The clown show in Washington is better than late night TV

Americans elect clowns and should not be surprised by the circus in Congress

Mainstream media is agog with the hearings of the Hur report that found Joe Biden to be a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory and concluded despite evidence of activity that could be found criminal the odds of getting a jury to convict the President given his state of mind were low and no charges were laid. The hearing has both Republicans and Democrats staging absurd comments and commentary to try and make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, one side trying to show a “double standard” of justice wherein Donald Trump gets charged with a felony for mishandling classified documents and the other justifying that Joe Biden gets a pass. The amount of creativity that went into the questions for Hur would make Lorne Michaels think he shoud recruit writers from Congress.

The only findings that may influence voters (which is doubtful for current Democrats or Republicans since for members of both parties facts are generally irrelevant and they will vote for the team regardless) is the exposure to the independent voters not aligned with either club of the facts I summarize below:

• Biden had an $8 million advance from a publishing company to write his memoirs,

• Biden had possession of classified documents from his time as a Senator which only he could have taken from the skif where he was permitted to read them but had no authority to remove them, and

• Biden let his ghost writer not only read those classified documents but also read parts of them to the ghost writer to assist him to write his book.

I am a bit old-fashioned and had a Top Secret Z clearance while serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force as a fighter pilot and Squadron Intelligence Officer. There are no circumstances where I would disclose classified information to anyone not entitled and cleared to hear or read it and I would be just fine if anyone who broke the laws regarding security of classified information was imprisoned or for that matter shot. In Air Defense Command, we didn’t fuck around with secret information. Most of us thought lives depended on it, including our own lives.

But for Joe Biden, the lure of selling his story to a published for $8 million was no less enticing than selling access to his power through his son Hunter Biden’s “business”, creating dozens of shell corporations and using false aliases for thousands of emails to keep his family’s apparent corruption secret. Independent voters on balance think Donald Trump a reprehensible person and Joe Biden likewise a liar and cheat. What a choice. But the disclosure of the foregoing may persuade some of them as to how they should vote.

In reality is that Trump’s defining trait as a politician is that he does what he says he will do, and Biden’s is that he will make promises with no intention to keep them. Neither character is a great example for American children, but Trump (who is likely to win in November) will be a better President with all his many flaws. Biden’s first term legacy is rampant inflation, rising crime, massive deficits and uncontrolled immigration with little vetting of who enters the country. Biden also carries the baggage of specious claim that CO2 causes climate change, an absurd theory inconsistent with laws of physics and no longer top of mind in voters’ concerns.

Biden’s one success - and it is a worthwile one - is promoting the expansion of U.S. semiconductor manufacturing with the aim of freeing U.S. companies dependency on Taiwan or China for vital components of almost all technology based companies. That may get him some votes but is a goal he shares with Trump who also wants to repatriate manufacturing to America from abroad, not limited to anything made from Silicon Dioxide, Gallium Arsenide or any other semi-valent substance.

In any event, if you are bored with late night comedy, the Hur hearings are on YouTube and you will get more than one laugh out of them.