Speaking of White Privilege….
The Wall Street Journal reports that Hunter Biden failed a drug test for cocaine last year and was discharged in February of this year. For reasons passing understanding, he received a commission as a public affairs officer in the Naval Reserve after receiving a special waiver due to his 42 years of age. This was after a career as an attorney, a lobbyist, and an investment banker. Given those careers, it is likely that this was not Hunter’s first encounter with cocaine (yeah, you don’t start at 42).
I am sure Hunter is not expecting there to be consequences, other than public embarrassment and discharge, which have already taken place (and the embarrassment will continue for a while). And he likely will not be. That is quite a privilege.
This piece by Jason330 and accompanying commentary adds more perspective:
http://delawareliberal.net//2014/05/21/things-americans-dont-know-or-care-about-the-hunter-biden-files/
You will note that Jason330 wrote this piece in May of this year. Now note that the failed drug test took place in June, 2013. Forget about the fact that all kinds of strings were pulled so that, according to the News-Journal:
“Biden, an ensign, was selected for commission as a reserve officer through the Direct Commission Officer program in 2012, according to Cmdr. Ryan Perry, a Navy spokesman.
In May 2013, Biden, 43, was commissioned into the Navy Reserve unit for Navy Public Affairs Support Element East in Norfolk, Virginia. Biden, WHO HAD NO PRIOR MILITARY EXPERIENCE, was one of six officers commissioned nationally into the public affairs division of the Navy Reserve.
The Wall Street Journal, citing “people familiar with the matter” reported that Biden was given a drug test in June 2013 that tested positive for cocaine.”
Couldn’t stay away from the stuff for more than a month.
NOW, consider the fact that, although WE didn’t know, the US Government knew that Cocaine Cowboy Hunter Biden had already blown his so-called military career up his nose. Yet, the US government, aka the White House, shrugged its shoulders when ‘private citizen’ Hunter Biden was hired by the largest Ukrainian natural gas provider at precisely the time that Russia and Ukraine were close to going to war and, wait for it, Veep Biden was engaged in shuttle diplomacy. Remember that Hunter’s partner was a former aide to…Secretary of State Kerry. What conflicts-of-interest could possibly present themselves?
I don’t know what to say other than it is time that the Biden kids be consigned to that dustbin of history that includes Billy Carter, Neil Bush, and Robert Vesco’s best friend, Donald Nixon.
Attorney General Biden didn’t know his bro was all coked up? not for nothing, but you know what can cause brain aneurisms? Cocaine.
I am sure Hunter is not expecting there to be consequences, other than public embarrassment and discharge
@DD, what other consequences would you expect for a positive drug test?
Not the point. Just like Dubya, he got handed opportunity after opportunity that he didn’t deserve.
All he has going for him are his connections in high places. Due solely to his last name. Based on his track record, he’d literally be nothing w/o them.
Yet he moves forward to greater wealth undaunted. With his military disgrace hidden until he lands in a pile of filthy lucre in the Ukraine.
It defines the term white privilege, which is DD’s point.
He couldn’t have been an actual addict, because an addict couldn’t have stayed off the stuff long enough to clean out his system for the previous drug tests, drug tests he had to have passed to have gotten his commission in the first place. That means that Mr Biden had to have consciously chosen to snort some coke, rather than having been driven by addiction, sometime after he was commissioned and assigned. (I do not know if the military does hair tests, which would have shown drug use over a longer period of time than urine tests.)
Nor was he some punk kid; he was 43 years old at the time. He’s an attorney, makes a clear pile of money, and was on the boards of several organizations, an insider’s way of funneling money to the well-connected without them having to do much work for it.
If Mr Biden was using cocaine, even just occasionally, before he entered the Navy, why did he volunteer for a career which involved drug tests in the first place? His father was Vice President; he had to have known that if he ever did get caught, it would be all over the national news, and not something kept quiet forever. At some point, an utterly stupid decision — or series of them — was taken by Mr Biden.
He couldn’t have been an actual addict, because an addict couldn’t have stayed off the stuff long enough to clean out his system for the previous drug tests
That statement shows ignorance of addiction. Lucky for you.
He gets his info on addiction from old episodes of Matlock.
I’m with, Puck. What do you guys think should happen for positive drug test? Are other people going to jail for positive drug tests?
With everyone shoving money in his pockets, why even join the Navy at 42? A resume line in the event he was going to run for something? What bullshit.
Luke: From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded..
In Biden’s Case: To everyone who has been given much, much more will be still be given…
As long as we are ‘Speaking of White Privilege”, I’ve got to let you know of some similarities between me and old Hunter.
We are both white people.
Both of our fathers were politicians in Washington for Delaware.
I also tried to enlist in the military after 9/11, but all I got was, “sir, the Marines do not want you at age 37”.
Yeah,and I also got popped with some drugs too. A marijuana roach weighing less than a gram. Did a year in a diversion program for that.
Got a cushy job too. Just like Hunter . Well, maybe not exactly like Hunter
Oh well, the trailer is loaded up so I better get going. It’s going to be a beautiful weekend, and people need their leaves blown and their grass cut.
Cheers!
maybe instead…. after acknowledging the insane hypocrisy/irony of Senator 100:1’s son being outed as a coke user….. We can see that successful members of society can, at times, use recreational drugs and not turn into Tuco from Breaking Bad, and maybe rethink our collective stance on what people choose to do to their own bodies.
“GRAAAAA Ben just advocated for everyone to develop a coke habit!!”””” (there, i fake-outraged for you)
GRAAAAA Ben just gave a tidy example of white privilege.
I also have to ask what passes for the press: How does this stay out of the news for 18 months, during which Hunter got himself a cushy sinecure literally right in the middle of a military/diplomatic crisis? Shouldn’t people have known BEFORE he used daddy’s contacts to get that position, just like he used daddy’s contacts to jump to the front of the line for a position he otherwise wouldn’t have even gotten a…sniff at?
And, how does news of Beau’s whereabouts stay submerged while our alleged AG allegedly plots a run for Governor?
These are public figures and these are public events. Yet…crickets.
Ben, while I take your point about recreational drug use, here we’ve got a guy who was able to jump to the head of a line he shouldn’t have even been in doing coke while knowing full well what the consequences would be. Spoiled and arrogant are the words that come to mind. Since he’s been ‘entitled’ his whole life, he musta figured that he was entitled to do whatever the bleep he pleased. And they STILL kept it covered up for almost 18 months.
and i take your point as well. I’m not defending the son of a anti-drug politician for using drugs, mind you. It’s because people like his father have turned drug use into such a horrible thing, that the privilege for him to “get away with it” exists in the first place. BASICALLY…. instead of wanting to punish him MORE, i think we should be punishing everyone else LESS. (communication is hard)
I’m having a problem labeling this incident as a “white privilege” case. Is white privilege part of this. Sure. Is this incident based mainly on white privilege. No.
Entitled, rich kid of the Vice President of the United States? There’s your privilege – and it would (and has) extend/ed to the children of all powerful people. Unless you think Obama’s children and Colin Powell’s children would have been treated differently by the Naval Reserve. Is that the argument? That had he been the black or brown child of a black/brown VP he would have been received a different punishment?
He failed a drug test and was relieved of duty (a duty he possibly/probably received due to his having his father’s ear) which is what’s supposed to happen… right? Seriously, what more do you guys think should happen to him for failing a drug test?
Now, if you can cite examples of powerful people’s sons receiving different punishments for failing a drug test I’d have to reconsider my thoughts and concede your point about white privilege. Until then I’m having trouble holding up this story as the example of white privilege. I see it as a case of affluenza.
Affluenza is probably part of it. But the Navy had to give him a waiver for a past drug-related incident, while we’re trying to just get employers to ban the box and not judge applicants based on past interaction with law enforcement.
A pop on a drug test, being fired for failing a drug test may show up on background checks for the rest of us. That’s the affluenza part — Hunter Biden isn’t going to have to survive a background check to get employment.
Most people who fail a drug test don’t get arrested unless they are actually holding at the time. Which your employer wouldn’t really know unless they search you. But they may report it so that it is tougher for you to get a job in the future.
It’s not about the punishment. I don’t think anyone’s arguing that he should be thrown in jail. It’s about the kind of entitlement that enables an otherwise unqualified candidate to move to the front of the line, making a mockery of that entitlement by engaging in activity he knows could well get him fired soon thereafter, having others bury the incident until/after he’s landed another golden parachute position that also wouldn’t have been available to him had his last name not been Biden.
Maybe ‘white’ is too broad. Perhaps the hed should just have read ‘Biden Privilege’. The rules sure don’t seem to apply to them. Maybe it’s time some reporter told Biden to go bleep himself, and that they’re gonna cover the news concerning his increasingly-sketchy family rather than covering it up.
Any thought being given to the possibility of his coke-sniffing brother’s story getting out might have been a contributing factor to Beau’s decision not to seek another term as AG?
Had he been running, and had this been reported a couple days earlier, might have made for an interesting question/response at the debate this week.
Purely hypothetical, but just sayin’.
Mr Hen wrote:
To be fair, Mr Biden was a direct commission officer, in the restricted line: doctors and lawyers get to skip real boot camp — there is a bit of training and orientation — and practice their career fields in the service. That doesn’t mean that Mr Biden’s surname didn’t get him special consideration.
Miss Pandora wrote:
He should have to rat out his supplier, for one thing. But failing a drug test does not equal possession; it simply means that he had, at one point, possessed. I would hope that they got a warrant and searched his quarters for cocaine, but have no idea whether they did that and found nothing, or didn’t search.
Another example of political affluenza — being able to pull strings to get into the Air National Guard rather than be drafted to go to Vietnam AND get away with being AWOL from TANG.
Obvious question: Hunter Biden is eligible for Secret Service protection; does he actually receive it? If he does, and he was busted for using cocaine, one would think that there are going to be Secret Service issues as well.
I knew that “Just Say Snow” program wouldn’t work either.
I really, really, really want to have fun with this one, but still have children to raise.
And the heck with the Secret Service, and the comission–I’m more concerned that expedited line was for security clearance, needed for any of those PR jobs, especially in the Ukraine–you know, where cocaine has replaced caviar.
So if a real soldier wants out, it’s a flesh wound to the butt, or the proverbial “shoot yourself in the foot”.
If this guy wants out, but needed a security clearance first for future interests, why not a dirty drug test? It’s the most forgettable of ubiquitous sins across that tier of affluence AND he’s a PR guy.
Well played, Hunter, well played.
But I am just bustin’ to be an SNL script writer right now!!!
And El Som–please add to your dustbin, that Ford boy, the Clinton in-law, pick a Kennedy, Elvis the Deputy, and whatever Reagan kid plopped down in the White House dorm by whichever mother.
Yes Hunter, well played.
There’s less onerous ways to expedite a security clearance — especially if you have the last name of Biden.
How onerous was an expedited Naval Officer commission, straight from civilian life at age 42? Are you kidding me? Sounds like “Queen for a Day” to me with a bunch of take home prizes.
My kids used to watch (maybe it’s still on) some show called “Made” (I think), where a teen or somebody wanted to be someone/something/somebody. They would work with that person all on the inside track to get them to some specific point of accolade. Geez, at least those kids had to skateboard, sing, play baseball, rodeo or whatever–good or bad as they were to their final “debut” of feeling like that champ, occupation, diva etc..
Seriously, I’m still hanging with achieved Navy “creed”, security clearance, quick entry, quick exit, having bragging rights of “served my country” in the annals of military service history–and this lil’ indiscretion is all just a footnote like some of the aforementioned names.
It’s the “Make a Wish Foundation” for affluenza.
And the real story should be….was it a dishonorable discharge? And does he still qualify to draw benefits from the ever-improving VA services?
This was no choke by coke.
Brilliant Hunter, seriously brilliant.
Unless he is trying to add military service to his resume (what I think is going on for future political reasons), he could have joined SAIC or Booz-Allen or Dyncorp and gone to the front of the line. The only thing he gets by joining the Navy is the served my country business.
So that’s the question, right? Why did he need to burnish his resume with military service at this date?
@cassandra
Or else a no-brainer obscure military job was a good place to bury him for awhile, hopefully out of sight while Dad and Beau pursued their own agendas …
Hunter Biden has been working at pretty substantial lobbing firms, law firms and hedge funds (in addition to the the Ukranian company, Burisma Holdings. He didn’t need to be buried in a military job.
A sad story on several levels. On any given drill weekend as a Reservist you would know you stood a significant chance of being chosen for the “whiz quiz”. My understanding is that cocaine is out of your system in 48 hours, testing was usually on Saturday AM, meaning that he had done a significant amount Thursday or Friday even knowing the drill weekend was coming – these aren’t trace amounts, there are thresholds. Pretty nasty habit. Sad also the logical answers to Cassandra’s questions.
Mr Kneedog wrote:
My younger daughter told me that once, at Fort Indiantown Gap, for her drill weekend, they tested everybody on Saturday, and then went around testing everybody again on Sunday, I suppose to find out if anyone was toking right after the drug test.
Her AIT (Advanced Individual Training, which occurs immediately after Basic Combat Training) extended over the Christmas holidays in 2010, and the Army let the soldiers take a couple weeks back home, warning them, several times, that they’d all get to take the wiz quiz upon returning, and one guy, after ten weeks of BCT and 18 out of 20 weeks of AIT, with just a couple of weeks left to go, tested hot upon returning to Fort Gordon. And this was for an MOS which requires a Secret clearance! Duhhh!
Mrs Christian wrote:
Oh, no, it’ll never be forgotten, if he ever tries to run for, or be appointed to, some political office; he’ll have political opponents, who will be certain to point out this stupidity.
I’m guessing that he figured that the Navy would never spring a random drug screen on the Vice President’s son.
So a 42 year old rich connected white man does cocaine. Wow, sorry I missed this amazing discussion last week.
You got one commenter talking about ratting out his supplier. HAHAHAHA! His “supplier”… that fucking hilarious.
You got pretty much everyone not realizing that cocaine, unlike weed, is out of your system in just a few days rather than a month. Ecstacy is the same. It doesn’t linger.
One commenter was wondering how his AG brother didn’t know. That really made me laugh. That could perhaps be the comment that indicates that some people don’t live in the real world.
While this is a perfect illustration of white privilege I fail to see what else is suppose to happen now. Like Pandora said, he was discharged and shamed (to whatever extent that’s possible). It’s over… There’s nothing sad about it. There’s nothing to it at all.
He probably didn’t want to be in the goddamn Navy anyway.