Dear ajax, For your reading pleasure. Or not.

[Gunnar]

<his usual mismash of often and easily refuted disinformation>

. . . But the only point you ever prove is that you are willing to promote Russian propaganda and disinformation and are not at all interested in the truth.

This becomes more and more obvious with almost every post ajax makes, and he knows that we know that. Why does he keep trying? My guess is that he is relying on Trump's maxim and hope that the more often and boldly one repeats something, the more people will eventually believe it, even if it is not true.

[ajax18]

I am not at all worried by tone in itself. It is simply that I don't think your answer to Ajax was likely to influence somebody who might agree with him to change their mind.

Ajax will, of course, always respond to a reasoned and evidence based refutation by either repeating his original statement with variations, or starting to talk about something entirely different.

Gotcha.

What was Hunter Biden providing these people that was worth millions of dollars to them? Artwork? How did Joe Biden achieve his current net worth on a $197k/year salary? I'm repeating it because nobody has ever answered it.

Giving money to your child is still a bribe.

[Billy Shears]

How did Joe Biden achieve his current net worth on a $197k/year salary? I'm repeating it because nobody has ever answered it.

Joe Biden is worth about $10 million.

In 2017 when he finished his stint as VP, he made $11.1 million in book deals and speaking gigs. That, and the increasing value of the real estate he owns, are the sources of his wealth.

[Res Ipsa]

Gotcha.

What was Hunter Biden providing these people that was worth millions of dollars to them? Artwork? How did Joe Biden achieve his current net worth on a $197k/year salary? I'm repeating it because nobody has ever answered it.

Giving money to your child is still a bribe.

Exactly which "these people" are you talking about? I said long ago that I think Hunter was trading on his family's name. That's a common thing that happens. Gini Thomas, for example. Trump's daughter and son in law, for another. Boards of directors are full of people who have or who are perceived to have connections. People in private investment firms make obscene amounts of money for putting deals together -- buying and selling groups of companies. And they put deals together by knowing people. And Hunter Biden has connections to lots of non-family members just by virtue of being a Biden, going to Yale Law School, etc. that you or I will never have. Ask yourself whether Paul Manafort is worth what he got paid.

But if you're going to show actual corruption by Joe Biden, you have to show that Joe Biden misused his position as a government official to benefit someone in exchange for a benefit to himself. And that's what you have no evidence for. You lack actual evidence of both the quid and the quo. You don't get to go straight from "Burisma overpaid Hunter" to Joe Biden is corrupt. Not unless you are willing to apply the same standard to Ivanka getting patents from the Chinese government while her father was president, Jared Kushner getting a sweet bail out loan from Kuwait while being part of the executive branch, or Jared Kushner getting 2Bs from the Saudis right after the end of the Trump administration.

Joe Biden has no say whatsoever in whether and how his siblings or his kids trade on the family name. It's the same with every politician. Joe Biden had no say in whether Burisma offered Hunter a job, whether Hunter took the job, or the terms of his employment. But what you are missing is the piece where Joe Biden abuses his government position to do Burisma a solid or takes any money from Burisma. There's no evidence there. Joe Biden pressured the government of Ukraine to fire a corrupt prosecutor who wasn't prosecuting corruption. The prosecutor wasn't investigating or prosecuting Burisma. Joe was carrying out the policy of the U.S. government, which was set by the President, consistent with our allies. There is no evidence that Joe was doing Burisma a solid in exchange for the size of Hunter's salary or for a chunk of it.

People have answered your question about where Joe Biden got his money after he left office several times. You just ignore the facts. Former government officials make bank writing books and hitting the speaking circuit. Joe Biden's tax returns are public record. You can literally see where the money came from. The committees brag about having all of his financial records. If there was a big chunk of money not accounted for, they'd be showing us the records. Instead, they repeatedly lie about what's in the records. Just like you keep asking the same question over and over even though it's been answered many times and you literally have the evidence of how Joe Biden earned his money at your fingertips.

Even if Hunter's salary was an attempted bribe by Burisma, Hunter was not a government official. There is nothing illegal about taking a job that pays you too much. There is no evidence that Hunter asked Pop to do Burisma a solid. And even if he did, that's has nothing to do with with Pops unless he did Burisma a solid. Which he didn't.

Now you can do your usual ignore everything I've said and skip off to some other claim that you'll pretend has never been answered.

Hunter was an idiot for putting his father in a position where Russian intelligence and their GOP operatives could conduct a smear campaign based on false or misleading facts and innuendo. But that doesn't make Joe Biden corrupt. Not even close.

Your real problem is there is no standard that you can apply to Joe Biden that wouldn't land your hero Trump in jail for the rest of his life.

[canpakes]

Name calling can be effective, especially if you don't have a good answer of what product or service Hunter and Jim provided for the millions of dollars that China, Ukraine, Romania, etc. paid them. But I'd suggest going back to the old, "you're a rrrrrrrrrrrrrracist," to get out of arguments you can't win.

ajax, if we’re going to try to get to the bottom of who’s lying, then it’ll help to establish what the truth is.

Please list claimed dollar amounts given to each accused Biden, and the nation/government source of the funds, with a link back to specific and verifiable documentation for each item. I figure that you must be referring to something solid for these claims, right?

Perhaps the completeness and depth of your evidence will shed some light on where the dishonesty is coming from. I’ll watch for your response. I may also remind you about this request from time to time while I wait.

[ajax18]

Res Ipsa wrote

Exactly which "these people" are you talking about? I said long ago that I think Hunter was trading on his family's name.

What does that mean? Are you saying that China, Russia, etc. just gave Hunter money to call a product Biden?

Res Ipsa wrote

That's a common thing that happens. Gini Thomas, for example. Trump's daughter and son in law, for another. Boards of directors are full of people who have or who are perceived to have connections.

Do you mean that Burisma thought Hunter Biden had connections but Hunter never delivered upon his promises?

What exactly were Jared and Ivanka paid for?

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Res Ipsa wrote

Exactly which "these people" are you talking about? I said long ago that I think Hunter was trading on his family's name.

What does that mean? Are you saying that China, Russia, etc. just gave Hunter money to call a product Biden?

Res Ipsa wrote

That's a common thing that happens. Gini Thomas, for example. Trump's daughter and son in law, for another. Boards of directors are full of people who have or who are perceived to have connections.

Do you mean that Burisma thought Hunter Biden had connections but Hunter never delivered upon his promises?

What exactly were Jared and Ivanka paid for?

How did Jared Kushner get $2 Billion from the Saudis?

Hint: It’s not because of his track record as an investor.



- Doc

[Res Ipsa]

Res Ipsa wrote

Exactly which "these people" are you talking about? I said long ago that I think Hunter was trading on his family's name.

What does that mean? Are you saying that China, Russia, etc. just gave Hunter money to call a product Biden?

Res Ipsa wrote

That's a common thing that happens. Gini Thomas, for example. Trump's daughter and son in law, for another. Boards of directors are full of people who have or who are perceived to have connections.

Do you mean that Burisma thought Hunter Biden had connections but Hunter never delivered upon his promises?

What exactly were Jared and Ivanka paid for?

No, “trading on one’s name” means promoting themselves as having value because of family connections. Those connections can be to other family members or to non-family members. It’s like the old saying, it’s not what you know but who you know. There is no question that being born into a rich family or a politically powerful family or graduating from a prestigious law school opens more doors than would otherwise be the case.

Graduating from Harvard Law School unquestionably opened doors for me that otherwise would have been shut. But those opportunities were limited because I was just a kid who went to public schools from Washington State. I had classmates who had a crazy amount of connections and opportunities based on which families they were in, which schools they had attended, etc.

Not everyone chooses to take full advantage of family contacts. One of my classmates was the daughter of a well known U.S. ambassador. That gave her a crazy range of opportunities. I have no ideas what she did with them. I haven’t recognized her in politics.

Hunter had contacts all around DC by virtue of being Joe’s son. He actively played up his connection with his dad, called him out of the blue while in the company of others to make a show out of the fact that his dad would take his calls, and would set up occasions for his dad to meet people Hunter was trying to impress. All of that is trading on his name. Now, whether he was able to deliver any value on his connection is an entirely different matter. Despite the best efforts of Trump, Rudy, and the House R clown car, there’s not a shred of credible evidence showing that Pops misused his governmental position for the benefit of himself or Hunter.

I don’t know what Burisma thought they were getting by putting Hunter on the board. He had done legal work for them as a lawyer in a respected DC law firm. The company wanted to business in the US, and Hunter has connections through his family, through his schooling, and through his legal work and time on the Amtrak Board. It doesn’t seem to have been his style to promise that his dad would do anything to help him — he’d just brag about how his dad would always take his calls.

So, what I’m saying was that Hunter conned folks into thinking he had value because he was Joe Biden’s kid, but there is no evidence that he was able to deliver corrupt favors from pops.

[ajax18]

Kind of foolish for a company to pay out tens of millions of dollars for nothing isn't it? How do they stay in business making those kind of decisions?

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Kind of foolish for a company to pay out tens of millions of dollars for nothing isn't it? How do they stay in business making those kind of decisions?

Alexander Smirnov was arrested last week after being charged with two counts that alleged he lied to the FBI. Special counsel David Weiss — the Trump-appointed prosecutor tasked with investigating the president's son — accused Smirnov of providing his FBI handlers with fake allegations about Hunter and Mr. Biden in 2020. He claimed the two Bidens each accepted $5 million from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The claims "were false, as the Defendant knew," according to the charging documents filed against him.

- Doc