How about that Hunter Biden laptop...

[RackMaster]

This is kind of awkward, considering current events.

Now that Joe Biden’s president, the Times finally admits: Hunter’s laptop is real

 

[R.Caerbannog]

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

 

[ShamgarTheJudge]

It’s like people (the media and current administration) think we’re dumb elementary kids and are telling us our uncle died in a car accident when he really was murdered by his favorite male prostitute’s pimp over a crack debt; only to tell us the truth 6 months later after getting drunk.

Please forgive the run-on.

 

[ShamgarTheJudge]

It’s extremely patronizing and condescending.

 

[ThunderHorse]

So how come the NYT didn't get de-platformed?

 

[DA SWO]

They are setting the stage for Joe's removal.

 

[R.Caerbannog]

They are setting the stage for Joe's removal.

He never should have been there, everyone knows it was all a sham.

 

[Topkick]

Frustrating to see the corruption, regardless of party, taking place right under our nose. We know it, they know it, and nothing gets done about it. And they no longer care what we think.

 

[LimaPanther]

We see it but still keep voting the same corrupt individuals into office. That is why they sit in office for 20+ years. If it wasn't for the Electoral College, we would have a dictatorship.

 

[Topkick]

but still keep voting the same corrupt individuals into office

Find it hard to believe that some of these cartoonish individuals actually win term after term.

 

[CQB]

I seem to recall something about it being Russian disinformation…from those who should know better.

 

[Marauder06]

They are setting the stage for Joe's removal.

I've thought about that a bit since you posted it. It's seems like a definite possibility. Given the conditions of the previous president's impeachment, it seems likely that if when there's a major change in the composition of the House, there will be another Ukraine-related impeachment. President Biden is on tape bragging about getting a Ukrainian prosecutor removed. If that removal can be tied to any substantiated corruption there by his son, and especially if it leads back to the President (10% for the big guy)--and I'm not convinced at the moment that it does--then I think we have another one, one that reaches further across party lines than the last one. I guess we'll see.

 

[Marauder06]

I seem to recall something about it being Russian disinformation…from those who should know better.

Yep. Here is there original letter.

One aspect of being in the intelligence profession is that it requires you to make assessments based on less-than-perfect information. As such, those assessments are often wrong. It's a hazard of the business.

When those errors are made in good faith, in one's official capacity, then I don't think anyone has a problem with it. The problem with this situation is that the assessment was produced by individuals who, by their own admission are "former" members of the IC, who used their status as high-ranking public servants for the self-interested purpose of influencing a US presidential election.

One of the best things that an intel professional can do when they don't have enough information to make an assessment is say "we don't have enough information to make that assessment" and let it end there. This letter is so heavily-caveated with things like "if we are right" and "we don't know" so as to make this useless as a decision-making tool. It repeats hearsay, innuendo, and anonymous sources. This is basically the equivalent of "I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'" and it ties right back into the Russiagate conspiracy.

No one asked them to make this report. No one forced them to make it public. The signatories got it wrong; they own this. But the end result was what they wanted, and there are never any real consequences for this type of thing. And that's a shame, because when powerful members of the intelligence/political complex use their power to influence US elections, that's something we should all be concerned about.

Sure, this could have the markings of a "Russian influence operation." You know what else it had the markings of? A legit "October surprise" political scandal, involving a guy whose history (kicked out of the Navy for smoking crack, banging his brother's widow while he was still married, knocking up a stripper and denying it was his child) made it seem pretty plausible. And that's what it turned out to be.

The "former members of the IC" should have sat this one out.

 

[RackMaster]

I'm honestly thinking the whole Russiagate conspiracy was confession through projection. Maybe Putin had Hunter Biden pee tapes, instead of Trump.

 

[CQB]

I actually thought Jim Clapper was better than that.

 

[ThunderHorse]

This is outstanding.

Secret Service paying over $30K per month for Malibu mansion to protect Hunter Biden

 

[Locksteady]

This is outstanding.

Secret Service paying over $30K per month for Malibu mansion to protect Hunter Biden

Very eye-opening article, and even moreso after seeing the amounts spent by USSS to protect the previous two presidential families in luxury digs and reading about the retired SA calling it the 'cost of doing business' for the agency.

 

[TLDR20]

This is outstanding.

Secret Service paying over $30K per month for Malibu mansion to protect Hunter Biden

But what about……

It is low hanging fruit to “what about” secret service costs incurred by any of of former presidents. But I want to do it so badly.

 

[Marauder06]

But what about……

It is low hanging fruit to “what about” secret service costs incurred by any of of former presidents. But I want to do it so badly.

Hunter Biden isn't a former president, brother. Although it wouldn't surprise me if this is not an uncommon thing for family members of sitting presidents. I wonder how much it cost for a security detail for Jared Kushner. I assume he had one.

Edited to add: the article answered my question:

In the first year of Donald Trump's presidency, the Secret Service requested $60 million of additional funding to protect Trump and his family, with about $27 million of that going to protecting them at their private residency at the Trump Tower in New York City, according to internal agency documents obtained by the Washington Post at that time.

^damn that's a lot of money!

 

[TLDR20]

Hunter Biden isn't a former president, brother. Although it wouldn't surprise me if this is not an uncommon thing for family members of sitting presidents. I wonder how much it cost for a security detail for Jared Kushner. I assume he had one.

Edited to add: the article answered my question:

In the first year of Donald Trump's presidency, the Secret Service requested $60 million of additional funding to protect Trump and his family, with about $27 million of that going to protecting them at their private residency at the Trump Tower in New York City, according to internal agency documents obtained by the Washington Post at that time.

^damn that's a lot of money!

Yeah.

That was exactly my point.