Tag Archives: Hunter Biden

Joe Biden

Biden plea an end? Hardly

Hunter Biden worked out a deal with the federal government to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges. He won’t get jail time.

Is this the end of the Republican Party’s ongoing battle to find something incriminating against the president’s son? Will this spell the end of a search that will have no end?

I think not.

No, it’s likely going to signal at least a temporary surge of interest among the MAGA morons who comprise part of the Republican base. They’ll want more, and more after that … and even more after that. To what end is anyone’s guess.

One of the charges involves some back taxes he owes; the other involves the purchase of a firearm when he was battling drug addiction.

Now, to be sure about this matter, Hunter Biden isn’t entirely clean. He did have an alcohol and drug crisis. He sought help. He got it. He’s now clean and for that he deserves high praise not damnable condemnation.

He also has to explain why he took that job with a Ukrainian energy company that paid him millions of dollars annually. He doesn’t have a thimble full of knowledge about energy exploration. Hunter Biden, though, was the son of the U.S. vice president when the firm hired him.

Now the former VP is the top man. Hunter Biden’s plea deal means he won’t be imprisoned. I am chagrined to report, though, that none of this signals an end to the “witch hunt” that has been ongoing for longer than any of us can remember.

It’s politics, man. It stinks.

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crime news

DOJ calls it quits on Hunter Biden

Well now, the U.S. Department of Justice has sent its investigative team — the one working on whether to charge Hunter Biden with a crime — home.

Something tells me the DOJ has decided what many of us have believed all along, that Republican questions about the president’s son have produced a serious nothing burger.

Shades of Benghazi, it looks for all the world to me.

You’ll recall that the GOP congressional caucus looked high and low for something on which to charge then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the wake of the terrorist raid on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. It was a tragic event, to be sure. The GOP found nothing it could hang on Clinton or her diplomatic team.

Now comes this baloney involving Hunter Biden. He made a lot of money working for a Ukrainian oil company. That’s a crime? Hardly!

I don’t expect the GOP hounds to be called off. They’ll keep looking. I mean, we have an election coming up and President Biden’s foes need all the dirt they can find to sully the president’s re-election effort.

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national news

What did Hunter Biden do?

The MAGA wing of what passes for today’s Republican Party keeps insisting that Hunter Biden — the son of the president — is guilty of something, so it intends to probe whatever he has done.

I now will weigh in on what I believe to this day to be a nothing burger unworthy of the term “scandal.”

Hunter Biden accepted a role with a Ukrainian oil company. He has no experience as a petroleum engineer, or as a financial wizard. He happens to be the son of an important American politician. So, the oil company thought it could use Biden’s high-profile name to gin up its profits. As Hunter Biden’s dad once said: Big fu***** deal!

Is that a crime? Is it any different, say, than what Jared Kushner has done by being the son-in-law of another prominent American? Let’s also examine the income that Don Trump Jr. has earned by being the son of that American. Or … how about the other son, Eric Trump?

Look, I am not going to play he “what about?” game here. I just am baffled by the so-called interest in Hunter Biden’s business activities. I am willing to concede that it looks kinda shady that an individual with no practical or demonstrable experience would take a huge salary while possessing not a lick of experience in that field.

However, other politicians have lent their famous names to projects. I recall a politician who once represented me in Congress, Jack Brooks, a Beaumont Democrat, served on various bank boards during his 40 years in Congress. Was he a financial expert? Did he have actual banking experience? Uhh … no! But he earned a handsome income and left Congress in 1995 far wealthier than when he entered that body.

Did he do anything illegal? Did he compromise his service to the nation? No.

It is my strong sense that the MAGA cabal is going to come up as empty in its Hunter Biden probe as it did when they looked high and low for dirt on Hillary Clinton. They found nothing then. They will find nothing now.

It’s all just so much crap!

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national news

Revenge on its way

We had better steel ourselves for what appears to be shaping up as the new Congress gets set to takes office in January.

Of particular concern is the House of Representatives, which will have slim Republican majority. What’s on tap? Vengeance, man!

House GOP leaders have made it clear they intend to go after Hunter Biden, his business interests and whether his father — the president of the United States — is somehow implicated in allegedly illegal activity.

Climate change? Gun violence? Roe v. Wade? War and peace? Forget about it!

No. The House GOP is sighting its weaponry on Hunter Biden. They are angry because Democrats managed to impeach the former POTUS twice, once for soliciting political help from a foreign government and once for inciting an insurrection. The second impeachment resulted in a Senate trial in which 57 out of 100 senators voted to convict, but it didn’t meet the two-thirds threshold required by the Constitution.

So, here comes the revenge.

You want good government? Or the search for common ground? Constructive legislation? Don’t make me laugh!

The MAGA wing of the GOP is positioned now to put maximum pressure on congressional leadership. They have shown zero reluctance to fight back when any opportunity presents itself … or when they can create their own opportunities.

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crime news, legal news, national news, political news

Waiting for barrage to batter POTUS

Let’s all wait for what many of know is coming if federal prosecutors decide to indict Hunter Biden on allegations involving tax violations and the purchase of a firearm.

What I am sure we’ll see will be Republican efforts to link President Joe Biden to his son’s activities. They’ll seek to paint the president with the same broad brush that they’ll use to slather Hunter Biden.

It will be a shameful display of demagoguery, which many of us have come to expect from the Grand Old (Obstructionist) Party.

I will continue to pull for the president to weather this storm … if it opens up.

Reports indicate that investigators think they have enough to prosecute. It’s not their call. The decision rests with the U.S. attorney. If the attorney decides to go forward, I intend to ignore the rubbish that will pour fourth.

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crime news, national news, political news

Younger Biden under intense scrutiny

Here we go. There well might be a criminal referral coming forward that suggests that Hunter Biden, son of the president of the U.S.A., could be indicted for tax fraud and for an allegation that he lied while purchasing a firearm.

A federal prosecutor in Delaware reportedly is wrapping up a probe. Reports suggest that the investigative team believes it has evidence of wrongdoing. The task now falls to the U.S. attorney to decide whether to bring charges forward.

Sigh … There appears to be questions about the probe. Chief among them might be whether the U.S. attorney, a Donald J. Trump appointee, is too jaded by the former POTUS’s loathing of the Bidens to render a fair and just decision on whether to indict.

I guess my major concern deals with whether the president is going to suffer needless political damage from whatever his son did to get indicted. I also know that the real world often acts in unjust and unfair ways. This might be one of those times.

There once was a time when we didn’t fixate on the political connections of career federal prosecutors. Those days are gone. Perhaps we can thank Trump for the change in attitude, as he was prone to criticize judgments against by labeling jurists as “Obama judges” or “Clinton judges.”

Are we now going to dismiss any indictment because it comes from a “Trump prosecutor”?

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business news

Is this Biden’s ‘Benghazi’?

Hunter Biden’s business activity and the controversy that’s being hyped up about it is beginning to remind me more than just a little bit of … Benghazi!

You remember Benghazi. Terrorists stormed the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city in late 2012. Four people — including the U.S. ambassador to Libya — died in the attack. Republicans blamed Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state during the attack.

Clinton sat before a congressional committee for 11 hours. Republicans on the panel sought to find something — anything — with which to accuse her. They grilled her incessantly.

They found nothing.

So now we have the son of President Biden on the griddle. The GOP insists that Hunter Biden’s laptop contains material that could send the president’s son to prison. They keep yapping about an investigation “when we take back the House.” What, I want to know, do they plan to investigate?

What did he do? Biden accepted high-paying jobs that he got because he is the son of a former U.S. senator, former vice president and current president. He is making a lot of dough working for these companies, even though he has no practical experience in the energy business, which is relevant to at least one of the companies that hired him.

What Is Hunter Biden Being Investigated For? Details of Federal Probe (msn.com)

Is it a crime for the child of a famous person to accept a cushy, well-paying job? Hah! It’s been done many times before and will be done far into the future.

The GOP is trying to hang tax charges on Hunter Biden, contending he didn’t pay his share of taxes.

This business about Hunter Biden has been kicking around for a while. During the 2020 campaign, GOP operatives sought to make Biden’s business dealings a campaign issue to use against his dad. Hunter Biden had taken a job with a Ukrainian energy company, for example, prompting Republicans to wonder aloud about the propriety of the hire. However, a Ukrainian prosecutor declared out loud that neither Biden — not Joe nor Hunter — did anything illegal.

End of story? Hardly!

My sense is that this matter will produce as much credible criminal wrongdoing as the Benghazi tragedy did against Hillary Clinton.

We will have, to borrow a term, a nothing burger.

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business news, national news

Looking for evil intent?

The right-wing goon squad that is on the hunt for evil intent involving President Biden and his son, Hunter, are going to stop at nothing to concoct some nefarious plot that — as I look at it — defies logic.

Hunter Biden went to work years ago for a Ukrainian energy company, serving on the board and raking in a lot of dough for doing, allegedly, nothing to earn it. I get that it doesn’t look good for someone to trade on his famous parent’s name for considerable profit. Hey, it happens; e.g.: Donald Jr. and Eric Trump.

What about dear ol’ Dad, though? Are we supposed to believe that a man who has spent virtually his entire adult professional life in public service is going to throw it all away with an obviously careless and corrupt practice? The right-wingers want us to believe that President Biden himself profited from Hunter’s association with the energy firm.

Yes, that the president of the United States of America hauled in cash and fattened his own bank account. How does someone with half a brain even think he can get away with such a thing when the public is watching his every move?

Joe Biden served for eight years as vice president in the Barack Obama administration. Prior to being elected VP, he served for 36 years as a U.S. senator from Delaware. Prior to that, Biden served on a county council as a Democratic representative.

I did the math: That’s 52 years of public service. 

And yet the right-wingers want us to believe that a man who’s been under the public’s prying eyes would be stupid enough to take money while his son is working as a board member for a foreign-based energy firm.

One more point. During the first impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump’s quest for a political favor from Ukraine, a prosecutor in that country declared categorically that neither Joe nor Hunter Biden committed any crimes.

Still, the hunt goes on. To what end? To seek to destroy the career of the man who defeated Donald Trump.

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legal news

Barr breaks with POTUS

By JOHN KANELIS / [email protected]

U.S. Attorney General William Barr is about to step away from public life, but before he goes he is dealing Donald J. Trump a punch in the gut.

To which I say: It is about damn time!

Barr today declared — two days before he departs the Justice Department — that there is no need for a special counsel to investigate alleged election fraud; nor is there a need to investigate the dealings of Hunter Biden, the son of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.

The gut punch occurs because Trump believes there is a need for a special counsel to look at both matters. Barr, who has been criticized roundly — and with justification — for his fealty to the president, is putting the finishing touches on his Justice Department career by telling us the truth about this bogus special counsel demand.

One is that there is no widespread voter fraud of the type Trump has alleged. Two is that the Hunter Biden matter is being handled responsibly by U.S. prosecutors in Delaware.

As NBC News has reported: “I see no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government — wholesale seizure of machines by the federal government,” he said, adding that he stood by his statement there was no widespread fraud that would affect the outcome of the presidential election.

I expect the Twitter tirade from Donald Trump to be forthcoming.

national news

Sure, Donald, deny all you want

By JOHN KANELIS / [email protected]

Donald Trump wants us to believe he has nothing to do with a federal investigation into the business dealings of the son of the man who defeated him for re-election.

Do we take the word of the Serial Liar in Chief? Umm, I don’t think so.

Hunter Biden, son of President-elect Joe Biden, has declared that the Internal Revenue Service is investigating his business affairs. He has cooperated with the IRS. Meanwhile, Donald Trump continues to throw up roadblocks to Joe Biden’s transition into the presidency and his minions continue to raise the issue of Hunter Biden’s business dealings, as if to smear his father.

So now we have Donald Trump declare he has nothing to do with the feds investigating Hunter Biden. Do you believe him? Neither do I.

Indeed, I stand by my refusal to take a single thing that comes from Trump’s mouth at face value.