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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   28026 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 11, 2023

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https://apple.news/APEuOPHP2TWqeUTR_h8QypA

So the Republican speaker of the house has decided to open an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden’s business dealings with hunter. I have serious doubts that this will go very far as democrats still control the senate. This looks like an attempt to stir up the base for re-election season.

I personally see this as a big distraction as we have a lot of very serious problems that need to be addressed. BRICs, Taiwan, Ukraine, inflation, and

AP covers it with the stock phrase "claiming without evidence" that we saw so much of in 2020.
Is there a word for that kind of use of cliché? I think Orwell wrote about it being omnipresent in '30s propaganda.

It’s the definition of npc to include those phrases. I am sure you have seen the video smash ups of dozens of news crews say the exact same phrase. That’s one of the approved phrases for the story. And if you go thru Reddit you will see dozens of people using it in a thread.

For a news organization it’s obviously bad to repeat that lie. They could say bad evidence but without is false.

Or they could say “no smoking gun.” Honestly there is a lot of evidence. Perhaps enough evidence that it Joe Biden was long retired but this came to light AUSA’s might not have a problem indicting him (especially if he had an R instead of a D after his name).

I dunno, I reckon Hunter talking about money for the big guy is a gun with a pretty smoky whiff about it. The defences are more "But you didn't see the bullet actually leave the gun, did you?"

Seems like there is even more than just that. Hunter told one of the Chinese business men his father wanted to understand why he wasn’t laid yet. Weird threat unless Joe had previously been involved.

There is also the fact that it seems US and European policy actually supported Shokin until Joe got him fired.

Hunter told one of the Chinese business men his father wanted to understand why he wasn’t laid yet.

I assume that "laid" was a typo for "paid", but it's Hunter, so I'm not 100% certain there...

Either way, could you link a source for this?

Honestly, I've wanted to reply to like half your comments with that same request. There's so much playing Telephone on the internet and so many people playing it poorly that my first instinct is to filter out anyone who makes a surprising claim without either an identity plus word-for-word quote or a hyperlink to the claim's source. It's bad enough when places like CNN so often do that, but if TheMotte commenters can't be held to a higher standard than mainstream reporters then what are we even doing here?

I would add perfectly fair to ask for a source. As I admitted below, one particular part of the story my memory played tricks on me. I post from my phone so hard to do a long comment c/p sources but if asked I will find.

At the same time, I am equally annoyed when people claim there is no evidence when they appear unwilling to have looked for the evidence. You can’t just say “cite please” so there is an advantage there.

Happy to find cites for whatever other questions you have. Note I provided a cite for the above statement in a separate message.

A button to set up a link would be a godsend here. It wouldn't have to be the fancy kind that does it all for you, just one that appends square brackets to a URL and then adds regular brackets afterwards for people to write in would make a huge difference.

Ha laid. That’s a funny autocorrect.

https://nypost.com/2023/06/22/hunter-biden-used-joe-as-leverage-in-china-biz-deal-text/

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