As if the ability of a cohort of anti-government Republicans to keep the government from functioning isn’t frustrating enough, the GOP’s performative poo-throwers continue to make wild and unsupported accusations against Democrats–including Democrats who aren’t even government actors.
The consistent assaults on Hunter Biden are a case in point. Is he clearly a troubled individual? Yes. Is he now or has he been a government official? No. Was the Trump appointee investigating his activities pressured by the Biden Administration? Not according to that official.
The desperate attempt to find something–anything–to throw at Joe Biden has included various accusations leveled by Congressman James Comer. Comer heads up the House Oversight Committee, and his most recent accusations have revolved around the fact that–gasp!!–Joe Biden loaned his brother some money.
Rep. James Comer has claimed that President Joe Biden “laundered China money,” accused Biden of “influence peddling,” and issued subpoenas to members of Biden’s family. Comer has based these actions on the “discovery” of transactions that Biden made no effort to disguise, including a $200,000 loan Biden extended to his brother and which his brother later repaid.
As Heather Cox Richardson has written, Biden made no effort to conceal the transaction, and Comer has loaned a similar amount to his own brother. “Comer has continued to insist without any proof that Biden’s loan was illicit,” and Congressman Jared Moskowitz–a member of the Oversight Committee–“has repeatedly asked Comer to testify about his own loan.”
“That is bullsh*t,” Comer said of Moskowitz’s observation that the American people would like to know more about his own loan. Moskowitz answered: “Your word means nothing, Mr. Chairman…. I think the American people have lots of questions, Mr. Chairman, and perhaps you should sit maybe for a deposition.”
Comer responded by calling Moskowitz a “smurf.” (Don’t ask me what that’s supposed to mean….”smurf” seems like a strange insult, but then, Comer is strange. )
According to the Daily Beast,
Comer was engaged in a series of business dealings with his own brother. Those dealings, which included a $200,000 payment, were nowhere near as straightforward as the dealings between Joe and James Biden. Comer’s deal involved not only a big payment but multiple land swamps, shell companies, and requests for special tax breaks.
Comer evidently based his accusation that the Biden loan was “shady” on the fact that the repayment came from Jim Biden’s receipt of monies he was owed by a health care company. (Health care companies are regulated by the government, so…okay, I don’t get it either, but Comer is clearly not the sharpest tool in the box.)
Comer’s family has for years been identified in news accounts as owning “Comer Land & Cattle.” As of 2018, Comer listed this as an asset worth $3 million.
However, no such entity appears to exist in business filings. It reportedly did at one time, but there’s been no such business for years. At least, not legally. It’s not registered as a business in Kentucky. It’s not registered anywhere else. A past press release showed him as the owner of “James Comer Jr. Farms,” which also doesn’t appear on paper to be a business entity. Comer’s Facebook page also lists him as the owner of “Comer Family Farms,” which isn’t listed as a business entity in Kentucky, according to the secretary of state’s website.
Much of Comer’s business activity seems to follow inheriting land in Kentucky following his father’s death in 2019. But exactly what happened with that land is the opposite of transparent. In one case, Comer reportedly sold his interest in a piece of land to his brother, then bought it back five months later, slipping his brother $18,000 in the process. That purchase ran through a shell company owned by Comer, the value of which doubled in two years. That company appears to have dealt exclusively with agricultural land deals at a time when Comer was on the House Agriculture Committee.
Comer’s family also swapped large tracts of land in Tennessee. That includes handing his brother one tract valued at $175,000 as a “gift.” In exchange, Comer reportedly got another tract that The Daily Beast describes as “apparently more valuable” without recording the cost of that land. The value of these transactions appears to be larger than even the largest loan that Biden gave to his brother.
Comer also seems to have benefited directly from a “tobacco buyout” of land he purchased while serving on the Kentucky legislature’s Tobacco Settlement Agreement Fund Oversight Committee. This means that he helped set the rate for the purchase of his own property.
I’m beginning to understand why Comer is so suspicious of other people’s transactions. Unethical people tend to believe everyone is shady.
I still don’t understand what’s so terrible about being a smurf…
Comer is NOT the sharpest knife in any drawer. He is, though, another corrupt Republican trying to use his newly-gotten platform to garner publicity. It’s what his sponsors want. Since Republicans have virtually admitted that they have no intention of governing for the people, all they have left is their idiots throwing crap at the wall to see what sticks.
Comer, McCarthy, Johnson, Gaetz, et. al., are all corporate/banking America are able to pay so little for. And the people get what the corporate “investors” pay for: CRAP!
Nothing will change until these doofus Republicans are out of office. The other alternative is an outright civil war that overthrows the government entirely. Then, these two-bit assholes will be strutting around in black uniforms and jackboots. We’ve seen this movie before.
According to BARD: “In any context, calling someone a “smurf” is an insult. It is a way of belittling someone’s skills, accusing them of cheating, or implying that they are immature and childish.”
It’s primarily used within the gaming community.
You nailed Comer, though; he is projecting his sins on others. It makes sense, but it doesn’t grant the Bidens a reprieve from being guilty themselves of self-dealing in Ukraine. Remember when Ukraine was touted as being the most corrupt country in Europe? Joe and Hunter played in the tall weeds by self-dealing in the energy business.
Or has that all been replaced by propaganda and rinsing Ukraine’s reputation? I mean, we certainly couldn’t give billions to a corrupt oligarchy in Eastern Europe, knowing the black market would benefit from monies and weapons. Anyone voting to give them money is a “smurf” or suffers from short-term memory loss.
I digress.
Comer is a projectionist, a smurf, and a crook. Is the IRS just for the little people, or do they actually catch political crooks?
The smurfs where cartoon characters, little people, about the size of mice, skin colored blue, which was Comers reference since Rep Moskowitz’ was wearing a blue suit at the time.
I received Heather Cox Richardson’s book, Democracy Awakening yesterday and have read 2/3 of it already. It’s a great easy read. I even learned a few things even though I’ve followed her for several years. I wish every Republican would read it but they would claim she’s biased and liberal.
Todd. The Ukrainians tossed out the corrupt Victor Orban, so when you keep referencing their past corruption without mentioning that, I see it as misleading at best. Also, where is your evidence that Joe Biden was “self dealing in the energy business”? If he were not a public figure, he could sue you for slander and I expect you would lose since he has been exhaustively investigated by the Republicans and they have been unable to find any evidence of his wrongdoing.
Our laws may allow you say such things without evidence, but personal integrity should prevent you from doing so. Should.
It is the current Democratic “poo-throwers” who are undermining President Joe Biden and who will hand this upcoming election back into the hands of Donald Trump and his mafia family. The Kennedy family; strong Democrats for generations and highly elected officials through the years, all the way to the White House; they have put forth a pitiful example of not standing behind RFK, Jr.. They need to come out in full force against everything he is putting out in his so-called Independent presidency campaign as well as his questionable behavior walking through an airplane aisle sans shoes and socks.
President Abraham Lincoln’s “House divided against itself cannot stand” is highly significant at this time. It is not only the weak Republicans who are working against President Biden but the weak Democrats seem to be quietly sitting on the sidelines, watching the idiotic spectacle of Republican public performances which are gaining all of the election attention.
Good use of projection. Guilty people often project their own crooked desires onto others. You caught this Comer guy. Congrats!
Corrupt and inept (or both or both ++) humans are fixtures among humanity. They lie, cheat, and steal from the rest of us. In some cases, their bad side is visible to everyone; in other cases, their deception is their greater skill.
Corporations and the government hire them, but some are in private practice. They train by observing how others rise to celebrity status, and they emulate their behavior. What some are short of are morals, but we make heroes out of some, too. But “heroes” to me implies only notoriety, not morality so much.
Take Taylor Swift and the Kelce Bros as examples of perhaps benign to admirable people. Typically, they do what few of us can and perfect it through hard work and singular focus on their talents (including first impression looks). We shovel wealth and influence at them (plus a cut of their wealth by/to those in media businesses).
Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Mother Theresa, Gandhi, and George Washington were mainly positive influences, but they also were responsible for death and destruction.
John F Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower seemed to be local American heroes to some, too.
Donald Trump and Bernie Madoff are recent Americans who turned wealth and power into lots more wealth and power for only their personal and family benefit.
The point is to be careful of who you label hero until all the facts are known and are carefully sorted.
How DOES Comer know Joe Biden is guilty? As James Stovall stated above, projection. If Comer didn’t know how corruption is done himself, he would never “see” it in any of Bidens actions. Vote blue, these repuklicans must go!
“Poo-throwing!” Professor, this 2 month boat ride has caused you to be more…….
I am sorry, I cannot finish that sentence. “Poo-throwing.” Trust me, I still have you on my pedestal, but, “poo-throwing.”
Good stuff today, Professor
OK Dennis, is “feces hurling” more acceptable? Sheila always call it like it is; I thought she cleaned it up nicely but the situation is not one for sweet thoughts and phrases.
Land swaps, shell companies, and a lot of transactional smoke and mirrors. That’s what we like to call the “rinse cycle.” It also sounds like Comer’s never met a conflict of interest he didn’t like.
Regarding the “smurf” reference, the fact that Rep. Moskowitz was wearing a blue suit may be less significant than his party affiliation. He is a (blue) Democrat rather than a (red) Republican.
Americans do not want to be complicit in the slaughter of children– they do not.
The appellation of Genocide Joe will soon be as ubiquitous as Hey LBJ, How Many Kids Did You Kill Today. The next election will be the lowest turnout for Democrats from minorities on record.
The Arab world will unite and fuel prices will rise to make 1973 look like child’s play in comparison. Many lives are being lost just to arouse the whiskey-dick of the segregationist. Ukrainians are now realizing they’re being used as cannon fodder for US interests. I wonder what the blowback from this blunder will be?
An absolute shit show from this administration. The US has lost the Southern Hemisphere indefinitely.
Unless we can get a Cornell West in office,the Uni-Party is just going to continue to destroy. Whatever Republicans touch and Democrats allow and continue
to acquiesce –things and people die. They’re not even political parties anymore. They are one unified death cult
Apologies for getting my authoritarian leaders mixed up. It wasn’t. Orban who was rejected by Ukrainian voters. Should have fact checked myself!
It’s easy to see when Ian goes off his meds… or when he starts brewing mushroom tea. Poor fellow. His crystal ball is made of poo.
I guess no one here is bothered by old men quoting biblical passages as the basis for government and military policy.
It should.
Vernon’s fascination and fetish for feces duly noted.
Liberals believe that government should serve all of we, the people.
It’s taxpayer-funded according to the wealth made and accumulated and provides necessary services, including personal and property protection, global diplomacy, education (preparation for adulthood), environment protection of necessary resources like water, land (both productive and recreational), safe food supply chains, transportation infrastructure, administrative, legislative, and judicial means of production and personal dignity, macroeconomic management, etc for everyone.
Conservatives narrow that down to the government should give them, individually, the biggest piece of the pie. IOW’s government only redistributes wealth to everyone by routing wealth from taxpayers to everyone (including politicians, corporations, wealthy individuals, and states with inadequate economies).
It’s all accounting about who pays and who gets what in return.
Comer and his family members are actually doing business loans. The trouble with the Bidens is that we are dealing with funds from the US govt being used to peddle influence and high ranking officials family members receiving and giving money back. Its always tthe Democrat politicians plan to circle the wagons. No accountability. Evidence is mounting and all we can do is play politics with this corrupt nation we live in.uu
So Ukraine was once a corrupt state? Or may be yet to some degree? So were all the non-democratic states run by those of “royal” blood – by definition. George III and his colonial corruption of (among others) the American colonies where only English hulls could transport goods is a good example. Competition? Whut’s thet? Answer > a threat to the royal coffers and blueblood choice by God to rule rather than by Greek democracy sharpened by the Enlightenment some 2,000 years later. So long as greed and power find a place in humanity you may confidently expect to see corruption both in government and capitalistic enterprises. We in this country are in large part a society of many Madoffs constrained only by fear of discovery and jail rather than adherence to the moral code we pretend to follow and expect others to follow. Or do we?
Comer’s Trump worship and employment of projection and whataboutism are useful. His soap box and use of such tools serve a double purpose; criminalizing the conduct of his political enemies, and distracting attention from the corruption of himself, Trump’s criminal charges and his fellow election deniers but, unlike George III, Comer was not chosen by God but rather by Kentuckians in his (probably} gerrymandered district and in a democracy is accountable to those who entrusted him to govern. He and other House Republicans have decided not to govern but to act as prosecutors 24-7 (Separation of Powers? under the guise of “oversight” and other righteous-sounding terms when in truth their attempts to destroy our democracy and its undergirding institutions warrant a description of such revolutionary antics with the adage: “Physician, heal thyself,” not projection.
Meanwhile, and since they are not governing, desperately needed legislation in re areas such as budgeting, taxation, the environment, Moody’s downgrading of our greatly increased debt due to the Trump/Ryan giveaway to the rich in 2017 etc., omissions which will be felt down the road for years as the rich will have long since pocketed such giveaway that our grandchildren and even the unborn will have to pay, and interest (speaking of taxation without representation).
To do? Vote, and encourage your friends, relatives and neighbors to do likewise given the fascist overtone of Republican propaganda just lately, since if we don’t the upcoming election may be our last one. Am I fear-mongering? No. I and millions of other Americans have heard Trump say he wants to end the Constitution, and if that doesn’t get voters off the couch next November it will likely be Achtung! time from sea to shining sea.
Todd, I assume one of your primary sources is a Guardian article published in 2015. Viktor Yanukovych was the corrupt President of Ukraine at the time, backed by the Russians. He was voted out of office by the Ukrainians because of the corruption and now lives in exile in Russia. Twist a few facts and voila Ukraine is the most corrupt country in Europe, and Joe Biden was involved in corruption—-despite no evidence to support the assertion. Please do better. Our democracy is in the balance.
Sorry, Michael, but you’ve bought the Russia boogeyman story — too much Maddow, most likely. Look up the Euromaidan — what hasn’t been scrubbed clean by the CIA, and you’ll fund the USA meddling in a foreign government elected by the people. Seeing that Ukraine borders Russia, wouldn’t it be natural for leaders to favor Russia?
Don’t get your panties in a wad, smurf; all the politicians peddle influence for themselves and family. Selling their position of power for dollars is the Washington way, regardless of stripes. Don’t succumb to the Legacy media boogeymen theories. Seek the facts for yourself. Here’s a warning: you might not discover the truth you hope for…
Maga Comer using his government bully pulpit to deflect from his own shady undertakings and blame his opposition is a violation of public trust. Also, it’s a waste of time and taxpayers’ money to carry on their vindictive political campaign in the place of governing.
Thanks again to Gerald Stinson for sharing his astute earned knowledge and perspective. Your clarity of vision is helpful!
Another enlightened dialogue on air tonight @7:00 pm on MSNBC: Chris Hayes interviews Racheal Maddow on her book “Prequel” about what’s going on with the Maga party in Congress.
Todd, which facts in my response did I get wrong?
Todd. C’mon man. “Russia boogeyman story”??? You don’t have to follow Maddow to know that Putin assassinates his opponents and is waging war in defiance of international law. Not to mention his dictatorial grip on Russia and enthusiastic use of war crimes. It is certainly not ” natural” for leaders in neighboring countries to favor him. Quite the contrary. You are starting to sound like a MAGA apologist.
Today, it seems that there are so many sacred cows crowded on stage that people can’t tell whose are being so joyously slaughtered.
I’d be more interested in «conservative points of view if they were not so tightly tied to ways to ensure that the maximum number possible of poor, uneducated, sick, and otherwise unfortunate people remain as miserable as they can be. Misery connects to ineffectiveness, but if you keep your head sharply turned to the right, you can’t see it well enoiiugh