[Continuation] The Biden Presidency (3) - Page 32

acbytesla · 22nd January 2023, 11:56 PM

Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger

Pretty flimsy denial, "it could have been mine".

NYPost

And then we have this: NYPost: CBS ‘confirms’ Hunter Biden laptop is real 769 days after Post broke story

It's at this point I say who cares? There is allegedly a lot of crap on that laptop about Hunter and nothing that includes evidence Biden was involved other than to not abandon his addicted son.

Why the FBI has held onto the actual laptop is an unknown.

Thank you for that.

Still it doesn't confirm that Hunter dropped the laptop off at a repair shop halfway across the country.

I don't doubt that some of the information on that drive came from Hunter Biden. But it doesn't mean that the data wasn't fabricated and added to the image. Has a computer forensics engineer examined it?

And as I said, it still doesn't address the point that neither the FBI or the repair shop guy has any business possessing either the drive or the hard drive image.

Seems to me the examination of the drive would require a search warrant. But I'm with you. I haven't seen anything that incriminates Joe Biden. Or Hunter for that matter.

Aridas · 23rd January 2023, 01:22 AM

Originally Posted by acbytesla

I don't doubt that some of the information on that drive came from Hunter Biden. But it doesn't mean that the data wasn't fabricated and added to the image. Has a computer forensics engineer examined it?

IIRC, yes. Multiple examiners were reported, I think. The result, with a bit of larger context added, can be pretty well summed up as I described earlier when I said -

As for altered, on the other hand - at last check, the current state of things was that some specific things on it have indeed been verified, but not any of the potentially more problematic stuff and that, given the evidence at hand about multiple rounds of later alterations in at least some files, it's impossible to validly claim that the laptop is unaltered. Rather, it seems far more true to say that the extent of alteration is largely unverifiable.

To add a bit more detail there to that, IIRC, in short, the chain of custody is difficult to verify and likely involved people with distinctly political motivations and the evidence shows that it was definitely accessed and altered to some degree at multiple points long after it left Hunter Biden's care, though the specifics may or may not have meaningfully changed things beyond trying to gather up presumably... useful things to use as attempted dirt. The conclusion of the examiners was that the full extent of any potential alteration was unverifiable, just that some alterations could indeed be verified.

No actual dirt on Joe, though.

A bit separately, the NY Post and allies coverage was a bit eye-rolling. The "Most news outlets ignored the laptop’s contents until recently." for example? It wasn't that it was ignored! A bunch reached out to try to at least have some actual verification that such even existed and were flatly refused by the clown show! It was blocked on Twitter, etc? Yeah, for a short time, as Twitter tried to verify whether hacked materials were involved, per then standing policy. A lot of people suggested that it was likely Russian disinformation? Based on the actually available information, at the time the observation was certainly made by a number of respectable figures that it would fit the Russian M.O. quite well, but that no definitive conclusions could truly be reached without actual examination. Entirely reasonable, really, and exactly the kind of thing that could be solved by allowing examination. Examination that, once again, was being blocked for seemingly no good reason provided that some there was actually there. All that "We were right, you biased oppressors who mocked us" resentment can pretty safely be turned right back at the NY Post and co because the lack of acceptance and mockery was completely the result of them being friggin' idiots. "We've got this super political slamdunk and we won't let anyone else even verify that it truly exists!" just isn't that convincing when one regularly pushes inane politically motivated lies anyways.

Skeptic Ginger · 23rd January 2023, 02:46 AM

Originally Posted by acbytesla

Thank you for that.

Still it doesn't confirm that Hunter dropped the laptop off at a repair shop halfway across the country.

At some point it was confirmed. And from the shop the FBI took it. The shop owner kept a copy of the hard drive. I don't want to hunt the info down. It's moot anyway because as you say, there's no way to know what has been altered.

Originally Posted by acbytesla

And as I said, it still doesn't address the point that neither the FBI or the repair shop guy has any business possessing either the drive or the hard drive image.

Seems to me the examination of the drive would require a search warrant. But I'm with you. I haven't seen anything that incriminates Joe Biden. Or Hunter for that matter.

I don't know the details of its possession except the laptop was essentially abandoned. There is nothing that incriminates Biden AFAIK.

As for Hunter there are supposedly some porn images and maybe emails about drug use. Hunter admits to being a drug addict in the past. He has a child with a hooker of some kind, also during those drug days.

It's not a secret.

ZiprHead · 23rd January 2023, 05:27 AM

Originally Posted by acbytesla

Thank you for that.

Still it doesn't confirm that Hunter dropped the laptop off at a repair shop halfway across the country.

I don't doubt that some of the information on that drive came from Hunter Biden. But it doesn't mean that the data wasn't fabricated and added to the image. Has a computer forensics engineer examined it?

And as I said, it still doesn't address the point that neither the FBI or the repair shop guy has any business possessing either the drive or the hard drive image.

Seems to me the examination of the drive would require a search warrant. But I'm with you. I haven't seen anything that incriminates Joe Biden. Or Hunter for that matter.

From WaPo:

Quote:

What the experts found
In their examinations, Green and Williams found evidence that people other than Hunter Biden had accessed the drive and written files to it, both before and after the initial stories in the New York Post and long after the laptop itself had been turned over to the FBI.

Maxey had alerted The Washington Post to this issue in advance, saying that others had accessed the data to examine its contents and make copies of files. But the lack of what experts call a “clean chain of custody” undermined Green’s and Williams’s ability to determine the authenticity of most of the drive’s contents.

“The drive is a mess,” Green said.

He compared the portable drive he received from The Post to a crime scene in which detectives arrive to find Big Mac wrappers carelessly left behind by police officers who were there before them, contaminating the evidence.

That assessment was echoed by Williams.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/techn...data-examined/

ZiprHead · 23rd January 2023, 05:35 AM

Also from the WaPo link above:

Quote:

The laptop’s journey begins
John Paul Mac Isaac, the owner of the Wilmington repair shop, has said he received the 13-inch MacBook Pro on April 12, 2019, when Hunter Biden asked him to recover data from the computer because it had been damaged by liquid.

According to Mac Isaac’s attorney, Brian Della Rocca, recovering the data was challenging for Mac Isaac.

“He would boot the computer and transfer as much as he could before the computer shut down. Then, he would boot up the computer again, verify what was copied, and then transfer more data until the computer shut down again. This process repeated several times,” Della Rocca said in a prepared statement.

WTF?!? I've been building and repairing computers for thirty years. That's the stupidest way of imaging a hard drive from a damaged computer I've ever heard of.

Darat · 23rd January 2023, 05:41 AM

Originally Posted by ZiprHead

Also from the WaPo link above:

WTF?!? I've been building and repairing computers for thirty years. That's the stupidest way of imaging a hard drive from a damaged computer I've ever heard of.

It really does call into question their level of expertise.

Ziggurat · 23rd January 2023, 05:57 AM

Latest Bad Lip Reading:

YouTube Video This video is not hosted by the ISF. The ISF can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website.

I AGREE

Extra credit: find the part where it's his actual words.

Tero · 23rd January 2023, 07:50 AM

Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger

IIRC he said it was his and at one point he left at the repair shop. After that however the hard drive was copied and the FBI took possession of the laptop making everything claimed to be on the laptop hard drive suspect.

But seriously, Hunter took advantage of his dad's position. Years later Biden says he believes it was his son's drug addiction and his son has since cleaned up.

You can't control your relatives, kids or parents. I think Biden has addressed the matter sufficiently and the GOP would be going on and on about Hunter regardless. Just look at the GOP history of idiocy from the Vince Foster suicide to Benghazi to EmptyG claiming Biden and the deep state murdered JFK Jr.

He never said that he left that laptop at a repair shop or that it was the one the "FBI" collected. most of the "facts" were made up by Giuliani for the Post article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter...op_controversy

Quote:

Hunter Biden stated in an interview published in April 2021 that he was not sure whether the laptop belonged to him; he said there "could be a laptop out there that was stolen from" him, or he could have been "hacked" by Russian intelligence.[46] The New York Times reported that it "has not been determined that the laptop was stolen".[47] PolitiFact wrote in June 2021: "Over time, there has been less doubt that the laptop did in fact belong to Hunter Biden", concluding that the laptop "was real in the sense that it exists, but it didn't prove much", as "Nothing from the laptop has revealed illegal or unethical behavior by Joe Biden as vice president with regard to his son's tenure as a director for Burisma".[7] PolitiFact states that it is possible that "copies of a laptop" were obtained, instead of the actual laptop.[7] PolitiFact states that the Daily Mail published nude photos of Hunter Biden from the laptop, as well as other content focused on Hunter Biden's drug use and legal issues, but notes that Hunter Biden had already publicized his drug issues.

It will be embarrassing to the GOP committee when there is no laptop.

Random · 23rd January 2023, 08:23 AM

Originally Posted by Sherkeu

The laptop is just a piece of a puzzle. But it doesnt matter. Both sides have their shenannigans that profit off of their positions.
As a sitting president, he is protected from a full criminal case, which he should not go through anyway as his mental state is in serious decline.

He wont run again - I am 100% sure of it - and I'm beginning to think they (democrats) are actually trying to have him resign. They are just going after him too hard.
Expect a new slant to a negative story every day, and CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS will run it. That is how you will know. They wont bury it or 'nothingburger' it.

Maybe they will give him a break before the State of the Union on Feb 7. No one wants to hurt the party as a whole for 2024 or give the GOP too much ammo to use. But after that, he has just a week or 2 to announce.

The first step in the CTer journey. Assume there is a puzzle...

Skeptic Ginger · 23rd January 2023, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by Tero

He never said that he left that laptop at a repair shop or that it was the one the "FBI" collected. most of the "facts" were made up by Giuliani for the Post article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter...op_controversy

That's not what your quote says nor does the quote differ from what I posted. From the link:

Quote:

PolitiFact wrote in June 2021: "Over time, there has been less doubt that the laptop did in fact belong to Hunter Biden", concluding that the laptop "was real in the sense that it exists, but it didn't prove much"

Originally Posted by Tero

It will be embarrassing to the GOP committee when there is no laptop.

That's a given. Even if a laptop is produced it is already contaminated and unreliable as evidence. But I'm not sure they care, they'll make stuff up anyway.

wareyin · 23rd January 2023, 09:33 AM

Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger

That's not what your quote says nor does the quote differ from what I posted. From the link:

That's a given. Even if a laptop is produced it is already contaminated and unreliable as evidence. But I'm not sure they care, they'll make stuff up anyway.

At one time, there were something like 5 or 6 laptops floating around the GOPershpere, all allegedly having belonged to Hunter Biden. This particular copy of a hard drive never belonged to Hunter, but may be a copy of a drive off of a laptop that was either stolen from Hunter or was simply copied from one Hunter owned. Hunter has never said he left a laptop with that particular computer repair shop or it's owner, nor is the owner able to verify that Hunter was the one who allegedly gave it to him.

The Atheist · 23rd January 2023, 10:56 AM

WTF? Someone in The Party woke up!

Dick Durbin:

Quote:

Biden should be “embarrassed by the situation”, said Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, adding that the president had ceded the moral high ground on an issue that has already entangled former President Donald Trump.

Durbin is right to point the difference in action between Trump & Biden after the discovery, but in the minds of the unwashed, they're equivalent.

Now is clearly the time they should be preparing for a different candidate for the election, because anything else will be setting them up for a spectacular fail.

wareyin · 23rd January 2023, 11:30 AM

Originally Posted by The Atheist

WTF? Someone in The Party woke up!

Dick Durbin:

Durbin is right to point the difference in action between Trump & Biden after the discovery, but in the minds of the unwashed, they're equivalent.

Now is clearly the time they should be preparing for a different candidate for the election, because anything else will be setting them up for a spectacular fail.

I applaud your efforts to cement the opinions of the unwashed and all, but I don't think you're going to make much of a difference to them.

Tero · 24th January 2023, 01:40 PM

Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger

That's not what your quote says nor does the quote differ from what I posted. From the link:

That's a given. Even if a laptop is produced it is already contaminated and unreliable as evidence. But I'm not sure they care, they'll make stuff up anyway.

One line in Wiki thinks the laptop exists. It gives a reference. Nothing else in the whole list of references gives any proof for a laptop. The FBI has not given a statement.

And as I said, Hunter never said yes.

This sort of stuff is not evidence:
https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news...s-arrangements

Stacyhs · 24th January 2023, 02:17 PM

Originally Posted by Ziggurat

Latest Bad Lip Reading:

YouTube Video This video is not hosted by the ISF. The ISF can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website.

I AGREE

Extra credit: find the part where it's his actual words.

What's sad is that videos of Trump aren't even parodies like this made by BLR. Trump turned what was supposed to be "Diamond's" memorial service eulogy into a 40+ campaign and grievance "me-logy" as Jimmy Fallon called it.

mgidm86 · 24th January 2023, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by ZiprHead

Also from the WaPo link above:

WTF?!? I've been building and repairing computers for thirty years. That's the stupidest way of imaging a hard drive from a damaged computer I've ever heard of.

Agreed, I caught that too. You'd take the drive out of the computer, especially if it was water damaged. "Darn it keeps shutting down! It's so hard to backup!" my. gawd.

Perhaps the Repubs are clamoring so loudly about this because they know there is incriminating evidence on it (because they put it there themselves)?

Everyday Republican voters believe there is something important on that laptop and the Republicans in power know they do. Fox has them convinced. The truth doesn't matter. It's all they got so they have to push this story.

The Repubs would be better off if the laptop never surfaced. As it is now they can claim whatever they want and the right people will believe them.

Tero · 26th January 2023, 03:25 PM

(Bloomberg) -- The US Treasury Department refused Wednesday to provide House Republicans any suspicious activity reports it may have on foreign banking and other business transactions by Hunter Biden and other members of President Joe Biden’s family.
https://news.yahoo.com/us-treasury-d...014351391.html

dudalb · 27th January 2023, 01:50 PM

And now the Israeli Palestinian situatin seems to be exploding again. Another item on Biden's plate.

dudalb · 27th January 2023, 01:51 PM

Originally Posted by Tero

(Bloomberg) -- The US Treasury Department refused Wednesday to provide House Republicans any suspicious activity reports it may have on foreign banking and other business transactions by Hunter Biden and other members of President Joe Biden’s family.
https://news.yahoo.com/us-treasury-d...014351391.html

And that is not a good move IMHO.

Segnosaur · 27th January 2023, 02:43 PM

Originally Posted by dudalb

And that is not a good move IMHO.

You are right.

A "good move" would have been to take one of the statements made by either the Trump administration and/or one of Trump's congressional supporters when they stonewalled requests from the democrats, and repeat their own statements word for word.

dudalb · 27th January 2023, 02:48 PM

Originally Posted by Segnosaur

You are right.

A "good move" would have been to take one of the statements made by either the Trump administration and/or one of Trump's congressional supporters when they stonewalled requests from the democrats, and repeat their own statements word for word.

Nope, I feel they should have complied on the "we have nothing to hide" basis.
It was wrong for Trump to stonewall, Wrong for Biden to stonewall.

Skeptic Ginger · 27th January 2023, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by dudalb

And that is not a good move IMHO.

It's a phishing expedition. It's standard to block that kind of data as it would be an illegal search without probable cause. From the link:

Quote:

Jonathan Davidson, Treasury’s legislative affairs chief, told House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer in a letter that he needs more details about why the panel is seeking such “highly sensitive” information.

This is some kind of guess (surmised) on the GOP's part:

Quote:

... Treasury Department has at least 150 SARs related to financial transactions of Biden family member

Right wing sources make sure to frame these as "Biden family reports" when they are mostly Hunter and one other family member. We know about this stuff already and there is zero evidence any of it involves Joe himself.

Bob001 · 27th January 2023, 03:00 PM

Originally Posted by dudalb

And that is not a good move IMHO.

Hunter Biden has never been a public official. On what grounds would Repubs demand any financial records?

johnny karate · 27th January 2023, 03:27 PM

Originally Posted by dudalb

Nope, I feel they should have complied on the "we have nothing to hide" basis.
It was wrong for Trump to stonewall, Wrong for Biden to stonewall.

Calling the protection of a private citizen’s privacy “stonewalling” is an interesting take.

Stacyhs · 27th January 2023, 06:36 PM

Originally Posted by dudalb

Nope, I feel they should have complied on the "we have nothing to hide" basis.
It was wrong for Trump to stonewall, Wrong for Biden to stonewall.

Biden is not the Treasury Dept.

Stacyhs · 27th January 2023, 06:38 PM

Originally Posted by dudalb

And now the Israeli Palestinian situatin seems to be exploding again. Another item on Biden's plate.

Wait a minute. I thought Jared K had fixed all that.

22nd January 2023, 11:56 PM	#1241
acbytesla Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 31,383	Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger Pretty flimsy denial, "it could have been mine". NYPost And then we have this: NYPost: CBS ‘confirms’ Hunter Biden laptop is real 769 days after Post broke story It's at this point I say who cares? There is allegedly a lot of crap on that laptop about Hunter and nothing that includes evidence Biden was involved other than to not abandon his addicted son. Why the FBI has held onto the actual laptop is an unknown. Thank you for that. Still it doesn't confirm that Hunter dropped the laptop off at a repair shop halfway across the country. I don't doubt that some of the information on that drive came from Hunter Biden. But it doesn't mean that the data wasn't fabricated and added to the image. Has a computer forensics engineer examined it? And as I said, it still doesn't address the point that neither the FBI or the repair shop guy has any business possessing either the drive or the hard drive image. Seems to me the examination of the drive would require a search warrant. But I'm with you. I haven't seen anything that incriminates Joe Biden. Or Hunter for that matter.
	__________________ Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get to me. .

23rd January 2023, 01:22 AM	#1242
Aridas Crazy Little Green Dragon Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: East Coast, US Posts: 9,622	Originally Posted by acbytesla I don't doubt that some of the information on that drive came from Hunter Biden. But it doesn't mean that the data wasn't fabricated and added to the image. Has a computer forensics engineer examined it? IIRC, yes. Multiple examiners were reported, I think. The result, with a bit of larger context added, can be pretty well summed up as I described earlier when I said - As for altered, on the other hand - at last check, the current state of things was that some specific things on it have indeed been verified, but not any of the potentially more problematic stuff and that, given the evidence at hand about multiple rounds of later alterations in at least some files, it's impossible to validly claim that the laptop is unaltered. Rather, it seems far more true to say that the extent of alteration is largely unverifiable. To add a bit more detail there to that, IIRC, in short, the chain of custody is difficult to verify and likely involved people with distinctly political motivations and the evidence shows that it was definitely accessed and altered to some degree at multiple points long after it left Hunter Biden's care, though the specifics may or may not have meaningfully changed things beyond trying to gather up presumably... useful things to use as attempted dirt. The conclusion of the examiners was that the full extent of any potential alteration was unverifiable, just that some alterations could indeed be verified. No actual dirt on Joe, though. A bit separately, the NY Post and allies coverage was a bit eye-rolling. The "Most news outlets ignored the laptop’s contents until recently." for example? It wasn't that it was ignored! A bunch reached out to try to at least have some actual verification that such even existed and were flatly refused by the clown show! It was blocked on Twitter, etc? Yeah, for a short time, as Twitter tried to verify whether hacked materials were involved, per then standing policy. A lot of people suggested that it was likely Russian disinformation? Based on the actually available information, at the time the observation was certainly made by a number of respectable figures that it would fit the Russian M.O. quite well, but that no definitive conclusions could truly be reached without actual examination. Entirely reasonable, really, and exactly the kind of thing that could be solved by allowing examination. Examination that, once again, was being blocked for seemingly no good reason provided that some there was actually there. All that "We were right, you biased oppressors who mocked us" resentment can pretty safely be turned right back at the NY Post and co because the lack of acceptance and mockery was completely the result of them being friggin' idiots. "We've got this super political slamdunk and we won't let anyone else even verify that it truly exists!" just isn't that convincing when one regularly pushes inane politically motivated lies anyways.
	__________________ So sayeth the crazy little dragon. Last edited by Aridas; 23rd January 2023 at 02:07 AM.

23rd January 2023, 05:27 AM	#1244
ZiprHead Muse Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Sag-Nasty Posts: 873	Originally Posted by acbytesla Thank you for that. Still it doesn't confirm that Hunter dropped the laptop off at a repair shop halfway across the country. I don't doubt that some of the information on that drive came from Hunter Biden. But it doesn't mean that the data wasn't fabricated and added to the image. Has a computer forensics engineer examined it? And as I said, it still doesn't address the point that neither the FBI or the repair shop guy has any business possessing either the drive or the hard drive image. Seems to me the examination of the drive would require a search warrant. But I'm with you. I haven't seen anything that incriminates Joe Biden. Or Hunter for that matter. From WaPo: Quote: What the experts found In their examinations, Green and Williams found evidence that people other than Hunter Biden had accessed the drive and written files to it, both before and after the initial stories in the New York Post and long after the laptop itself had been turned over to the FBI. Maxey had alerted The Washington Post to this issue in advance, saying that others had accessed the data to examine its contents and make copies of files. But the lack of what experts call a “clean chain of custody” undermined Green’s and Williams’s ability to determine the authenticity of most of the drive’s contents. “The drive is a mess,” Green said. He compared the portable drive he received from The Post to a crime scene in which detectives arrive to find Big Mac wrappers carelessly left behind by police officers who were there before them, contaminating the evidence. That assessment was echoed by Williams. https://www.washingtonpost.com/techn...data-examined/
	__________________ When conservatives realize they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will abandon democracy. IIDB is back, baby!

23rd January 2023, 05:35 AM	#1245
ZiprHead Muse Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Sag-Nasty Posts: 873	Also from the WaPo link above: Quote: The laptop’s journey begins John Paul Mac Isaac, the owner of the Wilmington repair shop, has said he received the 13-inch MacBook Pro on April 12, 2019, when Hunter Biden asked him to recover data from the computer because it had been damaged by liquid. According to Mac Isaac’s attorney, Brian Della Rocca, recovering the data was challenging for Mac Isaac. “He would boot the computer and transfer as much as he could before the computer shut down. Then, he would boot up the computer again, verify what was copied, and then transfer more data until the computer shut down again. This process repeated several times,” Della Rocca said in a prepared statement. WTF?!? I've been building and repairing computers for thirty years. That's the stupidest way of imaging a hard drive from a damaged computer I've ever heard of.
	__________________ When conservatives realize they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will abandon democracy. IIDB is back, baby!

23rd January 2023, 05:41 AM	#1246
Darat Lackey Administrator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: South East, UK Posts: 106,871	Originally Posted by ZiprHead Also from the WaPo link above: WTF?!? I've been building and repairing computers for thirty years. That's the stupidest way of imaging a hard drive from a damaged computer I've ever heard of. It really does call into question their level of expertise.
	__________________ I wish I knew how to quit you

23rd January 2023, 02:46 AM	#1243
Skeptic Ginger Nasty Woman Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 92,991	Originally Posted by acbytesla Thank you for that. Still it doesn't confirm that Hunter dropped the laptop off at a repair shop halfway across the country. At some point it was confirmed. And from the shop the FBI took it. The shop owner kept a copy of the hard drive. I don't want to hunt the info down. It's moot anyway because as you say, there's no way to know what has been altered. Originally Posted by acbytesla And as I said, it still doesn't address the point that neither the FBI or the repair shop guy has any business possessing either the drive or the hard drive image. Seems to me the examination of the drive would require a search warrant. But I'm with you. I haven't seen anything that incriminates Joe Biden. Or Hunter for that matter. I don't know the details of its possession except the laptop was essentially abandoned. There is nothing that incriminates Biden AFAIK. As for Hunter there are supposedly some porn images and maybe emails about drug use. Hunter admits to being a drug addict in the past. He has a child with a hooker of some kind, also during those drug days. It's not a secret.

23rd January 2023, 07:50 AM	#1248
Tero Master Poster Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: North American prairie Posts: 2,921	Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger IIRC he said it was his and at one point he left at the repair shop. After that however the hard drive was copied and the FBI took possession of the laptop making everything claimed to be on the laptop hard drive suspect. But seriously, Hunter took advantage of his dad's position. Years later Biden says he believes it was his son's drug addiction and his son has since cleaned up. You can't control your relatives, kids or parents. I think Biden has addressed the matter sufficiently and the GOP would be going on and on about Hunter regardless. Just look at the GOP history of idiocy from the Vince Foster suicide to Benghazi to EmptyG claiming Biden and the deep state murdered JFK Jr. He never said that he left that laptop at a repair shop or that it was the one the "FBI" collected. most of the "facts" were made up by Giuliani for the Post article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter...op_controversy Quote: Hunter Biden stated in an interview published in April 2021 that he was not sure whether the laptop belonged to him; he said there "could be a laptop out there that was stolen from" him, or he could have been "hacked" by Russian intelligence.[46] The New York Times reported that it "has not been determined that the laptop was stolen".[47] PolitiFact wrote in June 2021: "Over time, there has been less doubt that the laptop did in fact belong to Hunter Biden", concluding that the laptop "was real in the sense that it exists, but it didn't prove much", as "Nothing from the laptop has revealed illegal or unethical behavior by Joe Biden as vice president with regard to his son's tenure as a director for Burisma".[7] PolitiFact states that it is possible that "copies of a laptop" were obtained, instead of the actual laptop.[7] PolitiFact states that the Daily Mail published nude photos of Hunter Biden from the laptop, as well as other content focused on Hunter Biden's drug use and legal issues, but notes that Hunter Biden had already publicized his drug issues. It will be embarrassing to the GOP committee when there is no laptop.
	__________________ Dominus vo-bisque'em Et cum spear a tu-tu, oh! Politics blog: https://esapolitics.blogspot.com/ Parody: http://karireport.blogspot.com/ Poll: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com...proval-rating/

23rd January 2023, 08:23 AM	#1249
Random Illuminator Join Date: Jul 2001 Posts: 3,556	Originally Posted by Sherkeu The laptop is just a piece of a puzzle. But it doesnt matter. Both sides have their shenannigans that profit off of their positions. As a sitting president, he is protected from a full criminal case, which he should not go through anyway as his mental state is in serious decline. He wont run again - I am 100% sure of it - and I'm beginning to think they (democrats) are actually trying to have him resign. They are just going after him too hard. Expect a new slant to a negative story every day, and CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS will run it. That is how you will know. They wont bury it or 'nothingburger' it. Maybe they will give him a break before the State of the Union on Feb 7. No one wants to hurt the party as a whole for 2024 or give the GOP too much ammo to use. But after that, he has just a week or 2 to announce. The first step in the CTer journey. Assume there is a puzzle...
Random Illuminator Join Date: Jul 2001 Posts: 3,556	__________________ The road to Fascism is paved with people saying, "You're overreacting!".

23rd January 2023, 09:22 AM	#1250
Skeptic Ginger Nasty Woman Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 92,991	Originally Posted by Tero He never said that he left that laptop at a repair shop or that it was the one the "FBI" collected. most of the "facts" were made up by Giuliani for the Post article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter...op_controversy That's not what your quote says nor does the quote differ from what I posted. From the link: Quote: PolitiFact wrote in June 2021: "Over time, there has been less doubt that the laptop did in fact belong to Hunter Biden", concluding that the laptop "was real in the sense that it exists, but it didn't prove much" Originally Posted by Tero It will be embarrassing to the GOP committee when there is no laptop. That's a given. Even if a laptop is produced it is already contaminated and unreliable as evidence. But I'm not sure they care, they'll make stuff up anyway.

23rd January 2023, 09:33 AM	#1251
wareyin Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Georgia, USA Posts: 10,868	Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger That's not what your quote says nor does the quote differ from what I posted. From the link: That's a given. Even if a laptop is produced it is already contaminated and unreliable as evidence. But I'm not sure they care, they'll make stuff up anyway. At one time, there were something like 5 or 6 laptops floating around the GOPershpere, all allegedly having belonged to Hunter Biden. This particular copy of a hard drive never belonged to Hunter, but may be a copy of a drive off of a laptop that was either stolen from Hunter or was simply copied from one Hunter owned. Hunter has never said he left a laptop with that particular computer repair shop or it's owner, nor is the owner able to verify that Hunter was the one who allegedly gave it to him.

23rd January 2023, 10:56 AM	#1252
The Atheist The Grammar Tyrant Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 32,963	WTF? Someone in The Party woke up! Dick Durbin: Quote: Biden should be “embarrassed by the situation”, said Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, adding that the president had ceded the moral high ground on an issue that has already entangled former President Donald Trump. Durbin is right to point the difference in action between Trump & Biden after the discovery, but in the minds of the unwashed, they're equivalent. Now is clearly the time they should be preparing for a different candidate for the election, because anything else will be setting them up for a spectacular fail.
	__________________ The point of equilibrium has passed; satire and current events are now indistinguishable.

23rd January 2023, 11:30 AM	#1253
wareyin Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Georgia, USA Posts: 10,868	Originally Posted by The Atheist WTF? Someone in The Party woke up! Dick Durbin: Durbin is right to point the difference in action between Trump & Biden after the discovery, but in the minds of the unwashed, they're equivalent. Now is clearly the time they should be preparing for a different candidate for the election, because anything else will be setting them up for a spectacular fail. I applaud your efforts to cement the opinions of the unwashed and all, but I don't think you're going to make much of a difference to them.

24th January 2023, 01:40 PM	#1254
Tero Master Poster Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: North American prairie Posts: 2,921	Originally Posted by Skeptic Ginger That's not what your quote says nor does the quote differ from what I posted. From the link: That's a given. Even if a laptop is produced it is already contaminated and unreliable as evidence. But I'm not sure they care, they'll make stuff up anyway. One line in Wiki thinks the laptop exists. It gives a reference. Nothing else in the whole list of references gives any proof for a laptop. The FBI has not given a statement. And as I said, Hunter never said yes. This sort of stuff is not evidence: https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news...s-arrangements
	__________________ Dominus vo-bisque'em Et cum spear a tu-tu, oh! Politics blog: https://esapolitics.blogspot.com/ Parody: http://karireport.blogspot.com/ Poll: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com...proval-rating/ Last edited by Tero; 24th January 2023 at 01:44 PM.

24th January 2023, 06:11 PM	#1256
mgidm86 Philosopher Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 8,471	Originally Posted by ZiprHead Also from the WaPo link above: WTF?!? I've been building and repairing computers for thirty years. That's the stupidest way of imaging a hard drive from a damaged computer I've ever heard of. Agreed, I caught that too. You'd take the drive out of the computer, especially if it was water damaged. "Darn it keeps shutting down! It's so hard to backup!" my. gawd. Perhaps the Repubs are clamoring so loudly about this because they know there is incriminating evidence on it (because they put it there themselves)? Everyday Republican voters believe there is something important on that laptop and the Republicans in power know they do. Fox has them convinced. The truth doesn't matter. It's all they got so they have to push this story. The Repubs would be better off if the laptop never surfaced. As it is now they can claim whatever they want and the right people will believe them.
mgidm86 Philosopher Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 8,471

26th January 2023, 03:25 PM	#1257
Tero Master Poster Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: North American prairie Posts: 2,921	(Bloomberg) -- The US Treasury Department refused Wednesday to provide House Republicans any suspicious activity reports it may have on foreign banking and other business transactions by Hunter Biden and other members of President Joe Biden’s family. https://news.yahoo.com/us-treasury-d...014351391.html
	__________________ Dominus vo-bisque'em Et cum spear a tu-tu, oh! Politics blog: https://esapolitics.blogspot.com/ Parody: http://karireport.blogspot.com/ Poll: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com...proval-rating/

27th January 2023, 01:50 PM	#1258
dudalb Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Sacramento Posts: 57,211	And now the Israeli Palestinian situatin seems to be exploding again. Another item on Biden's plate.
	__________________ Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay - and claims a halo for his dishonesty. Robert Heinlein.

27th January 2023, 01:51 PM	#1259
dudalb Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Sacramento Posts: 57,211	Originally Posted by Tero (Bloomberg) -- The US Treasury Department refused Wednesday to provide House Republicans any suspicious activity reports it may have on foreign banking and other business transactions by Hunter Biden and other members of President Joe Biden’s family. https://news.yahoo.com/us-treasury-d...014351391.html And that is not a good move IMHO.
	__________________ Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay - and claims a halo for his dishonesty. Robert Heinlein.

27th January 2023, 02:43 PM	#1260
Segnosaur Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Canada, eh? Posts: 19,509	Originally Posted by dudalb And that is not a good move IMHO. You are right. A "good move" would have been to take one of the statements made by either the Trump administration and/or one of Trump's congressional supporters when they stonewalled requests from the democrats, and repeat their own statements word for word.
	__________________ Trust me, I know what I'm doing. - Sledgehammer I'm Mary Poppins Y'all! - Yondu We are Groot - Groot

27th January 2023, 02:48 PM	#1261
dudalb Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Sacramento Posts: 57,211	Originally Posted by Segnosaur You are right. A "good move" would have been to take one of the statements made by either the Trump administration and/or one of Trump's congressional supporters when they stonewalled requests from the democrats, and repeat their own statements word for word. Nope, I feel they should have complied on the "we have nothing to hide" basis. It was wrong for Trump to stonewall, Wrong for Biden to stonewall.
	__________________ Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay - and claims a halo for his dishonesty. Robert Heinlein.

27th January 2023, 02:50 PM	#1262
Skeptic Ginger Nasty Woman Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 92,991	Originally Posted by dudalb And that is not a good move IMHO. It's a phishing expedition. It's standard to block that kind of data as it would be an illegal search without probable cause. From the link: Quote: Jonathan Davidson, Treasury’s legislative affairs chief, told House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer in a letter that he needs more details about why the panel is seeking such “highly sensitive” information. This is some kind of guess (surmised) on the GOP's part: Quote: ... Treasury Department has at least 150 SARs related to financial transactions of Biden family member Right wing sources make sure to frame these as "Biden family reports" when they are mostly Hunter and one other family member. We know about this stuff already and there is zero evidence any of it involves Joe himself.

27th January 2023, 03:00 PM	#1263
Bob001 Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: US of A Posts: 16,302	Originally Posted by dudalb And that is not a good move IMHO. Hunter Biden has never been a public official. On what grounds would Repubs demand any financial records?

27th January 2023, 03:27 PM	#1264
johnny karate ... and your little dog too. Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 15,895	Originally Posted by dudalb Nope, I feel they should have complied on the "we have nothing to hide" basis. It was wrong for Trump to stonewall, Wrong for Biden to stonewall. Calling the protection of a private citizen’s privacy “stonewalling” is an interesting take.

27th January 2023, 06:36 PM	#1265
Stacyhs Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Mar 2016 Location: United States Posts: 28,611	Originally Posted by dudalb Nope, I feel they should have complied on the "we have nothing to hide" basis. It was wrong for Trump to stonewall, Wrong for Biden to stonewall. Biden is not the Treasury Dept.

27th January 2023, 06:38 PM	#1266
Stacyhs Penultimate Amazing Join Date: Mar 2016 Location: United States Posts: 28,611	Originally Posted by dudalb And now the Israeli Palestinian situatin seems to be exploding again. Another item on Biden's plate. Wait a minute. I thought Jared K had fixed all that.