General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe way Trump is squawking about Hunter Biden, we may be witnessing
another case of defensive protectionism. That's how Republicans strategize. If there is an area where they are vulnerable, they will project it onto their opponent.
Maybe Trump is doing this to Biden because Trump's family members have crossed that line on several occasions? So Trump is trying to create a "both sides do it" false equivalence? One that will cement in the minds of his followers -- and that's all he needs.
So what family member is most vulnerable? After reading this DU thread, I am going to say Kushner. The thread discusses a potential quid pro quo with Saudi Arabia over the Khashoggi murder.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212544312
True Blue American
(17,994 posts)Patents from China.
Baitball Blogger
(46,769 posts)usaf-vet
(6,217 posts)RobinA
(9,898 posts)I don't think the country out there gives a flying crap about Ivanka's patents. Even your average Dem. Why should they? Nowhere near close enough to home.
Perseus
(4,341 posts)After the creature is in jail then all his kids should be investigated.
Also, if the creature had any sense he would understand that going after Biden's son opens the door for people to go after his kids.
One more thing, I hope people understand that Hunter Biden's life so far has had a lot of interesting turns, some of them not very good and maybe that is why the repubs feel they can find something shady about him if they continue to turn stones around him. And...I feel Biden should have had a better sense and advise his son to not take that job, he should have known it would come back to him.
When you are in politics and you are a Democrat, before you make a move it is required that you study your future action from every possible angle, and if there is an angle where republicans can/will come after you? then either make the required changes to close that angle, or don't do it. In the case of Hunter Biden taking that job should have studied much closer.
usaf-vet
(6,217 posts)helping his son. Why are the two cases different?
empedocles
(15,751 posts)highplainsdem
(49,045 posts)by double digits.
This is about Trump and the RNC wanting to hurt the Democratic candidate they fear the most.
Baitball Blogger
(46,769 posts)True Blue American
(17,994 posts)Trying to smear him.
Just got a clarification on Ukraine. They are going to investigate the company, not Hunter.
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)BUT, then he must know that many lawyers are officers or on the boards of energy companies. He complains that Hunter Biden knows nothing about the energy business because he's a lawyer. You don't have to be an engineer in an energy related field (which I'm sure Trumps all about, also) to be involved with that business. Donald, with HIS business brilliance, surely knows that major industries are more complicated than that.
Perseus
(4,341 posts)It actually helps a lawyer to know the industry where he will be providing his services, that is why there are specialties in the law profession. Not sure to what capacity Hunter Biden was going to serve in that company, and maybe we should find out.
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)I'd assume he and Joe are not really pillaging Ukraine through that company, as Trump is now claiming. BUT, it's a little reassuring to imagine that Trump cares about the natural resources there. Oh wait, could he be referring to pillaging monetary resources? Surely not.
uponit7771
(90,367 posts)mahina
(17,715 posts)tanyev
(42,636 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,769 posts)True Blue American
(17,994 posts)In the US Election.
California_Republic
(1,826 posts)Thats where that strategy comes from.
FakeNoose
(32,823 posts)I thought his nickname was turd blossom.
California_Republic
(1,826 posts)Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)After some analysis of them, he, (as well as the GOP in general) relies heavily on utilizing fallacies over facts. In Trump's case, they can be delivered one after the other and in composed packages based on his habitual forms of distortion.
While you can overdo the analysis, Trump speaks in what I would call "anti-logic". While this is not such an uncommon, rhetorical and political strategy, in this case, it really emphasizes deflection from knowledge, supported facts, discovering the truth, etc. The reason this is crucial now is that we see that we are really getting diffused, (not just divided) and straying farther and farther away from any kind of cohesive, cultural engagement. The Internet has its value, but this is may be a result of its detrimental aspects.
Where is the fault, though, really here? I don't think it would be a form of "blaming the victim" if we contend that it is the capacity of the population to recognize the uses of fallacies, (as if second nature) and not accept them as beliefs or by way of emotional reactions that is a problem. Perhaps the overuse of them will be a schooling by way of repetition?
I wouldn't expect that everyone has to become a logician or philosopher in order to be invulnerable, but if our body politic were more focused on the process, (the how rather than merely what, where, when and why) of what is presented, then that would provide a shield or antidote to the various forms of manipulation, propaganda and chicanery that goes on. It would also force debate towards a more pragmatic focus on what is actually going on and what really needs to be done about it rather than all the subterfuge, drama and diversion that pollutes the political and social sphere.
That would also assist us finding our potential to find more unity and some form of common ground as a society because, well, that is what a society is. That abstraction represents the some total of its members and the cohesiveness of their relationships in general.
Yeah, I know, dream on. Each of us can step up to that in our own way and model it, though. Each step in that direction could matter. How else does one not fall for it all or react emotively which is like taking the bait and engaging in a rhetorical trap? When we understand that, we start to gather the conceptual tools to build a framework and we can also dig ourselves, collectively, out of this thickening morass of muck and mire; this widening whirlpool of confusion. We can wake up from the delusions and, knowing that is the start.
I think the future of the country depends on understanding that.
Baitball Blogger
(46,769 posts)It's a rabbit hole. His supporters will never listen to facts that might suggest they're wrong. Which gives them an altogether different lexicon. Anti-logic. I like it.
The first step we need to do is dry up their support system. We shouldn't be feeding the environments that allow them to continue this twisted logic. And where do you find much of this "conservative" think well? The military is one place. Our tax dollars pay for the kind of "obey and do not question" mentality that we're fighting against. They're taught that obedience is equal to patriotism.
There is also a huge patronage system that allows them to maintain a society parallel to the one that we live in. So, I suggest we expose this privileged world, where we can.
True Blue American
(17,994 posts)And plain old common sense. If you do not have that, frget it.
Some of the most highly educated peoplein the world lack common sense. President Obama and Michelle had both. Hillary has it. So does Bill Clinton in most areas.
Baitball Blogger
(46,769 posts)kentuck
(111,110 posts)It would follow.
Nictuku
(3,618 posts).... I don't think he cares about anything but his ego.
sinkingfeeling
(51,482 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,769 posts)WhiteTara
(29,728 posts)Look at this - don't look at this
Most of the pressure had to do with Donbas and Russian troops. Look there
Pepsidog
(6,254 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,769 posts)are slow in responding in kind. And truthfully, it's not even "in kind" since there is plenty that the Trumps do in the open. No debate that what his kids are doing is deep and swampy.
librechik
(30,677 posts)The Kush doesn't understand--he will be the sacrificial lamb, for many reasons. He knows all the secrets and has no alibi. Trump secretly hates Jews (just guessing) envies Kush Sr, doesn't want him having sex with his sweet baby Ivanka.
But I am just rambling. So much to suspect with this family .
Freethinker65
(10,070 posts)Ilsa
(61,707 posts)Qatar to get their money for 666 Park Ave is tied in with the whole middle east dealings, too.
karynnj
(59,507 posts)Unlike anything Hunter did where there could be an appearance of conflict of interest to the Ukrainians, if Kushner really did push the embargo of Qatar when they were not giving him a loan ... and then helped end the embargo when they did help him refinance at very very favorable terms, he actually created US policy to get what he wanted. Adding the US has their largest base in qatar.
Ilsa
(61,707 posts)Generic Other
(28,979 posts)If he comes before Congress, first question from Schiff: Mr. Kushner, do you or have you ever had a security clearance?
Maru Kitteh
(28,344 posts)not even Princess Smiley Face.
Other flaw: He would have had to start planning this . . . how long ago? And kept to the plan? Coherently?
It would have to have required a too large number of people to be in on it: Pompeo, The Ghoul, a couple of ambassadors, a sizable number of staff, a number of career NSA officers, the Vice President, the Vice President's national security advisor, many of the Vice President's staff and probably dozens more I'm not thinking of this moment.
And, under this theory, it would have also required THE WHISTLEBLOWER to be in on it too, A very disciplined whistleblower, facing great peril and even death along with their family, following every letter of the law, hiring a top-notch attorney no less.
Do we really think Trump came up with (and executed successfully) this elaborate, convoluted scheme to get himself impeached, just to save Prince Charmin Ultra Soft?
Occam's razor folks!
What looks like a corrupt, stupid, self-obsessed, infantile little man scared shitless impulsively bubbling his way out of the only job that could keep him safe from jail IS in fact a corrupt, stupid, self-obsessed, infantile little man scared shitless impulsively bubbling his way out of the only job that could keep him safe from jail.
WYSIWYG.
FakeNoose
(32,823 posts)He'd blow it with his first lie to the media, and every day after that.
randr
(12,417 posts)Again, this issue has been blatantly in our faces from day one.