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Here’s a deep dive into the Hunter Biden laptop scandal

It's still 43 days until the new Congress starts up, but it's never too early to take a deep dive into some the important issues Republicans will be addressing when January 3rd rolls around. And anyway, there's only one, so it's not like you have a ton of homework to do. The subject, of course, is Hunter Biden and his laptop. Here's a detailed rundown of this sordid affair:

  • Back in the day, Hunter did a lot of drugs and got himself enmeshed in a bunch of sleazy deals. Apparently he routinely promised people that his ties to "Dad" would be a big help to their cause.
  • There is no evidence that Joe Biden knew about Hunter's dealings or was ever involved in any of them.

Also, come on. Even if you're a total partisan hack, this doesn't really sound like Joe's style, does it?

I guess that wasn't so hard after all. Just try to keep these bullet points in mind during the 672 days of Fox News hits; strategic leaking to friendly reporters; invocations of "there's no other explanation for ______" (there always is); New York Times excerpts from the inevitable Peter Schweizer book; 3,000-word thumbsuckers on the Ukrainian judicial system circa 2017; and, of course, chants of "Lock him up" because MAGAnauts are nothing if not predictable.

39 thoughts on “Here’s a deep dive into the Hunter Biden laptop scandal

  1. DFPaul

    I apologize if I have posted this before but here goes...

    Every time someone mentions Hunter Biden's alleged "corruption" I'm going to recommend doing a google search for LA Times McCarthy Cherokee brother, to find a very interesting LA Times story (from Oct. 14, 2018 -- link below; the reason I suggest googling is that some websites strip out links) about Kevin McCarthy, leader of the House Republicans, saying his wife is Cherokee. Her brother has millions in military contracts reserved for minorities, so by saying that he is protecting the brother's contracts. I assume if she is Cherokee then their children are as well, but I leave that for others to investigate. Sure this is whataboutism, but it's also much closer to a real example of "corruption".

    https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-na-pol-mccarthy-contracts-20181014-story.html

    I remain mystified that this story got so little notice. It hits so many current hot buttons.

    1. KJK

      McCarthy is an ineffective dickless imbecile, so it did not make sense to waste any ink or bandwidth on him. As the likely new Speaker, he will now have a big fat bullseye on his back for theses types of stories. He of course will remain an ineffective dickless imbecile.

      The MAGA universe has been looking for a connection between uncle Joe and his imbecile of son Hunter for at least 4 years, if not longer. I hope the Democrats on the Hunter laptop bullshit dredging committee bring up Trump's extortion of Ukraine at every possible opportunity.

    2. jamesepowell

      It is so well-established that Republicans are corrupt hypocrites who lie all the time that stories of Republican corruption, hypocrisy, or lying are not considered newsworthy by the political press. It is not even dog bites man. It is dog sleeps.

      Consider, too, that their voters do not care.

    3. lawnorder

      I've never seen any good reason for Congress to spend time on Hunter Biden; first because there's no probable cause, and second because he's a private individual.

      McCarthy is a legitimate target, but do you have any good reason to doubt that his wife is Cherokee? Like Obama's birth place, the question of McCarthy's wife's status should be easily resolvable, but like Obama's birth place there is no apparent reason to ask the question.

  2. jte21

    Call me when Joe Biden starts spending every weekend and most holidays at a golf resort owned by his son, and makes the Secret Service spend millions on accommodations and food there.

    Call me when Joe Biden appoints Hunter a special WH adviser, and overrides the security access vetting system to get him top secret clearance anyway.

    Call me when a country looking to curry favor with the US gives Hunter Biden a $2 billion dollar bailout for his real estate holdings.

    Call me when Biden fires the US attorneys looking into his son's dealings and replaces them with compliant toadies who drop the charges.

    And on and on and on.

    These people project like a supernova.

      1. AverageJoe

        So refute the EVIDENCE provided by his article, fact by fact.

        Pro tip: "AHAHAHA" or disparaging the source doesn't count. Plus, he's a Professor at Georgetown (University of Chicago (BA), Northwestern University (JD)).

        1. RZM

          First of all Turley is a Professor at George Washington University, not Georgetown. But be that as it may, there are lots of reasons to take everything Turley says with a grain of salt. He went from supporting the Clinton impeachment (you may recall he said it didn't matter if Clinton actually broke the law) to defending Trump against impeachment, so there are good reasons to question his judgement. Second of all, most of the references in what you cited are to other articles Turley wrote or to the NY Post , most of which rely heavily on innuendo. And even the supposedly damning quote from Joe's message is a lot less than Turley suggests. So Biden tells Hunter he thinks a NY Times article will clear Hunter. OK. And ? Does that quote qualify as some nefarious dealing ?
          So before you regurgitate the NY Post/Fox News talking points via Turley, you should seek some more objective sources imho.
          BTW, what do the NY Post and Fox News have in common.
          Hmmm.

        2. Solar

          Here is the problem with all this Hunter BS.

          From the Turley's tripe:
          "There are emails of Ukrainian and other foreign clients thanking Hunter Biden for arranging meetings with his father. There are photos from dinners and meetings that tie President Biden to these figures, including a 2015 dinner with a group of Hunter Biden’s Russian and Kazakh clients."

          Let's pretend that is 100% true, which is what every MAGA Republican wants people to believe. Tell me, what are the powers of the VP? Let's say that Hunter did try to arrange meetings between his dad and some business interests, and let's even pretend that Biden did meet with some of them.

          How many government contracts did he assign back then? What US policy positions did he dictate that would benefit or reward the people in those meeting that were supposedly buying access to him? Here is the problem for you loons. The VP can't really do shit in the US government without the approval of someone else in the government. Any cabinet member has greater power and ability to reward cronies than a VP, who beside serving as Senate President (which is only useful to break ties in the Senate) is basically a glorified spokesperson, errandperson, and advisor for the President.

          Again from Turley's ramblings:
          "People apparently were told to avoid directly referring to President Biden. In one email, Tony Bobulinski, then a business partner of Hunter’s, was instructed by Biden associate James Gilliar not to speak of the former veep’s connection to any transactions: “Don’t mention Joe being involved, it’s only when u [sic] are face to face, I know u [sic] know that but they are paranoid.”"

          This any every other accusation afterwards (like the supposed payments for the "Big Guy", are all for alleged meetings or interactions AFTER Biden left office as VP, so again lets hop on the rightwing idiocy train and pretend it was all true.

          Tell me, what was Biden job in 2017? What government position did he held in 2017 that would make it illegal, corrupt, or otherwise morally wrong for him to be paid by people who wanted to be seen as associated with him, a private citizen with zero government power or influence at the time.

          That's the whole crux of this Hunter nonsense from you idiots. Even if everything were true, it's a nothing burger. Biden never appointed Hunter to a government position. He never used any property or business of his to overcharge the US government, private individuals, and foreign governments to get access to him on daily basis. He never used his government power (because he really had none) to secure businesses for himself or his family.

          If any of the stuff from 2015 were true, the one you should be going after is Obama, since he is the one that actually had the power, but then, he is not the one who kicked Trump's behind in the election, nor is he in a position to run against Trump.

          If any of the stuff from 2017 is true, then who GAF? By then he was a private citizen out of the government, and it was Trump who was in a position to reward and illegally enrich himself, family, and cronies, and he did just that for all of these.

          1. Jasper_in_Boston

            What you say is all valid. But the GOP's goal isn't to get at the truth. Their goal is to hurt Biden and the Democrats politically. I have no idea whether they'll succeed or not, but remember emailgate...

            1. Solar

              Oh I agree with you. I just find it funny this is the best they can do against Biden, especially when about half of the their attacks are some sort of "Did you see Biden trying to be a good dad and support his struggling son? Who does that? What a monster!"

    1. Solar

      HAHAHA, you might as well quote Trump for your "evidence". Jonathan Turley? JFC! And you right wingers call that research.

      The reason why this Hunter idiocy is so pathetic, is that even if he 100% did everything he is accused of, that's still 0.001% of the stuff Trump and his hell spawns did.

    2. Leo1008

      I took a look at that article and I assumed you were posting it to be humorous. But, judging by some of the other responses you have received here, it appears you expected others to take it seriously!

      After all these years, after all the warnings, after all the stories about misinformation on the internet, after all of the verified and reverified reports of hostile adversaries spreading conspiracies online, why would anyone still think it’s a legitimately good idea to repost what some right wing hack puts up on a blog somewhere?

    3. ScentOfViolets

      Jonathon Turlely? Referencing the New York Post? Like Shrub's yellowcake forgies, your choice of sources is telling; if you had anything better you'd use it. That you don't is evidence that you yourself don't believe what you say yourself, my subpar troll.

    4. bebopman

      All that post shows is hunter was a mess, trying to take credit for every meeting that anybody held with the vice prez, and joe tried to show love for his messed-up son. Are you comparing that to trump?

    5. kenalovell

      Love your peroration, comrade. You seem to think "research" consists of mindlessly regurgitating something you read on a blog, written by a narcissistic hack who has consistently peddled pro-Trump propaganda because he loves being on TV.

  3. Solarpup

    David Frum has a nice write up on this in The Atlantic today:

    "Republicans in 2022 seem to be writing a similar dialogue for 2023.

    republicans: Do you know that Hunter Biden is a financial and emotional mess?

    voters: Now we do.

    republicans: Don’t you care?

    voters: No.

    republicans: Do you know that Joe Biden wrote notes telling his son he loved him despite his troubles, and also let his son stay in his house when his son was down on his luck?

    voters: That sounds like a good thing.

    republicans: What if we told you that Joe and Hunter Biden ran a massive international-crime syndicate and that they are implicated in sex trafficking and cover-ups?

    You can foresee where this dialogue is heading."

  4. Traveller

    A deeper and more honest dive into Hunter Biden:

    1. He is a graduate of Georgetown University

    2. He is a graduate of Yale Law School, (Yale graduates are much more plugged in that Harvard graduates, and Yale is a much more prestigious degree to have)

    3. Hunter Biden spent three years at the Department of Commerce, (international trade and E-commerce)

    4. He then served three years on the board of AMTRAK, eventually was Vice Chairman

    5. Hunter Biden then was on the Board of Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian gas giant, earning the same salary as every other board member and incurred the wrath of Russia by aggressively trying to develop Ukrainian energy reserves.

    (Even presuming that this appointment was corrupt, (I am not conceding that it was), this was then the very BEST INVESTMENT Ukraine EVER MADE...n'est pas?

    **************************
    Everyone knows the negatives so I don't have to go there...but remember, none of his critics have any of the above on their resume`s.

    Just the facts, Ma'am....

    1. OwnedByTwoCats

      3. Hunter Biden spent three years at the Department of Commerce, (international trade and E-commerce)

      From https://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/17/politics/who-is-hunter-biden/index.html

      He was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve as a director in the Department of Commerce handling ecommerce policy issues, a post he held from 1998 to 2001.

      4. He then served three years on the board of AMTRAK, eventually was Vice Chairman

      In 2006, President George Bush nominated Hunter to serve on the Amtrak board of directors. He served a five-year term after a unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

      So not quite "then"...

  5. kenalovell

    Turley is one of many academics who have brought the American professoriate into disrepute by exploiting their credentials to pontificate about matters far beyond their academic field of study. His blog post about Hunter Biden is recycled Miranda Devine including all the usual lies and non sequiturs.

    Trump Republicans raised no objection to their president owning a multi-billion dollar global business empire while in office. They denied point blank the self-evident conflicts of interest he faced every day. They raised no objection to him setting up a pay-for-access scheme under the guise of $200,000 a year "club memberships". They raised no objection to the business supposedly being run by his two sons, who talked to him almost every day. They claimed with a straight face that Trump and his sons were such trustworthy people that of course we should believe them when they said they never discussed the business, despite extensive irrefutable evidence that Trump not only knew what was going on in it but continued to exercise effective control.

    But they propose to spend two years trying to prove that Joe Biden may have had some brief superficial conversations with his son about the latter's inept business affairs while both men were private citizens, because in their opinion this was scandalous beyond description.

    I hope they go ahead and do it. Nothing will demonstrate more convincingly how unfit they are for government.

  6. D_Ohrk_E1

    One can only hope that Jordan and Greene waste all of their time foaming at the mouth, attempting to fill the airwaves with Trumpism. Let them remind people of what happens if they keep supporting Ttrumpists including the fat orange blob.

  7. cld

    Imagine, for a moment, that Hunter ever did try to bring up something like this with his dad.

    It would last about twenty seconds and then Joe would say something like, 'Now hold on there, Gilligan --', and that would be the end of it.

  8. kaleberg

    Hunter is the new Billy Carter. If you remember, Billy, the president's brother, was the bete noir of the Carter administration. He urinated in public on a runway and had murky dealings with Qadafi in Libya. The Republicans made a big deal about it, especially since they remembered the Nixon impeachment. Granted, Billy, as a good old boy, was more amusing than Hunter who would never urinate on a runway, especially with the TSA watching.

    My guess is it is going to be like the Benghazi hearings, dozens of hearings, acres of spewing mouth foam, a cooperative press taking it seriously even as it gets more ridiculous and a big nothing burger left unreported as each hearing closes.

  9. dilbert dogbert

    Has anyone seen Kevin McCarthy wife's Cherokee birth certificate???
    The Internet says it was last seen on Dark Hunter's laptop.

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