December 2, 2024

BRENDAN O’NEILL: Hunter Biden’s pardon is the death rattle of the elites.

Look, we don’t have to be heartless bastards about it. Many among us would opt to save a child* from jail, even if it meant backtracking on all our fine moral grandstanding. But the problem is the Dems tied their political rectitude to Biden’s acceptance of the jury’s democratic deliberations. They used the Hunter case to morally distinguish themselves from the allegedly lawless bruisers of the Trump set. They swore, endlessly, that they would abide by the rules and restore normalcy to the Trump-rattled republic. And they didn’t. They ended up exploiting presidential power for personal favour to a degree Trump never did. Their claims to moral distinction lie in tatters. Their delusion of righteousness stands exposed as just that: a delusion. This is why this pardon matters.

It feels like a Last Days of Rome vibe has gripped Biden’s White House. One envisions Jill still stomping the halls in fury over Kamala’s betrayal. And officials muttering bitterly about Nancy Pelosi’s Brutus-style wielding of the knife against Joe. All while Joe busies himself with freeing his fallen son from the very justice Joe claims to love. This is what happens when an elite becomes ever more estranged from the people: it starts to rule by itself and for itself. Rarely has the moral exhaustion of a government been on such frank and grim display.

* Hunter is 54, so he’s hardly a child. And Biden’s been looking the other way at his actions for his entire life, leading up to this moment:

On the other hand, Hunter spent his childhood being a political prop for Joe; from that point of view, like the misguided kids of Hollywood celebrities, where there’s no moral compass to be handed down from generation to generation, I am somewhat sympathetic:

That’s the crash that Biden has spent much of his adult life lying about the cause of: ‘Sick To My Stomach:’ Joe Biden lied about my dad being drunk in crash that killed his wife and daughter… he’s got a nerve calling out Trump.

Posted at 5:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

TO BE FAIR, ESTONIA DIDN’T SUBSIDIZE THE IMPORTATION OF A NEW CRIMINAL CLASS FROM ABROAD:

According to the replies, that picture is of “a cell in the Swedish maximum security prison Kumla.”

Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the surprisingly posh tiny home-style living.

Posted at 4:50 pm by Stephen Green

THEY LIED. Report: Scientists at Center of ‘Lab Leak’ Concerns Misled Congress. “A sprawling final report by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic provokes questions over whether some in the scientific community – including EcoHealth Alliance, the American nonprofit that collaborated on novel coronavirus discovery and engineering research with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and its president Peter Daszak – could face criminal charges stemming from the COVID-19 tragedy.”

Trump’s FBI and DOJ will be busy.

Posted at 4:42 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THAT’S NO SKIN OFF JOE’S NOSE: Hunter’s Creditor Speaks Out on No-Consequences Pardon. “They say crime doesn’t pay, and in the case of Hunter Biden, one could certainly say that the criminal doesn’t pay. A man to whom Hunter reportedly owes over $300,000 is not exactly thrilled at Hunter‘s blanket pardon from his senile father.”

Posted at 4:19 pm by Stephen Green

GUN CONTROL GROUPS ALWAYS PREDICT BLOOD IN THE STREETS WHEN GUN CONTROLS ARE REMOVED, BUT IT NEVER HAPPENS: “Yet something funny happened after 2022. Instead of the proverbial ‘blood in the streets’ that was predicted, the national homicide rate dropped. This happened everywhere; in the antigun states forced to issue carry permits for the first time, in pro-gun states like Ohio and Florida which went further and adopted ‘constitutional carry’ (meaning no permit is required to carry a gun if you can legally own one), and even in individual cities like Philadelphia that began issuing permits more liberally as a result of the litigation.”

Posted at 4:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China launches first Long March 12 from new commercial spaceport in boost for country’s lunar plans.

China launched its first Long March 12 rocket Saturday, marking an advance in its crewed moon plans and the debut of a new spaceport that will boost the country’s access to space.

The two-stage, 62-meter-tall Long March 12 lifted off at 9:25 a.m. Eastern (1425 UTC) Nov. 30 from the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site. The rocket climbed into the night sky above the coastal spaceport, with amateur live streams from the area capturing the event.

The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), the rocket’s maker, declared launch success within an hour of liftoff. SAST announced the previously undisclosed payloads on the flight to be the experimental “Satellite Internet Technology Test Satellite” and “Technology Test Satellite-3”. No details of the spacecraft were provided.

The kerosene-fueled Long March 12 is China’s first 3.8-meter-diameter launch vehicle. It can carry a payload of 12,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit (LEO), and 6,000 kg to sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), according to SAST. The new rocket could play a role in the construction of China’s planned LEO megaconstellations.

Without reusable rockets, those megaconstellations could prove a huge cash sink.

Posted at 3:48 pm by Stephen Green

HMM: Why is Xi Jinping’s China purging its senior military leaders?

“Xi appears to be chronically distrustful of his most prominent military officials,” Ankit Panda, Stanton Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told AFP.

Reports of Dong’s fall suggested “the rot in China’s military remains even deeper than previously suspected”, Neil Thomas, a fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society, told AFP.

The crackdown has come as China has increased military pressure on Taiwan and repeatedly pushed up against its neighbours over disputed territory in the South China Sea.

But analysts say graft in the military may be raising worries that the army isn’t up to the job.

Something Xi is looking to fix?

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): The Japanese War Party purged the military of war-skeptics before launching World War II. They chose. . . poorly.

Posted at 2:46 pm by Stephen Green

I HAD A COUPLE OF DANGEROUS HONEYS IN COLLEGE: Dangerous College Honey Sex Trend Alarms Health Experts. “In the FDA notice, it said lab analysis revealed that Royal Honey VIP packets contained tadalafil, which is an ingredient in an ‘FDA-approved prescription drug for erectile dysfunction.’ It apparently isn’t disclosed on any packaging or promotion of the supplement.”

Posted at 2:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THAT WAS THE QUADRENNIAL THAT WAS:

“No one is above the law.” Some exceptions do apply, however:

And: a corporate media supercut: Obviously Biden would never pardon Hunter:

Roger Kimball adds that the Hunter Biden pardon has silver linings:

There are two silver linings in this abominable episode, however. One is that the stench of legal favoritism will cling to the Democrats for years to come. Critics have been complaining that they have run a two-tier justice system for years. Joe Biden just demonstrated that in the most egregious fashion.

The second bright spot includes victims of the Democrats’ two-tier system of justice, the January 6 hostages who are rotting as political prisoners in Merrick Garland’s DC gulag. Donald Trump has spoken frequently about the possibility of pardoning unfairly incarcerated pawns. Biden’s outrageous abuse of his authority makes that much more likely. I hope the executive order is teed-up for January 20 at 12:01.

And there’s a third: the corruption of the DNC-MSM was exposed for all to see, as Ed Morrissey writes: “In every step and in every way, the Protection Racket Media served as Biden’s wingman. They dutifully regurgitated his spin as established fact, and when that didn’t work, they made Republicans the story rather than Biden. That instinct carried through even to last night, as Politico and other news outlets focused on Republican reactions rather than report that Joe had just issued a 10-year free pass to the chief bagman for Biden Inc. Even [Politico’s Alexander Burns’] caustic response deflects from that and onto the coming administration’s attempts to root out politicization and weaponization in federal law enforcement.”

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

BIDEN’S TWO-TIERED JUSTICE:

No reason for Trump not to pardon the Jan. 6 “offenders” on January 20.

Posted at 1:44 pm by Stephen Green

JIM GERAGHTY: The Biden Crime Family Gets Away with It.

This was predictable, and predicted, because no matter how many times Joe Biden looked you in the eye or television camera and gave you his “word as a Biden,” the overwhelming majority of us knew it was — to use one of the president’s terms — “malarkey.” To be a Biden is to be above the law, and that’s been clear for a long time.

You know whose life got a lot easier late last night after news of the Hunter Biden pardon broke? Trump’s choice to be the next FBI director, Kash Patel. Because Senate Democrats are going to argue that the country can’t have partisan politics and personal loyalties and connections to the president mucking around in the justice system. And Senate Republicans are just going to laugh.

Hey, look at the bright side, you probably didn’t stick your neck out arguing, “People who insist Biden will pardon Hunter after specifically ruling it out are telling on themselves. . . . They can’t imagine someone acting on principle and keeping his word.”

And thus Team Biden comes full circle:

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

TRUE, AND SENATORS NEED TO HEAR FROM CONSTITUENTS:

Posted at 1:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

NEW JAAAAAAG DESIGN LEAKED: Jaguar’s ‘Barbie pink’ electric car leaked online. Images appearing to show the concept vehicle draw comparisons with Thunderbirds and Pink Panther.

Jaguar’s controversial new concept electric car has been leaked online – showing the vehicle in Barbie pink.

Images appearing to show the new model have been posted on X by Autocar magazine showing the sleek, low-slung vehicle with a long bonnet and wide grille.

The car, which will be officially unveiled at Miami Art Week tonight, is shown in bold pink and metallic blue.

The hot pink vehicle has drawn comparisons with the FAB 1 car driven by Lady Penelope in Thunderbirds and the Barbie car. Others have suggested that Jaguar should be renamed Pink Panther in light of the overhaul.

My immediate take is that the new Jag is hideous — it looks like someone mated Elon Musk’s Cybertruck with the 1990s-era Batman: The Animated Series Batmobile:

When Jag’s new ad campaign dropped, many people speculated as to who the heretofore unseen new car would be aimed at — and now we know. Remember the “Ambiguously Gay Duo” from the 1996-2011-era of Saturday Night Live? Gentlemen of the crime fighting world, your new “bold pink” electric steed awaits!

Exit quote:

Related: Periodic Roundup of the EV Follies. “A fool and his money are soon parted, and there are a lot of credentialed fools who bought into the EV hype.”

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll