Hunter Biden’s lap top “Lappy!” ™ is going to be a major figure in Biden’s Q-peachment
Gosh darn it, Lappy! What in blazes did you do this time?!?
The Atlantic – Via Boing Boing
It seems likely that the MAGA party will take control of the house, thanks to a combination of voter intimidation and blaming Biden for global inflation. After they kill the J6 investigation, they’ll tackle two other jobs: impeaching Biden and installing a MAGA president. This article in The Atlantic lays out the roadmap for impeachment, which includes linking Hunter Biden to his father.
I talked with a lot of Republicans for this story, and the subject they mentioned most often was the president’s son Hunter Biden. “Hunter” is an all-purpose emblem of scandal in the GOP, and to some extent that is justified. He has admitted to abusing drugs; he was thinly qualified for his position on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural-gas company, which he held while his father was vice president; and he is reportedly under federal investigation for alleged tax crimes and for lying about his drug use on an application to buy a gun. (He has said that professional advisers helped him with his tax affairs and is confident they were handled legally.)
The problem for those who want to impeach is how to connect the president to his son’s alleged misadventures. Republicans who mentioned “the Hunter issue”—even those who predicted that it would be the central predicate for impeachment—grew vague when I asked them how it demonstrated wrongdoing by the president. One said it showed “a pay-to-play scheme,” but did not specify who paid whom for what corrupt purpose.
Didn’t I grow up in a world where improper (or at least politically-driven) impeachment actually resulted in a higher approval rating for the soon-to-be-impeached president? I was only 15 in 1998 so maybe I didn’t get the whole story, but I sure recall Clinton coasting those last couple years when Republicans over-reached.*
Wouldn’t the same thing happen here? Or has the media ecosystem changed so much that there won’t be any perceptible blowback for the impeaching party when they only listen to their echo chambers? Would one impeachment resolution after another just dilute them into meaninglessness?
*I actually think Clinton should have resigned, but that’s another discussion.
…has the media ecosystem changed so much that there won’t be any perceptible blowback for the impeaching party…
Yes. Fox News has been a game changer.
If we’re making a comparison with the Clinton era, Fox News is hardly the only game-changer in the media ecosystem. There’s the internet, the rise of Facebook, Twitter and other social media, and the massive decline in circulation (and influence) of the print media.
All of these changes have made both information and disinformation more accessible to the digitally connected but the shrinkage of the traditional print industry has diminished the number of journalists dedicated to comprehensive, objective reporting.
Also the segmentation of media. During Watergate there were only three network news broadcasts. During the Clinton years as I recall FOX News was barely getting off the ground (but there was right-wing radio).
The Internet means any bozo can pump out fake news and propaganda without the startup costs of a TV network.
If hunter’s shenanigans are the impeachment trigger, then it’s an unforced error on Biden’s part. The boy definitely has problems, probably a touch of “affluenza” and a lingering inferiority complex when compared to Beau. Joe had ample time and resources to fix the hunter issue and keep him out of the public eye, but his failure to act plays off as an enabling at best or endorsement at worst.
Personally, I don’t think there is anything nefarious going on, just a sad old man and his failed progeny and a lot of conflict avoidance that has gotten them to this point.
Hey! you must be a recent immigrant to our great country. Parents covering for and enabling their kids as well as kids taking advantage of every unearned positional advantage is not only common, but an American tradition! If you need an example as additional reference, the previous guy had three kids that were not only implicated, but ACTUALLY involved to the tune of multi-billion dollar “investments” from foreign countries. Not to mention numerous questionable foreign emoluments clause violations. You didn’t even need some specious laptop as a Macguffin to move the story forward! Locally, here in Delaware, we have things called ‘private schools’. You may not know the term. But they are places where kids party so hard and use substances so expensive, but never see a lick of actual prosecution, that you’d think it was the White House from 2016 to 2020. Unlike the dreaded public schools where kids just trying to get by have local ‘security assets’ shaking them down every day because, well, their parents aren’t connected. Enjoy your time in our great country where you will go as far as you skin color and accomplishments of, unknown to you, relations have set the table. If you have the right complexion, your grand kids may be born on third and think they hit a home run! If you’re not the right complexion, would you mind taking care of that bathroom upstairs? I had a lot of cheese today and it is dangerously backed up! K-Thx-Bye.
I think you raise a good point, one of the trump children will likely be key to his prosecution. I think don jr will do something incredibly stupid and offer to to turn states’ evidence to dodge real consequences. Like his father he has no compass
Parents enabling there kids? I can remember a time when parents not only didn’t enable their kids but they gave every other adult free reign to discipline their kids as they saw fit and would reinforce once they learned of the offense.
“Joe had ample time and resources to fix the hunter issue and keep him out of the public eye, but his failure to act plays off as an enabling at best or endorsement at worst.”
WTF? “Fix” the issue? Do you blame your father for that asshole attitude, or is it all you?
Why is that an asshole attitude? By the time Hunter was old enough to get in serious trouble his dad was a respected and wealthy senator. That position didn’t just make Hunter’s actions a liability for Joe, it put hunter in greater danger from exploitation by others. This is not a normal situation for regular people; but Joe has/had access to much greater legal and financial resources that would have prevented this from ever becoming an issue
Because you seem to think that a parent has control over his adult children. Sorry for using an unspecific epithet. I should have said that your attitude smacks of an unhealthy authoritarianism. What do you think a person in Joe’s position could have done?
Have you ever raised children? Are they adults yet? Because I find your attitude mind-boggling. How precisely does one “fix” grown children?
Unfortunately for us all, the relatives of many powerful politicians go into the business of peddling influence, real or imagined, to special interests. Joe’s brothers did it for years (they might still be doing it for all I know), so it’s not like Hunter is some outlier. Someone with a stronger moral compass than Joe could just put it out there in public that he won’t do business with anyone who hires his relatives, but I notice that nobody else in politics makes that promise either.
Hunter seems pathetic and broken, but I don’t know the inside family dynamics that made him that way, nor do any of us who aren’t close to the Bidens. But since armchair psychology is a national pastime, everyone’s got an opinion.
Personally I hope Hunter is prosecuted if he broke laws, but only if that leads to greater policing of influence-peddling by all political families.
The notion that this is grounds for impeachment is prima facie absurd given the Trump-Kushner sellout of intelligence assets to the Saudis for $2 billion. Of course they’ll do it anyway, but the your takeaway — that Joe could have avoided impeachment — lacks supporting evidence and wants for common sense.
If you vote for a Republican, you are voting for this bullshit.
The Republicans have long viewed the Democrats as “the enemy”, not their “esteemed colleagues” , not as their fellow Americans. We are fools for not returning the favor, this is a classic propaganda war and we’re not firing back.
I am kind of desperately wishing for a Lappy T shirt with this exact clip art. He seems awful friendly!
“Oh, Lappy!”
I think we know what the exasperated humans around say as Lappy creates chaos, but Lappy needs a catch phrase.
“Bztrt…I’m evil!.”
“Sorry, I didn’t think it through”