Over at my old stomping grounds, Dan Friedman reports on the latest tape-recorded sleaze from Steve Bannon:
Aiming to hurt Joe Biden’s chances and at least narrow the election results, Bannon ensured that sexually explicit material from Hunter Biden’s laptop was widely publicized. For that, he enlisted help from his patron, exiled Chinese mogul Guo Wengui. Bannon also expressed approval of lies by Guo and his associates about what that material actually showed, referring to their false accusations that Hunter Biden committed salacious crimes as “editorial creativity.”
The audio comes from an October 31, 2020, meeting between Bannon and supporters of Guo, who controls pro-Trump, Chinese-language media sites and nonprofits that spread various forms of far-right disinformation.
I suppose I'm not surprised. But the thing I've never understood is why Republicans have spent such vast effort trying to smear Hunter Biden. The truth is that they've never come up with much aside from showing that Hunter was a little too willing to imply to his clients that he had Dad's ear.
But they've never come up with any evidence that Joe Biden helped out Hunter. Without that, they've got nothing except a case that Hunter is a flawed human being.
But nobody cares about that, and there was never any reason to think otherwise. Presidential families—like so many ordinary families—are notoriously flaky and that never seems to hurt them. Americans just don't hold family eccentricities against people.
Americans just don't hold family eccentricities against people.
Americans may not but Republicans do.
+1 upskirt shot of a visibly inebriated Jenna Bush
You can't call it wrong if that was her profile pic on MySpace.
True.
Between her & Carson Daly, I think the Today Show still has some early 2000s sexualization to account for. Matt Lauer was a symptom, not the disease.
"Steve Bannon is a creep"
No [spit], Sherlock.
Bannon is a clown!
A couple of months after being exiled from the White House, was Bannon recasting himself as a kingmaker for Europe’s far right helping them to take control of the parliament in Brussels in the upcoming election
He wanted to forge a new “super-group” in the European parliament, uniting ultra-rightwing and eurosceptic forces in countries as diverse as Sweden, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Belgium, Poland and Germany. His purpose was to kill EU
Bannon was launching a European organization called the Movement. Based in Brussels (and financed by a Belgian billionaire) it would be a political consultancy in all but name, giving far-right parties access to polling data, analytics, advice on social media campaigns and help selecting candidates.
“Remember ‘Bannon’s theorem’,” he said. “You put a reasonable face on rightwing populism, you get elected.”
He was totally lost , hadn’t got a clue on how things work in Europe
EU was more popular than ever among the voters and all those formerly anti-EU parties was all of a sudden pro-EU
The only one who greeted Bannon was Viktor Orbán .. but he is hardly an important player in European politics
When he expressed admiration for our despicable Swedish “Sverige Demokraterna” and stated he was going to visit them in Stockholm did a spokesperson for the party immediately answer that it was of no interest for them to meet him.
He did get some attention in Italy but it wasn’t popular when he named the Pope as being an enemy due to the Pope’s liberal stance on immigration , that wasn’t smart
The most important political influencer in the EU election was a Swedish teenage girl (..guess her name) Bannon was Mr Nobody
Some information from a Swede
Bannon is the most embarrassing graduate from VA Tech and that includes a graduate who was a terrorist/mass murderer.
Michael Vick, too.
Vick is less embarrassing honestly. A bit scummy and entitled but not as embarrassing as being a traitor to the country - it's neck and neck between Bannon and Nidal Hasan but Bannon helped get more people dead.
"But the thing I've never understood is why Republicans have spent such vast effort trying to smear Hunter Biden."
Because it's negative about Biden. Because their voters love these stories: Democrats bad + MSM cover-up. Republicans keep their voters enraged & entertained.
Hunter Biden is what they wanted Roger Clinton to be.
Travelgate would like a word with Kevin.
Steve Bannon is a creep - clearly true!
If the shoe was on the other foot, embarrassing videos of say Donald T JR or Eric Trump would have gotten out too.
LOL.
Your side didn't even care that Eric stole money from a juvenile cancer charity.
One of the best jokes of the Trump era is Colbert's description (back in 2017?) of Bannon as "senior strategist and handsomest guy at the liquor store, Steve Bannon".
(working from memory here, but I know I have the 2nd part right).
I recall reading, but it doesn't seem to be regularly stated, that Guo Wengui appears to be a Chinese government funded (intelligence division, of course), disinformation agent whose job it is to make connections to the far right. If you google you can find some articles explaining the evidence. Makes perfect sense that Mr. Anti China Bannon is really working for the Chinese government, doesn't it? 😉
Michael Wolff's "Too Famous" includes a profile of Bannon. He reports the story of Bannon striking it rich on "Seinfeld" re-run rights or some such deal. When he took that story to his entertainment sources, they said it wasn't that big a deal, or no deal at all. Wolff goes on to all but state that Bannon is the creature of " . . . his patron, exiled Chinese mogul Guo Wengui. . . " and nothing more.
"handsomest guy at the liquor store,"
Seriously? I'd say 'guy asleep on the sidewalk outside.'
Curled up around a couple of empty bottles of Mad Dog 20/20...
The hunt for dirt on Hunter Biden is just another variation on the long-running GOP gambit of "just asking questions." They played the same game many times on Hillary Clinton: travelgate, Vince Foster, Seth Rich, e-mails; and also Obama with birtherism and his ties to former radicals; and John Kerry and swift boat insinuations; and Eric Swalwell and his supposed "sexual relationship" with a Chinese spy..
All of these "scandals" are completely empty and pointless, but they serve the purpose of creating a shorthand of a scurrilous accusation. Once launched, it no longer needs to be explained or proved, only repeated.
+1 whitey tape in which Michelle Obama avenges her husband by banging Tony Rezko
I'd like to believe that the MSM is learning, but I'm sure they follow the next shiny object that Fox spews out.
The Sulzberger Advertiser is going one better by setting up a Comeback Kid narrative for Herschel "Five for One" Walker.
> why Republicans have spent such vast effort trying to smear Hunter Biden
I've honestly wondered about this, too. The only answer I have is path dependency. Hear me out.
So, at some point someone noticed that the Trump kids liquidating the nation's reputation was maybe a negative. So they do what they always do, paint the other guy as worse.
But here the propaganda dovetailed with the Ukrainian part of Manafort's operation, and it started taking on a life of its own, with other members of the plot having a stake in it. So it had to become "canon" in their alternate universe.
So here we are. If you think about this in terms of professional wrestling plot development, it makes more sense. What could have been a throwaway bullet point became QAnon gospel because narrative consistency demands it.
Hunter is obviously the kind of buckraking coastal elite the Trumpies claim they are fighting against (while, obviously, being led by the king of them all) so I assume for the Bannons and the Murdochs they think of it as a win to publicize his deeds, whether or not they can tie his dad to them.
At some level the focus on Hunter Biden does have an effect. There is a "Biden crime family" meme running around that this focus contributes too. The meme is projection of the first order but non the less it provides a convenient excuse for some.
Exactly. It has a big, big effect, especially in a non-conscious way. Folks who aren't terribly mentally disciplined, who "go with the gut," that is to say almost everyone in the U.S., are definitely influenced by this kind of demonization, almost entirely non-consciously. Does it have an effect on Biden's ratings? You bet it does. Regardless of any kind of truth value, or rational explication, the poison has been released into the atmosphere and will do its work. Look at how well the relentless destruction of Hillary Clinton worked, with 'regular folks' repeating Republican propaganda almost word for word, as if it was their own thought. It poisons the well, adds to the narrative of Dems as amoral scum, 100% projection of course but that just makes it a twofer.
They do it because it works, and because Dems have no idea how to fight or fight back.
effect on whom? it doesn't play beyond the sleaze ghetto of right-wing media.
It's what they do
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2018/aug/20/brett-kavanaugh-bill-clinton-questions-1998-memo-trump
Something tells me Brent was most offended at Bill Climpton being willing to make a woman orgasm.
Two points in response. First, Kevin's truism about family not harming the pols is all pre-Fox. Imagine what Fox would have done with Billy Carter and Billy Beer and all that. Fox created a unique niche-- all smear all the time for Dems, and nothing to see here move on for wingnuts-- and then dominated it until very recently.
Second, commenters above are all on track. Name association, deflection about the trump (actual true) crime family, etc. Remember the Bannon motto-- "flood the zone with shit." Pump it and keep it coming. Repetition alone makes people accept things as true, no matter how little substance there is. And they can keep showing doctored and unflattering pics of Hunter-- whose very name can be made to sound unsavory-- together with his dad.
It's the smear, Kevin, the chance to smear. Nothing says there has to be any actual truth even remotely near it.
who does fox influence beyond the true believers of wing-nut land? fox is no doubt a powerful force within the right and by turn within republican circles but outside those circles, its impact on public opinion is minimal. that's the problem with being a propaganda outlet. you get a certain reputation ...
Based on one alt-right relative’s Facebook feed, I can assure you that hunter biden dirt is a major and abiding obsession in some circles. The basic implication seems to be that the whole Biden clan must be corrupt. If there’s no proof, that just goes to show that the press is in the pockets of Democrats.
I’ve also read some of the otherwise “normal” conservative writers or outlets who still bemoan the “coverup” of the hunter biden laptop story. This stuff is simply in the DNA on the right, asking why is like asking why fish swim.
And all of that, in my opinion, is a perfectly fair description of our modern “paranoid” style, or whatever you want to call it, on the Right; but,
The Left clearly, and unfortunately, is not immune from extremists. Even the craziest Republican seems to have more sense than to try and lead a wildly unpopular “defund the police” movement … On the Left, however, we could perhaps call this phenomenon more of an “Idealistic” style …
"If there's no proof, that just goes to show..."
A good observation. It seems to be an article of faith among the reactionary right that "the absence of proof is POSITIVE PROOF". Because coverup, protecting Dems, big conspiracy, yada yada.
I was amazed but should not have been to hear Sidney Powell proclaiming that all the "proof" you needed that the 2020 preDsidential election was "stolen" is that Trump lost. She compared it to a dead body, riddled with bullets: How do you know the man was shot? BECAUSE HE'S DEAD!! Q.E.D.
Seriously. No wonder she argued in court that she couldn't be accused of misleading or fraudulent claims, because "nobody in their right minds could believe the stuff I said."
(Note: apparent quotes are just paraphrases.)
Because when you're a shitty person, you need other shitty people to point to, to boost your self pride.
It raises the personnel cost for anyone on the Democratic side who wants to run for office...
The Mother Jones article kept on calling it "Hunter Biden's Laptop". Did I miss a huge announcement that there was anyone besides Rudy Giuliani claiming that the files on the disk actually were copied from a laptop that was actually owned by Hunter? I was under the impression that "Hunter Biden's Laptop" was about as authentic as the protocols of the elders of Zion, that is, a complete forgery.
Mother Jones is more #TeamBernie than not, so they are still smarting that Tara Reade didn't muster any negatives for Biden & are pinning their hopes on Hunter B.
Like to see a trial lawyer start writing registered letters to MJ and others to the effect that they may face a suit if they don't start calling it "the alleged laptop." All the little John Peter Zengers will be up in arms until the legal department describes the consequences otherwise.
I don't think there's any doubt there was a laptop. "Alleged laptop" would just be silly. However, the laptop was allegedly Hunter Biden's.
Yeah, I’m still not sure what the deal is with it. It’s more of a shibboleth, like Hillary’s emails, where no one can confirm there’s anything untoward but it MUST mean something because people talk about it. All I remember is that for some reason poor ol’ imperfect Hunter apparently flew across the country to leave a laptop (or two) in a rinkydink shop with a legally blind proprietor, who then basically stole some portion of the hard drive to give to the GOP. None of it made any sense.
All I remember from the DNC hack was that Mike Tomasky had a risotto recipe and a lot of the party staff were unenthused by a candidate who despised their organization.
It's all Alan Greenspan & Andrea Mitchell talk about while they bang.
Also that repair shop didn't check identification, get phone or address information, OR get a credit card number to charge repairs against. That doesn't sound like any repair shop I've ever used. Does sound like any tailoring outfit or laundry either.
Does -> Doesn't
True. I noted that exact point recently when I took my laptop in for repairs and the first thing the counter guy did was fill out a form with my name, address, phone number, and email address, and the make, model and serial number of the laptop and a description of the problem.
They didn't bother to check my ID or get a credit card number. They had my laptop and weren't going to give it back until paid, and they weren't going to give it back without seeing my copy of the work order.
i am and have always been a bit surprised the hunter biden stuff didn't work better. americans do love salacious gossip and sexual scandal.
The difference is, where Brett Favre has a small penis, Hunter Biden has a magnum dong.
Mephitic repulsives, like Bannon, just have to troll around in the gutter or they aren’t doing their job. What ever that is.
Did you fall on your head today? Republicans do not believe in an objective reality. They believe they can create their own and it will be true. Remember "alternative facts?" Or how about:
"...when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
Sounds like Karl Rove was confusing Washington Monthly commenter Hugh Everett III with actual mathematician Hugh Everett III.
washington monthly commenter hugh everett III had trouble counting past 10 without using his toes. the actual HE III rolled over every time the other put fingers to a keyboard.