These hearings have value and hold people accountable.
But they also have as a downside that they are essentially interrogations by people who have no real world knowledge of the subject at hand, but believe they know it all because they are blessed with hindsight.
To hold people accountable, yes. But it is also grandstanding for the cameras by people who are generally out of their league with internal knowledge as you say -- think of the embarrassing first Congressional hearings with Mark Zuckerberg where he was like a grandson teaching his grandparents to set their VCR clocks to something other than "00:00".
Worse there is this
René Girard-like ritualistic violence committed against a chosen blood sacrifice / scapegoat, as if the blood of the lamb washes away all sins and everyone can go back to normal life believing the problem is solved.
But systemic problems are embedded in the organization. Organizations evolve personalities and wills of their own, regardless of who is in them. Plucking out individuals, even at the top, doesn't kill it like cutting off a snake's head. Ironically, some have used the "Deep State" as a way to describe this phenomenon. But it's in every self-sustaining organization.
People love the voodoo ritualistic head-cutting. But do we really believe that X would be a non-toxic place of social discourse if they fired Elon Musk? It's absurd. But everyone acts along in the play like this is how it works.
The problem with Vance is mostly that he doesn't really stand for anything.
That was already a major problem for Trump. He doesn't really have a true ideology (remember he donated to Democratic candidates in the past) and he just tries to go with the flow. Often without having any real knowledge of whatever subject he's talking about. Mostly it seems his speeches boil down to "Democrats bad". They've added to that with Vance, whose biography definitely reads like that of a man who'll say and do whatever if it benefits him.
What Vance has going for him is that, unlike Trump, he does have real personal achievements to his name. He served as a marine, he graduated Yale Law School, he wrote a best seller. You can make of him what you want, but those are not easy things to achieve. The people who care about stuff like that are not going to vote for Trump though.
I read this today and I think it has a much closer take on Vance:
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/vance-galaxy-brained-style-american-politics
It's The Bulwark, so it's going to be anti-Trump. But it's conservative-based and not trans/reparations/lefty stuff.
Vance perhaps thinks too much. And perhaps Trump sought him out because he seemed like a smart guy and deep thinker half his age for credibility while he mumbles about boats, batteries, and sharks to his adoring public. But Vance's ideas are a bit cryptic and, well, creepy.
That article also turned me on to this: the Jock/Creep theory of fascism:
https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/the-jockcreep-theory-of-fascism
Funny take, but not entirely inaccurate. The short of it is Mussolini was more "Jock-Douche” vibes while Nazism was more “Creep-Loser”, and Vance falls into the latter.
It makes sense that a man with socially detached, almost conspiratorial ideas would see any means to power to act on them. So naturally he flipped on Trump at the chance.
Afghans are strongly religious and support religious extremism, most of them were happy for Taliban to gain control to get rid of the American influence/presence in the region. Im originally from a city in Iran that is on the border between Iran and Afghanistan. No matter what they want/support/think but now that Afghan has falling to the Taliban and chaos is happening and fingers are being pointed at Biden.
So it's kind of like the Trump mantra of whomever was the last president (or source of power) was the worst in history and all fingers point to them.
Side note: I do have to credit Trump from going from Obama as the worst president in history to Biden being worse than the 10 worst US presidents combined. Unfortunately that might be the last we will likely hear that one, as Kamala is now the target. She will be soon known as worse than the worst 100 U.S. vice presidents combined.
Afghan: native inhabitant of Afghanistan
Afghani: their currency
Good catch... thank you, sir.
Am I really that naive? or were the Americans supposed to stay there forever? But We're talking about Biden Administration and the decision on execute Trump plan which was an organized withdraw, not this unconditional surrender. They left tons of war weapons behind and handed over to the Taliban. US did it intentionally to put the region in the risk of further destruction.
From what I read, the organized withdrawal deteriorated excessively fast. As soon as they knew the U.S. was pulling back, working allies immediately switched sides to avoid being murdered by the Taliban and the Taliban got emboldened to run the Americans out asap for good.
Not saying it couldn't have been done better. But the bottom of any local support completely fell out within hours if not days.
Dude you are behind with your news: I heard a year or so ago that Biden had already died and the image of we saw on TV was actually a hologram of him.
Now we're talking!