Advice for Hunter Biden:
Go to prison.
Quit being a spoiled, privileged child.
For better or worse, Hunter is a Biden. He has been blessed by it, cursed by it, profited from it, and is now being tormented because of it. Republicans have a way to change the subject from their own conspicuous miscreant by diverting attention to the Democrats' conspicuous miscreant. We watch the corrosion to our democracy caused by Republicans as they attempt to justify, excuse, and invent pretense legalisms to minimize Trump's abuse of the power of the presidency. I watch Democrats attempt to justify, excuse and minimize Hunter Biden's abuse of the power of nepotism.
I am sick of it. I am not alone here. There is widespread frustration with two-tiered justice, two-tiered college admissions, two-tiered affirmative action, two-tiered policing, two-tiered everything. America feels like boarding an airplane. People see others getting an advantage, a privilege, and they resent not getting it, too. White Republicans think Blacks get massive preferences. Blacks and White progressives think Whites live in a culture so steeped in preferences they are blind to it. Everyone resents the privilege of stock trading by Members of Congress. The $80,000 a month Hunter Biden got to be on Burisma's board while he was fighting addictions was probably legal, but it looks bad. Very bad. How can Democrats point to Jared Kushner's Saudi deal when they have Hunter Biden to contend with?
Let me just address Hunter here, me to him:
Hunter, your plea deal blew up in your face. Prosecutors were willing to give you the typical good-deal treatment that other privileged White guys with superb lawyers get. Maybe you even got a better prospective deal -- but maybe not. After all, you did pay back the taxes and we mostly do not imprison late filers, and the gun charge they got you under is probably unconstitutional. You could fight that. The irony of you fighting for the 2nd Amendment right of an drug-impaired man to buy guns, perhaps all the way to the gun-rights-loving Supreme Court, when your father supports stricter gun laws, is exactly the sort of cross current that makes prosecutors open to plea deals. So you got your deal. But then, since you are a Biden, Republicans made a fuss that the deal would excuse you from other crimes and they want to hound you about those. So maybe the whole deal wasn't properly disclosed, making it an abuse of privilege. Fox News ran news stories with the words "SWEETHEART DEAL" on the screen repeatedly yesterday. With everyone on the lookout for privilege, the judge said "no." This time being a Biden hurt you.
Hunter, you have an opportunity here. Hit bottom. Confess that you have been a screwup and want to change. Become a reform advocate. Say you want to drain the swamp of nepotism and two-tiered everything. Say that privilege and advantage for children of politicians is bad for America and poison for the children who supposedly benefit. Use yourself as the poster child.
Reject the plea deal. Insist you want the same deal every other American would get, no more, no less. They won't send you to a prison hellhole and it won't be for very long. It will be a minimum security prison for tax cheats, embezzlers, and frauds -- people like you.
Be selfless for a change. Take one for your father. You have done crimes. Do the time. Set an example.
Oh. One other thing. Arrange with the mother of your daughter, Navy, that you acknowledge your daughter. It is shameful not to acknowledge her, and shameful to have resisted supporting her. This isn't for your benefit, nor for your father's. It is for the little girl. She deserves to be able to sit on her grandfather's knee and be held and hugged and know that she belongs. That can be done out of the media eye and without a lot of talk, but it is part of your redemption and her birthright. She has a father and grandfather. Fix this.
I have no concern about whether Hunter Biden goes to prison or not, although it would be interesting if he did. Trading on daddy's name is as American as tax avoidance (I think, Peter, you recently wrote about "legacy enrollments" which is just another form of trading on one's privileged parents, isn't it?)
But to Hunter, the difference between him and the Orange Con Man and the rest of the ReThuglicans, is that he is not, and never has been, a government official. If organizations like Burisma think it of value to overpay because of his last name and there is no evidence that ever got them any inside track, it is just not the same as Jared Kushner or Ivanka, who were BOTH on the government payroll in official positions, getting special treatment from foreign governments. Thugs may like to make the comparison, but let's be real, it's not.
We have a clear nepotism problem. It would be so Al Franken democratic for Hunter Biden to suck it up and do the right thing, while the Cheetos, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordans of the rest go scot free. Send 'em ALL to jail, or fine them all. Hunter Biden is nothing.
Concur. And I share George Kramer's caveats.
The irony is rich: Republicans outraged at a gun-totin' tax cheat capitalizing on family connections.
Yes to prison.
Time to investigate Jarvanka in even greater depth.
And when Donald Jr. finally gets busted for drugs, let's look in his gun safe, too.