there's 2000+ posts in the original Hunter Biden thread and now there's a new Hunter Biden thread The lady doth protest too much, methinks
Is there a reason he’s even being talked about that’s not “he’s Biden’s son” I don’t keep up with the adventures of Hunter Biden Are people still talking about that old episode where he was doing coke and something about a laptop?
Just before the election, a bunch of emails turned up that seemed to point to corruption and influence peddling by Hunter Biden that were found on a laptop he had left at a repair shop and never went back to get. At the time, multiple media outlets, such as the NY Times tried to cast doubt on the story, and Politico published a letter signed by 50 former intelligence/state department officials that said it may be (wink, wink) part of a Russian disinformation campaign to try to help Trump defeat Biden. Three days ago, the Times published an article that focuses on the investigation of Hunter Biden by the Delaware US Attorney, talking mostly about his tax fraud (and quick to mention he has paid off his back taxes now), but near the end of the article they slipped in that the laptop was real, was really Hunter Biden's, and that they had confirmed with people involved that the damaging emails were in fact genuine. So it wasn't a Russian disinformation campaign and the US media was running interference for Biden to help him win the election. That's the jist of it anyway. Hunter Biden Paid Tax Bill, but Federal Investigation Goes On - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Yes, here we are not caring about Hunter Biden with a 2nd thread. I haven't contributed much to any of the HB threads but that doesn't mean I don't know about it and don't care. The fact is Hunter Biden was and is a train wreck and was probably compromised. And yes, this story was hugely important for the public to know about right before an election because if the son of a future President was truly doing all these things it sets up potential scenarios that are unthinkable... extortion of the President being one of them. The best thing that ever could have happened to him and candidate Biden was the exposure. Any attempt now to blackmail either of them by a foreign entity over these allegations has been defused . So, while the story was indeed a big one 18 months ago, at this point yes...it's water under the bridge as Biden has been elected while Hunters activities are now mostly well known. Of more concern to me is the lengths the media, big tech (Twitter) and the "50 intelligence/State Dept officials" went to protect Biden (including former Trump administration officials). People who were supposedly smart, honest, patriotic americans of high stature including Leon Panetta, Jim Clapper, Mike Hayden, and John Brennan signed off on a letter insisting this was likely Russian disinformation. Even the NY Times now admits this is false. Yet there is no consequence or penalty for (at best) poor judgment that misled the public and (at worst) an attempt at cover up. These 50 officials opinions (and those who insisted on their veracity) AT THE VERY LEAST should be viewed with skepticism in the future and IMHO shunned. We can't afford mistakes this big when the stakes are this high.
I feel like Hunter Biden's life is prime for like a Netflix mini series about a dude who just parties, getting into all kinds of hijinks, all the while completely oblivious to all the conservative bullshit in the background. Its a comedy, lots of tom foolery.
I think that is overall a pretty good take. I haven't followed the story extremely closely but my recollection wasn't that the claim was that the laptop was fake as there were pics on the laptop that were released were clearly Hunter Biden and I don't think Hunter Biden denied that that wasn't him. It was that much of the contents on it might be fake and that it might've been hacked. So in this case the NYT acknowledging that the laptop is really Hunter Biden's doesn't necessarily change the previous reporting that much of the contents might very well be disinformation.
Ultimately for me it still comes down to even if everything on the laptop is real and the other accusations against Hunter Biden are real has Joe Biden either as VP or now President done anything to actually change policy to benefit or protect Hunter Biden? I've yet to see clear evidence regarding that. Also just to note the prosecutor that was fired in Ukraine regarding Burisma wasn't fired because he was investigating Burisma but because he was doing a very poor job investigating Burisma.
