That’s the question my wife keeps asking me. If I were a betting man, which I’m not—I’m reflexively cautious except when offering opinions—I would bet that Zhou will never be impeached. Or not soon. Never is a word that should never be used in a serious political discussion.
Narrative control. Avoid discussion of corruption by making Zhou into a martyr. Distraction from establishment corruption is necessary to fool enough of the people enough of the time.
Judging by my hair I am well disguised. This comment was actually a reply to a question about my earlier comment that I mistakenly placed here instead of in that thread. Apologies for the confusion.
The House GOP may not impeach Joe Biden, in part because of the likelihood of failure to convict in the Senate, but they absolutely should.
Biden's corrupt actions as VP were heinous and criminal and, most importantly, they have left him caught in numerous lies and hopelessly compromised by China and Ukraine, which should be impeachable. If GOP can prove this with compelling evidence they should show the American people the evidence of his corruption, lies and conflict of interest in public proceedings in the House and Senate. (I am sure there are additional impeachable offenses, as well...such as the Border invasion and failure to enforce immigration law...and others). They should impeach him soon...why not this Fall? It would be a fitting end for all intents and purposes to his grifting political career even if 34 Dems in the Senate ultimately vote to acquit. Why let him off the hook? Why not go on the record?
The undesirability of a President Harris may be an additional reason why Biden avoids conviction in the Senate, but in my estimation it doesn't matter whether Biden is impeached and convicted or not and whether or not Harris (briefly) ascends. Ultimately, neither Biden nor she is in control of the Deep State and in a brief term she c/would do no more harm than Biden.
In any event (regardless of impeachment) I don't think Biden will be the Dem nominee in 2024. The complications of his rapidly declining physical and mental health as well as his disastrous performance as POTUS on the merits make his nomination highly unlikely. I honestly don't think he could survive a televised debate at this stage of his decline. To me, its a coin toss whether he steps aside or whether he is told he is stepping aside. When Biden steps off the stage, Harris goes with him. She has less national appeal or electability on her own than Mike Pence or Tim Kaine (remember him?).
An impeachment process in the Fall of 2023 will make the case of the Dems overwhelming corruption and irresponsible leadership in advance of the 2024 election. It will then be up to Gavin Newsome or Amy Klobuchar or Buttigieg or some other Liberal, Progressive, Marxist whackjob to make the case in 2024 to the American people that we need a 4th Obama term. And hopefully they would have to face truthtellers RFKJr and Cornel West in the Dem primaries. I'm not saying the hapless GOP would easily win, but good luck to the Dems with that lineup.
I won't predict here who the GOP nominee should be or will be. I just hope we get past egos and platitudes and tropes and hyperbole and our candidate runs a hardhitting, articulate and compelling campaign in favor of fundamental conservative values which the country desperately needs to see re-established by a strong and electable leader. Tall order, I know.
That leaves open the question of continuing election corruption. I'm as concerned as anyone that the GOP has not taken the necessary steps to restore integrity to our elections. But, on the other hand, I just don't know. As a matter of common sense, it seems hard to believe that the state legislatures (at least the GOP-controlled state legislatures) and courts will continue to allow rampant ballot harvesting and voter qualification fraud indefinitely but I just don't know. It seems that Kari Lake and others are pursuing these issues in Arizona but I just haven't been following her progress very closely. As we all know, it wouldn't take much election corruption in a small handful of districts in swing states to change the Electoral College result.
Again. This will be governed by political considerations. If the GOP establishment--but more particularly the House leadership--comes to the conclusion that impeaching Zhou is in their interest, they'll do it--because they can. Senate dynamics won't really matter. It appears that Speaker Kev's view is that we haven't reached peak Zhou yet, in terms of the needed political traction--even though the decision will be political the GOP will need to appear to have the moral high ground. I won't be watching/listening/reading Nixon or Kunstler. That Zhou deserves impeachment was well established even before he was installed. Bluto Barr certainly knew it, yet decided that Zhou was preferable to the Orange Man, even at the price of national degradation of our politics and elections. For him,. that was a small price to pay.
Zhou's criminality and corruption is not at issue. The reason I won't bother with Nixon or Kunstler is that I assume that they don't go into the core issue that would come to the fore in a real impeachment proceeding. Rather than sex or a phone call--discreet issues, easily resolved conceptually--a Zhou impeachment would involve the thorough going corruption of our constitutional order at all levels. Zhou would be on trial, but the "jury" would be composed of those who are also complicit in that corruption--most to a lesser extent, but still culpable. That, to my mind, is what is holding things up. A trial would necessarily focus on Ukraine, and questions would be raised about many other political figures whose money grubbing can be traced in that direction--there's a reason why the Turtle has several times proclaimed Ukraine to be our top priority, and that reason has nothing to do with altruism. It's a Pandora's Box situation, and so our rulers will probably want to let it metastasize further. The leaks that were intended to prompt either a resignation or a promise to leave in 2024 haven't worked so far.
BTW, if there's one thing that we have learned from Election 2020 it should be not to trust state/local GOP officials. The GOP establishment was complicit in what happened from top to bottom. Yes it varied by region, but the party officials in many deep red areas gladly helped rid the party of the Orange Man.
Great comment Mark. Regarding local politics in the GOP it is a mess. Was heavily involved with supporting intelligent local leadership that was hounded and displaced by what seems like a small hard left infiltration group with a bunch of useful idiots. Hard left has connections with known left wing organizations such as CTA. Wasn’t Mao sent by Stalin to infiltrate the Nationalists in China? What happened locally seems similar to that.
Just think of all the boxes you could check with heals up Harris 1rst woman president, 1rst woman of color etc. and when she gives a speech and says great goubla wolie gota sock to me how the media will go gogga on her expertise and grasp of the situation. In a sense it could be fun I would volunteer to be her speech writer
Postscript: If anyone still doubts Joe Biden's corruption and conflict of interest, please watch Garland Nixon's dissection yesterday of Chuck Grassley's FBI 1023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw5rzezyeYE. Its a super long video...70 minutes...you can start at 15 minutes without missing the meat of Garland's presentation. But it is an absolute must watch.
If you do watch it...when you do watch it...please come back here and let us know whether there is a single iota of doubt remaining in your mind, not only of the corruption of Hunter and Joe Biden, but also of the FBI, the DOJ, Mitt Romney and the eGOP ...and the entire DC Establishment.
Ok, Biden’s not going to be impeached, but do you suppose that if all the Republicans in DC got together that they could manage to cobble together one set of balls and do something about Garland Merrick, Chris Wray, Myorkas, Blinken, et al? Is it asking too much for them to at least make an attempt at leadership instead of huffing and puffing to absolutely no affect?
It is truly a pathetic spectacle that we are subjected to on a daily basis.
I don’t see how anyone but a UniParty pawn can win the White House in 2024. The last two elections, and the pithy pushback against them, speak for themselves. What we can do is expose the UP filth to make inroads with folks who believe in fair play, regardless of D or R. I don’t like being the virtuous loser, but we don’t get to count the votes either - at least not yet.
Zhou will be made into a martyr. The script is already written. Without impeachment he will be made a hero who stood in the breach as long as he could in the face of the source of his ill health. If impeached a slightly different script, already written in anticipation of R flaccidity, will paint Zhou as a martyr and a victim of R viciousness when it comes to people suffering from chronic illness and preexisting conditions. Zhou wins and the spectacle will be used by the left to drown out any discussion of corruption as Niagara Falls would a drop of water spilled from a tourist’s travel mug.
Did I say martyr? Perhaps Hero of the Revolution would have been better. If impeached he will be depicted as the victim of unjust R persecution. As a duly elected POTUS vs Rs trying to undue an election. The Rs are ignoring the will of the people. Etc. All a smokescreen for the continued destruction of our civilization and a distraction from important things that are addressed at only a few places such as this one. WW3, Corruption, and so on will be ignored. Zhou as heroic victim 24/7.
Not mentioned is the distinct possibility that Zhou takes himself out, most likely by falling which he has demonstrated repeatedly that he is adept at. Another possibility is that the drugs that are being pumped/fed into him no longer work on his senescent body and decaying mind. His recent public appearances show a trend of increasing discombobulation when trying to read a teleprompter or carry on a conversation. Should Zhou need to be hospitalized for any reason, the pressure will be intense within the democratic party (and the MSM) to find a solution to their self-created problem. None of the potential remedies are very palatable to the democrat mafia with Harris standing in the wings (and in their way). They would likely prefer an impeachment to that, where their ample number of preening peacocks can strut and act out their disgust for such a proceeding.
Zhou dying in office would be a gift to the democrats and their media cohort. They would deify him as if he were their golden calf. The MSM would cover the proceedings non-stop - from laying in state to his entombment. It would be as close to a 'religious' experience they have known. Meanwhile, half of the nation would be thanking God this evil monster has finally been dispatched to the fiery pit that so justly awaits him.
1st) don't touch Zhou; let him and his administration and all the Democrats self-implode. Gift to Republicans.
2nd) Taiwan elections in early 2024 will position new China friendly leaders in place. in turn, the slow and steady pivot to "One China" will take place with no war. That'll disappoint a few NeoCon's but oh well.
3rd) TSMC delay is by design in support of #2 above.
Understood however they’ve just witnessed US response in Ukraine and have concluded our weakness is no match for China. Hence, Taiwan will fall in line.
Anyone with a little bit of Honor would be looking at how to resign quietly say for health reasons, but honor is not in the family makeup. My theory is that old Joe and the family are the bag men for the DC Uniparty the way they have everything set up with his foundations are quite suspect (even the Clinton foundation did a few charity donations) he always seemed to be around all the countries that were getting financial aid, just like McCain was around anywhere a war was going to be started. I think they will let a few more things out and then try and cork it up again. After all election season is coming up and they are going to need money
That's not unreasonable, and it would go a ways to explaining why he seems to be leading a charmed life. Many people have said that Ukraine was ground zero for years for US political money laundering. There's a lot that the Ruling Class doesn't want us to know. This all came out some years ago. So many people, from both parties, were involved in Ukraine. So much Deep State activity--and that's all fueled by money, too.
I wonder what percentage of the $100B+ they have sent to Ukraine has landed in the pockets of our congress specifically the senate and our military generals? None of this is challenged out of fear of the corrupt legal system and the criminal/psychopath class of agents in the CIA and FBI?
On that Taiwan Semiconductor plant, that does not surprise me at all. I'm retired now, but I worked in construction for almost 40 years--mostly home remodeling, but some new construction in the early years. We had a labor shortage in the building trades back in the '90s! Not enough young people were going into the trades. The last new house I worked on was in 1997. The whole couple of weeks our crew was there, doing exterior wood trim on a brick house, I only saw one man who looked to be under 30. I was the youngest in our crew at 47 back then.
This is a factor that is seldom mentioned in current housing costs and the shortage of housing in the US. I do not watch TV (I have not owned one for thirty years), but I really appreciate Mike Rowe and his efforts to promote the building trades and other lines of work that young people are mostly avoiding. I have a college degree and some grad work myself, but I figured out in my 20s that I enjoyed working with my hands, and I could get good at it.
From an Epoch Times article, some context missing from mainstream US media:
TSMC Faces Local Union Dispute
The addition of non-American workers has now begun to upset labor unions and their advocates.
On July 19, the left-wing publication, The American Prospect, reported some tension between American and Taiwanese workers, after the pay of some local workers was cut.
Union electricians represented by IBEW 60, told the magazine, that members at the Arizona construction site felt “double-crossed,” after TSMC sent in more than 500 workers from Taiwan.
TSMC has been accused of attempting to cut costs by sending in more workers from Taiwan, while it has not disclosed exactly how many have arrived or how many more may be coming.
Union representatives said they were concerned that TSMC was attempting to replace them with overseas workers by eliminating union electricians’ incentive pay earlier this month, causing 50 American workers to quit.
TSMC said that bringing in skilled workers from Taiwan “will not impact the 12,000 workers currently on-site every day or U.S.-based hiring” and that more advanced training will be needed before Americans could replace them.
To mollify the workers, TSMC reinstated the incentive pay, but again inflamed tensions, after it offered a union contractor “25 non-union employees recruited from Taiwan to help solve their new labor shortage,” the IBEW told The American Prospect.
The union contractor said that they would not hire the non-union workers, since they “only use workers dispatched from the union hall” and that TSMC would also have a hard time recruiting American workers unless the company raised wages.
***
Perhaps the Biden administration can save the day by getting the unions to behave better. After all, the unions voted him into office; he is their guy.
Bringing in foreign workers for a specialty trade like electrical work raises big red flags for me. I have done residential wiring myself. Even in the US, there are significant differences between wiring methods and materials for homes and what is used in commercial buildings. And there is no international electrical code that is uniformly enforced worldwide. The US has the National Electrical Code, which is revised every three years. Other countries have their own arrangements. I do not know what they use in Taiwan, but I know there are differences between the US and European practices on wiring. For instance, in the US we use 250 volt circuits for ranges, water heaters, clothes dryers, and a few other specialty items in homes; the rest of the circuits are 125 volts. In Europe, residential circuits are 250 volts--all of them.
Even in the US, there are regional variations in specific wiring methods; they all have to be approved by the code authorities, but certain methods may be more common, say, in Ohio, and something else more common in Georgia. You can bet there will be variations between countries as well. So what happens in a couple of years when an American is called in to repair something done by a Taiwanese worker and has trouble figuring out the wiring because he's never seen anything done that way?
Yes, they could give the imported workers some training on US Codes. But old habits are often hard for people to break. And do the management people doing this even have any idea that the local codes are different?
It's very high end work that is specific to the tools being installed on the site of chip fabrication, and so it is at a remove from local codes that get electricity into and around the building itself.
The ASML CEO says it best and succinctly:
ASML Holding NV CEO Peter Wennink told Bloomberg that the delay was not really unexpected because of the challenge of getting access to skilled workers to build the semiconductor fabrication plants.
“People don’t seem to realize that when we start building those fabs across the globe now and are everywhere, that skill has been refined over the last couple of decades in only a few places on the planet—predominantly in Taiwan and in Korea and a bit in China,” said Mr. Wennink.
“Getting access to the requisite skills and skilled workers to keep the construction plan on time is a challenge,” he said.
***
Notice that he didn't include the US in respect of where skills are predominately refined. You'd think a country with the most advanced unionization of skilled trades would provide the most advanced refinement of trade skills, but I guess we need CHIPS act money to make it happen. Slowly.
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that TSMC has been granted variances to expedite the work. If anyone knows how to build a semi-conductor plant that works, they'd be the ones.
There is also the issue of time. Do we need to conduct all rebuilding of strategic industries emergently? This is just my opinion but I think we need to rebuild deterrence to avoid great power war. It might already be too late but every effort should be made. If specialty work in the trades is needed then is anyone creating incentive to get the training needed for it? Is this being treated as any other construction work or is there a sense of urgency and thus being in workers who can do the job from wherever they can be found?
Say they do impeach Biden anyway, and let Kama be President ... If she's even worse than Zhou, could that factor favorably for the GOP side of the Uniparty?
Right. I didn't go there. It's a bit of a crap shoot. She's really awful, she might be impeachable in her own right. As occupant of the OO she's opens up another can of worms--the VP position, which needs to be confirmed by majority vote of Congress. Speaker Kev could be concerned that the blame for any disasters under her could rub off on the party that put her there. I know that sounds irrational--who nominated her, after all--but the electorate's perceptions can be unfathomable. Overall, safer to continue as is for now?
Thanks. Makes sense that would be a tough one for the politicians to figure out who would take the bigger loss if she's put in the OO. And we know they all hate taking the blame for anything!
Thomas Lifson at the American Thinker has an article dated July 20th in the blog archive that explains the legal protocols for replacing the President.
If the American people regarded Zhou as a traitor, if the Ruling Class regarded him as a traitor, he'd have been gone long ago. In reality, to the extent that they blame him it's really only for excessive greed and indiscretion. The satire in all this, and the comedy that's being acted out, is the idea that America--which has embraced moral degeneration to rival that of any country in history--is somehow being imposed upon by forces beyond its control. It's also the idea of American "exceptionalism". Our true enemy is us.
Zhou is just what the regime ordered but a bit too much. More intelligent/less blatant corruption would be preferred but corrupt is the key. Zhou is the paradigm taken a bit too far. Corruption and law breaking allow Zhou and the rest who are involved to be controlled. Flip a switch and they are under criminal investigation if they get out of line. Trump’s many ordeals are the exception that demonstrates the ‘Rule of the Corrupt but Accountable if Necessary.’ Rubber stamps disguised as politicians are there to hide the true regime. If I remember correctly Augustus, first emperor Rome, maintained but controlled many of the institutions of the Roman Republic to disguise the reality that he held all of the power in his hands. Rome was prosperous during his time because of the vast wealth from recently conquered Egypt. Prosperity distracted from the end of the Republican form of government. Our ruling class distracts from the end of the republic with racial strife, trans politics, war in Ukraine, Trump’s ordeal/Bad Orange Manism, Covid lock downs, damage to unknown numbers from ‘vaccines,’ pornography, 24 hour news frenzy, and many other things that interfere with thinking about what is really going on.
I find it ironic that you want to impeach Zhou right now, yet believe what he said about the Chinese balloon--directly contrary to what our military and intel people said. Or maybe you believe the corrupt war mongering wing of the GOP that's seeking political advantage via gaslighting the public re the China threat.
I don't necessarily disagree with most of what you're saying. As a legal matter, however, I don't believe the Rs would go out on a limb by using in the impeachment indictment what is a technical term under the constitution unless they intended to convict on the technical meaning.
Influence peddling, bribery, influencing official actions for fraudulent gain--all that has been known for many years, is easily proven, and totally damning. Given the specifics of the situations involving foreign powers, the traitorous--as opposed to treasonous in its technical meaning in the US--is easily argued to the public.
Narrative control. Avoid discussion of corruption by making Zhou into a martyr. Distraction from establishment corruption is necessary to fool enough of the people enough of the time.
Hal, I promise not to reveal that you're Speaker Kev commenting under a pseudonym.
Judging by my hair I am well disguised. This comment was actually a reply to a question about my earlier comment that I mistakenly placed here instead of in that thread. Apologies for the confusion.
Signed: Hal/Not Speaker Kev/NSK
My 2¢
The House GOP may not impeach Joe Biden, in part because of the likelihood of failure to convict in the Senate, but they absolutely should.
Biden's corrupt actions as VP were heinous and criminal and, most importantly, they have left him caught in numerous lies and hopelessly compromised by China and Ukraine, which should be impeachable. If GOP can prove this with compelling evidence they should show the American people the evidence of his corruption, lies and conflict of interest in public proceedings in the House and Senate. (I am sure there are additional impeachable offenses, as well...such as the Border invasion and failure to enforce immigration law...and others). They should impeach him soon...why not this Fall? It would be a fitting end for all intents and purposes to his grifting political career even if 34 Dems in the Senate ultimately vote to acquit. Why let him off the hook? Why not go on the record?
The undesirability of a President Harris may be an additional reason why Biden avoids conviction in the Senate, but in my estimation it doesn't matter whether Biden is impeached and convicted or not and whether or not Harris (briefly) ascends. Ultimately, neither Biden nor she is in control of the Deep State and in a brief term she c/would do no more harm than Biden.
In any event (regardless of impeachment) I don't think Biden will be the Dem nominee in 2024. The complications of his rapidly declining physical and mental health as well as his disastrous performance as POTUS on the merits make his nomination highly unlikely. I honestly don't think he could survive a televised debate at this stage of his decline. To me, its a coin toss whether he steps aside or whether he is told he is stepping aside. When Biden steps off the stage, Harris goes with him. She has less national appeal or electability on her own than Mike Pence or Tim Kaine (remember him?).
An impeachment process in the Fall of 2023 will make the case of the Dems overwhelming corruption and irresponsible leadership in advance of the 2024 election. It will then be up to Gavin Newsome or Amy Klobuchar or Buttigieg or some other Liberal, Progressive, Marxist whackjob to make the case in 2024 to the American people that we need a 4th Obama term. And hopefully they would have to face truthtellers RFKJr and Cornel West in the Dem primaries. I'm not saying the hapless GOP would easily win, but good luck to the Dems with that lineup.
I won't predict here who the GOP nominee should be or will be. I just hope we get past egos and platitudes and tropes and hyperbole and our candidate runs a hardhitting, articulate and compelling campaign in favor of fundamental conservative values which the country desperately needs to see re-established by a strong and electable leader. Tall order, I know.
That leaves open the question of continuing election corruption. I'm as concerned as anyone that the GOP has not taken the necessary steps to restore integrity to our elections. But, on the other hand, I just don't know. As a matter of common sense, it seems hard to believe that the state legislatures (at least the GOP-controlled state legislatures) and courts will continue to allow rampant ballot harvesting and voter qualification fraud indefinitely but I just don't know. It seems that Kari Lake and others are pursuing these issues in Arizona but I just haven't been following her progress very closely. As we all know, it wouldn't take much election corruption in a small handful of districts in swing states to change the Electoral College result.
Just my 2¢ early this am 7/22/2023.
Again. This will be governed by political considerations. If the GOP establishment--but more particularly the House leadership--comes to the conclusion that impeaching Zhou is in their interest, they'll do it--because they can. Senate dynamics won't really matter. It appears that Speaker Kev's view is that we haven't reached peak Zhou yet, in terms of the needed political traction--even though the decision will be political the GOP will need to appear to have the moral high ground. I won't be watching/listening/reading Nixon or Kunstler. That Zhou deserves impeachment was well established even before he was installed. Bluto Barr certainly knew it, yet decided that Zhou was preferable to the Orange Man, even at the price of national degradation of our politics and elections. For him,. that was a small price to pay.
Zhou's criminality and corruption is not at issue. The reason I won't bother with Nixon or Kunstler is that I assume that they don't go into the core issue that would come to the fore in a real impeachment proceeding. Rather than sex or a phone call--discreet issues, easily resolved conceptually--a Zhou impeachment would involve the thorough going corruption of our constitutional order at all levels. Zhou would be on trial, but the "jury" would be composed of those who are also complicit in that corruption--most to a lesser extent, but still culpable. That, to my mind, is what is holding things up. A trial would necessarily focus on Ukraine, and questions would be raised about many other political figures whose money grubbing can be traced in that direction--there's a reason why the Turtle has several times proclaimed Ukraine to be our top priority, and that reason has nothing to do with altruism. It's a Pandora's Box situation, and so our rulers will probably want to let it metastasize further. The leaks that were intended to prompt either a resignation or a promise to leave in 2024 haven't worked so far.
BTW, if there's one thing that we have learned from Election 2020 it should be not to trust state/local GOP officials. The GOP establishment was complicit in what happened from top to bottom. Yes it varied by region, but the party officials in many deep red areas gladly helped rid the party of the Orange Man.
Great comment Mark. Regarding local politics in the GOP it is a mess. Was heavily involved with supporting intelligent local leadership that was hounded and displaced by what seems like a small hard left infiltration group with a bunch of useful idiots. Hard left has connections with known left wing organizations such as CTA. Wasn’t Mao sent by Stalin to infiltrate the Nationalists in China? What happened locally seems similar to that.
Just think of all the boxes you could check with heals up Harris 1rst woman president, 1rst woman of color etc. and when she gives a speech and says great goubla wolie gota sock to me how the media will go gogga on her expertise and grasp of the situation. In a sense it could be fun I would volunteer to be her speech writer
Postscript: If anyone still doubts Joe Biden's corruption and conflict of interest, please watch Garland Nixon's dissection yesterday of Chuck Grassley's FBI 1023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw5rzezyeYE. Its a super long video...70 minutes...you can start at 15 minutes without missing the meat of Garland's presentation. But it is an absolute must watch.
If you do watch it...when you do watch it...please come back here and let us know whether there is a single iota of doubt remaining in your mind, not only of the corruption of Hunter and Joe Biden, but also of the FBI, the DOJ, Mitt Romney and the eGOP ...and the entire DC Establishment.
Jim Kunstler reaches the same conclusion as me this morning: time to impeach Old Joe.
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/the-downfall-of-blobism/
Really, can anybody disagree?
Ok, Biden’s not going to be impeached, but do you suppose that if all the Republicans in DC got together that they could manage to cobble together one set of balls and do something about Garland Merrick, Chris Wray, Myorkas, Blinken, et al? Is it asking too much for them to at least make an attempt at leadership instead of huffing and puffing to absolutely no affect?
It is truly a pathetic spectacle that we are subjected to on a daily basis.
I don’t see how anyone but a UniParty pawn can win the White House in 2024. The last two elections, and the pithy pushback against them, speak for themselves. What we can do is expose the UP filth to make inroads with folks who believe in fair play, regardless of D or R. I don’t like being the virtuous loser, but we don’t get to count the votes either - at least not yet.
Gop is happy with business as usual, and does not want to cause any waves.
They are to busy fighting Trump and his influence, especially those nationalistic voters, to get distracted by pushing back against the Democrats.
Zhou will be made into a martyr. The script is already written. Without impeachment he will be made a hero who stood in the breach as long as he could in the face of the source of his ill health. If impeached a slightly different script, already written in anticipation of R flaccidity, will paint Zhou as a martyr and a victim of R viciousness when it comes to people suffering from chronic illness and preexisting conditions. Zhou wins and the spectacle will be used by the left to drown out any discussion of corruption as Niagara Falls would a drop of water spilled from a tourist’s travel mug.
Good thought but why is Zhou being martyred?
Did I say martyr? Perhaps Hero of the Revolution would have been better. If impeached he will be depicted as the victim of unjust R persecution. As a duly elected POTUS vs Rs trying to undue an election. The Rs are ignoring the will of the people. Etc. All a smokescreen for the continued destruction of our civilization and a distraction from important things that are addressed at only a few places such as this one. WW3, Corruption, and so on will be ignored. Zhou as heroic victim 24/7.
Undo not undue. So much due due these days my grammar and spelling are forgotten at the bottom of the compost heap.
Very astute analysis as always!
Not mentioned is the distinct possibility that Zhou takes himself out, most likely by falling which he has demonstrated repeatedly that he is adept at. Another possibility is that the drugs that are being pumped/fed into him no longer work on his senescent body and decaying mind. His recent public appearances show a trend of increasing discombobulation when trying to read a teleprompter or carry on a conversation. Should Zhou need to be hospitalized for any reason, the pressure will be intense within the democratic party (and the MSM) to find a solution to their self-created problem. None of the potential remedies are very palatable to the democrat mafia with Harris standing in the wings (and in their way). They would likely prefer an impeachment to that, where their ample number of preening peacocks can strut and act out their disgust for such a proceeding.
Sudden death is a distinct possibility. His health has been fragile for years.
Zhou dying in office would be a gift to the democrats and their media cohort. They would deify him as if he were their golden calf. The MSM would cover the proceedings non-stop - from laying in state to his entombment. It would be as close to a 'religious' experience they have known. Meanwhile, half of the nation would be thanking God this evil monster has finally been dispatched to the fiery pit that so justly awaits him.
1st) don't touch Zhou; let him and his administration and all the Democrats self-implode. Gift to Republicans.
2nd) Taiwan elections in early 2024 will position new China friendly leaders in place. in turn, the slow and steady pivot to "One China" will take place with no war. That'll disappoint a few NeoCon's but oh well.
3rd) TSMC delay is by design in support of #2 above.
I’m not sure about the Blue party, KMT, pro China, candidate winning.
Supposedly he has a lot of issues per my bleeds green blooded wife.
White party is trying to be a spoiler.
Taiwan politics is very strange.
Understood however they’ve just witnessed US response in Ukraine and have concluded our weakness is no match for China. Hence, Taiwan will fall in line.
We can only hope
Anyone with a little bit of Honor would be looking at how to resign quietly say for health reasons, but honor is not in the family makeup. My theory is that old Joe and the family are the bag men for the DC Uniparty the way they have everything set up with his foundations are quite suspect (even the Clinton foundation did a few charity donations) he always seemed to be around all the countries that were getting financial aid, just like McCain was around anywhere a war was going to be started. I think they will let a few more things out and then try and cork it up again. After all election season is coming up and they are going to need money
That's not unreasonable, and it would go a ways to explaining why he seems to be leading a charmed life. Many people have said that Ukraine was ground zero for years for US political money laundering. There's a lot that the Ruling Class doesn't want us to know. This all came out some years ago. So many people, from both parties, were involved in Ukraine. So much Deep State activity--and that's all fueled by money, too.
I wonder what percentage of the $100B+ they have sent to Ukraine has landed in the pockets of our congress specifically the senate and our military generals? None of this is challenged out of fear of the corrupt legal system and the criminal/psychopath class of agents in the CIA and FBI?
On that Taiwan Semiconductor plant, that does not surprise me at all. I'm retired now, but I worked in construction for almost 40 years--mostly home remodeling, but some new construction in the early years. We had a labor shortage in the building trades back in the '90s! Not enough young people were going into the trades. The last new house I worked on was in 1997. The whole couple of weeks our crew was there, doing exterior wood trim on a brick house, I only saw one man who looked to be under 30. I was the youngest in our crew at 47 back then.
This is a factor that is seldom mentioned in current housing costs and the shortage of housing in the US. I do not watch TV (I have not owned one for thirty years), but I really appreciate Mike Rowe and his efforts to promote the building trades and other lines of work that young people are mostly avoiding. I have a college degree and some grad work myself, but I figured out in my 20s that I enjoyed working with my hands, and I could get good at it.
From an Epoch Times article, some context missing from mainstream US media:
TSMC Faces Local Union Dispute
The addition of non-American workers has now begun to upset labor unions and their advocates.
On July 19, the left-wing publication, The American Prospect, reported some tension between American and Taiwanese workers, after the pay of some local workers was cut.
Union electricians represented by IBEW 60, told the magazine, that members at the Arizona construction site felt “double-crossed,” after TSMC sent in more than 500 workers from Taiwan.
TSMC has been accused of attempting to cut costs by sending in more workers from Taiwan, while it has not disclosed exactly how many have arrived or how many more may be coming.
Union representatives said they were concerned that TSMC was attempting to replace them with overseas workers by eliminating union electricians’ incentive pay earlier this month, causing 50 American workers to quit.
TSMC said that bringing in skilled workers from Taiwan “will not impact the 12,000 workers currently on-site every day or U.S.-based hiring” and that more advanced training will be needed before Americans could replace them.
To mollify the workers, TSMC reinstated the incentive pay, but again inflamed tensions, after it offered a union contractor “25 non-union employees recruited from Taiwan to help solve their new labor shortage,” the IBEW told The American Prospect.
The union contractor said that they would not hire the non-union workers, since they “only use workers dispatched from the union hall” and that TSMC would also have a hard time recruiting American workers unless the company raised wages.
***
Perhaps the Biden administration can save the day by getting the unions to behave better. After all, the unions voted him into office; he is their guy.
Bringing in foreign workers for a specialty trade like electrical work raises big red flags for me. I have done residential wiring myself. Even in the US, there are significant differences between wiring methods and materials for homes and what is used in commercial buildings. And there is no international electrical code that is uniformly enforced worldwide. The US has the National Electrical Code, which is revised every three years. Other countries have their own arrangements. I do not know what they use in Taiwan, but I know there are differences between the US and European practices on wiring. For instance, in the US we use 250 volt circuits for ranges, water heaters, clothes dryers, and a few other specialty items in homes; the rest of the circuits are 125 volts. In Europe, residential circuits are 250 volts--all of them.
Even in the US, there are regional variations in specific wiring methods; they all have to be approved by the code authorities, but certain methods may be more common, say, in Ohio, and something else more common in Georgia. You can bet there will be variations between countries as well. So what happens in a couple of years when an American is called in to repair something done by a Taiwanese worker and has trouble figuring out the wiring because he's never seen anything done that way?
Yes, they could give the imported workers some training on US Codes. But old habits are often hard for people to break. And do the management people doing this even have any idea that the local codes are different?
I should have linked to the Epoch article, https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/tsmc-delays-arizona-factory-opening-due-to-insufficient-skilled-local-talent-5415075
It's very high end work that is specific to the tools being installed on the site of chip fabrication, and so it is at a remove from local codes that get electricity into and around the building itself.
The ASML CEO says it best and succinctly:
ASML Holding NV CEO Peter Wennink told Bloomberg that the delay was not really unexpected because of the challenge of getting access to skilled workers to build the semiconductor fabrication plants.
“People don’t seem to realize that when we start building those fabs across the globe now and are everywhere, that skill has been refined over the last couple of decades in only a few places on the planet—predominantly in Taiwan and in Korea and a bit in China,” said Mr. Wennink.
“Getting access to the requisite skills and skilled workers to keep the construction plan on time is a challenge,” he said.
***
Notice that he didn't include the US in respect of where skills are predominately refined. You'd think a country with the most advanced unionization of skilled trades would provide the most advanced refinement of trade skills, but I guess we need CHIPS act money to make it happen. Slowly.
This is what I thought when I read your first comment, based on the fact they were high end from Taiwan.
This is what Globalism and deindustrialization have wrought in America. There is simply no reason for this expertise to be deficient in our workforce.
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that TSMC has been granted variances to expedite the work. If anyone knows how to build a semi-conductor plant that works, they'd be the ones.
Tx.
There is also the issue of time. Do we need to conduct all rebuilding of strategic industries emergently? This is just my opinion but I think we need to rebuild deterrence to avoid great power war. It might already be too late but every effort should be made. If specialty work in the trades is needed then is anyone creating incentive to get the training needed for it? Is this being treated as any other construction work or is there a sense of urgency and thus being in workers who can do the job from wherever they can be found?
Say they do impeach Biden anyway, and let Kama be President ... If she's even worse than Zhou, could that factor favorably for the GOP side of the Uniparty?
Right. I didn't go there. It's a bit of a crap shoot. She's really awful, she might be impeachable in her own right. As occupant of the OO she's opens up another can of worms--the VP position, which needs to be confirmed by majority vote of Congress. Speaker Kev could be concerned that the blame for any disasters under her could rub off on the party that put her there. I know that sounds irrational--who nominated her, after all--but the electorate's perceptions can be unfathomable. Overall, safer to continue as is for now?
Thanks. Makes sense that would be a tough one for the politicians to figure out who would take the bigger loss if she's put in the OO. And we know they all hate taking the blame for anything!
Thomas Lifson at the American Thinker has an article dated July 20th in the blog archive that explains the legal protocols for replacing the President.
If the American people regarded Zhou as a traitor, if the Ruling Class regarded him as a traitor, he'd have been gone long ago. In reality, to the extent that they blame him it's really only for excessive greed and indiscretion. The satire in all this, and the comedy that's being acted out, is the idea that America--which has embraced moral degeneration to rival that of any country in history--is somehow being imposed upon by forces beyond its control. It's also the idea of American "exceptionalism". Our true enemy is us.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ftsa&q=chinese+balloon+didn%27t+gather+data&ia=web
Zhou is just what the regime ordered but a bit too much. More intelligent/less blatant corruption would be preferred but corrupt is the key. Zhou is the paradigm taken a bit too far. Corruption and law breaking allow Zhou and the rest who are involved to be controlled. Flip a switch and they are under criminal investigation if they get out of line. Trump’s many ordeals are the exception that demonstrates the ‘Rule of the Corrupt but Accountable if Necessary.’ Rubber stamps disguised as politicians are there to hide the true regime. If I remember correctly Augustus, first emperor Rome, maintained but controlled many of the institutions of the Roman Republic to disguise the reality that he held all of the power in his hands. Rome was prosperous during his time because of the vast wealth from recently conquered Egypt. Prosperity distracted from the end of the Republican form of government. Our ruling class distracts from the end of the republic with racial strife, trans politics, war in Ukraine, Trump’s ordeal/Bad Orange Manism, Covid lock downs, damage to unknown numbers from ‘vaccines,’ pornography, 24 hour news frenzy, and many other things that interfere with thinking about what is really going on.
This should be after MWs second reply below.
I find it ironic that you want to impeach Zhou right now, yet believe what he said about the Chinese balloon--directly contrary to what our military and intel people said. Or maybe you believe the corrupt war mongering wing of the GOP that's seeking political advantage via gaslighting the public re the China threat.
I agree w you Over.
I don't necessarily disagree with most of what you're saying. As a legal matter, however, I don't believe the Rs would go out on a limb by using in the impeachment indictment what is a technical term under the constitution unless they intended to convict on the technical meaning.
Influence peddling, bribery, influencing official actions for fraudulent gain--all that has been known for many years, is easily proven, and totally damning. Given the specifics of the situations involving foreign powers, the traitorous--as opposed to treasonous in its technical meaning in the US--is easily argued to the public.
The issue at present appears to be timing.
It's certainly feasible and certainly should be done. The question is, How badly do the Republicans want to help Trump? Or maybe not really.
No one is going to be impeached as long as the Dems have a majority in the senate. I don’t know why people keep talking about it.