Final debate: Did You Catch All the Malarkey?

 There is a word Joe Biden uses. It is quite old, even older than Biden. Here it is:

ma·​lar·​key | \ mə-ˈlär-kē  \

variants: or less commonly malarky

Definition of malarkey

: insincere or foolish talk : BUNKUM

It came up during the debate the two old timers had, running for president of the USA. One is a politician, the other one a former casino owner, TV reality show star and scam artist. 

The debate touched on a number of things. But it unfortunately did not get into the world of QAnon, Youtube, Redditt and all those forums that serve as echo chambers for various groups. Not that I wanted all of that, just a small amount of conspiracy theory would have spiced up a boring debate that just repeated the first debate.

But the story goes like this. Trump tried to arm wrestle the Ukrainian president into saying that Joe Biden made deals in Ukraine that earned him and his son a lot of money. Hunter Biden did actually earn a nice sum for a year or two on the board of Burisma, an energy company. So did the ex Polish president on the same board. You would call them poster boys for the company brochure as it was trying to clean up its act. The CEO of Burisma had tried to be the regulator (for Ukraine) that regulates the industry he owned.

Fast forward to 2020. Rudy Giuliani had been in Ukraine in 2019 sitting around in cafes to see if anyone would show up to sell real or fabricated info on Burisma and Hunter Biden. Apparently they did. There is a story that the wife of an ex mayor of Moscow sent 3 million to a company that Hunter was remotely connected to. Trump went off topic in the debate to try to bring up this "newly discovered" dirt. Giuliani concocted a story of a Hunter Biden laptop to explain how he came to be in possession of Hunter emails.

Donald Trump: (06:13)
Excuse me, [crosstalk 00:06:13] the laptop from hell.

Kristen Welker: (06:14)
President Trump, we’re talking about race right now. And I do want to stay on the issue of race. President Trump you-

Joe Biden: (06:20)
I have to respond to that. Because look-

Kristen Welker: (06:21)
Please, very quickly.

Joe Biden: (06:22)
There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plant. They have said that this has all the … five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him and his good friend, Rudy Giuliani.

Donald Trump: (06:44)
You mean the laptop is now another Russia, Russia, Russia hoax? You got to be kidding me-

Joe Biden: (06:51)
That’s exactly what was told.

Donald Trump: (06:51)
This is where he’s going. The laptop is Russia, Russia, Russia?

Kristen Welker: (06:55)
Gentlemen, I want to stay on the issue of race.

Donald Trump: (06:56)
You have to be kidding, here we go again with the Russia. Boy, oh, boy.

Kristen Welker: (06:59)
We’re going to continue on the issue of race.

Biden did use the word malarkey once later in the debate. It came up when Trump decided China is paying us now. It had to do with steel tariffs.

Donald Trump: (12:06)
And now we have a steel industry.

Kristen Welker: (12:07)
Okay. Vice President Biden, your response, please.

Joe Biden: (12:09)
My response is, look, there’s a reason why he’s bringing up all this malarkey. There’s a reason for it. He doesn’t want to talk about the substantive issues. It’s not about his family and my family. It’s about your family, and your family’s hurting badly. If you’re a middle-class family, you’re getting hurt badly right now. 

There was one other spot that caught my eye. I had not heard anything about all the money Joe and his brother made in Iraq. But the election is soon and I think that story will never resurface. A quick Google gave me the info that James Biden was involved with a sketchy hedge fund and with building houses in Iraq after the war. Yes, James and Hunter were businessmen who took up many risky business deals and often failed. There is no real evidence of any other gain from Joe than Hunter getting a sweet deal as a board member simply by using the Biden name.

Donald Trump: (05:52)
… that you’ve done and the kind of monies that your family has taken, I mean, your brother made money in Iraq-

Kristen Welker: (05:58)
Let me…

Donald Trump: (05:58)
… millions of dollars. Your other brother made a fortune, and it’s all through you, Joe. And they say you get some of it. And you do live very well, you have houses all over the place. You live very well.