J'Accuse! says Hunter Biden

Hunter Biden has recently been on a tear on X, accusing the media of ignoring the financial shenanigans of the Trump children where they had blasted the previous president's son for the same; that would be him, by the way.  Yes, he had that sweet no-show gig on the board of directors for Burisma Holdings in Ukraine, which looked a bit fishy.  It looked even shadier when Vice President Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees from Ukraine unless Viktor Shokin - a prosecutor investigating Burisma - was fired.  Sure, there may be a lot of nuance in here, but that looks bad.  Also, the nuance, if there was any, was not reported.  Then there was his art career while Joe Biden was president.  It was amazing how valuable his paintings were during Joe Biden's presidency and then the bottom fell out when he was not.  What exactly were the buyers buying?  Then there is the laptop, but there is no similar scandal with any of the Trump children, so let's skip that.

Hunter's Accusations:

1. Vulcan Elements, a defense startup backed by Donald Trump Jr., secured a $620 million loan from the Pentagon.  Ha!  Where is the outrage?  Why is this not plastered across every newspaper and news program like Hunter's crackpipe?  Let's look a little deeper.  Donald Trump Jr. has a stake in 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm.  No, he is not the CEO or on the board of directors.  Nor does he have a controlling share in the company.  1789 Capital has invested in Vulcan Elements.  1789 Capital does not own Vulcan Elements or have a majority shareholder position, but merely owns a part of the company.  So, a company that Don Jr. has shares in bought shares of another company that got a loan from the Pentagon.  Oh, what a scandal.

2. Israeli Drone Manufacture (XTEND) is going public through a merger.  Both Eric and Don Jr. are attached to the $1.5 billion deal.  War profiteering!  As with the Vulcan Elements case, the link is not so direct.  American Ventures, another venture capital firm, put $150 million into the merger, thus being 10% of the whole.  American Ventures is a branch of Dominari Holdings Inc.  Don Jr. and Eric have a combined ownership of 12% of Dominari.  Moreover, Don Jr. has a stake in Unusual Machines - another drone manufacture - that is also invested in the merger.  Again, the Trumps are attached not because they are driving this merger but because they have investments in the companies responsible.

3. Jared Kurshner and Ivanka Trump have acquired a wildlife sanctuary in Albania where they plan to build a luxury hotel.  That's a scandal?  In the western world today, BANANA is the rule.  What is BANANA?  Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone.  Recall, there was the long-running debate about drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) because nature and stuff.  The refuge is the size of South Carolina, but a few hundred acres to drill for oil would spoil the region.  Good grief.  The same is true of the Albanian coast.  Sazan Island has plenty of room and the suggested coastal region is mostly dotted with orchards.  This same story could be told of ANY builder anywhere in the western world; the environmentalists always oppose developers.

The Trump children are just pursuing the same sort of business dealing that their father did prior to his presidency.  They are investors, builders, and deal makers.  Are their efforts benefited by the fact that their father is president?  Almost certainly!  However, Hunter Biden's efforts benefited ONLY because his father was vice president and then president.

In any case, the reason the press isn't delving into these stories is because they don't stand scrutiny.  The one sentence accusation may sound damning, but the deep dive reveals them to be no big deal.  The very idea that the press is covering for Trump where it savaged Biden is ludicrous.

The Blanket Pardon

Despite promises to the contrary, President Biden has pardoned his son for all crimes - whether convicted, charged, or even suspected - from 2014 through today, December 1, 2024.  Wow, we didn't see that coming at all.  What a huge surprise.  Sure, every political pundit predicted exactly this would happen, but otherwise this comes out of the blue.  Yes, with all the Trump cases dropping away, there is no longer any need to appear 'unbiased' and 'evenhanded' regarding justice.  Nope, now there is no political cost to President Biden for pardoning his son.  Yeah, it may look bad in the history books, but family is family.

Now the real fun begins.  Soon, there will be stories in the media why this was the right thing to do, a noble thing to do, and mostly Trump's and/or Republicans' fault.  Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, is going to have a stressful day tomorrow.  Good luck.

As the Deep State Turns

Look at all the evidence that is poring into the open about Hunter Biden and the Big Guy.  Devon Archer has testified to Congress and confirmed that Joe Biden was involved in multiple calls and meeting with Hunter's business associates.  In fact, he confirmed the Burisma story where Joe Biden arranged to fire a prosecutor, Viktor Shokin.  Yeah, Trump was entirely justified in asking the Ukrainian president to look into that, but he was impeached for it instead.  The Bidens have offshore shell corporations that have received money from overseas.  Of course, we knew most of this several years ago.  Why is it coming out now?  Because the Deep State can't hold back the tide with a broom.  Time to cut their losses.  Joe Biden will not be running for another term.

So who will run in his stead?  Kamala Harris?  Not a chance.  She was the first to be eliminated from the 2020 primaries, before voting even started, and is mostly an embarrassment to the administration.   They certainly don't want RFK Jr.  He has a longstanding dislike of the Deep State, viewing it as responsible for the death of his father and uncle.  He will not be an ally like Obama or a puppet like Biden.  No, who can they get?  Governor Newsome of California!  The Democratic Party put a thumb on the scale to get Hillary instead of Bernie Sanders and will do it again.  Those superdelegates decide the nominee while the ordinary delegates just give the impression that it was a democratic race.

To give the Democratic nominee a better chance to win, the Deep State has indicted the leading Republican candidate.  Trump has been repeatedly indicted.  Where Trump asking questions on one phone call before Joe Biden had even announced his presidential run was deemed an impeachable offense, it turns out that siccing the DOJ on your opponent is just fine.  It is very hard to hide the two-tiered justice system these days.

Impeach Biden?

Does President Biden deserve to be impeached?  Yes.  Should Congress impeach him?  No.  With the current makeup of the House and Senate, an impeachment will go nowhere.  Looking at the case of Adam Schiff's censure, not a single Democrat voted in favor.  It was a partisan vote despite the undeniable fact that Schiff lied repeatedly and publicly about evidence of Russian collusion.  Though the House could muster the votes for impeachment, the Democrat-dominated Senate will not vote to convict.  Like both of Trump's impeachments, it will come to nothing other than a waste of time and money.

Instead, how about a censure?  Andrew Jackson was censured for defunding the Bank of the United States.  Censure Biden for weaponizing the Department of Justice, Ukraine kickbacks, failure to maintain the US border, or raising Hunter.  The possibilities are endless.  Of course, whatever is chosen, it will be a case of style over substance.  The president and the press will decry Congress for partisanship, but when the firestorm of words subside, nothing will change.  If anything, Biden will come out stronger.  Why?  It must be remembered that the media is overwhelmingly Democratic and/or left-leaning.  It is virtually impossible in that arena for Republicans to win a PR battle.

How about using the power of the purse to defund the FBI, CIA, DOJ, and the like?  Per the Constitution, all spending must originate in the House of Representatives.  Cut funding and hold the line.  I've been suggesting that course of action for more than a decade, but Congress has yet to do it.  This path would have substance.  Congress is detailed in Article 1 of the Constitution because the founders viewed it as the most important branch of government.  We the People are most reflected in the House of Representatives.  Take that seriously, Speaker McCarthy.

Interesting Timing

Today is the 2-year anniversary of Joe Biden's inauguration.  This is noteworthy because, as of today, his vice president could serve out the remainder of his term, and still serve two additional terms; this comes from the 22nd Amendment.  Coincident with this special date, all sorts of scandals have erupted around President Biden.  Of course, there are the documents found in a variety of places.  Mishandled documents was recently a valid basis for an FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago and calls for criminal prosecution of former President Trump.  Now we have emails that demonstrate Joe Biden's involvement in his son's business ventures, something he adamantly denied doing.  Then there is the news that Hunter was paying nearly $50K a month in rent for Joe Biden's Wilmington home.  None of this is new, but it is all getting revealed now.  Coincidence?  Unlikely.

The very people who kept all this out of the 2020 election are now unleashing it.  Why?  Was it all going to come out anyway on account of a Republican-controlled House so this is just an effort to get ahead of it?  Maybe.  Or is this an effort to push Joe aside so that President Harris will have the benefit of incumbency come 2024?  With her performance so far, I don't know that incumbency will help.  Then again, I didn't think Joe Biden was electable.

Censorship Confirmed

Twitter acting by itself to suppress free speech is not a 1st amendment violation, but acting under orders from the government to suppress free speech, with no judicial review, is

Elon Musk

The Twitter Files have been posted, at least in part, and it shows collusion between Twitter and the Biden Campaign.  After Biden's election, it shows continued collusion to silence critics.  In fact, indications are that both parties had access to backdoor channels to censor Twitter posts.  Censorship by proxy.  That the town square of the modern era is hosted on private platforms has created an incentive toward censorship.  As Musk says, Twitter has every right to censor users for whatever reason.  However, once government enters the picture, censorship becomes the tool of a tyrant.  China, Iran, and North Korea have strong controls on what the people may read or hear, the better to control their views.

How might 2020 have played out if the playing field was level?  90% plus of stories on Trump were negative.  In the case of the Hunter Biden laptop, the media buried the story rather than have a negative story against Biden.  Would it have made a difference?  MAGA folks say it would have made all the difference.  Maybe.  In any case, those who spiked the story certainly thought it would make a difference.

Dossier Refuted, Laptop Confirmed

Before Trump was inaugurated, the Steele Dossier was published with many accusations that claimed Trump colluded with Russia to get elected.  He was a puppet of Putin.  Of course, of the last 4 presidents, it was only during Trump's term that Putin didn't invade another country.  Odd that he missed that obvious opportunity.  Of course, it was eventually discovered that Christopher Steele - a British Spy - had gleaned all his information from Russians at the behest of the Clinton Campaign.  None of the supposed kompramat was ever produced.  The Mueller Report offered a variety of 'obstruction of justice' accusations against the president that were so pathetic that the Congress couldn't muster an impeachment for them.  However, the Russian Collusion story lasted the entirety of Trump's term and the walls were forever closing in.  The media could not get enough of it.  In the end, it was a nothingburger.

In the days before the 2020 election, big news appeared in the New York Post: Hunter Biden's laptop showed that he had used his father's connections as Vice-President to secure jobs and financial deals with various foreign companies.  He received $3.5 million from a Russian oligarch, a $50K/month position with Burisma in Ukraine, and a multimillion dollar deal with China.  Then there were the pictures of Hunter with a crackpipe.  In response to this breaking news, NYP was banned from Twitter.  Media outlets across the board announced that it was Russian Disinformation.  During one of the presidential debates, Joe Biden declared that it had been debunked.  Now, 17 months later, the New York Times has admitted that the laptop was Hunter Biden's.  Emails found on it have been confirmed and have been useful in a tax investigation.

The media had the Steele Dossier prior to the 2016 election but could confirm none of it.  No one published it.  However, when James Comey mentioned it to President Trump, now it was valid news.  Buzzfeed rushed to publish and the feeding frenzy began.  By that precedent, one would think a similar attitude would apply to a laptop that had far better provenance than the dossier.  Nope.  The media had a demonstrated animosity toward Trump and a story that might torpedo Biden would lead to a second Trump term.  Better to bury the story until Biden could be elected.

The Dog that Didn't Bark

Jonathan Turley offered a keen insight about the Hunter Biden's emails regarding the Biden Campaign's reaction.  There are three obvious responses that have not been offered.

1. That's not Hunter's laptop.  If it's not his laptop, say so.  Get in front of this hoax.  That the campaign hasn't pursued this line of attack says they think it probably is Hunter's laptop.

2. Those aren't Hunter's emails.  If this is bogus, why not challenge the authenticity of the emails or the pictures.  No claims that these are fake.  Interesting.

3. Defamation.  A major paper has printed clearly defamatory claims against Hunter Biden and, if it's not true, he should be suing them.

Rather than deny the authenticity of the claims, the campaign has offered specific responses regarding Joe Biden's schedule not showing the meeting reported in the emails.  Huh.  Well, if it isn't on his schedule, it must not have happened because nothing gets left off the schedule.  This doesn't exactly sound like a denial.

It is clear that Hunter Biden got his high paying position in Burisma because he was the Vice President's son.  Why else would a foreign company hire a man who was kicked out of the navy for drug use?  Not for his judgement.  Could it be that his father was the point man for Ukraine in the Obama Administration?  No, that's just a coincidence.