Getting Old
Our son celebrated his 32nd birthday last week. He’s moving – “gone to California” – and stayed with us for a few days along the way. We sat down to watch TV for a bit, and I asked him what he’d like to see. He said that he really doesn’t watch TV. Sure he catches sports, but he’s selective about his other viewing. It’s all about streaming (I guess that’s why “we” have Netflix and HBO). He targets his entertainment, “I’m streaming this show”, and binges for hours. Jenn and I are more “old fashioned” television viewers. We have a streaming service, Hulu, that provides us with the local channels and “traditional” networks. So we often watch just whatever is on at that time. Our son goes to a show, we go to the “old fashioned” television guide to select one.
Of course, we watch a lot of “cable news” (if you’ve read many of these essays on “Our America”, it shouldn’t surprise you that MSNBC is at the top of that list). Jenn also sources a lot of information from Twitter. Our son gets his news from “podcasts” and, as he puts it, research on the internet. We don’t agree on a lot of issues, but we do try to have careful discussions. There are things that transcend the day-to-day politics, and we all work at keeping our political conversations “civil”.
Faux News
Jenn is travelling with him to California, and I’m staying with the dogs. Last night, I sat down with an eighty pound dog asleep in my lap to watch TV. All of “our regular” Tuesday shows (FBI-FBI-FBI) were re-runs, and I can only stand “America’s Got Talent” for spurts. So I switched over to watch what Sean Hannity at Fox “News” was doing.
He was in South Carolina, and the highlight of his show was Republican Senator Tim Scott, running for President. This was my first look at Scott “unplugged”. He was a dynamic speaker, ignored Hannity and interacted with the audience, almost like a TV evangelical preacher. But the first fifteen minutes of the show was all-Hannity, and “all about” Hunter Biden.
Hunter
Hannity went through the litany of “evidence” against the President’s son; from the infamous laptop (remember the almost blind computer repair man with the Tam-O-Shanter?) to crack addiction and tax evasion. By the time he was done he “proved”: Vice President Biden threatened to withhold billions of dollars from Ukraine to protect his son (not true), and got millions more as part of the “Biden Crime Family” (also not true). And all of those so-called crimes were “protected” by the Merrick Garland Justice Department (really not true).
And Hunter himself got a “sweetheart” deal from Justice, probably avoiding jail time while pleading guilty to misdemeanor tax and gun possession offences. Hannity compared the younger Biden to a “hit list” of Trump men: Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Allan Weiselberg; all sentenced to jail. Hannity’s point is that Republicans are victims; of a politicized FBI, a vengeful “Democrat” Justice Department, and of injustice from the very institutions that are supposed to guarantee American justice.
That might make some sense, except for one little issue.
Republicans
Let’s start with the Vice President Biden and his Ukraine connections. Sure, Biden talked about withholding money from Ukraine, insisting that they fire a prosecutor who refused to investigate corruption. A lot of the “evidence” about Biden’s own “corruption” came from a shaky source, connected to Russian intelligence, and delivered to the US by Rudy Giuliani. It was all turned over to the Republican US Attorney for Western Pennsylvania at the direction of Trump’s Attorney General, Bill Barr. After looking at it, Scott Brady determined that there wasn’t any actionable information. Republican Attorney General – Republican US Attorney: no charges filed.
And as far as Hunter is concerned, all of the evidence was turned over to another Trump appointed Republican US Attorney, this one for Delaware, David Weiss. In fact, Democrats Biden and Garland left Republican Weiss in place so that he could continue the Hunter Biden investigation. Garland treated Weiss like a Special Prosecutor, (like Jack Smith), allowing him the freedom to make his own decision on whether and what to prosecute. So the “sweetheart” deal for Hunter Biden is a product of an investigation and indictment by a Trump and Barr appointed US Attorney, left in office by the “evil” Democrats.
Tormentors
By the way, two of the original Hannity list, Manafort and Stone; were investigated by an FBI with a Trump appointed Director (Chris Wray, still there), and all put away under a Republican Justice Department, appointed by the Trump Administration.
So if all of these “victims” were “victimized” by the Justice Department, there’s really only one “common denominator”: Republican appointees. That makes it hard to blame Biden (the President) or Garland. But those “little details” don’t matter to Hannity or Tim Scott, or Jim Jordan and his “weaponization committee”. They need a “tormentor” to match Republican victimhood. Democrats fit the bill.
It’s too bad that doesn’t fit the facts.
