When We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know

No one should be confident in their opinion of the Hunter Biden allegations.

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President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden watch fireworks on the South Lawn of the White House on July 4, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Hey,

I often get asked, “Do you really want to eat that whole thing?” But that’s not important right now.

I also get asked why I haven’t written much about the Biden corruption allegations—or the debunking of the Biden allegations.

My short answer is, I don’t know who’s right—or whether anyone is. That’s the funny thing about partisan binaries. People think that if one side says X and the other side says not X, one of them has to be right. Very often both are wrong, or a little right, or entirely right based on bad facts, or, well you get the point. 

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  1. Kgfroehle

    Man, I was with Jonah (mostly : sometimes I take a nap) until I hit the "opinion journalism" line. Then I coughed up my TikTak and changed my Depends. Maybe he's never read The Columbus Dispatch editorials? Or, heck, anything in the rag? It's all Opinion Journalism.

    OK, if the operative word is "good", then fair enough. Like "good" anything. And how often do we see that? Check Beer Advocate for dissenting opinions. Judiciously rendered.

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  2. Mkcannady

    “Cacophony of the confident” sums up perfectly a serous problem with today’s journalism and punditry.

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    1. Tplarkin

      It's a wonderful turn of phrase, "cacophony of the confident", and should be repeated far and wide.

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  3. Rawkki54

    The usual. Why use five words when a column will do?

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  4. Steve

    I am lazy and discussted with the stupidity of our politics. That's why I subscribe here. For you folks get to get through the BS and nonsense to present issues in an even handed way.

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  5. Vaddeman

    For some reason, each time I read 'cable news' it sounded like cabal news in my head.

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  6. Betsybowditch

    During the War on Terror, the focus had to be on that. For a serious candidate to get into someone’s relative’s business dealings would have appeared churlish. Ditto for the 2008 economic meltdown. I found it doubtful that Obama had opposition research done on any of Mitt Romney’s sons’ business dealings and Romney wasn’t a creature of Washington anyway.

    But Trump’s claim he would "drain the swamp," conveniently left undefined, made career politician like Joe Biden an attractive target. His son Hunter's business dealings reek of trading on the family name. Most of my friends who voted for Biden and expect to vote for him again would say, “Yeah, but he's simply following a well-trod path to wealth. Moreover, he’s a private citizen." To us, that makes Clarence Thomas, a Supreme Court justice, cashing in on his position worse.

    I find it dubious that there’s a smoking gun to Joe Biden, however, unsavory the details are regarding Hunter’s dealings with the representatives of dictators and autocrats. We now have retired military picking up extra retirement cash advising them. This is the world we live in where a "grab it while you can" mentality is widespread and it our hyper partisan political culture you look the other way on your own.

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  7. Bill

    I would like to add one more comment about attorneys lying to the Court. This is from the Oath of Attorney, which every new lawyer must take before being admitted to the Bar:
    "I will not counsel, or maintain any suit, or proceeding, which shall appear to me to be unjust or any defense except as I believe to be honestly debatable under the law, unless it is in defense of a person charged with a public offense. I will employ for the purpose of maintaining the causes confided to me only those means consistent with truth and honor. I will never seek to mislead the judge or jury by any artifice or false statement."
    The phrase "unless it is in defense of a person charged with a public offense." means a criminal case where the defendant, if convicted, could be deprived of life, property, or freedom. In other words, an attorney representing a criminal defendant must offer a competent defense even if the attorney knows his client is a lying scumbag and guilty as hell. Because our system is adversarial, and it's up to the prosecution to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

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  8. Bill

    I would like to add something about Benghazi. Back in the Obama administration, James Maddis gave a talk to what was quaintly named "Mainstream Republicans" in Tri-Cities, Washington. I was in attendance. When Benghazi happened, Mattis was the commanding officer of CENTCOM. But at the time he spoke to us, he had been fired by Obama and was retired. He was asked by a member of the audience to comment on Benghazi and Hillary Clinton's role in it. He made three points that I remember well,
    1. He had great admiration for Chris Stevens, the ambassador who was killed there.
    2. Ambassador Stevens had been warned not to travel to Benghazi, but he did so anyway for reasons Mattis respected.
    3. By the time he or anyone else knew what was going on, it was all over.

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  9. Jchrisk

    Great post.

    "I’ve come to fall in love with the judiciary"

    This is how I found The Dispatch: a weird headline called "Against David French-ism" catches my eye (a little late) and I follow it's subject to Advisory Opinions. I was already frustrated with the wild claims both sides make on every side of every public debate. Knowing many but not all were false, and finding it more and more difficult to determine truth from fiction. But I found a refreshing forum in the judiciary process through Advisory Opinions, for all the reasons Jonah states in this last section. Eventually followed on to The Dispatch.

    Using the judiciary as a filter for the BS is a very valuable tool I learned here. I hope the judiciary can maintain its integrity, when so many other institutions fall short these days.

    Love The Dispatch, Love AO. Thank you for all of it and keep going!

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  10. Wsampson

    The hunter thing is on-brand republican strategy. Cry about the evils of witch hunts while you do them over and over. Of the scandals you mention there are few that had anything. the good news is that there is still hope that Trump and the other sedition republicans in congress may still be held accountable.

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