December 2, 2024
In Suprise Move, President Biden Pardons Son
(Ed. note: Sometimes when I sit down to write these blog posts, I sift through pages and pages of news, wondering what I should write about. But last night, when the news alert came through on my phone, I announced out loud, “Guess I know what I’m writing about tomorrow.”)
Despite repeated statements that he would not do so, President Joe Biden last night issued a broad pardon for his son Hunter Biden. The younger Biden had been convicted in June of three separate felony charges related to paperwork he filed for purchasing a gun in 2018, and pleaded guilty to nine tax evasion charges in a separate case in September. Sentencing for all charges was due to happen later this month.
The President’s action has, of course, set off a firestorm of controversy on both sides of the political aisle, with some Republicans claiming this is the proof that their “Biden crime family” narrative was right all along. Meanwhile, some Democrats are fearing that this will give President-Elect (and, incidentally, 34-times convicted-but-not-yet-sentenced felon) Donald Trump political cover to remake the Department of Justice in any way he sees fit upon taking office. And speaking of…
In Surprise Move, Trump Nominates Patel for FBI
Back in 2017, then-President Trump fired FBI director James Comey, after Comey refused to say in remarks to Congress whether or not any members of Trump’s campaign were under investigation for collusion with Russia. Trump then named Christopher Wray as the new director for the agency. Typically, people in this position serve a 10-year term, to avoid political pressure or influence, and as part of this tradition, Biden kept Wray on upon taking office in 2020. However, Trump’s announcement last night of nominating staunch ally Kash Patel as FBI director seems to indicate that Wray’s remaining tenure will be cut short.
Patel is likely to face some stiff headwinds during confirmation hearings with the Senate, as he has made some eyebrow-raising statements about what he’d do if he were to run the FBI, including dismantling the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC, calling for a “comprehensive housecleaning” to dismantle the “deep state”, and going after “the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections”.
In Surprise Move, Journalists Flock to Bluesky
Since Elon Musk purchased social media micro-blogging site Twitter, he has made a series of controversial decisions to change how the site functions, including renaming it “X”. Journalists had noted that any tweets that contained external links seemed to have been de-prioritized, resulting in lower engagement — a suspicion that was confirmed yesterday by Musk himself. This, in addition to studies confirming that, since Musk’s takeover, use of hate speech on the site has significantly increased, has resulted in numerous journalists and news organizations jumping ship to competitor Bluesky.
I myself used to make extensive use of Twitter, and had multiple accounts on there, for both personal and semi-professional purposes. But between the increase in extreme right-wing “bot” accounts, and reports that Musk is using existing tweets to train AI systems, I’ve completely stopped posting on there. I haven’t yet deleted my accounts (partly for fear of losing years of my own content, partly for fear of losing any method of contacting some Internet friends), but I’m not far away from doing that. And I’ll definitely agree that I’ve found Bluesky to be a much more positive and less-toxic environment. Feel free to follow me on there!
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