RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week Sept. 17 to Sept. 23, 2023 In RealClearInvestigations and on leefang.com, Lee Fang unpacks how hired spinmeisters constructed a careful image of Hunter Biden’s business ventures, an effort aided by allies in the press who rarely challenged or investigated the false claims. Emails from Hunter's abandoned laptop show that the consultants pushed to shape coverage with reporters from the New York Times, Time, the Wall Street Journal and the AP. The emails reveal that Hunter's team devised responses about his work with Ukrainian energy firm Burisma that were, at best, misleading and, at worst, outright falsehoods. Consultants for Burisma, including Ryan Toohey of FTI Consulting and Heather King, a partner at the law firm Boies, Schiller, & Flexner, where Hunter worked as counsel, strategized over how to respond to Michael Scherer, a reporter then with Time and now with the Washington Post. It was agreed to deflect Scherer’s most direct questions and obfuscate the true intent of Burisma’s attempts to sway U.S. government officials. In many cases, Hunter’s associates cast him as simply an auditor with a special focus on renewable energy sourced from geothermal vents. That was the strategy in response to an inquiry from Stephen Braun, a reporter for the Associated Press: “Mr. Biden will not lobby on behalf of Burisma.” In internal emails, one lobbyist reiterated the plan to provide Braun with “minimum information.” In one email, James Risen of the New York Times asked, "What lobbying activities is the company engaged in the US?" Although Risen identified Hunter as "a former Washington lobbyist," he accepted the denial that no lobbying was involved. In RealClearInvestigations, Paul Sperry reports that newly emerged evidence has exposed Hunter Biden’s memoir as a likely exercise in spin rather than truth-telling, especially concerning his father’s role in his foreign business dealings, which are now the subject of a House impeachment inquiry: In a raft of glowing reviews, the 2019 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” was celebrated in major media as “unflinchingly honest” and a “harrowing, relentless and a determined exercise in trying to seize his own narrative from the clutches of the Republicans and the press.” But in the years since, testimony from a former business partner, Devon Archer, and newly disclosed emails indicate the Bidens distorted the truth to create a politically convenient narrative and protect the family. On page 118, for example, Hunter writes that after accompanying then-Vice President Joe Biden to China on Air Force Two in 2013, he merely introduced his father to a well-connected Chinese investor. But Archer told a different story to U.S. lawmakers during a deposition this year. “Jonathan Li and [Vice] President Biden had coffee,” Archer said, suggesting there may have been talk about their business relationship. Li would later offer Hunter a 10% stake worth potentially millions in a Chinese investment fund. Archer’s testimony included other details ignored or distorted in the memoir. For example, Hunter arranged for his father to write letters of recommendation for Li’s son and daughter to Ivy League colleges. Archer spoke under oath, subject to prosecution for perjury. Hunter, in contrast, was under no such legal peril while writing his manuscript. But he may face a House subpoena now. Waste of the Day by Adam Andrzejewski, Open the Books Pandemic's All Over but the Spending, RCI Fla. Taken for Ride in Disney Tax District, RCI Flawed Accounting to the Tune of $66B, RCI When Congress Staff Pay Rose 270%, RCI Red Ink After LA Mansion Tax, RCI Biden, Trump and the Beltway Ex-Agent Says FBI Shut Down Biden Informant in 2020, Just the News Agents Say Feds Foiled Probe of '20 Biden Campaign, Just the News Frigid Ties Between Joe Biden and AG Garland, Wall Street Journal Ray Epps Charged in Connection With Jan. 6 Riot, Associated Press The Scorched-Earth Activist Targeting the Bidens, Washington Post Revolving Door Between DEA and Big Pharma, AP Plum Jobs for Signers of Misleading Biden Laptop Letter, Just the News 'Squad' Husbands Make Millions as Wives Rip Capitalism, Washington Free Beacon DOJ Targets Elon Musk Perks at Tesla Going Back Years, Wall Street Journal Other Noteworthy Articles and Series A Texas land developer has established a sprawling settlement north of Houston where thousands of illegal immigrants are believed to have settled, raising concerns that the development 400 miles in the interior of the United States could become a strategic asset for cartels. This article reports that houses on the ground fly the flags of foreign countries and many homes display their addresses on spray painted pieces of plywood: Colony Ridge, owned and operated by developer William “Trey” Harris, is rapidly expanding, at least in part due to a financing arrangement that makes it possible for illegal aliens to buy land deep in the heart of Texas. While traditional financing methods require credit ratings and proof of income, Todd Bensman, a National Security Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Daily Wire that buyers at Colony Ridge are able to circumvent the usual requirements, even dodging the need to provide a Social Security number. … Members of law enforcement in the area explained that members of the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels had invested in Colony Ridge properties early on in order to set up safe houses for human and drug smuggling operations, Bensman reports. In a separate article, the Los Angeles Times reports on research published in the journal Science that concludes drug cartels are Mexico’s fifth largest employer, with an estimated 175,000 people on the payroll. Though most identified with the drug trade, the “cartels long ago branched beyond drug trafficking into other lucrative rackets, including extortion, kidnapping, fuel theft and migrant smuggling. That implies a vast economy – and a huge labor force.” The Biden administration’s efforts to crack down on dissenting views regarding vaccines is facing strong legal and populist headwinds. This article reports that vaccine skepticism on the right as well as the left – symbolized by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s challenge to Biden for the presidency – has “paralyzed” the administration, which has “no comprehensive plan for countering a movement that’s steadily expanded its influence on the president’s watch”: Biden officials have felt handcuffed for the past two years by a Republican lawsuit over the administration’s initial attempt to clamp down on anti-vaxxers, who alleged the White House violated the First Amendment in encouraging social media companies to crack down on anti-vaccine posts. That suit, they believe, has limited their ability to police disinformation online. In addition, Congress is clawing back Covid funds once earmarked for vaccine education and outreach. And Biden himself has opted to largely ignore Kennedy’s campaign, concluding there’s no political benefit to engaging with the increasingly longshot challenger or his conspiratorial views. From the Annals of Holy Moley, this article reports that after two decades in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting insurgents and terrorist groups who used guerrilla-style tactics, the U.S. armed forces have a new focus: Potential war with other great nations with large militaries, such as Russia and China. It is the sort of combat the U.S. has not engaged in since the Korean conflict of the 1950s. This article, which details the training of soldiers with strong prose and photographs, reports: As alarming as it may sound, every branch of the Defense Department is currently undergoing a major restructuring, reevaluating doctrine, weaponry, tactics, and training to prepare for just this kind of war. … In practice, that means thousands of soldiers operating in synchronicity to deliver overwhelming firepower. And in an era of drones and other high-tech surveillance assets to help adversaries deliver fire at long range, soldiers can’t expect to operate out of combat outposts or forward operating bases as they did in Iraq, where they could count on a warm bed and hot food more often than not. In contrast, soldiers can expect extended periods in the field, living out of a rucksack, dispersed and camouflaged in dug-in fighting positions before massing to attack. In a separate article, the Intercept reports that the U.S. defense budget is so large and unwieldy, that the Pentagon is using artificial intelligence just to figure out its own policies: “The fact that they have to go to such extraordinary measures to understand what their own policies are is an indictment of how they operate,” said William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and expert on the defense budget. “It’s kind of similar to the problem with the budget as a whole: They don’t make tough decisions, they just layer on more policies, more weapons systems, more spending. Between the Pentagon and Congress, they’re not really getting rid of old stuff, they’re just adding more.” A Chinese spy balloon’s flight over the continental United States last February threw a spotlight on the expanding and highly secretive spy-versus-spy contest between the United States and China. The balloon crisis, this article reports, was a small part of a much larger, aggressive and increasingly brazen Chinese espionage effort. At the same time, the U.S. is increasing its ability to collect information on China: The main efforts on both sides are aimed at answering the two most difficult questions: What are the intentions of leaders in the rival nation, and what military and technological capabilities do they command? American officials, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss espionage, have stressed in interviews throughout the year the magnitude of the challenge. The C.I.A. is focusing on Mr. Xi himself, and in particular his intentions regarding Taiwan. The F.B.I.’s counterintelligence task forces across the nation have intensified their hunt for Chinese efforts to recruit spies inside the United States. U.S. agents have identified a dozen penetrations by Chinese citizens of military bases on American soil in the last 12 months. … Taken together, U.S. officials say, China’s efforts reach across every facet of national security, diplomacy and advanced commercial technology in the United States and partner nations. This article also reports that the CIA and the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency have set up new centers focused on spying on China, honing their capabilities to intercept electronic communications, including using spy planes off China’s coast. In a separate article, Reuters reports that the U.S. is conducting the biggest reconstruction of America’s anti-submarine spy program since the end of the Cold War: The revival of the multibillion-dollar effort, known as the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS), comes as China has ramped up military exercises around Taiwan, heightening concerns about a potential conflict over the democratically ruled territory, which Beijing wants brought under its control. Most companies used to do everything they could to avoid political controversies that might alienate potential customers. No longer, as everything in the United States, including where you shop for socks and leggings, seems to have been given a political edge. In many cases, major brands have endorsed progressive values in the culture war. But now, this article reports, there is a dual backlash: as some conservative consumers boycott companies for their politics, other businesses are reaching out to these disaffected customers. Companies like Anheuser-Busch and Target have recently faced backlash from the right over marketing and advertising decisions that were seen as a liberal Trojan horse: Anheuser Busch for a transgender influencer’s promotion of Bud Light and Target for its Pride Month displays. … [Meanwhile], Unitus is one of a growing number of companies – from clothing retailers to pet care businesses – trying to appeal to those who have recoiled from what they see as corporate America pushing a progressive, liberal agenda. Unitus is featured on PublicSq., an online marketplace aimed at promoting companies it calls “pro-life,” “pro-family” and “pro-freedom.” |