Tim O’Brien, who wrote a book about Donald Trump, worked on the Bloomberg campaign and is now an advisor to Bloomberg. A few days ago, he appeared on the Joy Reid show on MSNBC and warned the GOP that if they dragged Hunter Biden into the presidential campaign, they would be subject to a “scorched earth” attack on the Trump family that would expose them as grifters. He warned that Ivanka, Donald Jr., Eric, and Jared Kushner would experience scrutiny “unlike anything they’ve experienced thus far in the media.”
A few days later, a GOP probe into Hunter Biden was canceled by a top Republican in the Senate, who implied it was temporary.
A top Senate Republican abruptly canceled plans to subpoena records and testimony from an official connected to a Ukrainian firm that once employed the son of former vice president Joe Biden.
The decision by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, comes as Democrats have attacked the probe as politically motivated, especially as Biden surges in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination and the chance to face President Trump. Some have warned it could play into Russian efforts to spread disinformation ahead of the presidential election in November.
In a message Wednesday to members of the panel, sent roughly an hour before a planned vote, Johnson said he would indefinitely postpone the subpoena for documents and testimony from Andrii Telizhenko, a Ukrainian national who worked for a U.S. lobbying firm that acted on behalf of Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that employed Hunter Biden as a board member.
Johnson said he was doing so “[o]ut of an abundance of caution and to allow time for [senators] to receive additional briefings.”
Coincidence? This could get interesting.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What a shame! He should expose them as grifters anyway!
On Sun, Mar 15, 2020 at 12:01 PM Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: “Tim O’Brien, who wrote a book about Donald Trump, > worked on the Bloomberg campaign and is now an advisor to Bloomberg. A few > days ago, he appeared on the Joy Reid show on MSNBC and warned the GOP that > if they dragged Hunter Biden into the presidential cam” >
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An apple falls not far from the tree
as shown by Erik, Ivanka, and Donnie,
the spawn of King Con, grifters all three,
who learned their sick craft at Daddy’s knee.
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Oops. Eric, not Erik.
I need a mnemonic. Evil, rich, idiotic conman.
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Are you listening to these Trump people? All they talk about is the stock market.
I mean, good Lord. Talk about an elite bubble. Not one practical idea or useful assistance of any kind – they’re all sitting around waiting for the stock market to go up, watching their personal investment portfolio.
This is what happens when elite colleges trade admissions for donations- you get a bunch of not very smart or hard working people at high levels. We’re not hiring the best people. They’re all terrible at their jobs. They don’t even seem to be trying very hard.
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We do a poorer job of vetting someone for President of the United States than we do of, say, vetting who is going to run the corner gas station and convenience store. I’ve long been aghast that moderators in Presidential debates don’t ask the candidates, for example, to name three books in foreign policy, economics, or history that they have read in the past year and to give a brief comment on the thesis of each. I doubt very much that Donald Trump has read a book in his adult life. His ignorance (Alabama is on the coast, Belgium is a city, the flu vaccine will work for COVID-19, climate change and coronavirus are hoaxes, and so on) is profoundly dangerous, and our press did almost nothing to make this clear to people in general.
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“As part of a set of additional actions for fighting Coronavirus, Sen. Mitt Romney proposes that “every American adult should immediately receive $1,000 to help ensure families and workers can meet their short-term obligations and increase spending in the economy.”
This is a good idea. Maybe someone can tear the Trump Administration away from watching the stock market and convince them to work a little today. That’ll be new and different for them. Won’t be that hard to cut 100 million checks. They can outsource it to qualified people. A contractor.
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“Every American.” Typical Republican proposal. Yeah, let’s send $1,000 each to Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
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Those who live in Glass Houses of Congress?
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I hope the campaign does not devolve into scorched earth negativity as there are too many important issues facing the American people at this time that are far more important. The focus should be on policies. Don the con is such a wild card I predict he will try to distract and blame so as to avoid talking about what most of us care about. He will use theatrics to avoid discussing his policies that will undermine the needs of working families.
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Just read a notice sent out by a company that manages apartments throughout Florida and Georgia, telling tenants that there will be no accommodations made for late rent payment during this crisis and that evictions will continue as always.
re
A lot of workers will be losing income and unable to pay their mortgages and rent.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, TECO Energy in Tampa just announced that it is suspending disconnections.
And Mitch is holding up the House legislation. And even that legislation, exempts companies with more than 500 employees from paying sick leave. So, should Wlamart be exempt? The Repugnicans seem to think so.
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Oy. The Trump children are already “exposed” as pretty much everything negative one could think of. It doesn’t matter because Trump’s base DOESN’T CARE. This line of attack is only going to hurt Democrats because Trump is an expert at pointing out hypocrisy in a way that sticks. Focusing on “Ukrainegate” is going to hurt Democrats, not Trump.
The only thing that might work against Trump is focusing on policy, which is what Bernie is so good at. Biden can’t do that because his policies are all pretty similar to Trump’s. But trying to focus on Trump’s corruption, etc. is going to backfire because Trump will successfully turn that right back on Biden (which he couldn’t really do with Bernie, since Bernie has so little history that could be considered “corrupt”).
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“Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson scrapped a planned vote Wednesday for a subpoena in the committee’s Republican-led investigation into the Ukrainian energy firm that hired former Vice President Joe Biden’s son.”
This was done in response to Bloomberg’s warning. Bloomberg has the power to do this because he owns a major news organization.
“His policies are all pretty similar to Trump’s”? You really don’t mean that, do you, Dienne?
Biden: reinstate Obamacare
Trump: end Obamacare
Biden: reinstate DACA
Trump: end DACA
Biden: rejoin the Paris Accord
Trump: cancel the Paris Accord
Biden: convene major emissions-creating countries to hammer out climate agreement
Trump: climate change is a hoax
Biden: Woman VP
Trump: Grab ’em by the *****
And so on.
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This is a bit old, but still worth reading: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/joe-biden-donald-trump-similarities-2020.html
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Both Bernie and Biden agree that their policies are closer to one another than to Trump’s. So I find it very odd when people who claims to be Bernie supporters are basically writing posts that imply that Bernie is blatantly lying about that.
Anyone looking at the Trump response to this pandemic who claims that people who are NOT Trump’s base of 40% or so don’t understand the difference between Trump and Biden seem to be completely deluded. I don’t know a single Bernie supporter in real life — and I know many – who would actually say that if Bernie can’t be President, they don’t mind if Trump stays on instead of Biden because their policies are just exactly the same.
I only hear that from on-line trolls. Has anyone on this site actually met a Bernie supporter in real life who believes that having another 4 years of Trump is just like having 4 years of Biden?
In fact, American voters don’t vote on policy. They vote on TRUST. And the Russian trolls got people to believe that Trump was more trustworthy than HRC.
The problem is that unless you only watch right wing propaganda, you understand and readily acknowledge that Trump can’t be trusted. And Biden can. Even if you don’t love Biden’s policies, he can be trusted.
The Republican Governor of Ohio is always someone I thought was on the far right. But while I don’t agree with any of his policies, I now see that he is TRUSTWORTHY and doing what is right for his state.
No one except a deluded Trump acolyte believes that Trump is trustworthy. Biden is. It doesn’t matter if you agree with his policies.
Are there still Bernie supporters who believe that HRC would have appointed Supreme Court Justices like Kavanaugh and Gorsuch? I don’t think so. Have never met any Bernie supporter like that in real life and if someone anonymously claims to be a Bernie supporter who believes there is no difference between Trump and the Dems, they clearly weren’t that bothered by Trump’s xenophobia, racism and sexism.
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I find it very odd when people who claims to be Bernie supporters are basically writing posts that imply that Bernie is blatantly lying about that.
Nailed it
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I am less likely than others are to get upset about people’s faulty memories of past events because I know something of the science related to this. People think of memory as being like a storehouse in their heads of videotapes of past events. But here’s what really happens: at any given moment, we are attending to, at most, about seven items in our environments. This is a well-known bottleneck for short-term memory. Some small part of what is attended to ends up in long-term memory, but when that memory is recalled, what happens is that the brain AUTOMATICALLY takes the little bit that did get through the bottleneck and combines this with general knowledge about the world and puts together a plausible STORY, for our conscience inspection, about what happened back then. This is why couples so often do a Punch and Judy Show over their differing recollections of events that they both experienced, and it’s why eyewitness reports are so terrible, and it’s why false memory syndrome is so common. A great pioneer in his field was Elizabeth Loftus. Check her work out online.
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“We can’t afford another four years of this liar and buffoon. His response to the current crisis is to praise himself.”
Exactly.
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Trump just had a conference call with the nation’s governors and told them to find their own respirators and not to wait for federal help.
Now that’s leadership!! Solve your own problems!!
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Trudeau gave a speech today saying that his government is focusing right now on making sure that citizens have the money they need to pay their rent and buy groceries. Real leadership. The contrast could not be more stark.
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Another good one: http://inthesetimes.com/article/22264/joe-biden-trump-debate-2020-iraq-war
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I don’t care how many negative articles you post about Biden, if the choice comes down to Biden and Trump, Bernie will campaign for Biden.
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And then this, which is quite thorough: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/03/democrats-you-really-do-not-want-to-nominate-joe-biden
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If Biden is the nominee, I will support him with enthusiasm.
Trump has already replaced 1/4 of all federal judges with rightwing extremists, almost all from the far-right Federalist Society.
We can’t afford another four years of this liar and buffoon. His response to the current crisis is to praise himself and close the borders.
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FYI to anyone who doesn’t bother to read the link to the NY Magazine piece.
Basically, that article confirms exactly what Bernie Sanders said in the debate last night. While Biden and Bernie have different policy desires, they are much closer to one another than Biden is to Trump.
“Biden and Trump diverge in notable ways. The former vice-president has expressed qualified regret with his role in promoting mass incarceration. He has been a vocal advocate for preventing sexual assault on college campuses, and worked to expand voting rights and end employment discrimination and supported affirmative action during his time as a U.S. senator. Conversely, Trump’s behavior cannot be dismissed as a product of its time; indeed, it very much defines and enables his present.”
Joe Biden served quite humbly under the first African-American President. While Trump led the racist birther movement to convince other racist Americans that Obama was born in Kenya and not legitimate.
I don’t know any people who believe there is no difference in real life. There is a lot of legitimate criticism to be made about Biden. But Biden is not the corrupt maven that Trump is.
I think I will trust Bernie and AOC about Biden being very different than Trump. And the majority of Bernie supporters agree.
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For all of these reasons (yes, I read the articles and already knew this stuff), I am emphatically NOT a fan of Status Quo Joe. But saying that there is no difference between him and Trump is WAY over the top.
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I watched the debate last night. I call it “The Odd Couple” debate. They were Felix and Oscar arguing about votes from twenty years ago. What came through is that despite their differences, they like and respect each other.
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The Odd Couple Debate. Now that’s funny!
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I turned off when they debated who said what 20 years ago. I don’t care.
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And just today there’s more: https://jacobinmag.com/2020/03/joe-biden-democratic-debate-post-truth
At least the media bother to point out Trump’s lies. They didn’t bother with Biden’s.
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The voters heard them both.
The voters will decide.
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Diane, you are saying that this could be interesting.
What is so interesting? It’s Polly calling the kettle black. Trumpsters will say that Hunter is no better than Ivanka, so they may as well go ahead and vote for Trump. They will see this as a revenge game having no merit or relevance within the presidency.
It’s tit for tat, and at best, it serves as a bemusing source of gossipy entertainment. I’ll make the popcorn; you bring the Milk Duds . . . . .
Who else is watching this movie?
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What I meant was that Bloomberg has the resources to frighten the Republicans before they launch their hate and smear campaign. Otherwise Hunter Biden will be the number 1 issue in the campaign, if Joe is the candidate.
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yes
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Bloomberg, Biden, Trump? They are all plutocrats. They are all poison. They come in different tastes, flavors, and capsule release times . . . . Biden is probably the weakest and slower version of them. He’s well mannered; his governance is oppressive.
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But, yes, Biden is a better choice than Trump. Sanders is the best, but Americans are too ________ to realize it.
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The voters will decide.
Sometimes they make bad choices, as they did in 2016.
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If Bloomberg gives Biden dirt, which I shudder to consider, I am sure there are more skeletons in Trump’s closet than Biden’s.
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“Trump drew an angry response from some of the govs, most notably
@GovMLG
of NM who said: “If one state doesn’t get the resources and materials they need, the entire nation continues to be at risk,”
What’s the point of even talking to the Trump Administration? It’s a waste of time. They have no intention of doing any useful work.
Governors are busy with the crisis. They shouldn’t bother with that call. Do something productive.
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I have the luxury of only having a single high school age child out of school but I think my homeschooling is going to be very simple and won’t require a “platform” or “playlist”. I’m going to have him read fiction. Novels. Paper. Maybe he’ll remember this as “the spring I read a lot of novels”.
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Sounds wonderful, Chiara.
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I hope Mr. Bloomberg brings back his tv ads that run on regular tv and in “President’s base” markets (and billboards would be good, too) citing the irresponsible misstep after misstep of this virus crisis.
The president is endangering millions with his ignorance and lack of management (and leadership) – and as usual, blaming President Obama and then a promise that he will design a plan better (1. what have you been doing for 3 years and 2. like DACA, bump-stocks, etc – it won’t happen). Advertise that!
In this corner: The arrogant self-absorbed self-proclaimed expert in the White House
and
in this corner: The CDC, WHO, John Hopkins research, every State’s health departments, the President’s doctor, scientists across the country – – evidence that we are Italy, not Singapore – – and common sense
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Trump: whatever goes wrong, it’s Obama’s fault.
Stock market collapse: Obama did it.
In the Trump White House, the buck stopped with Obama.
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I wish Bloomberg would buy Fox News. That would be patriotic.
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Great idea!
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Does the fact that we are discussing whether one candidate or another will be the most harmed by negative publicity make any statement about the zeitgeist? We live in times that have debased political discourse to the point that too much verbiage is wasted on the circus of politics.
Policies make leaders. Issues, not personalities, please.
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When you hire (elect) a circus, you always get a clown.
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Trump = Pennywise.
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” they would be subject to a “scorched earth” attack on the Trump family that would expose them as grifters.”
Go ahead. No need to wait for the initiative by the GOP on Hunter Biden.
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