Hunter biden

Let me tell you a ghost story. We are, after all, only a month out from Hallowe’en. It’s about a titan of American politics, who reshaped the nation’s, and the West’s, history over the tail-end of the last century. His leadership helped thaw the Cold War and transform the country’s languishing economy. And now, four decades later, his specter still looms large over the party he recalibrated. Tonight, the GOP’s undercard contenders will clash at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. And you can be darn sure his name will come up a lot.In last month’s debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, America’s 40th president was the subject of one of many flashpoints between former VP Mike Pence and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.

I have been meaning to weigh in on [cue scary music] Special Counsel David Weiss’s sham indictment of Hunter Biden on felony gun charges for a few days. I am glad I waited.  It’s not that I have changed my mind about the indictments, or company man Weiss. Everyone knows he is on the job as an interior decorator, whose primary task is to produce window dressing for the Department of Injustice so that its two-tier deployment of police power is not too obvious to the casual onlooker. Weiss has supposedly been investigating Hunter Biden for the last five years. Wouldn’t you know it, the statute of limitation on many of the tax charges is passing by like that herd of cows outside your train window even as I write.

At midnight Friday, more than 12,000 workers walked out of factories owned by Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, marking the first time in history that the United Auto Workers union has gone on strike against all of the Big Three auto manufacturers at once. The UAW started contract negotiations asking for a 40 percent pay increase over four years and a four-day work week. The Big Three have countered with an offer of an approximately 20 percent pay increase, which would make up for real wage decline due to inflation since 2008. Neither side has moved significantly since bargaining began two months ago.  The unprecedented strike is centered in the Midwest, but it no doubt has major political ramifications back in the nation’s capital.

You don't need to be a political genius to see that this Hunter Biden indictment is an obvious smokescreen for the White House and Democrats on Capitol Hill. The three-part indictment is very simple and straightforward and could’ve been brought a long time ago... so why this week? Why does it come after a rough opening to September for Democrats, with horrible polls released concerning Joe Biden's age and approval ratings — and particularly the same week that Republicans finally pulled the trigger on an impeachment inquiry? First, it serves to muddy the waters.

The signals coming from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are that his Republican majority will soon launch a formal impeachment investigation. The final decision hasn’t been announced — and an investigation is still a far cry from a full House vote. But setting up an impeachment committee is an essential first step. Most of his caucus wants to take it.  Most, but not all. The reservations of some Republicans and the calculations behind them are why McCarthy has moved slowly. The speaker’s problem is more than rounding up votes. The other problem is the investigation carries real risks as well as benefits.  The biggest benefit is a technical, legal one.

Democrats constantly downplay Hunter Biden’s troubles and any felonies he might have committed. The legacy media avoid them entirely. What do they say when they can’t bury the story? Their most common defense is also their most important: Hunter Biden’s troubles matter only if they can be linked directly to his father and specifically to Joe’s official position. So far, they say, those links are weak and unproven. What other defenses do they put forward? First, they say that whatever money Hunter made from his foreign business dealings, he did not benefit from any official action taken by the vice president. Neither did Joe himself. Those points are crucial. Second, it’s not a crime to benefit from your family name.

Donald Trump has reportedly decided that he won’t be attending the first Republican debate next Wednesday and will counter-program by sitting down for an interview with Tucker Carlson. (The choice is a double middle-finger: one from Trump to the RNC, another from Carlson to his former network.) In the end, the question of whether Trump would show up or not became a fairly low-stakes question. A candidate with a lead as large as his just doesn’t need to sweat decisions like this all that much. Talk of Trump being seen as running scared if he doesn’t show up in Milwaukee next week doesn’t have the same bite to it when he is forty points clear of the field.

At long last, Attorney General Merrick Garland decided to appoint a special counsel to continue the investigation of Hunter Biden, his family and associates. His choice: US Attorney David Weiss of Delaware, who has been on the case for several years. He was originally appointed as US attorney by Donald Trump, a point Democrats always highlight without noting that he was promoted by both Democratic senators from the state.  Being named special counsel gives Weiss some authority beyond that of a regular US attorney. In particular, he can bring federal cases outside his narrow territorial domain without consent from US attorneys in those other districts. That’s an important point, since Weiss was apparently denied the right to bring at least two other cases his office sought.

It’s hard not to weep for the Republic as trust in our institutions collapses — and collapses for good reasons. Washington cannot retain public confidence when the frontrunners in both parties represent the dregs of public life and are credibly charged with serious malfeasance; when those charges have surrounded both parties’ presidential nominees in every election since 2016 and do so again for 2024.

You may have forgotten about the White House’s resident coke fiend after weeks of headlines about Hunter Biden’s various court battles, but now the story of drugs in the Executive Mansion is back in the news. A publication is claiming that Joe Biden knows whose dime-bag it was — and it’s not Hunty.  “The Secret Service told President Joe Biden the name of the person who brought a packet of cocaine into the White House last month, according to three security sources with direct knowledge of the incident," Susan Katz Keating of the relatively forgotten Soldier of Fortune magazine wrote Monday. "All three sources independently told Soldier of Fortune the same name, which arose from an investigation into the incident.

Devon Archer, a former friend and business partner to Hunter Biden, testified Monday as part of the House Oversight Committee's investigation into the Biden family business dealings and alleged foreign corruption. Archer made several key claims, including that Hunter was brought on to the board of Ukranian energy company Burisma because of his familial connections and that Hunter put then-Vice President Joe Biden on the phone his business associates at least twenty times to demonstrate his access to US government power. Archer's testimony complicates the insistence from President Joe Biden, the White House and their friends in the media that President Biden was oblivious to his son's business dealings taking place abroad in places like Ukraine and China.

Donald Trump has now been indicted enough times for there to be a sense of routine around the news of a fresh batch of charges. The former president warns that an indictment is coming. Then it arrives, it’s unsealed, and he’s arraigned. Trump’s Republican primary rivals respond, their choice of words assessed for signs of obsequiousness and defiance (the former are usually easier to find than the latter). The jurisdiction and likely make-up of the jury is debated. As are the prejudices of the judge, when the name becomes known.  And so yesterday when Trump was indicted for the third time this year, in relation to January 6, there was a familiar, inevitable, almost unremarkable feel to what is, by any reasonable measure, a grave moment for the country.

The Biden administration has repeatedly told the public that Hunter’s lucrative consulting business doesn’t matter unless it is directly connected to his father. That’s true. Moreover, they add, that connection is not just unproven, it cannot be proved because it didn’t exist. That’s false, although the mainstream media has repeated it faithfully. But even the most feckless are finding it increasingly difficult to sustain this awkward lip-syncing with the White House press office. Actually, the Biden grifting operation extends well beyond Hunter to include multiple family members. It always centered on Joe’s public position and the political access it ensured, first as the sitting vice president and then as a prospective Democratic nominee after Hillary Clinton’s defeat.

Most observers (myself included) expected Hunter Biden’s appearance in a Delaware court today to be a fairly routine affair. The president’s son would show up, plead guilty and get off with a slap on the wrist for tax and gun offenses that deserve far harsher punishment. Instead, a chaotic day ended with the plea deal falling apart, a judge issuing an eyebrow-raising opinion on the terms offered to Hunter, and a not guilty plea from the president’s son.

Hunter Biden will appear at a Wilmington court on Wednesday to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay taxes. These charges are the result of the prolonged investigation that has been the subject of serious claims of political interference from two IRS whistleblowers. Along with a pretrial agreement relating to a felony gun charge, the misdemeanors make up what many in Washington see to be a sweetheart deal for the president’s son.  Assuming Hunter’s lawyer can concentrate between bong rips, and Hunter himself manages to tear himself away from Nobu Malibu and make it to court on time, it should be a fairly routine appearance.

A famous clip from recent history: “I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor’s not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch, he got fired.” That was Joe Biden in 2016. He was relaxing among friends at a chummy event at the Council on Foreign Relations. Ha, ha, ha, tittered the appreciative audience. What a lark! Here was a former vice president of the United States bragging about how he (naughty word) blackmailed an official from a foreign government who was investigating the company on whose board Joe Biden’s son sat. This is old news, of course.