Archive for 2023
July 26, 2023
The fate of the plea deal was up in the air throughout the day, with the two sides clashing over what the deal would mean for future charges against Hunter (whose lawyers seemed to want him to get a Get Out of Jail Free card), then hashing out a clarified agreement, before US District Judge Maryellen Noreika said she needed more information before giving the deal her approval.
For a White House desperate for the Hunter mess to go away*, today’s chaotic proceedings would have been an unpleasant surprise. Not that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was prepared to deviate from her script: “Hunter Biden is a private citizen,” Jean-Pierre said in today’s briefing, repeating her stock response to any questions surrounding the president’s son. Normally she waits for the rare question about the president’s son to deliver the line. Today, she got it out of the way before any hands went up.
Perhaps the most damning part of the hearing for the president was Judge Noreika’s skepticism about the deal, which she described as possibly “unconstitutional,” “not worth the paper it is printed on” and “not standard, not what I normally see.” Judge Noreika’s skepticism appears to center on the fact that the deal could offer Hunter immunity from future prosecution even as possible foreign agent charges loom over the first son.
Today’s messy proceedings were the Hunter Biden saga in microcosm. The White House, the Democratic Party and some in the media are desperate for it to go away and assuming it will, but the inconvenient set of facts relating to the president’s son’s chaotic conduct make for a bigger story than they hoped, or realized.
* Coincidentally, their Democratic party operatives with lavalieres also want it to go away as well: ‘Dark Chapter’; ABC, NBC Fret GOP ‘Not Ready to Move on’ From Hunter Despite No Evidence.
The latter link found via Ace of Spades who adds, “Video at the link. It’s a hoot. When will the media move on from urging the GOP to move on?”
I HOPE ITS LAUNCH GOES BETTER THAN THE JUPITER 2’S DID: SpaceX All Set to Launch World’s Largest Private Communications Satellite, the Jupiter 3.
MICROBIOME NEWS: Crohn’s Disease may result from mouth bacteria.
WELL, THAT SEEMS BAD: Swiss study: heart injuries from COVID vaccine 3000x higher than thought. “One oddity was that the rate of myocarditis among the participants was heavily weighted toward women, not men. That could be an artifact of the sample, or it could indicate that women are more likely to get a complication, but the complications are more likely to be serious among men.”
It’s a small study, but it calls for a big one. I wish I could trust the people we rely on to get this stuff right.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Secret Service Says Eight-Ball Of Cocaine Found In Courtroom Chair Hunter Was Sitting In Probably Left By Tour Group.
SHORTAGES: The Rush is on for Rice. “Last week, in an effort to combat food price inflation at home – which is running at about 11% – the Indian government made a major move in the international food markets. They banned the export of their largest rice category – non-basmati white rice – hoping to cool prices domestically. . . . The ban, which was scheduled to take effect the 20th, takes 10M tons of their total 22M tons of rice exports out of the market almost immediately. Alarm bells were going off instantly, especially in the Asian and African countries who depend on Indian imports to feed their people.”
Related: Looming food shortages is the next ‘slow-moving disaster’ to hit world. Not by accident.
VITAMIN D UPDATE: Vitamin D may ease severity of psoriasis.
WARREN HUART: The Abbey Road Story — A History Of Recording Innovation (Video).
Earlier, at EdDriscoll.com:
● ‘If These Walls Could Sing’ opens the doors to Abbey Road Studios.
● ‘Recording The Beatles:’ Looking Back at the Deepest Dive Ever Into the Sound of the Fab Four.
And my review of the new book co-written by Huart: How Complete is the New ‘Home Studio Recording: The Complete Guide?’
MORE BLOWBACK FROM 2020’s CRAZINESS: Mom Who Let Child Play at a Park Finally Removed From Unfit Parent Registry.
The appeal by Sarra (whose full name is being withheld to protect her identity) was handled by the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) and the Goldwater Institute, two nonprofit organizations that help defend individual rights. They argued that Arizona’s actions were unconstitutional.
“But instead of responding to this brief, DCS decided to just permanently remove Sarra’s name from the list,” says Adi Dynar, an attorney at the PLF. “We suspect they didn’t want this kind of ruling on the books, because that affects the other 81,000 names.”
Perhaps the state thought it was better to lose one battle than to deal with an army of parents demanding justice.
The case against Sarra was this: In November 2020, as COVID-19 raged, she let her son and his friend, age 5, play at the park while she shopped for a Thanksgiving turkey.
This seemed prudent. The grocery was asking shoppers not to bring in kids, and the park was one that Sarra had played in herself as a child, about five blocks from the store. What’s more, a friend happened to be teaching a tai chi class there. After about 20 minutes, the friend called Sarra about a police officer who was talking to her son.
When Sarra arrived at the park, the officer told her that she had committed negligence by leaving the kids alone, even for a short length of time in a safe, public place.
Earlier: They got covid 100% wrong.
SUSPENDING A PROFESSOR FOR CRITICIZING A POLITICIAN IS ABSURD, PATHETIC, AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL: “Texas A&M Suspended Professor Accused of Criticizing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in Lecture.”
WHEN YOUR PROGRAM IS OPENLY AIMED AT MAKING THE NORMALS’ LIVES WORSE, THEY EVENTUALLY NOTICE: Support for climate policies and the Green movement not polling so well in Germany.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT ‘Never Get Old’ Sinéad O’Connor Dead at 56. “O’Connor’s cause of death hasn’t been announced as I write these words but I reacted to the news with the same utter lack of surprise when George Michael died on Christmas Day, 2016. Apparently deeply unhappy, Michael had been casually working towards ending it all with a combination of drugs and anonymous sex. With her troubled history, it was my sad conclusion 30 years ago that O’Connor would not live a terribly long life.”
RIP IT UP: Inside the Dramatic Unraveling of Hunter Biden’s Plea Deal.
Plus:
This just in: The judge won't accept the proposed plea deal at least for now.
Some thoughts: Now we know why DOJ didn’t show us the plea agreement terms. What didn't they want us to know ahead of time? A) a global immunity deal for Hunter; B) A binding plea (that is, the judge…— Sol Wisenberg (@WisenbergSol) July 26, 2023
UPDATE: We’ve Got the Details of Hunter Biden’s New ‘Conditions of Release.’
Plus:
Secret Service Says Eight-Ball Of Cocaine Found In Courtroom Chair Hunter Was Sitting In Probably Left By Tour Group https://t.co/RQXmgTKDB3 pic.twitter.com/n2eopEZVI0
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 26, 2023
MISTER WE COULD USE SOME MEN LIKE ART BELL AGAIN:
NOW – US recovered non-human biological pilots from crashed crafts, UFO whistleblower says in hearing.pic.twitter.com/P03WuSBwvD
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) July 26, 2023
PATTERN OF HARASSMENT: ATF Targets Another Home-Based FFL.
MATT MARGOLIS: Democrats May Want to Panic About Hunter Biden Now.
I KNOW I POSTED ON STARLINER EARLIER TODAY BUT THE DETAIL ON BOEING’S LOSSES IS NEW: Boeing has now lost $1.1 billion on Starliner, with no crew flight in sight. “On Wednesday, as a part of its quarterly earnings update, Boeing announced that the Starliner program had taken a loss of $257 million ‘primarily due to the impacts of the previously announced launch delay.’ This brings the company’s total write-down of losses on the Starliner program to more than $1.1 billion. Partly because of this, Boeing’s Defense, Space, & Security division reported a loss of $527 million during the second quarter of this year.”
BOYS SUFFER THE MOST: Consequences of premature parental death seemingly greater for boys than for girls.
VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP [VIP]: Joe Biden Cures Cancer — AGAIN!
Plus:
- CNN does report on shoplifting, records live shoplifters.
- Find someone who loves you like Seattle loves Vladimir Lenin.
- I actually like the Cone of Shame.
So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.
BOOK OF THE DAY: The Essential Cookbook for Men: 85 Healthy Recipes to Get Started in the Kitchen.. #CommissionEarned