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> According to the FBI[0] and the DNI[1], there is no evidence indicating that Hunter Biden's laptop is misinformation. You're just saying that a misinformatio

by barumi 6y ago

> According to the FBI[0] and the DNI[1], there is no evidence indicating that Hunter Biden's laptop is misinformation. You're just saying that a misinformation campaign aiming at manipulating the US elections quite possibly according to the whims of a totalitarian regime that aims at undermining the US from the top might not have resorted to use totally false and made-up information.

chrisco255 6y ago
It's Hunters laptop. Hunter is a crack head and he was dumb enough to drop a laptop off for repair and never come back to pick it up. There is a signed receipt by Hunter. The email dates match up with secret service flight records. Hunter peddles access to his father for millions of dollars. Joe got a piece of the action.
- barumi 6y ago
  > It's Hunters laptop. Hunter is a crack head (...) Ok you already made it quite clear that you don't care about the issue being discussed, and your focus is only on smearing by proxy an election candidate that you feel strongly against. I have no dog in the race, as I am not an US citizen nor do I live in the US. However, it's very disheartening to see a country, which a couple of decades ago was seen as the shining beacon of democracy, see their democratic process dragged through the mud by people the likes of you, who are more interested in fabricating propaganda and conduct smear campaigns than actually help out their country rise above their internal problems.
  - chrisco255 6y ago
    Here's Politico's Quint Forgey quoting the Director of National Intelligence that the laptop (source of the emails) is in the FBI's possession and that it is authentically Hunter's: https://twitter.com/QuintForgey/status/1318166732419235841 https://twitter.com/QuintForgey/status/1318166732419235841 Here's Fox saying the same thing, quoting a Federal Law Enforcement Official: https://twitter.com/SeanLangille?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcam https://twitter.com/SeanLangille?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcam... Here's a signed MacBook Repair quote from 4/2019, signed by Hunter Biden: https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/hunter%20bi https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/hunter%20bi... And here's the NYPost article itself, excerpts included: `Biden wrote that Ye had sweetened the terms of an earlier, three-year consulting contract with CEFC that was to pay him $10 million annually “for introductions alone.”` `"Consulting fees is one piece of our income stream but the reason this proposal by the chairman was so much more interesting to me and my family is that we would also be partners inn [sic] the equity and profits of the JV’s [joint venture’s] investments."` `The documents obtained by The Post also include an “Attorney Engagement Letter” executed in September 2017 in which one of Ye’s top lieutenants, former Hong Kong government official Chi Ping Patrick Ho, agreed to pay Biden a $1 million retainer for “Counsel to matters related to US law and advice pertaining to the hiring and legal analysis of any US Law Firm or Lawyer.` https://nypost.com/2020/10/15/emails-reveal-how-hunter-biden https://nypost.com/2020/10/15/emails-reveal-how-hunter-biden... It's not a smear campaign. These are facts. The Biden's are political whorebags and don't deserve power. I'm a 10th generation American. The spirit of liberty runs deep in me. But speaking truth to power is part of the democratic process. Sorry you were mistaken in believing that democracy is all sunshine and rainbows. It's not. It's very messy and imperfect. And like gardening, you have to weed out the corruption by calling it out.
    - zimpenfish 6y ago
      Worth noting that DNI Ratcliffe is the most unqualified DNI to be appointed (and only managed to get appointed on his second try by a minority), is a Trump loyalist, lied in his bio (disqualifying, I'd say) and appears to follow QAnon (but that could be for work purposes.) The zerohedge URL is truncated and consequently doesn't work. > And here's the NYPost article itself, excerpts included: Show us the DKIM headers and let us verify the authenticity, then we'll talk about the content of the emails.
      - jessaustin 6y ago
        ...DKIM... My understanding is that the purported emails were sent to Biden. He can't really do anything to control what is sent to him, so verifying that these emails were sent doesn't really prove anything. If he had forwarded the emails in a way that indicated his agreement, or if they had been sent by someone else connected to the candidate, that would be a situation in which DKIM would be relevant.
        zimpenfish 6y ago
        > He can't really do anything to control what is sent to him In which case the whole situation is nonsense and moot. But it appears that some of them are from Biden - "The New York Post cited a purported email from Hunter Biden in August 2017 indicating he was receiving a $10m annual fee from a Chinese billionaire" - in which case the DKIM headers would be a simple check on authenticity, no?
        jessaustin 6y ago
        Sure, if he is alleged to have sent an incriminating email, the headers should be published along with the exact contents so that the public may judge for ourselves. This was done for the Clinton 2016 emails that clearly showed undemocratic interference in the primary elections. So, the fact that they haven't been published in this case does make the whole story less believable. The journalists involved this time probably aren't as smart as Wikileaks, but that's no reason their reporting shouldn't be held to the same standard.
  - Kephael 6y ago
    If this is "democracy" I don't see a point to it. I haven't been able to vote on any civilizational matters under "democracy" anyways. This is like the CCP but instead of CCP restrictions it is DNC restrictions.
    - shlant 6y ago
      I suggest you refrain from making such hyperbolized false equivalencies if you want people to seriously consider your perspective. People can empathize with your frustrations around the seeming lack of agency available to individuals in some democratic countries (in the US especially) without you comparing it to some authoritarian country.
      - Kephael 6y ago
        It's not hyperbole, and we do live in authoritarian countries across most of the "Western" world. If you question the Leftist narrative in a public manner you will lose your professional job. If you tweet facts that the Left does not like, it will be deleted (and possibly result in the aforementioned termination of your employment). We don't presently have camps, but we absolutely have an undocumented social credit system.
        shlant 6y ago
        you are clearly super biased and just painting the same old reactionary picture that doesn't actually exist. If you think a few examples of misdirected cancel culture and a couple private companies choosing some very specific sources/articles they don't want on their platform is akin to "authoritarianism" you either need to read up on the definition or you are being completely disingenuous to support your regurgitated narrative.
        Kephael 6y ago
        I don't think my eyes and work email inbox are lying to me. Just because it's a softer form of control does not make it acceptable. This is part of why institutional trust has collapsed in the US and this will all end violently.
- shlant 6y ago
  this comment make for a good example of why it is very difficult these days to have a reasonable discussion based in reality: many people have no interest in the truth and just want to see their side "win". This also results in something related to what the article talks about: any reasonable criticism that goes against mainstream thought (or against mainstream news in general) will immediately be coopted and used as ammo by those mentioned in my first point who will take it and twist it into absurd, conspiracy-level or hate-fueled perspectives thereby minimizing the legitimacy of original criticism in the eyes of the public.
pseudo0 6y ago
I would assume that the FBI looked into the provenance of the laptop when they subpoenaed it over a year ago. Biden's campaign has also not repudiated the repair shop owner's story of how the laptop came into his possession, and the owner has a signed receipt. Hunter's lawyer allegedly also contacted the repair shop owner the day before the New York Post published the story. This set of facts indicates to me that the laptop was probably not obtained as part of a misinformation campaign. Fundamentally, for me the null hypothesis is that this is typical election year opposition research. Those claiming that this is an elaborate Russian conspiracy have to present a pretty compelling case to convince me otherwise, given the repeated collapse of such narratives over the past few years.

by barumi 6y ago

chrisco255 6y ago

It's Hunters laptop. Hunter is a crack head and he was dumb enough to drop a laptop off for repair and never come back to pick it up. There is a signed receipt by Hunter. The email dates match up with secret service flight records. Hunter peddles access to his father for millions of dollars. Joe got a piece of the action.

barumi 6y ago
> It's Hunters laptop. Hunter is a crack head (...) Ok you already made it quite clear that you don't care about the issue being discussed, and your focus is only on smearing by proxy an election candidate that you feel strongly against. I have no dog in the race, as I am not an US citizen nor do I live in the US. However, it's very disheartening to see a country, which a couple of decades ago was seen as the shining beacon of democracy, see their democratic process dragged through the mud by people the likes of you, who are more interested in fabricating propaganda and conduct smear campaigns than actually help out their country rise above their internal problems.
- chrisco255 6y ago
  Here's Politico's Quint Forgey quoting the Director of National Intelligence that the laptop (source of the emails) is in the FBI's possession and that it is authentically Hunter's: https://twitter.com/QuintForgey/status/1318166732419235841 https://twitter.com/QuintForgey/status/1318166732419235841 Here's Fox saying the same thing, quoting a Federal Law Enforcement Official: https://twitter.com/SeanLangille?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcam https://twitter.com/SeanLangille?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcam... Here's a signed MacBook Repair quote from 4/2019, signed by Hunter Biden: https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/hunter%20bi https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/hunter%20bi... And here's the NYPost article itself, excerpts included: `Biden wrote that Ye had sweetened the terms of an earlier, three-year consulting contract with CEFC that was to pay him $10 million annually “for introductions alone.”` `"Consulting fees is one piece of our income stream but the reason this proposal by the chairman was so much more interesting to me and my family is that we would also be partners inn [sic] the equity and profits of the JV’s [joint venture’s] investments."` `The documents obtained by The Post also include an “Attorney Engagement Letter” executed in September 2017 in which one of Ye’s top lieutenants, former Hong Kong government official Chi Ping Patrick Ho, agreed to pay Biden a $1 million retainer for “Counsel to matters related to US law and advice pertaining to the hiring and legal analysis of any US Law Firm or Lawyer.` https://nypost.com/2020/10/15/emails-reveal-how-hunter-biden https://nypost.com/2020/10/15/emails-reveal-how-hunter-biden... It's not a smear campaign. These are facts. The Biden's are political whorebags and don't deserve power. I'm a 10th generation American. The spirit of liberty runs deep in me. But speaking truth to power is part of the democratic process. Sorry you were mistaken in believing that democracy is all sunshine and rainbows. It's not. It's very messy and imperfect. And like gardening, you have to weed out the corruption by calling it out.
  - zimpenfish 6y ago
    Worth noting that DNI Ratcliffe is the most unqualified DNI to be appointed (and only managed to get appointed on his second try by a minority), is a Trump loyalist, lied in his bio (disqualifying, I'd say) and appears to follow QAnon (but that could be for work purposes.) The zerohedge URL is truncated and consequently doesn't work. > And here's the NYPost article itself, excerpts included: Show us the DKIM headers and let us verify the authenticity, then we'll talk about the content of the emails.
    - jessaustin 6y ago
      ...DKIM... My understanding is that the purported emails were sent to Biden. He can't really do anything to control what is sent to him, so verifying that these emails were sent doesn't really prove anything. If he had forwarded the emails in a way that indicated his agreement, or if they had been sent by someone else connected to the candidate, that would be a situation in which DKIM would be relevant.
      - zimpenfish 6y ago
        > He can't really do anything to control what is sent to him In which case the whole situation is nonsense and moot. But it appears that some of them are from Biden - "The New York Post cited a purported email from Hunter Biden in August 2017 indicating he was receiving a $10m annual fee from a Chinese billionaire" - in which case the DKIM headers would be a simple check on authenticity, no?
        jessaustin 6y ago
        Sure, if he is alleged to have sent an incriminating email, the headers should be published along with the exact contents so that the public may judge for ourselves. This was done for the Clinton 2016 emails that clearly showed undemocratic interference in the primary elections. So, the fact that they haven't been published in this case does make the whole story less believable. The journalists involved this time probably aren't as smart as Wikileaks, but that's no reason their reporting shouldn't be held to the same standard.
- Kephael 6y ago
  If this is "democracy" I don't see a point to it. I haven't been able to vote on any civilizational matters under "democracy" anyways. This is like the CCP but instead of CCP restrictions it is DNC restrictions.
  - shlant 6y ago
    I suggest you refrain from making such hyperbolized false equivalencies if you want people to seriously consider your perspective. People can empathize with your frustrations around the seeming lack of agency available to individuals in some democratic countries (in the US especially) without you comparing it to some authoritarian country.
    - Kephael 6y ago
      It's not hyperbole, and we do live in authoritarian countries across most of the "Western" world. If you question the Leftist narrative in a public manner you will lose your professional job. If you tweet facts that the Left does not like, it will be deleted (and possibly result in the aforementioned termination of your employment). We don't presently have camps, but we absolutely have an undocumented social credit system.
      - shlant 6y ago
        you are clearly super biased and just painting the same old reactionary picture that doesn't actually exist. If you think a few examples of misdirected cancel culture and a couple private companies choosing some very specific sources/articles they don't want on their platform is akin to "authoritarianism" you either need to read up on the definition or you are being completely disingenuous to support your regurgitated narrative.
        Kephael 6y ago
        I don't think my eyes and work email inbox are lying to me. Just because it's a softer form of control does not make it acceptable. This is part of why institutional trust has collapsed in the US and this will all end violently.
shlant 6y ago
this comment make for a good example of why it is very difficult these days to have a reasonable discussion based in reality: many people have no interest in the truth and just want to see their side "win". This also results in something related to what the article talks about: any reasonable criticism that goes against mainstream thought (or against mainstream news in general) will immediately be coopted and used as ammo by those mentioned in my first point who will take it and twist it into absurd, conspiracy-level or hate-fueled perspectives thereby minimizing the legitimacy of original criticism in the eyes of the public.

pseudo0 6y ago

I would assume that the FBI looked into the provenance of the laptop when they subpoenaed it over a year ago. Biden's campaign has also not repudiated the repair shop owner's story of how the laptop came into his possession, and the owner has a signed receipt. Hunter's lawyer allegedly also contacted the repair shop owner the day before the New York Post published the story. This set of facts indicates to me that the laptop was probably not obtained as part of a misinformation campaign. Fundamentally, for me the null hypothesis is that this is typical election year opposition research. Those claiming that this is an elaborate Russian conspiracy have to present a pretty compelling case to convince me otherwise, given the repeated collapse of such narratives over the past few years.