Hunter Biden sold art to a Democratic donor who Joe Biden named to a commission

[Matty]

https://www.businessinsider.com/hunter-biden-joe-artwork-berges-gallery-elizabeth-hirsh-naftali-2023-7?utmSource=twitter&utmContent=referral&utmTerm=topbar&referrer=twitter

https://twitter.com/stevennelson10/status/1683606475753635841

[emailking]

Is the implication that Naftali bought a seat on the Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad? It calls it prestigious although I haven't heard of it. It also says it's not clear if the sale was before or after the appointment.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Wait till these guys learn how the ambassadorships are filled.

[Anti-Trump Truth Socialite JD Vance Enjoying Juror]

This “prestigious commission” which I’ve never heard of doesn’t even pay its members. I figured the allegation here was that this person de facto bribed their way into a sinecure job through Hunter Biden, but it’s an unpaid position lol.

[DrScholl]

Who cares? You keep digging for a bombshell and coming up with zero. This is pathetic and sad.

[PSOL]

Classic money laundering

[Santander]

This “prestigious commission” which I’ve never heard of doesn’t even pay its members. I figured the allegation here was that this person de facto bribed their way into a sinecure job through Hunter Biden, but it’s an unpaid position lol.

If you can bribe donate spend tens or hundreds of thousands on art from a crack addict no name artist, it's likely you're not desperate for a salary.

[ProudModerate2]

And ...

[Hermit For Peace]

At this point nothing Hunter Biden has done compares to all the things Trump has done. Come up with something as egregious as Trump's shenanigans and maybe you'll have something to talk about.

[Roronoa D. Law]

Where did Kushner get a billion dollars from? Since we want play that game.

[Benjamin Frank]

This “prestigious commission” which I’ve never heard of doesn’t even pay its members. I figured the allegation here was that this person de facto bribed their way into a sinecure job through Hunter Biden, but it’s an unpaid position lol.

Well, that doesn't mean there aren't ways to make money off of the position, if that's the aim. Often the aim though is not financial but access to power or a feeling of having power simply for its own sake.

If we take this seriously, I think these are a couple obvious questions:
1.Is this the only person who bought Hunter Biden's paintings who got appointed to something in the Administration. If so, seems a bit hard to believe the buying of Hunter Biden's paintings had anything to do with it, especially if:

2.Naftali made other donations to the Biden campaign. So, has she made other donations? See Landslide Lydon's comment on buying an ambassadorship.

It's hard to take this as serious reporting if questions like those aren't answered.

[Ferguson97]

In 2021, when a New York art gallery debuted Hunter Biden's paintings with asking prices as high as $500,000, the White House said that Hunter Biden's team had a process for carefully vetting buyers, and that their identities were known only to the gallery, and not to Hunter Biden himself.

Non-story.

[Badger]

Classic money laundering

How?

[Santander]

Classic money laundering

How?

Hunter provides access, donor "buys" his artwork.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Wow, just wait until they hear about the guy who appointed his son-in-law and daughter to government positions in the White House, twaived the need for security clearance after the son-in-law failed his background checks, and then sat back and watched the son-in-law get paid billions by the people he worked with while in government. Republicans would never let anyone like that near the White House!

Well, unless they had an (R) after their name. 

[ingemann]

While this is deeply problematic and a sign of a long term problem in American governance, it’s kind of overshadowed by the insane level corruption and grifting by the last president and his family.

[Benjamin Frank]

While this is deeply problematic and a sign of a long term problem in American governance, it’s kind of overshadowed by the insane level corruption and grifting by the last president and his family.

Given that there's no evidence presented here that ties the buying of the painting to the receiving of the position, the only problem presented here is the amount of money in politics and the access it provides. This is a presently unfixable problem in American governance due to its Supreme Court and its ruling in Citizen's United.

[Jerseyan]

Funny enough, I've heard of this commission before because the last time it was in the news, Trump was being accused of appointing a white supremacist to it.

Regardless, I'm not even sure there's smoke here. But I'm sure conservatives will make a big deal about it since it involves Hunter Biden.

[Neo-Malthusian Misanthrope]

More and more we realize that James Garfield died for nothing

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

More and more we realize that James Garfield died for nothing

Before the professionalization of the civil service, you literally had guys showing up to the Willard Hotel and badgering President Grant to give them jobs while he was trying to enjoy an evening whiskey and cigar.

The civil service reforms Chester Alan Arthur implemented were very important and arguably should just be extended to more federal positions.

Ex. It is embarrassing and disrespectful to other countries that so many of our ambassadors are generic rich people or politicians who do not speak the country's language and have zero substantive knowledge of it.

There should be a requirement that political appointees to ambassadorships have to go through the same training FSOs do and should have to take a test to demonstrate at least a basic command of the country's official language.

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

I for one think corruption is bad no matter who does it

not to equivocate between Trump and Biden, obviously Trump's is worse, but still

[Santander]

Ex. It is embarrassing and disrespectful to other countries that so many of our ambassadors are generic rich people or politicians who do not speak the country's language and have zero substantive knowledge of it.

There should be a requirement that political appointees to ambassadorships have to go through the same training FSOs do and should have to take a test to demonstrate at least a basic command of the country's official language.

It can be embarrassing when they say or do stupid things, but it is not inherently disrespectful. Political appointees overwhelmingly get cushy gigs in friendly countries where they have few real responsibilities other than attending events and hosting parties, not unlike their rest of world counterparts. Even in cases where political appointees go to more sensitive posts like China, guys like Jon Huntsman, Max Baucus or Terry Branstad are arguably better equipped to handle the heat than a career FSO.

What is embarrassing is having vast numbers of unfilled ambassadorships due to political dysfunction or having lunatics like John Bolton (not a career FSO, but someone with extensive State Department experience) representing the US abroad.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Lol Vaccinated Bear alert he is Vaccinated Bear you told us as Vaccinated Bear that Biden had a 41 percentage pts Approvals and I told you already it was a 303 map Vaccinated Bear threaf

[Benjamin Frank]

Ex. It is embarrassing and disrespectful to other countries that so many of our ambassadors are generic rich people or politicians who do not speak the country's language and have zero substantive knowledge of it.

There should be a requirement that political appointees to ambassadorships have to go through the same training FSOs do and should have to take a test to demonstrate at least a basic command of the country's official language.

It can be embarrassing when they say or do stupid things, but it is not inherently disrespectful. Political appointees overwhelmingly get cushy gigs in friendly countries where they have few real responsibilities other than attending events and hosting parties, not unlike their rest of world counterparts. Even in cases where political appointees go to more sensitive posts like China, guys like Jon Huntsman, Max Baucus or Terry Branstad are arguably better equipped to handle the heat than a career FSO.

What is embarrassing is having vast numbers of unfilled ambassadorships due to political dysfunction or having lunatics like John Bolton (not a career FSO, but someone with extensive State Department experience) representing the US abroad.

China apparently has a preference for elected politicians as Ambassadors to China.

[Badger]

Classic money laundering

How?

Hunter provides access, donor "buys" his artwork.

Yes, paying top dollar for that - checks notes - unpaid here to for unknown government art Commission job.

Perhaps unseemly if this is some millionaires bid to land some no pay fancy schmancy job, but honestly this is rather yawn inducing

Wait till these guys learn how the ambassadorships are filled.