We Cannot Sit Back And “Hope For The Best”!!!

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2024, History, Political commentary, Social commentary

Thom Hartmann is among my favourite political writers, and he has a way of analyzing and explaining issues with a bit of dry humour thrown in to keep it interesting.  The following piece is from nearly two weeks ago, but it’s worth sharing even now …  (Note:  all links open in a separate tab)

The Swiftboaters are Back with the Biden Impeachment

Slander campaigns like this must instead be hit head-on with outrage and ferocity…

By Thom Hartmann

13 September 2023

House Republicans have revived the infamous Swiftboat lie strategy that helped defeat John Kerry in 2004. In essence, it involves relentlessly lying about a candidate and smearing his or her name and reputation in the hopes it’ll shave a few points off their popularity with independent voters.

While virtually 100 percent of the men who served with Kerry in Vietnam spoke glowingly of his service, a group who did not serve with him made up lies and exaggerations.

Kerry and those who served with him tried to get the truth out, but, as Mark Twain is often credited as saying, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”

While Democrats prefer to win elections based on facts and policy positions, Republicans — not having anything to offer average Americans — instead default to slander and lies. Like with Obama’s birth certificate. Or Hillary’s email and Benghazi.

Wouldn’t most people, after all, resort to lies if all they had to offer was:

— Forcing 10-year-olds to carry their rapist’s babies to term,
— More guns to slaughter more American children,
— Tax cuts for billionaires,
— More fossil fuels to create out-of-control weather,
— A government shutdown to cause a recession,
— And a Russian victory in Ukraine?

In this case, the essence of the impeachment inquiry Kevin McCarthy announced yesterday is straightforward: he believes that Joe and Hunter Biden profited from Joe’s being in the White House during the Obama administration and he thinks that’s an impeachable offense.

After all, there is:

— That $2 billion that Hunter got in a sweetheart deal from the Saudis with an annual paycheck of $25 million to manage it.
—Or the billion he got from Qatar after his buddies in Saudi Arabia blockaded the country and threatened to starve them until they coughed up to bailout his fancy overpriced building in New York City.
— And the more-than $600 million Hunter made while working in his dad’s White House.
— Don’t forget the tens of millions in trademarks his wife got from the Chinese when she visited them with Dad.
— Or his multiple meetings with Russians working for Vladimir Putin who was then trying to get his dad elected.
— Or the $30 million given him to invest and manage by one of Israel’s largest insurance companies.
— And the top-secret info he gave a Saudi prince that helped him overthrow his own government.

Oh, wait. That was Jared and Ivanka Kushner, not Hunter Biden.

Hunter appears to have committed three crimes, two of which he’s being prosecuted for by a Trump-appointed special prosecutor with help from a Trump-appointed judge.

First, he failed to report or pay his income taxes for two years while he was in the throes of alcohol and drug intoxication.

He’s since paid them in full, plus fines, as do tens of thousands of delinquent filers in the US every year. Republicans want him to go to prison anyway.

Second, he checked a box on an application to purchase a gun — which he only kept for two weeks and never used — which said that he wasn’t then a drug addict.

Checking that box when you are a drug addict is technically a crime, but there’s no instance I can find with a pretty thorough web search of anybody, anywhere, any time ever having been prosecuted for it.

Until now. It looks like Hunter might actually go to prison for checking the box, which raises the question: where are the Second Amendment Republicans protesting this violation of his sacred right to own a gun no matter what? Crickets.

Third, Hunter took a position on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian fossil fuel giant, for which he was paid millions. This was a transparent effort to trade off his father’s name and nobody is denying that: it was “poor judgement” (to quote Hunter himself).

To show his employers how tight he was with the Vice President, he’d call his dad and conduct the phone conversation on a speaker phone for the room to hear; his business partner in the Burisma deal, Devon Archer, testified about that before James Comer’s House Oversight Committee.

Sadly for Comer, though, Archer testified under oath that the two never discussed business or Burisma: Joe Biden kept the conversations to family, rehab, and the weather.

Nonetheless, the Republicans are sure if they dig deep enough they’ll find something at least as scandalous as Jared’s cutting the deals with Saudi Arabia that led to the Crown Prince funneling millions of dollars into Donald Trump’s pockets via the LIV Golf scheme.

Good luck with that: unlike Donald Trump, Joe Biden actually has a moral compass. He used those phone calls to try to talk his son into rehab.

But Marjorie Taylor Greene had dinner with Donald Trump this past Sunday night, and he told her he wanted Joe Biden impeached according to people who were there, and then turned up the pressure on McCarthy. Trump, of course, doesn’t want to be the only guy running for the presidency who’s been impeached and whose family is known to be corrupt through-and-through.

Now Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Matt Gaetz are in a pissing match over who was first with the very, very cool plan to impeach Biden.

Boebert’s proposal, Greene wants the world to know, is simply a rip-off of her own efforts. After calling Boebert a “little b*tch,” Green said:

“I had already introduced articles of impeachment on Joe Biden for the border, asked her to co-sponsor mine—she didn’t. She basically copied my articles and then introduced them and then changed them to a privileged resolution.”

Yesterday morning, after McCarthy’s coming announcement was public knowledge, Gaetz tweeted:

“When @SpeakerMcCarthy makes his announcement in moments, remember that as I pushed him for weeks, @kilmeade said I was: ‘Speaking into the wind’ on impeachment. Turns out, the wind may be listening!”

In response, Greene tweeted back at him:

“Correction my friend. I introduced articles of impeachment against Joe Biden for his corrupt business dealings in Ukraine & China while he was Vice President on his very first day in office. You wouldn’t cosponsor those and I had to drag you kicking and screaming to get you to cosponsor my articles on the border. Who’s really been making the push?”

The sad reality for this MAGA crowd is that there is no evidence, either direct or implicit, that Joe Biden ever had anything to do with his son’s business dealings or ever took any money from them. None. Even the two “IRS whistleblowers” who said Hunter had committed tax crimes that they claimed were overlooked during the Trump administration brought no evidence. The Department of Justice also denied their claims.  

Another much-heralded “whistleblower” that Comer and House Republicans had talked about for weeks turned out to be a professional con man, spy for China, and criminal who’s on the lam fleeing international arms trafficking charges. Understandably, he didn’t show up for the hearings.

But don’t let facts get in the way of a good swiftboating.

I remember when, during the 2004 election year, Jerome Corsi came on my program several times to hype his book Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry. Corsi, it turned out, had never served in the US military, and his co-author, John O’Neill, served in Vietnam long after Kerry had returned to the US.

Literally none of their claims held up, but, like with the Obama birth certificate and Benghazi, they blew enough smoke that millions of swing voters concluded there must be a fire somewhere.

So now McCarthy is having to twist himself into pretzels to try to justify this bizarre fishing expedition.

Instead of seating a select committee to look into impeaching Biden, McCarthy is essentially doing a marketing move rather than a legal one. There is no “impeachment committee” with subpoena power because having one would require a majority of the House to vote for it and he knows he doesn’t have enough Republican votes to make it happen.

As McCarthy himself said just two weeks ago:

“To open an impeachment inquiry is a serious matter and House Republicans would not take it lightly or use it for political purposes. The American people deserve to be heard on this matter through their elected representatives. That’s why, if we move forward with an impeachment inquiry, it would occur through a vote on the floor of the People’s House and not through a declaration by one person.”

Back in 2019 — when Nancy Pelosi was debating having a vote to put together an impeachment committee when it came out that Trump had tried to extort Zelenskyy to say that Biden was corrupt — McCarthy said:

“Speaker Pelosi can’t decide on impeachment unilaterally. It requires a full vote of the House of Representatives.”

But instead of having that vote yesterday, McCarthy’s just attaching that “impeachment” label to the existing hustles being run by Comer at House Oversight and Jordan at Judiciary and Weaponization. It’s legally meaningless, but just the use of the word “impeachment” guarantees multiple news cycles, driving the “smoke” into the faces of American voters.

This is the same McCarthy who said the entire Benghazi two-year circus was done purely to tarnish Hillary Clinton in the upcoming 2016 election. He told Sean Hannity it was his “strategy to fight and win” the election, adding:

“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened, had we not fought.”

The fact is that presidential elections, which are often decided by just a few points or less, can be won if a candidate can simply shave those few points off their opponents’ tally. And that can be done by discouraging base voters about a candidate and thus suppressing turnout, or simply souring swing voters on that candidate.

This strategy worked for Republicans in 2004 against John Kerry and again in 2016 against Hillary Clinton; we can fully expect them to play it out now. Particularly if Democrats once again respond by trying to ignore it and wrongly assume people will realize how absurd it is.

Slander campaigns like this must instead be hit head-on with outrage and ferocity: Democrats need to take this seriously.

So, while Don Jr. and Eric Trump are facing prosecution in a $250 million fraud suit by New York State for corrupt acts that handed their family billions of dollars scammed from banks, insurance companies, and unpaid taxes, Republicans are going to try to impeach Joe Biden for his son’s poor but entirely legal decision to sit on the Burisma board.

Meanwhile, within hours of McCarthy’s announcement, Russian President Vladimir Putin came out and gushed about the “outstanding person” Elon Musk while taking Donald Trump’s side in his dispute with Jack Smith.

Irony is dead and hypocrisy has never been more alive.

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23 thoughts on “We Cannot Sit Back And “Hope For The Best”!!!”

  2. Thematic. I personally have found that a good lie can protect the truth. I was told that poetry was invented for this purpose and that it is pervasive throughout art. … a man hears what he wants to hear And disregards the rest. Paul Simon

    Tell all the truth but tell it slant,
    Success in circuit lies,
    Too bright for our infirm delight
    The truth’s superb surprise;

    As lightning to the children eased
    With explanation kind,
    The truth must dazzle gradually
    Or every man be blind.

    Emily Dickinson

    Liked by 2 people

    • I think Paul Simon was spot on … we hear what we want to hear, that which fits into our preconceived notions, and we discard the rest. As re Dickinson … we are no longer children who need to be placated with lies … we need to wake up and learn to seek facts and make decisions based on facts with some humanity and compassion thrown in.

      Liked by 2 people

          • Thank you, Jill. I wish I wouldn’t get in such a hurry when writing comments and replies. Maybe if I just slowed my thoughts a bit, I would notice the mistakes. The problem I have with code is the same I have with all numbers / symbols. I transpose them like I am dyslexic. It has gotten much worse since I had that brain stuff I had earlier. The online banking is a nightmare now. I might have to give up doing it in comments or replies because even after rereading what I wrote, I don’t see the mistake. It looks correct to me. Any way this is a long-winded way of saying thanks and it is OK. Hugs. Scottie

            Liked by 1 person

    • Hi ryinger77. Thanks for teaching me a new word, I had to look up Thematic. I agree the word is a true explanation of what the republicans are doing. But I did not understand the sentence I personally have found that a good lie can protect the truth. But I want to understand what you are saying rather than put my own coloration on it due to misinformation to what you mean. Thanks, hugs. Scottie

      Liked by 2 people

      • Your very welcome. I’m pretty sure I was using the word for Jill because I think her previous post had a similar theme. Too your question. I love to dwell in ambiguity which many view as lying. Not my belief nor if God wrote the ten commandments neither did they. My interpretation bearing false witness against thy neighbor is pretty specific to be scratched into stone by a person who rather tersely wrote thou shall not kill. Meat eaters could use a little more guidance IMO. The personal part is to hide something in an art piece subliminal. Michelangelo was of course the Master even incorporating insults of Pope Julius II who commissioned him for the Sistine Chapel. Something from my childhood that maybe even more relatable to yourself however. My great grandmother live into her hundreds as did my Aunt Idy her sister. Catholics all we’d gather for Sunday at grandma’s. My mothers dad had a sister Aunt Mildred who had lost her fiance during WWI. She later married Uncle Bob and they were there every Sunday with Bob’s friend that we called Uncle Mike. Fast forward 20 years and we are reminiscing. Turns out Mildred never got over her loss and Bob was her best friend and Mike was his lover. She was his beard all my life. Your community, rightfully so, has been protecting the truth with lies for a long time. The work to keep it from returning is undone. Sometimes a lie as an act of love. Hugs back Dick

        Liked by 2 people

        • Hi ryinger77. Sorry about misunderstanding what you were addressing with the thematic usage. Still I think it fits well when discussing what the republicans are doing. I hope I can remember the word for more than a few days, it is getting harder for new information especially new words to stick with me. I find that my vocabulary is not as broad as it once was.

          Thanks for sharing the personal story about your family. As you say, the work is not finished and there are people wanting to drag the past into the present. I understand now what you mean by a good lie can protect the truth. I wonder about the word lie or lying when used to do a good thing. We all know the phrase white lie. I do wonder if a non-truth or half truth told to accomplish a good thing should be called something other than a lie? Oh well, I guess people would then argue what is a good thing. Anyway, interesting direction your reply has my thoughts going. Hugs. Scottie

          Liked by 2 people

          • No apology needed. I just spelt North without an r for Rawgod. 🙂 If a leader of Moses’ caliber thought it important to single out a specific type of lie for divine judgement I can too! Hugs

            Liked by 2 people

  3. Jill, to be brutally frank, Senator John Kerry was a hero who fought. His opponent did not. Yet, Kerry was painted so very poorly by this Swiftboating effort. It should be noted George W. Bush had a guy on his team that would do absolutely anything to win. In the 2000 primary, Senator John McCain, another war hero, was fresh off a win over Bush in New Hampshire. In South Carolina, the Bush team let out that McCain fathered a Black girl out of wedlock and McCain lost SC.

    The truth is the McCains adopted a young girl from India. This poor girl can still find this Bush claim online. McCain later in 2008 had a chance to use this jerk in his campaign and turned him down.

    Keith

    Liked by 4 people

    • I find it both frustrating and sad that people will sink to such lows just to win an election. What if they spent their time preparing, learning what the job requires, learning about our international relations and how Congress and our government works, thereby actually qualifying them for the position? But no, instead they prefer to ruin lives with their lies. This, then, is what the United States has become, and it is getting worse by the day. This evening I read that Paul Gosar is calling for the “execution” of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley. Milley is an honourable man … Gosar is not. We the people need to start holding our politicos accountable for their words and actions. Unless we do, we are doomed.

      Liked by 2 people

        • PS – I tried leaving a message with Paul Gosar to say his comments are uncalled for, but like with other representatives such as Jim Jordan, who want to be on the national stage, he does not want to hear from anyone but his constituents. He hides behind his phone system – press 1 if you are a constituent which says go to the restricted email form online. If you press 2, you get a Capitol operator who sends you back to his phone tree in a circular fashion.

          Online comments usually get a canned answer by subject line. So, it permits them to say the most inane and inappropriate things with impunity. Gosar is a dentist, so he knows he is being a rabble rouser for extremists.

          Keith

          Liked by 3 people

          • Yes, I’ve found that to be the case with a number of them who aren’t my own representatives. They seem to forget that while they are elected by the people in their district, in the broadest sense they are representing every person in this nation and owe us all a voice. One workaround is to send them an actual snail mail letter, which I’ve done a few times, despite the price of a stamp … but I haven’t received any responses, so perhaps they just throw those in the dustbin.

            Liked by 2 people

          • Hello Keith. I don’t think they even care about constituents. What they care about is the big deep pocket money groups that will fund them, will support their next campaign by attacking their opponents and give them luxurious perks like the SCOTUS corrupt justices are credibly accused of taking. As for trying to contact a representative in the House or Senate from the state of Florida where I live, it is futile. They are republicans and one of the first things they want to know is if I am a registered democrat or republican. Once I answer democrat, they don’t care to even hear me out. This is the system we are struggling with in a badly gerrymandered red state. Their goal is power and personal wealth. Hugs. Scottie

            Liked by 2 people

      • Hi Jill. The reason what you are talking about happens is that the people doing it do not want to serve in a government position to govern, they don’t want to actually do the work required of the job they are running for. Instead they want to rule. They want to force others to live as they say, and they see the office they are running for as a golden ticket that will give them power and fortune, a way to increase their personal wealth. They do not care about anyone else except themselves / their own families, and their goal is to game the system for their own personal benefit. That is why we now have a “profession of state / federal congressional office holders”. That is not what the original founders intended. They wanted the elected people to come to Washington a few months of the year or as long as needed, decide the laws and needed things for the country, and go home. The early office holders did not make it a lifetime job as it was not profitable and they lost money during the time they were away from their estates serving the people in the government. That was why it was looked at as, “serving the people”. That is where we went wrong and why the job of legislator is so rife with corruption. It is the golden ticket to fame, fortune, and most important for both, power! I do not have a solution because every one of the solutions I know of has its critics, and in the game of politics money / deep pockets rule. The public has no money or deep pockets, the lifelong politicians in the thrall of big money has seen to that.

        Ron, my wonderful partner and spouse going on 34 years in October, often says the US needs a revolution to fix itself, to right the ship. We have disagreed over the last 15 years on that, but more and more I am beginning to think he is correct. Until we get money limited again in politics and the will of the majority of people represented rather than the demands of the ultra wealthy / super small minority of well off higher income people, the US will keep declining into a military powerhouse of a superior upper class of the most wealthy and a lower class of desperate struggling throw away workers willing to take any job at any low pay in any dangerous condition just to eat or feed their kids. A return to the gilded age of the robber barons and a desperate public. Scary. Hugs. Scottie

        Liked by 2 people

        • You bring up many good points, Scottie. I think perhaps serving in Congress should be an unpaid position, or one that pays only minimum wage, and then we might get people doing the job for the right reasons, because they care and want to make the country better … for the people. Or perhaps not. Perhaps then we would get only the wealthy bastards who would be there to try to give themselves more wealth through legislation to help only the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us. Sigh. The system is broken, but I don’t know how to fix it. Hugs

          Liked by 1 person

  4. Pingback: We Cannot Sit Back And “Hope For The Best”!!! | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

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