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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 2, 2024

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Charles Kushner, the father of Jared, wanted revenge on his brother in law, so he paid a prostitute to have sex and record the encounter, and then he sent the video to his sister:

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-charles-kushner-new-jersey-elections-crime-0155d15fa31108fd2c0e6360a3b597dd

He was pardoned by Trump four years ago and was now nominated as ambassador.

Are you saying this is the equivalent that I should be crying out against?

Kushner served his sentence a decade before the pardon. The pardon primarily removed some residual attached bars from things like voting or practicing law.

In an above comment, I stated directly that Hunter should have gone to prison for a few months. After that I think the pardon would have seemed neater.

Chris Christi prosecuted Kushner for "one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes" he's ever prosecuted, but agreed to a plea deal which resulted in a felony conviction and a mere 14 months in a federal prison camp? Gee, must be a low bar.

Kushner served his jail term, went to a half-way house to complete his 2 year sentence, completed his probation, and Donald Trump gave him a full and unconditional pardon only for that conviction 14 years later claiming as justification 14 years of reformed behavior and charity. Do you think that's a difference in kind from a complete and total unconditional pardon to a son for any criminal behavior over the last 10 years, known and unknown, and for which son hasn't spent a single day in prison, let alone completed the sentence and gone on to lead a reformed life with charitable works?

Not only is the Charles Kushner pardon the sort of dime-a-dozen pardons we see every single admin, but it's hard to even criticize it much.

Maybe this is just the availability heuristic, but it does seem to anyone else that the two major political families in American politics (the Trumps and Bidens) are two of the most uniquely toxic and dysfunctional families in the US? This would sound contrived if it happened in a soap opera.

Have you already forgotten about the Clintons? What about the Kennedys?

Obviously the Kennedys held the mantle during the period in which they were the preeminent political family in the states, and probably the Clintons as well.

I agree with you. IMO both Biden and Trump are in the bottom 25% of presidents generally, they're dysfunctional people who made it to office because of how awful the rest of our political class has been for the past 20-30 years at responding to real economic and social problems in society. Personally I think our politics are just generally degrading, our whole society is degraded now and thus so are our leaders.

No.

Why is the Trump family dysfunctional? What is "uniquely toxic" about the Trump family?

The story above, coupled with:

  1. Trump's weird habit of openly lusting over his own daughter

  2. Trump's ex-wife accusing him of rape

  3. Trump's second wife almost certainly being unfaithful to him

  4. Trump's current wife's obvious distaste for him

  5. Trump paying a porn star to have sex with him, along with his numerous other extra-marital affairs during at least two of his marriages

  6. Trump Jr. getting embroiled in a messy divorce and custody battle

Point 2 is a big nothingburger. She admitted she only claimed that to squeeze him in divorce proceedings. She later clarified that he never physically raped her, but his emotional distance was a sort of emotional rape.

I'm sure what you're saying is true, but do you have a source?