Biden Pardons Hunter

[Elixir]

It seems that such variance constitutes an injustice in Poli’s opinion.

No. That's for a judge and jury to decide, just as for any other citizen.

Why then are you complaining? Because he's a rich kid?
There is a point to be made there, but this is NOT a "case in point".
The fact of overt threats to the welfare and safety of both Joe and Hunter (made by an individual whose known disregard for laws need not even come into play when assessing his ability to carry out those threats) renders irrational any attempt to make semblance of this case, to what "should" happen to either of them under the letter of the law (to which BTW the Bidens are adhering).

Remember the rich college (Stanford?) kid who raped a semi-conscious co-ed behind a dumpster? Brock something?


There's your poster child, Poli.

 

[Elixir]

I know you read the news, and know that between the two trials, Biden was looking at a potential of more than thirty years in prison.

BECAUSE A RUMPSUCKING TRUMP APPOINTEE REJECTED THE "NO-TIME" PLEA AGREEMENT!
... which would have been a more usual outcome.

If you don't think there was a little birdie whispering in that Maryellen's ear, I would charge that you are oblivious to the actual malevolence of Donald Trump. I would bet my life on it.
And... I doubt that you find anyone sentenced to nine months for similar offenses. Nine days - maybe. Nine years? No chance. 30years? About as likely as Trump getting the hundred plus "the law" would prescribe. Not gonna happen to a rich kid. Even if you're a poor black woman in the South and you vote while not knowing you were ineligible, you only get five years fer crissakes.

 

[Politesse]

Remember the rich college (Stanford?) kid who raped a semi-conscious co-ed behind a dumpster? Brock something?

There's your poster child, Poli.

Turner. And yes, I most certainly do. Better than you do apparently. And he's why I don't think we can afford to train yet another generation of shitbags to believe that no law applies to their case.

 

[Politesse]

Why then are you complaining? Because he's a rich kid?

Because what we're discussing is Biden's pardon, not his trial.

 

[Elixir]

Why then are you complaining? Because he's a rich kid?

Because what we're discussing is Biden's pardon, not his trial.

Your complaint was/remains that Hunter hasn't been punished as the law prescribes. That IS what pardons do, btw.
But your complaint is not even true. The law prescribes that a President may issue a pardon.
The law prescribes that upon accepting a pardon, Hunter may walk free.
Get over it, Poli! The law also prescribes that if you anger Donald Trump or one of his pals, come late January he can have your ass rubbed out just for pissing him off, and can do so without consequence as long as His Party sticks by him (which they do, QED).
You should worry about that, if you're looking for an urgent cause.
Anyhow, that's THE LAW, Poli. Not just for rich kids. Didn't Carter pardon his brother Billybob or whatever his name was? Were you outraged at the time? I was a little pissed, but I have gotten over it; I was in my twenties at the time.

 

[Politesse]

Is it your experience that convincing arguments often start with "Yeah, but HE said...."

And no, while Billy Carter was certainly known for causing scandals here and there in a manner not dissimilar to Mr Biden, Jimmy Carter did not use the power of pardon to exonerate his brother of any actual crimes, nor do I think that would have been an appropriate use of the pardon either. Perhaps your memory of your twenties is not as clear as you think. Carter's most controversial actual pardon was that of a large number of draft dodgers, an action I am much more sympathetic toward, though I am not old enough to remember it.

I have the legal right to issue grades to my students however I see fit, but that doesn't mean it would be ethical to pass out unearned As to friends and family when they enroll in my classes. With expansive powers should come stringent responsibilty to ethical rectitude and social accountability.

And I am concerned about Trump. I have been concerned about Trump. My rage at the recent failings of the Democratic Party has everything to do with my concerns about Trump. They've handed this country over to a would-be tyrant, and only his own incompetence stands in the way of his running roughshod over every civic insitution we possess, because the Democrats are doing and have done nothing to hold him back.

 

[ZiprHead]

Bottom line, you have no right to complain about corruption under Trump if you cheered for it under Biden

What about this is corruption?

 

[ZiprHead]

No, buddy. I think all these fuckers should go to jail.

You would put Hunter in jail for lying about drugs on a federal form? If so, do you think all who commit this offense should go to jail?

Just about weekly we can see Don jr. stoned out on cocaine doing social media videos. We also know he possesses and uses firearms. I wonder what his answer to that question was on his purchase form.

 

[laughing dog]

Bottom line, you have no right to complain about corruption under Trump if you cheered for it under Biden

Riiiight, because there aren’t degrees of corruption.

 

[Politesse]

Bottom line, you have no right to complain about corruption under Trump if you cheered for it under Biden

Riiiight, because there aren’t degrees of corruption.

I made no such claim. But you're coming from a very weak position if you're saying "nepotistic blanket pardons are a very low degree of corruption that I openly encourage, but I absolutely draw the line at a neposistic business emoluments!"

 

[Patooka]

Bottom line, you have no right to complain about corruption under Trump if you cheered for it under Biden

Riiiight, because there aren’t degrees of corruption.

I made no such claim. But you're coming from a very weak position if you're saying "nepotistic blanket pardons are a very low degree of corruption that I openly encourage, but I absolutely draw the line at a neposistic business emoluments!"

The point literally everyone else except you and Tigers! understand is the absolute metric buttfuck ton of context you are leaving out with those two examples.

 

[Tigers!]

In all this discussion I have never said that Biden was corrupt for pardoning his son.
It was unwise, unjust to those whose fathers are not powerfrul or influential, sends out a bad message. bad optics etc. etc.

Yet I appear to be accused of saying Biden (senior) was corrupt fro doing so. Funny world.

 

[Tigers!]

all still humans.

I'm not the one confused on this point. You want to extend mercies to the children of the rich that would never be extended to you or your neighbors. Why? What makes you worth so much less than them?

Yes, actually I think you are.

You are confusing Biden using pardons to protect the victims of political criminals with Trump using pardons to protect the political criminals.

I wouldn't care if Hunter were Biden's kid or not. He's been targeted by the Teaparty. Hunter has the same last name as the president which makes their typical hypocrisy resonate with their low information supporters. So they've targeted Hunter for reasons that they never would if it was anybody who weren't named after Joe Biden. But I am all about defending the victim of a Teaparty smear campaign.

Here's the bottom line in my book.
Joe Biden has decades of a history of sterling character. His personal life and public service, there's no scandal.

A former British opposition leader called Neil Kinnock might disagree with you here.

One might disagree with some decisions or policies, but his integrity is impeccable. So there's no shit that political criminals like Trump and the Teaparty can fling that will stick.

Donald Trump and Hunter Biden are very different from President Biden. But similar to each other. Both are the self indulgent children of wealth and privilege. Both have skated through life on their name and connections, their money and their looks. Neither has ever done anything useful of significance. Both are sleazy douchebags.

Very true for both men. So why are they continually pampered and looked after?

The big difference is that Trump has run for high office and millions of people, especially Christians, think he's the best qualified. Hunter has never done anything remotely like that.
Tom

Yes again.

 

[Elixir]

A former British opposition leader called Neil Kinnock might disagree with you here.

So what? He’s wrong.

why are they continually pampered and looked after?

Because people who don’t know any better, make excuses for one of them. The other one was about to be in real trouble until the first one put him under threat.

And btw, Hunter did not inherit hundreds of millions of dollars from his dad, nor did he defraud thousands of victims, nor did he try to overthrow MY government…
False equivalence can only take you so far, Tigers!

 

[Colonel Sanders]

Wouldn't say I was pearl clutching, but it does speak to his character, and the defensiveness of his fans irritates me almost as much as ethical consistency annoys you.

Bottom line, you have no right to complain about corruption under Trump if you cheered for it under Biden; politicians run with different aesthetics, but at their core they are not that different from each other. If the public changes their mind about what they'll accept every four years, it sends a very clear message to the aristocratic class: commit any crime you like. As as you are rich and your victims are not, it will only take a maximum of four years to make the consequences disappear. If for some reason that doesn't work just pull a Musk, switch parties and wait another four years. At the moment, if an American politician or CEO is planning to commit a crime that will have thousands of victims, he is far more afraid of some trust fund kid with a funny name and a ghost gun than he is of any police officer or judge. What does that tell you about our legal system?

But the craziest thing is that the public actually wants this corrupt system and votes for it over and over again as long as its "their guy" doing it. Where "their guy" is some asshole East Coast investor who has never heard of them and wouldn't give shit if they did.

We're in a different game now.

Liberals seem to believe that we're still in 2015 and positivity will win the day.

It won't.

The days of assuming that progress is inevitable are over. The pig is in the trough eating all the food while the rest of the farm animals starve, but the Dems don't want to get their shoes muddy. Meanwhile the rest of the animals starve.

 

[Elixir]

The pig is in the trough eating all the food while the rest of the farm animals starve, but the Dems don't want to get their shoes muddy. Meanwhile the rest of the animals starve.

So-called liberals are indulging in false equivalences between Biden’s “corruption” (still not in evidence) and a career criminal they helped get elected with said indulgence.
Further vilifying Joe Biden to cover for their own moral failure is simple weakness of character IMHO.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

The pig is in the trough eating all the food while the rest of the farm animals starve, but the Dems don't want to get their shoes muddy. Meanwhile the rest of the animals starve.

So-called liberals are indulging in false equivalences between Biden’s “corruption” (still not in evidence) and a career criminal they helped get elected with said indulgence.
Further vilifying Joe Biden to cover for their own moral failure is simple weakness of character IMHO.

I don't know that I'd call it weakness of character. To me, it's a matter of ideology over practicality.

Ideologically I'd like to see a Star Trek type of society, but it's not going to happen. Therefore, we have to concern ourselves with what can realistically be achieved. It's not a matter of Trump lite, but recognition that we've been pulled so far right while the left has given voice to demographics who won't tilt an election but have actually harmed it.

 

[TomC]

A former British opposition leader called Neil Kinnock might disagree with you here.

I have no idea who that is. Or what he's disagreeing with me about.

Full Disclosure:
I'm an Irish American. Those Brits can Guy Fawke themselves.
Tom

 

[Toni]

Bottom line, you have no right to complain about corruption under Trump if you cheered for it under Biden

Riiiight, because there aren’t degrees of corruption.

I made no such claim. But you're coming from a very weak position if you're saying "nepotistic blanket pardons are a very low degree of corruption that I openly encourage, but I absolutely draw the line at a neposistic business emoluments!"

How is your position any better when you refuse to acknowledge what Joe must have reckoned with: his son is absolutely a target of a meglomaniacal maniac who himself is a convicted felon and who pardoned his son in law's criminal father AND just appointed him Ambassador and who is bent on revenge against anyone he can get to. Biden DID promise not to pardon his son, a promise no doubt he would have kept had Harris won. If there were any shred of possibility that Hunter Biden would have received a fair and just sentence and would not be the ongoing target of Trump's thugs, you'd have a very good point. As it is, Hunter is a target precisely because of who his father is. I understand the motivation to do his best to protect his son as best he can from the coming retribution Trump is certain to attempt to enact--indeed, has promised to enact.

Yes, yes, yes: I also wish that the Democrats were all angelic saints who had no skeletons in their closets and no addicts in their family but who among us can make that claim? I can't: I know what it is to have an addict family member who, btw, has done far, far, far worse than Hunter Biden. And did time for (some of ) his crimes. Guess what? Prison did not change him, although he is an old man now and mostly just abuses prescription drugs for pain and I cannot fault him for that, tbh. And now also struggles mightily to earn enough money to live. And we struggle with how much we can/should help him, especially given that we have other family members who need some help for reasons not related to substance use/abuse. This is a great evil that drugs have visited on human beings: addiction does not just wreck the lives of those who become addicted but also wrecks the lives of many of those they come into contact with.

Reports are that Hunter has gotten treatment and is not currently using illegal drugs. I hope this is true for his sake, but mostly for the sakes of all those who care about him.

 

[Elixir]

I made no such claim.

The inference that you are treating all “corruption” as equal arises from your assertion that people are hypocritical for giving a pass to Biden and not to Trump.

I call bullshit. I don’t see zbiden as corrupt. His friends and family don’t see him as corrupt.

What I see is a guy “Joe” walking by a house where his child is having a sleepover, and seeing flames coming out the windows. He rushes to the door only to find it locked. In a panic he grabs a rock, breaks a window, rushes in and saves his kid, as the arsonist slips away in his disguise as a SCOTUS justice.
Then the Poli police show and arrest him for breaking and entering. He mentioned seeing the arsonist but the Poli Police told him “forget about him, you’re just as bad, and we caught you!”