Joe is doing a great job in foreign policy (not necessarily in his public appearances though). I think Vietnam is a more willing & eager partner than India, but both are the logical next tier of "allies" after Japan, South Korea, Australia & Philippines.



I assume Blinken is the driving force here. Looked him up and below caught my attention.


See below for the YT 3 song playlist. Not great, wouldn't spend money on it, but much better than anything I could do.

https://music.youtube.com/search?q=ablinken

McCarthy called for an impeachment inquiry without a vote because he knew a vote would fail. It is going to be fascinating to see if they are going to get to 51 on the actual impeachment vote.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

Didn't they argue Trump's impeachments would only make him more likely to get a 2nd term?

It's just noise for the low information voter.

Instead of a steady drumbeat of Trump's criminal cases, it will be a steady drumbeat of bothsides with Trump's criminal cases and [mumble mumble somthing Hunter Biden].

Cracks me up that these right wing ghouls are of course misrepresenting the money to Iran for the release of American prisoners using frozen Iranian funds while being totally cool with Kushner getting 2 bil from the Saudis.

McCarthy gives the HFC the impeachment inquiry and Gaetz responds by threatening to introduce a vacate motion if McCarthy doesn't do everything they demand.

How does he not realize there is no appeasing them.

Assume fairly lightweight survey. I'd think this is "ideal", I'd factor in (or give bigger weighting) to Cost of Living, Weather, Food etc.

But still interesting.

If I had to pick one (other than US) at this stage of my life, I'd pick a EU country specifically because of Schengen and ease of travel. If there wasn't Schengen, I'd go with Australia.

Americans rank United Kingdom as the best country in the world, poll reveals - with New Zealand second...and the US in third | Daily Mail Online

It's interesting that you're in favor of open borders in Europe but don't seem to have the same attitude towards the US border.

Honestly, don’t see what’s interesting about it.

The difference here is legal vs illegal immigration, legal vs illegal work/guest visas.

And before anyone brings the race card … regardless of skin color.

I don't know what she is complaining about. She's an adult, she made an adult decision, made money from it, and now complaining about it coming out? She has every right to do what she did, every right to run for politics etc. but voters have the right to know about her life choices.

I personally don't think this prevents her from running & winning. Standards have changed and this doesn't seem "bad" to me. I wish she would just embrace it (instead of complaining).

Virginia Democratic House candidate Susanna Gibson condemns sharing of sex videos | CNN Politics

I think she is the first that we are hearing about dealing with an issue like this, but she will be far from the last. Eventual politicians with an active Onlyfans account are just around the corner.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

It's a weird story. Nothing she did was illegal. The person who disseminated it did do something illegal according to Virginia law (the Republican operative). I know laws don't really matter in politics, but it is a crime.

There is a case to be made that revenge porn laws violate the 1st Amendment, especially when it comes to journalists. But I don't think it's ever been ruled in the higher courts. Probably something we'll see more of down the road and will need the courts to clarify further.

I did a little , um, research, on the video. I would vote for her.

I also think she's handling it poorly, although asking someone to act rational after having their sex tapes leaked to the world is asking a lot. She should have owned it and explained why she did it. That the act was with her husband.

This media portrays the country as prudish toward politicians, but we've seen voters don't care that much. The former first lady has nude photo shoots. The former President was having sex with a pornstar while his wife was home nursing their newborn. A popular Congressman was paying a minor for sex. Clinton got blown in the oval office over 20 years ago. There's a laundry list of people in politics who were flying to lolita island.

It's embarrassing and you'll get some blowback by the fake christian crowd who weren't going to vote for you anyway. But I think owning it makes the other side look like weirdo puritans to normal people.

Wait. They were live-streaming that video for tips. This isn't a stolen sex tape. This was arguably a public act. I would guess there is zero chance the Republican operative gets hit with revenge porn charges, and if they do there is no way they stick. It was a non-password protected open site with 5,700 watchers. You can't claim privacy on that.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

If they didn't have a license or authorization to disseminate, it's a crime in Virginia. The law is pretty clear.

https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/...ion18.2-386.2/

Whether the law is constitutional is up for debate.

Worth noting that the video was pulled from a site that illegally rips cam streams and uploads them without permission. Usually operated out of Russia or an Eastern Eiropean country. This wasn't some person who came across her livestream and sent a link to someone.

That will never stand up in court on a case like this.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

Dola: Just to take it further, they are trying to say a person telling a reporter of the existence of a video he never possessed on a site he does not own is "disseminating?" Again, no way he even gets charged.

Edit: This the case law that the attorney is trying to use to justify charges
"In that case,*Ronnie Lee Johnson v. Commonwealth of Virginia, the court found that consent to being seen is not the same as consent to being recorded, writing that there was a “stark distinction between an image existing only in someone’s memory … [and] a permanent file that may be shared or re-viewed indefinitely.”
The problem here is they were the ones recording. It was their camera that did the recording, not someone hiding a camera or in the bushes. Further, they broadcast that online. Doing something in public (and that would definitely be reconsidered as public) waves your right to privacy. The best they have is a copyright violation on the sites that hosted video. But someone pointing put that the video exists is not getting charged with squat.

This makes me think that opposition research at the state level is minimal. I'm going to research on all of this and maybe run for a GA Senate.

It totally depends on the opposition. Like George Santos opposition did absolutely zero, yet I have seen some pretty deep research items come out about county commissioner races. It just depends on how deep the pockets are of those you oppose. Or more specifically how much you piss off any wealthy donor.

Thanks. Want to volunteer for my campaign to do oppo research?

But wait ... going to vote for me?

For starters, that's not the swiss flag.

Thanks for noticing. Did a google reverse search and it's Swaziland or now formally known as Eswatini.

That would totally depend on what your platform is. But I can't do oppo research any better than anyone with Google.

First priority, legalize marijuana ...

That's a good one. I would be for that even though I don't partake.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

This just hit the height of hilarity.

Biden going on offense against the Republican "impeachment inquiry" Sent out this to all network/media services:

https://documentcloud.wondershare.co...7kOVnlVC0R4YIQ
Wondershare Document Cloud


Not sure if it talks about this here, but it's been reported that Trump's admin already ruled against an inquiry without a vote during the Ukraine Impeachment investigation.

She and her husband need to learn how to use sunscreen.

How do you use sunscreen during sex?

For that "Best Country" graphic above, I have trouble taking seriously any source which can't figure out the difference between Switzerland and eSwatini (Swaziland).

edit: I see whomario was on it

TBF, the survey referenced a US News link. Went to it and saw that US News had the right flag for Switzerland so I'm thinking it's some Daily Mail intern that got the graphic wrong.

Hmmm, don't know where to put this but it is somewhat political so I'll use Joe's place.

Interesting graphic on news sites political bias. You have to zoom in to see the individual news sites.

Interactive Media Bias Chart | Ad Fontes Media

MSNBC and FoxNews are no surprise. AP, Reuters and BBC are a little left of center which doesn't surprise me either. I don't spend alot of time on CBS or ABC so no opinion.

Surprised where HuffPost is, I'd put them on par with MSNBC or maybe even worse. I am surprised that Politico is that close to CNN and PBS. Forbes is a pay site so don't visit but would have thought more right than left.

That almost feels like Newnation paid for that as an ad, because that is exactly what they claim. Dead center.


edit: It is also interesting that NPR is the most reliable and almost dead center. It is almost as if without a profit motive you might get more reliable news.

I agree that they'll never be charged. The law wasn't designed to go after people with power; it was meant to protect people in power.

Regardless, the law is clear (to a fault). There is no exemption that states you can disseminate if you don't own it or host it. Otherwise, you could just throw your ex-girlfriend's nudes on Dropbox and claim the same thing. They also didn't record anything, they broadcast it. It was recorded by an illegal site based outside the United States.

The law is incredibly dumb and should be ruled unconstitutional. But the person broke it. The words "by any means whatsoever" would include links in an e-mail or text. There's a reason they wanted to remain anonymous.

It's a really weird chart because it doesn't define right or left either. For instance, Reason is a libertarian publication. It should be as economically far-right as you get but is lumped in as just right of center. Meanwhile others like Shapiro who want expansive governments are considered farther to the rigth likely due to their fascist beliefs. Just seems tough to put them on the same chart.

Another odd aspect is including foreign outlets. BBC and Al-Jazeera might be considered left of center in this country, but they'd be right of center in most of the world. This country is very far-right compared to the rest of the world.

You also have outlets like The Intercept listed as left-wing. They're an investigative new outlet and doesn't seem to have a lot of opinion pieces from what I've seen. You can argue it takes a strong isolationist stance, but I wouldn't consider that left or right wing.

In case you missed it today Hunter Biden sued a former Trump aide to Peter Navarro for being behind the publication of photos, texts, emails etc of Hunter and that he illegally hacked his Icloud's storage in order to do so:


MSN

Somehow the Susanna Gibson story snuck by me. Boy, if there ever was a face that screamed Chaturbate streamer

Your first statement is ridiculous on the surface because we have no idea how "powerful" this guy is, and I doubt whatever his position has any bearing on whether he would be charged or not.
Secondly, the law says "malicious" and clearly states an intent to dispute. Pointing out that something exists is not malicious or dissemination. He nor the reporter have committed a crime, and even the case law the lawyer used would only at best put culpability on the website. But even they would probably be able to beat this charge because of the fact this was publicly broadcast. It would be a violation of the Chaterbate terms of service and copyright law, that is about it.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

Nice Joe.

One more step towards an Asian NATO. Maybe sell more defensive arms to Taiwan.

(Still wondering though why Maverick didn't use F-35 vs F-18)

South Korea cleared to buy $5B worth of F-35s - Breaking Defense

Great that Hunter has been indicted on the firearm charges.


I'm also interested in the status of the Federal taxes charges. I know Weiss dismissed them because of some procedural thing and will re-file.

Bottom line. I think Hunter is a scumbag so don't mind him sweating & being squeezed. But even if found guilty of guns & taxes, my guess is bigger fines and minimal, if any, prison time.

The big prize is really finding any connection between Hunter's business dealings enriching Joe. Wouldn't be surprised if the Reps try to come up with a 2024 Oct surprise.

If we're going to start putting gun owners in jail for doing drugs, those prisons are going to fill up awfully quick.

That and it might be a violation of the second amendment. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/ban...es-2023-02-04/

It's a weird one because gun groups have been trying to fight against laws like that for years. Guessing they'll just ignore this one but kind of funny that Hunter Biden might end up getting a pro-2A ruling through the Supreme Court.

Also weird because I can't find anyone who's ever been charged with that on the federal level.

Good for you McCarthy. You gotta push back on bullies (especially internet forum ones).

Kevin McCarthy's profanity-laced tirade overshadowed the special GOP impeachment briefing. - Live Updates - POLITICO
I like the goal. Need to see the details though

Totally normal stuff from the GOP

It's rare, but it does happen.

From what I saw is it only happens if the gun was used in a crime, repeat offender, etc...

For him to have no criminal history and be charged with this is a joke while the GOP screams and forms committees about the weaponization of the DOJ

I hate this place.