>Surely you jest anon!!! kek
indeed
White House Struggles With Hunter Biden Art Sales Ethics, Proposes Anonymous Buyers
The Biden White House is attempting to address the ethical questions swirling around Hunter Biden’s newfound art venture, as officials reportedly craft an agreement ensuring that the buyers of the scandal-plagued son’s art, which is expected to sell for up to half a million dollars, will remain anonymous, even to Hunter himself.
Hunter Biden is working with Soho art dealer Georges Bergès, who is expected to hold an exhibition in New York this fall and sell Hunter’s paintings anywhere from $75,000 to $500,000. The general lack of transparency, which is already a well-known reality in the art world, has triggered concerns, particularly for the Biden family, which has been accused of using the family name as leverage and engaging in pay-for-play schemes over the years.
In order to avoid these mounting ethical questions, the Biden White House is comprising an arrangement that would leave all buyers of Hunter’s art anonymous — even to the artist himself. According to the Washington Post, the plan will see Bergès determining the price points for the artwork and withholding “all records, including potential bidders and final buyers.”
“The owner, Georges Bergès, has also agreed to reject any offer that he deems suspicious or that comes in over the asking price, according to people familiar with the agreement,” the Post reported.
“This is an absurd solution,” Breitbart News senior contributor and Profiles in Corruption author Peter Schweizer told Breitbart News.
“The only way to address these issues is with greater transparency–not less,” he continued. “Their proposed solution is greater secrecy, not transparency. And they are essentially saying ‘Trust Us.’ Joe and Hunter Biden’s track record on such matters gives us no reason to trust them.”
Former ethics officials for both former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama also appear to be cautioning the arrangement as a bad idea.
“The whole thing is a really bad idea,” Richard Painter, chief ethics lawyer to Bush, said. “The initial reaction a lot of people are going to have is that he’s capitalizing on being the son of a president and wants people to give him a lot of money. I mean, those are awfully high prices.”
As the Post noted, “some experts argued that the best protection against influence-seeking would be transparency, not secrecy.”
Walter Shaub, who served as the Office of Government Ethics director under former President Obama, previously said the art venture has a “shameful and grifty feeling to it” and hinted the White House’s plan is not sufficient.
“Because we don’t know who is paying for this art and we don’t know for sure that [Hunter Biden] knows, we have no way of monitoring whether people are buying access to the White House,” Shaub, according to the Post. “What these people are paying for is Hunter Biden’s last name.”
New York gallery owner Marc Straus appeared to balk at the price points set for Hunter’s work, concluding that “nobody would ever start at these prices” for a novice, such as Hunter.
“There has to be a résumé that reasonably supports when you get that high,” Straus said. “To me, it’s pure ‘how good is it and what’s this artist’s potential, what’s the résumé?’ On that basis, it would be an entirely different price. But you give it a name like Hunter Biden, maybe they’ll get the price.”
“My take was [the paintings] weren’t bad at all,” he added, according to the Post. “But there’s a yawning gap between not bad and something fabulous.”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/07/08/white-house-struggles-with-hunter-biden-art-sales-ethics-proposes-anonymous-buyers/
You cannot buy or sell in Queensland without government tracking
Queensland businesses to face random compliance checks as COVID-19 contact tracing app made mandatory
Queensland businesses have been warned to expect random compliance checks as the state's contact tracing app is made mandatory for a range of new industries from Friday.
Key points:
Businesses can be fined more than $13,000 or face six months in prison for failing to comply
The National Retail Association says COVID protocols have led to customer abuse
Police say personal data collected by the app will only be accessed in "very exceptional circumstances"
In addition to hospitality venues, places like shopping centres, grocery stores, gyms, universities, cinemas, hairdressers and stadiums will be required to make customers register with the government's Check In Queensland app.
Failure to comply with public health directions can lead to a $13,345 fine or six months' imprisonment.
The app has been used to trace some of the 6,600 close contacts linked to Queensland's latest coronavirus outbreak.
Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said government compliance officers would visit businesses to ensure they were following the rules.
"This isn't about using a stick, this is about a carrot," she said.
"If you want the economy to be open, you want people to be visiting your business, then we need everyone doing their part."
She said the contact tracing app was far easier and quicker to use than other models.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-07/queensland-covid-check-in-app-qr-code-mandatory/100263638
Nazi policy rolled out by the Jewish QLD Premier