Note the difference between the dutifully quoted propaganda and the actual quote of the whistleblower testimony.

NYT:

Mr. Shapley, in fact, also told Congress that his investigation had uncovered some evidence that some of the claims of the elder Mr. Biden’s involvement were mere “wishful thinking.”

He told of an interview conducted with Hunter Biden’s business associate Rob Walker, who told investigators that it was “projection” that former Vice President Biden would get involved in their business ventures.

“I certainly never was thinking at any time the V.P. was a part of anything we were doing,” Mr. Walker said, according to Mr. Shapley.

Actual testimony:

Walker answered: "I think that maybe James was wishful thinking or maybe he was just projecting that, you know, if this was a good relationship and this was something that was going to happen, the VP was never going to run, just protecting that, you know, maybe at some point he would be a piece of it, but he was more just, you know -- it looks terrible, but it's not. I certainly never was thinking at any time the VP was a part of anything we were doing."

https://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Whistleblower-1-Transcript_Redacted.pdf

Hunter Biden didn’t pay taxes. As a former president, he should know better. Oh wait.

Donald Trump tried to overturn an election and incited an insurrection, to say nothing about the rapes, tax avoidance, fraud, and homicidal policies (see environmental policies, eg).

Totally the same. In fact, we should be more outraged about… (::checks Fox News::) Hunter Biden. :up:

Federal crimes reduced to misdemeanors. DOJ and FBI obstructing Justice. Threatening oligarchs to pay up or else daddy will get them. Crack, prostitutes, leaving a gun by a school.

But Trump held a rally!!

Biggest revelations from the whistleblower testimony.

• Hunter linked daddy to Chinese deal in threat to business partner.
• Joe Biden showed up at business meetings with Hunter and his Chinese partners, clearly the doting father.
• The FBI authenticated Hunter Biden's laptop almost a year before we knew it existed and found no evidence of misinformation.
• Hunter deducted hooker and sex club payments from his taxes.
• The investigation into Hunter Biden had started due to a foreign porn website back in the 2018, and of course all of this was hidden from the public.
• Prosecutors wanted to charge Hunter with felonies, but all he got was misdemeanors.
• Biden’s Department of Justice worked to block the investigation.
• Agents wanted to search Biden family homes but were told the optics would be too bad.
• IRS wanted search warrant for Hunter’s storage locker but a Biden-appointed prosecutor tipped off his lawyers.

:clap: :rofl:

Consider again, lil MAGAt, reality on Earth One ...
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/816567

Bring it on. What’s another frivolous investigation? Maybe they’ll hire ABC to produce it like they did with the J6 committee, or they’ll sing ballads to Robert Mueller on SNL. Besides, I’m sure you need another dose of hopium by now. Hell, maybe Trump will start a proxy war with Saudi Arabia to cover it all up, and Big Tech will censor any mention of it.

Trump just held a peaceful rally. No big deal.

But a non-president did drugs and hired prostitutes! Outrageous.

:lol:

I find it hilarious how both parties will make endless hay over intimations of corruption and yet, while there is common ground on this issue, they refuse, again and again, to pass a law that would restrict elected and appointed federal officials from doing these things. An unpaid municipal commission member, a state employee at a regulator in almost every state, a regular federal employee, and a military officer would all be guilty of crimes if they engaged in the actions of Thomas (absolutely huge "gifts' and major business dealings without recusal) Clinton (settling a tax evasion case with UBS in a manner that generally was seen as very advantageous for the bank and then her husband being paid $1.5 million to give a speech to them), Scalia (same as Thomas but "only" $100,000 worth of gifts," etc., but the fact is that these things aren't even illegal for the top.

That is, even taking actions that would possibly create the perception of corruption, taking any gifts over $20, etc. is illegal in most states, for both elected officials down to your lowest level town employees.

In any of the jobs I've held at the state, local, or federal level the actions of Thomas, Scalia, or Clinton would be illegal. In many states, having an elected or appointed official leave for a job with a company they had just recently been regulating is illegal; many states have lifetime bans in these cases.

It's disturbing to me that partisans simply jump in to defend their side each time or attack the other, and that there has been no real pressure to stop these issues. Likely, it has to do with the fact that so many of Congress would find themselves guilty of violating such a law.

The Hunter Biden situation actually seems mild in comparison to other cases, because generally a person isn't expected to be able to police their children's business dealings. That said, does anyone really think a gas company had a legitimate reason for giving a self described out of control drug addict hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for a part time gig in an industry he had no real experience in?

That said, does anyone really think a gas company had a legitimate reason for giving a self described out of control drug addict hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for a part time gig in an industry he had no real experience in? — Count Timothy von Icarus

No. Hunter Biden should go to jail, along with Joe. For plenty of reasons. It’s just funny to watch the Trump cult’s split personality on these issues. Trump’s innocent; Hunter deserves the chair. Fair and balanced.

Can’t stop speaking about Trump, even in a Biden thread. But others are in a Trump cult.

More fair and balanced analysis. Please don’t let me deter you from railing against the real problem.

There is an argument to be made that you cannot deprive the sibling of a politician of their liberties, but I don't think this precludes a law where anyone in high office has to report accepted job offers or contracts above a certain $ threshold for immediate family members to an oversight agency as soon as they become aware of them.

Then the independent agency can investigate any that seems sketchy. It would probably have some level of records request power. It doesn't need to always be doing "investigations," which cast an air of wrongdoing. Rather they would just check in on relations between an official and an entity who was paying their immediate family members as a sort of net to catch wrongdoing or the potential perception of it.

But then these sorts of deals should just be illegal for officials themselves and their spouses, as it already is for lower government officials. You can't have the heads of the executive branch recuse themselves the way judges and Congressmen can, but you can at least assure the public that some level of oversight.

Because it's not always obvious wrongdoing. Some politicians don't care about their kids lol. Stalin rejected a deal to exchange his son for a German general, saying simply "I won't trade a major for a field marshal." When he heard his son had tried to commit suicide, trying to shoot himself in the heart and missing, his first response was allegedly, "see, I told you he can't do anything right." Great guy.

Let me guess: corporations?

That being said I’m glad you’ve come to your senses about the Biden crime family. Now you can follow around his defenders with emoji-laden comments and say “What about Biden?” That would be fair and balanced, after all.

Political Knowledge Level 1 Quiz

a) Bidens, clean / Trumps, clean X
b) Bidens, clean / Trumps, dirty X
c) Bidens, dirty / Trumps, clean X
d) Bidens, dirty / Trumps, dirty :100:

If you failed to answer correctly, your political knowledge is rated 0.

Let me guess: corporations? — NOS4A2

No no— everyone knows the real problem is Hunter Biden. Please keep railing— I’m definitely not laughing at you.

The real problem is the preferential treatment, the justice system and intelligence community protecting one of its own. The architect of the Patriot Act, the Iraq war, the Ukraine war, a man who has consistently consolidated power in the hands of the military industrial complex while violating fundamental civil rights is suspiciously held to a different standard than anyone else.

Your laughing lets me know you have nothing else.

Your laughing lets me know you have nothing else. — NOS4A2

Nothing else?

The fact that you think I should be defending Joe or Hunter Biden somehow by “refuting” what you say point by point is exactly why I’m laughing at you. There is nothing else.

See Baden’s quiz above. You opt for C). That’s why you’re a clown — not because Joe Biden isn’t dirty. But it’s also funny that you still, after all these years, struggle to see this.

All I know is as soon as I post something about a politician, there you and the others are, like clockwork. This has been the case my entire time here. Why is that? Because you’re fair and balanced? In Baden’s silly quiz you feign believing D and pretend to hold both to the same standards but I can go to any page on this or the other thread to see the facts of the matter.

All I know is as soon as I post something about a politician, there you and the others are, like clockwork. — NOS4A2

I can’t speak for others, but I don’t engage you often.

This has been the case my entire time here. Why is that? — NOS4A2

In all seriousness, it’s because there aren’t many Trump followers here to shit on.

you feign believing D and pretend to hold both to the same standards but I can go to any page on this or the other thread to see the facts of the matter. — NOS4A2

See, not being in the Trump or Biden cult has an added benefit: the ability to recognize degree. You won’t once find me minimizing Biden’s record (a la “Trump held a rally”) because I’m not in the cult of personality. But if it makes you happy, by all means continue. I mostly read you to laugh anyway.

Feel free to shit on me all you want.

But if you want to believe a political rally is "incitement to insurrection", which is the same line repeated by the worst elements in American politics, make a case. I know it doesn't meet the standards of incitement according to first amendment jurisprudence, and I can quote the same speech proving that he incited them to do the exact opposite, so I'm once again doubtful that you're not a victim of propaganda or in the cult of the establishment.

Feel free to shit on me all you want. — NOS4A2

I leave that to others. I mostly laugh. Which admittedly is rude to state explicitly— mea culpa.

But if you want to believe a political rally is "incitement to insurrection", which is the same line repeated by the worst elements in American politics, make a case. — NOS4A2

The evidence is pretty clear. It wasn’t only the rally, of course— it was weeks of whipping the followers up into a frenzy by telling them the election was stolen, a lie so obvious (and yet you accept) it’s laughable. It was completely predictable that something violent would happen.

Trump knew all this, of course, but is not stupid enough to outright state “go storm the Capitol building” — which apparently is what you want…although I’d expect you’d find some way of letting him off the hook even then.

doubtful that you're not a victim of propaganda — NOS4A2

Hilarious coming from you.

The evidence is pretty clear that your assessment isn't considered incitement according to any law or definition. Are you able to provide a single quote of him encouraging anyone to engage in an insurrection?

If not, it appears you've been whipped into a frenzy of your own.

In Baden’s silly quiz — NOS4A2

Yes, the quiz is silly, but so is pretending to be against corruption when the only thing you are actually against is the Bidens as evidenced by the fact that the corruption of Trump and his family has never, not once, been a point of criticism for you here. So given you are not against corruption but merely against the Bidens, why the charade? Given we know you know the correct answer to the silly quiz is D, why continue to pretend you don't know that? Do you think anyone reading this would get the answer wrong or?

Yes, the quiz is silly, but so is pretending to be against corruption when the only thing you are actually against is the Bidens as evidenced by the fact that the corruption of Trump and his family has never, not once, been a point of criticism for you here. So given you are not against corruption but merely against the Bidens, why the charade? Given we know you know the correct answer to the silly quiz is D, why continue to pretend you don't know that? Do you think anyone reading this would get the answer wrong or?

What corruption?

“the action of provoking unlawful behavior or urging someone to behave unlawfully.“

Simple definition. Fits the bill. But no matter — I’m sure you think he bears no responsibility for what happened — which was of course only a peaceful riot. Carry on.

Simple definition. Still no quote. c-ya.

:lol:

So anything shy of “Go and storm the Capitol building” doesn’t count. Got it.

What corruption? — NOS4A2

Yeah, and we’re not supposed to laugh.

Given we know you know the correct answer to the silly quiz is D, why continue to pretend you don't know that? — Baden

He’s not pretending. He really believes it’s C.

I said laugh all you want. Again, what corruption? I’m so inundated with Fox News that I may have missed it.