“I don’t think Hunter Biden has thought this latest move through.
Matt Viser of the Washington Post reports:
Hunter Biden’s lawyers, in a newly aggressive strategy, sent a series of blistering letters Wednesday to state and federal prosecutors urging criminal investigations into those who accessed and disseminated his personal data — and sent a separate letter threatening Fox News host Tucker Carlson with a defamation lawsuit.
The string of letters, which included criminal referrals and cease-and-desist missives aimed at critics and detractors, marked the start of a new and far more hard-hitting phase for the president’s son just as House Republicans prepare their own investigations into him.
Abbe Lowell, a recently hired lawyer whom Biden enlisted about a month ago, sent lengthy letters to the Justice Department and Delaware’s attorney general requesting investigations into several key players who were involved in disseminating data from a laptop that Biden is said to have dropped off at a repair shop in Wilmington, Del.
As the New York Post gleefully points out, in these letters to prosecutors about his own “personal data,” Biden is confirming that the laptop is his. This isn’t really in dispute anymore, as several news organizations, independently of the Post but considerably later, had forensics experts study the available data from the laptop and they concluded that it was genuine. The Washington Post and New York Times did so in March of 2022, and CBS News did so in November of 2022.
But for several years now, Hunter Biden has tried to sow doubts about whether the laptop was his. Back in April 2021, while promoting his memoir, the younger Biden insisted to CBS News’ Tracy Smith that he simply didn’t know if the laptop was his, and that it could be Russian disinformation…
…These new letters confirm that Hunter Biden lied — or, at minimum, was evasive and misleading — about whether the laptop and its contents were his.
The missives from Biden’s lawyers further affirms that the October 2020 letter from 50 former national-intelligence officials, declaring that the discovery of the laptop “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” was deceptive nonsense from the start, and Hunter Biden knew it. What’s more, Joe Biden went out on a presidential-debate stage and insisted the Russian spies had planted the laptop as part of a disinformation effort. During the second 2020 presidential debate, Biden barked, “There are folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plant. Five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it, except his good friend Rudy Giuliani!”
At minimum, Hunter Biden misled his father and let him go out and lie on his behalf and allowed 50 former national-security officials to mislead the rest of the country.
Second, how does Hunter Biden think it is going to look if the son of the sitting president demands that federal prosecutors bring criminal charges against a bunch of Republicans and conservatives, and then those prosecutors comply? He might as well write, “Dear Deep State, please save me from the consequences of my own actions.”…”
We know desperate times call for desperate measures, but Jonathan Turley puts just how desperate into proper perspective:
And as no coverage of an issue would be complete without the considered thoughts of Kim Strassel, here’s her take on Hunter begging to saved from the consequences of his own actions:
“There are two possibilities here: Hunter misled the Biden team or his father misled the nation. Either way, it was the current occupant of the White House who fed the country “garbage.”“
Speaking of those asking to be saved from the consequences of their own actions, check out Kevin McCarthy’s explanation why the paramour of a Chinese spy, a serial liar and an anti-Semite were removed from positions of responsibility:
We have to acknowledge thus far as Speaker, McCarthy has exceeded our expectations. Then again, as you know from earlier editions, those expectations weren’t terribly high.
Now, here’s The Gouge!
First up, writing at The Patriot Post, Thomas Gallatin relates how the…
“The Washington Post’s former executive editor, Leonard Downie Jr., who is currently a professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, asserts that newsrooms need to move beyond objectivity. Downie ridiculously claims that journalists can eschew objectivity and still build trust.
“Increasingly,” he opines, “reporters, editors and media critics argue that the concept of journalistic objectivity is a distortion of reality. They point out that the standard was dictated over decades by male editors in predominantly White newsrooms and reinforced their own view of the world. They believe that pursuing objectivity can lead to false balance or misleading ‘bothsidesism’ in covering stories about race, the treatment of women, LGBTQ+ rights, income inequality, climate change and many other subjects. And, in today’s diversifying newsrooms, they feel it negates many of their own identities, life experiences and cultural contexts, keeping them from pursuing truth in their work.”
In other words, the racist patriarchy furthered oppression of leftist victim groups, and therefore objectivity is bad — especially, he argues, at a time when we face threats to “the very survival of our democracy.” He asserts that “the concept of objectivity has prevented truly accurate reporting,” and then quotes Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor in chief of the San Francisco Chronicle, with the crux of his argument: “Objectivity has got to go.”
The one positive from this is that at least these activist “journalists” are increasingly willing to admit they are biased in their reporting, a reality that they have long denied.
Tell a lie long enough, and not only will people believe it, but you’ll turn it into the new “truth.” This is not journalism; it is peddling propaganda-based activism as journalism. This kind of thinking is why trust in the news media is nearly nonexistent, and for good reason. Yet Downie argues that openly abandoning objectivity in favor of activism will “forge a stronger connection between journalists and the public.”
Evidently, Leftmedia journalists want to share the same degree of the public’s trust as politicians…”
The truth shall set them free, ergo there’s no way the MSM, educations establishment, Swamp and Progressive politicians can afford for the truth to out, even at the expense of the public’s trust, about which in actuality they couldn’t give a tinker’s dam, provided they preserve their power.
Next, NRO‘s Brittany Bernstein is making the call as…
“Former president Donald Trump hit the campaign trail over the weekend for the first time this cycle and quickly fell back into old patterns, taking shots at his leading competitor, Ron DeSantis — this time focusing his attacks on the Florida governor’s Covid record. While DeSantis, whom Trump calls “Ron DeSanctimonious,” has not officially said whether he plans to run for president in 2024, he is widely considered Trump’s most formidable opponent. Naturally, this means the governor has a target on his back.
Trump took aim at DeSantis’s Covid response during campaign stops in New Hampshire and South Carolina, accusing the governor of “trying to rewrite history” on his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Sunshine State. “There are Republican governors that did not close their states; Florida was closed for a long period of time,” Trump said.
For his part, DeSantis appeared unbothered by Trump’s comments. “When you’re an elected executive, you have to make all kinds of decisions. You got to steer that ship. And the good thing is that the people are able to render a judgment on that — whether they reelect you or not,” DeSantis said when asked to respond to Trump’s criticisms. “And I’m happy to say, you know, in my case, not only did we win reelection. We won with the highest percentage of the vote that any Republican governor candidate has in the history of the state of Florida,” he added. “We won by the largest raw vote margin — over 1.5 million votes — than any governor candidate has ever had in Florida history.”
That massive reelection win was likely due in part to the fact that the Sunshine State returned to “normal” more quickly than most other states during the pandemic, despite Trump’s claims. DeSantis waited longer than many other states to even declare a stay-at-home order, which he officially issued on April 1, 2020. By contrast, California, the first state to issue a stay-at-home order, did so on March 19. Only a handful of states, with more rural populations, never issued such an order, including Arkansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wyoming.
By April 20, DeSantis had already appointed a “Re-Open Florida Task Force,” which he tasked with quickly forming a plan to reopen the state. The stay-at-home order expired in early May, and by late September, DeSantis had lifted all restrictions on restaurants and businesses.
If anything, it was Trump who was soft on reopening. “I told the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, that I disagree strongly with his decision to open certain facilities,” Trump told the White House press corps while standing next to his Covid adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, on April 22.
Despite criticizing Kemp’s decision to reopen small businesses, gyms, salons, and restaurants, Trump later endorsed DeSantis’s reopening plan when the Florida governor visited the White House on April 28.
In October 2020, Trump actually lauded DeSantis’s handling of the pandemic during a reelection rally in Ocala, Fla., and called him “one of the greatest governors in our country.” “We had surges, and they went up and they went down, and now you’re at your lowest numbers,” Trump said at the time. “And you’re open and you didn’t close, and you’re just amazing — right, this guy?”
Now, Trump’s unfounded attacks on DeSantis are likely to open the door to criticisms of his own Covid response. While DeSantis rejected “Fauci-ism,” Trump zealously went along with a number of Fauci’s pandemic-related recommendations. In a press release from his 2020 presidential campaign, Trump even drew attention to one of Fauci’s comments in which he said that Trump supported a recommendation from Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, for a 30-day lockdown early in the pandemic, even when others didn’t. “Obviously there were people who had a problem with that because of the potential secondary effects,” Fauci said. “Nonetheless, at that time, the president went with the health recommendations, and we extended it another 30 days . . . I can just tell you the first and only time that I went in and said we should do mitigation strongly, the response was yes, we’ll do it.”
Mike Pompeo’s new memoir also details how Trump was soft on China at the start of the pandemic, despite the country’s lack of transparency about the virus’s origins and failure to immediately alert the international community to the threat. Trump allegedly told the then–secretary of state to “shut the hell up for a while” about Beijing’s Covid response to keep from upsetting Chinese president Xi Jinping. “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!” Trump tweeted at the time…”
Here’s a second shot of the juice: Ron DeSantis lifted the lockdowns and saved Florida’s economy. The Donald, evidently ignorant of both the origin of the lockdown strategy and the fact such draconian measures had never before been necessary, gave us “two weeks to flatten the curve” and surrendered control of the economy to clueless public health bureaucrats. Trump: Truly a legend…in his own mind. And yes, should he somehow get the Republican nomination, we’ll vote for him again in November 2024…but certainly not in the GOP primary.
“Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) arrested 29-year-old Alireza Heidari last week after a traffic stop involving a human smuggler at the border in Val Verde County, Texas as part of Operation Lone Star. Heidari was being smuggled in the vehicle along with four other illegal immigrants. He was located in the trunk. Fox is told that Heidari was handed over to Border Patrol custody and later determined to be a match of the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB).
…National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd noted that it was Texas DPS, not Border Patrol, that ultimately apprehended Heidari. “If not for the work of Governor Abbott and Texas DPS, Alireza Heidari would be at large on our streets today and looking to do harm to the US and our fellow citizens,” Judd said. “Heidari entered the country illegally and evaded apprehension by the Border Patrol. It fell to Texas DPS to do our job because [President] Biden continues to play politics with the safety and security of our children, friends and neighbors. What Biden is doing is dangerous and the capture of Heidari by a non-federal law enforcement agency is the most recent proof.”…”
Thus does Texas, a state, fulfill the primary duty of the federal government. Now why do you think an Iranian in the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database would want to surreptitiously enter the Great Satan? Perhaps to take flying lessons?!?
“One might think that these would be boom times in the wind power business, with governments and giant corporations around the world competing to offer ever more generous preferences and subsidies for the intermittent energy source. But somehow this primitive means of generating power is still just not quite ready to replace the modern ones.
Part of the challenge is that politicians are finally waking up to the fact that alternative energy carries environmental costs along with the alleged benefits. In December this column noted Jennifer Dlouhy’s Boomberg report uncovering an internal warning from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist to Interior Department officials about the threat to whales posed by offshore wind development.
…So far there doesn’t appear to be any evidence linking offshore wind development to the specific whale deaths. But it’s reasonable to demand a long overdue investigation of the true economic and environmental costs and benefits of an industry that taxpayers have been assisting for years.
Despite all the help in this country and around the world, the economics of the business remain challenging…
…Why do bad things keep happening to this industry? It’s almost as if wind energy companies are using a less advanced technology than competing power projects.“
Or just producing materially-deficient products enabled by massive taxpayer subsidies. Sorta like the WuFlu vaccines.
Moving on, here’s another septet of special selections certain to cater to inquiring Conservative minds:
(1). Jim Geraghty makes a valid point in observing…
“When four-star Air Force general Mike Minihan, who leads the Air Mobility Command, writes in a memo that he believes the U.S. will be at war with China by 2025, we should probably sit up and take notice. It’s not a guarantee, and Minihan writes that he hopes he’s wrong. But I noted that two years before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, most of the U.S. foreign-policy world thought that Vladimir Putin was ruthless but rational, and that he wouldn’t risk the whole Russian relationship with the West over some historical grievances.
Those scenarios that Western foreign-policy wonks find unthinkable can often turn out to be very “thinkable” in the mind of a man convinced he will win a great victory and alter the world’s balance of power.“
Though a spokesperson for the museum issued a statement such was not the Smithsonian’s policy, and that “immediate training to prevent a recurrence” was provided, that wouldn’t explain the mocking and expletives, now would it?!?
(3). What do you get when you hire someone solely on their gender and race?
(6). Proof positive Adam Kinzinger is a media whore; Like Joe Scarborwhore, he’ll do or say anything necessary to make a buck.
(7). Like his soulmate Nancy Pelosi, Hairplug Joe is a devout Roman Catholic; UNTIL of course, as with Nancy, his “religion” gets in the way of his patently pandering politics:
“Catholic bishops are demanding that federal tax dollars not fund abortions.”
Finally, we’ll call it a week with two brief administrative notes. Note #1: For those interested, the link below will take you to a podcast we recently made with one Ian Fermaglich:
Note #2: We’ll be taking next week off for a church missions trip south of the border, and likely won’t be back in the saddle before Monday, February 11th. So ’til then…
Magoo
Video of the Day
Jordan Peterson makes an incredibly apt analogy we should have picked up on long ago.
Tales of The Darkside
Meet Lucas Kunce of Missouri: He’s known a fraud and a coward his entire life. And we’re pretty certain he’s the dumb one of bawdy, misogynistic humor fame.
On the Lighter Side
This harpy has all the presence of a turd in a punch bowl.
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