Let’s examine Biden’s innermost feelings: The digital front page of The New York Times This morning led with an article titled “How Biden Changed His Mind on Pardoning Hunter.”

“The threat of a Trump administration focused on retaliation and his son’s looming convictions have prompted the president to abandon his promise not to get involved in Hunter Biden’s legal troubles,” the caption reads – the type of sympathetic representation that I find hard to imagine. extended to Donald Trump if he did something similar.

To go back: Sunday evening, Joe Biden published a general pardon for his son, Hunter, legally let him get away with it not just for the somewhat silly accusations about guns lately, but for all the crimes he may have committed between January 1, 2014 and December 1, 2024. (“Throughout my entire career, I have followed one simple principle: Just tell the American people the truth,” wrote Biden, who I think, did not intend to be funny, in the statement announcing the pardon “They will be fair.”)

There are two problems here: the first is that forgiveness does not only cover stupid accusations– lying about drug use when purchasing a gun, a crime that libertarians don’t really consider a crime, and owning a gun despite being an “unlawful user” of one a “controlled substance” – but that also covers Hunter’s influence peddling. commercial relations in Ukraine. (He begin (he was doing business consulting/serving on the board of directors of the Ukrainian company Burisma in 2014, when the pardon began, for informed observers.) The second is that Joe Biden repeatedly lied about this grace, claiming again and again that he didn’t believe anyone. , not to mention his own son, to be above the law.

Here is a beautiful supercut from Biden’s own words and the credulity of the servile media:

“It was Hunter Biden’s impending convictions on federal gun and tax charges, scheduled for later this month, that gave Mr. Biden the final push,” to write Katie Rogers and Glenn Thrush, apparently friendly, for The New York Times. “A pardon was one thing he could do for a troubled son, a recovering drug addict who he said had been subjected to years of public suffering.…Several people close to Mr. Biden said the decision created a conflict between two fundamental identities: the anxious. father trying to protect his son and the president who takes pride in upholding his principles. »

It’s no exaggeration to say that mainstream publications wouldn’t extend nearly the same degree of understanding and benefit of the doubt to Trump if he did the same. And Biden, whom much of the press views as a good guy doing his best, made a decision that sacrificed standards and trust in the system for the sake of his failed child. It’s a fitting end to an administration that has often misled the American people.

At least now Hunter can to focus on his art.

Supreme Court takes on Tennessee’s gender transition law: Tomorrow the court hear a challenge to a Tennessee law that prohibits medical providers from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgery to minors undergoing gender transition. Importantly, the law allows minors to receive some of these treatments if the underlying condition being treated is not gender dysphoria.

The question that judges ask themselves is “whether the law makes distinctions based on sex”. by A Times writing. “If it does, a demanding form of judicial review – ‘high scrutiny’ – comes into play. If it doesn’t, Tennessee’s law will almost certainly survive.” Interestingly, “the justices declined to consider an issue that might have pleased some of its conservative members: whether parents have a constitutional right to make medical decisions on behalf of their children.” In other words, the judges only chose to consider the Equal Protection Clause claim.

“If, for example, a state prohibits an adolescent assigned female at birth from receiving testosterone to live as a man, but allows an adolescent assigned male at birth to receive the same treatment, the State relied on a sex-based classification – and must therefore justify its law under intense scrutiny,” writing the Solicitor General of the United States, Elizabeth Prelogar, in the brief submitted to the Court. (The Biden administration intervened in this case, siding with the three families and the doctor who are suing the state of Tennessee.)

Scenes from New York: I took my son to the American Museum of Natural History over the holidays and came across this nonsense. I find it crazy that Paul Ehrlich, whose 1968 work The demographic bomb warned of all the terrible things that would await us with population growth, is not literally considered by everyone to be a total idiot, let alone a real disappointment.

QUICK SHOTS

• IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! It’s the old Webathon, when we harass you, sweet angels, for money (or Bitcoin). Here’s the deal: if you like Reason-or if you hate us, but you happen to like this newsletter here, written by your daughter Liz – please consider empty your pockets of spare change. If you TO DO make a donationand the reason is ME (or THIS NEWSLETTER HERE YOU ARE READING), give me a solid and mention it to the Big Boss in the comments section of your donation. Every donation means a lot to us, no matter how small, and it is a true honor to be able to do this work day in and day out. Your support makes this possible!

• Pivot to Nevada?

• The Syrian civil war is mad againafter a break in fighting of around four years. “Rebel forces have launched their biggest offensive against the Syrian government in years,” reports the BBC. “They captured much of the territory in the northwest of the country, including most of the second city of Aleppo, after the Syrian army quickly withdrew its troops. The rebels are now clashing with the army near the central town of Hama, while Russia, the government’s key ally, carries out airstrikes against them. »

• British MPs I just voted legalize assisted suicide for people with six months or less to live. The bill still needs to be approved by the House of Lords, but it appears very likely that it will pass. It is a travesty for people concerned with preserving a culture of life, but also for those who worry about how the incentives inherent in socialized medicine will cause the state to have a vested interest in inducing people to get rid of themselves.

• Look at it last I’m just asking questions with Vinay Prasad. We talk seed oils, vaccines, raw milk, COVID policy and much more.

• “EspaceX is in talks to sell insider shares that could increase the value of Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite company to around $350 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. reports Bloomberg. “This would represent a significant premium to a previously considered valuation of $255 billion as reported by Bloomberg News and other media outlets last month. It would also cement SpaceX’s status as the world’s most valuable private startup. SpaceX was last valued at approximately 210 billion dollars in a tender offer earlier this year.

• Fascinating thread on identity theft, government benefits and homelessness:

The position Just a merciful father appeared first on Raison.com.