Hunter Biden's Laptop Is a Total Nothingburger

Right wing lawyer Jonathan Turley thinks the shoe is about to drop on the Biden family. Reading his piece I was reminded that nothing in this whole scenario about Hunter's laptop makes any sense. 

First of all, the ultimate claim of the Twitter files was that the story about the laptop at the New York Post was suppressed and that if voters knew about it, Trump would have likely won re-election. 

Well...now we know. Twitter only blocked the NYP article for about a day and right wingers have been talking about it relentlessly for 2 1/2 years. Several news outlets have gotten access to hard drives that supposedly contain the contents of the laptop and, to various degrees, they have confirmed their authenticity. 

As a result, every right wing journalist/politician who has an ax to grind against President Biden has had a couple of years to comb through those hard drives for something - anything - that they can use against the president or his family. So far we've gotten nothing but a few dickpics from the days when Hunter was abusing drugs.

But for Representatives Jim Jordan and James Comer - the hunt continues.

At this point, the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, is still investigating Hunter Biden. There have been leaks about possible charges, mostly related to tax evasion. But those leaks should be taken with a grain of salt. It is, however, very possible that Hunter could eventually face criminal charges. If the evidence is there, so be it. 

But when it comes to the laptop right wingers are so obsessed about...it's obviously a total nothingburger!

What DeSantis Couldn't Say in Response to Disney's Lawsuit

Now that we've covered the lawsuit Disney filed against Ron DeSantis, it's worth taking a look at how the governor responded.  

First of all, he claimed that Disney is "upset because they're going to have to live by the same rules as everybody else." He went on to say that "they don't want to have to pay the same taxes as everybody else."

But the truth is that, if Disney were to be forced to pay the same taxes as everybody else, they'd be getting a pretty big break.

The board sets the district’s tax rate, which is currently three times higher than that paid by residents of Orange and Osceola counties. Disney pays more than $1.1 billion in state and local taxes, including more than $160 million in property tax, which is used to maintain a higher level of services and infrastructure than the counties provide.

The same thing is true of the governor's other point about Disney wanting to avoid oversight.

The RCID building codes (the “Epcot Codes”) meet or exceed all state & federal requirements. Same with their environmental standards etc.

DeSantis ended by saying that the law suit was "political" (whatever that means in the context of a dispute over free speech), and then implied that the company was judge-shopping for filing the suit in Tallahassee. 

The governor needed to make that final point because the judge that has been assigned to this case is Mark Walker - someone who has a pretty stellar record on upholding First Amendment rights. But it gets even worse. Walker is the judge that said this in a ruling against DeSantis's Stop WOKE Act:

Walker said Florida had become a place where the First Amendment allowed, rather than prevented, the state to limit speech. Or as he put it, "in the popular television series Stranger Things, the 'upside down' describes a parallel dimension containing a distorted version of our world. Recently, Florida has seemed like a First Amendment upside down."

While it's clear that DeSantis isn't the brightest bulb, he's probably at least smart enough to know that he's going to lose this one at the District Court. So he's planting the seeds for blaming that on the "woke judge" chosen by Disney.

The most important part of these remarks by DeSantis are what he DIDN'T say. For example, he didn't repeat any of these past statements:

• “Disney and other woke corporations won’t get away with peddling their unchecked pressure campaigns any longer” and that he would “not allow a woke corporation based in California to run our state." 
• “For whatever reason, Disney got on that bandwagon. They demagogued the bill. They lied about it. ... We signed the bill. And then, and incredibly, they say, ‘We are going to work to repeal Parents’ Rights in Florida.’ And I’m just thinking to myself, ‘You’re a corporation based in Burbank, California, and you’re going to marshal your economic might to attack the parents of my state?’ We view that as a provocation and we are going to fight back against that.” 
• “We took action” after Disney made “the mistake” of opposing the legislation." 
• "Leaders must stand up and fight back when big corporations make the mistake, as Disney did, of using their economic might to advance a political agenda. We are making Florida the state where the economy flourishes because we are the state where woke goes to die.”

As a reminder, here's a summary of what Disney's lawsuit is all about:

A targeted campaign of government retaliation—orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney’s protected speech—now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights.

The statements above are all things the governor said about the events in question BEFORE Disney filed this lawsuit. As I said yesterday, "Nothing makes Disney's case better than the governor's own words." It's obvious DeSantis knows that, so he can't say the quiet parts out loud anymore. 

This case is probably going to take years to wind its way through the courts. By filling it, Disney has managed to muzzle DeSantis's ability to make claims about punishing woke corporations. That's a win right there.

The real showdown will come if this case makes its way to the Supreme Court. One the one hand, you have six extremist judges who have pretty much gone all-in on the war against woke. But it wasn't that long ago that the Court decided that corporations had free speech rights when it comes to political contributions. What will this group of justices have to say about actual speech rights for corporations? We'll have to wait and see.  

But if Disney finally claims victory in this case, it will be a step towards putting a nail in the coffin of the National Conservatives. One of their main goals is use the government to punish institutions that fight back against their "culture wars." If the courts rule that that is a violation of the institution's right to free speech, the movement could be dead in the water. That is why this case is such a BFD!

Disney Skewers DeSantis With His Own Words

I've read the entire suit Disney filed against DeSantis - which you can find here. One of the most notable things is that it is written in plain English, avoiding the kind of legaleze that you usually find in such documents. The only drawback is that it's 77 pages long.

Before getting into the weeds about Disney's claims, here's a quick timeline of the major events in question:

• March 28, 2022 - DeSantis signs "don't say gay bill." On the same day, Disney released a statement saying the bill should never have been passed and committed to working towards its repeal.
• April 22, 2022 - DeSantis signs SB 4C, which dissolves the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID) as of July 2023.
• Feb. 8, 2023 - RCID approves a declaration of restrictive covenants and a development agreement with Disney.
• February 27, 2023 - DeSantis signs HB 9B, which maintains the district under a different name and allows the governor to appoint members to the governing board.
• April 17, 2023 - DeSantis holds a press conference to announce plans to nullify the development agreement and suggests further steps he might take to punish Disney.

The case Disney is making is summarized with this (emphasis mine):

A targeted campaign of government retaliation—orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney’s protected speech—now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights...

Disney regrets that it has come to this. But having exhausted efforts to seek a resolution, the Company is left with no choice but to file this lawsuit to protect its cast members, guests, and local development partners from a relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint unpopular with certain State officials... 

Governor DeSantis and his allies paid no mind to the governing structure that facilitated Reedy Creek’s successful development until one year ago, when the Governor decided to target Disney. There is no room for disagreement about what happened here: Disney expressed its opinion on state legislation and was then punished by the State for doing so.

Throughout the document, they refer to the way DeSantis has "weaponized government," which is interesting given the way people like Rep. Jim Jordan are using the term to go after Democrats.

You may have heard that the agreements between RCID and Disney approved on Feb. 8th stripped DeSantis's new governing board of all of its power. That is not true.

[T]hese contracts are land use agreements between a developer and its local regulator. They are similar in character to contracts between other developers and special districts to fix long-term development rights and obligations, thereby facilitating the certainty needed to ensure investment and effective commercial progress. Contrary to misunderstandings and mischaracterizations by some government leaders, they do not undermine the newly constituted Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (“CFTOD” or the “District”) board’s ability to govern and exercise authority, including by imposing taxes, exercising the power of eminent domain, approving or disapproving building permit applications (including for the projects carried out pursuant to the development agreement), building roads, providing emergency services, or issuing bonds.

Here's part of the kicker paragraph that comes at the end of their initial summary:

But Disney also knows that it is fortunate to have the resources to take a stand against the State’s retaliation—a stand smaller businesses and individuals might not be able to take when the State comes after them for expressing their own views. In America, the government cannot punish you for speaking your mind. 

Most of the document is a timeline of the major events noted above. At every turn, they document that, in his own words, DeSantis made it clear that he was taking action in retaliation for Disney's public stand against the "don't say gay bill."

Perhaps the most potent example is that, on the day after DeSantis signed the bill that allowed him to appoint members of the district's governing board, he actually put his intentions in writing for an opinion piece at the Wall Street Journal. These are the governor's own words captured for posterity:

For more than 50 years, the state of Florida put Disney on a pedestal. That all changed last year, when left-wing activists working at the company’s headquarters in Burbank, Calif., pressured Disney to oppose Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act...

The regrettable upshot of the woke ascendancy is that publicly traded corporations have become combatants in battles over American politics and culture, almost invariably siding with leftist causes...

When corporations try to use their economic power to advance a woke agenda, they become political, and not merely economic, actors. In such an environment, reflexively deferring to big business effectively surrenders the political battlefield to the militant left...

Woke ideology is a form of cultural Marxism. Leaders must stand up and fight back when big corporations make the mistake, as Disney did, of using their economic might to advance a political agenda.

Nothing makes Disney's case better than the governor's own words. 

But the real whopper in this lawsuit comes at the end when Disney lays out the particulars of what they want the courts to do. Here's the biggy:

Declare that Senate Bill 4C and House Bill 9B are unlawful and unenforceable because they were enacted in retaliation for Disney’s political speech in violation of the First Amendment.

In other words, they want both (1) the bill that originally dissolved RCID, and (2) the one that gave the governor the power to appoint members of the governing board, to be declared unconstitutional. 

I suspect that if DeSantis had been willing to sit down with Bob Iger and talk this through, they could have come up with a compromise that allowed the governor to save face. But that's not what MAGA folks do. So Disney was left with no choice but to sue for the whole enchilada. Their lawyers laid out an excellent case using DeSantis's own words - proving once again that the governor isn't the brightest bulb.

Populism Without Civil Rights Is Fascism

Following Tucker Carlson's ouster from Fox News, two writers at the liberal publication, The American Prospect, wrote a piece lauding his so-called "populism." Here's the line that caught my eye:

Tucker’s willingness to challenge and mock ruling elites went alongside an obsessively nativist message that alienated viewers who might otherwise have embraced his populist perspective.

As an example of Carlson's "populist reflex," the authors pointed to a disagreement he had with Ben Shapiro in 2018 on whether the government should be able to restrict trucking companies from adopting autonomous vehicle technology to avoid potential job losses in the industry. 

Carlson was emphatic that a self-determining polity should be able to control its technological destiny, while Shapiro dithered about government overreach in the market.

“Are you joking?” Carlson responded when asked by Shapiro if he’d ban autonomous vehicles. “In a second.”

The fact that the authors saw this as proof of Carlson's populism indicates that they have completely ignored the rise of National Conservatism on the right. Matthew Continetti describes them as "post-liberals" (emphasis mine).

The post-liberals say that the distinction between state and society is illusory. They argue that, even as conservatives defended the independence of civil society from state power, the left took over Hollywood, the academy, the media, and the courts. What the post-liberals seem to call for is the use of government to recapture society from the left.

The poster boy for National Conservatives is Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban - they guy Carlson promoted as a model for America’s future. As a demonstration of what that would look like in this country, Orban has become the model for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis, who has built a profile as a pugilistic culture warrior with eyes on the presidency, has steadily put together a policy agenda with strong echoes of Orbán’s governing ethos — one in which an allegedly existential cultural threat from the left justifies aggressive uses of state power against the right’s enemies.

There is a debate to be had about whether or not that has anything to do with "populism." But regardless of that, Rick Perlstein made the deeper point back in 2016 when calling out Matt Taibbi for lauding Trump's populism.

It’s an ignorance of a simple historical fact: Every fascist achieves and cements his power by pledging to rescue ordinary people from the depredations of economic elites. That’s how fas­cism works...

But guess what? Under fascism, economic protection for the goose accompanies dispossession of the gander. White people prosper in part because minorities suffer — whether, under Hitler, by taking away property from Jews, or as Herr Trump expects, by taking back ​“our” jobs from ​“them,” whether the them is immigrants or our supposedly duplici­tous trading partners.

There’s even a sociological term for it: herrenvolk repub­licanism.

I had to look that one up. The definition of "herrenvolk republicanism" is "a system of government in which only a specific ethnic group participates in government, while other groups are disenfranchised.

The bottom line is that populism without civil rights is fascism. 

This is why I've been so focused on exposing the truth about National Conservatism. It is, at heart, a fascist movement. It is important that we all recognize the way it has taken over the Republican Party and been embraced by some of the extreme left like the authors of that piece in The American Prospect - as well as Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald. Even some classic liberals have suggested that Democrats can partner with National Conservatives on issues like monopolization. This is dangerous territory when it comes to protecting our democracy!

Glenn Greenwald gets triggered by smart competent women like Rep. Stacey Plaskett

Stacey Plaskett has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2015. She serves as the non-voting delegate representing the Virgin Islands, where she has consistently received around 90% of the vote in elections. 

In 2021, Plaskett served as one of the managers on Trump's second impeachment trial and in 2023, she was named the ranking member of the House Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. As an example of why she has been chosen for such prominent roles, here she is talking to Chris Hayes about the latter:

You might remember that last month Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger testified about the so-called "twitter files" before the weaponization committee. It didn't go well. So all of Taibbi's buddies have come to his defense. 

As someone who has been pointing out the nonsense spewed by Glenn Greenwald for years now, I probably shouldn't be surprised that he is using a particularly ugly personal attack on Plaskett in his defense of Taibbi. After all, this is the guy who has called Nicole Wallace "the typhoid Mary of disinformation" and Natasha Bertrand "a deranged conspiracy theorist and scandal-plagued CIA propagandist." In other words, the guy seems to have a penchant for dredging up ugly personal attacks against women. 

So what is Greenwald's line of attack against Plaskett? He has repeatedly referred to her as:

• a "fake Congresswoman"
• a "pretend-Dem-congresswoman"
• a "repellant fake congresswoman"

Of course, it would be a waste of time to point out to Glenn that there is nothing "fake" or "pretend" about Plaskett's role as a member of congress - or the fact that the people of the Virgin Islands matter and they have overwhelmingly voted for her to be their representative. This is basically how the guy operates. 

The only good news is that there aren't that many people paying attention to Glenn these days. I just wanted to note that the guy who tries to sell himself as a rational debater sure seems to get triggered by smart competent women. As you can see, his response is not to engage in rational debate, but to go after them with vicious personal attacks. 

Why Trans Women Pose a Particular Threat to Right Wingers

Since right wingers decided to make trans people their new enemy target, I've noticed that they tend to focus most of their enmity on trans women. We've seen that with their phobia about things like bathrooms and sports. We hear almost nothing similarly fear-mongering about trans men. Why is that?

The latest abuse has been directed at Dylan Mulvaney - a trans woman who recently celebrated her "day 365 of womanhood" by partnering with Bud Light. Wingers went nuts destroying their supply of the beer. That is the context for a column by Brian Broome about the fact that toxic masculinity is rooted in a hatred of anything deemed feminine. 

Mulvaney’s celebration for some reason threatened the very existence of a whole bunch of guys who aren’t ready for that reality. This will surprise no one who has ever been a small boy. Every boy knows the sting of being called a sissy. Boys are raised to believe that so-called feminine traits represent a danger they must avoid. Boys learn early that they can expect to be punished if they stray in any way into risky, weakening feminine behaviors. These lessons take root deep in our psyches as youngsters, and they stay there forever...

Men need to move beyond the idea that dominating other human beings and engaging in endless emotional barricading is how to show the world that they’re “masculine.” The concept needs a de-gendering. Perhaps to some, masculinity only means that you are self-assured, confident, not easily threatened and won’t be told what to do, what you can’t wear, whom you can love. But there are literally millions of people who possess these traits regardless of sex or gender identity.

If your idea of “masculine” is just a hatred of anything that someone told you is “feminine,” then I don’t know what to tell you except that, as a human being, you are entitled to the whole human experience. Not just part of it.

Since everything feminine is to be rejected by men, a person who has been labelled a man transitioning to become a woman is seriously triggering for folks steeped in toxic masculinity. 

Jill Filipovic notes that these right wingers are all wound up about liberal "gender ideology." But the fact is that they have their own gender ideology. It's called "patriarchy" (emphasis mine).

Conservative gender ideology is religiously-based and it goes like this: Men and women are fundamentally different, created by God to compliment each other. There is a clear hierarchy: God, man, woman, boy child, girl child. Women are to serve men, produce children, and maintain the home; and in turn, men are to protect and provide for women and children. For Christians, this is the origin story of humankind; it is foundational, the very first building block of humanity and by extension society. It is, essentially, a “separate but equal” view of gender: Men and women have equal dignity, but not equal rights, roles, or responsibilities.

A trans woman is - by definition - a violation of that established hierarchy. As Filipovic goes on to point out, "the forever lie of patriarchy is that it’s 'natural'" and "the very existence of gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans people makes a joke of patriarchal claims to naturally-occurring gender roles."

That brings to mind the way that Doug Muder described the Confederate insurgency.

The Confederate sees a divinely ordained way things are supposed to be, and defends it at all costs. No process, no matter how orderly or democratic, can justify fundamental change.

All of this ties together when we understand that the fundamental threat right wingers are reacting to is the impending demise of white patriarchy - which they assume is the "divinely ordained way things are supposed to be." 

Interestingly enough, the future of our democracy just might depend on embracing the traditional feminine qualities of humanity. 

At its heart, democracy must have humility & grace to embrace compromise & the willingness to lose. The GOP rejects these qualities as weaknesses. Kindness & compassion have no place. Meanness & cruelty are rewarded. No democracy can succeed with these values

— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) April 18, 2023

Surprise, Surprise. The Racist Blames the Black Guy

Tucker Carlson is a despicable excuse for a human being. But you knew that already, didn't you? It's time to say it again though, after a rant he launched last night claiming that "Democrats are stoking race hate and violence."

The big picture is that Carlson is simply projecting...again. As Philip Bump documented, it is right wing news networks like Fox that are responsible for the "toxic mix of guns, concern over crime - and fear-mongering."

So what was Carlson so riled up about last night? Apparently some teens engaged in disruption and violence in Chicago last weekend. Carlson did his usual " this is the end of civilization" routine and then said this about the city's mayor-elect, Brandon Johnson:

[T[he new mayor of Chicago, who is an ideologue and a racist, understands that these stupid children are his militia. When they destroy what others built, he becomes more powerful. Their destruction has a political use, so he refuses to criticize them.

I'd like to believe that any sentient human being would know that is an outright dangerous/racist lie. But I can't be sure about Fox News viewers these days, so here is the mayor-elect's actual statement about the events last weekend:

“In no way do I condone the destructive activity we saw in the Loop and lakefront this weekend,” Johnson said in the statement. “It is unacceptable and has no place in our city. However, it is not constructive to demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities.”

Johnson, 47, said his administration would work to “create spaces for youth to gather safely and responsibly, under adult guidance and supervision, to ensure that every part of our city remains welcome for both residents and visitors.”

Apparently spring came to the Windy City last weekend and what has been a problematic cycle was repeated. 

Most Chicagoans treat the first warm days after a long, bitter winter as unofficial holidays from work and school, and teens have long flocked downtown to celebrate...

For years, the cycle would repeat – teens and young adults would flock downtown, dozens would be arrested and city officials and police leaders would vow to crackdown...

“Teens want to feel like they are part of this city and there is nothing wrong with that,” [Vondale] Singleton said. “But structure is needed. They go downtown because they feel safer there.”

But that was spoiled by a “few troublemakers,” tarnishing the image of Black teens in Chicago nationwide, Singleton said, thanks to headlines like “‘Teen Takeover’ terrorizes Chicago as hundreds of teenagers destroy property, attack tourists” from Fox News.

A local media outlet highlighted this story back in 2019.

On warm days, Chicago teenagers from all parts of the city like to head downtown to visit Millennium Park and Water Tower Place, especially if they have nothing else to do.

These teens are all looking for fun, of course. But for many, especially those from the city’s South and West sides, it’s also about finding their place in Chicago.

Of course, none of that matters to Carlson, who was not content to simply blame the mayor-elect. He took it a step farther.

Democrats approve of racial violence. They are stoking it everywhere. No, it's not your imagination. They want race hate and violence.

But it was how Carlson ended his little hate-fest that took my breath away (emphasis mine).

[T]he rioting this weekend in Chicago began in a place called Millennium Park. If that sounds familiar, you're not from the city. That's because Millennium Park - Grant Park is part of it - is the same place where Barack Obama gave his famous 2008 victory speech in which he promised a better future.

OBAMA: It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.

Change has come to America. Barack Obama was more prophetic than we knew. That was just 15 years ago, but today, we're seeing the change that Barack Obama brought to America. This is what it looks like.

For many of us, that celebration in Grant Park fifteen years ago represents one of the most hopeful moments of our lifetime. 

But Tucker Carlson confirmed his place with the racists who still haven't gotten over how triggered they are that this country elected its first African American president, who served with dignity, competence and grace for eight years. 

Don't anyone ever try to tell me that the confederate insurgency we're witnessing in this country right now isn't deeply rooted in that historic presidency!