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-   -   Bill Barr and his October Surprise (http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=346780)

ponderingturtle 15th October 2020 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Don (Post 13258355)
The lack of clarity about who left the laptop :confused:

From the report, the owner of the store surmised that Hunter Biden left the laptop (even though a medical condition prevented them seeing who did) because there were reportedly stickers relating to the Beau Biden Foundation on it.

If the person had left contact information, this level of "sleuthing" would have been unnecessary.

Who accepts something for repair without information on who the damn customer is? This is certainly looking like some shady business.

The Great Zaganza 15th October 2020 06:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shuttlt (Post 13258352)
How does that relate to where people are getting the information about no contact details being left?

why don't you check out the author?

gypsyjackson 15th October 2020 07:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shuttlt (Post 13258350)
So because it's a fabrication, you are making up additional facts that you don't actually know to be true, to support it being a fabrication? This is going to be a confusing thread.

What am I making up? I’d like to see a quote of my post doing so, please.

There couldn’t have been any contact details left, because imaginary people can’t leave contact details when they don’t leave imaginary laptops without imaginary stickers on with a man with an imaginary medical condition.

JoeMorgue 15th October 2020 07:04 AM

I don't have to prove that the dragon in my garage that doesn't exist also doesn't have a hangnail.

shuttlt 15th October 2020 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Great Zaganza (Post 13258371)
why don't you check out the author?

Unless there is another quote from that author saying that no contact details were left, I don't see that they can be the source for the claim on this thread that "no contact details were left".

Ziggurat 15th October 2020 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue (Post 13258353)
*Very slowly* Because if this was an actual news story with journalistic integrity and there was an actual legit papertrail linking this phantom computer that doesn't exist to Hunter Biden... okay brace yourself because this part gets complicated and is going to blow your mind... the article would have said so.

Real news stories don't trickle release information like they are writing a 1930s movie serial and need a cliffhanger each episode.

I love to see the double standard here compared to coverage of the fraudulent Steele report.

JoeMorgue 15th October 2020 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ziggurat (Post 13258397)
I love to see the double standard here compared to coverage of the fraudulent Steele report.

Get a new tune. Your Whataboutism has been through re-recordings, remixes, Kid Bopping, Karaoke, MIDI files, covers, and Muzak and still the same crappy song it was when you first sang it.

The Great Zaganza 15th October 2020 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shuttlt (Post 13258386)
Unless there is another quote from that author saying that no contact details were left, I don't see that they can be the source for the claim on this thread that "no contact details were left".

So why are you so scared to check?

The Great Zaganza 15th October 2020 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ziggurat (Post 13258397)
I love to see the double standard here compared to coverage of the fraudulent Steele report.

The clue is in the name.

JoeMorgue 15th October 2020 07:42 AM

"Why are our lies held to different standards than their truths? Such an unfair, biased double standard!"

TellyKNeasuss 15th October 2020 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shuttlt (Post 13258295)
Are we sure no contact information was left? Where are we getting that from?

We are getting it from the guy who runs the shop. He has stated that he isn't 100 percent sure that it was Hunter Biden who dropped off the laptop but assumed that the laptop was Hunter Biden's because it had a Beau Biden Foundation sticker on it.

Quote:

The man, John Paul Mac Isaac, said he has a condition that affects his vision and “can’t be 100% sure” it was Hunter Biden who dropped off the computer for repair.
Quote:

he determined it was Hunter Biden because the laptop had a sticker from the Beau Biden Foundation
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hun...paul-mac-isaac

Which leads to the next problem with the story: the guy claims that he has such poor vision that he can't recognize people but he can see the tiny screws in a laptop computer.

JoeMorgue 15th October 2020 07:48 AM

This is like Watergate but if Nixon had left the tapes in his jacket pocket for dry cleaning except the tapes were just found in a random jacket pocket with "Nixon '76" pin on the lapel so they assumed they had to be Nixon's jacket oh and the tapes also didn't really exist.

JoeMorgue 15th October 2020 07:51 AM

Fox News portrayed it as one of the biggest scandals in American history. Then it fell apart

CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/14/media...ate/index.html

Quote:

New York - (CNN Business) It was a conspiracy that Fox News portrayed as one of the greatest — if not the greatest — political scandals in American history.

Tucker Carlson called it a "domestic spying operation" that was "hidden under the pretext of national security." Laura Ingraham characterized top Obama administration officials as having been "exposed." And Sean Hannity flatly declared it to be the "biggest abuse of power, corruption scandal" the country had ever seen.

That was back in May. This week, however, the conspiracy theory collapsed when The Washington Post reported that a Justice Department investigation into the supposed scandal quietly ended with no charges.
Looks like the Republicans are learning too late they needed a new "But her E-mails" / "He wasn't Born Here" scandal.

johnny karate 15th October 2020 08:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bogative (Post 13257978)
Rudy Giuliani today on Steve Bannon's radio show –



Sounds like Giuliani is going to do a slow burn on releasing what was found on Biden's hard drive a la Project Veritas over the next several days.

I think I'm going to take a vacation just so I have time to watch the loony left's meltdown this week! It's gonna be so much fun!

Based on your gullibility regarding this story, I assume you’ll be vacationing on that nice piece of swampland in Florida someone sold you.

Armitage72 15th October 2020 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnny karate (Post 13258461)
Based on your gullibility regarding this story, I assume you’ll be vacationing on that nice piece of swampland in Florida someone sold you.


A comparison was made to Project Veritas, so maybe it was meant as a subtle way of saying "Yes, I know this is a complete fabrication, like everything Project Veritas has released."

The Don 15th October 2020 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TellyKNeasuss (Post 13258423)
Which leads to the next problem with the story: the guy claims that he has such poor vision that he can't recognize people but he can see the tiny screws in a laptop computer.

I suppose he could just be incredibly short-sighted :confused:

CORed 15th October 2020 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnny karate (Post 13258461)
Based on your gullibility regarding this story, I assume you’ll be vacationing on that nice piece of swampland in Florida someone sold you.

Not at all. He's going to that beautiful old suspension bridge he bought, that spans the East River in New York City.

TellyKNeasuss 15th October 2020 09:29 AM

Another problem with the Hunter Biden laptop story: Hunter Biden was living in California at the time when the laptop was supposedly left at a repair shop in Delaware.

CORed 15th October 2020 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TellyKNeasuss (Post 13258555)
Another problem with the Hunter Biden laptop story: Hunter Biden was living in California at the time when the laptop was supposedly left at a repair shop in Delaware.

It's starting to look a lot like "He wasn't born here.", in that it's completely fabricated and won't stand even a cursory examination of the facts. Of course Fox News and Trump cult members will eat it up, but it's not likely to sway many people on the fense (if there are any left).

The Don 15th October 2020 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TellyKNeasuss (Post 13258555)
Another problem with the Hunter Biden laptop story: Hunter Biden was living in California at the time when the laptop was supposedly left at a repair shop in Delaware.

What better way to cover your tracks than to travel clear across country to get three of your laptops fixed. :rolleyes:

timhau 15th October 2020 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TellyKNeasuss (Post 13258555)
Another problem with the Hunter Biden laptop story: Hunter Biden was living in California at the time when the laptop was supposedly left at a repair shop in Delaware.

Hey, that's small-time stuff for a wealthy young man to do in the 2010s, compared to how much trouble the pregnant Ann Dunham had to go through to fly to Kenya to give birth in 1961.

pgwenthold 15th October 2020 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Don (Post 13258561)
What better way to cover your tracks than to travel clear across country to get three of your laptops fixed. :rolleyes:

I'm not in the computer repair business, but I'm guessing that their business model does not depend on millionaires drippong off multiple laptops for repair.

Skeptic Ginger 15th October 2020 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Don (Post 13258103)
Without your contact details, ow can they tell you the repair is complete ? Are you supposed to keep popping in on the off chance that the repairs are complete ? If the repair shop owner cannot identify you due to a medical condition, how do you make sure you get your laptop back ?

I guess this guy operates a business where people just drop off laptops for repair, come back some time later and take some laptop (could be theirs, could be someone else's) away with them. :confused:

Pretty hard to make any sense of the story except it's an attention getting fake and Rudy was desperate to find something.

I see they are trying everything they can to go after Hunter and connect the dots to Biden. After this fake, I think it makes it harder to sell any other stories.

The Don 15th October 2020 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger (Post 13258575)
Pretty hard to make any sense of the story except it's an attention getting fake and Rudy was desperate to find something.

Why isn't simply being laughed out of court ?

Why isn't Rudy Giuliani being mocked on all channels for promoting this ridiculous nonsense ?

Why aren't any prominent Republicans willing to break rank ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger (Post 13258575)
I see they are trying everything they can to go after Hunter and connect the dots to Biden. After this fake, I think it makes it harder to sell any other stories.

...and yet serious news agencies are reporting on it seriously rather than just mocking him ?

Skeptic Ginger 15th October 2020 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shuttlt (Post 13258295)
Are we sure no contact information was left? Where are we getting that from?

Oh for pity's sake! The story is as fake as trying to pass off Monopoly money as real money.

Instead of trying to shoe-horn little bits of the story into a real Oct surprise, read the actual story with lots of bits of information that I linked to above. There are dozens of things wrong with the story including some vague medical issue that prevents him from knowing any information about who dropped the laptop off to his changing the story multiple times.

Skeptic Ginger 15th October 2020 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Armitage72 (Post 13258466)
A comparison was made to Project Veritas, so maybe it was meant as a subtle way of saying "Yes, I know this is a complete fabrication, like everything Project Veritas has released."

O'Keefe is probably jealous.

Skeptic Ginger 15th October 2020 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Don (Post 13258585)
Why isn't simply being laughed out of court ?

Why isn't Rudy Giuliani being mocked on all channels for promoting this ridiculous nonsense ?

Why aren't any prominent Republicans willing to break rank ?

...and yet serious news agencies are reporting on it seriously rather than just mocking him ?

Are you serious?

Maybe you also need to read the actual links instead of making excuses like these up.

TellyKNeasuss 15th October 2020 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Don (Post 13258561)
What better way to cover your tracks than to travel clear across country to get three of your laptops fixed. :rolleyes:

YES!!! THAT'S IT!!! What a brilliant plan: Travel cross-country to drop off a laptop at a repair shop, don't tell the shop who you are and make sure that the owner has bad eyesight and can't recognize you, and don't ever retrieve the laptop with the expectation that the repair shop will wipe everything from the disk and sell the laptop to someone who lives 3,000 miles from you so that all traces of a secret meeting with a Ukrainian businessman will vanish forever.

The Don 15th October 2020 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TellyKNeasuss (Post 13258602)
YES!!! THAT'S IT!!! What a brilliant plan: Travel cross-country to drop off a laptop at a repair shop, don't tell the shop who you are and make sure that the owner has bad eyesight and can't recognize you, and don't ever retrieve the laptop with the expectation that the repair shop will wipe everything from the disk and sell the laptop to someone who lives 3,000 miles from you so that all traces of a secret meeting with a Ukrainian businessman will vanish forever.

Sounds like a near perfect plan which would have worked had it not been for one alert patriot.

Horatius 15th October 2020 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TellyKNeasuss (Post 13258602)
YES!!! THAT'S IT!!! What a brilliant plan: Travel cross-country to drop off a laptop at a repair shop, don't tell the shop who you are and make sure that the owner has bad eyesight and can't recognize you, and don't ever retrieve the laptop with the expectation that the repair shop will wipe everything from the disk and sell the laptop to someone who lives 3,000 miles from you so that all traces of a secret meeting with a Ukrainian businessman will vanish forever.



Well, they were intensely jealous of Bush's plot to destroy paper records by flying two planes into the WTC towers, so they'd have an excuse to demolish a third building blocks away, hours later.

dasmiller 15th October 2020 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TellyKNeasuss (Post 13258423)
We are getting it from the guy who runs the shop. He has stated that he isn't 100 percent sure that it was Hunter Biden who dropped off the laptop but assumed that the laptop was Hunter Biden's because it had a Beau Biden Foundation sticker on it.

That's proof enough. Surely only one such sticker was ever made, and doubtless it was given to Hunter, who'd never have passed it on to someone else.

wareyin 15th October 2020 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dasmiller (Post 13258624)
That's proof enough. Surely only one such sticker was ever made, and doubtless it was given to Hunter, who'd never have passed it on to someone else.

Board members and millionaires do like to put stickers on their laptops just like teenagers right?

Lurch 15th October 2020 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Don (Post 13258476)
I suppose he could just be incredibly short-sighted :confused:

Near sighted. And short-sighted.

portlandatheist 15th October 2020 10:48 AM

After they go through all those emails and other data on the laptop, I hope they find the location of the Unicorn Farm in the Ukraine that has Clinton's email server.

Stacyhs 15th October 2020 11:39 AM

I think Giuliani's being played like the desperate gullible idiot he is:
Quote:

Source says the Hunter Biden laptop controversy hints at a Russian disinformation operation

An Estonian intelligence official with extensive knowledge of Russian disinformation techniques says that the Hunter Biden computer email scandal has hints of a Russian disinformation operation.

In a typical Russian disinformation operation, the official, who cannot be named for security reasons, said real documents are salted with forged or manipulated information and then presented in a way that news media — and social media — cannot resist.

"It's just too perfect," the official said. 
"A laptop is dropped off to a blind computer repairman in the name of Hunter Biden — in the middle of a presidential election — that happens to be filled with extensive documents along with videos of sex and drug use and it ends up in the hands of the president's lawyer, who publicly admits to working closely with a Ukrainian official that the Trump administration itself has sanctioned as a Russian intelligence asset attempting to interfere in the presidential campaign," said the official, who cannot be named for security reasons.

'The Russians will think it so perfect that they won't care if he believes the **** or not because they know he will pass it along either way'

ponderingturtle 15th October 2020 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stacyhs (Post 13258720)
I think Giuliani's being played like the desperate gullible idiot he is:

Hmm tough call, is this incompetence and gullibility or getting good dirt from a loyal friend and simply not caring that it is fabricated?

Babbylonian 15th October 2020 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ponderingturtle (Post 13258722)
Hmm tough call, is this incompetence and gullibility or getting good dirt from a loyal friend and simply not caring that it is fabricated?

Neither. He knows it's BS and he doesn't care.

ponderingturtle 15th October 2020 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Babbylonian (Post 13258724)
Neither. He knows it's BS and he doesn't care.

And that is different from simply not caring it is fabricated how?

Babbylonian 15th October 2020 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ponderingturtle (Post 13258728)
And that is different from simply not caring it is fabricated how?

All I was saying is that the "loyal friend" part doesn't matter a bit. If a rando walked up to him in the street with the same story, he'd have no shame about portraying it in the media as truth.

I definitely could have phrased it better instead of allowing for the inference that I was being dismissive.

ponderingturtle 15th October 2020 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Babbylonian (Post 13258736)
All I was saying is that the "loyal friend" part doesn't matter a bit. If a rando walked up to him in the street with the same story, he'd have no shame about portraying it in the media as truth.

And my point is that he has a good history with being in bed with russian interests, not that they somehow took advantage of him. He knew it was crap but maybe he thought it would hang together a bit longer than it has.

Segnosaur 15th October 2020 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Don (Post 13258585)
Why isn't simply being laughed out of court ?

Has this actually gotten to the point where the courts (or even law enforcement/FBI/etc) would even be involved?

Quote:


Why isn't Rudy Giuliani being mocked on all channels for promoting this ridiculous nonsense ?



Why aren't any prominent Republicans willing to break rank ?
Well if you are a republican congress-critters and say "this is foolish" you would probably be seen by the MAGAchuds as pro-biden, regardless of the number of times you kissed Trump's ass. The only thing you can do is stay silent and hope nobody asks about it.



Sent from my LM-X320 using Tapatalk

Bogative 15th October 2020 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bogative (Post 13258032)
"John Paul Mac Isaac" sounds kind of Russian to me. ******* Putin!!!

I may be prescient.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stacyhs (Post 13258720)
I think Giuliani's being played like the desperate gullible idiot he is:

Nah, TDS sufferers are very predictable.

Stacyhs 15th October 2020 12:50 PM

This just reeks of Russia for all the reasons mentioned in the article. I also find the timeline interesting.

Although Isaac claims he received the computer in April 2019, what proof is there that he did? According to TellyKNeasuss, Hunter B was living in CA at that time. Isaac says he contacted an intermediary in September, 2019 who then contacted the FBI which then "made a forensic copy of the laptop, then returned weeks later with a subpoena and confiscated it."

Pelosi began the impeachment inquiry against Trump in September 2019.

So the FBI had the computer during the impeachment trial. Did they not examine the authenticity of the emails? If this was such a 'smoking gun' regarding H.B and Burisma why did we not hear of it during the impeachment?

TellyKNeasuss 15th October 2020 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stacyhs (Post 13258806)
So the FBI had the computer during the impeachment trial. Did they not examine the authenticity of the emails? If this was such a 'smoking gun' regarding H.B and Burisma why did we not hear of it during the impeachment?

DEEP STATE!!!

Norman Alexander 15th October 2020 01:12 PM

Is any of the supposed content of this hard disk NOT available somewhere publicly? Also, is any of the juicy email stuff proven to have been written at the time claimed, and not concocted using Notepad (or whatever) at any other time?

It would take me all of 5 minutes to take the text of an existing email and bodge it up to look like something extremely tempting to halfwit Rudi. So I would imagine it would take a Ukrainian or Russian team of computer experts no time and very little effort to make a whole bunch more, plus fill a hard disk full of a collected library of readily-available videos, etc. A training exercise for one of their beginner provocateurs, no doubt.

I think I can hear the chuckles with a Russian accent from here. ;)

Bogative 15th October 2020 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stacyhs (Post 13258806)

So the FBI had the computer during the impeachment trial. Did they not examine the authenticity of the emails? If this was such a 'smoking gun' regarding H.B and Burisma why did we not hear of it during the impeachment?


We may find out.
Quote:

House Republicans are calling on the FBI to reveal whether it was in possession of a laptop that reportedly contained emails by Hunter Biden during the impeachment of President Trump — and claiming the agency committed a “gross error in judgement” if it did not inform the White House

“A large portion of the president’s legal defense case revolved around strong evidence that former Vice President Biden’s son Hunter was peddling his influence to his father to land lucrative jobs overseas that he might not have otherwise been qualified for,” the letter says.

The lawmakers ask whether the FBI was in possession of the laptop and drive as documented in the Post, whether it took steps to authenticate the drive and the data, and if anyone at the FBI briefed officials at the Department of Justice or White House after December.

Elagabalus 15th October 2020 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bogative (Post 13258929)


I think JoeMorgue covered this story (sufficiently IMO) yesterday.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue (Post 13257628)
Look for a "bombshell" (cough cough) smear attack on Hunter Biden in the next week or so as Trump's Hail Mary. FoxNews is salivating over a story about Giuliani's laywers having "dirt" on him and pushing it hard to their viewership.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hun...d-drive-laptop

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue (Post 13257180)
Yeah Fox News really perfected the whole "People want answers on the 'Senator Johnson punches kittens' rumor. Why won't Senator Johnson answer these question?" when they are the ones who started the rumor that Senator Johnson punches kit routine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue (Post 13257169)
Way back on an episode of the Daily Show Jon Stewart broke down how Fox News "works."

They have their "opinion" shows just make stuff up to stir up controversy and then have their "news" report on the stuff people are talking about. It's basically journalistic push polling.


I Am The Scum 15th October 2020 05:54 PM

This really does prove how badly primed right-wingers are for news about e-mails. It gives them an erection so fast that what little blood supply their brain was receiving completely dries up.

gypsyjackson 15th October 2020 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by I Am The Scum (Post 13259101)
This really does prove how badly primed right-wingers are for news about e-mails. It gives them an erection so fast that what little blood supply their brain was receiving completely dries up.

It does make you wonder: if they think everyone else’s emails are so exciting and must be incriminating in some way, what do they have in theirs?

The Don 16th October 2020 12:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Segnosaur (Post 13258758)
Has this actually gotten to the point where the courts (or even law enforcement/FBI/etc) would even be involved?

My poor wording :o

I was using the phrase idiomatically, rather than literally:

Quote:

laugh out of court, to

To ridicule without mercy; to treat as not worth being taken seriously. The court here referred to is a court of law, and the idea of dismissing a case as laughable is mentioned in Horace’s Satires (35 b.c.). The modern term dates from the late nineteenth century and has lost its legal significance entirely, as in Walter de la Mare’s use (A Private View, 1909): “Longfellow, Emerson, and hosts of lesser men be laughed out of court.”
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com...es%20(35%20b.c.).


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