Buttigeg’s nerdy talent for foreign languages is by far the thing I like the most about him.
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1183197558497333248
https://twitter.com/cedricfaiche/status/1117938448818683909
FDR was fluent in French and German, was smart enough not to let that be widely known, and was elected POTUS 4 times.
Guy forgot how to walk though, sad!
4 Likes
Super rich dude speaking three languages wasn’t at all remarkable back in the day when learning foreign languages was more strongly emphasised among the upper classes. Even the roughneck Teddy dabbled in four languages: Can we talk about Hoover knowing Chinese?
- Franklin D. Roosevelt: Fluent in 3 languages. (English, German, and French)
- Herbert Hoover : Fluent in 3 languages. (English, Mandarin, and Latin)
- Calvin Coolidge: Fluent in 1 language. (English)
- Warren G. Harding : Fluent in 1 language. (English)
- Woodrow Wilson: Fluent in 2 languages. (English and German)
- William Howard Taft: Fluent in 1 language. (English)
- Theodore Roosevelt: Fluent in 2 languages. (English and French) Conversational in 2. (German and Italian)
As is often the case, the OG presidents put us all to shame. Look at John Adams speaking English, French, Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. That’s three different alphabets you need to learn to do that! Of course Washington kept it 100 by speaking only the Queen’s English like a true baller, none of this Latin/French bullshit for him.
- James Monroe: Fluent in 2 languages. (English and French)
- James Madison: Fluent in 4 languages. (English, Greek, Hebrew, and Latin)
- Thomas Jefferson: Fluent in 6 languages. (English, French, Greek, Italian, Latin, and Spanish)
- John Adams: Fluent in 5 languages. (English, French, Greek, Hebrew, and Latin)
- George Washington: Fluent in 1 language. (English)
2 Likes
Also, here’s a crazy bit of presidential trivia for ya: Imagine a US president whose first language was not English.
Only one president’s first language was not English. (Martin Van Buren - Dutch)
1 Like
The Whigs swept to power on a wave of resentment over having to press 1 for English on their telegraphs.
8 Likes
Man I was just struck by how much Mayor Pete sounds like Kendall Roy. Not in content or IQ, obviously, and never in Spanish or French, but otherwise I can’t unhear it now.
Imagine? We have one now.
1 Like
In before this is used as evidence Biden is corrupt.
This is all well and dandy and something he should probably do.
Something that amuses me about this whole Hunter board member thing is that people are saying he wasn’t qualified to be on the board. I agree in theory but certainly not in practice.
In order to be qualified to sit on a board of directors anywhere you need to be rich or connected. That’s it.
1 Like
Some strong #YangGang support in Sacramento.
That’s how the conservative talking head I saw was spinning it.
Biden himself is, to my knowledge, no more or less corrupt than any comparable US politician. What this shows is the cloud of soft corruption that forms around unchecked influence. Do you think Hunter Biden is well qualified for those positions? How do you rate the chances of a Hunter Biden who happens not to be Smilin’ Joe’s son landing those gigs? And if you think the chances are slim to none - what is that, if it’s not corruption?
4 Likes
It’s definitely not obviously corruption. Hunter Biden is an adult and Joe has no control over him or the company that hired him. Of course it helps him get the job, but that isn’t in Joe’s control. Maybe Joe actually helped him get the job? Maybe not. Maybe the hopes of the company for special treatment or info were unfounded. Maybe it’s just a relative trying to cash in without approval.
I mean maybe, though I would still think that’s an example of naturally-forming soft corruption.
I hate Biden and I think he’s all kinds of soft-corrupt, but I don’t think banning adult children from working for companies that have business that is affected by US policy, or auditing them to make sure they are properly qualified for the job, is reasonable. There’s got to be some connection to it affecting policy or interference from the public official.
(totally different than say Ivanka or Jared who are functioning as public officials themselves (or Don Jr in the campaign) - maybe not totally different from Eric who is maybe not involved with government business (but maybe is of course)).
Just working, fine. Collecting vast sums of cash for non-jobs in fields they have no skills, experience or qualifications for, not so much, I don’t think.
Ok, but what is Joe supposed to do about it? If there’s an allegation that Joe got him the job, I missed it.