#691 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Friday June 23)
Good morning,
HUNTER BIDEN MATTER IS OVER
Okay, so Hunter Biden agreed to a plea deal this week. Hunter is pleading to a couple of misdemeanors for tax-related matters and is accepting various other restrictions on his behaviors, including gun ownership. But over five years of a Justice Department detailed analysis of each and every financial matter of Mr. Biden and countless dollars, there just isn’t much “there there.”
Trump’s legions of apologists and bloviators are out in force, alleging that, once again, the FBI and the Justice Department have been shown to be mere operatives for the Democratic establishment. We apparently now live in an era where the value of our institutions and due process are measured by the outcome, rather than the findings.
Lest we forget, the prosecutor for Mr. Biden was appointed by former president Trump. He was kept on by Mr. Biden and has operated outside the oversight of the Attorney General. He has delivered his report and has secured his plea deal. As Mr. Weiss told Congress, he was granted “ultimate authority over this matter.” But this isn’t enough for the Republicans who maintain that this is a whitewash and, according to Speaker of the House McCarthy, “proof” that there is a two-tiered system in the Justice Department, benefiting Democrats. Their basis for this apparently is the continued investigations of Mr. Trump and their “feeling” that somehow President Biden and the “Biden crime family” were selling influence—without, of course, any evidence to support the claim.
Is Hunter Biden a recovering drug addict? Yes. Did he trade on his father’s name? Most assuredly. Do fathers often overlook the foibles of their sons? You bet. Is there any evidence that Mr. Biden was involved in some influence peddling scheme? Absolutely not. Hunter Biden is being punished for his relatively inconsequential and stupid behaviors, after years and millions of dollars chasing him down at a level typically not experienced by most people. What he did was wrong. He is being punished. Now, can we move on?
There is no comparison between Hunter’s stupid penny ante stuff and Mr. Trump’s behaviors. The Justice Department, in each instance, was doing its job. The investigations of Hunter Biden and Donald Trump are completely different. Mr. Biden (junior) violated a series of relatively minor financial and gun ownership changes. Mr. Trump was entrusted with national security documents with top-secret information involving our national security, while lying repeatedly, hiding those documents and lying about their ownership.
This is very similar to the attempt to create a false equivalency between papers wrongly taken by others (like Pence and Biden), though they turned the documents over and offered none of Mr. Trump’s ridiculous claims. In that case, as in this one, the Trumpists claim the Justice Department hasn’t been harsh enough because of alleged bias.
Mr. Trump, his acolytes, and Republican leaders are throwing flak in the water to demean and discredit our sworn FBI agents and Justice Department attorneys, solely to cover up Mr. Trump’s wrongdoings. It’s shameful.
COMMENCEMENT MESSAGE ABOUT THE BATTLE AHEAD
This is the season of commencement speeches. You know the basics…this is the first day of the rest of your life, you should pursue your dreams, you’ve done a lot of growing up, etc., etc. Every year, I try to cite a speech that has a particularly good message.
Mandy Lowell, who does not love the idea of celebrities delivering these speeches noted that Tom Hanks gave a pretty good one at Harvard’s graduation:
“Every day, every year, and for every graduating class, there is a choice to be made, the same option for all grown-ups to make: to be one of three types of Americans — those who embrace liberty for all, those who won’t, or those who are indifferent — and only the first do the work of creating a more perfect union,” Hanks said. “In the never-ending battle you have all officially joined as of today, the difference is in how truly you believe, in how vociferously you promote, in how tightly you hold onto the truth that is self-evident: that of course we are all created equally yet differently, and of course we are all in this together.”
THE BATTLE AHEAD AND THE PROMISE OF DECENCY
More from Mr. Hanks:
“We are all in a cage match, mixed martial arts battle royale with agents of intolerance and braying incompetence, the malevolent equals to Imperial stormtroopers, Lex Luther, and Loki. And we could use a superhero right now,” Hanks said.
“…We all get to complain about The Man, and we all have debts we gotta pay, and we’re all entitled to a day off to lay about. But the work that is called for is the construction of our ‘more perfect union,’” Hanks said. “That job will never, ever be completed, one that requires rigorous attention and unfading wherewithal and all hands. The work is the keeping of the promises of our promised land, the practice of decency, the protection of freedom, and the promotion of liberty for all, with no exceptions. That takes a lot of work done on multiple job sites every single day, and you can call each of them a battle for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.”
ERRATA
Thanks for those of you pointing out that the names are Timothy Snyder and Jack Ryan—proof that I need an editor!
Have a great day,
Glenn