Bannon Behind Hunter Biden Smear Campaign

Someone sent an article to me and it's quite eye opening.  If you're at all curious where the material from Hunter's laptop you've seen came from, read on.  

Spoiler alert:  If you think Hunter Biden slept with underage women or that he and the President are being blackmailed by China, congratulations, you've been played by Steve Bannon and the Chinese. 

In my previous laptop entry, I noted how Rudy received a copy of the hard drive from the computer repair guy and how at some point after, numerous files were added to the drive.  From there, the "augmented" drive made its way to the New York Post to be used in the story everyone knows about.  The FBI and CBS News have the original version.  Some of the nude photos of Hunter wound up on Twitter.  These are the tweets highlighted in the Twitter Files that were removed at the behest of the Biden campaign.  These tweets were a violation of Twitter TOS and laws against revenge porn.  All facts, confirmed by multiple sources.  

The outstanding question that I hadn't considered was how those photos, along with similar videos made their way onto the internet.  

The article, which I've linked to, explains how Steve Bannon worked with the Chinese and developed a smear campaign against Hunter Biden, in the hopes of influencing the 2020 election.  

Article

This is all detailed in the article, but since it's a long read, I've highlighted a few key sections below.  The italicized portions are direct copy paste. 

The third tweet cited in Taibbi’s screenshot, the Internet Archive shows, came from an account that features a logo and slogan indicating the user is a member of New Federal State of China. The NFSC is an organization set up in 2020 by Steve Bannon and Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese mogul, who has aggressively promoted false claims about Covid vaccines and the 2020 election. Numerous former allies, and multiple lawsuits, have accused of him of working as an agent for the Chinese government. 

This would be the same Guo whose yacht Bannon was arrested on.  Apparently Guo has a small army of followers, who support him in his "endeavors".  

In another message, referring to various Hunter videos, Guo ordered: “Post one right now, one every hour from now on…I want everyone to fully promote it.”

But they didn't just post these pictures and videos; they created false narratives to accompany them. 

 

According to multiple people involved in distributing the material, Guo ordered them to claim that the laptop material included images of Hunter Biden having sex with underage Chinese girls. There is no evidence supporting this allegation against Hunter. Guo also told subordinates to assert that the Chinese government had obtained the material and used it to blackmail both Hunter and Joe Biden.

Worth repeating is I'm not taking Hunter Biden's side.  If he broke the law, he should be punished accordingly.  However, there's no verified evidence from any reputable source of any wrongdoing, particular involving the President.  Only innuendo and hearsay, which is proof of nothing.  

In conclusion, one should always question the source and motives behind the "earthshattering" revelations you read, particularly on the internet.  

PS - Others who've shared this article on Twitter are being shadow banned; it's documented.  Another example of Elmo's hypocrisy and allegiance to the far right.  

Elon Musk, Twitter, and Grooming

Elon Musk has been celebrated by the far right for probably close to a year now, participating and in some cases, propagating right wing talking points.  However, since acquiring Twitter, Elmo has risen to demigod status with the group.  The amount of fawning over him in far right circles is quite honestly astounding.  There are literally people calling him things like the most significant American ever and greatest advocate for free speech the country has ever had.  But is he the savior they think he is?  On a side note, see if you can spot the parallels between Elmo and another right wing idol. 

He tweets random, vague phrases which his followers devour as though it's wisdom from heaven.  The rest of us see them as the faux intellectual nonsense they are.  He could tweet about a dump he took and they'd consider him even more of a messiah.  Because he's one of them.  

As I've already mentioned, the first dump of the Twitter Files was a nothing burger that the right was practically orgasmic over.  If you recall, it said both presidential campaigns had access to request the removal of certain tweets and that Twitter suppressed the NYP story about Hunter Biden's laptop.  Twitter being a non-government entity, it's free to do that.  But Elmo is on the scene to make things right in the world.  

Last night saw the second dump of Twitter material and it was an even bigger non-event, at least for most users.  It essentially confirmed they moderated content, as they saw fit, per their TOS.  Again, the right wing screamed for blood, since most of the accounts suppressed were theirs.  Who knew that stochastic terrorism and disseminating false information wouldn't be well received?  On the flip side, they again hailed Elmo as the messiah that would amplify their voices, allowing them to properly propagate patently false lies to their followers.  (Did you know that many right wingers believe we have literally open borders?)

While it's obvious Elmo is courting the far right, because he's one of them, it's equally obvious to me his motivation lies beyond providing a platform for free speech for them.  First and foremost, the man is a certifiable narcissist and the adoration he receives from the right provides sustenance to his voracious ego.  You can see this in his increasing number of faux intellectual tweets.  

The second is because he sees these rabid fans as a gravy train.  Most people are aware that Twitter has lost 80% of its advertising revenue, due to concerns over Musk's right wing ilk and lack of stability.  He attempted to bring revenue in via his ill-conceived and poorly executed $8 monthly fee, that he killed after a few days, and a verified fake account drove millions of value out of medical companies' stock.   However, if he can't fund the platform with advertising, the best avenue toward profitability remains revenue from users, which is his end game with the far right.  He thinks they'll love him enough to support a massive take rate on a monthly fee.  Considering their record of giving their money to their idols, I'd say he's right.  In other words, he's a groomer.  The elephant in the room is there aren't enough right wingers to completely offset the lost ad revenue.  

Back to content moderation, which is where Elmo is essentially trolling the right wingers.  They clearly think Twitter will be a complete free for all, where they'll be the dominant voices, because Elmo loves them.  If you read the tweet below, which seems to have been conveniently passed over by his cult, you'll see that won't be the case.  Even crazy Elmo knows that if he doesn't keep the far right out of the general population, the mass exodus by the rest of society, and complete abandonment by advertisers will accelerate.  Elmo's banking on the far right not noticing they're only seeing each other and based upon their gullibility, he's probably right.  

So, if you're one of the many Elmo worshipers, be aware you're being groomed.

Of course, this is all predicated on the platform not imploding, as various staff continue to exodus.  Today saw two key members of its Trust and Safety Council resign over Elmo's policies causing a decline in safety.

It seems the far right has an affinity for wealthy, faux intelligent and self made, pied pipers who secretly despise their followers.

Drag Shows and Right Wing Hypocrisy

 One of the pillars of conservatism has always been self-reliance; work hard and you won't need handouts, you're responsible for yourself and your family.  A recent addition to "conservative values" is that a parent knows better than anyone else how to educate their children.  I have thoughts on that at the end, but for once, I won't digress.  These two themes are repeated over and over from right wing voices, so I'll consider them to be without dispute.  

Drag Shows
As it moves further toward the extreme, the right has become obsessed with drag shows, in particular ones billed as family friendly.  They're angry that these shows are tantamount to what they call grooming, convincing children who attend to become drag performers (I guess?).  First, normalizing something doesn't do that; the brain doesn't work that way.  I could write a whole post on the grooming topic, but I'm not an expert, so won't.  Back to drag shows, the right wingers claim the shows aren't suitable for children.  In all honesty, they may be right in some cases, but it doesn't matter, as you'll see.  

This sentiment (if you believe them), has caused a documented spike in harassment and violence toward the LGBTQ community.  There are social media accounts, the worst being Libs of TikTok, who publicize dates and times of these shows, for the sole purpose of stochastic terrorism.  The person who runs it says it's purely for awareness, but that claim goes well beyond disingenuous.  With the information these accounts provide, armed right wing looneys, wearing face masks, frequently show up to protest these shows.  Strike that, when you show up openly armed to the teeth, you're no longer protesting, but engaging in intimidation  But the right's activity has begun to gravitate further toward violence.  On the extreme, some shot up a substation here in North Carolina just to stop a drag show.  Forty thousand people without power; a life threatening situation for many, all because of bigotry.  On a side note, I don't think the act was organized so much as a few hillbillies being bigoted inbreds.  With their history and path toward escalation in clear view, it's a matter of time before the right wing shoots more than power stations.  

The Hypocrisy

To summarize, the hard right is trying to destroy something they don't like so that parents (for all age shows) don't have the choice of whether to take their kids, who they know what's best for.  In other words, the hard right doesn't really adhere to their own values.  When they decide they hate something, for reasons noted below, they want it destroyed, full stop.  I may not be a child development expert, but "destroy things that you don't agree with" may not be the message to send to your children.  But it isn't about protecting children, is it?

Parents and Education
As I mentioned above, one of the new cries from the hard right is they know best what education their children need.  In other words, a single mother from the Midwest, with a GED, who's never left her home state has a better understanding of learning development than a properly trained educator who's dedicated their life to it.  Nothing more to be said there, because it's ludicrous.  

This, of course, has nothing to do with proper education, so much as them not wanting their kids exposed to subjects they're intolerant of.  Anything to do with whites not being the master race or gender.  CRT is one of the buzzwords here.  Here's your parting piece of hypocrisy - these parents are angry over what right wing media tells them their kids are being taught, but never actually engage with educators to learn the true story. 

Athletes Dropping Like Flies

I wrote this during the height of the pandemic, but never felt the need to publish it.  However, Dr. Fauci's recently testifying has apparently whipped the Trumpanzees back into an anti vax frenzy, fueled by (big surprise) falsehoods in right wing media.  

 Yes, this is another 'today with the right wingers' post, but this one's a lot less controversial than most (my debunking didn't get me called a cocksucker).  Call it an observation and identification of weaponized facts that lack context.  It piqued my interest, so I did a smidge of investigation.  

One of the assertions from the hard right is that the vaccines have caused a massive spike in cardiomyopathy among the younger of those who've received the vaccine.  "Children are dying because of the shot!" , along with a picture (that I neglected to attach) of literally every person resembling an athlete who died recently they could find.  

A quick survey of a few of the names confirmed they'd all passed recently, although none of the ones I looked at had any sort of COD identified.  But for the purpose of playing along with the intent of the post to shock readers and lead lead them to a certain conclusion, I'll pretend all died of cardiac failure.  Surely, that many of them dying in the same way isn't normal.  Except when it is normal. 

One article from July of 2010 (pre-pandemic) article I found said: The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that approximately 2,000 people under the age of 25 die from sudden cardiac arrest in the U.S. each year. It is the leading cause of death in young athletes in the United States – resulting in 1 death in a high school student every 3 days, according to some experts.

Indeed, I recall hearing about students dropping dead on athletic fields from time to time.  If you want to learn more about the underlying causes, feel free to research on your own.  In any case, this is another example of why you should always be skeptical of what you read and careful about jumping to the same conclusions as the author.

TL;DR - Unfortunately, young athletes dying due to cardiac arrest is nothing new and not something suddenly caused by Covid vaccines.

Links to a few prepandemic articles, all saying the same thing:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3017912/

https://cme.lww.com/files/SuddenCardiacArrestinPediatrics-1475006727808.pdf

https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/129/4/e1094/32355/Pediatric-Sudden-Cardiac-Arrest?autologincheck=redirected

Hunter's Fucking Laptop

 Breaking this out from the Twitter Files entry.

You probably already know Hunter's laptop had been dropped for repair due to liquid ingress in April, 2019.  However, because the computer guy was blind (not sure how that works), he can't confirm whether it was Hunter himself who brought it in.  When the shop reached out to advise the work had been completed, every call went unanswered.  Most repair businesses have a policy that any equipment that remained unclaimed after a specified period of time becomes the property of said business.  This business must have had a fairly short window, because the owner, a MAGA Republican, reached out to the FBI in July of that year to advise them of what he had. The FBI collected the drive in December of 2019.  Mac Isaac, the computer guy, also made copies of the drive "just in case".  

It was about that time that Rudy Giuliani was headed to Ukraine on his mission to dig dirt on the Bidens.  This adventure was receiving a lot of attention and our MAGA computer guy thought the drive might be of value.   Computer guy connected with Rudy's attorney and sent him a copy some time during Summer, 2020.  Then, in October, the New York Post began publishing articles on the contents of the drive.  All straightforward, except the drive had gotten bigger.  

Earlier this year, the Washington Post obtained a copy of the NYP / Rudy drive.  They had two separate computer experts analyze the drive and published the findings in a March 30th article.  The short version was the drive was full of corrupt data and they were only able to authenticate ~15% of the emails as definitively originating with Hunter Biden.  But also discovered something quite remarkable.  From the WAPO article that I've linked at the bottom:

"Soon after that period of inactivity — and months after the laptop itself had been taken into FBI custody — three new folders were created on the drive. Dated Sept. 1 and 2, 2020, they bore the names “Desktop Documents,” “Biden Burisma” and “Hunter. Burisma Documents.”

Williams also found records on the drive that indicated someone may have accessed the drive from a West Coast location in October 2020, little more than a week after the first New York Post stories on Hunter Biden’s laptop appeared.

Over the next few days, somebody created three additional folders on the drive, titled, “Mail,” “Salacious Pics Package” and “Big Guy File” — an apparent reference to Joe Biden."

In other words, someone had doctored the drive that that was used for the NYP article to include what one can only deduce is fabricated evidence of criminal wrongdoing.  Even our MAGA computer repair guy said, in an interview, there was a great deal more data on the drive than his original.  For those who may have dozed off, at some point after Max Isaac sent to the drive, but before the NYP article, the drive was modified in an attempt to portray the Bidens as criminals.  To close the WAPO portion, they published a story in April that echoed the March findings, along with the sentiment of "no, it really is a piece of shit and don't pay attention to it."

Some have challenged this information (because WAPO would make shit up?) by contrasting with a recent CBS story (link below) where they authenticated the drive's contents.  How could both be true?  Easy, CBS had a copy of the original drive, provided by the computer guy's attorney and not the doctored one.  They even note the existence of two versions in their story.  Of course, the doctored version is the one that's been circulating, although I think in tiny pieces, through right wing media.

Because MAGA is apparently a bunch of Karen's, they keep asking why none of the validated material has been released.  My response is "how long do you have?'  First, the FBI won't release a damned thing; period.  If it sees the light of day, it'll be part of discovery prior to a trial.  Speaking of criminal proceedings, what's a hard drive's value with no corroboration as evidence?  And is a computer guy handing the drive over considering a legal search and seizure?

Then there's the question of who really owns the data.  It's obviously legal for the repair shop to claim a piece of equipment, when a customer fails to retrieve it, but can they really claim ownership to the data on it to do with as they choose?  What if the contents of the drive included a lost Beatles album or offshore bank account numbers and passcodes, does the shop owner have the right to sell or use as his own?  From a strictly personal point of view, I'd like to think that answer to be no.  Anyway, the answer to that question, which I think is being asked in court, determines whether the drive can be used as evidence or if CBS can think about sharing. 

Also, does the data include attorney client material, intellectual property?  Would the shop owner now have a claim on an invention he didn't create?  But that's just the tip of the iceberg.  Publishing material that hints at criminal behavior, but never leads to a charge, would be monumentally stupid.  It would be a piece of cake to convince a jury that the Bidens' reputations have been materially damaged.  In a flash, the Bidens would own CBS, with money still being owed.  Obviously, it's a different story if the material is associated with a guilty verdict, but that's a huge reach.  Finally, keep in mind that DOJ rules prevent investigating a sitting President (which is why Trump fended off multiple actions while in office), so don't expect to see any activity from the FBI for two or potentially six years.  In summary, no legitimate entity is going to touch this thing, which means you should be very suspicious of those who do publish supposedly valid material from the drive.  

As a post script, there are a few other comments I'd like to add.  First, I agree that Hunter Biden was asked to be a part of Burisma and other endeavors because of who his father was and not for his qualifications.  Who wouldn't accept a cushy high paying role?  Also, everyone in my circle (and I of course) agrees that if either Hunter or Joe actually committed crimes, they should be tried and punished; period.  

WAPO Article

CBS Story

Twitter Files and Yes, Hunter's Laptop

 My intent was to avoid writing about the nothing burger from two nights ago, but the right wingers have all embraced it with such orgasmic delight that I feel I should.  Seriously, there were some sore right arms out there, yesterday morning.  The document release was done over 20 something tweets, which was annoying as fuck, especially since they seem to have been written by an 8 year old autistic child.  But someone figured out the format would blow up engagement numbers, which I'm sure it did.  Advertisers still won't touch the train wreck, though, for the same reasons they exited in the first place.  But I digress as usual.

What was actually said in the release:  In October, 2020, Twitter suppressed a New York Post story about Hunter Biden's laptop.  The action was initially justified based upon Twitter's TOS on hacked material, but the internal emails admitted that was a stretch.  Also, Twitter apparently suspended Kayleigh Fuckininey's account for two weeks.  It wasn't clear whether the two were related or if it was, I didn't care.  Also, the Biden campaign requested some defamatory posts be taken down.  It was specified that both the Trump and Biden campaigns had access and could / did make such requests.  Trump's requests weren't noted (and apparently won't be in the next cluster fuck, either).  

But this is apparently what the right wing looneys read:
Joe Biden had the Hunter laptop story buried and had incriminating evidence removed, which influenced the election.  Although, some rightly picked up that Twitter actually suppressed the NYP story.  

The right wingers were pissed that they lost (as usual) and began marching out all of the baseless accusations and claims of what's on Hunter's laptop back to the surface, which further worked the chimps into a lather.  Seriously, they were euphoric.

For clarification, some research in the internet archive uncovered the tweets the Biden campaign requested be remove were nudes of Hunter and tantamount to revenge porn, something quite illegal.  So, the right wingers are full of anger over not seeing Hunter Biden's dick.

And now, for the context:  Twitter burying the laptop story didn't violate anything; most certainly not the First Amendment.  No government forcing the act, so no foul.  If it influenced the outcome of the election, who cares?  It's not as though Fox News, OAN, and the others haven't done the exact same thing for the Republicans.  If anything, one would have greater expectations of truth from a "news" outlet.  

If you haven't already, right now, you should be asking yourself why you didn't hear about the NYP Hunter's Laptop story from another source.  The paper is a Murdoch property, so why didn't it show up on Fox News?  News agencies frequently report on one another's investigations, so why wasn't this bombshell everywhere?  Why hasn't there been follow up in the two intervening years?  One might conclude that the story really wasn't one.  

My research has shown that's the case.  Apparently, it was well known within the journalism community the NYP story was a hail mary at an October surprise, by the right, in an attempt to influence the election (my, how did that worm turn!), and was considered toxic.  

Others wouldn't touch it because a large portion of the hard drive's data is questionable or at the very least, unable to be verified to belong to Hunter Biden.  Of the 130k emails on the drive, less than 15% were able to be established as original.  That's to say they aren't authentic, just that they can't be 100% sure they are.  This comes from a Washington Post story in March, where they gave the hard drive to two forensic computer experts.  Here's a link to the article.

WaPo Article

When you read it (and I highly do), take note of the number of files written to the drive after Biden dropped it off at the repair shop, including three folders titled “Mail,” “Salacious Pics Package” and “Big Guy File” — an apparent reference to Joe Biden.  

But what about CBS stating the hard drive was confirmed to be Hunter's and the data was uncorrupted? CBS received a copy of the version in the FBI's possession.  You see, there are two versions of Hunter's hard drive.  From the CBS article:  

Some other versions of the laptop data circulated later appeared to have had data added after April 2019, a sign they could have been tampered with, according to reports in other media outlets, including The Washington Post. 

There was to be a second drop last night, but that didn't happen.  Elmo made a comment they're still filtering through the data (translation:  cherry picking material that seems more salacious), so it might be tonight.  The course to excellence continues at Twitter LOL.  

To wrap up, the Twitter Files was about the furthest thing you can get from a bombshell; more like a dud.  Hunter's laptop is a dead end because people fucked with it.  Bottom line, I don't know what Hunter was involved in and neither do you, because any evidence on the hard drive is suspect.  So long as the President wasn't party to it, I don't care.  If Hunter Biden committed crimes, he should be tried, convicted, and punished accordingly.