; namely: having to pay taxes. The republicans were getting their outrage engines in gear and spinning up to a pig-squealing howl (picture the sound of Lindsey Graham having his scrotum shocked with a cattle prod) (apparently that is enhanced interrogation political expression that he’s OK with) anyhow, Washington was about to start screaming blue murder about that, when an army of accountants and lawyers called their bosses and said, “you know, Bob, we do that thing, too.” Then silence fell. Trump appears to be immune to having his hypocrisy spotlit on the national stage, but other politicians still feel a sense of shame and were not willing to accuse The Clinton Foundation of being a money-mill to (among other things) ensure that Chelsea Clinton will always have a cushy high-paying job, when the entire Trump administration is a money-mill to (among other things) ensure that Trump’s degenerate by-blow will have cushy high-paying jobs. The hop, skip, and jump from ‘foundations’ to ‘nepotism’ is so obvious that even a brain-fucked gimp like Trump can stagger from dot to dot, connecting them.
Now we are forced to watch the absurd sight of a bunch of crooks yammering about wanting to investigate Hunter Biden for corruption. For their own corruption. Mitch McConnell being concerned about corruption is like Jeffrey Dahmer saying “I want to eat healthy.”
I don’t want to be the rain on anyone’s parade but why hasn’t a single fucking “reporter” like Wolf Blitzer or Vanderbilt trust-fund baby Anderson Cooper asked a republican “Why don’t you start a domestic investigation? You know, ask the FBI to look into nepotism and corruption? You can. Congress is authorized to do that.” I hate to belabor the obvious, but it needs a public beating. Why was Trump trying to get Ukraine to do his dirty work, other than that he wanted to conceal the fact that he wanted to open a can of worms that applies to most of Washington. If you step back and look at it for a second, it’s Voltairean comedy that the Ukrainian government would investigate an American politician’s kid for corruption – it’s like hiring an alligator in a swamp to investigate the swamp. “What?” says the alligator, it is genuinely perplexed.
Hunter Biden supposedly took a parking lot attendant’s job at a company that wants to influence daddy, for $50,000/month (which, if you are keeping score, is Paul Manafort’s monthly jacket budget) and the Trumpies want to investigate that horrible nepotistic corruption. Well, first let me say: it is horrible nepotistic corruption of the finest water. Every child of every politician in Washington, who is currently making money from a parents’ position, ought to be taken out with a cinderblock, on a boat, and used to help re-build the great barrier reef. That would be a great step forward for humanity because it would, in one fell swoop, wipe out America’s aristocracy. It wouldn’t take out just Hunter Biden, it would take out Chelsea Clinton: [the hill]
Chelsea Clinton has reaped $9 million in compensation since 2011 for serving on the board of an internet investment company, according to Barron’s, the financial publication.
Clinton, the only child of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has served on IAC’s board since 2011 and receives an annual $50,000 retainer and $250,000 worth of restricted IAC stock units, Barron’s reports.
The number $50,000 is pure coincidence. Or maybe that’s the going rate for “second generation influencers” – I just don’t know. Chelsea is also the chairman of the Clinton Foundation, for which she also pays herself a salary – basically, a gigantic multi-hundred-million-dollar nest egg she can squeeze whenever she wants it. That’s a much smoother way of intergenerational tax dodging wealth transfer than how Trump’s father did it: give him a portfolio worth $100 million and put down that it was $5 million for your taxes, then wait for the statute of limitations to ding.
Where I’m going with all this is that I hate Joe Biden. I hate him so much that I would probably smile if I heard he was dead. I don’t know Hunter Biden but he can go to hell, too. But I’m sure he’s nowhere near as bad as Trump’s gormless byblow who uses his daddy’s connections to go to Mongolia and shoot endangered species. That trip was high-level diplomacy; the Mongolian government facilitated it and took care of him all the way – I know that because, if they hadn’t, some decent person would have dropped that piece of shit in a river somewhere and claimed that the sheep must have gotten him. [propublica]
Horse had a chance to do the right thing; didn’t take it.
Everyone in their right mind, who doesn’t want to watch these ci-devant aristocrats fiddle while the planet burns, ought to hate them individually and collectively. They ought to all be under investigation by the Ukrainian government and any other decent bunch of people who loathes corruption and nepotism. I don’t know a word for the intensity of irony that is the Trump administration wanting Hunter Biden investigated for being a low-rent incompetent who couldn’t rise to the level of Paul Manafort or Don Junior. Do we want to start talking about congresspeople’s kids? Meghan McCain, how did she earn her job, again? Surely it was not her bleating-skills that impressed the sheep. There’s not enough time and I wish I could channel the words of a Shakespeare to raise the masses to wrath, to pick up the torch and pitchfork, and boldly wade into the swamp.
If the democrats run Biden, I will not throw a vote. I was able to hold my nose and vote for Hillary Clinton because, seriously, it was her turn – but Biden? Fuck Biden. And if the democrats want to make us kiss Biden’s ring, fuck their entire party. If the democrats run Biden, they are basically telling the voters “ha ha ha we have figured out how to make you gargle with shit! watch!” We know that’s what the republicans are doing and at least they’re honest about it and wear those stupid red hats that are so visible at 400 meters.
Hunter Biden, if you’re reading this: go overdose on opiates and do us all a favor. Then there can be some pro forma tears and the Trumpies will be left empty-handed.
Joe: drop dead. Literally. The best thing you could do right now is agree to give testimony, then fall over from a heart attack and save everyone and shorten the endless democratic debate cycle by one small amount.
By the way, let me demonstrate how this is done properly:
- Give yourself 1 point if you know whether Vladimir Putin has any children
- Give yourself 1 point if you know how many and what gender(s)
- Give yourself 2 points (per child) if you know what any of them is up to
If you scored more than 4, you are probably a Russian spy. Greetings! I, for one, welcome your involvement in the 2020 election! Please don’t hurt me.
And, of course, Putin’s got kids and they are being well taken care-of: [bi]
OK, now comes the funny part:
(thrashsputter) Normal. Lives.
That’s about as normal as Chelsea Clinton’s / Hunter Biden’s / Donald Trump Jr’s Normal Life.
Marcus: please don’t blow a gasket and keel over. I enjoy reading your posts way too much.
.
I do wish that you were much more widely distributed and read. Your indignation is totally righteous!
I hope other white Americans are more intelligent than you and do otherwise, because if Trump gets another term the minorities in your country won’t have even the thinnest sliver of hope left. Joe Biden is disgusting, but I know for a fact that many black Americans, probably most, are willing and ready to bite that bullet if it’s necessary to bring Trump down. Truly, white Americans are a blight. Biden, you, PZ, every single one of them. You all deserve to die in pain.
I’m really sorry, I forgot about Bernie Sanders. Especially Bernie Sanders. America will never elect someone so far to the… well, let’s be generous and say center-left, I don’t know how anyone can be naive enough to think otherwise. Even if a miracle happens and he does get elected, I predict an “unfortunate” accident or sudden illness befalling him.
Kreator @#2
If you hate Freethoughblogs bloggers so much, then why do you actually bother reading the blogs here? It would be more reasonable for people not to read content published by people they hate and want to die in pain.
Yeah, three in a row. I’m just angry and I want this charade of an election be over with more than most people from your country. I just want to drop a single link of black people having a better grasp of nuance than most white Americans could ever hope to. And I do mean white Americans only, perhaps with the exception of some white Latinos, before someone accuses me of racism. I am a white Latino myself, being from South America and all.
https://www.theroot.com/why-your-presidential-candidate-is-trash-yes-yours-to-1841274872
Andreas Avester@#4
Mental illness. Obsessiveness. I’ve honestly tried to, but no amount of medication seems to keep me off these sites and others on the Internet. I leave for a few weeks, then I relapse and take a peek when a topic makes me think “what are they saying about this?” and I get sucked back in. I’m actually working on this with my therapist, so whish me luck if you want me out.
PS: I miss Caine so much. She was this network to me. When she passed away, it all went to hell. No other person could whoop bigot ass better than her.
Kreator@#6:
so whish me luck if you want me out.
If I want you gone, I’d block you. In the meantime you’re welcome to hang around and complain; we’ve all got things to complain about.
I miss Caine, too.
Kreator @#6
I do prefer other people to be happy and mentally healthy. I mean, I gain nothing from somebody else’s suffering, so I might as well prefer them to do well instead. So good luck to you.
I don’t care one way or the other. I just perceive your actions as bizarre. At least personally I wouldn’t waste my time reading blog posts written by a person whom I hate.
@ Marcus
I am not a Russian spy, I repeat, I am not a Russian spy nor do I work for CSIS, but I knew that Putin had two daughters and that Katrina had married a multi-millionaire/billionaire and was a dancer. I did not know that she was divorced.
I knew that Maria was in bio/medical research but seem to have forgotten that she had studied medicine.
I had read some of the stories about a possible third child with Alina Maratovna Kabaeva but the English language stories seem to have enough holes in them that I’d say at least “Not Proven” and I thought it was a boy.
So, I think I can claim 4.5 or 5.0. But then I have been reading about Russian and Soviet history and affairs, casually, for a very long time. I even know who Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Yevgeny Yevtushenko are and why Grigory Potemkin is such an important figure in Russian history.
BTW, compared to how most US presidents flaunt their children I think Putin did his best to keep his daughters out of the limelight.
Joe Biden? Joe Boughtout and Pla-Joe-rism are more like it.
johnson catman (#1) –
You’d better hope he doesn’t see Salon’s article about how the republiclowns want to (fascist) party like it’s 1933. Whoops, too late.
The post doesn’t even mention me, and there I am in the comments, a blight. Thanks for thinking of me!
I also greatly miss Caine.
jrkrideau@10 the sound you hear is not a helicopter. It is definitely not a helicopter, and if it was, it would not be getting gradually closer.
That’s a good way to find yourself hounded out of any public position, framed for something, or otherwise disposed of. The corrupt are in charge of most of the world, and as you pointed out, even if they disagree they all cover each other’s arses
@ 13 Andrew Molitor
What noise? hold on, I have to anser that knock at the door….
Even if everything you suspect is actually true, I would still vote for Joe Biden if it was him vs. Donald Trump. Hold your nose and do the world a favor.
@Marcus, Andreas:
Thanks. My problem in a nutshell is that depression keeps me isolated, so I spend too much time online, and when something triggers me like this I have to post, because I get anxious if I don’t. Which doesn’t help, because then I get anxious about the replies, but I do it anyway because my brain keeps nagging me about it. In this case I’m just tired of having my fate depend partially on the choices made by people half a world away. My feelings of powerlessness at being so far away to do anything meaningful can be quite overwhelming.
jrkrideau@#10:
I am not a Russian spy, I repeat, I am not a Russian spy nor do I work for CSIS, but I knew
You know that is exactly what a Russian spy would say…?
@ 18 Marcus
The old Aha school of psychology eh?
Back to the topic, Wikipedia summarises things.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Biden#Career)
It begins thus: “After graduating from law school [1996], Biden took a position at MBNA America, a major bank holding company which was also a major contributor to his father’s political campaigns. By 1998, he had risen to the rank of executive vice president.” [citations elided]
(Such competence!)
Did anyone get over 4 on the Putin quizz?
jrkrideau, not me. I have (nor had) any interest whatsoever about Putin’s family, and were I to do so, I could just clickety-click and find out right away.
(Which is what I did about Hunter Biden, BTW)
Me @#6:
Sorry to bring this back, but after another session where we discussed my outburst @#2, we agreed that a better apology was necessary. I let my emotions get the better of me and I wrote stuff I didn’t believe in with the intention to cause hurt, and that obviously wasn’t OK. I’m sorry and I promise I will do my best for this not to happen again. Thanks for being so patient with me and not banning me outright, as you would have been justified in doing.
Kreator@#23:
Sorry to bring this back, but after another session where we discussed my outburst @#2, we agreed that a better apology was necessary. I let my emotions get the better of me and I wrote stuff I didn’t believe in with the intention to cause hurt, and that obviously wasn’t OK.
If you feel you should, then – apology accepted.
John Morales@#20:
“After graduating from law school [1996], Biden took a position at MBNA America, a major bank holding company which was also a major contributor to his father’s political campaigns. By 1998, he had risen to the rank of executive vice president.” [citations elided]
Joe Biden did so many favors for MBNA and other Delaware credit card companies, specifically around making it harder for customers to declare bankruptcy, that wags used to call him “The Senator From Mastercard.”
He’s corrupt as fuck, but the whole system is. The question is whether it’s fair to single him out, in particular; the whole US political system runs on
extortiondonations.Marcus,
I think it is.
It would be amusing were the successful defense case that “everyone else does it too”, so he should also be excused for the nepotism.
(Even better if it were to set off a tit-for-tat escalation, given is ubiquity)