Here’s how I see the swirl of scandals around the Bidens’ foreign business dealings. The two contrasting views are:
- Who cares? Joe Biden isn’t Donald Trump. That’s all that’s important. Consequently, it must all be Russian disinformation or just plain lies.
- Joe Biden was selling his influence.
My view is that the national political establishments of both parties are hopelessly corrupt, it won’t change after the 2020 election, and it can’t be solved short of a “clean sweep” in which the incumbents of both parties are thrown out of office and that can’t happen because of the way the two parties have things rigged in favor of incumbents. It isn’t limited to just teasing other countries or businesses to get money out of them. That pursuit of money actually overrules the national interest and has for years.
That wasn’t as important when the U. S. economy was growing vibrantly and U. S. GDP was ten times China’s. Now it’s important. It’s undermining U. S. security, its economy, and its social framework.
It’s sad but true that a democrat politician receives cover and investigative passes from a press and social media who is innately over 90% in the bag for the democrat party. Someone like Trump, though, is instantly damned simply by having the wrong party affiliation. However, when such a person also flamboyantly trolls, criticizes and confronts conforming DC understandings and arrangements, made between party powerhouses, they become an existential threat to establishment political norms on both sides of the aisle. IOW, such a person must be destroyed, ASAP.
Consequently, no matter how damaging emerging information might be, regarding Biden‘s possible self serving ties to China, it will be regarded as bogus by the MSM, and further obscured by twitter and Facebook censorship tactics. Should Trump be able to pull out a win next Tuesday, despite the enormous resistance geared up against him, it will truly be a David versus Goliath phenomenon.
I haven’t taken the time to dig through the piles of misinformation to determine what the actual truth is with the Biden laptop. The advocates on either side of this issue are even more biased and dishonest than usual.
In the big picture, however, I don’t think it matters much. In a normal election where Biden was running against someone like Romney, this laptop thing would actually matter. But since he’s running against Trump, it’s not going to make much difference. At most, it’s a wash between the two candidates when it comes to persuadable voters.
Trump and his supporters are, mistakenly in my view, trying to replay 2016, which is dumb. Trump is throwing away the inherent advantages that incumbency brings on a Biden laptop/corruption gambit that’s not working and was pretty obviously not going to work.
Kushner said Trump was taking the US back from doctors, from CNN head line
Yeah this is just the kind of thinking we need to continue with! For 8 long and exhausting years we had Governor Paul LePage, the day he left office the entire State took a deep breath and enjoyed the silence.
In my opinion “both sides do it” is a lazy position. Influence peddling and being beholden was a sufficient predicate to cause a Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, and calls for impeachment. It surely can be no different for Joe Biden.
The machinations in question were hatched in 2015 (if not earlier) and would now pertain to a President Biden. Biden’s now exposed bald faced lies over his knowledge of these events indicate his understanding of their impropriety. Further, if you look at the investments made by his son’s PE firm this goes directly to the issue of national security. They weren’t buying bagel franchises and ladies shoes retailers. Mike Madigan gets paid for property tax waivers. Biden gets paid for military technology.
If the hysterical claims of the left over the past three years had an ounce of integrity, Joe Biden would be hounded out of the race. Instead the wagons are being circled. Shameful.
If Bobulinski has records and receipts showing the graft, bribery, selling of dual use technology, and other shady stuff, the Intelligence Community sure has them too. Why did nobody in the IC raise any red flags? Of course with most if not all of the Inspector Generals hopelessly corrupt no one is stupid enough to risk their careers to try and whistleblow. But utter silence? A distinct possibility is this information was intended to use to blackmail Dementia. Thus government by unelected bureaucrats and for the unelected bureaucrats.
“A distinct possibility is this information was intended to use to blackmail (Biden) Dementia.”
I think this is the essential point. If outed, those holding the information lose their ability to influence policy. But if held closely, you can always say “policy goes this way………or else.”
As an afterthought, I thought I should share this.
A key element in this story is the $10MM loan, partitioned into 5 and 5, as a “no recourse, zero interest” loan. Heh.
Over time I have come to realize that financial sophistication here is a rare commodity. The IRS views a “loan” as having recourse, and a minimum interest rate. Else its a gift. Look it up. Heh. Did the Bidens pay a gift tax? More importantly, a gift to make an investment in an enterprise is more accurately described as fraud, or perhaps………..a bribe.
Just sayin’
The only people replaying 2016, over and over again, are those Dems and republican elites shocked and angry after Trump won that election, who have tried in vein to reverse that election ever since. Made-up accusations and charges have dominated news cycles, with the MSM taking on the role of a PA system broadcasting any and all insinuations of Trump wrong-doing without any questions or journalistic investigation. There were also no media retractions when ruses like Russia-gate were debunked, with the only collusion noted being from the Clinton campaign and the DNC in working hand-in-hand with Russia, disinformation in order to issue fraudulent FISA warrants to ultimately unseat Trump.
Now the media is working diligently again with the Dems and the Biden campaign, this time not to hype stories of unethical conduct, but rather suppress information flowing out about the Biden Family‘s corrupt financial schemes over many years – actually selling out this country for purposes of self-enrichment. The recent exposure of emails, tapes, credit cards, and other documentation is by far more credible and robust than was ever available to go after a Trump, being given over by a business associate of the Bidens’, with a clean record and a prior security clearance. This whistleblower also has not attempted to hide his identity, but has instead come forward, not shielded by anonymity, with detailed documentation collaborating what was on Hunter Biden’s now infamous laptop.
Why is this important? A compromised president, beholding to the Chinese Communist Government, poses a clear and future security risk. And, this is the reason China desperately wants Biden to win. But, I guess for some here, there is nothing to see here, except to move on…..what a double standard!
I think we should have a real investigation of the Hunter Biden issue. Instead we have leaked info via Rudy Giuliani. That should be ignored just like everything else the GOP “leaks”. Look at all the contrived scandals they have tried to generate. Somehow they always fail to find anything and they never bring charges, and they control the DOJ. Just to take an example, look at unmasking. Conservatives weeping and wailing that they had definite proof that Obama, Hillary and Biden were conspiring with the deep state against Trump. The investigation finishes and………..nothing. Look at Durham, or Dunham or Dumbo, whatever his name was. The results of all that leakage? Nothing. 8 Benghazi investigations, Lois Lerner, etc.
Serious question. How many times do the conservatives make these claims about some awful scandal without finding anything before we start ignoring them unless there is an investigation that results in real findings and maybe even charges? Seems to me we are way past that point.
Anyway, like Andy even if true not sure it matters much. On one hand MAYBE Biden was peddling influence. On the other hand we know that Trump has benefitted from foreign countries increasing the use of his hotels and Mar-a-LAgo had a surge. No maybe about it.
“If Bobulinski has records and receipts showing the graft, bribery, selling of dual use technology, and other shady stuff, the Intelligence Community sure has them too. Why did nobody in the IC raise any red flags? ”
Because maybe he doesnt? Because maybe they dont exist, just like all of the other claims you guys always make.
Steve
The point I’m making is not to justify anyone’s particular actions or try to parse which candidate’s corruption is “worse,” it’s merely to point out that in a de facto binary choice election, the fact that both candidates are corrupt – or have credible accusations of corruption – tends to cancel each other out. Ergo Trump trying to win by focusing on Biden’s supposed corruption doesn’t make much sense.
I mean, does anyone really believe that accusations of corruption by Biden are going to cause people to flee Biden and vote for Trump instead? Because polls show that Trump is perceived (justly or not) as a much more corrupt individual by the general public.
The strategy here simply doesn’t make any sense. And this whole thing assumes that corruption is a salient issue in this election cycle, which it isn’t because of Covid.
The other bizarre thing is why did Guliani sit on this info for weeks or even months? I just looked at the stats here in Colorado and 50% of registered voters have already voted. Even if Biden’s corruption was some kind of game-changer, this supposed scandal is likely coming too late to make much difference anyway.
“If Bobulinski has records and receipts showing the graft, bribery, selling of dual use technology, and other shady stuff, the Intelligence Community sure has them too. Why did nobody in the IC raise any red flags?”
Just as a point of fact, Bobulinski is a US citizen and the intelligence community can collect limited types of information on US citizens only as part of a FISA warrant and these are generally limited to electronic communications only with foreign entities. The intelligence community is prohibited from storing or deliberately collecting information on US citizens in all other cases (that I’m aware of at least).
If any such information or documents existed, it would much more likely be in the hands of the FBI or another law enforcement agency, not US intelligence.
Andy/Steve
I no longer have confidence in the Intelligence community. What they should do, the protocols that should be followed to investigate without bias, IMO, no longer exists. Trump, long ago, asked for the declassification of unredacted documents. Much like investigative inquiries into past Obama scandals, the FBI & CIA have not complied, in a timely manner, with these requests. Yes, when Ric Grenell finally took over the DNI job, temporally, documents suddenly appeared. But, it was a process of “teeth pulling,†with sources and means being offered as reasons for refusal or delays. Even in the Obama era, during the Eric Holder DOJ regime, there were complaints of obstruction of justice acts being exercised via a letter signed by the majority of IGs (approximately 49) around 2014.
What’s going on now is, IMO, political prejudice that seems endemic in the current Intelligence agency heads, besieged by rampant leaks and uncooperative behavior. For instance, the controversial laptop was given over to an FBI agent months ago. The repairman who turned it over heard nothing back from them. He then turned copies of the computer’s content over to others because he felt it merited public exposure. However, even though the explicit documentation should invite at least serious inquiry into the Biden’s unsavory financial dealings with China, especially when the presidency is at stake, the Dems merely shrug their shoulders and continue to tag Trump as the corrupt one. I find this an amazing off-putting comparison.
On one hand MAYBE Biden was peddling influence. On the other hand we know that Trump has benefitted from foreign countries increasing the use of his hotels and Mar-a-LAgo had a surge. No maybe about it.
You really see an equivalence? If the Biden collusion with CCP story is true, it’s a matter of national security.
Biden may not be able to refuse the requests of the CCP at this point, if he’s dipped his beak once before.
Hotel rentals up? Now that’s all you’ve got to say Trump is corrupt?
People are squeezing their brains in trying to figure out some kind of moral equivalence to hang around Trump’s neck in order to buffer the slimy, greedy ethics of the Biden Family. Yes, they vigorously point to revenue from the Trump Hotels, while earlier trying to indict him on an emoluments dereliction. Now they’re pointing to a “Secret†bank account he had for a few years, not bothering to add this was a corporate account, taken out when he was a private citizen, not a government official, and was fully disclosed in financial statements and his income taxes.
So jan what is different this time? I keep asking this and I dont really expect you or any conservative to answer since you cant, but why should should we believe it this time? The unmasking? You guys were convinced and sent out lots of “details”. Barr investigates and doesn’t find anything. Same with Durham/Dunham/Dumbo. Lots of breathtaking awful stuff, then nothing. Lois Lerner? The same. Bengghazi? The same x 8. Other than it being close to the election why is it believable this time?
“Yes, they vigorously point to revenue from the Trump Hotels,” Mar-a-Lago too. Of course we do. He is accepting money from foreign entitities. The WSJ news team says there is no evidence of Biden doing the same. So one one side we have allegations from people who have never been right, and on the other we have it in writing. The problem is that you guys are perfectly OK with Trump accepting money from foreign governments. BTW, those are just two examples. There are lots of others. especially if we include the Trump family.
Steve
Steve, Durham has not released his findings yet. I’m not going to waste your time nor mine to go through tedious details about Benghazi, the IRS overreach. Where is your evidence about foreign entity money and Trump being unethically connected? Where is Trump accepting money’s from foreign entities.
There is a “plethora†of evidence regarding the Biden Family’s payoffs from China, which involves no services except for influence peddling. What is notably absent is any coverage of this by the MSM, coupled by outrageous censorship by Twitter and Facebook. Somehow, blocking people and old established publications seems fine with you. Even liberals like Glenn Greenwald are criticizing the lack of open, honest journalism by a media pulling out all the stops, becoming an intolerant conveyor of balanced journalism, in order to get Biden elected.
IMO, one of two things will happen to the democrat party after this election. Either they will be soundly defeated and implode under the weight of their deceitful, fascist conduct, or they will win and on day one busy themselves to turn the entire country into a government controlled one party-ruled country. I’m sure you’ll be very happy if that happens, ridding the political stage of all those irritating conservatives you constantly put down.
BTW, a spokes person for the DOJ has confirmed there is an open, active criminal investigation, since 2019, into the Biden’s regarding money laundering. Of course you won’t read, view or hear about this, unless you independently do research, as there is a virtual media blackout on anything that might cast a negative light or aspersions on Joe Biden. If this investigation involved Trump and a family member it would be front page news and opening stories on cable/TV news 24/7. Double standard? Of course!