What does a BIDEN Presidency look like?

[Barrister]

Sure. But this is some pretty insignificant shit. Like any average middle class junkie might have done this.

Hunter Biden is just some average low life? Or does he have some big corruption thing going or something significant?

That's the big question isn't it?

There's enough smoke around HB that I wouldn't rule out "some big corruption thing", but no actual evidence of it either.  Just lots of smoke.

[Jacob]

Conversely, the other question is how much of the smoke has been generated by the Conservative media machine.

[Barrister]

Conversely, the other question is how much of the smoke has been generated by the Conservative media machine.

Some, but not really what I'm getting at.

I mean yes there has been a lot of ink spilled about "Hunter Biden's laptop" which has never really been well sourced or amounted to anything.

But there's his time with Burisma (why exactly is he on the Board of Directors of a Ukrainian gas company), or a board member of a Chinese private equity company?  There's his admitted drug addictions, and now his conviction on gun charges (and his outstanding tax evasion charges).

But like I said - smoke, not fire.  Maybe that's all there is to the guy, or maybe there's more.

[viper37]

But there's his time with Burisma (why exactly is he on the Board of Directors of a Ukrainian gas company), or a board member of a Chinese private equity company?  There's his admitted drug addictions, and now his conviction on gun charges (and his outstanding tax evasion charges).

But like I said - smoke, not fire.  Maybe that's all there is to the guy, or maybe there's more.

He comes from Yale and Georgetown, he is politically well connected, it's natural that people would think having him on the board is an asset.

[Admiral Yi]

He comes from Yale and Georgetown, he is politically well connected, it's natural that people would think having him on the board is an asset.

It's the politically well connected part that is the problem.

[crazy canuck]

I was a bit surprised he didn't just plead guilty and argue for the lowest possible sentence in the circumstances, which could have been a rather gentle reprimand.

How does the fact he forced a trial figure into the sentencing analysis of the court?

As I understand it - there was a plea deal in place - for this and something else.

The deal worked out said it would cover any criminal acts done by Hunter Biden during this time period.  The judge asked about this, the prosecution said that wasn't the intent, the plea deal then collapsed and it went to trial.

This has always been the thing about Hunter Biden - he's always seemed like a shady dude.  Him being on the board of the Ukrainian energy company clearly seemed to be at a minimum trading on his name.  So who knows what else might come up in the future?

But on the other hand he's attracted way more scrutiny just because of his name also, so you can understand why HB's attorneys were looking a way to just finally close all of his legal troubles.

Thanks for the explanation

[Jacob]

He comes from Yale and Georgetown, he is politically well connected, it's natural that people would think having him on the board is an asset.

It's the politically well connected part that is the problem.

The Trump kids sit on a bunch of boards too. Does that count as smoke as well?

[Barrister]

He comes from Yale and Georgetown, he is politically well connected, it's natural that people would think having him on the board is an asset.

It's the politically well connected part that is the problem.

The Trump kids sit on a bunch of boards too. Does that count as smoke as well?

Jared Kushner received several billion dollars from the Saudis, when he had no prior experience being a venture capitalist.  Don Jr and Eric have been involved in lots of actual grifting of Trump supporters.

The Trump kids have actual fire.

Well - Tiffany and Baron seem to be clean as far as I know.

[Admiral Yi]

The Trump kids sit on a bunch of boards too. Does that count as smoke as well?

I don't understand the question.

[Jacob]

The Trump kids sit on a bunch of boards too. Does that count as smoke as well?

I don't understand the question.

Sorry, should've been aimed at BB who said "there's a lot of smoke around Hunter Biden."

That smoke then got partially defined as "sitting on weird boards, leveraging how he is connected."

You emphasized how the problem is that he's connected.

My understanding is that the Trump kids (an kid-in-laws) also sit on disparate boards, and explicitly benefit from their connections (Jared Kushner getting however many hundreds of millions or billions for his wealth fund from the Saudis, for example). My question is whether that equally counts as "smoke".

[Sheilbh]

Yeah I'm with Yi - definitely lots of fire for the Trump kids. I think it's more than just smoke at this point.

But yeah I think kids of senior politicians sitting on boards is always smoky. It may just be trading on a name, or some light nepotism - or it may be blatant influence buying.

There's absolutely cases where they build their own career and you can see how they end up where they do. But I'm not sure that's the case here.

[Tonitrus]

Big names on shady corporate boards is hardly new...check out the names that were on the board of Theranos sometime.

[The Minsky Moment]

That's what corporate boards are for.  Influence peddling and CEOs putting their cronies in to wave through comp packages.  I don't know why we would start singling out Bidens and Trumps for that practice when no objection is raised when anyone and everyone else does it.

[The Minsky Moment]

I assume one reason Biden didn't plead to the charge is that he has a decent constitutional appeal which is going to cause real headaches for the 2nd amendment crowd in the judiciary.

[grumbler]

Some, but not really what I'm getting at.
(snip)

But there's his time with Burisma (why exactly is he on the Board of Directors of a Ukrainian gas company), or a board member of a Chinese private equity company?  There's his admitted drug addictions, and now his conviction on gun charges (and his outstanding tax evasion charges).

If you look at who else was on the board of Burisma and the Chinese equity company, you can see that they were paying a lot of money to "names" in an attempt to shed the image that they were still engaged in corrupt practices.  There's no doubt in my mind that Hunter Biden was chosen because his last name was Biden, but he actually did perform a fair amount of work for them as their chief legal counsel and so it wasn't a pure sinecure.  his appointment didn't come out of the blue, either; Devon Archer, his partner in his LLC, was already a member of Burisma's board and was the one who brought up Hunter Biden's name when the company was looking for another non-Ukrainian (to shed the corruption reputation) to serve as legal counsel.

Was Biden overpaid?  Hard to say.  Archer was paid the same salary (as a marketing analyst) long before Biden was hired.