Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Let there be snark.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Fight them, without becoming them!

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

You are here: Home / Books / Today’s Nontroversy Open Thread: Hunter Biden Has Written A Book

Today’s Nontroversy Open Thread: Hunter Biden Has Written A Book

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I heartily endorse this message, at least for Bob Woodward. Political memoirs have a history going back as far as written language, and 95% of the contemporary pearl-clutching over their impropriety seems to come from individuals who wish anybody might be interested in their memoirs, assuming they could ever get down to the hard work of writing them…

Reader Interactions

162Comments

  2. 2.

    jackmac

    I recently found Don Junior’s book in a Dollar Store sales rack. (Just one step away from fireplace kindling).

  4. 4.

    Mary G

    It took me quite a while to respond to Judd Legum, who should be better than this, and to get it all into 280 characters, I had to use the bullshit emoji, which I hate. These guys are flailing around for something to write about, and grasping at straws to prove they aren’t preferring one side to the other, and it pisses me off.

    Republicans put Hunter Biden in play, and he’s entitled to publish a book about anything he wants.

  7. 7.

    Suzanne

    @Mary G:

    Republicans put Hunter Biden in play 

    Seriously. No one gave a crap about him until the GOP made him famous.
    Although the fact that he is publishing it at the same house that kicked Josh Hawley’s stupid book to the curb is really funny and I’m going to enjoy it.

  9. 9.

    Starfish

    Hopefully, Hunter Biden explains why he flew to the east coast to give one or three or fifty laptops repaired. ?

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    No Superb Owl thread?  For Raven?

    CBSSports.com has it streaming for free.  Very generous of them

    ETA:  I am agnostic on this.

  12. 12.

    Starfish

    They have been throwing ethics rocks at the families of both the President and the VP. After it didn’t catch on after they accused Harris’s niece of flying in a private jet with a large donor to the inauguration, they went after Hunter for renting a house, Hunter for writing a book, and Joe for flying to Delaware on Air Force One. So many straws to grasp at as we approach the impeachment that will not at all be treated seriously even though the President, the wife of a Supreme Court Justice, and others tried to organize having the Congress murdered.

  13. 13.

    Jay

    @Suzanne:

    back in the day, Hunter/Burisma was a “big deal” amongst some. The “optics” were bad, not the actual substance.

    it looked like Burisma was trying to buy influence and support, and Hunter wasn’t the only one “hired”.

  17. 17.

    Starfish

    @Baud: Weren’t Republicans who have not taken the pandemic seriously in the least saying he was not following CDC guidelines on travel? It may have not been a direct ethics accusation, but it was trying to call him out on pandemic hypocrisy when these assholes have gotten 400,000+ people killed.

  20. 20.

    citizen dave

    Tony Romo is a very average analyst IMHO, but somehow was seen as “hot” by CBS/others, gave CBS a figure of $17 million per year to sign a new contract,  and they matched it.  I really don’t understand the thinking that anyone cares who the analyst is.

  24. 24.

    smith

    @Starfish: the wife of a Supreme Court Justice, and others tried to organize having the Congress murdered.

    Those weird apologies Ginni Thomas was handing  out after the event suggests to me that she might have some serious legal exposure from her role in the insurrection, more than just from renting some buses. Do I dare dream of a Supreme Court resignation? Or would a Repub justice not feel enough shame to do that if his wife were indicted for sedition?

  28. 28.

    Mike in NC

    Republicans I know were absolutely convinced “Hunter Biden’s laptop” was going to be a huge scandal that would tank Joe’s election chances much worse than Hillary’s emails. I don’t know what planet they inhabit.

  30. 30.

    Starfish

    @smith: Men are rarely held accountable for the misbehavior of their women even though women are often held accountable for their men. ?

  31. 31.

    gene108

    @citizen dave:

    Analysts matter. They can make the viewing experience enjoyable or annoying.

    Edit: Romo’s usually good. He explains what’s happening, without getting into too many cliches. He’s not doing this in this game.

    Edit 2: TB’s defense is so damn good, even though Brady’s going to get all the credit.

    Edit 3: Never seen a punter screw up like KC’s, which could cost them the game.

  35. 35.

    Doc Sardonic

    @burnspbesq: Amir is probably mourning the demise of Liverpool’s title defense. Manchester City crushed the Liverpudlians today and have probably locked up the Premier League title

  36. 36.

    Cacti

    Now Janet Yellen is yapping about limiting stimulus checks to people making $60,000.

    What is it about some Democrats who feel it necessary to be as Republican as possible the moment they’re in power?

  40. 40.

    Doc Sardonic

    Air Force 1 is the designation of the plane that the President is being flown in be it 747 or two seater Cessna.

  42. 42.

    Starfish

    @Amir Khalid: That’s an interesting piece of information that I did not know.

    I feel like the right wing discussion on left wing COVID response has been to yell “hypocrisy” at anyone who sets policy.

    I mean, some of it sucks like the people going out to eat the day before they decide to shut restaurants again and the one traveling to see his family for the holidays after he has been telling everyone not to travel all week.

    I will take that over the “wearing masks is for wimps” nonsense.

  44. 44.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Mike in NC: I know several for whom the complete lack of impact of the ‘laptop’ on the race was evidence of perfidy by the media.

    Not, you know, being skeptical of the laptop’s provenance and also that nothing on it reflected poorly on Joe Biden.

  45. 45.

    Jay

    @Cacti:

    the ugly reality is that 90% of Politicians in the West, well meaning or not, have no idea of what it means to work in the “New Economy”.

    They are out of touch, overcompenstated and live off privilege.

    they think a laid off Walmart worker or Amazon Worker just goes on to a Board Position at a Hedge Fund.

  48. 48.

    WaterGirl

    @Gretchen: Jen Psaki was totally prepared for that stupid question.  Her first response was that we shouldn’t be traveling when it puts others at risk, but as you know the President has received both vaccinations and travels by private plane as all presidents do, and he will be spending the weekend with his wife.

  51. 51.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @gene108:

    Have you watched Brockmire on HULU?

    Hank Azaria plays a gone to seed baseball announcer with a raging addiction problem and no filter. So good!

  52. 52.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Baud:

    I’ve never seen a team commit so many cheap shit, sneaky, deliberate penalties as this KC team. It is embarrassing.

  53. 53.

    Geminid

    @Mike in NC: Two weeks before Election Day, the trump campaign wasted valuable messaging bandwidth on a scandal that flopped. I remember Ted Cruz saying at the time that he thought this was a mistake. He didn’t seem too upset, though.

  55. 55.

    citizen dave

    I’m hearing the local guy who runs a children’s hospital got named to the NFL hall of fame.

    I know I’m old but I think “The Weeknd” is one of the stupider names going for any artist.  Back in the 90s one of the big accounting firms thought about changing its name to “Monday”

  56. 56.

    Jay

    @Starfish:

    yeah, $60k get’s you an apartment in YVR, and $300 left over for food for the month.

    80% of us are trying to survive on $36k or less.

  59. 59.

    Martin

    @Doc Sardonic: True, but the 747s (there are 2 – we have a fucking hot spare for the president to fly in) have a lot of defensive measures.

    Is there even an airport in DE that can handle a 747?

  60. 60.

    Brachiator

    @Gretchen:

     “why was he travelling?  The CDC said not to travel!”  Reporter at press conference.

    These dopes insist on being stupid. Also, did they ask why Trump ignored CDC guidelines? Did they ask why he let Americans die?

  62. 62.

    dmsilev

    @Martin: Dover AFB probably could handle a 747.

    Edit: on a brief Google, yeah easily. Main runway is 13,000 feet, which is more than plenty. Built for C-5s and similar.

  64. 64.

    raven

    @Elizabelle: I think Cole made it pretty clear what the stance of BJ is on football. I don’t diddle around here on games I care about anyway so is it’s all good.

    thanks

  67. 67.

    Starfish

    @Jay: The places where you could live comfortably off of $60k do not have jobs where you can make $60k.

    The places where $60k is entry level salary, you cannot live on $60k.

  68. 68.

    citizen dave

    @West of the Rockies: Yup, it’s like two of the same guy.  I don’t watch much NFL and even less of the studio shows but they are generally insufferable.   I’ve never heard one Weeknd song before.  What even is pop music in the 21st century?

  75. 75.

    Ruckus

    @Mike in NC:

    I don’t know what planet they inhabit.

    I don’t either but as they keep sticking their heads up their asses it may just be that they are just trying to clear their throats and the only sound they can manage is the sound of bullshit.

  77. 77.

    Bill Arnold

    @Geminid:

    Two weeks before Election Day, the trump campaign wasted valuable messaging bandwidth on a scandal that flopped.

    The right-wing (dis)information system was(is) so tightly sealed that those theories fermented without any significant pushback from reality; there was truthful pushback, but it was ignored as lies. (And some enemies of Rs/Trump were cultivating/curating the insanity, fairly sure.)
    Helped that Rudy Giuliani was making so many high profile mistakes that the press was wired/predisposed to mock him.

  78. 78.

    citizen dave

    @dmsilev: For sure.  There was a post here with Biden talking about the irony of how they use Dover as practice for AF1 planes (yes realize when they are actually called that) and now he’s the President etc.

  84. 84.

    different-church-lady

    Well, it’s finally happened: this is the first Super Bowl halftime show where I recognize NONE of the songs.

  87. 87.

    Martin

    @frosty: Walt Schaub headed the Obama ethics office. Trump  booted him early on and he was an early critic of Trumps ethical  shortcomings and what government would normally do  to protect against them. That was particularly true with how various security clearances were granted.

  91. 91.

    gene108

    @Cacti:

    There’s a bunch of older Democrats are traumatized by the 1980’s. Bush, Sr. made the word “liberal” toxic for any politician to embrace, when he ran for President.

    Liberal is slowly starting to make a comeback 30+ years later.

  94. 94.

    Brachiator

    RE the halftime show, if someone asked, “How was your Weekend?” I would have to say “Kinda underwhelming.”

    The audio didn’t help.

  96. 96.

    The Thin Black Duke

    Damned thing is, I live in Massachusetts. If Tampa Bay wins, they’ll never shut up about Tom Brady here.

  100. 100.

    Alison Rose

    @Brachiator: Part of the problem is this weird “mash-up of 45 second snippets of 12 of your songs” thing they often do. For people who like the particular performer, it’s annoying to only get bits of the songs you like. And for people who don’t like them or aren’t familiar with them, it’s not going to do much to change those facts.

  103. 103.

    Martin

    @The Thin Black Duke: Gotta give Tom credit here. It looked like a colossally stupid decision to go to TB. I sure thought so. If he wins this game, everyone really needs to STFU on whether it was Belichick or Brady.

  113. 113.

    Soprano2

    The first thing I thought when I saw what Shaub was saying is that it’s a First Amendment issue. You can’t keep everyone in the president’s family from writing a book! That’s nuts, and I think you’d have trouble enforcing it.  I didn’t know he wanted a job in the administration,  explains a lot.

  116. 116.

    Suzanne

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I was listening to New Order this morning, and then when he did Blinding Lights, it dawned on me how New Order-influenced that song is.

    I thought it was an okay halftime show. Glad he didn’t really have all that plastic surgery.

  118. 118.

    different-church-lady

    @Martin:

    If he wins this game, everyone really needs to STFU on whether it was Belichick or Brady.

    Anyone who hasn’t already shut up about that is a moron.

  121. 121.

    different-church-lady

    ESPN headline, February 2051: Tom Brady on the cusp of being the first quarterback to win a Super Bowl with every team in the league.

  122. 122.

    Starboard Tack

    @frosty:

    True that. Two bad decisions. Modell screwed Cleveland because of the stadium. Who did Balmer

    ETA: Blew the nym.

  124. 124.

    Bill Arnold

    @H.E.Wolf:

    A little less recourse to derogatory, contemptuous language when discussing the first female US Secretary of the Treasury would be welcome.

    Yellen focuses on $60,000 threshold for stimulus checks (John Bowden – 02/07/21)
    If this characterization (bold by Jake Tapper) is correct, then Yellin is being a political idiot vocalizing this. Means testing, especially with very flawed tests such as pre-pandemic 2019 income, will do damage to the Democrats, and only the Republicans will gain poltiically. (Probably not even Manchin.)

    Speaking with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” Yellen indicated that she thought individual Americans earning $60,000 per year ought to be eligible for the direct payments, a higher figure than the one identified by senators such as Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who has called for the payments to phase out at the $50,000-per-year income level.
    …
    Yellen went on to add that the White House is negotiating with Congress “to define what’s fair” in terms of income level phaseouts for direct payments in a stimulus package, telling Tapper that struggling middle-class families “need help too.”
    “So, you definitely think higher than $50,000 per individual, but you’re not necessarily willing to commit to $75,000, is what I’m hearing?” Tapper asked, referring to the level at which payments were phased out in the package passed in December.

    She should be more focused on instabilities in the markets/economy. Things are pretty rickety right now and a collapse is a significant possibility. A weaker-than-needed stimulus could easily be a contributing trigger.

  125. 125.

    Soprano2

    OMG, someone did a commercial that was a takeoff on “Four Seasons Landscaping and Press Venue” and I laughed the whole way through.

  129. 129.

    Suzanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: Good point. I’m probably drawing the New Order conclusion because I was listening this morning. Depeche Mode feels a little more gothy than Blinding Lights, tho.

  130. 130.

    Brachiator

    @Bill Arnold:

    If this characterization (bold by Jake Tapper) is correct, then Yellin is being a political idiot vocalizing this. Means testing, especially with very flawed tests such as pre-pandemic 2019 income, will do damage to the Democrats, and only the Republicans will gain poltiically. (Probably not even Manchin.)

    All the stimulus payments have been means tested. There is a stupid consensus growing to make the payments targeted to lower income groups. Pundits and some economists are pushing for a $40,000 or $50,000 threshold. The Treasury Secretary is fighting for a higher threshold.

  132. 132.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Bill Arnold: so she’s negotiating with Joe Manchin on TV? maybe that’s advisable, maybe it isn’t. But something tells me if Yellen had told Jake Tapper that anything less than a $75K threshold was a non-starter, Joe Manchin would not have have looked up from his flapjacks and said, “Oh well, I tried”.

  133. 133.

    Bill Arnold

    @Brachiator:

    The Treasury Secretary is fighting for a higher threshold.

    She is suggesting that a lower threshold than the one used for the first two stimulus packages is politically acceptable. (And unless something changed, based on pre-pandemic 2019 tax returns, which are very flawed indicators of means. Fix that, first.)

  134. 134.

    Butter Emails

    “So, you definitely think higher than $50,000 per individual, but you’re not necessarily willing to commit to $75,000, is what I’m hearing?” Tapper asked, referring to the level at which payments were phased out in the package passed in December.

    This type of thing just drives me nuts. When it comes to giving out a flat benefit to everyone, who gives a crap if it also goes out to the top 1%? We’re literally spending a ton of energy and making things that much more complicated, risking that those who need it won’t get the support to make sure a couple of % of the money doesn’t end up where it’s not needed.

  135. 135.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Butter Emails:

    who gives a crap if it also goes out to the top 1%?

    Joe Manchin. And probably three or four other Senators who are letting Manchin take the heat.

  136. 136.

    geg6

    @citizen dave:

    I’m an old and I really like The Weeknd.  Especially “Blinding Light.”  Gets turned up high on the car radio every time it comes on.  It’s in my phone playlist, too.  He’s really good, IMHO.

  138. 138.

    Bill Arnold

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Joe Manchin would not have have looked up from his flapjacks and said, “Oh well, I tried”.

    Yeah, my main complaint is with Manchin, If the money saved is being put elsewhere in the stimulus, I’ll find it intellectually acceptable. (Not personally, though, since I will be screwed out of this stimulus if he does this, with a well-less-than $60K 2020 income.) If it’s just making the stimulus package smaller, nope.

  139. 139.

    Brachiator

    @Bill Arnold:

    She is suggesting that a lower threshold than the one used for the first two stimulus packages is politically acceptable. (And unless something changed, based on pre-pandemic 2019 tax returns, which are very flawed indicators of means. Fix that, first.)

    What I am seeing on tax and accounting sites is that some key Democrats are already  seriously considering a lower threshold. Hellen is trying to argue the value of a higher threshold.

    Also, a lot of Democrats like to focus on the idea of targeting benefits to “those who most need it.” They are weak on the big picture of stimulating or maintaining the economy.

    The idea that the payments might help prep future expansion goes over their heads.

  140. 140.

    Brachiator

    @Jay:

    the whole means testing is BS based on 2019 Tax Forms. A shitload of people who were surviving in 2019, were SOL in 2020.

    This is not as big a deal as people want to make it. The 2020 tax rules already adjust for this for most taxpayers. What is truly wrong headed is the idea of sending taxable payments to everyone. This flat out reduces the amount of money you actually get into people’s hands.

  141. 141.

    Bill Arnold

    @Brachiator:

    They are weak on the big picture of stimulating or maintaining the economy.

    Yes. Drives me up a wall. The Republicans sell their giveways to the wealthy with lies like they are growing the economy by giving money to the job creators and (Republican) deficit spending pays for itself.
    Democrats get lost in the weeds of targeting, and end up doing stuff that is easy to malign. (Porkulous, they called the inadequate-by-a-factor-of-2 2009 package, IIRC.)

  145. 145.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Saturday’s Washington Post had an article about Thursday night’s Senate “vote-a-rama,” during which 45 amendments to the Administration’s 1.9 trillion dollar rescue plan were put to a vote. One was an amendment proposed by Senators Manchin and Collins that “upper income” Americans would not receive stimulus payments. It passed 99-1. And Senator Sanders, Chairman of the Budget Committee that will actually craft the measure, was on CNN recently defending a $75,000 individual income cap for recipients of the full $1400 benefit. It would be phased out as incomes are greater.       I’m not following this issue as closely as other people are, but it seems that for better or worse means testing is a given, and has broad support among Senators.

  146. 146.

    geg6

    @zhena gogolia:

    Huh.  I think she’s terrific.

    I must be some kind of anomaly.  An old who keeps up with and likes new music.  Maybe it’s being around college students all the time.

  149. 149.

    SFAW

    @burnspbesq:

    Fuck Trevor Bauer, too.

    My daughter, a die-hard Mets fan (like her old man), was pretty upset when it appeared the Mets might buy him. She was quite happy when the Manny Machados a/k/a the Los Angeles Assholes bought him.
    And fuck Chase Utley.
    Yes, I know Machado is no longer on LA. Fuck them anyway.

  151. 151.

    JML

    The anthem was too long and too boring tonight. I clocked it at 2:22, which is absurd. (the average over the last 30 or so Super Bowls has been around 1:55, which is still long)

  152. 152.

    dnfree

    @Benw: I don’t think it’s a real halftime show if there isn’t a marching band. I know this might be a minority view.

  157. 157.

    Matt McIrvin

    Means-testing benefits is one of those things that every political junkie in left-liberal online forums is passionately against to the point of outrage, and every normal person (even a Democratic-voting normal person) is passionately for to the point of outrage if you propose not having it, and it seems to be some kind of impossible impasse.

    It’s kind of like banning convicted felons from voting in prison–it’s bad, there are all kinds of baleful effects it has, but if you propose changing it, it offends the average American’s sense of justice in some way, so it has infinite political inertia.

    So for the time being, it’s probably something we have to live with.

  158. 158.

    SFAW

    @chopper:

    i think we need to talk about that opinion *in the library

    How so? Or is there some reference (e.g., “in the library”) that I’m not getting?

  159. 159.

    PenandKey

    @Geminid :And Senator Sanders, Chairman of the Budget Committee that will actually craft the measure, was on CNN recently defending a $75,000 individual income cap for recipients of the full $1400 benefit. It would be phased out as incomes are greater.

    This is exactly what was in effect for the first two rounds. If that’s all anyone was demanding I don’t think you’d see people getting upset. It’s when you start telling the middle class, “Nope, we’re dropping the threshold to $40-$50k”, thus screwing them out of money they very rightfully feel was already promised to many of them, that they get pissed off. I know I am just at the fact this is a point of conversation being considered. I had a six-month savings buffer wiped out, trashed my credit, and for a while was a check or two away from homelessness when my wife lost her job for just over 6 months at the start of last year. We still brought home more than the proposed threshold, but it’s absolutely not what we’ve built our life or financial obligations around. The idea that $50k/yr for individuals or $100k/yr for couples is wealthy is, quite frankly, insulting.

    And to be honest, if the Democratic party ends up passing that sort of stimulus, they’ll earn every bit of electoral thrashing they get in the cities and suburbs come 2022.

  161. 161.

    evodevo

    @Starfish: ​
      Yep. Here in KY, if you work at Toyota full time, you will make more than 60k, but housing in Georgetown is expensive. If you go up US62 15 miles, you can live in Cynthiana, where housing is cheap, but you better have a security system from hell, because the broke druggy locals will rob you blind…and jobs in Cynthiana will pay you $35k a year if you have two of them….

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