Attorney General Merrick Garland has long maintained that he is a completely apolitical figure who only follows the law. Critics have challenged that claim on key cases, including those related to Hunter Biden. However, Garland may now face one of the clearest tests of his claim in his tenure. The House committees have issued a public report alleging three different instances where Hunter Biden allegedly committed perjury. The question is now what Garland is prepared to do about it.
When Hunter testified, I wrote columns suggesting that he might take the Fifth Amendment to remain silent because the risk was too great that he might lie or mislead investigators in his answers. With months of preparation, he decided to run the gauntlet and now appears to have exposed himself to the possibility of additional criminal charges.
Hunter Biden has still not responded to the specific allegations, but on their face they appear strong. Notably, the Justice Department spent considerable time and money to pursue false statements against figures like Michael Flynn over just one statement describing a meeting with Russian diplomats. These are instances where Hunter was under oath, prepared for months, and had counsel present.
One of the instances concerns the controversial WhatsApp message where Hunter not only threatened a Chinese businessman to send him massive amounts of money but said that his father was sitting next to him at the time. Millions were later sent to the Bidens. The infamous WhatsApp message stated in part:
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”
The response of Hunter to questions about the message was curious and evasive. Hunter said that he had only two things to say about that message. He denied that his father was sitting next to him despite saying that he had no memory of sending the message. Second, and most importantly, he stated “the Zhao that this is sent to is not the Zhao connected to CEFC” who “had no understanding or even remotely knew what the hell I was even Goddamn talking about.”
The Committee staff maintains that Biden’s WhatsApp account shows that he only ever communicated with one Zhao – Raymond Zhao – and that he most certainly did not know what he was “talking about.”
Another alleged lie was Hunter’s denial that he ever helped people associated with Burisma secure visas. He told Congress that he was unwilling to provide “any work as it related to visas that they needed” and that he would “never pick up the phone and call anybody for a visa.” The Committee has produced an email in which Hunter’s associate Devon Archer references the revoking of Burisma CEO Nikolay Zlochevsky’s visa. It states that “Hunter is checking with Miguel Aleman to see if he can provide cover to Kola on the visa…Please send Hunter an email with all Kola’s passport and visa documents and evidence and copy me. We’ll take it from there.”
Hunter also swore that he had no part in shell companies that received foreign payments. Yet, Archer testified that he and Hunter had an equal stake in Rosemont Seneca Bohai and the Committee has evidence from the IRS whistleblowers showing that Hunter received benefits as owner of the entity’s associated bank account.
The most damning evidence may be a document reading “I, Robert Hunter Biden, hereby certify that I am the duly elected, qualified and acting Secretary of Rosemont Seneca Bohai, LLC.” He used that document as part of his contract with Porsche Financial Services for a sports car.
Those would seem pretty clear and well-founded allegations for a referral to the Justice Department. After fast-tracking false statement claims against Trump officials, the question is whether Garland will even submit the matter to a grand jury. He could also give the matter to the Special Counsel prosecuting Hunter.
Ordinarily, a prosecutor pursuing a defendant in two different felony cases would jump at any alleged illegality. You would not want to stand between him and a grand jury. However, Special Counsel David Weiss has been accused of minimizing charges against the President’s son and attempting to push through a notorious sweetheart deal that collapsed in court.
Now Garland faces an unavoidable choice in treating this referral as he did Trump cases (in sending this to a grand jury) or scuttling alleged perjury made by the son of the President before Congress. It is far less challenging legally than it is politically for Merrick Garland.
If the rule of law still governs at the Justice Department, Hunter Biden could be facing a third front in his ongoing legal struggles.
Politicians who head DOJ will never indict Hunter Biden for these lies. Only Republicans or indicted for lying. Will they indict their hero, Tony Fauci for lying to Congress. Of course note. His lies were justified.
@Anonymous
Again, I really wish you folks would use a VPN or something and post a name if you aren’t just 21st century lazy. Nevertheless: yup. The lies dems get away with, particularly on the more micro level that no one hears about beyond the local news, every day, are insane. Just bloody insane, at this point.
Do you really think it matters on this cybernetic feeb farm?
Anonymous @ 1:06 p.m. is a great example of what pushed me away from the Democratic Party in the late 1970’s. It seems as though they are unable to argue their case logically and instead, engage in name calling and personal attacks. I remember Ray Donovan, who the Democrats vilified while he was Reagan’s Commerce Secretary. Once it was discovered that he was not guilty of the “crimes” pushed by the Democrats, he asked “Where do I go to get my reputation back?” Nobody had the answer, because he became caught in the vicious game in Washington, where the cycle of demeaning people who disagree with you never ends.
There are a few problems with the professor’s claims. First, no AG is ever completely apolitical. Garland has never claimed he’s completely apolitical in the absolute sense. AG Barr was not, AG Sessions was not. They are not supposed to be overly political but that didn’t stop the two former Trump AG’s that he expected a great deal of loyalty to his views. They mostly delivered.
The majority of the allegations are just that, allegations that have been either debunked or explained. Using Devon Archer who cannot be trusted to be credible and the fact that many of the Burisma allegations were sourced to Alexander Smirnov the person found to have lied about Biden’s bribery claims and other Burisma allegations.
Of course there are a lot of “allegedly” “possibly” and whatnot because there is no evidence that the allegations are either in context or true. The impeachment inquiry dived deep into these allegations for well over a year and still zero evidence to support them were produced. Garland is not going to renew the fishing expedition for Comer and Jordan over the same tired old allegations that have not been proven to be crimes or even relevant.
I have noticed that professor Turley omits a lot of context in his columns when making these allegations and claims. It’s understandable since he’s paid by Fox News to follow that narrative and publish supporting columns. Rehashing old allegations and daring AG Garland to investigate because he is supposedly “completely apolitical” like a gotcha moment is pretty stupid. It’s got the makings of a manufactured problem that can be exploited for purely political reasons if the imposed expectations fail to expectations fail to materialize. Then Republicans will have a reason to accuse the AG of not doing his job or being openly partisan. That’s pretty dirty for a distinguished law professor.
George, no these are NOT debunked allegations.
When you have Hunter Biden testifying under oath – I was not part of that company, and then you have his name on the bank account, checks from it to him, and papers that he signs saying hie is an officer of the company – that is Perjury.
The elements above are all FACTS not debunked right wing theories.
But you are correct – AG Garland is NOT going to do his job fairly without political favor or animus.
Is it True that AG Sessions and AG Barr advanced republican policy objectives as AG ? Absolutely.
Is it True that they weaponized the law enforcement power of the US government in a political way – Absolutely NOT.
Down In FL we get revalation after revalation of Politically motivated Misconduct. While it did not get admitted into evidence at the NYC Trial – Testimony in Congress exposed that Bragg’s office REFUSED to provide the Manhattan GJ exculpatory evidence.
That is a serious ethical violation.
In FL we have an affadavit From Nutra’s former Attorney – he had to remove himself because the DOJ misconduct was an effort to leverage him against his client. That Attny Bratt indicated that his potential future as a federal judge hinged on whether he flipped Nutra to testify against Trump. That is unethical and arguably a criminal bribe attempt. After Ranting that this is not true for so long that Cannon had to direct the US Attorney to calm down, Cannon directly questioned the US attorney on the claims in the allegation and the answer was – “it depends on the context”.
These is no context in which Attny. Bratt can bring up the possibility of a federal judicial position with the attorney for someone he is prosecuting.
Bratt is in the SC office. He is not in the WH involved in vetting judicial candidates. He can not ethically participate in both. He can not ethically obtain information on possible judicial appointments for the attornies of clients he is prosecuting. And he certainly can not even discuss it in passing with attorney’s for clients he is prosecuting. Again this is arguably Bribery.
While Cannon was clearly not happy with the US attorney’s answers – unlike DC judges she declined to grant the defense further discovery.
Because absent the crime fraud exception – which actually COULD apply here, the bar against discovery of communications of opposing counsel is extremely high.
But that does not matter much – because while the Defense can not subpeona these records without Cannon’s permission.
The house of representatives can and has. And the SC must comply and the house can make them public and provide them to the defense.
The Biden DOJ can run but it can not hide.
We dodged a bullet when Garland’s SC nomination failed.
@John Say,
“ When you have Hunter Biden testifying under oath – I was not part of that company,..”
Do you have a link to a transcript or a direct quote to back up that claim? Paraphrasing is not evidence he actually said that. There’s also the problem of context. In what context are those events being alleged? They are only statements and snippets of what he allegedly said without a complete explanation that lends context to the allegations. It’s very sleazy to make accusations while omitting context.
“ Is it True that they weaponized the law enforcement power of the US government in a political way – Absolutely NOT.”
Yes they did. When Barr ran interference for Trump during the Mueller investigation and used Rudy Giuliani as an intermediary to look for dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine. They did weaponize the DOJ. Trump demanded loyalty from his AG’s and he got it.
“ Down In FL we get revalation after revalation of Politically motivated Misconduct. While it did not get admitted into evidence at the NYC Trial – Testimony in Congress exposed that Bragg’s office REFUSED to provide the Manhattan GJ exculpatory evidence.
That is a serious ethical violation.”
The “revelations” were still only allegations that’s what you leave out. Allegations without evidence cannot be admitted into evidence since it’s essentially hearsay. Testimony in congress from people who are far from credible. The “exculpatory evidence” was inadmissible.
“ In FL we have an affadavit From Nutra’s former Attorney – he had to remove himself because the DOJ misconduct was an effort to leverage him against his client.”
Nutra? I assume you meant Nauta. Nauta’s former attorney had a conflict of interest problem that the DOJ brought up. It had nothing to do with misconduct. Nauta had a lawyer that was provided by Trump. Nauta could not flip on Trump as long as he had a lawyer paid by Trump. Once he got another lawyer free from any influence by Trump he was free to flip if he chose to. The DOJ was well within its purview to try to convince Nathan to flip on Trump by offering immunity or reduced charges. That’s not a bribe. It’s common for district attorneys to offer a deal in exchange for information or to be a witness for the prosecution.
The defense in the classified documents case was clearly obfuscating and making allegations to frustrate the process. Cannon is diligently playing along and she’s already shown to be biased towards Trump.
The rest of your post is a disjointed mess. What did that have to do with allegations against Hunter Biden?
Aren’t you supposed to sleeping now.
I thought you stay up all night because you work with people in New Zealand.
Having trouble sleeping ??????????
ATS – I have no idea why I dignified your personal attacks with a reasoned response.
The correct response to personal attacks is not to explain the stupidity and irrelevance of your attacks,.
It is to directly address their irrelevance and the fact that they are evidence that YOU have no argument and must resort to personal attacks.
I gave you more explanation than you deserved.
While your personal attacks are irrelevant and frankly look like confession through projection, ultimately it does not matter.
If I am Attila the Hun or Hitlers love Child. If I am a closeted KKK member or leader of Skinheads USA – all that matters is if the FACTS I have assert are true, and the arguments that I make are logically correct.
It was a mistake on my part to respond to the claims in your personal attacks, rather than to address YOUR stupidity ofsubstituting personal attack for argument.
While it is absolutely clue that not only don;’t you know me – that you honestly have piss poor perception of most everyone – which is hillarious for someone who does not know how to make a logical/faction argument and spends all their time insulting people as a substitute for argument.
I do not pretend to know people beyond what they clearly say here. And even that I only rarely take note of.
I am not here to be your friend. I am not here for you to pretend to counsel or diagnose me.
I deal with facts and logic, not personalities.
But as you do not post anything else by ad hominem, and there is nothing else to address with you.
What I do know about you is that you are an idiot, incapable of logic, or recognizing a fact, and that your morality is execrable
It is your sick fantasy that you have some ability to diagnose the mental health of people you have never met. You are abysmally bad at it which should not surprise.
Again, this pattern of long-winded, disjointed, stream of consciousness verbalization of fleeting thoughts tends to confirm my suspicions.
The defining feature of pressure of thought and pressure of speech is that the urge to verbalize fleeting thoughts really is uncontrollable. The individual sufferer is completely incapable of controlling the urge to verbalize every thought.
You have been posting most of the day, and now continue into the night. It appears that you really do have difficulty sleeping, and I suspect you can go for several days without sleep.
These findings are diagnostic of bipolar disorder.
It’s quite interesting that you say you have “no idea” why you are responding to me. You may not know, but I certainly do know. The urge to respond and verbalize your thoughts is completely beyond your conscious control. It is part of the pathology of this disorder.
@George
You know, you’d think that when people that actually voted for Obama are expressing their discontent, having been lied to, for years, you might wake up. I no longer think you are Act Blue; I think you are American Communist, and likely in one of those organizations. Pfft. Go blow, moron. Nobody cares. Pray that Robespierre 2.0 never happens.
Garland has never claimed he’s completely apolitical in the absolute sense.
[ Attorney General Merrick Garland warns DOJ will enforce the law “without fear or favor” in the lead up to the Jan. 6 anniversary]
That’s is Garlands promise, made more that a dozen times. That clearly means no outside factors will influence his application of the law
Of course his actions on a daily basis proves he is lying. Remember Garland signed off of FISA warrants, spying on President Trumps Administration.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/garland-warns-doj-enforce-law-183738508.html?
@Iowan2,
“ Attorney General Merrick Garland warns DOJ will enforce the law “without fear or favor” in the lead up to the Jan. 6 anniversary]”
That doesn’t mean he’s promised not to be apolitical. Enforcing the law without fear or favor means he’s following the law as is, not at the direction of anyone. Turley wants Garland to investigate allegations that the impeachment inquiry already addressed without any evidence of wrongdoing or crimes. Turley is saying Garland should do republicans a favor and investigate their failed allegations to prove he’s not apolitical. It’s a pretty stupid argument. He’s putting Garland to the test by daring Garland do what republicans want him to do because they couldn’t find anything. So they want Garland to do something that he will more likely refuse to do and it would prove that he’s being political. It’s a very stupid idea and it’s a lame attempt at offloading the committee’s failure onto the AG and blame him for not doing anything about it.
This is all pure political theater for the benefit of the republican base. Literally republicans don’t have much to campaign on in this election. All they have is the border or Hunter Biden. They can’t campaign on the economy, the federal budget since republicans continue to fail to pass one and not being able to pass any meaningful legislation except for more subpoenas and investigations leading nowhere. They wasted a lot of time and political capital pursuing an impeachment of Biden and they failed. They don’t have much to show for it and all they have is rehashing old allegations.
George you are flailing like a drowning man.
Stop changing the subject.
You lied and said Garland never promised not to be political
I provide the direct quote and a link to the video.
‘Without fear or favor’ means NO OUTSIDE INFLUENCE. Means no political consideration.
Garland lied repeatedly. Numerous actions he has taken are nothing but raw politics.
Investigating Parents that have the temerity to attend school board meetings. That little escapade was driven 100% by the White House, and Garland could not climb aboard fast enough
@Iowan2,
“ I provide the direct quote and a link to the video.
‘Without fear or favor’ means NO OUTSIDE INFLUENCE. Means no political consideration.”
No, it means no outside influence.
When you’re referring specifically to apolitical you’re only talking about politics only. Garland wasn’t being specific. He made a generalized statement. Turley put those words in Garland’s mouth.
It’s not a lie when Garland did not literally say he’s promising to be completely apolitical. He never said that.
So your argument is that Garland has politically weaponized the DOJ, but did not really promise that he would not – therefore he is not lying ?
Whether you like it or not there is ample evidence that DOJ and FBI are abusing public power, that they turn a blind eye to the malfeasance of the left, and that they manufacture crimes to accuse the right of.
Many of us – for good reason beleive that Garland promised he would not do that.
Many of us beleive for good reason that Candidate Joe Biden promised he would not do that.
They LIED. But far more important their conduct is morally bankrupt.
I am personally very hard on AG Barr. He was appointed and promissed to clean up the DOJ and FBI – and even today he is proud of what he did to do so and likes to credit himself on interviews.
The problem is that whatever he did as AG -= HE FAILED at that core task Arguably the DOJ/FBI remained as corrupt as ever during his tenure, inarguably the moment he was out the door anything he may have accomplished was gone and things were worse than before Trump.
Barr had good intentions – HE FAILED. Many of us think predictably.
Maybe AG Garland had good intentions – HE FAILED. He presides over the most politically corrupt DOJ/FBI in my lifetime.
Trump may not seek revenge as president.
Those he appoints to the executive may or may not.
Regardless, there MUST be a house cleaning.
Are there a good people in DOJ/FBI – without a doubt. They are still part of government organizations that have been coopted by corrupt people into political weapons.
That MUST be fixed. The legitimacy of govenrment REQUIRES that it is a neutral arbiter of the rule of law.
“First, no AG is ever completely apolitical.”
It’s not about being apolitical.
It’s about is he TOO partisan,
and is he doing the JOB he’s supposed to be doing.
Upholding the laws, etc. instead of thwarting/twisting/ignoring them.
Choosing one side over the other isn’t ‘equal justice’.
George – Typical left wing nut lies and distortions. Alexander Smirnov is not and never has been the Source of the Burisma allegations.
The Biden corruption in Ukraine allegation originated with the Clinton campaign in 2015 with the purpose of getting Biden to drop out of the 2016 race, Clinton succeeded. Sydney Blumenthal a Clinton Aparatich paced the story with a NYT reporter – Blumenthal’s information came from the US State department – you know the Place Hillary Clinton ran. The State Department had been quietly but actively seeking to thwart the illegal conduct of VP Biden and his son, trying to protect the Obama administration from a major scandal.
The Times reporter wrote a single story, Biden dropped out of the 2016 race and the NYT lost interest.
In 2017 or 2018 John Solomon – one of the founders of the Hill and one of the early reporters on what proved to be the Truth of the collusion delusion picked up on the Biden Ukraine story. He filed myriads of FOIA request and got lots of documents from the STate Department – Communications from Hunter to State trying to influence State Decisions, Communications from State to the VP’s office telling them that VP Joe had a massive conflict of interests in Ukraine and elsewhere and begging him to get his son out of the VP’s foreign policy portfolio.
Solomon then went to Ukrain and Romania and elsewhere and gathered dpocumentation from Ukrainian courts and public records as well as interviewing people – he did this TWO full years ahead of Gulliani – and he has been reporting on the Biden Ukraine connection since 2018.
Alexander Smirnov has been an FBI CHS since 2010. But the FD 1023 on Burisma is from 2020 – that is 5 years AFTER the NYT story, and 2 years AFTER John Solomon started investigating. Though before the Hunter Biden laptop went public, but AFTER the FBI had it.
There is little doubt that Alexander Smirnov is a scurilous character – most FBI CHS’s are. There is no doubt he is self serving, and corrupt – again most FBI CHS’s are. But worse still he is a CHS from one of the most corrupt regions in the world.
He has ties to the Russians – Which is precisely why he is an important CHS.
The next question is, Is Alexander Smirnov lying in his FD 1023 ? – Like it or not that has not been established. Christopher Steele lied through the Steele Dossier. CHS’s lie. Steele was rated as reliable by DOJ. Alexander Smirnov Was rated as highly reliable by the FBI.
Further this particular FD 1023 was related Highly reliable by 3 different FBI offices.
But for some reason it was not forwarded to SC Weiss – not until Republicans found out about it and brought it public attention.
THEN and only THEN was it forwarded to Weiss, and THEN and only THEN did the FBI/DOJ suddenly decide that Alexander Smirnov needed to be discredited. And THEN and only THEN for possibly the first time in FBI History they indicted a CHS for lying to the FBI.
You do understand Why the FBI NEVER does that don’t you ? Because pretty much all CHS’s are not so hot people, and nearly all of them lie alot and nearly all of them are deeply involved with Bad people. that is WHY they are valuable as a CHS.
I do not know if Alexander Smirnov Lied about Biden and Burisma – but even the DOJ/FBI claim is NOT that there was no misconduct by the Bidens. It is NOT that what Alexander Smirnov reported is false. Alexander Smirnov was indicted based on the CLAIM that he met with Russians before the Meeting with Burisma and therefore he is “spreading Russian disinformation”
Maybe he is. Or maybe he is spreading the truth. Maybe he met with the Russians over something else. Maybe the Russians are the source of what Alexander Smirnov reported.
There is plenty of reason to be skeptical of anything any CHS says – look how Christopher Steele blew up in your face.
But people like Alexander Smirnov are where the FBI is going to get their information.
As of Today the only issue regarding Alexander Smirnov is Did he actually hear the conversations he claims to have heard or did he make them up or was he fed them by the Russians and if so are they true or false.
What is NOT an issue is that Hunter Biden worked for Burisma, Promised Burisma to make the investigations go away in return for money,
heavily lobbied the State department to “get Shokin” Drove the Anti-Shoking Shokin is corrupt Narative that the left thinks is magical reality despite absolutely zero evidence of any corruption on Shokins part in a country where pretty much EVERYONE is corrupt. And that Subsequently after nothing else had worked Joe Biden told the Ukrainians Fire Shokin or do not get $1B in US aide.
I would note that every single bit of that is fully documented – often by the Biden’s themselves.
The only think Missing to size up Joe Biden for an orange jumpsuit is Gold Bars under his bed.
And as Turley has said many times over – it is NOT necescary to benefit personally to be guilty of bribery.
It is sufficient for a member of your family to benefit.
This BTW is why Merchan was REQUIRED to recuse himself. While I do not littlerally beleive he is being bribed.
It is a FACT that if is daughter is being paid to get Trump convicted, and Merchan inarguably uses his government power to arrange that,
that is legally Bribery.
Judges Recuse themselves when their family members have a clear financial conflict because not only does it look like partiality, it also can look like bribery.
This is going to be a-must-see-tv for sure!!! Ethics and Morals will be on display,,,,,,
Rule of law? In a country with “Trump Law”? The only real difference between now and long ago is that elites no longer try to hide their bias.
Seriously Turley?
Dumb question. Of course not.
Another day here in Doublestandardstan.
@hullbobby
I appreciate what you are saying, hullbobby, but we have to live in this world. Perhaps you are in your golden years, and I apologize if that is not the case, but the rest of us are going to have to live in this world we are creating, and I do not mean ‘the children’, and we either straighten it out or we evaporate as a free people. it is really that simple, do not let the cynicism of age dilute that.
Excellent post.
We must also acknowledge our responsibility for this. It is not good enough to blame young people today.
WE – though mostly the moderate left, the Turley’s the Bill Mahrs, the parents of these children run amok,
the people who helped to corrupt our education from top to bottom, created this mess.
Today’s nutcase left was not grown from fingernail clippings in a laboratory.
They are the product of a bad educational system and bad parenting.
While the responsibility for that is NOT distributed evenly. It still falls on all of us who either allowed this nonsense to arrise or who with good intentions adn abysmal, common sense actually made it occur.
Well, I hope something is done with the Hunter Biden problem. As I see it, the main problem with the DOJ is with all of the e-mail evidence against Hunter. They are afraid that it will lead right up to the “Big Guy”, President Biden. Many witnesses have stated Mr. Biden was either in on Hunter’s call with foreign businessmen or dinning with them in Washington. Remember there is the video of Mr. Biden bragging about his threat to the Ukrainians over their investigation into Burisma.
Greetings MAGA losers and suckers,
I am happy to bring you WONDERFUL NEWS !!
Fidelity Investments reports that retirement account balances are hitting record levels.
“Americans’ retirement account balances are at their highest level in more than two years due to a combination of increased savings rates and positive market conditions, new findings from Fidelity Investments show.”
This is being reported by Fox news, so it has to be true, right.
After all Fox is the only source of “REAL NEWS”.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/retirement-account-balances-highest-level-2021
So, retirement accounts are hitting record highs, the stock markets are hitting record highs, unemployment and inflation are near record lows, GDP growing at healthy 3%.
Looks like the Biden economy is booming after the disastrous years under your cult leader.
Of course, you are probably not participating in this remarkable recovery. You are probably sending your hard earned money to a “MULTI-BILLIONAIRE” so he can pay his legal bills, or “investing” in golden sneakers, trading cards, Trump Bucks and fake debit cards.
Most of the large companies in America are increasing their bottom lines by reducing their workforce and moving to red states that are much more business friendly with much lower taxes and far fewer rules and regulations. Also businesses are showing profits with that are there do to inflated dollars. Don’t pound your chest too much.
So you agree that companies are doing sensible things to increase their bottom lines, thus increasing profits, thus creating a booming economy.
Just one small error. If companies are reducing workforces, why is unemployment so low, and why are the job creation numbers so high.
Companies are NOT reducing labor, they are creating NEW jobs at a furious pace.
Unemployment rate, how people are being counted twice. Many people are working more than one job just to keep their heads above water. The day The big guy was sworn in a gallon of gasoline was $2.38 nationwide. And the rate of inflation was 1.4%. Biden wouldn’t even know if he had a load in his pants.
Greetings, brave Anonymous. Just so you know, my retirement account balances remain 25% lower now than when Trump was president. Retirement accounts are nowhere hitting all time highs. Nice try. Thanks for playing. (Your continued support of the Biden Crime Family is appreciated by…the Bidens. I mean, who’s the sucker here?)
So if retirement accounts are not hitting all time highs as reported by FOX, then Fox must be disseminating fake news. They must be lying to you.
How is this possible, Fox is the only source of REAL news.
If your retirement balances are 25% lower than when Trump was President, then that is entirely your fault. Everyone with more than 2 brain cells to rub together went to all cash when COVID hit.
When it was obvious that COVID was going to be a huge problem, I immediately went all cash in all my retirement accounts. I got back into the market 2 years ago. My balances are up 76.52% since then.
This is my balance right now;
Total Accounts Value
$1,120,834.40
This is undeniably a booming economy. If you personally are not doing well it is entirely your own fault.
ATS
Growth in MY 401K since Biden took office has been Pathetic and remains so. Mine lost money over the past qtr.
The DJIA has weekend after strong growth post pandemic.
GDP Growth is faltering and we may have a recession this year and almost certainly will soon.
Inflation is stubornly rising – but only slightly.
But the most critical fact is that even if Every single claim you made was True – The Trump economy was not so great for the Wealthy and very good for the working class and the Biden economy has been great for the wealthy and a disaster for the working class.
Under Trump working class wages rose by $400/month AFTER inflation. Under Biden they have dropped by more than 300/month – after inflation.
Biden inherited LOW inflation – 1.4% and high Growth post Shutdowns – 7%. He was riding a wave.
All he needed to do was NOTHING to be a hero. The economy would have on autopilot made him look great.
It is likely that Biden’s Average Growth Rate will exceed Trumps. But we are back to the Obama years of yoyo growth – instability and anxiety.
As opposed to the slow and steady consistent growth of Trump.
Growth is usually high when inflation is high. It is artificial and the benefits are only to the wealthy.
Inflation is the most regressive tax there is.
But the most important measure of the economy is the sentiments of ordinary people.
It is possible to game economic numbers and the Biden Admin has been caught lying more times than I can count.
It is not possible to game peoples impressions of the economy.
They KNOW reality in their own lives. While each and every individual does not see exactly the same economy.
The self evident pattern under Biden is the Wealthy are doing great and the rest of us are not.
That used to be a democrat talking point about Republicans.
In the past 2 decades the Democratic party has become the party of rich white elites, of big business,
and the Republicans the party of the working class.
I have absolutely no idea what this rambling incoherent diatribe is about.
The bottom line is that this is economy is booming and retirement funds are at the highest levels in 2 years as reported by Fox, your favorite source of “REAL NEWS”.
If you personally are not doing well it is entirely your own fault. If as you say your 401k growth is pathetic and you lost money in the last quarter, then you have chosen terrible investments. I suggest you IMMEDIATELY get out those investments.
You should have gone all cash when COVID hit and waited to re-invest 2 years ago like I did. I left my money in cash for 2 years with absolutely no growth, but I didn’t lose anything. Put everything back in the market 2 years ago and my balances have soared. I just had a slight pause in growth for 2 years with no losses.
This constant whining about “my 401k still hasn’t recovered since BIDEN took over, so the economy must be bad” is absurd.
IT IS YOUR OWN DAMN FAULT !!!!!!
Source Trading Economics
Current Previous
Full Year GDP Growth 2.50 1.90 percent Dec 2023
QTR GDP Growth Rate 1.60 3.40 percent Mar 2024
With the execption of 2020 which had the largest single QTR drop in US history followed immediately by the largest single QT rise in US history and a NET yearly growth for 2020 of 0%, the entire rest of the Trump presidency saw solid and slowly rising GDP growth – starting at 2% Trumps first QTR and averaging about 3.2% over the first 3 years and even with 2020 averaging neatly 2.75% over 4 years.
Average Growth under Bush was barely over 2%,
Average Growth under Obama was 1.68%.
I do not know what the current Average Biden growth is – because LIKE the Obama years – Biden has NOT had steady growth – he has YOYO growth. Look at the TE data – 1.9% one year, 2.5% the next, 1.6% This QTR, 3.4% the previous QTR.
As to your idiotic claims the economy is doing well – there are is a significant expectation of a recession before the end of the year.
It has become perfectly clear that the Fed CAN NOT get inflation below 3% without causing a recession. That every single time they even TALK about lowing interest rates int he future inflation rises.
As you are clueless interest rates control the speed at which money moves through the economy. High interest rates lower the rate at which money moves, that in turn lowers money supply – which is speed*volume.
Lowering money supply moves the economy away from inflation.
The problem is that is also moves the economy AWAY from growth.
Higher interest rates mean that significantly fewer investment oportunities prove profitable, and ALL investments have more risk.
This is why the FED KNOWS that if they raise interest rates inflation collapses BUT economic growth also collapses – also called a RECESSION.
The best knowledge in economics says that the only way to clear significant inflation from the economy is for the Fed to FORCE a recession.
That is what Carter and Volker did in 1980 and it cost Carter his second Term – that was areal profile in courage.
To his credit Reagan continued Volkers policies – which mad the first 2 years of his first term pretty abysmal, but also produced the longest sustained growth in US history.
The Current FED has been trying to acheive what Volker did in 1980 without causing a recession.
That not only does not appear to be working, it appears to be bringing back another thing from the 70’s
STAGFLATION.
The late 60’s and 70’s were a period of yoyo growth and slowly rising inflation. GDP would grow 4% on QTR and then plung to 1.5% the next. We had that with Obama – BUT under Obama inflation did not rise significantly.
Biden was GUARANTEED a strong economy in 2021 – and he got it. I beleive the 2021 growth was 7%.
The pent up energy coming out of Covid – or atleast out of covid restrictions was going to cause a boom.
But Biden – and to a lessor extent Trump F$#Ked up in what is well known as the worst possible way.
They dumped MASSIVE economic stimmulus on top of an ecnomic boom, and worse still they did so by “printing money” – having the Fed by the US debt. That had WORKED despite expections under Obama – though the inflation was exported to other countries – as it is now too.
Printing massive amounts of money ALWAYS causes inflation. But doing so during an economic boom is like throwing gasoline on a fire.
You get both high growth and high inflation concurrently – but ultimately inflation outstrips growth.
There is only one know working economic way out of that – that is a deliberately cased RECESSION.
We appear to be heading into one now.
If you are so looney as to beleive the nonsense Biden spews, that is your problem.
The actual economic signals are present indicating rough economic seas ahead.
Even after Biden screwed up – he could have made choices that gave him a shot at reelection.
He/the FED could have really tightened Money supply – even higher interest rates in 2022.
That would have caused a recession for the 2022 election and Democrats would have been obliterated and the GOP would control the house and senate.
BUT we would be solidly into a REAL recovery right now and Biden’s odds of getting reelected would be high and Democrats odds of retaking the house and Senate would be high.
But that is NOT what was done. Biden did the OPPOSITE of what Carter did. He prevented a bloodbath in 2022.
But he now has a worsening situation in 2024.
The US has had a $2T commercial real estate bubble lurking since Covid. Some longer than that.
We have too much and poorly allocated Commercial Retail space – we actually have a shortage of warehouse space.
This is because a long term shift to online purchasing. SOME parts of the retail sector are doing fine – some have been in trouble for years.
Covid did not change the problem, but it did change the preferences. Post Covid outdoor strip malls are MOSTLY doing fine, well indoor mega malls are in trouble.
Covid also triggered a massive move to working from home, and in many cases home meant people relocated from big red cities to suburban and rural areas with much lower cost of living. better schools, etc. Did EVERYBODY leave the cities – certainly not. But there are many commercial office buildings in Manhattan with occupancies of 60%.
Regardless there is and has been for 2 years abotu $2T in distressed commercial properties that have been trying to stay afloat.
Many of these are holding on by their teeth – because they have mortgages with interest rates of 2-3%. The problem is that a large portion of those loans are interest only loans. That means the owners only have 20% equity in the building, and the value of properties with only 60% occupancy has DECLINED, there have been 40 story office buildings in manhattan sell for less than the value of the land.
We are seeing Malls accross the country either walking away or threatening to walk away from their properties. Because they are now Under water. Because the property value has dropped, they now ow more to the banks than the buildings are worth.
We have been gaming this for several years. Banks do NOT want to take over a lot of malls and office buildings.
Their expertise is in lending money not running commercial real estate. As a result many banks have granted temporary extensions on existing low interest rate loans. In some cases they have done so “illegally” – But the federal govenrment is NOT going to step in. Because that could trigger a crissis larger than the housing crisis. Regardless we are running past the limits of things that can be done to hold this off.
There has been discussion for a long time of converting city office buildings into apartment buildings.
That is very expensive – usually 80% of the cost of tearing the building down and rebuilding.
Further it is politically difficult to impossible and very time consuming.
The biggest impediment to solving the shortage of housing in big cities is government. It takes a minimum of 2yrs for any project to get through big city government – often many many years longer. There is no major city in the us that comes close to approving the construction of new housing units anywhere close to its needs.
Anyway the point is that residential conversions will save the glut of big city commercial office space. The day of reckoning has been coming for a long time. It appears to be here now.
This is NOT the only economic issue we are facing. Tech hiring is DOWN. Generally skilled hiring is down. The “new jobs” in the Biden administration are increasingly low skill low wage jobs for illegal immigrants and others at the very bottom. This is independnet of the rest of out economic problems and is the natural consequence of adding 10M people to the country rapidly.
The good news that is
“I have absolutely no idea what this rambling incoherent diatribe is about.”
Because you are clueless and economically illiterate.
“The bottom line is that this is economy is booming”
False.
The economy is still growing,
but at a reducing rate.
The economy grew under Obama – Absymally. That was a major factor getting Trump elected in 2016.
Saying it is growing is nearly meaningless. We have added nearly 15M people to the country since 2021 – 10M of them illegals.
They have needed jobs – mostly low wage low skill jobs. Regardless, they are producing goods and services and that raises GDP.
The size of the economy is growing. But the GDP/PPP – the GDP/Per Person Purchasing price parity is NOT – it has actually declined by about $300/family/month.
Is it that hard for you to understand that the economy can grow, at the same time each persons real wages DROP, if you dump millions of people in at the bottom.
“retirement funds are at the highest levels in 2 years as reported by Fox”
They probably are. We are in the midst of a wave of retirements as well as an aging population – more money is being dumped into retirement funds. That tells you NOTHING about their performance. Though even there – if you are under 50 – your retirement is likely invested agressively – that means it is growing faster but at higher risk. If you are over 50 your retirmement is invested conservatively at lower or even no growth and low risk. Combine that with inflation and you are being screwed.
“your favorite source of “REAL NEWS”.”
Why do idiots like you make stupid assumptions like this ?
I cited economic figures from Trading economics. This is non-governmental sources that cover every country in the world and make their money off of being incredibly accurate. TE is NOT fox and not partisan. They do not provide analysis, just raw data. But they are an excellent check against govenrments which like to lie in their economic reporting.
But there are many other similar sources you can go to. No I would not trust a SINGLE main stram media source on economic data, and I would take most govenrment data with huge grains of salt.
Further as evidenced by you, you do not seem to grasp that the economy will with near certainty grow if you being in 10’s of millions more people. But at the same time as the WHOLE economy is growing each person in the economy is losing ground.
I would sugggest a very careful read of the classic by Adam Smith – “The Wealth of Nations”. One of the really significant things about WON is Smith’s skill in ferreting out economic data in a time when there was none, and then trying to sift through various different data sources to find which ones were truly meaningful.
US Oil production has risen through the Biden admin – but at a rate far below where it needs to.
GDP has risen – but it has not kept up with the rate at which the population has increased or the rate of inflation.
Some economic statistics give you a better idea of what the economy is doing that others.
“If you personally are not doing well it is entirely your own fault.”
Generally you are correct – and that would make you a republican.
In fact I am personally doing reasonably well. I did better under Trump but while I am not fabulously wealthy I am at an age and position in my life where I make more than I need.
Att he same time My income has dropped apprecialbly under Biden. I own a Due Dilligence Business. In early 2022 I had 11 employees.
Today I have 3 and they are all part time. Why ? Because the rise in interest rates has almost totally stalled commercial refinances.
It does not matter how hard I work, I can not change the number of properties that refinance in a year. In 2021 I had over 300 projects,
So far in 2024 I have had maybe 15. The good news is thaqt I laid everyone off and I can do 15 with little help and while my income is down – so are my expenses. But the people I had to lay off have no work.
I also write embedded software – in 2021 I had lots of work. Now I have none.
My son in college had a high paying internship last summer – he can not get anything in the tech fields today.
“If as you say your 401k growth is pathetic and you lost money in the last quarter, then you have chosen terrible investments.”
I do not chose the investments the fund administrator does. I am guessing you do not have an IRA or have no experience with them.
The government rules on IRA’s make it extremely difficult to control them yourself.
If I could I would create my own IRA and invest in residential real estate – I own two properties and they have done unbelievably well.
But My IRA – managed by a company that almost doubled it while Obama was president, has lost money since Biden was president – and they are one of the more famous IRA administrators in the country.
I also have a large Whole life policy. That has done well most of my life – increasing in value at twice the rate of GDP.
Since interest rates shot up it is losing money, and it will continue to do so until rates change.
And as you are clueless it is pretty close to disasterous to try to liquidate a whole life policy and purchase another.
The primary purpose of my Whole life is NOT investment – but that IS an important 2ndary value.
“I suggest you IMMEDIATELY get out those investments.”
IRA’s and Pensions are NOT Day trading on the stock market.
The governmetn does not allow you to call up your pension or IRA manager and direct them to change your investments.
“You should have gone all cash when COVID hit and waited to re-invest 2 years ago like I did. I left my money in cash for 2 years with absolutely no growth, but I didn’t lose anything. Put everything back in the market 2 years ago and my balances have soared. I just had a slight pause in growth for 2 years with no losses.”
I would bet as you describe your plan that I have done better than you. What I have NOT done is well int he past 2 years.
Regardless, you can not liquidate a pension, most IRA, or whole life.
Those have lost money.
As to your invest in Cash strategy – had you taken that Cash and put it into multifamily apartments – you would have done quite well.
I mentioned losses in IRAs pensions and Whole Life – I have had large gains in my property investments.
But that has nothing to do with Biden – well almost nothing. Flooding the country with 10M illegal immigratns does drive housing prices up.
Regardless we have a national shortage that is going to get worse every year probably for the rest of my life.
“This constant whining about “my 401k still hasn’t recovered since BIDEN took over, so the economy must be bad” is absurd.”
No it is reality for the vast majority of the country.
“IT IS YOUR OWN DAMN FAULT !!!!!!”
Inarguably Biden is responsible for inflation and the current high interest rates that it has caused.
I do not control money supply.
In the past 4 years the US Economy has added about 10M low wage illegal alien workers.
While this has a very larger positive impact on GDP, it has a large negative impact on GDP/PPP
i.e. the country is producing more total value. But 10M new workers are getting paid very poorly, and many millions of existing workers wages are stagnant or have dropped from competition with illegal aliens.
I would further note that Biden’s job growth numbers – which often look impressive INCLUDE the jobs that have to be created for illegal aliens.
Subtract 10M from Bidens total job creation and tell me that still looks good.
Low wage foreign workers, legal or otherwise, are vital to the American economy and contribute to the economic boom.
They pay into Social Security and Medicare without hope of any return, thus benefiting Americans.
There are many menial, but essential, jobs that Americans simply refuse to do.
The 7 people who were killed while filling potholes on the bridge that collapsed in Baltimore were all from Central America.
When was the last time you met a hotel maid who could speak English.
Most meat packing plants rely on foreign workers because it is such terrible dirty work, that American refuse to do.
Drive down Highway 99 in California’s Central Valley at harvest time and you will see thousands of workers toiling in the fields in 100+ degree temperatures and 90% humidity to harvest the food that you eat. There is not one single American among them. I read a recent story in the Sacramento Bee about a farmer who occasionally has Americans show up looking for work. He says they leave for a lunch break on the first day and never come back.
Trump himself relies on foreign workers at Mar-a-Lago. He can’t get American workers for the menial jobs for which he refuses to pay a decent wage.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-foreign-workers-mar-lago-1902982
Two days ago, Trump hired 136 foreign workers. See this link:
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-foreign-workers/
Stop all this whining about foreign workers. They work hard at jobs Americans refuse to do.
So you believe in a second class citizen? What jobs do Americans refuse to do?
Did you read what I said. I made a small list.
Hotel maids.
Meat packing plants.
Crop harvesting.
Jobs at Mar-a-Lago
There are many more.
No I don’t believe in second class citizens.
The foreign workers are obviously not citizens.
However they are willing to come here and work hard at jobs Americans refuse to do.
Trump can’t even get Americans to work for him at Mar-a-Lago. Look at these links:
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-foreign-workers-mar-lago-1902982
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-foreign-workers/
First almost no one is insulting most of the people who come here from other countries.
They are no different than our ancestors for the most part.
Something Democrats may Rue rather rapidly. Large portions of those crossing the border right now are coming from Failed socialist states in south america.
Hispanics as a whole are slowly shifting republican – though treating Hispanics monolitihically is complicated. Cubans, Puerto Ricans, mexican’s … are not each the same.
but there are some patterns.
There is a great deal of similarity between Venezuellans and Cubans as both have experienced the failure of socialism directly.
They are not immigrating to the US an immediately becoming AOC fans.
Hispanics as a whole are one of the most deeply religious groups in the country, They are catholic and much more prone to be pro-life. They are much more likely to be anti-gay, and anti-trans, they are much more likely to be mysoginist.
These traits are even more pronounced in recent immigrants.
I would further note that While Venezuella is a failed socialist state – not that long ago it was the most prosperous country in south america. Many of these south american immigrants are NOT low skill. They are often comparable to US 3rd or 4th Quintile.
They are living in poverty now in a failed state and are at this moment willing to do most anything – any job in the US is an improvement. But many of these immigrants are going to RAPIDLY state competing with the entire bottom half of the US economy – possibly even the bottom 4/5ths.
Your thinking is very shallow.
I would note the higher skill leverl of these immigrants (as opposed to Haitians as an example) in the Long run will be a significant economic BOON to the US.
The best for ALL of us is that EACH of us works to our best use.
Right now the flood of illegals is driving GDP up A LITTLE, but GDP/PPP down.
But in the long run it will drive GDP up alot and GDP/PPP up.
But that is of zero comfort to the working class americans who have lost jobs – many of whom will not recover or will get shittier jobs as a result.
Beyond that while the number of americans who lose to illegals is real but small, the number of americnas with legitimate fears of losing to illegals is very large. And that drives politics.
“Low wage foreign workers, legal or otherwise, are vital to the American economy and contribute to the economic boom.
They pay into Social Security and Medicare without hope of any return, thus benefiting Americans.”
Mostly correct – they grow the economy and they do pay into SS and medicare. But as you said they are LOW WAGE – therefore their contributions – both to SS and medicare and the economy are small.
And they drive wages DOWN and/or make jobs harder to find for those at the bottom of the US economy because they compete directly with them.
I am generally pro-immigrant. My children are both immigrants. You can read Julian Simon’s “The Ultimate Resource II” it is available free on the interent. It is an excellent economic analysis of the benefits of growing populations – regardless of whether by immigration or naturally.
But it is NOT so simple as more is better for everyone. There is little doubt that the current economy is actually quite good for the elites.
It worsens as you go down the ladder. It is pretty bad for those just above immigrants.
“There are many menial, but essential, jobs that Americans simply refuse to do.”
There are – but not 10M of them. Or more accurrately the number of menial jobs that ordinary americans will not do has not increased by 10M int he past 4 years.
“The 7 people who were killed while filling potholes on the bridge that collapsed in Baltimore were all from Central America.
When was the last time you met a hotel maid who could speak English.”
you seem to think I am anti-immigrant. The point I was making – which went right over your head was that the laws of supply and demand apply to immigration to.
Increase the labor supply by 15M over 4 years without increasing the demand for labor by 15M and SOMEBODY is getting crowded out of the job market. And that will be those at the bottom.
Separately there is zero doubt that more immigrants legal or otherwise will increase the economy, that they will create economic growth.
That does NOT mean that the average inflation adjusted income will not go down, and depending on the numbers and structure of immigration that decline can be large and hit those int he bottom quintile HARD.
There is a reason democrats are losing the working class vote.
The US probably needs about 2M immigrants a year (or a rising birth rate). We currently are seeing 1M legal immigrants and 2-3M illegal immigrants. Without other economic adjustments that this administration is blind to, that will slam the working class.
“Most meat packing plants rely on foreign workers because it is such terrible dirty work, that American refuse to do.
Drive down Highway 99 in California’s Central Valley at harvest time and you will see thousands of workers toiling in the fields in 100+ degree temperatures and 90% humidity to harvest the food that you eat. There is not one single American among them. I read a recent story in the Sacramento Bee about a farmer who occasionally has Americans show up looking for work. He says they leave for a lunch break on the first day and never come back.”
Has someone disagreed with you on this ? Much of this is true.
Regardless there has not been a 10M increase in the shitty jobs that americans will not do in the past 4 years.
Whether you like it or not – immigrants are not getting jobs purely in the “shitty jobs americans will not do” catagory – because there are not enough of those.
And I would separately note – that there are actually ALOT of shitty jobs that americans will not do – that are being done by americans.
I have an apartment building, all of my tenants are citizens. 2 Work shitty jobs in a local hospital kitchen. One works at McDonalds, Another mows Grass for a landscaper, and the last washes dishes at a resturaunt.
Each of these is facing competition from illegal immigrants.
“Trump himself relies on foreign workers at Mar-a-Lago. He can’t get American workers for the menial jobs for which he refuses to pay a decent wage.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-foreign-workers-mar-lago-1902982
Two days ago, Trump hired 136 foreign workers. See this link:
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-foreign-workers/
Stop all this whining about foreign workers. They work hard at jobs Americans refuse to do.”
I am not “whining” about illegal immigrants – I am generally pro-immigrant.
But I am pointing out something that you are completely clueless about. Illegal immigration is not ALL POSITIVE, depending on a lot of details it is not even always NET positive. But it is ALWAYS harmful to SOME. it is ALWAYS harmful to the working class.
I am not working class, Trump is not working class, you are not working class. But 70M people in this country ARE.
And we now have approx 80M people competing for approx 70M jobs. Even if you assume that there has been job growth at the bottom – that is 80M+ people competing for 74M jobs.
It should not be hard for you to understand that somebody is going to lose.
There is no such thing as a “decent wage”
Your labor is your to sell at whatever rate you can sell it at.
Others are free to buy that labor, at whatever price they are willing to buy it at.
Ultimately the rate for each class of labor will be determined by the laws of supply and demand.
If the supply rises faster than demand the price will drop.
The only correct price for ANYTHING is what a willing buyer and a willing sellor agree to.
That is unbeleivably important – without free markets resources ALWAYS get allocated inefficiently – and that means we have a lower standard of living.
What a great(?) post… Well…
Except these 401k investments suffered losses prior to the current market rise, so this rise only returned the funds lost. Since it’s evident that TDS makes one deficient in math, let’s simplify it. Start with $1M and lost 25%, now you have $750,000. Even if there’s a 30% rise in that 401k, it only gets you back to $950,000, That’s still a net loss of $50,000 and yet, everything still costs 20% more than when you started!
Face it, there is no putting lipstick on this pig.
If you left your retirement money in stock market investments when COVID hit, then you are a fool. Any losses you have sustained are entirely your own fault.
As soon as it was obvious that COVID would be a problem, I went all cash in all my accounts. I left my money in cash accounts for 2 years. I didn’t make any money at all, but I didn’t lose anything. I got back in the market 2 years ago.
My accounts are up 76.52% just in the last 2 years and still going up.
“. . . but I didn’t lose anything.”
Such a statement makes you the last person on Earth to trust for investment advice.
You in fact did lose money — via inflation.
Here is a little investment advice for you.
Inflation reduces spending power. It does not reduce capital. Inflation is of no relevance until you try to spend your money. The money I am talking about is my retirement money. I am not spending it yet.
When COVID hit I pulled my money out of the market when it went down about 10%, and put it in a cash money market account. I lost about 10% of my capital. The markets continued to decline another 24% until they bottomed out and slowly started to recover. I could have lost another 24%, but I didn’t. You probably did lose 34% of your capital.
I waited 2 years to get back in the market. My capital has increased 76.52% in the 2 years since because I took a bit of a gamble and put my money in 5 high tech stocks, AMZN, GOOGL, AAPL, MSFT, and NVDA. These stocks took a huge hit during COVID, but the fundamentals of these companies did not change, so I knew they would bounce back. As an example I bought AMZN at $96 ( now $182 ), and GOOGL at $94 (now $174).
So I lost about 10% of my capital. During the 2 years I was out of the market, my capital was preserved. Who cares about inflation. I wasn’t spending my capital. Since getting back in the market I am up 76.52%, so I have a net gain of 66.52%.
You get banned because you cut and past the exact same crap on multiple threads. ALL wildly off topic.
I responded to this exact same post on yesterdays thread.
I provided links showing record High Credit Card Debt, and record high home forclosures.
Retarded idiots use a single economic indicator to measure the strength of a Nations economy
I also pointed out Truth Social as trading within 10% of its pre IPO highs. Showing how retarded you were when you believed Truth Social was heading into Junk status after the IPO
I thought this week was blame record corporate profits for the market, not praise Biden
Inflation is nowhere near record lows, unemployment is artificially low due to a low LPR.
And Q1 gdp was just 1.6% annualized, not even close to a 3% run rate and significantly below the prior quarter
Professor Turley,
Gary Shapley, the IRS agent whose team used a search warrant to obtain the WhatsApp messages, said that the message was from Hunter to HENRY Zhao, of Harvest Financial Group (not CEFC).
Should Garland indict Shapley too because his testimony differs from that of a partisan investigation?
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/us/politics/hunter-biden-joe-business-deal.html
From June 2023:
The lead I.R.S. agent investigating whether Hunter Biden committed tax crimes told Congress his team uncovered evidence that Mr. Biden had invoked his father, who was then out of office, while pressing a potential Chinese business partner in 2017 to move ahead with a proposed energy deal, House Republicans said.
In testimony made public on Thursday, Gary Shapley, an I.R.S. agent since 2009 who supervised the tax agency’s investigation into Hunter Biden, said his team used a search warrant to obtain a July 30, 2017, WhatsApp message from Mr. Biden to Henry Zhao, a Chinese businessman.
In a summary of the message, provided to the House Ways and Means Committee by Mr. Shapley, Mr. Biden told Mr. Zhao that he was sitting with his father and that “we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled.”
“Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,” Mr. Biden wrote, referring to other participants in the proposed deal. “And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.”
The main problem is that NONE of this was properly authenticated.
More Russian hacking!
no. authentication is a basic requirement for the proper administration of justice.
The standard for an investigation or investigator is plausible.
The standard if that investigation reaches civil penalties is more likely than not.
The standard if that reaches criminal sanctions is beyond a reasonable doubt.
In different legal circumstances such as warrants or searches there are other standards.
Authentication is NOT a basic requirement for justice.
Evidence meeting the appropriate legal standard is.
Those of you on the left play these word games all the time.
We have spent atleast 2000 years carefully establishing the required standards for different situations.
Jumping in with a broad statement that uses language entirely different from what has been carefully worked out over centuries and pretending that applies universally is LYING.
Using YOUR words it is misinformation and disinformation.
If you are going to debate the law – learn the language used in the law and its ACTUAL legal meaning established over centuries.
This is the reason we have rules of statutory interpretation, and contract interpretation, and the reason that when we discuss the law we ALWAYS used LONG established meanings – in some cases archaic meanings.
Because gaming the meaning of words radically changes the way the law works, and that means people can not know what the law is
“The main problem is that NONE of this was properly authenticated.”
Assuming you are correct – which I highly doubt – so WHAT ?
“not properly authenticated” is not the same as false.
Shaply BTW did not “lie” under oath. He reported the conclusions of his investigation.
Conversely Hunter Biden knows exactly who he was communicating. He is not speculating – though that is how he put it in his testimony.
Shappely is reporting conclusions bsed ont eh evidence he has – conclusions that are very likely correct.
Finally – the Message was Sent to someone. It was a demand for Millions. If Not Zhou – then what other incredibly wealthy chinese person was Hunter shaking down ?
Another day, same old bunch of hired Turley trolls upvoting each other’s comments.
I do not discount the possibility that it is one troll, with multiple identities, sitting alone in a room upvoting himself.
Indeed, upvoting with which I will not put.
Very Churchillian comment.
I like it.
You are obviously a refined and well read individual.
Bravo !!!!!
What’s a nice, sophisticated person like you doing in a place like this ???
Please correct this text, “The Committee staff maintains that Biden’s WhatsApp account show that he only ever communicated with one Zhao – Raymond Zhao – and that he most certainly did not what he was “talking about.””
I think you’re trying to say HE DID KNOW what he was talking about.
Such a sad time for our country. The Dems say that if Trump gets elected, democracy is over. Well, if we look at the last few years, we will see that our Republic has been careening over a cliff since Biden was elected. That wheelchair going over the cliff used against the opposition to Obama Care seems that it was a Dem fantasy of what they would like to do to our country! Power and party over the health and future of our country.
JT, Oh the concern for Hunter but you let Jim Jordan get a pass when he refused to comply with a House subpoena concerning an insurrection. Or how about the clear language of the emails that Costello was saying was not what the clear language said.
JT, you will never be AG because trump will never win another election. The party formerly known as Republican is dead. The trump party will never elect a President, ever.
How’s that Biden ipeachment going?
In the 230 years that Congress existed before the J6 Committee, no group of Congressmen has ever been thought to have subpoena power over any other. They are all peers.
But perhaps that is why Pelosi is hanging on.
On his last day in office, Joe Biden will pardon his son, himself and his entire family of any possible federal crimes. He may even pardon the current AG and former officials in the FBI and CIA. The MSM will make no negative comment.
Principle, Principle. What’s that? I think the DOJ looks at principle like it was some type of anachronism which has been dumped from the mission statement of the whole dept. I have seldom seen anything from this cabinet department that even remotely exhibits something called principle. I would wonder if these minions would recognize the concept of even how to reconstruct it if they ever recognized what it was.
The old saying that one can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich works the other way as well, and it would be very easy for Fake AG Garland to submit a case to a grand jury and get them to NOT indict the ham sandwich called Hunter.
Insightful commentary. But lots of typos in this narrative. Needs an editor!
Day ONE of Trump’s President he SHOULD jail the ENTIRE former DOJ and FBI leadership!
Start a Nuremberg Trial to JAIL the 10,000’s of Fascists Criminal Democrats across Government as well!
And yet this person talks about how corrupt Biden is. Really? trump should just jail a few hundred or thousand individuals with no indicent of a crime. Who is the Fascist here?
The President cant fire civil employees.
What he can do is have his AG assign all the management staff to Boise ID, and Manhattan KS, and Tuepelo MS, Waco Texas. You get the idea. You cant fire them, but you can make them quit.
I hope Trump has that plan in place, so he hits the ground running
LOL… Jon it is like you believe Democrats ACTUALLY believe in the RULE OF LAW?
Democrats are an EVIL FASCIST JOKE!
Anyone GO TO PRISON for the transparent Russian Hoax Conspiracy ACROSS GOVERNMENT which WORKED with Russians and Foreign Spies?