The Absurdity of the Hunter Biden Defamation Case
Posted By: Beardo, 7/13/2026 5:45:51 PM
I have taught torts, including defamation for over 30 years, but I have never seen the like of the Hunter Biden defamation case. The defendant made defamatory statements and then just refused to appear. That led to an equally bizarre $1.7 million award by U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson of the Central District of California to Biden, consisting of just $1 in nominal damages and the rest in punitive damages. Here is the most interesting line of the opinion: “the damage to Plaintiff’s reputation is difficult to calculate.” It may be the single greatest understatement in the history of judicial opinions.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "Beardo"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Most Recent Articles posted by
Beardo"
I have taught torts, including defamation for over 30 years, but I have never seen the like of the Hunter Biden defamation case. The defendant made defamatory statements and then just refused to appear. That led to an equally bizarre $1.7 million award by U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson of the Central District of California to Biden, consisting of just $1 in nominal damages and the rest in punitive damages. Here is the most interesting line of the opinion: “the damage to Plaintiff’s reputation is difficult to calculate.” It may be the single greatest understatement in the history of judicial opinions.
This Massachusetts Town Ended Its Shotspotter
Program to 'Protect Migrants,' Now a Man
Is Dead 5 replies
Program to 'Protect Migrants,' Now a Man
Is Dead 5 replies
Back in May, the Cambridge, MA City Council voted to end the city's participation in the ShotSpotter program, a network of microphones that alert authorities to gunshots. It not only helps police catch criminals, it helps first responders locate and save the lives of victims.
The woke Leftists on the City Council did it to protect migrants and Black community members. (snip) Now a Cambridge man is dead, because he was shot and police weren't called for an hour. Xavier Bautista was engaged to be married and had a five-year-old son. He was 32 years old and worked for the Cambridge Department of Public Works.
Earlier this week, we told you how a gay cruise operated by Atlantis Events was denied docking in Turkey precisely because the passengers are gay men. The cruise, which left from Athens on July 5, said it would dock in Cairo, Egypt, instead.
There's just one problem: Egypt denied them, too. (snip) The Scarlet Lady's 2,000 passengers, including the Broadway performer Patti LuPone, woke on Thursday morning to find a note placed under their cabin doors informing them that the ship was urgently looking for alternative ports.
'Early this morning, we were informed that Scarlet Lady has been denied entry into Egyptian waters,
Two teenage boys who identify as girls withdrew their lawsuit in New Hampshire following a Supreme Court ruling that upheld state bans on boys competing in girls' sports.
Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle filed lawsuits against New Hampshire's ban on males competing on female sports teams, and in 2024, they amended their complaint to include a challenge to Trump's executive order last year that aimed to protect females from having to compete against males in sports, the Associated Press reported.
A federal judge had granted a court order that allowed the boys to compete against girls while the case proceeded.
Venezuela, as an oil-producing country, appears to be making its comeback as the Trump administration’s efforts to reform the country’s oil law come to fruition.
The South American country appeared to take another big step in that effort this week when acting President Delcy Rodriguez signed regulations reforming Venezuela's main oil law.
Under the new regulations, the country’s national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), effectively loses control of Venezuela’s vast oil resources.
Under the former communist regime, the country’s oil industry (snip) was producing less than 600,000 barrels of oil a day, (snip) This past May, it was producing nearly 1.2 million barrels of oil per day.
Nearly seven years ago, a campus speech hosted by conservative students featuring famed economist Arthur Laffer abruptly ended as vocal leftwing protesters interrupted his talk and campus police got involved.
Next week, a jury is scheduled to decide if that shutdown in November 2019 was a violation of students’ First Amendment and equal protection rights. (snip) As Young America’s Foundation has previously stated about the controversy: “Instead of removing the disruptors, the university chose to escort Laffer out of his own lecture. The university’s use of a heckler’s veto violates the students’ constitutional rights.”
A new report sparked backlash over the rapid growth of the United Kingdom’s Muslim population.
Muhammad was the top baby name in England and Wales in 2025, the Office for National Statistics posted Thursday. This marks the third year in a row that name topped the charts.
“‘Muhammad’ has comfortably topped the list for the most popular boy name for the third year running,” Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe posted. “You can call me Islamophobic, I really don’t care … This is awful and demonstrates the rapidly changing demographics of our country.”
Former Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan was spared from prison Wednesday for ushering a Mexican defendant through her jury room door as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sought to arrest him in a courthouse hallway.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman fined her $5,000, describing the case as a situation where an otherwise good person, upset by immigration policies in this country, made a bad decision in the moment.
Disgraced Former Milwaukee Judge Hannah
Dugan Was Sentenced Today, and It's a
Miscarriage of Justice 7 replies
Dugan Was Sentenced Today, and It's a
Miscarriage of Justice 7 replies
Disgraced former Milwaukee County Judge Hannah was found guilty in December of one charge of felony obstruction for her role in aiding an illegal alien named Eduardo Flores-Ruiz with evading ICE after Flores-Ruiz appeared in Dugan's courtroom on domestic violence charges.
Before her trial, Dugan had argued she enjoyed judicial immunity for her acts. But after she was convicted, her defense team tried to get the verdict thrown out, then they argued she deserved another trial or a dismissal of the guilty verdict. Federal Judge Lynn Adelmann denied both of those motions, but rescheduled Dugan's June 3 sentencing to today.
A high school in Northern California is pushing back on Gov. Gavin Newsom's latest law that forced it to remove its "Indians" mascot on Wednesday.
In 2024, Newsom signed into law an extension of the California Racial Mascot Act, which prohibits public schools from using "any derogatory Native American term, as defined, as a school or athletic team name, mascot, or nickname" except for schools operated by an Indian tribe or tribal organization or with consent from a federally recognized tribe.
The law officially went into effect on Wednesday, leading Marysville High School to retire its "Indians" mascot after nearly 100 years.
The Smithsonian's Patriotism Problem
15 replies
"Warning: The exhibits in this museum were prepared by people who don't want you to love your country." (snip) Yet Anthea Hartig, director of the museum today, has other priorities, including using history as a "prime tool of social justice."
Hartig is white, but rather than punishing herself for her "privilege," she's trying to lay a guilt trip on the whole country, using taxpayer dollars to "problematize" the history she's supposed to preserve.
(snip) can the public trust that responsibility to someone like Hartig, who claims to have been "propped up ... by the cushions of whiteness and the pillows of the bourgeoisie"?
In 1997, the United States quietly paid a former Soviet republic tens of millions of dollars to buy an entire fighter regiment — not to fly it, but to keep it away from Iran, and to take it apart. The Moldova deal is remembered as one of the Pentagon’s cleanest nonproliferation coups, and in one sense it was: the intelligence haul shaped American weapons for a decade.
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
WASHINGTON — Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who was elected to the Senate in 2003 and was a close political ally of President Donald Trump, has died, his office confirmed early Sunday. He was 71.
Graham died Saturday night “from a brief and sudden illness,” his office said in a statement.
“Senator Graham’s family appreciates prayers at this time and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period,” the statement continued.
Graham was chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and was seeking a fifth six-year Senate term in November. He was one of the most well-known members of the chamber
Canadian government APOLOGIZES for creating
national parks, calls them a 'colonial injustice' 27 replies
national parks, calls them a 'colonial injustice' 27 replies
The country of Canada has effectively apologized for the system of national parks that it has developed, with the national parks agency saying that the existence of the parks themselves represents "colonial injustice" against those who are Indigenous.
The internal report known as the Evaluation of the Indigenous Guardians Initiative Internal Review, stated, “For millennia Indigenous people have cultivated reciprocal relationships with land, water and ice guided by cultural practices, values and knowledge systems," as reported by the Toronto Sun.
"Beginning in the 19th century the development of national parks and protected areas in Canada disrupted these relationships through exclusion and colonial injustices,"
In the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre that left 11 Israeli coaches and athletes dead at the hands of Black September terrorists (bonus question: the Palestinians and which other nation were involved in "Black September?"), Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir unleashed Operation Spring of Youth, a raid on Palestine Liberation Organization camps in Lebanon that killed over 50 terrorists. She also went after the Munich massacre organizers. Operation Wrath of God unleashed Mossad hit squads on Black September terrorists cowering in Europe, under the illusion they were safe there. This operation continued until its final hit on February 14, 1988, in Cyprus. Between nine and 11 key
Mitch McConnell assures Kentuckians of
ongoing Senate work during recovery from
fall, pneumonia 19 replies
ongoing Senate work during recovery from
fall, pneumonia 19 replies
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Senator Mitch McConnell said he is continuing to recover after a recent fall and a mild case of pneumonia, assuring Kentuckians he remains engaged in Senate business despite being able to return to the floor to vote.
In a statement addressed to Kentuckians on Sunday, the Republican senator thanked supporters for their well wishes and acknowledged questions about his absence from the Senate. McConnell said he was hospitalized in June after suffering a fall last month leaving him briefly unconscious. He said doctors determined he did not sustain any broken bones or a concussion and ruled out more serious conditions, including a heart attack, stroke, tumors and
Massive bull bison tosses Yellowstone
tourist into the air like a ragdoll in
shocking attack 19 replies
tourist into the air like a ragdoll in
shocking attack 19 replies
A massive bull bison tossed a tourist into the air, seriously injuring him, in a heart-pounding caught-on-camera attack at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Video shows the unidentified man being thrown 8 feet in the air like a ragdoll by the wild bison at the Bridge Bay Campground Friday, Cowboy State Daily reported. The tourist was walking with his grandson when the powerful herbivore attacked. Video shows the man running around a copse of pines to try to escape the bull, which was giving itself a dust bath moments earlier. The bison suddenly charged the two tourists, and then viciously
Democrats have many problems, not the least of which is an inability to understand, and for some the refusal to accept, basic economics. If they did, there wouldn’t be proposals to raise the federal minimum wage to a preposterous $25 an hour.
House Resolution 8555 would “place the federal minimum wage on a durable path toward a living wage,” requiring “large, highly profitable corporations to lead the transition.” Under its yoke, large employers would have to raise their lowest wage from the current $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour on Jan. 1, 2027, a more-than-double spike that would shock the market.
Large companies,
The Scourge of Teen Takeovers
16 replies
This past Memorial Day, more than 1,000 teens swarmed the blocks around Lake Michigan in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. A resident described the scene: “Hundreds of people were walking and running down our street, jumping on top of cars, twerking, smoking blunts.” One group twerked on the top of a city bus.
At about 9 pm, the Chicago Police Department closed Lake Shore Drive. As sirens wailed, the Hyde Park resident armed himself with bear spray to retrieve something from his car. An hour later, a gunman shot three teens a block from the resident’s home. The suspect remains at large, though police made 13 arrests for illegal gun possession,
CNBC sounds like a business channel, but it’s really just another liberal channel. When it thinks about the best “states for business,” they’re matching that with what they call “quality of life.” Some measures – health care, crime – make nonpartisan sense, but CNBC adds grades for “inclusiveness,” “protections” against discrimination, anti-gun "reforms," and naturally, “reproductive rights.” They touted their ongoing winner -- Vermont, the Bernie Sanders State: The best states to live in for 2026: No. 1 has a six-year winning streak The best states are the most liberal states? Scott Cohn's report on Minnesota gives you a flavor:
Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger says concertgoers want to escape from politics and everyday worries rather than sit through political speeches.
Jagger made the remarks during an interview on The New York Times podcast after being asked about Bruce Springsteen, who has repeatedly used his current tour to lambast President Trump.
Host David Marchese noted that Springsteen “clearly sees his job as engaging in a meaningful back and forth” with audiences before asking Jagger what his own relationship with fans means to him.
Jagger said his priority is giving audiences a break from the outside world.
The DSA Takes Over the Democrat Party
15 replies
For decades, the Democratic Party exploited—but also restrained—its more liberal, anti-American activists. However, as they have become outrageously progressive, communistic, and violent, they have lost control of themselves, and now they are taking over.
Democratic Party operatives thought they could maintain control, and for a while, they succeeded. The efforts of aggressive progressive partisans succeeded in taking over the DNC in 1972. They promoted progressive George McGovern for president, and the Democratic National Committee embraced some of the most radical left-wing positions.
Today’s climate models are so inaccurate they must be improved a hundredfold just to detect a CO2 signal in climate change.
Though clouds “are the largest moderator of Earth’s radiation budget and their absorption of solar radiation directly influence our understanding of climate change,” NASA’s models of the cloud capacity to alter solar radiation diverge from satellite observations (MERRA2) by 18.8 W/m² (Fu et al., 2026).
Carville’s Presidential History Lesson
14 replies
On Saturday former Clinton advisor James Carville took to YouTube and delivered what purported to be a “Presidential History Lesson.” It was a fairly typical Carvillian rant, yet quite revealing about how worried the Democratic establishment is about the damage the DSA insurgency is doing to their party. He begins his diatribe with the 2000 election and insists that every Democrat loss from then on was caused by leftist attacks on the centrist candidates the party nominated. Consequently, George W. Bush won in 2000 because Ralph Nader attacked Al Gore from the left.