May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-) Skepticism and critical thinking is not panacea, but can help to understand the world better
Adam Schiff Witch Hunt
While trying to impeach Trump on concocted by State Department apparatchiks evidence, Schiff ignored the role of Victoria
Nuland, in overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych when he refused to join the EU in favor of a
trade agreement with Moscow, which started current Ukrainian political and economic problems
To remove a president, Dems need evidence of serious
malfeasance. Hearsay is not enough. The Democrats’ impeachment inquiry is a doomed and desperate time-buying ploy. "Pelosi Gambit"
is to prevent Trump reelection and Schiff is a sacrificial pawn.
Schiff proved to be is a psychopathic control freak, whose mask has slipped, yet he is the only one who doesn't know that
in Washington. But when he realizes it, that's when he will become far more dangerous ...
"Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats have afforded to this president."
Rep. Barry Loudermilk
When Adam Schiff became Chair of the House Intelligence Committee in 2019, he unleashed a witch hunt, abusing his status as the Chair
mission to investigate Trump's connections to Russia, separate from the investigation by the Special Counsel. For some reason
it looks like a personal vendetta.
Schiff's latest frenzied attempt to oust Trump was the result of an assertion by a
CIA operative embedded in the White House that the
President ‘pressured’ Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in a
July 25th phone call to investigate allegations of misconduct by former VP Joe Biden and his son Hunter and their association
with Burisma, Ukraine’s largest energy provider. The alleged whistleblower alleged that Trump’s ‘pressure’ was ‘to
solicit interference from a foreign country’ for political gain which would constitute abuse of his office thereby justifying an
impeachment inquiry. They tried to swipe under the carpet the part of conversation that was related to
Crowdstrike, the CIA and FBI contractor potentially implicated in the false flag operation which started Russiagate --
attribution to Russia the internal DNC leak of information, possibly conducted by killed soon after this event Seth Rich.
Schiff is closely connected to George Soros. In largely forgotten history, Schiff's 2000 Congressional campaign against Republican
incumbent Jim Rogan was openly aided by MoveOn, controlled by Soros.
Ukrainegate is Schiff's second attempt to impeach Trump. Initially Schiff tried to impeach Trump using Mueller report. That
attempt dismally failed. Schiff came under fire when he demurred when asked if he would accept it if the Special Counsel's investigation concluded that Donald
Trump did not collude with Russia, saying that he has great confidence in Mueller but that "there may be, for example, evidence of collusion
or conspiracy that is clear and convincing, but not proof beyond a reasonable doubt," as is needed for a criminal conviction.
Rep. Adam Schiff doubles down on Trump guilt claims after Mueller probe 'Undoubtedly there is collusion' Fox News
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam
Schiff, D-Calif., doubled down in an interview this week on his belief that President Trump and his administration colluded with
foreign powers, regardless of what the summary of
Mueller's investigation revealed.
"We will continue to investigate the counterintelligence issues. That is, is the president or people around him compromised in
any way by a hostile foreign power? It doesn’t appear that was any part of Mueller’s report,"
Schiff continued.
(Fox News) House
Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who has played a leading role in investigating the Trump-Ukraine scandal,
is facing questions about his own connection to a Soviet-born businessman who has raised money for his campaign and
whose company has received lucrative defense contracts from Ukraine’s government.
That man is Igor Pasternak, the
founder and CEO of Worldwide Aeros Corp., which makes blimps for military and commercial customers. His business has
also been involved in weapons manufacturing, working with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to produce a modified
version of the M4 and M16 rifles, according to reports.
In 2013, Pasternak hosted a fundraiser in Washington for Schiff, who later came to embrace a strong stance in support
of the United States sending military aid to Ukraine during its conflict with Russia.
“Before this time, Schiff rarely, if ever, mentioned Ukraine,” Fox News’ Laura Ingraham said on her show Thursday
night, after detailing Schiff’s connection to Pasternak. “But after the fundraiser, he used multiple television
appearances to basically demand that we send money and arms to them.”
Laura Ingraham: “Why isn’t anyone asking more questions about Schiff’s place at the center of the left’s new Ukraine hysteria?
While Ingraham correctly pointed out that there’s nothing illegal about Pasternak doing fundraisers for Schiff, and factoring in
Schiff’s apparent change of heart once he received the money, this has all the appearance of another pay to play scheme involving
the corrupt Ukrainian government and members of the Democratic Party.
Giuliani: “Ukrainian collusion, which was large, significant and proven. With Hillary Clinton. With the Democratic National
Committee. With Chalupa. With the ambassador. With an FBI agent who has now been hired by George Soros who has been funding a lot of
this.
For the purpose of analysis it might be useful to start with US interference in Ukraine rather than
the other way around. The role of US NGOs was one of the key factors in this process. The National
Endowment for Democracy (NED) which was operating quite openly in Ukraine prior to the 2014 coup
(aka Euromaidan, aka Revolution of Dignity), is
funded by the US government, so strictly speaking it is a GO not an NGO. Also involved was Human
Rights Watch another American NGO.
On the ground in Kiev during the run up and during the Maidan
events, Geoffrey Pyatt, US Ambassador to Ukraine and his neo-con sidekick Victoria Nuland,
Assistant Secretary of State for East European and Eurasian Affairs, strolled around Independence
Square in Kiev offering solace, cookies and support to the insurrectionists. Subsequent to this
Victoria 'f*** the EU' Nuland gave a talk at the press club in Washington openly stating that the
US had funded the whole Ukrainian imbroglio – $5 billion was apparently was spend in total on
"regime change" in Ukraine. Soros money were also involved.
The fact that Poroshenko, owed the US and the EU, in the overturning of a democratically elected
government Ukraine is not in dispute. And the fact that Porky made this perfectly clear with his
support for Hilary confirms this.
The degree to which the Ukrainian government meddled in the US election is difficult to gauge,
but what seems clear is that such meddling had no immediate or long term effect on the outcome as
Trump was duly elected. They definitely tried, but as Trump election was by-and-large the
result of protest vote against excesses of neoliberalism in the USA neither Ukraine, not Russia, not any other country (UK,
Israel were definitely heavily involved ) can have a decisive influence.
Hillary was a staunch neoliberal who carries a huge amount of ugly baggage and is a war monger and Empire Builder. In
view of crisi of neoliberlaism int he USA she proved tobe unelectable. Attempt to to depose Trump via "resistance movement"
(essentially insurrection of Neoliberal nomenklatura entrenched in the State Demartpmet, CIA, FBI, Justice Department, and several
other agencies) does not take into account a simple fact that the train of history left the station with the name
"Neoliberalism' and those who still are standing on the platform and hoping for its return will be disappointed. The only issue is
what lies ahead and whether it will worse then neoliberalism or not. Trump
national neoliberalism is just a glimpse of what may lie ahead.
Paul Manafort was working as Donald Trump's campaign manager until he had to resign halfway through
the campaign when Ukrainians and Ukrainian Americans linked to the Democratic National Committee
and Hillary Rodham Clinton's election campaign released information that Manafort had done work for
former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his party The Party of Regions, whose main support
base was in the Russian-speaking eastern part of Ukraine.
The MSM has played up the notion that
Yanukovych was supported by or was drawing close to Vladimir Putin and Russia, and that he rejected
the EU / Ukraine Association Agreement in late 2013. So by bringing up Manafort's past connection
with Yanukovych, the Democrats were trying to tie the Trump campaign to Moscow.
Savorywill
,
I think the gist is that Ukrainian support for Hillary was behind the disclosure of Manafort's
financial misdealing in Ukraine, to embarrass the Trump campaign as Manafort was the Trump campaign
manager at that time. In addition, Hillary was far more pugnacious to Russia than Trump, and her
assistant, Victoria Nuland seems to have more or less orchestrated the coup against the sitting
president, who wanted to accept Russian help, rather getting funds from the IMF (or something like
that). So, it makes sense the the Ukraine powers that be wanted Hillary to win.
Bob In Portland
,
If you look at Manafort's history, he seems to work for sleazy dictators. Who were either put into
power by the CIA or taken out of power by the CIA. I would suggest that his ultimate employer was
the CIA.
After Yanukovich was ousted in a US-backed coup in Ukraine Manafort stuck around there and
helped the people who ousted. Just to refresh anyone's memory William Barr worked for the CIA in
the seventies until he got his JD. He was named Attorney General by President Bush (the first)
during congressional and court investigations of Iran-contra, which was a CIA operation to
illegally support the contras attempt to overthrow the Nicaraguan government while illegally arming
both Iraq and Iran, allegedly in exchange for releasing hostages in Beruit .
The interagency team
investigating the kidnappings in Beruit was on Pan Am 103 and perished returning to the US.
Robert Swan Mueller III has never himself been specifically identified as being a CIA employee.
However, his uncle, Richard Bissell, was an officer high in the CIA. His wife, Ann Cabell Standish,
was the granddaughter of Charles Cabell, Deputy Director of the CIA at the time of the Bay of Pigs
fiasco, who was fired by JFK along with the above-mentioned Bissell and Allen Dulles. Ann Mueller's
granduncle, Earle Cabell, the mayor of Dallas at the time of President Kennedy's assassination
there, was revealed to have been a CIA asset.
Curiously, Mueller's career has been marked with prosecuting cases that touch on CIA covert
activities. He prosecuted John Gotti, who was on trial for distribution of cocaine which has been
identified as having arrived in Mena, Arkansas. He prosecuted Noriega, who was the CIA's point man
in Panama, where the CIA laundered money, moved cocaine and moved weapons for the contras. Mueller
prosecuted BCCI (the international bank which laundered mob and intelligence money). Mueller became
the Director of the FBI a week before 9/11.
Clone
,
Australia gave something like $50 million to the Clinton racket prior to the election. There was no
choice. The next president of the most exceptionally useless nation was scooping up money from
everywhere Hillary and Bill are rotten to the core but heck slipping them $50M under the table was
seen as a nice way to stay on their good side.
Petro 'the pig' Poroshenko and his mate Manafort
lavished cash and black ops media favours on Hillary to buy her support.
The crimes are (1) Hillary selling her prospective presidency, and (2) Petro 'the pig' Poroshenko
conspiring with the Clinton's to assault the democratic process.
They will end up dragging 'the pig' around the streets of Kiev behind a truck with his guts hanging
out. Filthy stinking creature he is.
Alfred (Cairns)
,
You are saying that Ukraine's so-called government – which was the outcome of a US-orchestrated
putsch – did not succeed in influencing the voting in the USA. I am quite happy with that. However,
they did try to influence the US election and that is another matter entirely.
Jen
,
Victoria Nuland is married to Robert Kagan.
I'll let Wikipedia tell folks all they need to
know about Kagan; I'm too busy holding my nose to stop breathing in the toxic fumes the
couple emits.
The Ukrainians released information about Donald Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort having done
work for past Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (perceived by the West to have been close to
Moscow while he was leader) with the implication that Trump was being supported by the Russian
government. The information was released in mid-2016. Had it been released closer to the November
elections, it could have had a greater impact on Trump's chances of becoming President and the
Electoral College could have decided differently.
Savorywill
,
Wouldn't have made any difference. So much so-called 'news' is anything but, most people
probably don't know what to believe. I think Trump's election was more a protest vote as much as
anything, People were just sick of the status quo, seeing the world deteriorating around them.
And then, there were voters like me, who detested what Hillary had done in Libya, most
particularly. Destroyed a functioning country with all of the socialist benefits Bernie Sanders
could only dream about, turning the country into a raging hell-hole with constant civil wars 8
years later. Unforgivable, her role in that disaster. I was so relieved that she got defeated,
actually, and Trump did campaign on not militarily interfering with other countries and so far,
touch wood, he hasn't started any new wars.
Schiff voted in favor of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[11]
In February 2015, discussing how or whether to tailor Bush-era plans from 2001 and 2002 to fight ISIS, Schiff was asked if he regretted
voting to invade. He said, "Absolutely. Unfortunately, our intelligence was dead wrong on that, on Saddam at that time. [The vote]
set in motion a cascading series of events which have [had] disastrous consequences."
On April 2, 2017 Schiff, the
ranking member on the
House Select
Intelligence Committee, which is tasked with conducting inquiries related to
Russian interference
in the 2016 United States elections, appeared on CNN's State of the Union. In the wide-ranging
interview, Schiff and host Jake Tapper discussed
Michael Flynn's request for immunity, Schiff's and
Devin Nunes's separate inspections of White House documents,
Trump's allegations of wiretapping in Trump Tower, and Nunes's apparent close association with the Trump White House.[42]
Tapper asked Schiff if there was evidence of Donald Trump–Russia
collusion. Schiff replied: "I don't think we can say anything definitively at this point. We are still at the very early stage of
the investigation. The only thing I can say is that it would be irresponsible for us not to get to the bottom of this."[43]
Tapper asked, "Do you think that Chairman Nunes was part
of an attempt to provide some sort of cover for the president's claim about Obama wiretapping him at
Trump Tower, which, obviously, this does not prove, but to
cover for that, or an attempt to distract, as you're suggesting?" Schiff replied, "It certainly is an attempt to distract and to
hide the origin of the materials, to hide the White House hand. The question is, of course, why? And I think the answer to the question
is this effort to point the Congress in other directions, basically say, don't look at me, don't look at Russia, there is nothing
to see here."[44]
A few days later, Nunes recused himself as leader of the investigative panel while the
House Committee on Ethics investigated
whether he had disclosed classified information.[45][46]
On July 23, 2017, on "Meet the Press", Schiff stated,
"[A]t the end of the day we need to make sure that our president is operating not in his personal best interests and not because
he's worried about what the Russians might have but because what he is doing is in America's best interest. The fact that we have
questions about this is in itself harmful."[47]
The following morning on Twitter, Trump referred to Schiff as "Sleazy Adam Schiff, the totally biased Congressman looking into
'Russia'" and called the Russian collusion investigation "the Dem loss excuse".[48]
Schiff responded on Twitter that the president's "comments and actions are beneath the dignity of the office."[49]
In December 2018 Schiff suggested that Trump associate Roger
Stone may have lied to Congress, and said the transcript of his testimony should be forwarded to the Special Counsel.[50]
Stone hit back, saying Schiff was "a con man" and "full of Schiff".[51]
When he became Chair of the House Intelligence Committee in 2019, Schiff took a personal mission to investigate Trump's connections
to Russia, separate from the investigation by the Special Counsel.[52]
Schiff came under fire when he demurred when asked if he would accept it if the Special Counsel's investigation concluded that Donald
Trump did not collude with Russia, saying that he has great confidence in Mueller but that "there may be, for example, evidence of
collusion or conspiracy that is clear and convincing, but not proof beyond a reasonable doubt," as is needed for a criminal conviction.[53]
On March 28, 2019, the nine Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee officially called for Schiff to resign
due to his unwillingness to accept the findings of the Mueller
probe. Schiff responded by accusing them of tolerating "immoral" and "corrupt" conduct by Trump campaign members and administration
appointees.[54]
Former GOP Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz said Republicans should target Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff’s security clearance, following
the release of the Mueller report. “I think the one that has been the most discredited through this entire process is Adam Schiff,”
Chaffetz said Thursday on “Varney & Company.”
(RELATED: Trump Should Open A Private
Investigation Into Adam Schiff, Says Brian Kilmeade)
He then pushed for Congressional
Republicans to unite and bring their
demands directly to Speaker of the House Nancy
Pelosi.
“I think he should lose his security clearance and I don’t think he should be on the House intelligence committee,”
Chaffetz
continued. “I wish the Republicans would gather in force and demand that change. Nancy Pelosi knows better. It is a privilege to
sit on this committee but he’s used the guise of ‘hey, I see classified information and nobody else does and I’m telling you I’ve
seen it first-hand.’ He’s the only person on the planet because he’s making it up and he shouldn’t have a security clearance if you’re
going to act like that.”
He also claimed President Donald Trump fully cooperated with the Russia probe and cleared himself, but insisted on a new investigation
to find out how the allegations began.
“[Trump’s] had to sit back for the last two years, and think about it. All the Democrats tried to do is say ‘oh, he was going to
take out Mueller. He was going to do this, he was going to do that.’ He didn’t do anything. He waived privilege, he gave them tons of
documents, access to all the emails,” Chaffetz said earlier in the interview.
“Donald Trump Jr. was in there for hours and hours testifying. I don’t know that the president could have done any more for openness
and transparency through this investigation. And it turned out exactly the way he said. He’s in the clear. But now there has to be a
review of how this whole fiasco started.”
In today's episode of 'Things that should have come out during the impeachment,'
just-released diplomatic memos reveal that Vice President Joe Biden's office was warned in 2015
that the Ukrainian oligarch who hired his son, Hunter, was deemed corrupt - and that the US
Justice Department had gathered evidence to support that conclusion, according to
Just The News .
"I assume all have the DoJ background on Zlochevsky," wrote former US Ambassador Geoffrey
Pyatt in Kiev in a 2015 letter to Biden's top advisers, referring to Burisma Holdings founder
Mykola Zlochevsky.
"The short unclas version (in non lawyer language) is that US and UK were cooperating on a
case to seize his corrupt assets overseas (which had passed through the US)," Pyatt added,
noting that the asset forfeiture case against the Ukrainian billionaire "fell apart" when
individuals in the Ukrainian prosecutor general's office "acted to thwart the UK case."
Talking points
Pyatt's email also includes responses to several talking points Joe Biden's Washington staff
crafted, should he be questioned about Hunter's role on the board of Burisma .
" Have you asked Hunter to step down from the board? Has he discussed that with you?" the
talking points anticipated being asked.
" I'm not going to discuss private conversations with my family. Hunter is a private
citizen and does independent work ," the memo recommended the vice president answer.
If pressed by a question asking whether Joe Biden thought "Zlochevsky is corrupt," the
talking points suggested the vice president respond, "I'm not going to get into naming names
or accusing individuals." -
Just The News
... ... ...
The memos, released last week by Senate committees investigating Hunter Biden, also reveal
that the US Justice Department was involved in the 2014 asset forfeiture brought against
Zlochevsky in the UK , right as Hunter Biden was hired to sit on the board of Burisma.
Multiple State officials have attested to the awkward appearance of conflict of interest
posed by Hunter's position on the board as the United States led efforts to fight corruption in
Ukraine. In a September, 2015 speech, Pyatt railed against Ukrainian prosecutors for thwarting
the UK asset forfeiture case against Zlochevsky.
Pyatt was recently deposed by investigators for the Senate Finance Committee and the
Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee about the Ukraine controversy.
Though his staff had reported an alleged Burisma bribe and believed the Bidens' conduct in
Ukraine created an apparent conflict, Pyatt said he never felt compelled to raise such
concerns with the vice president.
" So you never gave thought of raising a concern to the Vice President about this board
position his son had? " a Senate investigator asked Pyatt during the deposition back in
September.
"No," the ambassador answered. "He's the Vice President of the United States, and it would
have been wildly out of place for me to raise something like that, especially insofar as it
had zero impact on the work that I was doing ." -
Just The News
Meanwhile, let's not forget that according to evidence from Hunter Biden's laptop published
by the New York Post , Biden didn't just know about his son's business dealings in Ukraine and
elsewhere,
he participated in them .
And Democrats impeached Trump for asking Ukraine to investigate.
2 play_arrow
Max21c 26 minutes ago
Joe Biden Warned In 2015 That Son Hunter's New Employer And Burisma Boss Was Corrupt
This information might have been useful during the impeachment ...
But if the government secret police agencies revealed the truth to the public then how
would Washingtonians have been able to push the impeachment scam as far as they did... and
without the government distracted and bogged down in phony scandals and scams and lies and
distortions then the swamp people might not have been able to pulloff their election fraud
and seize power again. There might not even be as many dead people and as much damage to the
country and its economy without the impeachment getting in the way of the pandemic response
early on.
jammyjo 20 minutes ago remove link
C'mon man! Joe didn't know where his 50% was coming from.
rwe2late 40 minutes ago (Edited)
The Dems did not want a repetition of 2016 when the revelations of Hillary's misconduct
helped thwart her election bid.
Thus, any exposure of Biden's misconduct and corruption was to be smothered and prevented
from thwarting his election bid.
Hardly different than to stop showing the homecoming coffins and civilian casualties so
that the war racket can continue.
Obama is running the show and Joe will resign leaving Barack's honey pot running the
country. The election was fixed by Obama, he always was the smartest guy in the room when it
comes to making his dreams of destroying America come true. Obama only set people in place to
destroy America and now he can blame Uncle Joe and DR of Love Jill.
walküre 1 hour ago
Barrack Hussein Robert Mugabe Obama
NoSoyBoys 59 minutes ago
Barry is too inept and lazy to have thought any of this out.
HANGTHEOWL 58 minutes ago
Obaqama is irrelevant,,,,he is just an ex puppet with no power,,,,,,this world is run by
multi trillionaire Zionist bankers,,,peeon's like Obaqama are just used then disposed
of,,,
walküre 1 hour ago remove link
FFS, Hunter was/is a crack head. His mind is mostly gone. He couldn't run a lemonade
stand, let alone be a board member and understand the ramifications of major business
decisions at foreign companies.
Hunter does not have the wherewithal to be held accountable for any white collar
crimes.
Hunter's name on the documents is to conceal the identity of the real gangster, who is no
other than the head of the family, the Pretender-Elect in Depends Joe Biden.
Sickening to watch how Joe obviously is allowing his own son being fed to the lions.
Man up Joe! He's your son and you're responsible!
Giant Meteor 1 hour ago remove link
The big guy is responsible for his crimes, that is to say, being the head of the crime
family .. His son, being well, past the age of consent, is wholly responsible for his own
crimes ..
nope-1004 1 hour ago (Edited)
Biden = Clinton = Bush = Obama = Holder = Rice = Podesta = corruption
The moment the New York Post reported on some of the sleazy, corrupt details contained on
Hunter Biden's hard drive, Twitter and Facebook, the social media giants most closely connected
to the way Americans exchange political information, went into overdrive to suppress the
information and protect Joe Biden. In the case of Facebook, though, perhaps one of those
protectors was, in fact, protecting herself.
The person currently in charge of Facebook's election integrity program is Anna Makanju .
That name probably doesn't mean a lot to you, but it should mean a lot – and in a
comforting way -- to Joe Biden.
Before ending up at Facebook, Makanju was a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic
Council. The Atlantic Council is an ostensibly non-partisan think tank that deals with
international affairs. In fact, it's a decidedly partisan organization.
In 2009, James L. Jones, the Atlantic Council's chairman left the organization to be
President Obama's National Security Advisor. Susan Rice, Richard Holbrooke, Eric Shinseki,
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Chuck Hagel, and Brent Scowcroft also were all affiliated with the Atlantic Council
before they ended up in the Obama administration.
The Atlantic Council has received massive amounts of foreign funding over the years. Here's
one that should interest everyone: Burisma Holdings donated $300,000
dollars to the Atlantic Council, over the course of three consecutive years, beginning in
2016. The information below may explain why it began paying that money to the Council.
Not only was the Atlantic Council sending people into the Obama-Biden administration, but it
was also serving as an outside advisor. And that gets us back to Anna Makanju, the person
heading Facebook's misleadingly titled "election integrity program."
Makanju also worked at the Atlantic Council. The following is the relevant part of Makanju's
professional bio from her page at the Atlantic Council
(emphasis mine):
Anna Makanju is a nonresident senior fellow with the Transatlantic Security Initiative.
She is a public policy and legal expert working at Facebook, where she leads efforts to
ensure election integrity on the platform. Previously, she was the special policy adviser for
Europe and Eurasia to former US Vice President Joe Biden , senior policy adviser to
Ambassador Samantha Power at the United States Mission to the United Nations, director for
Russia at the National Security Council, and the chief of staff for European and NATO Policy
in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. She has also taught at the Woodrow Wilson School
at Princeton University and worked as a consultant to a leading company focused on space
technologies.
Makanju was a player in the faux Ukraine impeachment. Early in December 2019, when the
Democrats were gearing up for the impeachment, Glenn Kessler
mentioned her in an article assuring Washington Post readers that, contrary to the Trump
administration's claims, there was nothing corrupt about Biden's dealings with Ukraine. He made
the point then that Biden now raises as a defense: Biden didn't pressure Ukraine to fire
prosecutor Viktor Shokin to protect Burisma; he did it because Shokin wasn't doing his job when
it came to investigating corruption.
Kessler writes that, on the same day in February 2016 that then-Ukrainian President
Poroshenko announced that Shokin had offered his resignation, Biden spoke to both Poroshenko
and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. The White House version is that Biden gave both men pep
talks about reforming the government and fighting corruption. And that's where Makanju comes
in:
Anna Makanju, Biden's senior policy adviser for Ukraine at the time, also listened to the
calls and said release of the transcripts would only strengthen Biden's case that he acted
properly. She helped Biden prepare for the conversations and said they operated at a high
level, with Biden using language such as Poroshenko's government being "nation builders for a
transformation of Ukraine."
A reference to a private company such as Burisma would be "too fine a level of
granularity" for a call between Biden and the president of another country, Makanju told The
Fact Checker. Instead, she said, the conversation focused on reforms demanded by the
International Monetary Fund, methods to tackle corruption and military assistance. An
investigation of "Burisma was just not significant enough" to mention, she said.
Let me remind you, in case you forgot, that Burisma started paying the Atlantic Council a
lot of money in 2016, right when Makanju was advising Biden regarding getting rid of
Shokin.
Receive a daily recap featuring a curated list of must-read stories.
That's right folks, the Facebook executive currently blocking all of the negative evidence
of Hunter and Joe Biden's corrupt activity in Ukraine is the same person who was coordinating
the corrupt activity between the Biden family payoffs and Ukraine.
You just cannot make this stuff up folks.
The incestuous networking between Democrats in the White House, Congress, the Deep State,
the media, and Big Tech never ends. That's why the American people wanted and still want Trump,
the true outsider, to head the government. They know that Democrats have turned American
politics into one giant Augean Stable and that Trump is
the Hercules who (we hope) can clean it out.
Hunter Biden, Joe's son, was hired as lobbyist by the Ukranian gas company Burisma while his
father, then Vice President of the United States, directed U.S. foreign policy with regards to
the Ukraine.
Joe Biden famously
ordered (vid) the Ukrainian President Poroshenko to fire his General Prosecutor Viktor
Shokin. He threatened to otherwise withhold a $1 billion loan to the Ukraine. Biden's pressure
to fire Shokin came ten days after Shokin had confiscated several house of Burisma owner Mykola
Zlochevsky. Shokin was eventually fired, the loan to the Ukraine was released and the
corruption case against Zlochevsky was buried.
Joe Biden has denied:
That he had talks with his son about Hunter's lobbying job for Burisma.
That he had ever any talk with Burisma related people.
That his insistent on firing Shokin was related to an investigation by Shokin into the
owner of Burisma.
The emails the NY Post posted show that one of Burisma's managers thanked Hunter
Biden for arranging a meeting with Joe Biden. The source of the emails is allegedly a laptop
owned by Hunter Biden which was left at a repair shop.
Some Biden acolytes claim that the emails must have come from an alleged Russian hack of
Burisma. But the NY Post also published private photos of Hunter Biden showing him
smoking and passed out next to a crack pipe. The photos may well have been, as the Post
claims, on a laptop Hunter Biden owned. It is extremely unlikely that they were hacked from
Burisma severs.
The Biden campaign offered only a weak
refutation of the NY Post claim that he met with the Burisma manager:
Biden's campaign would not rule out the possibility that the former VP had some kind of
informal interaction with Pozharskyi, which wouldn't appear on Biden's official schedule. But
they said any encounter would have been cursory.
In an unprecedented manipulative act Facebook as well as Twittercensored links
to the NY Post story:
Twitter prohibited its users from posting links to the Post story, while Facebook reduced how
often the story shows up in users' news feeds and elsewhere on the Facebook platform.
...
The New York Post, in an editorial responding to the companies' actions, said: "Censor first,
ask questions later: It's an outrageous attitude for two of the most powerful platforms in
the United States to take."
...
Facebook, the world's biggest social network, limited dissemination of the Post story within
hours of its publication on Wednesday, according to a tweet by spokesman Andy Stone.
Stone cited a policy saying that Facebook can temporarily take action against content
pending review by news organizations and others in its third-party fact-checking program "if
we have signals that a piece of content is false."
He served as communications director for the House Majority PAC between 2012 and 2014; press
secretary for Democratic California Sen. Barbara Boxer between 2011 and 2012; and press
secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) between 2009 and 2011,
according to his LinkedIn profile.
Facebook's 'fact checking' is done by the shady Atlantic Council:
Following the Streisand effect the censoring of the
NY Post story by Facebook and Twitter has increased the distribution of
its claims.
Many outlets reported on it. However a number of these also repeated false claims that
Shokin was not investigating Burisma and its owner when Joe Biden pushed for his firing.
The Washington Post's 'fact checker' Glenn Kessler
claims :
[T]he Americans saw an obstacle to reform in Viktor Shokin, the top Ukrainian prosecutor,
whom the United States viewed as ineffective and beholden to Poroshenko and Ukraine's corrupt
oligarchs. In particular, Shokin had failed to pursue an investigation of the founder of
Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky .
While Shokin had been investigating Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that Hunter Biden was
on the board of, the investigation had long been dormant by the time the vice president was
pushing for Shokin's ouster in early 2016 , a former Ukrainian official told Bloomberg News
in May 2019.
But let's be clear: Shokin wasn't fired because of anything improper Joe Biden did, no matter
how colorfully
Biden recounted the tale in 2018. It's a point worth repeating, loudly, as Daniel
Goldman, the former prosecutor who led the investigation for House Democrats, did on Twitter.
Let's try this one more time: the Ukrainian prosecutor was fired because he was NOT
prosecuting corruption cases and there was NO Ukrainian investigation into Burisma . In
addition to there being no evidence to support the bogus allegations, the basic premise is
simply false.
The claim that Shokin was not investigating Burisma and its owner is evidently false. As we
have
pointed out several times Shokin, the prosecutor, confiscated four large houses and a
luxary car of Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky just ten days before Joe Biden started to press
for his firing.
The movable and immovable property of former Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of
Ukraine Mykola Zlochevsky in Ukraine has been seized, according to the press service of the
Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine (PGO).
"The PGO filed a petition to court to arrest the property of the ex-Minister of Ecology
and Natural Resources of Ukraine, the Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defence
Council of Ukraine, Mykola Zlochevsky, from which arrest was withdrawn, and other property he
actually uses, namely housing estate with a total area of 922 square meters, a land plot of
0.24 hectares, a garden house with a total area of 299.8 square meters, a garden house in the
territory of Vyshgorod district, a garden house of 2,312 square meters, a land plot of 0.0394
hectares, a Rolls-Royce Phantom car, a Knott 924-5014 trainer," reads the report.
The PGO clarifies that the court satisfied the petition on February 2, 2016.
Biden's call to Poroshenko during which he pressed for Shokin's firing followed on February
12 2016. At that time Burisma paid millions to the lobbying shop of Joe Biden's son.
That U.S. media continue to deny that Shokin was indeed going after Burisma's owner shortly
before Joe Biden called for his firing is despicable.
Joe Biden's corrupt intervention in the Ukraine stinks to high heaven.
I just wanted to pop in and say to all the frothing tds-adherents among the patrons how
important it is to vote for "Quid-pro-quo-Joe" this Halloween.
It is the only way we can get the first leader in U.S. history to openly flout our
corruption-laws for the good of his degenerate offspring.
This is a monumental accomplishment and will help pave the way for a return of our
international reputation signalling that the Federal Gov't is OPEN FOR BUSINESS!
Yee-haaaaawwwwww!
Get those hard-working Trump kids the f$%@ outta there! Their noses to clean! Lol.
It's only by chance of destiny that the Democratic elite is involved with schemes of
corruption in ex-USSR and ex-Yugoslavia. It just happened that both regions fell when Bill
Clinton - a Democrat - was in power. As a result, everybody who was close him at the time got
rich and a permanent net of contacts with those regional elites.
However, it seems the New York Post is really pro-Trump - at least in his anti-China
stance. In the article titled "Emails reveal how Hunter Biden tried to cash in big on behalf
of family with Chinese firm" (linked at the end of this blog's post), it is revealed at the
end of the article that the firm is actually from Hong Kong, and that its contact was a
Hongkonger living in a mansion in Long Island, USA, and already had a criminal record in
American territory and was deported to HK. In other words, the firm has nothing to do with
the Mainland and, more importantly, with the CCP.
It's not traditional for an American news outlet to use the adjective "Chinese" to
designate something or someone from Hong Kong. They usually make it very clear it or he/she
is "from Hong Kong". Americans and the British don't consider Hong Kong as being part of
China, even today. That the New York Post suddenly decided Hong Kong is part of China is in
line with Trump's campaign against Biden that he's pro-China.
Do you think that Hunter is the type of guy who has his ducks in a row? On the ball?? A
real go-getter?
Anyone that has come out of a spiritual darkness will willingly admit how doing the
simplest things in life are the hardest to manage under the influence of whatever multiple
addictions the guy obviously suffers under.
Spilling water on a device is easy. Dropping it off is easy.
But I will admit I would like yo know more details about this exchange. What store,
etc.?
Not a single Amerikastani will choose whom to vote for on the basis of information.
Amerikastani politics is tribal and Amerikastanis will vote according to the tribe they
belong to, or not vote at all.
The probability Biden did something illegal is small. The corruption of the system is so
pervasive that the son's influence peddling is legal.
The real point, that Biden is a traitor selling out to foreigners, is straight forward BS,
suitable only for simpletons. Just becasue reight-wing assholes pushed similar garbage about
Clinton with Benghazi/emails/Clinton Foundation doesn't make it one bit smarter. That Biden
is entirely undistinguished by anything whatsoever except being chosen VP is not really
contested by even his supporters. The real case for Biden is he is not Trump. That case is
only refuted by showing how Trump is effective, honorable, insightful, etc. Shady slanders
about treason aren't that case.
The real case against Biden is that you cannot really vote against someone, you can only
vote for.
Ruh-roh. I guess this is October Surprise #2, the first being the Curious Case of Trump's
Covid. There was no push-back by anyone when DC was labeled a swamp of corruption. At this
point 'draining the swamp' is as far away as a Kanye West presidency. We'll probably have
October Surprises spurting over the landscape until Election Eve. The question of Biden
corruption won't hurt as much as being caught lying about it. Will it make a difference? Yes.
Trump's chance of winning just went from 10% to 17%. But with two+ weeks left, and huge early
voting? We've seen two October Surprises launched by the Trump campaign. A thwarted third
'surprise' was the hope to release Barr/Durham report on the creation of Russia-gate. Barr
has demurred. Will October be a one-sided affair, or are there any surprises left to spring
from the Biden camp - and what if anything could possibly make a difference.
As usual, there're heaps of corruption all over both factions of the Duopoly, and it worsens
every election cycle. Two items caught my eyes this morning in my trip through my news feeds.
Escobar's
long election related article at Strategic Culture has much to chew on. Michael
Klare's "Talking
Tough & Carrying a Radioactive Stick" reviews the astounding number of provocations
made by nuclear capable aircraft of areas surrounding Russia and China since TrumpCo's
Nuclear Posture Review was done in Feb 2018.
As it stands now, I'll vote for Dario Hunter, the Progressive Party POTUS candidate as I
can make no argument favoring either faction of the Duopoly.
div> neither of the two supersized warmongering bowls of crap should be
within a mile of the presidency, and this is just more proof. the msm is shutting this story
down just like it shuts down the assange story.
Posted by: pretzelattack , Oct 15 2020 17:14 utc |
15
neither of the two supersized warmongering bowls of crap should be within a mile of the
presidency, and this is just more proof. the msm is shutting this story down just like it
shuts down the assange story.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Oct 15 2020 17:14 utc |
15
B is right, as usual, but it won't matter because elections are a referendum on the ruling
party, not on the challenger. And ever since Watergate, Americans assume that all politicians
are crooks.
how about the idea that clinton, and biden are traitors pushing war with russia and making a
little more on the side while pushing the real agenda. obama is slippier, no smoking guns
tying that house on martha's vineyard to pushing the treasonous russiagate propaganda.
thanks b.. i agree with your quote here
"That U.S. media continue to deny that Shokin was indeed going after Burisma's owner shortly
before Joe Biden called for his firing is despicable."
@ c1ue | Oct 15 2020 16:10 utc | 2... that is only part of it... bidens direct actions are
the other part...
@ steven t johnson | Oct 15 2020 16:52 utc | 10.. quote "The probability Biden did
something illegal is small. " right.... believe what you want to believe then... why not
admit that regardless of which party gets in power, they are both corrupt to the core?? i am
always amazed at those incapable of seeing this..
The importance of voting out the current Cretin-in-Charge for the causes of basic humanity
and decent governance, among many others, remains; but the Dems surely don't make it easy, do
they? Out of 20+ candidates, and just like last time, they picked the one most likely
corrupted and most likely vulnerable to attacks from the Repubs. It's almost as if the people
who pick the candidate want someone compromised and therefore controllable, just like the
current president.
Reminded again of the Douglas Adams quote from the Hitchhiker series about leaders:
"The major problem -- one of the major problems, for there are several -- one of the many
major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who
manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are,
ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President
should on no account be allowed to do the job."
Talking to two "liberal" friends last week discovered they were busy taking lessons to learn
Ukrainian language. Which of course barely even exists as dialect and has no national
literature. But liberals are in love with Ukraine and all it stands for. Whatever Joe Biden
was busy doing if it meant he was standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainians then all is
good.
Russia bad. Repeat ten thousand times. Ukraine dpubleplusgood. No questions allowed.
'i am always amazed at those incapable of seeing this.'
Looks like there's panic at the troll farm this morning. Similar to what we're seeing from
'big tech'. Is there any connection between the two? Same bosses, maybe?
"Following the Streisand effect the censoring of the NY Post story by Facebook and Twitter
has increased the distribution of its claims."
That was completely predictable.
It was also predictable that the CIA blowing the whistle (a little more than a year ago)
would have the effect of harming Biden's reputation far more than it hurt trump.
It was also predictable that after Biden's reputation was damaged the Democrats would
double down on Biden and thus choose the only candidate (besides Hillary) that could lose to
trump
I also predicted the day i heard that the CIA had blown the whistle revealing Biden's
corruption to the sheeple that read and rely on the MSM that the evidence that would confirm
the Biden corruption would magically appear right before the election.
I would not be surprised if more revelations about what is on Hunter's laptop are
forthcoming.
have to agree the "computer repair shop" angle is highly unlikely. all data is swept up and
held - I assume accessing specific information is not insurmountable. The NY Post story is
probably sourced to a leak - which is how it's done nowadays. Just like Trump's taxes.
Twitter/ Facebook censorship is now fact of life. this effort was result of pressure by
Democrat politicians egged on by liberal intelligentsia and Dem-linked MSM (ie NY Times). The
infantilization of western culture and politics is a long-term trend.
Maybe your "liberal" friends found themselves an interesting job in becoming trainers to
ukranian nato-led groups of thugs.They move them all over the world to do some interesting
sightseeing and making fun with war-savvy foreign thugs like Free Syrian Army and jihadi's
and hongkong cockroaches.All in the best possible taste of MI6.In the repression of the
Yellow Vests foreign speaking dressed up as French intervention teams ; armoured police with
unpolicelike methods were overheard,provocateurs were filmed.People tend to forget.
Any more information available about the first days of the BLM?There was talk about
pallets and piles of bricks .
Later on in Kenosha talk about several limo's unloading people,the fabulous lighting,could
it have been a setup that cocked up because of a naive teenager wanting to do his best ?Are
there follow-ups on those allegations or reports?
Well summed up. I did vote blue, ballot already mailed in receipt duly recorded at county
election office, but they don't make it easy, do they? I had to do the proverbial and
figurative nose-holding to do it in 2020. This year, it was more like full, level-4 hazmat
prep even to vote by mail. I guess that fits with the pandemic theme, too. I wanted to turn
the ballot around the same day because I didn't even want it under my roof soiling my house,
but it was actually the next day when I completed and mailed it. I have never felt so dirty
and disgusted about voting. I may not even be alive by 2022, but I don't know how or if I
will go beyond this and vote in the midterms.
Despite screwing the Palestinians; occupying parts of Syria; assassinating a foreign
leader; renegging on a peace agreement with North Korea; and toughening sanctions on Iran
during a global pandemic.
Trump beats Covid. USA! USA! USA!
He didn't need to go to Walter Reed Hospital, but did so for effect. And information
about his condition is tightly controlled. Did he really have it?
Pelosi holds up Covid-related economic stimulus/relief for individuals
Trump seems generous in comparison (he's not).
Hunter's laptop, supposedly abandoned, is given to the FBI.
Pundits and Pearl clutchers will look no further as it fits with the narrrative.
<> <> <> <> <>
The 2020 election has effectively made into a MAGA referendum. Vote Trump if you want
war to save America from her internal and ex./sarc
Both of the Deep State's Duopoly Parties want to Trump to be re-elected. TINA!
Despite screwing the Palestinians; occupying parts of Syria; assassinating a foreign
leader; renegging on a peace agreement with North Korea; and toughening sanctions on Iran
during a global pandemic.
Trump beats Covid. USA! USA! USA!
He didn't need to go to Walter Reed Hospital, but did so for effect. And information
about his condition is tightly controlled. Did he really have it?
Pelosi holds up Covid-related economic stimulus/relief for individuals
Trump seems generous in comparison (he's not).
Hunter's laptop, supposedly abandoned, is given to the FBI.
Pundits and Pearl clutchers will look no further as it fits with the narrrative.
<> <> <> <> <>
The 2020 election has effectively made into a MAGA referendum. Vote Trump if you want war
to save America from her internal and ex./sarc
Both of the Deep State's Duopoly Parties want to Trump to be re-elected. TINA!
@ dh-mtl | Oct 15 2020 17:51 utc | 24... big tech and same bosses - may as well be.. the boss
is NSA-CIA... this attempt at narrative control is quite fascinating...
i agree with what @ jinn | Oct 15 2020 17:52 utc | 25 says... they can't control it...
they just make it worse...
Trump has also: supported a coup against the government of Venezuela; terminated peace
treaties (including JCPOA);
greatly increased defense spending ; militarized space; and sought to bomb Iran in
retaliation for the downing of a US drone (Russia wouldn't allow it).
it's not supposed jackrabbit, they aren't reporting it. blanket media silence. and the
average american, i would wager, is not aware of what's going on. same playbook as iraq, with
many of the same actors and all of the same corporate media.
i see the bootlicker brigade is back, pretending that blm and antifa is behind the violence
when it is crystal clear that it is jackbooted government thug cops who murder people in
broad daylight, with the support of both parties, that are kicking off the resistance. and
pretending that right wing militias are not a threat. trump is going to lose due to the virus
and the economy, and some of these right wing scumbags will carry out a campaign of terror
attacks in response. hope there are no more ok cities.
In reply to Biswapriya Purkayast | Oct 15 2020 16:29 utc |
8
Amerikastani politics is tribal and Amerikastanis will vote according to the tribe they
belong to, or not vote at all.
We're a significant 'tribe' as well. Non voters are a huge block of USians who for many
reasons refuse to validate the corrupt system.
According to The 100 Million Project, "...dispel outdated assumptions about non-voters.
These are our fellow citizens, and they come from every walk of life. But there are some
factors that unite them, which we examine in this report. By bringing to life this diverse
group and their views on politics, the study acts as a clarion call to energize a new
generation of engaged citizens..."
james@19 quotes me for some reason. Inasmuch as I say the system, which includes both
parties, is so rotten what should be corruption has been legalized, and condemn both parties
for crying "treason!" against both Clinton and Trump, then the professed "amazement" that I
and others don't see that both parties are corrupt means...somehow...my dismissing the latest
round of this BS about how leading US politicians are traitors, traitors, traitors is
wrong....implying without being so honest as to say outright, Biden really is a traitor! Like
Clinton! But not like Trump! If there's anything but Trumpery there I've missed it.
Again, there is absolutely nothing good to say about Trump that isn't a pack of lies
(mainly drivel about the Deep State and economic nationalism.) Neither is there anything good
to say about Biden except he's not Trump. Unfortunately you cannot actually vote against
Trump, you can only vote for Biden. Biden may be a blank, but any blank check voters hand him
will be cashed by someone. We see here the genius of the system in full play: Most of us are
effectively disenfranchised before the vote because it has been arranged that we have no one
to vote for. Vote suppression, mail in ballots, all that is not even required to rig the
election.
What nobody ever talks about is the why of Hunter Biden's association with Burisma, Devon
Archer, and Stephen Kappes (former Deputy Director of the CIA). I wrote the following here at
MofA 6 1/2 years ago. Its worth revisiting to put the current kerfuffle in context:
While the Hunter Biden story is definitely important, we mustn't let its sensationalist
appearances override a much more important story.
One of Hunter and Joe Biden's buddies is Devon Archer -- who also was a chairman on John
Kerry's presidential bid, a rich bundler with ties to the Heinz family. Devon Archer was
just appointed to the board of Burisma along with Biden.
Archer's importance? He sits on the board of DiamondBack Tactics, which is a part of the
military-industrial complex of corporations funded by Torch Hill -- a ready made security,
weaponry, and mercenary outfit ready to roll.
And who is the Chairman of DiamondBack? None other than former CIA Deputy Chief Stephen
Kappes. Kappes was the man who ran the extraordinary (and illegal) rendition program in the
early-mid 2000's. He was convicted in Italy of the kidnapping of an Egyptian Muslim cleric
in 2009. Kappes has had his hands in all the goings on in the middle east and eurasia for
decades, running and setting up many CIA stations, including Moscow, Frankfurt, Pakistan
and Pakistan.
Want to know what's going on? Follow the money -> Burisma ownership eventually leads
to Privat Holdings and Ihor Kolomoyskyi. And the team of Kappes, Biden and Archer, via
Burisma, ensures that U.S. oligarchical goals are being furthered. Burisma is just a shell
for the CIA to operate out of.
I don't see any reason to revise my assertion that Burisma is a CIA shell company, and
Hunter Biden was just assisting his dad and the CIA in its nefarious activities. And that is
why the truth has been, and will continue to be buried.
"...what should be corruption has been legalized, and condemn both parties for crying
"treason!" against both Clinton and Trump, then the professed "amazement" that I and others
don't see that both parties are corrupt means...somehow...my dismissing the latest round of
this BS about how leading US politicians are traitors, traitors, traitors is
wrong....implying without being so honest as to say outright, Biden really is a traitor! Like
Clinton! But not like Trump! If there's anything but Trumpery there I've missed it. "
The problem with that, charging them with corruption and treason, is we don't have a
viable alternative. It's like you can't fire the help without understanding how to do what
they do for yourself.
We're using a sort of containment strategy. Assuming we have to put up with corruption, we
try to ensure a minimization of its effects on us.
"...there is absolutely nothing good to say about Trump that isn't a pack of lies..."
Is it a lie to say that Trump isn't Biden?
Is it a lie to say that Trump openly and bluntly criticizes the corporate mass media?
Is it a lie to say that Trump scrapped the TPP?
Is it a lie to say that Trump ridicules identity politics and thus weakens its ability to
silence critics?
Is it a lie to say that Trump is forcing the international community to critically re-examine
their relationship with the American empire?
I don't think these things are lies, and I do think they are good for humanity.
Funny how Trump Derangement Syndrome victims always seem to be completely unaware
of their derangement. The syndrome must create its own blind spot.
@ steven t johnson
"Biden may be a blank, but any blank check voters hand him will be cashed by someone."
Would that be Kamala Harris, backed by Clinton/Pelosi?
Fascinating show! Nineteen/twenty sleeps to go.
Unsurprisingly the journalist responsible for the Hunter Biden nothingburger is linked to
Breitbart. Breitbart-style right-wing propaganda is not even muck racking, so much as aping
that style through lies and deception in order to keep their right-wing readers scared
shitless of any alternative to the GOP. Older folks might remember "Bureaucrash" which
similarly aped the Yes Men. I don't know if Bureaucrash is still around, but the biggest name
inheritor of that kind of project is "Project Veritas" by rich kid James O'Keefe who avoided
a wiretapping charge over his attempted wiretapping of Senator Mary Landrieu because one of
his co-conspirators was a local attorney's son. This is not to imply guilt by association,
but I am always suspicious of right-wing journalism because the milieu of right-wing
journalists is devoted to their political project to the point that they're almost practicing
their own idea of taqiya in their endeavors.
How much effort are we supposed to go through to connect the dots between an investigation
of Burisma's former head, an apparently "cursory" interaction between that former head and
Joe Biden, and Hunter Biden's presence on Burisma's board? Without evidence, are we supposed
to assume - in line with a far right conspiracist narrative - that the cursory interaction
was the former head of Burisma calling in a favor? Given that the investigation was centered
around happenings that occurred before Hunter Biden was on the board, what benefit would Joe
Biden personally have gotten from squashing the investigation?
There's been plenty of suspicion that CIA was connected to Burisma but your comment
essentially confirms it.
Normally Biden and his son's mistakes would be covered up/hushed up. But the Biden's are
being roasted so that the Deep State can re-elect Trump.
I should dig up my old comments from years ago about Deep State wanted to elect Trump and
Hillary throwing the election to Trump. (I just don't have the time right now.) It should be
more clear now after what we've seen from the Democratics over the last 12 months.
Censorship of political speech just before an election is as dangerous to democracy as
anything possibly could be.
It is far more dangerous than Putin buying a few Facebook ads.
Keeping things in perspective, Democrats are willing to toss democracy, just so long as
they can get power. That is exactly what they accuse Republicans of doing. And of course,
Republicans would, even if this time it is Democrats doing it.
This stinks in a very familiar way to the Clinton Foundation corruption of 'pay to play' that
Wikileaks published just before Trump got elected in 2016 (among the many others). A whole
new dimension of corruption and collusion is emerging. The fact even Facebook and Twitter are
now prepared to act so shamelessly and overtly is highly alarming, not just disgusting.
I will not at all be surprised if US voters go for another middle finger vote. Many will
find it a tough choice between organised corruption or chaotic populism.
Pozharsky and Burisma, and karma to the rescue but to be unnoticed by US voters. The root for
Pozharsky is fire, like burnt out, and Burisma is drill, drilling, like the ineffable Sarah
Palin from Alaska, from her window she could see Russia so she new a lot about the russkies,
drill baby drill. So drill and fire plus Biden on tape as Satrap Major conditioning a billion
buck loan on firing some functionary on a far away land. And that seems to be quite normal
for the american voter. Probably that's the reason why the candidates for the election are no
candidates at all. You do not have an election.
Normally Biden and his son's mistakes would be covered up/hushed up. But the Biden's are
being roasted so that the Deep State can re-elect Trump.
___________________________________________
Yes but:
A] they were never mistakes
B] nobody will go to jail
C] the Bidens will make tons of money writing books and giving speeches and being put on more
corporate boards.
You're almost correct. We have an election for the two executives atop the federal
government, but we don't have any real choice when it comes to candidates as those are
carefully controlled, and that is the most distinctive way in which the Outlaw US Empire
fails as a democratic-republic and is instead an authoritarian form of government at the
federal level. This was made possible by the overthrowing of the Articles of Confederation
and replacement by the 1787 Constitution which allowed for the continuation of governance by
the Aristocratic Class. By the time universal suffrage was enacted after WW1, the
misallocation of wealth had already allowed the Creditor Class to gain control of the federal
government. That Class has maintained its control except for the short interruption by FDR.
The secret for the Class's ability to stay in control is rather simple--Divide and Rule--as
it also owns the methods to exert control. Much the same exists within the EU, which is why
it acts in such close lockstep with the Outlaw US Empire.
The formula for the world's people to gain their freedom is rather simple: They must
overthrow the Creditor Class and never allow them to gain power again by socializing all
institutions. The hard part is getting the people of the planet to realize that is what's
required and then going about its implementation.
@ steven t johnson | Oct 15 2020 19:50 utc | 38.. thanks for your response... i just see both
choices are bad choices for the usa.. but then i see the usa as an empire in fast decline..
maybe there is a slight difference in which one of these 2 candidates is going to take down
the usa faster.. that is about it in my mind.. and fwiw i do agree with some of what @ 41
william gruff says and what all of @ 52 jinn says.. bottom line biden is no shining example
of purity, not that you were implying that either.. the whole usa political system is corrupt
beyond repair as i see it... i would like to be wrong too!
Posted by: c1ue | Oct 15 2020 16:10 utc | 2 What is really interesting is the provenance of
this proof: a water-damaged laptop dropped off at a repair shop, then never paid for nor
picked up.
I have to say that, while I don't believe Biden is innocent of *anything*, this provenance
reeks of Deep State intervention in support of Trump. OTOH, stranger things have happened in
IT repair. However, since my interest is limited - translation: who gives a shit? - I'll
leave it at that.
Re Twitter and Facebook. We know the CIA helped create Google in order to do the social
monitoring and control that the CIA can't do legally. Facebook ditto. Not sure about
Twitter's connection to the CIA, but, hey, I'm sure it's there, too.
As an aside, Twitter is having an outage right now. My guess is too many people are
posting about the Biden emails, so they shut it down for a bit. Or some hackers decided to
take them down for their censorship.
Anyone who imagines that these revelations will matter, just needs to read this thread where
responses of amerikans all seem to fit into three equally stupid categories.
The bulk of the responses don't objectively analyse what this cesspit of greed &
larceny means for their country, because the responses are first filtered through a really
fucking useless partisan subjectivity. When both 'parties' have identical policies,
thoroughly corrupt leadership and a primary aim of deceiving citizens WTF does this tribalist
support for a particular party indicate apart from exceptional stupidity on the part of the
partisan?
The people who consider themselves left of center, question, without any evidence at all
to support their delusion, the provenance of the emails, when the story appears to anyone
with half a brain to be both easily checkable and an entirely probable occurrence in a 2020
capitalist society.
Which brings me to the second and smallest 'cohort', the conspiracists, they not only
question the provenance of the info, they in time honoured fashion drag in their favourite
nemesis, the CIA, now as one who has seen all the truly foul shit that mob of criminals get
up to, I'm not averse to throwing shit at those arseholes, but trying to involve those pricks
in something so small-time and tacky as this is ludicrous, sheer fantasy.
It makes much more sense that the involvement of Devon Archer (a man not averse to trousering
a fat wedge) and by extremely distant connection Steven Kappes, was at the insistence of old
man Biden, who, far more knowledgeable about his son's predilections than anyone else, needed
someone close to the action with the contacts to ensure, that if hunter-baby slipped off the
rails, he could straighten things out and alert the old man.
The last group, the hee-haw "see I told you so, dems are all crooks" rightist types
celebrating this disgusting revelation as they view it through their own blinkered,
subjective & stupid rethug partisanship are the worst of all.
No amerikan should celebrate this, this should be a day of national shame - not just
because it shows biden to be a crook, but also because in recent days, orangeutan's son in
law Jared Kushner has been shown to have been perverting & corrupting
the covid 19 supply chain by using federal facilities to organise & obtain much needed
PPE, then inserting a few select private corporations he is acquainted with to step in
collect the PPE as it arrives in amerika (on federal government funded transport), then
triple (and more) the price as they sell the gear back to public health authorities.
There are no 'good guys' in any of this, both gangs are corrupt stinking low lifes, those
who complain about the lack of objective news then filter all 'news' through their own
subjective lens, are no less hypocritical than the types they claim to deplore.
What has the world come to when the NY Post has surpassed the NYT and WaPo as a
reliable news source.
The world will soon reach that level that was satirised in "Men In Black" when Agent K
(Tommy Lee Jones) advises Agent J (Will Smith) to read The National Enquirer (tabloid rag
famous even here in Australia for "Two women give birth to same baby"-type headlines if only
by hearsay) for "best investigative reporting on the planet".
the conspiracists, they not only question the provenance of the info, they in time
honoured fashion drag in their favourite nemesis, the CIA, ... but trying to involve those
pricks in something so small-time and tacky as this is ludicrous, sheer fantasy.
You are thinking that the info on the laptop is what's important instead of the timing of
a seemingly shocking reveal that will ultimately result in no prosecutions.
= It makes much more sense that the involvement of Devon Archer ... and by extremely
distant connection Steven Kappes, was at the insistence of old man Biden, who, ... needed
someone close to the action with the contacts to ensure, that if hunter-baby slipped off the
rails, he could straighten things out and alert the old man.
I really don't buy the excuse that you offer (nice try, tho). It strains credibility when
we can see that Biden is connected enough to what's going on without taking such
extraordinary measures. And Devon's involvement is better explained by his connection to John
Kerry while Kappes involvement is better explained by CIA's wanting some degree of
oversight.
= ... both gangs are corrupt stinking low lifes ...
There's only one gang. It runs the Duopoly and the media. And the Empire.
!!
p>
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As the furor over Twitter and Facebook's attempts to censor Wednesday morning's New York
Post bombshell intensifies, Rudy Giuliani, who was named as the source of the documents in the
NY Post story, just dropped a new video on Twitter where he outlines some of the alleged
transgressions of "the Biden Crime Family".
Earlier, the NYP
exposed never-before-publicized emails suggesting that Joe Biden's involvement with his
son's business endeavors was much more active than he led the world to believe.
In other words, if the emails are genuine (and nobody has offered any credible evidence yet
to suggest that they aren't) then it's clear the Biden lied about having never discussed
business with his son.
In a tweet, Giuliani confirmed that he has more material that has yet to see the light of
day, and teased the public that it would soon be made available on his website , which he said he launched to stop big
tech from censoring the story.
... Giuliani cited Iraq, what he said was the first example of this, outlining a scheme
involving a $1.5 billion contract and Biden's brother, James Biden.
The former NYC mayor continues: "The question is, why did Joe Biden lie about it? The New
York Post on its front page shows that Joe Biden has been lying about Burisma for 7 years,"
Giuliani added, again claiming that Biden "committed a crime".
Specifically, he named Hunter Biden, James Biden, Joe Biden and Sarah Biden, along with
other unnamed family members, as "the Biden Crime Family."
The "crime family" framing of course harkens back to the "Clinton Crime family", as well as
Giuliani's work as a prosecutor where he famously helped break the Mafia's stranglehold on the
underworld, and much of the legitimate business happening in the territories they
controlled.
Now, we can't help but wonder: will Giuliani drop the Hunter Biden sex tape
ZENDOG , 4 hours ago
Wake me when someone goes to jail.
Fiscal Reality , 2 hours ago
Barr: MIA
Durham: MIA
Horowitz: MIA
MSM: MIA and Covering up
CIA: Complicit
DNC: Complicit
FBI: Complicit
Ukraine: Partner
China: Partner
Obama: Partner
Hillary: Co-conspirator.
Outcome? Nothing. A big, fat, dripping NOTHING.
OpenEyes , 2 hours ago
It's all falling down. Crumbling right before their eyes three weeks before the election
that they were plotting to steal. This is just like when a dam gives way, slowly and then
suddenly. And, it involves more than just the corrupt Bidens. The chain is long and goes all
the way to the top. They are in the process of losing the election, and their reputations, in
the court of public opinion. Next comes the courts of law.
We haven't even gotten into the Durham investigation yet. Have you noticed how quiet
things have been over there? Not a single leak. That tells me that they have a serious case
and a tight team.
I am long popcorn, beer and orange jumpsuits.
Md4 , 3 hours ago
"The emails obtained from Hunter Biden's hard drive reveal Joe Biden lied about Burisma,
and more. Tonight I react and share a private text message that describes the ongoing schemes
by the Biden Crime Family."
And that's coming from Giuliani.
A former federal prosecutor of organized crime.
This guy... knows what he's talking about...
DaveClark5 , 3 hours ago
Crooks will be crooks. What is more disguising is the sheeple that vote for them. Our
founders said that the voters must have some kind of moral compass for there experiment to
work. It is now in the balance.
Lyman54 , 1 hour ago
Well we are still waiting for the Weiner laptop contents to be exposed. I suppose the
Biden laptop info will never see the light of day either.
Walter Melon , 3 hours ago
The old mafia prosecutors of the '70s and '80s would release a statement of something
like, "We have a high level mobster admitting to crimes on an audio recording. If you know
anything about this, please contact us."
And the rats would line up not knowing if it was them or someone else, to make their
deal.
Giuliani remembers this.
Let's see what rats show up this week.
Stormtrooper , 4 hours ago
If the purpose of these releases is to influence the election, forget about it. Demon-rats
aren't smart enough to put 2+2 together. The answer for them is 5. Or 10. Or 18. Whatever
fantasy answer they want it to be. They won't be influenced by irrefutable proof that Joe
Biden is dirty.
freakscene , 3 hours ago
They're not targeting "Democrats".
They're targeting those in the middle that are somehow undecided.
PT , 2 hours ago
Everything revealed in October can be safely forgotten. PizzaGate came out one week before
the election. Sure, I saw the spirit-cooking video, I saw the Podesta emails ... and then it
all magically disappeared. How horrific was the Anthony Weiner lap top? Sooooooooo horrific
that it could be forgotten for four years and counting.
January 2016, 147 FBI agents and then what happened? Looks like the year leading up to the
election (one quarter of all time) can be safely ignored too.
If they were going to trial then they would go to trial and the media releases would be
about the trial. No trial? Nothing is happening.
BaNNeD oN THe RuN , 4 hours ago
It's October... color me surprised.
ImTalkinfullCs , 1 hour ago
This is disqualifying......
bobroonie , 1 hour ago
Not in our Feudal society.
SmokeyBlonde , 43 minutes ago
This is a resume-enhancer for all D's and establishment R's, aka The Uniparty.
Yog Soggoth , 1 hour ago
I have been extremely critical of Guliani in the past, mostly 9/11 related, but his common
sense videos are just that, with excellent guests. NYC wishes they had Rudy back.
Saturn2001 , 1 hour ago
The problem is that the hardcore demonkrats and more importantly the press, will stifle
this whole set of facts and defend these lying/thieving creatures. We've seen it before. We
even have the likes of piggy noonan of the Wall Street Journal suggesting that electing Biden
would be a return to normal. Normal thieving, destroying deep state skum. They have done so
much harm to the United States and to the world.
Son of Loki , 1 hour ago
Trump has a way with words:
Donald Trump: 'The Bidens Got Rich While Americans Got Robbed'
The president cited the bombshell New York Post story uncovering emails sent from Vadym
Pozharskyi, an adviser to Ukrainian energy company Burisma, to Hunter Biden, thanking him for
helping arrange a meeting with his father.
Hunter Biden received between $50,000 and $83,000 a month from Burisma to sit on the
board.
"The Biden family treated the vice presidency as a for-profit corporation flying around
the globe collecting millions of dollars from China and Ukraine and Russia and other
countries," Trump said.
Yog Soggoth , 1 hour ago
They threatened to not give the money to Ukraine. That money was USAID money allocated by
vote from Congress taken from American taxpayers. Burisma got it's cut which laundered back
to Bidens. Many laws were broken.
philmannwright , 26 minutes ago
The funny part is that whatever Joe did for his kids, is likely NOTHING compared to the
hundreds of millions of dollars that Hillary took for access to herself, and that is only
what we know about during the Clinton Family's federal reign of self-enrichment from
1992-2016... never mind whitewater.
chemcounter , 2 hours ago
Trump needs to execute prosecution on Hillary. You see, these people get away with
enriching themselves and when they are caught, the opposition tries to hold it over their
heads to keep them inactive politically. Instead, they lay low and then come out later
executing well laid plans then use the reasoning that they must be innocent of all the
accusations or someone would have prosecuted. The people are sick of the obvious dual class
criminal justice system.
ByTony Cox, a US journalist who has written or edited for Bloomberg and
several major daily newspapers. If Big Tech's latest censorship fiasco – the
suppression of a New York Post scoop that might harm Joe Biden's presidential campaign –
doesn't spur Republicans to act, they may as well quit pretending to represent their
voters.
If even this isn't enough to trigger so-called conservatives to loosen Silicon Valley's
death grip on America's public marketplace of ideas, nothing will. All the talk about defending
free speech and fighting election interference will be exposed for the meaningless posturing
that it is, much like all those years of hearing Republicans campaign on stopping illegal
immigration, which they had no intention of doing.
In this case, however, the stakes are more personal for Republican politicians. This isn't
only about throwing their constituents under the bus and giving lip service about political
bias while taking donations from the likes of Google and Amazon. This time, the bus is about to
run over them and leave tread-marks on their former careers in Washington.
When the flow of news and information is controlled on political grounds to the extent it
was on Wednesday, it can only lead to irreversible one-party dominance. And here's a hint for
the likes of Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio): Google may give you money, but as the late
George Carlin said, "It's a big club, and you ain't in it." That one party's name will
start with a "D."
The Post article alleged that Biden's son, Hunter Biden, received an email in 2015 from an
executive at Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, thanking him for arranging a meeting with then-Vice
President Joe Biden. The alleged meeting with the executive, Vadym Pozharskyi, occurred about a
year after Hunter Biden joined Burisma's board at a reported salary of up to $50,000 a
month.
If the meeting was arranged by the younger Biden and took place as Pozharskyi said, it would
belie Joe Biden's previous statements that he had never spoken to his son about his overseas
business dealings.
The Biden campaign said no record of such a meeting appeared on the vice president's
"official schedules," but as Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) pointed out, it didn't
deny the veracity of the emails on which the article was based.
Nevertheless, Facebook rushed to curtail the story's exposure. Company spokesman Andy Stone,
who previously worked for two Democrat lawmakers and two Democrat campaign groups, announced
that Facebook would reduce distribution of the article as part of a " standard process " to
reduce spreading of "misinformation" and might do a fact-check of the story. He didn't
say why the article was considered a misinformation threat.
The next shoe dropped with Twitter, which blocked its users from tweeting links to the story
or sending it in direct messages. Those who tried to spread the article got an error message
saying the message couldn't be sent because it was identified as "potentially
harmful."
Conservative observers, such as Toby Young, joked that the article was "potentially
harmful" only to Biden's campaign, but the damage was done. As in the case of Facebook,
Twitter didn't make a case for the article being false, but the company said that in addition
to concern over potential disinformation, the article was blocked "in line with our hacked
materials policy" and a lack of authoritative reporting on where the source material
originated.
The emails weren't hacked; rather, the Post said they were taken off a computer that Hunter
Biden left at a repair shop in Delaware. In any case, the various policy explanations were
excuses for censoring content that probably would have been gleefully allowed by social media
platforms if the article had instead said Donald Trump Jr. was selling access to the White
House.
Social-media giants are censoring the article because they favor Biden over Trump, and they
figure no one will stop them. Mainstream media outlets are cheering on the decision because
they, too, favor Biden and have no principles regarding free speech or good journalism. Before
Twitter did the job for him, MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin warned that no one should be linking
or sharing the Post article because they could discuss its flaws "without amplifying what
appears to be misinformation."
Like Facebook and Twitter, Griffin didn't need to explain how he knew the article was
disinformation. Nor did he show the least bit of self-awareness about the media's spreading of
disinformation over the past four years. Adam Jentleson, a staffer for former Senator Harry
Reid, even pretended to know that the article was not only disinformation, but also the work of
a "Russian propaganda campaign." Again, no explanation or facts needed.
Twitter also locked out the Post's account, as well as those of people who shared the story,
among them actor James Woods and White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
Conservative and independent commentators, such as Federalist co-founder Sean Davis and
journalist Glenn Greenwald, saw the obvious importance and implications of Wednesday's
censorship effort. Rarely is social media discussion as dominated by one topic as it was by the
reaction to the Biden story.
The danger is that all the talk just fades away and the debacle is chalked up as just
another example of anti-conservative censorship and bias. There will likely never be a better
poster child to expose Big Tech's criteria for which news gets covered up and which news gets
promoted: If it reflects poorly on Democrats, it's disinformation, and if it makes Republicans
(especially Trump) look bad, it's golden.
As conservative author Mike Cernovich pointed out, "the censorship Rubicon was
crossed." Unless the talk finally becomes action, there's no point in continuing the
conversation.
A year after Hunter Biden joined the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma in 2014, the
then-vice president's son's family connections apparently paid off – at least that's what
the latest materials obtained by the New York Post claim to show. In a 2015
email published on Wednesday, Burisma adviser Vadym Pozharskyi thanked Hunter for an
invitation to Washington, and for the "honor and pleasure" of meeting Joe Biden.
No details of the meeting are revealed, but a 2014 email between Pozharskyi reportedly shows
the Burisma executive asking Hunter for "advice on how you could use your influence" to
thwart a government investigation into the company, which hired him that year for a reported
monthly salary of $50,000, despite Hunter's lack of experience in the energy sector.
Joe Biden has repeatedly denied any knowledge of his son's foreign business dealings, and
has responded angrily when accused of peddling influence. Confronted by a voter at a town hall
event last December, the Democratic nominee called the voter a "damn liar" and
"fat." Pressed by President Donald Trump in last month's presidential debate, Biden
replied that his son "did nothing wrong" at Burisma, and Joe has insisted since last
year that he was uninvolved in Hunter's work.
The emails seem to tell a different story. They do not, however, provide any more evidence
that Hunter asked his father to have a Ukrainian prosecutor fired for investigating the firm,
as President Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed.
Joe Biden himself has claimed responsibility for the firing though, telling the Council on
Foreign Relations in 2018 "I looked at them and said: I'm leaving in six hours. If the
prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money," referring to a billion-dollar Obama
administration aid package to Ukraine. "Well, son of a bitch," he quipped then, "he
got fired."
Biden's supporters in the media have insisted that the former VP was just one of many
international voices calling for the prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, to be fired for corruption, and
that Shokin's investigation into Burisma had gone "dormant." Shokin himself told
ABC News that he had six investigations into the company open at the time of his ouster.
Coming so close to next month's election, the timing of the New York Post's article has
raised some eyebrows. According to the Post, the emails came from a laptop handed in to a
repair shop in Delaware by an unnamed customer last April. When the store owner realized the
laptop contained Hunter Biden's emails and photos, he alerted federal authorities, who seized
it in December. However, the owner copied the hard drive's contents and gave them to Rudy
Giuliani, President Trump's lawyer.
Curiously, among the photos obtained by the Post is a bill for computer repair work made out
to "Hunter Biden," despite the store owner not knowing who the customer was.
Also among these photos are seemingly incriminating shots of Hunter asleep with what appears
to be a crack pipe in his mouth, and according to the Post, a video of Hunter smoking crack
while having sex with an "unidentified woman." Hunter Biden's struggle with drug
addiction is well documented, and he has been to rehab at least six times. Joe Biden has
claimed that he's overcome his addiction.
With just three weeks to go until the presidential election, Giuliani himself promised on
Wednesday that he had "much more to come." Asked by Los Angeles Times reporter Chris
Megerian what this might mean, Giuliani reportedly responded : "Print a
headline saying 'Lyin' Joe' and we can talk."
Joe Biden's campaign responded to the report later on
Wednesday, with spokesman Andrew Bates saying that "no meeting, as alleged by the New York
Post, ever took place." Bates did not, however, deny that the photo of Hunter with the
crack pipe in his mouth was genuine.
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Commenting publicly as
Nikolai
Bezroukov
Former Secretary of State John Kerry falsely claimed in 2019 that he had no knowledge of Hunter Biden's role on the board of Burisma
Holdings, Inc., according to the Senate report on Biden's financial dealings released on Wednesday.
Kerry was asked by a reporter from NBC News on December 8, 2019, whether he knew of Hunter Biden's activities during his tenure
as secretary of state in the Obama administration from 2013-2017. Biden From 2014-2019 held a seat on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian
natural gas company whose former head and founder Mykola Zlochevsky is suspected of bribery and various other crimes. (Zlochevsky's
whereabouts are currently unknown.)
Vice president Joe Biden led the Obama administration's Ukraine policy after Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula
and subsequent war in eastern Ukraine. Hunter Biden's position at Burisma led American officials to worry about the appearance of
a conflict of interest in their Ukraine policy.
" I had no knowledge about any of that. None. No," Kerry told the reporter regarding Biden's position on the Burisma board. "What
would I know about any -- no. Why would I know about any company or any individual? No."
However, Kerry's former chief of staff David Wade testified to the Senate Homeland Security Committee that he informed Kerry personally
of Biden's role at Burisma. Wade received an email on May 13, 2014, from Kerry's stepson, Chris Heinz, telling him that Hunter Biden
and associate Devon Archer had joined Burisma.
Additionally, former Kerry adviser David Thorne told Wade on May 14, 2014, that he had forwarded news articles on Hunter Biden's
Burisma position directly to Kerry himself, according to emails uncovered by the Senate committee. The emails included links to serveral
articles, including one titled "White House says no issue with Biden's son, Ukraine gas company."
Senator Lindsey Graham has invited Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's private attorney, to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee
regarding alleged corruption in Ukraine.
Graham wrote on Twitter Tuesday that after hearing about "the many improprieties surrounding the firing of former [Ukrainian]
Prosecutor General Victor Shokin," he would give Giuliani "the opportunity to come before the Senate Judiciary Committee to inform
the committee of his concerns."
Giuliani has repeatedly alleged that former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden were involved in corrupt practices
in Ukraine.
Hunter Biden sat on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company from 2014 to 2019. The company, Burisma Holdings, was the subject
of a corruption probe led by Shokin, who was then prosecutor general of Ukraine.
In 2016, Joe Biden pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin at the urging of U.S. and European Union officials, who agreed that Shokin
was himself engaged in corrupt practices.
Graham had initially refused to take any action in the Senate regarding Hunter Biden's dealings in Ukraine, saying earlier this
month, "I want somebody to look at the conflict of interest outside of politics."
Graham's offer to Giuliani could set up a conflict between the Senate and House of Representatives, the latter of which has summoned
numerous Trump administration officials to answer questions regarding the impeachment probe.
"The Treasury records acquired by the Chairmen show potential criminal activity relating to
transactions among and between Hunter Biden, his family, and his associates with Ukrainian,
Russian, Kazakh and Chinese nationals," the report reads. "In particular, these documents show
that Hunter Biden received millions of dollars from foreign sources as a result of business
relationships that he built during the period when his father was vice president of the United
States and after."
That Hunter Biden served on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings while
his father was leading the Obama administration's efforts in Ukraine is well-established, but
the $50,000-per-month board seat was just one component of the younger Biden's foreign ventures
during the Obama years. According to Treasury Department records obtained by the committee, he
also pursued business dealings with politically-connected Russian, Chinese, and Kazakh
nationals.
In the course of his globe-trotting business career, Hunter Biden racked up more than $4
million in "questionable financial transactions" with well-connected foreigners. He partnered
with Chinese businessmen connected to the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Liberation
Army, he took cash from the wife of the corrupt former mayor of Moscow, and he sent funds to
Ukrainian and Russian nationals living in the U.S. that are "linked to what 'appears to be an
Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring,'" according to the report.
But it was only Hunter's work for Burisma that caught the attention of Obama administration
State Department officials, who said the role created "counterintelligence and extortion
concerns."
Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, George Kent warned Vice
President Joe Biden's office in early 2015 that Hunter's work for Burisma undermined the
administrations' anti-corruption efforts in the country, since the gas company's owner Mykola
Zlochevsky, who Kent described as an "odious oligarch" in his testimony, is famously
corrupt.
"Furthermore, the presence of Hunter Biden on the Burisma board was very awkward for all
U.S. officials pushing an anticorruption agenda in Ukraine," Kent wrote in an email to his
colleagues in 2016.
Kent told Joe Biden's staff that "someone needed to talk to Hunter Biden, and he should
[step] down from the board of Burisma," according to the report. But it doesn't appear Kent's
request was carried out, since Hunter remained on the board throughout the rest of Obama's
term.
U.S. Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs Amos Hochstein also
raised concerns about Hunter's work for Burisma with the vice president. But his complaints
went unaddressed, according to the report.
"This investigation has illustrated the extent to which officials within the Obama
administration ignored the glaring warning signs when the vice president's son joined the board
of a company owned by a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch," the report's executive summary stated.
While concerns over Hunter's business dealings in Ukraine didn't prompt any decisive action
from the administration, they did reach the desk of Secretary of State John Kerry,
contradicting his later claim that he was never aware that Hunter served on the Burisma
board.
The day after Hunter joined the Burisma board in May 2014, Kerry's stepson Christopher
Heinz, who was a business partner of Hunter's, emailed his father to inform him of Hunter's
appointment to the board and to distance himself from the decision. Kerry's staff followed up
with a briefing on the press inquiries prompted by Hunter's board seat, according to their
testimony before the committees.
Neither Kerry nor anyone else in the administration appears to have intervened to put a stop
to the younger Biden's influence peddling.
When asked by a reporter in 2019 whether he had any knowledge of Hunter's work for Burisma,
Kerry responded "I had no knowledge about any of that. None. No."
Russia
Hunter Biden and his business partner Devon Archer joined with Heinz in 2009 to form the
investment firm Rosemont Seneca. They then spun off a number of shell companies to accept funds
from wealthy and politically-connected clients willing to pay for their "corporate and
governmental affairs" expertise.
One such client was Elena Baturina, wife of former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who was fired
in 2010 by then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev over corruption allegations. Baturina became
Russia's first female billionaire after her plastics company received a number of lucrative
public contracts with the city of Moscow while her husband was mayor.
"Luzhkov used his position as mayor to approve over 20 real estate projects that were built
by a Baturina-owned construction company and ultimately generated multibillion-ruble profits
for his family," according to the report.
In February 2014, Baturina wired $3.5 million as part of a "consultancy agreement" to
Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC -- a consortium consisting of Biden and Archer's Rosemont Seneca
and a Massachusetts-based company with offices in Beijing known as Thornton LLC.
Then, between May and December 2015 Baturina wired another $391,968.21 to an account linked
to a company called BAK USA, a Buffalo, N.Y., based start up that manufactured tablet computers
with the backing of unidentified Chinese investors. The majority of that nearly $400,000,
totaling $241,797.14, flowed through the Rosemont Seneca Thornton account before arriving in
the BAK USA account.
Kazakhstan
On April 22, 2014, as Joe Biden joined Prime Minister Arsemy Yasenyuk in Kyiv to speak with
Ukrainian lawmakers about the recent Russian aggression in Crimea, a holding company owned by
the son-in-law of a prominent Khazak politician wired Archer $142,300 through yet another shell
company, Rosemont Seneca Bohai. A currency report obtained by the committee states that the
payment was "For a Car."
The holding company that purchased Archer a car is owned solely by Kenges Rakishev, the
son-in-law of Imangali Tasmagambetov, who was then serving as the mayor of Kazakhstan's capital
city, Astana. Tasmagambetov, who himself previously served as prime minister of Kazakhstan, was
reportedly a close confidant of then Kazahk president Nursultan Nazarbayev. It is unclear why,
exactly, Archer was purchased a car, but Kazakhstan was in flux politically at the time due to
dissension over how to respond to Russia's provocation in Ukraine.
"Given Rakishev's close connection to political leadership in Kazakhstan, the tense
political situation, Hunter Biden's longstanding relationship with Archer and involvement in
transactions with Rosemont Seneca Bohai, and the fact that the payment was timed perfectly with
Vice President Biden's visit to Kyiv to discuss U.S. sanctions against Russia for the invasion
of Crimea, the April 22, 2014 payment from Rakishev to Rosemont Seneca Bohai raises serious
questions," the report reads.
China
In order to sell their consulting services in China, Biden and Archer partnered with a
Boston-based firm known as Thornton LLC. The firm advertises itself as "a cross-border capital
intermediary" and counts a number of state-owned Chinese businesses among its clients,
according to its website.
Through Thornton LLC, Hunter Biden and Archer formed business relationships with a number of
wealth Chinese nationals who have connections the CCP and the People's Liberation Army.
Many of Hunter Biden's Chinese dealings flowed through Ye Jianming, the founder of CEFC
China Energy Co. Ltd, a Chinese energy company that reported in excess of $33 billion in
revenue in 2013. The company was acquired by the state in 2017 but even before that it "hired a
number of former top officials from state owned energy companies" and had "layers of Communist
Party committees across its subsidiaries -- more than at many private Chinese companies,"
according to Reuters.
Through Jianming's company, Hunter Biden was introduced to the CCP elite and those
businessmen who operate with their blessing.
Pictures from an April 2010 event in China posted by the Thornton Group show Biden standing
alongside the general manager of the China Investment Corporation, the vice president of the
China Life Asset Management Company, the general manager of the Postal Savings Bank, among
other Chinese business tycoons.
Hunter Biden and Archer capitalized on those connections some two years later by partnering
with Jonathan Li the CEO of the Chinese investment firm Bohai Capital, to form BHR, an
investment firm specializing in connecting wealthy Chinese investors, and state entities, with
overseas business opportunities. The Chinese government's postal savings bank, its main
development bank, and The Bank of China all invested in BHR. Months before the investors signed
the documents committing to the fund, Hunter arranged for his father to meet Li briefly in the
lobby of a Beijing hotel they were staying in after flying to China on Air Force II.
Hunter initially joined the BHR board in an unsalaried capacity but ultimately acquired a 10
percent stake in the company in 2017.
Ye's relationships were not confined to China's business elite, he also had extensive
connections to high-ranking members of the People's Liberation Army, including one of the
country's leading propagandists, Wang Shu, the CEO of the China Huayi Broadcasting. While Ye
was rubbing shoulders with Beijing's elite, Hunter was busy trying to solicit American
investment in his firm.
A subsidiary of Ye's company wired $100,000 to Biden's law firm, Owasco, in August 2017.
And, one month later, on the day that Ye's firm announced it would acquire a $9.1 billion deal
in the Russian oil company Rosneft, Hunter filed for a $100,000 line of credit with one of Ye's
business partners. Hunter, his uncle James, and James's wife Sarah were all authorized as
credit card users on the account. The foursome went on a spending spree, buying airline
tickets, stays at expensive hotels, and meals at top restaurants.
Ye's company would eventually funnel $4.8 million to Biden's law firm over the following
year.
Joe Biden's spokesman, Andrew Bates, suggested the entire investigation was a partisan
distraction in response to the report.
"As the coronavirus death toll climbs and Wisconsinites struggle with joblessness, Ron
Johnson has wasted months diverting the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs
Committee away from any oversight of the catastrophically botched federal response to the
pandemic, a threat Sen. Johnson has dismissed by saying that 'death is an unavoidable part of
life.' Why? To subsidize a foreign attack against the sovereignty of our elections with
taxpayer dollars -- an attack founded on a long-disproven, hardcore rightwing conspiracy theory
that hinges on Sen. Johnson himself being corrupt and that the Senator has now explicitly
stated he is attempting to exploit to bail out Donald Trump's re-election campaign," Bates said
in a statement Wednesday.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney expressed a similar sentiment before the report came out,
calling the investigation a "political exercise" that fell outside the "legitimate role of
government."
231 Homeland Security Committee chairman Ron Johnson, (R., Wis.), and Finance Committee
chairman Chuck Grassley, (R., Iowa), said they "faced many obstacles" in their probe and added
that "there remains much work to be done."
Phone Calls Between Biden And Ukraine's Poroshenko Leaked; Details $1 Billion "Quid Pro
Quo" To Fire Burisma Prosecutor by Tyler Durden Wed, 05/20/2020 - 05:12 Leaked
phone calls between Joe Biden and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko explicitly detail
the quid-pro-quo arrangement to fire former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin - who
Poroshenko admits did nothing wrong - in exchange for $1 billion in US loan guarantees (which
Biden openly bragged about in January, 2018
).
The calls were leaked by Ukrainian MP
Andrii Derkach , who says the recordings of "voices similar to Poroshenko and Biden" were
given to him by investigative journalists who claim Poroshenko made them.
Shokin was notably investigating Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that hired Biden's
son, Hunter, to sit on its board. Shokin had opened a case against Burisma's founder, Mykola
Zlochevsky, who granted Burisma permits to drill for oil and gas in Ukraine while he was
Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources. In January, 2019,
Shokin stated in a deposition that there were five criminal cases against Zlochevesky,
including money laundering, corruption, illegal funds transfers, and profiteering through shell
corporations while he was a sitting minister.
The leaked calls begin on December 3, 2015 , when former Secretary of State John Kerry
starts laying out the case to fire Shokin - who he says "blocked the cleanup of the Prosecutor
Generals' Office," and sated that Biden "is very concerned about it," to which Poroshenko
replies that the newly reorganized prosecutor general's office (NABU) won't be able to pursue
corruption charges, and that it may be difficult to fire Shokin without cause.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/EbmDLhJ43cU
Later in the leaked audio on February 18, 2016 - less than three months after the Kerry
conversation - Poroshenko delivers some "positive news."
"Yesterday I met with General Prosecutor Shokin," says Poroshenko. And despite of the fact
that we didn't have any corruption charges, we don't have any information about him doing
something wrong, I specially asked him - no, it was day before yesterday - I specially asked
him to resign. In, uh, as his, uh, position as a state person. And despite of the fact that he
has a support in the power. And as a finish of my meeting with him, he promised to give me the
statement on resignation. And one hour ago he bring me the written statement of his resignation
. And this is my second step for keeping my promises. "
Four weeks later on March 22, 2016, Biden says "Tell me that there is a new government and a
new Prosecutor General. I am prepared to do a public signing of the commitment for the billion
dollars. "
Poroshenko tells Biden that one of the leading candidates is the man who replaced Shokin,
Yuriy Lutsenko who later said
in a deposition that Hunter Biden and his business partners were receiving millions of
dollars in compensation from Burisma.
Then, on May 13, 2016, Biden congratulates Poroshenko on "getting the new Prosecutor
General," saying that it will be "critical for him to work quickly to repair the damage Shokin
did."
" And I'm a man of my word ," Biden adds. "And now that the new Prosecutor General is in
place, we're ready to move forward to signing that one billion dollar loan guarantee ."
Poroshenko thanks Biden for the support, and says that it was a "very tough challenge and a
very difficult job."
Shokin, meanwhile, filed a criminal complaint against Biden in Kiev this February, in which
he writes:
During the period 2014-2016, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine was conducting a
preliminary investigation into a series of serious crimes committed by the former Minister of
Ecology of Ukraine Mykola Zlotchevsky and by the managers of the company "Burisma Holding
Limited "(Cyprus), the board of directors of which included, among others, Hunter Biden, son of
Joseph Biden, then vice-president of the United States of America.
The investigation into the above-mentioned crimes was carried out in strict accordance with
Criminal Law and was under my personal control as the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
Owing to my firm position on the above-mentioned cases regarding their prompt and objective
investigation, which should have resulted in the arrest and the indictment of the guilty
parties, Joseph Biden developed a firmly hostile attitude towards me which led him to express
in private conversations with senior Ukrainian officials, as well as in his public speeches, a
categorical request for my immediate dismissal from the post of Attorney General of Ukraine in
exchange for the sum of US $ 1 billion in as a financial guarantee from the United States for
the benefit of Ukraine.
* * *
And while we cannot verify the authenticity of the recordings with absolute certainty, we
now have the audio revealing how the deed was orchestrated.
Impeachment: Trump Team Nails Bidens, Burisma, And Obama's Hot-Mic Moment With Russia by
Tyler Durden Mon,
01/27/2020 - 20:05 0 SHARES
President Trump's defense team cut straight to the heart of the impeachment on Monday,
insisting that Democrats have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the Bidens didn't engage
in textbook corruption in Ukraine - and that President Trump's request to investigate it was
out of line.
Former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, a recent addition to the White House
communications team, walked the Senate through the entire malarkey for 30 minutes , including Hunter Biden's 'nepotistic at
best, nefarious at worst' board seat at Ukrainian gas giant Burisma.
"All we are saying is that there was a basis to talk about this, to raise this issue, and
that is enough," said Bondi, who noted that Hunter Biden was paid over $83,000 per month to sit
on Burisma's board even though he had zero experience in natural gas or Ukrainian relations
while his father was Vice President and in charge of Ukraine policy for the United States.
Trump attorney Eric Herschmann said that Democrats have been "circling the wagons" to
protect the Bidens - and are refusing to investigate the Bidens, claiming without conducting an
investigation that all allegations against them are 'debunked.'
Herschmann then laid into former President Obama, who was caught on a hot mic asking Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev for "space" until after his election .
One can only imagine what would happen if the Left & the media applied their
manufactured outrage to Obama's actions & statements.
Remember when Obama was caught asking Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for "space" until
after his election?
Former vice president Joe Biden's extraordinary campaign memo this week imploring U.S. news
media to reject the allegations surrounding his son Hunter's work for a Ukrainian natural gas
company makes several bold declarations.
The memo
by Biden campaign aides Kate Bedingfield and Tony Blinken specifically warned reporters
covering the impeachment trial they would be acting as "enablers of misinformation" if they
repeated allegations that the former vice president forced the firing of Ukraine's top
prosecutor, who was investigating Burisma Holdings, where Hunter Biden worked as a highly
compensated board member.
Biden's memo argues there is no evidence that the former vice president's or Hunter Biden's
conduct raised any concern, and that Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin's investigation was
"dormant" when the vice president forced the prosecutor to be fired in Ukraine.
The memo
calls the allegation a "conspiracy theory" (and, in full disclosure, blames my reporting for
the allegations surfacing last year.)
But the memo omits critical impeachment testimony and other evidence that paint a far
different portrait than Biden's there's-nothing-to-talk-about-here rebuttal.
Here are the facts, with links to public evidence, so you can decide for yourself.
Fact:
Joe Biden admitted to forcing Shokin's firing in March 2016 .
It is irrefutable, and not a conspiracy theory, that Joe Biden bragged in
this 2018 speech to a foreign policy group that he threatened in March 2016 to withhold $1
billion in U.S. aid to Kiev if then-Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko didn't immediately
fire Shokin.
"I said, 'You're not getting the billion.' I'm going to be leaving here in, I think it was
about six hours. I looked at them and said: 'I'm leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not
fired, you're not getting the money,'" Biden told the 2018 audience in recounting what he told
Poroshenko
"Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the
time," Biden told the Council on Foreign Relations event.
Fact: Shokin's prosecutors were
actively investigating Burisma when he was fired.
While some news organizations cited by the Biden memo have reported the investigation was
"dormant" in March 2016, official files released by the Ukrainian prosecutor general's office,
in fact, show there was substantial investigative activity in the weeks just before Joe Biden
forced Shokin's firing.
The corruption investigations into Burisma and its founder began in 2014. Around the same
time, Hunter Biden and his U.S. business partner Devon Archer were
added to Burisma's board , and their Rosemont Seneca Bohais firm began receiving regular
$166,666 monthly payments, which totaled nearly $2 million a year. Both banks
records seized by the FBI in America and Burisma's own
ledgers in Ukraine confirm these payments.
To put the payments in perspective, the annual amounts paid by Burisma to Hunter Biden's and
Devon Archer's Rosemont Seneca Bohais firm were 30 times the average median annual household
income for everyday Americans.
For a period of time in 2015, those investigations were stalled as Ukraine was creating a
new FBI-like law enforcement agency known as the National Anti-Corruption Bureau ((NABU) to
investigate endemic corruption in the former Soviet republic.
There was friction between NABU and the prosecutor general's office for a while. And then in
September 2015, then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt demanded more action in the
Burisma investigation. You can read
his speech here . Activity ramped up extensively soon after.
In December 2015, the prosecutor's files show, Shokin's office transferred the evidence it
had gathered against Burisma to NABU for investigation.
In early February 2016, Shokin's office secured a court order allowing
prosecutors to re-seize some of the Burisma founder's property, including his home and luxury
car, as part of the ongoing probe.
Two weeks later, in mid-February 2016, Latvian law enforcement
sent this alert to Ukrainian prosecutors flagging several payments from Burisma to American
accounts as "suspicious." The payments included some monies to Hunter Biden's and Devon
Archer's firm.
Latvian authorities recently confirmed it sent the alert.
Shokin told both me and
ABC News that just before he was fired under pressure from Joe Biden he also was making
plans to interview Hunter Biden.
Fact: Burisma's lawyers in 2016 were pressing U.S. and
Ukrainian authorities to end the corruption investigations.
Burisma's main U.S. lawyer John Buretta acknowledged in
this February 2017 interview with a Ukraine newspaper that the company remained under
investigation in 2016, until he negotiated for one case to be dismissed and the other to be
settled by payment of a large tax penalty.
Documents released under an open records lawsuit show Burisma legal team was pressuring the
State Department in February 2016 to end the corruption allegations against the gas firm and
specifically invoked Hunter Biden's name as part of the campaign. You can read those documents
here .
In addition, immediately after Joe Biden succeeded in getting Shokin ousted, Burisma's
lawyers sought to meet with his successor as chief prosecutor to settle the case. Here is
the Ukrainian prosecutors' summary memo of one of their meetings with the firm's
lawyers.
Fact: There is substantial evidence Joe Biden and his office knew about the Burisma
probe and his son's role as a board member .
The New York Times reported in
this December 2015 article that the Burisma investigation was ongoing and Hunter Biden's
role in the company was undercutting Joe Biden's push to fight Ukrainian corruption. The
article quoted the vice president's office.
In addition, Hunter Biden acknowledged
in this interview he had discussed his Burisma job with his father on one occasion and that
his father responded by saying he hoped the younger Biden knew what he was doing.
Fact: Federal Ethics rules requires government officials to avoid taking policy actions
affecting close relatives.
Office of
Government Ethics rules require all government officials to recuse themselves from any
policy actions that could impact a close relative or cause a reasonable person to see the
appearance of a conflict of interest or question their impartiality.
"The impartiality rule requires an employee to consider appearance concerns before
participating in a particular matter if someone close to the employee is involved as a party to
the matter," these rules state. "This requirement to refrain from participating (or recuse) is
designed to avoid the appearance of favoritism in government decision-making."
Fact:
Multiple State Department officials testified the Bidens' dealings in Ukraine created the
appearance of a conflict of interest .
In
House impeachment testimony , Obama-era State Department officials declared the
juxtaposition of Joe Biden overseeing Ukraine policy, including the anti-corruption efforts, at
the same his son Hunter worked for a Ukraine gas firm under corruption investigation created
the appearance of a conflict of interest.
In fact, deputy assistant secretary George Kent said he was so concerned by Burisma's
corrupt reputation that he
blocked a project the State Department had with Burisma and tried to warn Joe Biden's
office about the concerns about an apparent conflict of interest.
Likewise, the House Democrats' star impeachment witness, former U.S. Ambassador Marie
Yovanovich, agreed the Bidens' role in Ukraine created an ethic issue. "I think that it
could raise the appearance of a conflict of interest," she
testified. You can read her testimony
here .
Fact: Hunter Biden acknowleged he may have gotten his Burisma job solely because
of his last name .
In
this interview last summer , Hunter Biden said it might have been a "mistake" to serve on
the Burisma board and that it was possible he was hired simply because of his proximity to the
vice president.
"If your last name wasn't Biden, do you think you would've been asked to be on the board of
Burisma?," a reporter asked.
"I don't know. I don't know. Probably not, in retrospect," Hunter Biden answered. "But
that's -- you know -- I don't think that there's a lot of things that would have happened in my
life if my last name wasn't Biden."
Fact: Ukraine law enforcement reopened the Burisma
investigation in early 2019, well before President Trump mentioned the matter to Ukraine's new
president Vlodymyr Zelensky .
This may be the single biggest under-reported fact in the impeachment scandal: four months
before Trump and Zelensky had their infamous phone call, Ukraine law enforcement officials
officially reopened their investigation into Burisma and its founder.
The effort began independent of Trump or his lawyer Rudy Giuliani's legal work. In fact, it
was NABU -- the very agency Joe Biden and the Obama administration helped start -- that
recommended in February 2019 to reopen the probe.
NABU director Artem Sytnyk
made this announcement that he was recommending a new notice of suspicion be opened to
launch the case against Burisma and its founder because of new evidence uncovered by
detectives.
Ukrainian officials said that new evidence included records suggesting a possible money
laundering scheme dating to 2010 and continuing until 2015.
A month later in March 2019, Deputy Prosecutor General Konstantin Kulyk officially filed
this
notice of suspicion re-opening the case.
And Reuters recently quoted Ukrainian officials as saying the
ongoing probe was expanded to allegations of theft of public funds.
The implications of this timetable are significant to the Trump impeachment trial because
the president couldn't have pressured Ukraine to re-open the investigation in July 2019 when
Kiev had already done so on its own, months earlier.
Establishment Democrats are gaslighting people. This is not a qualitative improvement over
what the establishment Republicans do. In fact, it makes the establishment republicans
correct when the gaslighting is pointed out. The Trump Derangement Syndrome and corrupt basis
of the Democrats only helps get Trump re elected. The Democrats have no better plan, and thus
will be responsible if Trump gets re elected.
They're all scumbags, at all levels, and if you ain't used to it by now, you've been
living under a rock. That said, it's nice to have some reporting on it and I hope all levels
of government abuse will get exposed. I'm assuming it's about the same time the little bug
eyed broad takes a job at an oil company...
~"I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ I’m going to be
leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ‘I’m
leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the
money,’” Biden told the 2018 audience in recounting what he told Poroshenko
“Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at
the time,” Biden told the Council on Foreign Relations event."
Isn't this the same fuckin thing as???... **** it, nevermind
Yet nobody has been arrested, indicted, or accused of anything except in odd corners of
the internet. Although, there have been a couple of fake show investigations.
So, the only conclusion I can draw is it's legal if the Democrats or Establishment do it.
And anyone who says otherwise needs to be jailed, ruined, or murdered, such as in the case of
Seth Rich.
All members are press, state department, and American oligarchs. Trust ME, I know what
goes on there. Investigate them ALL and keep all of the investigation interviews in an open
public domain.
Force people to distance themselves and quit membership and you can pick them off as they
conspire to reform their separate working groups.
Facts? Democraps don't care about facts, don't you know that already? Democraps only care
about feeeeeelings, and how it makes someone feeeeel... Facts are just those things they just
discard, and then hope that we the Sheeple have short memories. Biden? Guilty as sin. Facts?
Ignore. Same as Cankles, Comey, Strozk, Page, etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum. If you're a
Democrap, you get off scot free, then lie about everything.
But the article was flimsy even by Russiagate standards, and so certain questions inevitably
arise. What was it really about? Who's behind it? Who's the real target?
Here's a quick answer. It was about boosting Joe Biden, and its real target was his chief
rival, Bernie Sanders. And poor, inept Bernie walked straight into the trap.
The article was flimsy because rather than saying straight out that Russian intelligence
hacked Burisma, the company notorious for hiring Biden's son, Hunter, for $50,000 a month job,
reporters Nicole Perlroth and Matthew Rosenberg had to rely on unnamed "security experts" to
say it for them. While suggesting that the hackers were looking for dirt, they didn't quite say
that as well. Instead, they admitted that "it is not yet clear what the hackers found, or
precisely what they were searching for."
So we have no idea what they were up to, if anything at all. But the Times then quoted
"experts" to the effect that "the timing and scale of the attacks suggest that the Russians
could be searching for potentially embarrassing material on the Bidens – the same kind of
information that Mr. Trump wanted from Ukraine when he pressed for an investigation of the
Bidens and Burisma, setting off a chain of events that led to his impeachment." Since Trump and
the Russians are seeking the same information, they must be in cahoots, which is what Democrats
have been saying from the moment Trump took office. Given the lack of evidence, this was
meaningless as well.
But then came the kicker: two full paragraphs in which a Biden campaign spokesman was
permitted to expound on the notion that the Russians hacked Burisma because Biden is the
candidate that they and Trump fear the most.
"Donald Trump tried to coerce Ukraine into lying about Joe Biden and a major bipartisan,
international anti-corruption victory because he recognized that he can't beat the vice
president," the spokesman, Andrew Bates, said. "Now we know that Vladimir Putin also sees Joe
Biden as a threat. Any American president who had not repeatedly encouraged foreign
interventions of this kind would immediately condemn this attack on the sovereignty of our
elections."
If Biden is the number-one threat, then Sanders is not, presumably because the Times sees
him as soft on Moscow. If so, it means that he could be in for the same neo-McCarthyism that
antiwar candidate Tulsi Gabbard encountered last October when Hillary Clinton blasted her as
"the favorite of the Russians." Gabbard had the good sense to
blast her right back.
"Thank you @Hillary Clinton. You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and
personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally
come out from behind the curtain. From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a
concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it and why. Now we know
– it was always you, through your proxies and powerful allies in the corporate media and
war machine ."
If only Sanders did the same. But instead he put out a statement filled with the usual
anti-Russian clichés:
"The 2020 election is likely to be the most consequential election in modern American
history, and I am alarmed by new reports that Russia recently hacked into the Ukrainian gas
company at the center of the impeachment trial, as well as Russia's plans to once again meddle
in our elections and in our democracy. After our intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that
Russia interfered in the 2016 election, including with thousands of paid ads on Facebook, the
New York Times now reports that Russia likely represents the biggest threat of election meddle
in 2020, including through disinformation campaigns, promoting hatred, hacking into voting
systems, and by exploiting the political divisions sewn [sic] by Donald Trump ."
And so on for another 250 words. Not only did the statement put him in bed with the
intelligence agencies, but it makes him party to the big lie that the Kremlin was responsible
for putting Trump over the top in 2016.
Let's get one thing straight. Yes, Russian intelligence may have hacked the Democratic
National Committee. But cybersecurity was so lax that others may have been rummaging about as
well. (CrowdStrike, the company called in to investigate the hack, says it found not one but
two cyber-intruders.) Notwithstanding the Mueller report, all the available evidence
indicates
that Russia did not then pass along thousands of DNC emails that Wikileaks published in July
2016. (Julian Assange's statement six months later that "our source
is not the Russian government and it is not a state party" remains uncontroverted.) Similarly,
there's no evidence that the Kremlin had anything to do with the $45,000 worth of Facebook ads
purchased by a St. Petersburg company known as the Internet Research Agency – Robert
Mueller's 2018 indictment of the IRA was completely silent
on the subject of a Kremlin connection – and no evidence that the ads, which were
politically all over the map, had a remotely significant impact on the 2016 election.
All the rest is a classic CIA disinformation campaign aimed at drumming up anti-Russian
hysteria and delegitimizing anyone who fails to go along. And now Bernie Sanders is trying to
cover his derrière by hopping on board.
It won't work. Sanders will find himself having to take one loyalty oath after another as
the anti-Russia campaign flares anew. But it will never be enough, and he'll only wind up
looking tired and weak. Voters will opt for the supposedly more formidable Biden, who will end
up as a bug splat on the windshield of Donald Trump's speeding election campaign. With
impeachment no longer an issue, he'll be free to behave as dictatorially as he wishes as he
settles into his second term.
After inveighing against billionaire's wars, he'll find himself ensnared by the same
billionaire war machine. The trouble with Sanders is that he thinks he can win by playing by
the rules. But he can't because the rules are stacked against him. He'd know that if his
outlook was more radical. His problem is not that he's too much of a socialist. Rather, it's
that he's not enough.
"... I appears to me that Biden stepped into something and it's stuck to his foot. IMPOTUS never seeming to have the ability grasp victory from the jaws of defeat failed, again and stepped into the same mess. ..."
"... Viktor Shokin said under oath in a case in Austria that he was investigating Burisma and that's why Biden had him fired ..."
"... We now know that whenever Biden virtue signals, the exact opposite applies. When he talks about how democratic we are, or about transparency and what not, it's because we are not. Snake Oil salesman. ..."
"... So basically Joe Biden did everything that the Democrats accuse Trump of doing. And Biden is so brazen about the whole thing, he brags on tape at the Council of Foreign Relations and admits to his crime. And Biden is running for president? Image if people like Rachel Maddow did this kind of reporting and truly informed the citizens about the abuses in our own gov't instead of the establishment bullshit she has been spewing for years. We are a banana republic. ..."
"... Biden is the poster boy for nepotism and corruption. ..."
"... This report provides overwhelming evidence that Joe Biden intervened directly to coerce the president of Ukraine to fire an honest and competent prosecutor general, and to put in place a corrupt one. ..."
A new documentary by Olivier Berruyer, editor of the website les-crises.fr , released in conjunction with Consortium
News on Monday, sorts out the complicated scandal and the role Joe Biden played in it.
Great video, thanks. I fear you may have misinterpreted the word "solid" in Biden's
statement. I believe he meant something more like "reliable", in the sense of being compliant
with US wishes. The opposite of 'not corrupt' really. Look at the body language, and it's the
CFR, ffs.
robert e williamson jr , January 15, 2020 at 21:06
Right on Joe Lauria !
I have watched this video three times. A long cast of characters with similar, unfamiliar
names here, some making multiple appearances.
I appears to me that Biden stepped into something and it's stuck to his foot. IMPOTUS
never seeming to have the ability grasp victory from the jaws of defeat failed, again and
stepped into the same mess.
A case exists to fry both Biden and the IMPOTUS over the same fire in their own fat,
greedy little piggy's. Great stuff for non-partisans.
I absolutely agree with you, and we (a very small French team, I mostly researched material
in Russian and Ukrainian) didn't do this documentary to help your president, and I don't
think it will. It could be the opposite, depending on what happens with the primaries.
We're
French (not Russian hackers, LOL!), what matters is that there are wrongdoings that had not
been investigated properly until us, and therefore we had a great opportunity to do something
serious to let the public know the truth, and make a name for ourselves in the process. If
this series does go viral (and I have hopes it will :) ), then, well, it could generate
enough donations for us to continue investigating, on other subjects. That would be really
cool.
Stay tuned on ukrainegate.info for the next episodes :)
A one minute teaser you can share is available on twitter.com/Ukraine_Gate/
Again, thank you for the compliment, you made me smile.
Eugenie Basile , January 15, 2020 at 02:01
I guess this makes Biden the most solid candidate MSM and DNC can deliver.
DW Bartoo , January 16, 2020 at 15:07
Much appreciation to Olivier Berruyer, les-crises.fr, and CN.
Genuine investigative journalism of the highest order.
(The truth is a powerful gift and critically necessary to empowering understanding, which
might even allow the many to find both the courage and imagination to bring about needful
change and even permit humanity to have a future, that is not corrupted by crony finance
capitalism, endless war, and a global political class intent on extraction on all levels, but
rather is premised upon humane and sustainable behaviors and fundamental moral principles
that value life above brute domination and cooperation above violent tyrannical
oppression.)
Putting U$ MSM, for which only money and sycophantic propaganda pandering is all that
matters, to well-deserved shame.
Jonathan Marshall , January 14, 2020 at 19:39
Here's another take from Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of Ukraine's Anti-Corruption
Action Center, who is quoted in this video:
"Lutsenko and prosecutor Konstantin Kulik have been giving Giuliani information on this case
purely with an agenda to save their careers, inventing the story about the Biden
investigation."
In 2016, Vice President Biden demanded that Ukraine fire Prosecutor General Victor Shokin,
who Trump might have called a "very good prosecutor," but he was seen by reformers in Kyiv as
a disaster. A year earlier, Kalemniuk's watchdog organization had pushed to dismiss Shokin
for neglecting multiple corruption cases.
"Here is why I do not say anything about Hunter Biden," Kaleniuk explained. "Vice President
Biden called for Ukraine to fire Shokin not because of the Burisma investigation, absolutely
not, but because Ukraine's prosecutor general did not investigate Burisma. U.S. Ambassador
Geoffrey Pyatt insisted [in early 2016] that Shokin should be investigating Burisma.
The U.S.
government had a clear position: The Burisma probe was killed by Shokin."
Viktor Shokin said under oath in a case in Austria that he was investigating Burisma and
that's why Biden had him fired. Are we supposed to believe the Daily Beast over sworn
testimony? The idea that Biden got ride of Shokin because he wouldn't investigate his son's
company is way too fantastic to believe.
Jason M Homer , January 15, 2020 at 13:00
Interesting until realizing your sourcing your information from the Daily Beast. Please
find new sources of information. The Daily Beast has been repeatedly proven to be pure
propaganda.
Clark M Shanahan , January 15, 2020 at 21:49
BTW: Chelsea Clinton is on the Daily Beast's board of directors.
We now know that whenever Biden virtue signals, the exact opposite applies. When he talks
about how democratic we are, or about transparency and what not, it's because we are not.
Snake Oil salesman.
Erin , January 14, 2020 at 16:59
I can't wait to see part 2. When is that coming out? This is an incredible deep dive into
the whole stinking Urkrainegate/Biden issue. I paused the film several times because there is
so much information provided.
So basically Joe Biden did everything that the Democrats accuse
Trump of doing. And Biden is so brazen about the whole thing, he brags on tape at the Council
of Foreign Relations and admits to his crime. And Biden is running for president? Image if
people like Rachel Maddow did this kind of reporting and truly informed the citizens about
the abuses in our own gov't instead of the establishment bullshit she has been spewing for
years. We are a banana republic.
I almost think the Democrats are deliberately sandbagging Biden with the impeachment
farce. They know he would likely lose as Hillary did, but he feels "entitled" like she did,
so they think this will finish him once and for all.
Our government is useless.
VallejoD , January 15, 2020 at 13:42
Agreed. Biden is the poster boy for nepotism and corruption.
Thank you very much for the compliment!
Part 2 is ready (and it's fun!), if everything is OK you'll see it next week, if you stay
tuned to ukrainegate.info and/or twitter.com/Ukraine_Gate
Don't hesitate to share and help us go viral :)
Brewer , January 14, 2020 at 16:13
Spent this morning promoting this documentary on my regular alt-media haunts and sent it
to journos and politicians I know. Strongly urge others to do likewise. MSM already blocking
it so it is important to get it out there.
Many thanks to Consortium News. A real scoop.
It's not surprising that the the CEO of Burisma, Mykola Zlockevsky looks like a mobster.
What kind of a person heads a fossil fuel company, an enterprise hell bent on increasing CO2
emissions? not someone you'd like to bump into in a dark alley.
Ruth Harris , January 14, 2020 at 14:48
Some points to ponder:
1. Biden was sent to Ukraine with the backing of both parties in congress and the IMF to
remove Shokin in exchange for $5 Bn in aid to the Ukrainian gas industry.
Question: Was any of that money intended for or received by Burisma?
2. Hunter Biden's position at Burisma facilitated connections with a NATO think tank, the
Atlantic Council, which was the recipient of million$ from Burisma.
Question: Did any of that money originate from the aid money?
3. The Atlantic Council, an anti Russian organization, sits amid a web of US defense
contractors, Raytheon and Lockheed, producers of the Javelin missiles, being two of them.
Some of the $300 + million Trump withheld, was to purchase those weapons.
Question: What part did the Atlantic Council and those defense contractors play in the
whistle blowing incident that revealed Trump's quid pro quo?
consortiumnews(dot)com/2019/10/14/dcs-atlantic-council-raked-in-funding-from-hunter-bidens-corruption-stained-ukrainian-employer-while-courting-his-vp-father/
Desmond , January 14, 2020 at 18:29
Excellent questions. Thank you.
Dianne Foster , January 15, 2020 at 04:07
Interesting. So far, I only knew that Biden and McCain enabled Nuland to replace
Yanukovich with a neo-Nazi-filled government in 2014. Thus to re-start the Cold War with
Russia .0
Fred Grosso , January 14, 2020 at 14:05
Thank you for this information. I don't think this vindicates Trump. It shows how he fits
so nicely into our corrupt politics. He is of value because he commits immoral acts that he
believes others have committed, but he doubles down and he is ruthlessly transparent. Biden
is what he is and not as he is presented to us by the media and his gang. How we get the
fanatical supporters of these corrupt demons to stop empowering them is a puzzling
dilemma.
" The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of
monsters."
rosemerry , January 14, 2020 at 14:01
I would be delighted to see Facebook allowing "The Magnitsky Act-Behind the Scenes", as
NOBODY else online is allowed to or brave enough to let the truth be told about that Browder
action.
Frank Munley , January 14, 2020 at 12:07
I do not use FB for sending links. I hardly use my FB account at all. But I did access
ukrainegate.info through my Safari browser. I noticed immediately that there is an 8:50 short
summary of the video posted by CN. I hope there is a transcript of the longer version,
because like some others, I don't like to watch videos.
Thank you very much for the compliment!
For the next episodes, see ukrainegate.info
There's also a one-minute teaser on twitter.com/Ukraine_Gate that you can share to help us go
viral.
Linda C , January 14, 2020 at 11:06
Corruption has tarnished Joe Biden. He is no longer a viable Democratic candidate in the
U.S. This is what Trump was after, even if it was for his own political gain. Impeaching one
president and preparing to elect another crooked one is what American politics looks like
these days. Ukraine doesn't have a corner on the market of corruption.
Mike from Jersey , January 14, 2020 at 17:49
Linda,
Biden is unfit for office.
The problem is that the Corporate Media will suppress info like this.
I very much appreciated this video, that clearly confirms how corrupt Biden would be were
he elected president.
I tried to send a donation to the French company that investigated and produced this and
have not yet figured out a way to do that.
Please suggest an alternative link.
Iovleff , January 15, 2020 at 10:48
The page is in french but after filling the form (first name, second name, . In fact you
can put what you want, there is no check)
and clicking on the button "Faire un don avec Paypal", you will be able to donate
Thank you very much for your compliment (I'm one of the few members of the investigative
team), Adele, and thank you very much to Antiwar for providing the link. I hope it's OK to
repeat this link in clear www(dot)les-crises (dot)fr/support/
OK, I think this is the 4th thank you message I write, and I should stop here before CN bans
me for flooding the comment section, but I'm really extremely moved by all the compliments on
this page.
See you soon for the next videos :)
AnneR , January 14, 2020 at 10:41
Additional and hardly coincidental that NPR should use Area 1 Security as a "source" for
"insightful," "reliable and true" information (ho ho) Wikipedia (not itself a reliable,
unaffiliated source, but likely so in this case, informs that the Oren Falkowitz and his two
co-founders of this (supposed independent) cybersecurity firm, prior to their establishing
this "cybersecurity" company they (all three) worked for – guess who? – the US
National Security Agency (NSA). You know, that abominable snooping, spy cyber-agency that
hacked into everyone's cell/smartphone around the world, including Frau Merkel's.
You have to admire the hubris and arrogance of these men; and the reliance of the NPR on
their loyal audience members either fully accepting what any *American* cyber *security*
company says about the Reds, the black hats or should they bother to check out the Wiki that
audience trusting utterly anything and everything such men and their company say (and do).
Mind-boggling.
Charles K. Hof , January 14, 2020 at 10:34
And Joe Biden wants to be the US president. I also note Obama willing to go along with
this "change", and use funds for leverage. Unfortunately it seems this is how not only the US
but other countries work.
Trump is corrupt, and we may not like what he does, and yes he got caught. The fact that the
Republicans do not reign him in is equally as bad.
Enough of the "Old Gard and their version of Ethics/Morality"
AnneR , January 14, 2020 at 10:29
I'd much rather read than watch (bad for my eyes) or listen, so have missed out on this
revealing item. However, it is excellent that CN has posted the access to this video for
those more than willing to view (I'd love to read a transcript, mind) it.
Makes me wonder if the existence of this evidence has *anything* to do with NPR's Morning
Edition today and the new (?) "Russia (GRU) did it" story they are happily broadcasting about
the (purported) hacking of Burisma's email accounts. Their source of info? Some CA based
"cybersecurity" company called Area 1 Security. Yep, those scary, dastardly Russians (the
*only* country with hackers, let alone government funded hackers) have been at it again
– and, of course, they have had ill intent, just as they did vis a vis Killary's
election campaign
This is from NPR's website, what was said by the Security firm's co-founder: " "What we've
uncovered is that the same Russian cyber actors who targeted the DNC in 2016 have been
actively launching a phishing campaign against employees of Burisma Holdings and its
subsidiaries, to try to steal their email usernames and passwords," Area 1 co-founder Oren
Falkowitz tells NPR's Noel King."
Well, of course.
Just in case anyone in the US population begins to raise their head above the
Huxleyan-Orwellian propaganda and gets other ideas about what reality really looks like And
perhaps in preparation for an impeachment trial taking place in the Senate and the Biden
gangsters being subpoenaed .Gotta keep the lid on it.
DH Fabian , January 15, 2020 at 00:28
In fairness, Russia-gate is all that the Democrats have left to sell. They sold out their
values, and a good portion of their voters, years ago.
I don't usually watch longer videos but I watched this while working in the kitchen and it
was easy to follow and clearly laid out. I recommend it; you will gain even more insight into
the corruption of these evil people.
ML , January 14, 2020 at 09:12
Remember the older gentleman Merle Gorman, who Joe Biden savaged at an Iowa town hall
meeting a few weeks ago? The story ran on CBS nightly news one night. All the retired farmer
asked Joe was two questions: 1. That he himself at 83, knew he was too old to have the job of
president of the U.S. and how did Biden feel about his own age and job aspirations? 2. What
was the deal about Ukraine's Burisma hiring Hunter to their board when Hunter had no
experience in oil and gas? And Biden called him a "damned liar" and "fat," challenged him to
a physical competition and attacked Mr. Gorman terribly. It was a disgusting display by
Biden. Well, I looked up Merle in Hampton, Iowa and wrote him a letter, telling him he was a
hero for bringing these issues up so bravely in front of a big crowd. A couple weeks later, I
received a two page, hand-written letter from Mr. Gorman himself. Many Americans had written
or called him to offer their support. It was delightful to be able to converse with a fellow
American on this issue, a complete stranger who had the temerity to confront Biden directly
on his corruption. Mr. Gorman, I told you about Consortium News in my letter to you. So if
you are reading this, once again, BRAVO! Great video here that proves the point he so
courageously made at that Iowa town hall. And Joe is tanking. I hope he continues to
tank.
ML – I believe you are correct, that Biden is tanking, as he should be. However, the
democrats and their supine MSM are still holding him up as if he were a shoo-in to win the
nomination. CBS evening news tonight declared him way out in front, although other polls put
Sanders first and Biden way behind. There is only one reason the Dems and the media insist
that he is the front runner: because without that pretext, their entire impeachment hoax
would collapse. The President has every right to ask that an obviously corrupt senator
meddling in foreign affairs be investigated. It's only "illegal" IF that senator is his
political rival. But as long as Biden can't win the primary, that would pull the rug out from
under the entire impeachment hoax. So between now and the primary, we will hear and read
again and again that Biden is the front runner, the truth be damned.
VallejoD , January 15, 2020 at 13:50
Good for you! I was absolutely disgusted with Biden. The man is an ethical sinkhole and
then attacks an elder American citizen in the vilest way.
I would not vote for Biden to collect my trash.
James Whitney , January 14, 2020 at 08:18
Les Crises is the most important economic blog in France during the last several years. It
welcomed the well-known economist Jacques Sapir who had been kicked out of his previous blog
position for criticizing president Macron. One of the best features of Les Crises is the
people who leave excellent comments on the many articles published. I am one of these
commentators, although I comment a lot less often than some of the best (my comments
generally well received all the same).
Robyn , January 14, 2020 at 07:46
I agree with Dingleberry's rhetorical question about why people continue using FB etc. So
many people object to being spied on and lament social media's increasing censorship, yet
they keep on using them – just as they keep going to MSM sites. I'd like to see a huge
boycott of them all, even for just 24 hours.
People – take back the power.
Fran Macadam , January 14, 2020 at 07:28
You've been zucked.
countykerry , January 14, 2020 at 06:10
Joe, Joe say it ain't so !
Thank you for sharing this documentary with us, another example of the corrupt behavior of
Joe Biden.
And brought to us not by our own MSM but from France.
Michael Meo , January 14, 2020 at 02:02
This report provides overwhelming evidence that Joe Biden intervened directly to coerce
the president of Ukraine to fire an honest and competent prosecutor general, and to put in
place a corrupt one.
I am interested to see how the honest prosecutor was presented in European and American
mass media as corrupt. I donated 50 dollars, and hope to see the explanation in the second
installment.
mbob , January 13, 2020 at 23:14
This video is astonishing! I couldn't stop watching. I normally don't bother with videos,
since it's much faster to read than to watch and listen. And this video is very lengthy --
over 50 minutes.
But it's one of the most amazing and compelling things I've ever viewed.
I'll admit: I believe everything that Berruyer says and shows here. The video should
completely demolish Biden's candidacy. Although not very explicit about him, it sheds
enormous shade on Obama and on the impeachment hearing. It comes near to completely
vindicating Trump on the UkraineGate charge, while essentially convicting Biden of what Trump
was accused of.
I'll try to learn more about Berruyer to see if he is as objective as this video appears
to make him out to be.
And if he is . wow!
Thanks ConsortiumNews for finding and showing this. As I said, I've seen nothing like it.
And I'll make a contribution shortly.
If, as Ville from Finland write, the video violates Facebook's norms, then that opens up
very troubling issues in itself.
Thanks a lot ! You know, we are french, not americans. We are not politically motivated : we are not pro-democrats, or pro-republicans. We just try to be each day pro-journalism.
>>> " It comes near to completely vindicating Trump on the UkraineGate charge . .
."
I don't think that's true. Trump clearly used the leverage of withholding aid authorized
by Congress, in order to coerce Ukraine into taking action that would help his reelection
campaign. That's seriously bad stuff, regardless of the actions of the Biden family.
>>>". . . while essentially convicting Biden of what Trump was accused of."
Yes. It definitely does that.
John Wright , January 13, 2020 at 22:00
Excellent and important documentary that everyone should watch if they want to understand
the roots of UkraineGate.
Thanks for posting this CN !
michael , January 13, 2020 at 17:26
Excellent video! Ukraine is laughably corrupt. American politicians must feel they have
died and gone to Paradise!
Funny countries are laughably corrupt. USA is a serious country. American corruption is
.. [exercise for high school kids]
Paul , January 13, 2020 at 18:22
This was remarkable and important. Well done.
Eugenie Basile , January 14, 2020 at 08:30
I wonder if this falls under meddling with U.S. elections by a foreign agent providing
kompromat on a U.S. political frontrunner. Mr. Berruyer you are a very courageous man.
"... You are turning a policy disagreement between two branches of government into an impeachable offense -- it is no more legitimate than the Executive Branch charging members of Congress with crimes for the lawful exercise of legislative power. ..."
"... You know full well that Vice President Biden used his office and $1 billion dollars of U.S. aid money to coerce Ukraine into firing the prosecutor who was digging into the company paying his son millions of dollars. You know this because Biden bragged about it on video. Biden openly stated: "I said, 'I'm telling you, you're not getting the billion dollars' I looked at them and said: 'I'm leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money.' Well, son of a bitch. He got fired." Even Joe Biden admitted just days ago in an interview with NPR that it "looked bad." Now you are trying to impeach me by falsely accusing me of doing what Joe Biden has admitted he actually did. ..."
"... This is nothing more than an illegal, partisan attempted coup that will, based on recent sentiment, badly fail at the voting booth. You are not just after me, as President, you are after the entire Republican Party. But because of this colossal injustice, our party is more united than it has ever been before. History will judge you harshly as you proceed with this impeachment charade. Your legacy will be that of turning the House of Representatives from a revered legislative body into a Star Chamber of partisan persecution. ..."
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Madam Speaker:
I write to express my strongest and most powerful protest against the partisan impeachment crusade being pursued by the Democrats
in the House of Representatives. This impeachment represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power by Democrat Lawmakers,
unequaled in nearly two and a half centuries of American legislative history.
The Articles of Impeachment introduced by the House Judiciary Committee are not recognizable under any standard of Constitutional
theory, interpretation, or jurisprudence. They include no crimes, no misdemeanors, and no offenses whatsoever. You have cheapened
the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment!
By proceeding with your invalid impeachment, you are violating your oaths of office, you are breaking your allegiance to the Constitution,
and you are declaring open war on American Democracy. You dare to invoke the Founding Fathers in pursuit of this election-nullification
scheme -- yet your spiteful actions display unfettered contempt for America's founding and your egregious conduct threatens to destroy
that which our Founders pledged their very lives to build. Even worse than offending the Founding Fathers, you are offending Americans
of faith by continually saying "I pray for the President," when you know this statement is not true, unless it is meant in a negative
sense. It is a terrible thing you are doing, but you will have to live with it, not I!
Your first claim, "Abuse of Power," is a completely disingenuous, meritless, and baseless invention of your imagination. You know
that I had a totally innocent conversation with the President of Ukraine. I then had a second conversation that has been misquoted,
mischaracterized, and fraudulently misrepresented. Fortunately, there was a transcript of the conversation taken, and you know from
the transcript (which was immediately made available) that the paragraph in question was perfect. I said to President Zelensky: "I
would like you to do us a favor, though, because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it." I said do
us a favor, not me , and our country , not a campaign. I then mentioned the Attorney General of the United States.
Every time I talk with a foreign leader, I put America's interests first, just as I did with President Zelensky.
You are turning a policy disagreement between two branches of government into an impeachable offense -- it is no more legitimate
than the Executive Branch charging members of Congress with crimes for the lawful exercise of legislative power.
You know full well that Vice President Biden used his office and $1 billion dollars of U.S. aid money to coerce Ukraine into firing
the prosecutor who was digging into the company paying his son millions of dollars. You know this because Biden bragged about it
on video. Biden openly stated: "I said, 'I'm telling you, you're not getting the billion dollars' I looked at them and said: 'I'm
leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money.' Well, son of a bitch. He got fired." Even Joe
Biden admitted just days ago in an interview with NPR that it "looked bad." Now you are trying to impeach me by falsely accusing
me of doing what Joe Biden has admitted he actually did.
President Zelensky has repeatedly declared that I did nothing wrong, and that there was No Pressure. He further emphasized that
it was a "good phone call," that "I don't feel pressure," and explicitly stressed that "nobody pushed me." The Ukrainian Foreign
Minister stated very clearly: "I have never seen a direct link between investigations and security assistance." He also said there
was "No Pressure." Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a supporter of Ukraine who met privately with President Zelensky, has said:
"At no time during this meeting was there any mention by Zelensky or any Ukrainian that they were feeling pressure to do anything
in return for the military aid." Many meetings have been held between representatives of Ukraine and our country. Never once did
Ukraine complain about pressure being applied -- not once! Ambassador Sondland testified that I told him: "No quid pro quo. I want
nothing. I want nothing. I want President Zelensky to do the right thing, do what he ran on."
The second claim, so-called "Obstruction of Congress," is preposterous and dangerous. House Democrats are trying to impeach the
duly elected President of the United States for asserting Constitutionally based privileges that have been asserted on a bipartisan
basis by administrations of both political parties throughout our Nation's history. Under that standard, every American president
would have been impeached many times over. As liberal law professor Jonathan Turley warned when addressing Congressional Democrats:
"I can't emphasize this enough if you impeach a president, if you make a high crime and misdemeanor out of going to the courts, it
is an abuse of power. It's your abuse of power. You're doing precisely what you're criticizing the President for doing."
Everyone, you included, knows what is really happening. Your chosen candidate lost the election in 2016, in an Electoral College
landslide (306-227), and you and your party have never recovered from this defeat. You have developed a full-fledged case of what
many in the media call Trump Derangement Syndrome and sadly, you will never get over it! You are unwilling and unable to accept the
verdict issued at the ballot box during the great Election of 2016. So you have spent three straight years attempting to overturn
the will of the American people and nullify their votes. You view democracy as your enemy!
Speaker Pelosi, you admitted just last week at a public forum that your party's impeachment effort has been going on for "two
and a half years," long before you ever heard about a phone call with Ukraine. Nineteen minutes after I took the oath of office,
the Washington Post published a story headlined, "The Campaign to Impeach President Trump Has Begun." Less than three months
after my inauguration, Representative Maxine Waters stated, "I'm going to fight every day until he's impeached." House Democrats
introduced the first impeachment resolution against me within months of my inauguration, for what will be regarded as one of our
country's best decisions, the firing of James Comey (see Inspector General Reports) -- who the world now knows is one of the dirtiest
cops our Nation has ever seen. A ranting and raving Congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib, declared just hours after she was sworn into office,
"We're gonna go in there and we're gonna impeach the motherf****r." Representative Al Green said in May, "I'm concerned that if we
don't impeach this president, he will get re-elected." Again, you and your allies said, and did, all of these things long before
you ever heard of President Zelensky or anything related to Ukraine. As you know very well, this impeachment drive has nothing to
do with Ukraine, or the totally appropriate conversation I had with its new president. It only has to do with your attempt to undo
the election of 2016 and steal the election of 2020!
Congressman Adam Schiff cheated and lied all the way up to the present day, even going so far as to fraudulently make up, out
of thin air, my conversation with President Zelensky of Ukraine and read this fantasy language to Congress as though it were said
by me. His shameless lies and deceptions, dating all the way back to the Russia Hoax, is one of the main reasons we are here today.
You and your party are desperate to distract from America's extraordinary economy, incredible jobs boom, record stock market,
soaring confidence, and flourishing citizens. Your party simply cannot compete with our record: 7 million new jobs; the lowest-ever
unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans; a rebuilt military; a completely reformed VA with Choice
and Accountability for our great veterans; more than 170 new federal judges and two Supreme Court Justices; historic tax and regulation
cuts; the elimination of the individual mandate; the first decline in prescription drug prices in half a century; the first new branch
of the United States Military since 1947, the Space Force; strong protection of the Second Amendment; criminal justice reform; a
defeated ISIS caliphate and the killing of the world's number one terrorist leader, al-Baghdadi; the replacement of the disastrous
NAFTA trade deal with the wonderful USMCA (Mexico and Canada); a breakthrough Phase One trade deal with China; massive new trade
deals with Japan and South Korea; withdrawal from the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal; cancellation of the unfair and costly Paris Climate
Accord; becoming the world's top energy producer; recognition of Israel's capital, opening the American Embassy in Jerusalem, and
recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights; a colossal reduction in illegal border crossings, the ending of Catch-and-Release,
and the building of the Southern Border Wall -- and that is just the beginning, there is so much more. You cannot defend your extreme
policies -- open borders, mass migration, high crime, crippling taxes, socialized healthcare, destruction of American energy, late-term
taxpayer-funded abortion, elimination of the Second Amendment, radical far-left theories of law and justice, and constant partisan
obstruction of both common sense and common good.
There is nothing I would rather do than stop referring to your party as the Do-Nothing Democrats. Unfortunately, I don't know
that you will ever give me a chance to do so.
After three years of unfair and unwarranted investigations, 45 million dollars spent, 18 angry Democrat prosecutors, the entire
force of the FBI, headed by leadership now proven to be totally incompetent and corrupt, you have found NOTHING! Few people in high
position could have endured or passed this test. You do not know, nor do you care, the great damage and hurt you have inflicted upon
wonderful and loving members of my family. You conducted a fake investigation upon the democratically elected President of the United
States, and you are doing it yet again.
There are not many people who could have taken the punishment inflicted during this period of time, and yet done so much for the
success of America and its citizens. But instead of putting our country first, you have decided to disgrace our country still further.
You completely failed with the Mueller report because there was nothing to find, so you decided to take the next hoax that came along,
the phone call with Ukraine -- even though it was a perfect call. And by the way, when I speak to foreign countries, there are many
people, with permission, listening to the call on both sides of the conversation.
You are the ones interfering in America's elections. You are the ones subverting America's Democracy. You are the ones Obstructing
Justice. You are the ones bringing pain and suffering to our Republic for your own selfish personal, political, and partisan gain.
Before the Impeachment Hoax, it was the Russian Witch Hunt. Against all evidence, and regardless of the truth, you and your deputies
claimed that my campaign colluded with the Russians -- a grave, malicious, and slanderous lie, a falsehood like no other. You forced
our Nation through turmoil and torment over a wholly fabricated story, illegally purchased from a foreign spy by Hillary Clinton
and the DNC in order to assault our democracy. Yet, when the monstrous lie was debunked and this Democrat conspiracy dissolved into
dust, you did not apologize. You did not recant. You did not ask to be forgiven. You showed no remorse, no capacity for self-reflection.
Instead, you pursued your next libelous and vicious crusade -- you engineered an attempt to frame and defame an innocent person.
All of this was motivated by personal political calculation. Your Speakership and your party are held hostage by your most deranged
and radical representatives of the far left. Each one of your members lives in fear of a socialist primary challenger -- this is
what is driving impeachment. Look at Congressman Nadler's challenger. Look at yourself and others. Do not take our country down with
your party.
If you truly cared about freedom and liberty for our Nation, then you would be devoting your vast investigative resources to exposing
the full truth concerning the FBI's horrifying abuses of power before, during, and after the 2016 election -- including the use of
spies against my campaign, the submission of false evidence to a FISA court, and the concealment of exculpatory evidence in order
to frame the innocent. The FBI has great and honorable people, but the leadership was inept and corrupt. I would think that you would
personally be appalled by these revelations, because in your press conference the day you announced impeachment, you tied the impeachment
effort directly to the completely discredited Russia Hoax, declaring twice that "all roads lead to Putin," when you know that is
an abject lie. I have been far tougher on Russia than President Obama ever even thought to be.
Any member of Congress who votes in support of impeachment -- against every shred of truth, fact, evidence, and legal principle
-- is showing how deeply they revile the voters and how truly they detest America's Constitutional order. Our Founders feared the
tribalization of partisan politics, and you are bringing their worst fears to life.
Worse still, I have been deprived of basic Constitutional Due Process from the beginning of this impeachment scam right up until
the present. I have been denied the most fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution, including the right to present evidence,
to have my own counsel present, to confront accusers, and to call and cross-examine witnesses, like the so-called whistleblower who
started this entire hoax with a false report of the phone call that bears no relationship to the actual phone call that was made.
Once I presented the transcribed call, which surprised and shocked the fraudsters (they never thought that such evidence would be
presented), the so-called whistleblower, and the second whistleblower, disappeared because they got caught, their report was a fraud,
and they were no longer going to be made available to us. In other words, once the phone call was made public, your whole plot blew
up, but that didn't stop you from continuing.
More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials.
You and others on your committees have long said impeachment must be bipartisan -- it is not. You said it was very divisive --
it certainly is, even far more than you ever thought possible -- and it will only get worse!
This is nothing more than an illegal, partisan attempted coup that will, based on recent sentiment, badly fail at the voting booth.
You are not just after me, as President, you are after the entire Republican Party. But because of this colossal injustice, our party
is more united than it has ever been before. History will judge you harshly as you proceed with this impeachment charade. Your legacy
will be that of turning the House of Representatives from a revered legislative body into a Star Chamber of partisan persecution.
Perhaps most insulting of all is your false display of solemnity. You apparently have so little respect for the American People
that you expect them to believe that you are approaching this impeachment somberly, reservedly, and reluctantly. No intelligent person
believes what you are saying. Since the moment I won the election, the Democrat Party has been possessed by Impeachment Fever. There
is no reticence. This is not a somber affair. You are making a mockery of impeachment and you are scarcely concealing your hatred
of me, of the Republican Party, and tens of millions of patriotic Americans. The voters are wise, and they are seeing straight through
this empty, hollow, and dangerous game you are playing.
I have no doubt the American people will hold you and the Democrats fully responsible in the upcoming 2020 election. They will
not soon forgive your perversion of justice and abuse of power.
There is far too much that needs to be done to improve the lives of our citizens. It is time for you and the highly partisan Democrats
in Congress to immediately cease this impeachment fantasy and get back to work for the American People. While I have no expectation
that you will do so, I write this letter to you for the purpose of history and to put my thoughts on a permanent and indelible record.
One hundred years from now, when people look back at this affair, I want them to understand it, and learn from it, so that it
can never happen to another President again.
Sincerely yours,
DONALD J. TRUMP
President of the United States of America
cc: United States Senate
United States House of Representatives
"... Surely the only reason for doing this is to obscure and hide the Democratic Party's involvement with (and meddling in) Ukrainian politics and Ukrainian political issues through people like Alexandra Chalupa and her sisters Andrea and Irena, and Dmitri Alperovich and his company Crowdstrike that looked after the DNC's cyber-security. ..."
It would seem that the Democrats need this impeachment circus over and done with before the
end of 2019 so they can concentrate on cleaning up Joe Biden as their Presidential candidate
and pretend he had no history before April 2019 when Volodymyr Zelensky became President of
Ukraine. That must explain their strange and shaky choice of issue on which to try to impeach
Donald Trump: so that during the campaign season,
Biden's past and his son having been on the
Board of Directors of a shady energy company (with a licence to explore and drill for oil in
an area of eastern Ukraine not far from where a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet was shot down
in 2014) can be kept off-limits to the MSM and anyone who dares to challenge Biden on his
record. If the President of the United States can be punished for pursuing the Bidens on
their record of corruption, then that alone should (in theory) stop anyone else from pursuing
them.
There are so many other issues on which to impeach Trump but the issue of Joe Biden's
conflict of interest regarding his son's involvement in Burisma Holdings and eastern Ukraine
generally is the weakest and the oddest.
Surely the only reason for doing this is to obscure
and hide the Democratic Party's involvement with (and meddling in) Ukrainian politics and
Ukrainian political issues through people like Alexandra Chalupa and her sisters Andrea and
Irena, and Dmitri Alperovich and his company Crowdstrike that looked after the DNC's
cyber-security.
My apologies if this has been posted before, but here is a news conference broadcast by
Interfax a few days ago detailing a joint French-Ukrainian journalistic investigation into a
huge money laundering scheme using various shadow banking organizations in Austria and
Switzerland, benefiting Clinton friendly Ukrainian oligarchs and of course the Clinton
Foundation.
The link is short enough to not require re-formatting:
Forgive me for the somewhat redundant post, and again I hope this is not a waste of anyone's
time, but this is the source of the Interfax report I posted just above currently at #56. It
is relevant to the Ukrainegate impeachment fiasco.
The U.S. and lapdog EU/UK media will not touch this with a 10 foot pole.
KYIV. Dec 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine and the United States should investigate
the transfer of $29 million by businessman Victor Pinchuk from Ukraine to the Clinton
Foundation, Ukrainian Member of Parliament (independent) Andriy Derkach has said. According
to him, the investigation should check and establish how the Pinchuk Foundation's
activities were funded; it, among other projects, made a contribution of $29 million to the
Clinton Foundation. "Yesterday, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies registered criminal
proceeding number 12019000000001138. As part of this proceeding, I provided facts that
should be verified and established by the investigation. Establishing these facts will also
help the American side to conduct its own investigation and establish the origin of the
money received by [Hillary] Clinton," Derkach said at a press conferences at
Interfax-Ukraine in Kyiv on Tuesday, December 17.
According to him, it was the independent French online publication Mediapart that first
drew attention to the money withdrawal scheme from Ukraine and Pinchuk's financing of the
Clinton Foundation.
"The general scheme is as follows. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) lent money to
Ukraine in 2015. The same year, Victor Pinchuk's Credit Dnepr [Bank] received UAH 357
million in a National Bank stabilization loan from the IMF's disbursement. Delta Bank was
given a total of UAH 5.110 billion in loans. The banks siphoned the money through Austria's
Meinl Bank into offshore accounts, and further into [the accounts of] the Pinchuk
Foundation. The money siphoning scam was confirmed by a May 2016 ruling by [Kyiv's]
Pechersky court. The total damage from this scam involving other banks is estimated at $800
million. The Pinchuk Foundation transferred $29 million to the Foundation of Clinton, a
future U.S. presidential candidate from the Democratic Party," Derkach said.
So all other presidents who claimed privilege were actually obstructing Congress and were
subject to impeachment as will be all future presidents who claim privilege. Burisma, a
Ukrainian company, can not be investigated because a Biden is on the board. Hunter has a very
lucrative future ahead of him as an insurance against investigation.
If this exchange wasn't a set-up then I'll eat my MAGA hat*.
This bubbling "fat guy" comes with FOX News talking points and Joe Biden mops the floor
with him. Not only denouncing the question, but insulting the questioner. I like the majestic
(IMO pre-arranged) touch: "let him talk". Oh so respectful - yet seconds later he insults the
questioner!! LOL.
Anyone that dares to ask about Hunter Biden after this will be dismissed by Biden who will
say that the question's been asked and answered and he's being hounded by Trump
partisans.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden acknowledged it "may have looked bad" for his
son to serve on the board of foreign companies, but the former vice president stood firm that
his son did nothing wrong.
... ... ...
When asked by Telemundo if it was wrong -- even if legal -- for Hunter Biden
to take the board seat, Joe Biden doubled down on defending his son.
"There's nothing asserted that he did anything that was illegal," Joe Biden said. "Here's
what I'm not going to do. I'm not going to -- and I know you're not intending to do this --
play the game to take the eye off the culprit."
If Biden was corrupt as hell, why not to coordinate with President administration and his
personal lawyer about this matter. Biden status as a Democratic contender does not absolve him
from criminal liability under Foreign Corrupt Practices
Act
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78dd-1, et seq.
("FCPA"), was enacted for the purpose of making it unlawful for certain classes of persons and
entities to make payments to foreign government officials to assist in obtaining or retaining
business.
Contained within a 300-page report on the Democrats' impeachment investigation was a
startling admission; House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) had obtained
call records between Rep. Devin Nunes, Rudy Giuliani, Ukraine intermediary Lev Parnas,
and journalist John Solomon .
In response, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) said "It
raises a lot of serious questions," before demanding to know what Schiff was up to.
" I want to know all the people Adam Schiff is spying on ," Schiff told the Washington Examiner . "Are there other members of Congress that he is spying on,
and what justification does he have? He needs to be held accountable and explain what he's
doing, going after journalists, going after members of Congress, instead of doing his job."
The records showed calls between Nunes and President Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy
Giuliani, and calls between Nunes and Lev Parnas , a Giuliani associate now under indictment
for funneling foreign money to U.S. political candidates.
Schiff said the calls raise questions about whether Nunes was involved in what Democrats
believe was a scheme to undermine Trump's political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. -
Washington Examiner
On Tuesday, Schiff said "I find it deeply concerning at a time when the president of the
United States was using the power of his office to dig up dirt on a political rival, that there
may be evidence of members of Congress complicit in that activity ."
Nunes says he doesn't recall speaking with Parnas, and that any discussions with Giuliani
would have likely revolved around the Mueller report.
"I remember talking to Rudy Giuliani, and we were actually laughing about how Mueller bombed
out," Nunes told Fox News on Tuesday. Democrats claim that the Nunes call records
reveal that he's been coordinating with the Trump administration and Giuliani to go after
former Vice President Joe Biden, who has been credibly accused of corruption in Ukraine
involving his son Hunter.
Democrats have been critical of Nunes since his tenure as the House Intelligence Committee
chairman from 2017 to 2019. During that time, Nunes made a trip to the White House to inform
Trump his transition meeting messages were intercepted by U.S. intelligence.
"I always felt that Mr. Nunes was a dividing character," Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell of
New Jersey told the Washington Examiner . "We know of his meetings with the president,
which he had every right to do by the way. But in the peculiar position he was in, it was
obvious where he was getting his orders and how he proceeded. And I think he's going to get
what's coming to him."
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said "there are serious questions" about the calls between
Nunes and Giuliani and Parnas. He said Democrats "need to look at them and see what action
ought to be taken, if any."
Hoyer declined to say whether it would be in the form of a House ethics investigation or a
punitive House floor measure.
"I want to have input from other people before I opine on what we ought to be doing. I
will be doing that," he said. - Washington Examiner
The call record produced by House Democrats also reveal calls in late April between Lev
Parnas and journalist John Solomon, a previous columnist for The Hill who has broken
several bombshell stories regarding the Russia investigation and the Bidens.
"I'm interested in why he was doing this," said Scalise of Schiff. "And under what
authority."
"The Ukrainian Office of the Prosecutor General has drawn up an indictment against the
owner of the Burisma Holdings energy company, ex-Ecology Minister Nikolai Zlochevsky, that
contains information that the son of former US Vice President Joe Biden, Hunter, as a Burisma
board member along with his partners, received $16.5 million for their services, Ukrainian
Verkhovna Rada MP from the ruling Servant of the People party Alexander Dubinsky told a press
conference on Wednesday, citing the investigation's materials. According to him, the money
came from duplicitous criminal activity."
The
corruption in ukraine is off the charts.
The article discusses land privatization but reveals a truly diabolical
purpose for the $7.4 billion that was stolen from ukraine.
It would be amusing if it wasn't so pathetic. But Schiff has close ties to a notorious Ukrainian arms dealer. Schiff was also
a frequent recipient of campaign cash from meth dealer and Hillary Clinton donor Ed Buck. Buck is the LA Democrat with a penchant
for shooting up homeless black men with meth and having sex with them. He allegedly killed at least two of them and is currently
being charged with two counts of murder. Schiff has yet to disavow him and return his repeated donations.
Paul Pelosi has his own Ukrainian Gas Company
Pelosi's own son Paul Pelosi Jr had his own connection as an officer with a Ukrainian natural gas company. Pelosi actually used his
mother, Speaker Pelosi, in a promotional video for the company. Pelosi Jr. earlier had served as an executive just under Mike Mozilla
with Countrywide during the height of the mortgage crisis of 2008. Countrywide being one of the worse abusers in the mortgage debacle
that almost destroyed America's, and the world's, economy.
Paul Pelosi Jr. made a fortune, walking away unscathed. This before starting a solar energy company to take advantage of huge
Federal Government loan guarantees. Another money windfall for Pelosi, who walked away with a fortune when that company went bankrupt.
Leaving the Federal Government and the taxpayers to make up for the losses. Nevada Senator Harry Reid's son Rory was involved in
much the same scheme. Reid's children, all lobbyists, got rich off fees and loan guarantees from solar companies with no sufficient
market underpinnings. Both companies went belly up, leaving the Federal Government and the taxpayers holding the bag.
Hunter Biden in China
But it is Hunter Biden's relationship with both China and Ukraine that illustrates the corrupt dealings of the Biden family business.
Joe Biden started sucking up to China in 2012 when he toured the country with then-Vice President Xi Jinping. He then toured America
with Xi as his guest. In 2013 he went to China and took Hunter along on Air Force II. Two weeks later Hunter incorporated an investment
firm with John Kerry's stepson, Christopher Heinz, and Whitey Bulger's nephew. Shortly thereafter they received $1.5 billion dollars
for the fund to invest in Chinese research companies.
https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-35/html/container.html#xpc=sf-gdn-exp-2&p=https%3A//www.commdiginews.com https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-35/html/container.html#xpc=sf-gdn-exp-2&p=https%3A//www.commdiginews.com
Duel use technologies approved for export by Biden and Kerry
One of the companies they invested in was a Chinese arms company that imported technologies with dual-use purposes. The investment
required the approval of both the White House and State Department. It should be little surprise that Secretary of State John Kerry
and Vice President Biden saw to it that the deal went through.
The Russia Hoax: James Clapper throws Barack Obama under the busOther investments of the Biden Heinz Bulger fund included a Chinese company that invested in AI technologies like facial recognition.
Again duel use technologies, which will be incorporated into the modern police surveillance state that China has become. Thanks to
Hunter and Joe Biden, and Christopher Heinz and John Kerry.
Kerry and Biden: Burisma and Ukraine
The Kerry, Biden connection continues in Ukraine, though with a twist. Hunter Biden's dealings in Ukraine were so alarming to Christopher
Heinz that he dissolved his working partnership with Hunter Biden because of it. It was too crooked. Too obvious. Too corrupt, even
for Christopher Heinz. But John Kerry was still tied to it. In spades. The origins of the Hunter Biden deal with Burisma dates back
to 2014. Steve Hilton of Fox News laid out the timeline of events brilliantly last Sunday. As well as the ties between Burisma, John
Kerry, and a handful of Democrat Senators who supported a "cash for gas" initiative to purchase $50 million in natural gas from Ukraine.
https://video.foxnews.com/v/video-embed.html?video_id=6094578904001
Devon Archer and Joe Biden: A curious series of events
On April 16, 2014, Burisma board member and Hunter Biden friend Devon Archer meets with Joe Biden to discuss Ukrainian natural gas.
On April 18th Hunter Biden forms the holding company, Rosemont Seneca, that will be the conduit for Burisma's money. Three days later,
on April 21st, Joe Biden announces the program of US cash for Ukrainian gas, jumpstarting the initiative.
The Coup against Trump: Is John Brennan a Russian Agent?Coincidence? Certainly not. Then it gets even more interesting. Burisma appoints Hunter Biden to its Board of Directors. Even
though he has no experience in oil or gas, or Ukraine, and doesn't speak Ukrainian. It doesn't matter. He is Joe Biden's son. The
fix is in. Devon Archer (far left) is pictured with Joe and Hunter Biden. (Screenshot from Twitter) Burisma pays Rosemont Seneca
$186,000 per month, which Hunter Biden splits with Devon Archer. That's $98,000 apiece, every month. Well more than the $50,000 a
month figure bandied about by the media. At the same time, Burisma pays Hunter Biden's law firm a $300,000 retainer to handle legal
affairs.
Burisma, Kerry, and David Leiter's ML Strategies
Then Burisma hires John Kerry's former Chief of Staff David Leiter to conduct lobbying on behalf of Burisma and Ukrainian natural
gas. It pays Leiter's consulting group, ML Strategies, $90,000. Leiter makes $3,000 contributions, in three $1,000 payments, to Democrat
Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey and New Hampshire Senator Jean Shaheen. Shaheen and Markey write a letter to President Obama supporting
a "cash for gas" relationship with Ukraine, and calling for an expansion of Ukrainian natural gas exploration. Burisma releases a
press release praising Markey and Shaheen's letter. Leiter also makes three $1000 contributions to Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal.
Blumenthal immediately announces his support for the Ukrainian "cash for gas" initiative. (
Steve Hilton: The
real Ukraine scandal is US cash for gas -- It involves the Bidens and a growing list of Dems )
Joe Biden work on behalf of ML Strategies
Shortly thereafter Joe Biden makes his famous trip to Ukraine where he demands the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor Victor Shokin,
who is looking into Burisma Holdings and Hunter Biden.
AG William Barr and Atty. Durham closing in on the Obama, Brennan coup plottersAfter the prosecutor is fired Hunter Biden's lawyers file a brief with the new prosecutor in Ukraine, currying favor, and saying
explicitly that the charges of corruption against Shokin were disinformation planted by Western governments. https://www.youtube.com/embed/KCF9My1vBP4
Hunter Biden continues to receive payments from Burisma until April 2019, one month before Joe Biden announces his run for the Presidency.
He has received close to $6 million dollars thus far. There are reports that Rosemont Seneca received an additional $900,000 payment
intended for Joe Biden himself. https://www.youtube.com/embed/KCF9My1vBP4 Hunter Biden continues to receive payments from Burisma
until April 2019, one month before Joe Biden announces his run for the Presidency. He has received close to $6 million dollars thus
far. There are reports that Rosemont Seneca received an additional $900,000 payment intended for Joe Biden himself. Hunter Biden
continues to receive payments from Burisma until April 2019, one month before Joe Biden announces his run for the Presidency. He
has received close to $6 million dollars thus far. There are reports that Rosemont Seneca received an additional $900,000 payment
intended for Joe Biden himself.
Hunter and Joe Biden's admission of consciousness of guilt
This week Hunter Biden stepped down from the board of the Chinese holding company but retained his 10% equity investment. The owners
of the company have yet to state what exactly Hunter Biden's duties were. The same could be said of Burisma. Joe Biden says he never
discussed his son's business affairs. Hunter says otherwise, in an interview with the New Yorker. Biden's response to his son's Burisma
news. "I hope you know what you are doing". Not exactly an endorsement. Certainly a recognition that Joe Biden knew what Hunter was
up to. And he knew it stank to high heaven. Joe Biden announced yesterday that his son will have no dealings with any government
if he is elected President. This begs the question. If it is improper if Biden is President, then it was improper when Biden was
Vice President. Rather than clearing Biden and his son, it is proof of consciousness of guilt, and acknowledgment of impropriety.
" Wasn't it inappropriate for someone like you in the middle of all this to have your son collecting money from this big credit
card company while you were on the floor protecting its interests?"
Brokaw sets forth the case against Biden
"That's a reference to your son being hired right out of law school by a big company here in Delaware that's in the credit card
business, MBNA. He got about $100,000 a year, as I recall. You received $214,000 in campaign contributions from the company and from
its employees. At the same time, you were fighting for a bankruptcy bill that MBNA really wanted to get passed through the Senate
making it much tougher for everyone to file bankruptcy. Senator Obama was opposed to the bill. Among other things, you couldn't in
fact claim that you had a problem because of big medical bills."
"You voted against an amendment that would call for a warning on predatory lending. You also opposed efforts to strengthen the
protection of people in bankruptcy. This is an issue that you've heard about before. Your son was working for the company at the
same time. In retrospect, wasn't it inappropriate for someone like you in the middle of all this to have your son collecting money
from the big credit card company while you were on the floor protecting its interests?"
Biden response, as with all questions about Burisma: "Absolutely not!"
James Biden and the Obama billion-dollar housing contract
Joe Biden's brother James has been feeding at the trough as well, securing a $1.2 billion dollar contract with the Pentagon, while
his brother was Vice President, to build housing in Iraq. James Biden had no experience in construction or building houses, even
though he landed a contract that would make Halliburton and Dick Cheney turn green. (
Joe Biden's Family Has Been Getting Rich off His Political Career for Decades – PJ Media )
Hillary Clinton and the corrupt Clinton Foundation
Then there is Hillary Clinton's well-documented history of graft, pay to play, and unbridled corruption. The Uranium One scam. The
Clinton Foundation slush fund. Stealing billions of dollars from Haiti by running all aid through the Clinton Foundation. Spending
millions on Chelsea's wedding, all paid for by the Clinton Foundation.
FISA
Court exposes Obama's abuse of NSA to spy on AmericansIn 2016 Ukrainian donors gave more
money to the Clinton Foundation than any other country. Roughy $10 million dollars. More than Saudi Arabia ($7.3 Million). Of
course this pales in comparison to the $240 million the Clinton Foundation received in the Uranium One scam. On a side note, the
person who delivered the Uranium One sample directly to the Russians in Moscow was none other than FBI Director Robert Mueller. So
many curious facts.
The Steele Dossier, the corrupt Ambassador Yovanovich
This doesn't even touch on the Steele Dossier and Sydney Blumenthal getting dirt on Paul Manafort and Donald Trump from Ukraine and
passing it on to the DNC, DOJ and FBI. It doesn't touch on the Clinton loving Ambassador Yovanovich working with George Soros and
Ukraine to manufacture dirt on Manafort and Trump and pass it on to the State Department and DNC.
Obama Brennan coup involved State Dept., DOD, DNI, DOJ, CIA and FBIOr the fact that when the Hunter Biden / Burisma investigation was shut down, so was the investigation the Soros group that worked
to find dirt on Trump. Or the recent revelation the Ambassador Yovanovich had a list of conservative American journalists illegally
spied on. Whether its political corruption. Or old fashioned self-enrichment. Barack Obama ran an administration where senior officials
were lining their pockets in Pay to Play schemes on a level that would make Richard Nixon blush.
Draining the swamp of Democrat corruption and abuse of power
At the same time, senior intelligence and Justice officials were spying on a major Presidential candidate. Laying the groundwork
for a rolling and ongoing coup against the duly elected sitting President of the United States, Donald Trump. That continues to
this day. The release of the IG Horowitz report next week on FISA abuse will demonstrate the abject corruption of the DOJ, FBI
and our intelligence agencies. William Barr and US Attorney John Durham have earth-shaking indictments in the works that will,
at long last, blow the lid off the Russia hoax. Exposing the coup plotters and bringing the final curtain to the Obama legacy.
Yet here we are in the midst of the current political impeachment crisis. The documented corruption and pay to play schemes at
the very top of the Obama team must now be revealed and exposed. Joe Biden and John Kerry are as corrupt and dangerous as Hillary
Clinton ever was. We don't have to take Joe Biden's word for anything. We already have his confession.
"... "This is the official statement from Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley is one of the biggest bank holdings in the USA. Here you can see a cash flow of Rosemont Seneca Boa company owned by Devon Archer, for a year and a half (from May 2014 to October 2016). According to the bank statement, starting from May 2014 to October 2015 Burisma company transferred to Rosemont company $4.817 million, and the latter transferred a payment amounted to $871,000 to the account of Biden," ..."
"... When Miss Vicki F*TheEU Nuland was scheming with the American ambassador to insert the American stooge "Yats" as she called him, into the leadership of the Ukraine, there was talk about how all the Ukraine gold was being moved to the US for "safekeeping". Does anyone know what happened to their gold reserves? ..."
"... The only future Ukraine has is an impoverished depopulated backwater, like the Baltics. A source of cheap labour and cheap prostitutes for the EU – the only thing Ukraine produces the EU wants. ..."
The Ukrainian Office of the Prosecutor General has drawn up an indictment against the owner of the Burisma Holdings energy
company, ex-Ecology Minister Nikolai Zlochevsky, that contains information that the son of former US Vice President Joe Biden,
Hunter, as a Burisma board member along with his partners, received $16.5 million for their services, Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada
MP from the ruling Servant of the People party Alexander Dubinsky told a press conference on Wednesday, citing the investigation's
materials. According to him, the money came from duplicitous criminal activity.
Another Rada member, Andreii Derkach, had earlier posted,
to Facebook, on November 11th, what he alleges to
be photos of bank statements and other financial records documenting the flows of money from Ukraine into the partnership that Joe
Biden's son Hunter Biden and his friend the Yale college roommate of John Kerry's stepson Christopher Hines, Devon Archer, had set
up.
The partnership, Rosemont Seneca Boa, is associated with their Rosemont Seneca Partners LLC.
The data on the veiled transfer of funds for lobbying activities personally to J. Biden were obtained during the investigation.
Money in the amount of over USD 900 thousand was transferred to the aforesaid Rosemont Seneca Partners LLC, the resident company,
with an indication of 'Remuneration for consulting services' as payment details.
The person was identified and interviewed as
a witness in the course of the investigation, who has been personally engaged in holding transactions for laundering and legitimization
of funds in favor of M. Zlochevsky and the Bidens. Investigators possess original copies of the payment instruments and engineering
means, whereby the said bargains were performed.
Through making use of the political and economic leverages over new government authorities of Ukraine and intimidating them
with the issue of granting financial assistance to Ukraine, Joe Biden has actively promoted the closing of the criminal cases
against M. Zlochevsky and Burisma Group corporate executives.
Another document:
According to the data from the Financial Intelligence Unit of Latvia, Wirelogic Technology AS and Digitex Organization LLP paid
from July 2012 to December 2015 to Burisma Holdings Limited (Cyprus) account established with AS PrivatBank amounts of USD 14,665,982
+ EUR 366,015 and USD 1,964,375 accordingly 'as payments under the loan agreement.'
Consequently, the part of the aforesaid
funds was charged off in favor of Mr. Alan Apter (EUR 302,885), Mr. Aleksander Kwasniewski (EUR 1,150,000), Mr, Devon Archer and
Mr. Hunter Biden [no amounts specified for either].
A letter
is shown addressed to Derkach from "The Prosecutor Office of Ukraine," the "General Prosecutor Office of Ukraine," and signed
by the Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka, dated 30 October 2019. It said:
As a result of the pre-trial investigation on 02.09.2019, the investigator decided to close the above mentioned criminal proceedings
on the basis of paragraph 2 of Part 1 of Art. 284 of the CPC of Ukraine in connection with the lack of corpus delicti [evidence
of a crime]. There are no grounds for re-entering information on the facts stated in your application" for "Pre-trial Investigations.
The Burisma cases would not go to trial.
Among the photos that Derkach showed in his article are a "CLIENT STATEMENT for the Period May 1-31 2015" from "Morgan Stanley
Private Wealth Management" showing, for example, that on "5/13," "Funds Transferred" by "WIRED FUNDS SENT" "BENE. ACCT. ROBERT [Hunter]
BIDEN" were "15,000.00".
Derkach says:
Shokin [the man Joe Biden had fired] has repeatedly called upon the NABU director Sitnik in the criminal proceedings on Burisma
case, but always got the run-arounds.
and asks:
Why was the NABU in such a hurry to close the cases of Burisma, Zlochevskiy and Biden, and for whom did they collect personal
data on Shokin?
Before noting that:
the moment when Shokin demanded from NABU to investigate facts of international corruption coincided with the arrival of US
Vice President Joe Biden to Ukraine. And $ 1 billion of loan guarantees that the United States had to provide Ukraine depended
on Biden.
He shows a time-line indicating that the turning-point to close down the investigation was "Biden's visit to Kyiv" occurring "December
7-8, 2015." On "June 3, 2016," was the "Signing by the Government of the United States and Ukraine of loan guarantee agreement [U.S.
taxpayers to take any loss] worth $1 billion."
Starting from May 2014 to October 2015 Burisma company transferred to Rosemont company $4.817 million, and the latter transferred
a payment amounted to $871,000 to the account of Hunter Biden, son of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, reported MP Andriy
Derkach in a video blog on Facebook.
"This is the official statement from Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley is one of the biggest
bank holdings in the USA. Here you can see a cash flow of Rosemont Seneca Boa company owned by Devon Archer, for a year and a
half (from May 2014 to October 2016). According to the bank statement, starting from May 2014 to October 2015 Burisma company
transferred to Rosemont company $4.817 million, and the latter transferred a payment amounted to $871,000 to the account of Biden,"
said Derkach adding an official statement from Morgan Stanley.
He noted that in order to help the investigation, he made public new documents on international corruption, which were transferred
to him by investigative journalists in 11 criminal proceedings.
Derkach reminded that in total, according to his data from the report of Financial Intelligence Unit of Latvia, in favor of
two shell-offshore companies, as well as Hunter Biden with partners, the Burisma company paid no less than $16.5 mln.
Kolomoysky is also the chief political benefactor of Ukraine's current President, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Consequently, Kolomoysky
had supported both the overthrow of Yanukovych and the recent election of Zelensky.
For Kolomoysky, instead of Zlochevsky, to be targeted in corruption investigations that would be supported by Kolomoysky's agent
Zelensky, would be unlikely, unless America's current President, Donald Trump, were to abandon entirely his predecessor's, Ukraine-policy,
and were to require Zelensky to do likewise, and Zelensky then were to obey that command from the U.S. White House.
Those things are, as of yet, not expected to happen.
On November 20th, the U.S.-allied 'news'-agency, Reuters, headlined with the anodyne "Ukraine widens probe against Burisma founder
to embezzlement of state funds" and buried in that 486-word article - and provided no further information regarding - the stunning
15-word statement (the real news in the article), that:
The investigation [by Ukraine's Government, of Zlochevsky] is effectively on hold, however, because the Ukrainian authorities
cannot determine Zlochevsky's whereabouts."
Reasonable presumptions would be that Zlochevsky had received advance notice that he was going to be targeted in yet another 'investigation'
into alleged Burisma corruption and had fled Ukraine, much as he had done when Yanukovych was ousted in 2014.
Consequently, thus far, U.S. President Trump has been adhering to Barack Obama's Ukraine policy (which targeted the pro-Yanukovych
Zlochevsky, instead of the anti-Yanukovych Kolomoysky). However, with the recent firing of Obama's Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch,
that could change.
Although virtually all of the press says that Mr. Zlochevsky owns Burisma, both of the detailed investigations that have
been done of the matter indicate that Zlochevsky sold majority-ownership of the company in 2011 to a Ukrainian billionaire,
Ihor Kolomoysky.
That's interesting. I didn't know that. Kolomoisky's a slippery bastard. Now it appears he's changing sides yet again, at least
if this latest report
from the NYT is to be believed:
"Mr. Kolomoisky, widely seen as Ukraine's most powerful figure outside government, given his role as the patron of the recently
elected President Volodymyr Zelensky, has experienced a remarkable change of heart: It is time, he said, for Ukraine to give
up on the West and turn back toward Russia."
It'll be interesting to see if Kolomoisky's latest treachery helps to hasten Biden's downfall!
Seamus Padraig ,
Wouldn't it be poetic justice if the Clintonoids' destruction of Ukraine ends destroying them in return? I would laugh my ass
off!
Less than six hours after Bojo's disastrous performance on LBC Radio this morning (
here ) we have a 'terrorist attack' in London. There needs to be a modern-day Nuremberg Trials.
When Miss Vicki F*TheEU Nuland was scheming with the American ambassador to insert the American stooge "Yats" as she called him,
into the leadership of the Ukraine, there was talk about how all the Ukraine gold was being moved to the US for "safekeeping".
Does anyone know what happened to their gold reserves?
paul ,
It's in safe hands now, having been flown out to the US, along with the 140 tons of Libyan gold and the Iraqi gold and the Venezuelan
gold and the gold from the basement of WTC 7. So we can all sleep easy now. Any country taking out IMF loans has to hand over
its gold to Uncle Sam.
Just as well. Can't be too careful when there are all these standard issue Mark 1 Foaming-At- The-Mouth-Radical-Moslem-Terrorists
lurking around London Bridge, as supplied by Central Casting. Luckily they are all on the MI5 payroll so our splendid spook chaps
can keep an eye on them.
paul ,
They have lost their oil/ coal/ steel/ gas/ metallurgy/ chemicals/ engineering/ motor vehicle/ shipbuilding/ aircraft/ locomotives/
armaments/ spacecraft/ agricultural machinery industries, and ten million of their population, so they might as well lose their
gold as well.
George Cornell ,
So what possible expertise or wisdom was Hunt Rhymeswith Biden giving time the board of Burisma? I posed this in an NYT blog and
got the reply that the 100k/month was for "the respectability" Rhymeswith would bring to the board. 'Struth!. It's Saturday Night
Live every night in Washington.
Here it is more officially. Hunter was hired to "boost the reputation of Burisma", as only cokehead sex addicted dishonorably
discharged rejects from the Navy can.
King Herod running a babysitting service would make more sense.
This is surely a type of Will Rogers effect.
George Cornell ,
And just for one more whack at what should be a dead horse, most will have noted that former Polish President Krasniewski, handpicked
for the interview in the Daily Mail linked above, is the same Krasniewski who is mentioned in the article above as receiving 1.15
million euros and a few other millions in loose change from Burisma.
He says earnestly that Biden Jr. never abused his position
on the Burisma board. But says little about what surely is a sham contract with Biden Jr. – as to what Biden's, and his own deliverables
might have been. No mention by the Mail about his conflict of interest, who seem to be after just allowing Krasy to defend the
indefensible, viz. the more appalling of the two Bidens.
No wonder poor Poland stays in NATO and spends money on American arms at the expense of pressing social needs, with leaders
like Krasy.
MichaelK ,
Trump's rubbing his tiny hands together with glee at the thought of Joe Biden running against him in next year's election! Biden's
the 'perfect' candidate and Trump will wipe the floor with him. Apparently Ohama has raised questions about Biden's 'gualities'
as a candidate, that's probably because he's up to his turkey neck in the corrupt swamp of Ukrainian's dire politics along with
his pin-head son, Hunter; or 'Hunt' as I prefer to call him.
Perhaps the Democrats have decided to sit the next election out, because they sense that none of the sanctioned candidates
stand a chance against Trump. Perhaps this is why the billionaire Bloomberg has thrown his golden crown into the ring. The Battle
of the Billionaires should be a 'democratic' spectacle worth watching, from a safe distance.
paul ,
Apart from Afghanistan, Ukraine is probably the most corrupt country in the world. It makes Nigeria look like a model of good
governance.
The income per head there is less than Egypt. It is a failed state, a total basket case.
It is a CIA/ NATO playground to aggressively confront Russia.
Tens of billions have been poured into this poor and egregiously corrupt country by the EU, IMF, and CIA Front Groups like the
National Endowment For Democracy to prop up the Fascist Coup Regime that was installed there in 2014.
Surprisingly enough, all this has promptly evaporated into private foreign bank accounts. There is nothing to show for it.
Ukraine, just like Iraq before it, has been a happy hunting ground for corrupt US politicians and their junkie offspring.
Hence the howls of outrage when Trump threatens their pork barrel by threatening to scale back US involvement in Ukraine.
The only future Ukraine has is an impoverished depopulated backwater, like the Baltics. A source of cheap labour and cheap prostitutes
for the EU – the only thing Ukraine produces the EU wants.
Grafter ,
Corrupt individuals of one fascist regime (Ukraine) handing out billions to their partners of another corrupt fascist regime (America).
"Consultancy fees" for what exactly ? Anyway nothing to see here it's all perfectly normal "business". Move along now.
Vierotchka ,
Ihor Kolomoysky is the hand in the Volodymy Zelensky puppet.
lundiel ,
I was wondering if they would ever get round to investigating Hunter Biden's activities. Let's hope this forces them to do so.
LeRuscino ,
The Dems have gone into full self-immolation mode & handed Trump 2020 on a plate !
Hilarious to watch the "Pavlov's Dogs" who were trained to hate Trump, like good little sheep, see their fantasies go up in
smoke. Don't think for one minute (even second) that I support Trump but I do hate Sheep as their naivety is responsible for 99% of
the World's woes.
wardropper ,
One self-immolator handing the election to another self-immolator.
Let's face it, nobody wants to be President of the United States any more.
It's just too much hard work serving the real owners of the White House.
We've reached the "Caligula" stage of the fall of the American empire.
It's terminal.
If you've not heard the story, Zlochevsky is alleged to have been doing other people's
laundry. About 7.5 billion dollars worth – a sum that has attracted some attention. And
not just because Ukraine claims Hunter Biden's attachment to Burisma resulted in a take if 16.5
million. Money that has nothing to do with his complete lack of knowledge about energy or gas
but probably relates in some predictable way to the name 'Biden.' The investment firm doing the
laundry has close ties to Barack Obama. Joe Biden. Lt. Col Alexander Vindman. Perhaps a few
members of the US State Department. And maybe a George Soros funded operation "fighting
corruption."
We've seen that Vindman has close ties to the previous Ukrainian government, dating back
to Yanukovych and his successor Petro Poroshenko, while this alleged money-laundering scheme
was taking place. The connection to the Franklin Templeton Fund is interesting because John
Templeton, Jr. was a major Obama campaign donor, and Thomas Donilon, who was Obama's National
Security Advisor before Susan Rice and is now the chairman of BlackRock
Investment Institute , a major owner of Franklin Templeton stock.
Vindman is a holdover from the Bamster years, embedded at the NSC.
He served as National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama. In that capacity Mr.
Donilon oversaw the U.S. National Security Council staff, chaired the cabinet level National
Security Principals Committee, provided the president's daily national security briefing, and
was responsible for the coordination and integration of the administration's foreign policy,
intelligence, and military efforts. Mr. Donilon also oversaw the White House's cybersecurity
and international energy efforts. Mr. Donilon served as the President's personal emissary to
a number of world leaders.
Not a casual acquaintance but watch Obama distance himself from him now. "Who? O
I..uh-hardly knew him!"
Under the Obama Administration, former Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovich, like Biden,
like the Soros funded group working with the State Department, were all supposed to be focused
on fighting corruption. There's that word again. I don't think it means what they think it
means.
But while all this corruption-fighting was underway Joe's kid Hunter gets a sweetheart
payoff from Burisma. Joe (who is in charge of Ukraine) gets close to a million for himself. All
while 7.5 Billion is alleged to have been laundered through a "fund" whose primary players are
a major Obama donor and the President's "personal emissary" (under the watchful anti-corruption
eye of a group funded by perhaps the biggest Democrat donor in history, George Soros).
During this series of events, Ukraine got leveraged by the Obama Administration to fire a
prosecutor in exchange for a billion in US aid, probably because that prosecutor was getting
too close to what we are learning today.
Somebody was engaged in a record number of quid pro quos, and no one is named Trump.
...
... ... Steve
MacDonaldis a New Hampshire resident, blogger, and activist. A member of the 603
Alliance, NHCMP, NHRVC, LFGC, and the host of GrokTALK! Please Note: My opinions are my own and
not those of my Family, employers, politicians, campaigns, or other contributors or commenters
at GraniteGrok
"... In the spring and summer of 2019, did you ever become aware of any U.S. intelligence or U.S. treasury concerns raised about incoming Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and his affiliation or proximity to certain oligarchs? Did any of those concerns involve what the IMF might do if a certain oligarch who supported Zelensky returned to power and regained influence over Ukraine's national bank? ..."
"... John Solomon reported at The Hill and your colleagues have since confirmed in testimony that the State Department helped fund a nonprofit called the Anti-Corruption Action Centre of Ukraine that also was funded by George Soros' main charity. That nonprofit, also known as AnTac, was identified in a 2014 Soros foundation strategy document as critical to reshaping Ukraine to Mr. Soros' vision. ..."
"... In March 2019, Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko gave an on-the-record, videotaped interview to The Hill alleging that during a 2016 meeting you discussed a list of names of Ukrainian nationals and groups you did not want to see Ukrainian prosecutors target. Your supporters have since suggested he recanted that story. Did you or your staff ever do anything to confirm he had recanted or changed his story, such as talk to him, or did you just rely on press reports? ..."
"... Your colleagues, in particular Mr. George Kent, have confirmed to the House Intelligence Committee that the U.S. embassy in Kiev did, in fact, exert pressure on the Ukrainian prosecutors office not to prosecute certain Ukrainian activists and officials. These efforts included a letter Mr. Kent signed urging Ukrainian prosecutors to back off an investigation of the aforementioned group AnTac as well as engaged in conversations about certain Ukrainians like Parliamentary member Sergey Leschenko, journalist Vitali Shabunin and NABU director Artem Sytnyk. Why was the US. Embassy involved in exerting such pressure and did any of these actions run afoul of the Geneva Convention's requirement that foreign diplomats avoid becoming involved in the internal affairs of their host country? ..."
"... If the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States suddenly urged us to fire Attorney General Bill Bar or our FBI director, would you think that was appropriate? ..."
"... At any time since December 2015, did you or your embassy ever have any contact with Vice President Joe Biden, his office or his son Hunter Biden concerning Burisma Holdings or an investigation into its owner Mykola Zlochevsky? ..."
The next big witness for the House Democrats' impeachment hearings is Marie Yovanovitch, the
former American ambassador to Ukraine who was recalled last spring at President Trump's
insistence.
It is unclear what firsthand knowledge she will offer about the core allegation of this
impeachment: that Trump delayed foreign aid assistance to Ukraine in hopes of getting an
investigation of Joe Biden and Democrats started.
Nonetheless, she did deal with the Ukrainians going back to the summer of 2016 and likely
will be an important fact witness.
After nearly two years of reporting on Ukraine issues, here are 15 questions I think could
be most illuminating to every day Americans if the ambassador answered them.
Ambassador Yovanovitch, at any time while you served in Ukraine did any officials in Kiev
ever express concern to you that President Trump might be withholding foreign aid assistance
to get political investigations started? Did President Trump ever ask you as America's top
representative in Kiev to pressure Ukrainians to start an investigation about Burisma
Holdings or the Bidens?
What was the Ukrainians' perception of President Trump after he allowed lethal aid to go
to Ukraine in 2018?
In the spring and summer of 2019, did you ever become aware of any U.S. intelligence
or U.S. treasury concerns raised about incoming Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and
his affiliation or proximity to certain oligarchs? Did any of those concerns involve what the
IMF might do if a certain oligarch who supported Zelensky returned to power and regained
influence over Ukraine's national bank?
Back in May 2018, then-House Rules Committee chairman Pete Sessions wrote a letter to
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggesting you might have made comments unflattering or
unsupportive of the president and should be recalled. Setting aside that Sessions is a
Republican and might even have donors interested in Ukraine policy, were you ever questioned
about his concerns? At any time have you or your embassy staff made comments that could be
viewed as unsupportive or critical of President Trump and his policies?
John Solomon reported at The Hill and your colleagues have since confirmed in
testimony that the State Department helped fund a nonprofit called the Anti-Corruption Action
Centre of Ukraine that also was funded by George Soros' main charity. That nonprofit, also
known as AnTac, was identified in a 2014 Soros foundation strategy document as critical to
reshaping Ukraine to Mr. Soros' vision. Can you explain what role your embassy played in
funding this group and why State funds would flow to it? And did any one consider the
perception of mingling tax dollars with those donated by Soros, a liberal ideologue who spent
millions in 2016 trying to elect Hillary Clinton and defeat Donald Trump?
In March 2019, Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko gave an on-the-record,
videotaped interview to The Hill alleging that during a 2016 meeting you discussed a list of
names of Ukrainian nationals and groups you did not want to see Ukrainian prosecutors target.
Your supporters have since suggested he recanted that story. Did you or your staff ever do
anything to confirm he had recanted or changed his story, such as talk to him, or did you
just rely on press reports?
Now that both the New York Times and The Hill have confirmed that Lutsenko stands by his
account and has not recanted, how do you respond to his concerns? And setting aide the use of
the word "list," is it possible that during that 2016 meeting with Mr. Lutsenko you discussed
the names of certain Ukrainians you did not want to see prosecuted, investigated or
harassed?
Your colleagues, in particular Mr. George Kent, have confirmed to the House
Intelligence Committee that the U.S. embassy in Kiev did, in fact, exert pressure on the
Ukrainian prosecutors office not to prosecute certain Ukrainian activists and officials.
These efforts included a letter Mr. Kent signed urging Ukrainian prosecutors to back off an
investigation of the aforementioned group AnTac as well as engaged in conversations about
certain Ukrainians like Parliamentary member Sergey Leschenko, journalist Vitali Shabunin and
NABU director Artem Sytnyk. Why was the US. Embassy involved in exerting such pressure and
did any of these actions run afoul of the Geneva Convention's requirement that foreign
diplomats avoid becoming involved in the internal affairs of their host country?
On March 5 of this year, you gave a speech in which you called for the replacement of
Ukraine's top anti-corruption prosecutor. That speech occurred in the middle of the Ukrainian
presidential election and obviously raised concerns among some Ukrainians of internal
interference prohibited by the Geneva Convention. In fact, one of your bosses, Under
Secretary David Hale, got questioned about those concerns when he arrived in country a few
days later. Why did you think it was appropriate to give advice to Ukrainians on an internal
personnel matter and did you consider then or now the potential concerns your comments might
raise about meddling in the Ukrainian election or the country's internal affairs?
If the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States suddenly urged us to fire Attorney
General Bill Bar or our FBI director, would you think that was appropriate?
At any time since December 2015, did you or your embassy ever have any contact with
Vice President Joe Biden, his office or his son Hunter Biden concerning Burisma Holdings or
an investigation into its owner Mykola Zlochevsky?
At any time since you were appointed ambassador to Ukraine, did you or your embassy have
any contact with the following Burisma figures: Hunter Biden, Devon Archer, lawyer John
Buretta, Blue Star strategies representatives Sally Painter and Karen Tramontano, or former
Ukrainian embassy official Andrii Telizhenko?
John Solomon obtained documents showing Burisma representatives were pressuring the State
Department in February 2016 to help end the corruption allegations against the company and
were invoking Hunter Biden's name as part of their effort. Did you ever subsequently learn of
these contacts and did any one at State -- including but not limited to Secretary Kerry,
Undersecretary Novelli, Deputy Secretary Blinken or Assistant Secretary Nuland -- ever raise
Burisma with you?
What was your embassy's assessment of the corruption allegations around Burisma and why
the company may have hired Hunter Biden as a board member in 2014?
In spring 2019 your embassy reportedly began monitoring briefly the social media
communications of certain people viewed as supportive of President Trump and gathering
analytics about them. Who were those people? Why was this done? Why did it stop? And did
anyone in the State Department chain of command ever suggest targeting Americans with State
resources might be improper or illegal?
Bolton Opposed Ukraine Investigations; Called Giuliani "A Hand Grenade" by
Tyler Durden Tue, 10/15/2019 - 12:25 0 SHARES
Former national security adviser John Bolton was 'so alarmed' by efforts to encourage Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and 2016
election meddling that he told an aide, Fiona Hill, to alert White House lawyers, according to the
New York Times
.
When Hill confronted Sondland, he told her that he was 'in charge' of Ukraine, "a moment she compared to Secretary of State Alexander
M. Haig Jr.'s declaration that he was in charge after the Ronald Reagan assassination attempt, according to those who heard the testimony,"
according to the Times.
Hill says she asked Sondland on whose authority he was in charge of Ukraine, to which he replied 'the president.' She would later
leave her post shortly before a July 25 phone call with Ukraine's president which is currently at the heart of an impeachment inquiry.
Meanwhile, the Times also notes that "House Democrats widened their net in the fast-paced inquiry by summoning Michael McKinley,
a senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who abruptly resigned last week, to testify Wednesday."
Career diplomats have expressed outrage at the unceremonious
removal of Ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch from Ukraine after she came under attack by Mr. Giuliani, Donald Trump Jr. and
two associates who have since been arrested on charges of campaign violations.
Three other Trump admin officials are scheduled to speak with House investigators this week, including Sondland - who is now set
to appear on Thursday. On Tuesday, deputy assistant secretary of state George Kent will testify, while on Friday, Laura K. Cooper
- a a deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia policy, will speak with lawmakers as well.
Looks like we have our whistleblower. My only question is, how does one whistle with such a bristly moustache draping their
hairlip?
So now we have Mr. Neocon and Mr. Liddle Kidz conjugating as the strangest of bedfellows? How will this play to their respective
bases? Are we to assume these people think this nations top law enforcement agent (POTUS) is to abdicate his duties therewith
just because the criminal is (at least according to our two tiered justice system) supposed to be beyond reproach?
Mr. Bolton, bright and determined as he is, has hitched his wagon to mad mare galloping full tilt over a precipice.
Looking for a return of uranium one to the headlines soon. In due time we will stich this Russia/Ukraine narrative back together
from a patchwork of facts. You traitors are fucked...royally fucked...and you know it.
So, Mr bolton, explain to us in simple terms how you appraise America's security and her related interests. Your camp is in
eclipse.
John Bolton:
"I was appauled...just flabbergasted...that the president was concerned that our intelligence apparatus was politicized to
the extent that its highest echelons were arrayed in an attempt to subvert a lawful and legitimate election. Never mind that six
other nations were tasked with abetting this treasonous plot...this is an outrage!!! The whole point of intelligence agencies
is to skirt the law with impunity, and once we (the unelected permanent breacracy) tell one of our minions like Biden or Hillary
that they're permanently immune from prosecution, we can't have some earnest pact of Patriots running around demanding law and
order."
What a sorry bunch of cretians.
We were so close...so close...to losing it all. But since the enemy is making clear we're playing zero sum, we're going to
end up with everything.
Brace yourself, California. If I were you, I'd study the legal framework of Reconstruction. Your plight will be of a kind.
Your state has been engaged in a systematic attempt to overthrow the government. Your leaders will be appointed for a generation
after this all comes out. Don't look to Beijing to save you...they kinda have their hands full.
So, I guess Bolton is no longer collecting free money like Hunter Biden was. I get it now how all these politicians have kids
overseas and open foreign corporations which our tax money goes in to by way of cutting deals overseas public officials to line
their pockets with our money. This how they get into government poor and become very rich! Giuliani is pointing this fact out
to the public with Trump and the swamp HATES IT!
The public now knows how these corrupt PUBLIC OFFICIALS in America have been fleecing the tax payers. This is a major hit on
the swamp.
Trump & Giuliani we're behind you thank you for showing us how the swamp has been ******* us for all these years.
Understand that the reason Schitt head won't allow public hearings is because the former Ambassador to Ukraine--Volker, shot
this whole **** fest down when he testified. There is no "there" there.
Bolton and the others are crying because of Trump's pull out. The left jumped on the war bandwagon under Billary a long time
ago. Necons work both parties.
If Bolton dislikes Guiliani that's the best endorsement of Rudy I can imagine. Bolton is a complete warmongering traitor who,
like McShitstain, desires a nice case of brain cancer.
Go Rudy, expose the corrupt Demonrats! We deplorables love human hand grenades. That's why we elected the Donald, and you apparently
are the perfect lawyer for our great God emperor.
"Schiff simply does not have the gravitas that a weighty procedure such as impeachment requires," Biggs wrote in an opinion
piece for Fox News. "He has repeatedly shown incredibly poor judgment. He has persistently and consistently demonstrated that
he has such a tremendous bias and animus against Trump that he will say anything and accept any proffer of even bogus evidence
to try to remove the president from office."
"... Of course, I understand your motives for Impeachment are not wholly altruistic. With corporate donations drying up and growing pressure from Progressive primary challengers making Establishment incumbents increasingly nervous, you need some way to excite your old school base for the important election season to come. ..."
Thank you so much for inviting me to your Impeachment Party. It's really great to hear
you've finally found something to nail Trump with. Good for you! You've been looking so hard
these past three years. So nice to see all that effort finally pay off!
(Of course, some might say you should have spent that time looking for solutions to all the
problems the country is facing, but hey, let's not get crazy! Right?) And your amazing valor
doesn't stop at Biden. Oh no. You are even willing to let Republicans dredge up Hillary's email
scandal long after people had all but forgotten about Crowdstrike. The Romans who stood in
front of the charging elephants at Cannae would be proud.
... ... ...
Of course, I understand your motives for Impeachment are not wholly altruistic. With
corporate donations drying up and growing pressure from Progressive primary challengers making
Establishment incumbents increasingly nervous, you need some way to excite your old school base
for the important election season to come.
That's why it's even more testament to your pluck that you would choose such a transparently
hypocritical and overtly political hill on which to take your final stand, especially after
2016 showed so clearly that going after Trump personally only makes him more popular.
So I
say onward Impeachment soldier!
By the time the primaries roll around, your brave Establishment beserkers will have divided
the party and discredited the leadership to such an extent that rank and file Dems will be
begging for a Progressive intervention.
That was Neo-McCarthyim hysteria plain and simple; and it still is continuing as "FullOfSchiff" fqrse.
Notable quotes:
"... Can you think of a more vulgar and disgraceful manifestation of Trump-Russia media malfeasance than Rachel Maddow? Her deluded nightly conspiratorial rants may have been lucrative for MSNBC, but she fed viewers a complete fraud for three years. Now her show is undergoing a genuine existential crisis after Robert Mueller's exoneration of Trump . ..."
"... The harm Maddow inflicted is unforgivable and she should obviously resign, go into exile, and take up some other line of work: perhaps gardening. That said, she has also become something of a scapegoat. ..."
"... As contemptible as Rachel undoubtedly is, dwelling on her absolves the rest of the industry from acknowledging what really happened: a structural calamity of epic proportions, implicating almost all of them, which has utterly destroyed the reputation of the media writ large. And for good reason. ..."
"... (Brennan infamously declared Trump guilty of treason on Twitter following the Helsinki summit). ..."
"... Last week, Wheeler finally admitted her suspicion that the FBI may have just decided she is 'crazy.' Yes, sounds plausible. ..."
"... Sadly, all the media figures who might have been assigned to legitimate evidence-based inquiries were wrapped up in the never-ending Russia melodrama, based on the hunch that it would result in the revelation of treasonous collusion, followed by the arrest of Trump's family and his swift impeachment. None of this happened. So what was the point? ..."
"... Most disturbing of all is how otherwise-smart journalists and commentators lost their minds and integrity throughout the debacle. It was all a joke, a scam, and I've barely even scratched the surface here. It will take years to fully sift through the wreckage ..."
'Boom!': an autopsy of the
media after the Mueller bombshellDunking on Rachel Maddow may be fun, but she's far
from the sole perpetratorMichael
Tracey Rachel Maddow
Can you think of a more vulgar and disgraceful manifestation of Trump-Russia media
malfeasance than Rachel Maddow? Her deluded nightly conspiratorial rants may have been
lucrative for MSNBC, but she fed viewers a complete fraud for three years. Now her show is
undergoing a genuine existential crisis after Robert Mueller's exoneration of Trump .
The harm Maddow inflicted is unforgivable and she should obviously resign, go into exile,
and take up some other line of work: perhaps gardening. That said, she has also become
something of a scapegoat. It's convenient to disavow Maddow's excesses if you're a journalist
who wants to pretend that the media failures which gave rise to Trump-Russia weren't a
full-scale indictment of their entire profession. To act as though the misconduct was somehow
confined to one unhinged cable news personality would be a gross distortion.
As contemptible as Rachel undoubtedly is, dwelling on her absolves the rest of the industry
from acknowledging what really happened: a structural calamity of epic proportions, implicating
almost all of them, which has utterly destroyed the reputation of the media writ large. And for
good reason.
Easy as it might be to pooh-pooh Maddow as some zany outlier, the undeniable reality is that
the sick conspiratorial mindset she embodied was thoroughly mainstream: it infected virtually
every sector of elite American culture, from journalism, to entertainment, to the professional
political class. Rachel is just the tip of the rotten iceberg.
Take, for instance, Keith Olbermann. Keith was the most influential host on MSNBC during the
George W. Bush years, when audiences ate up his furious denunciations of the Iraq War, which
scratched a genuine itch because of the prevailing pro-war media conformity of the time.
Olbermann gave voice to frustrated liberals who felt that their well-founded grievances were
not being represented in the popular media, and his style came to be emulated across the
industry (including by the host he recruited for a top spot on the network, Rachel Maddow.)
Then came the Trump era, when Olbermann's brain appeared to explode. He began recording
short video rants for GQ magazine, which rank among the most mind-bendingly deranged
content produced throughout the entire Russiagate ordeal. Please, just watch this unbelievable
screed from December 2016:
'We are at war with Russia,' Olbermann gravely proclaims. The inauguration of Donald Trump,
he prophesies, will mark 'the end of the United States as an independent country.' Anyone who
rejects this analysis is a 'traitor' says Olbermann, and in league with 'Russian scum.' His
recommendation is to thwart Trump via some harebrained Electoral College scheme where electors
are intimidated into violating their duty to vote according to the election outcome in their
respective states and districts.
I covered this attempted coup at the time, which failed, but was
supported by leading Democrats ranging from Hillary Clinton campaign communications
director Jennifer Palmieri to Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe; as well as Michael Moore,
Lawrence Lessig, Peter Beinart, DeRay McKesson, Paul Krugman, and Neera Tanden. Prominent
liberals had been melodramatically whinging for months about how appalled they were by Trump's
alleged propensity to violate 'norms,' but the next minute they turned around and demanded that
all norms governing the centuries-old Electoral College process be thrown out the window. The
wild propaganda promoted by Olbermann had become the standard, mainstream view among American
liberals: fundamentally corrupting their capacity to view subsequent political events with any
semblance of rationality.
Despite their truly insane offerings, focusing solely on demented opinionators like
Olbermann and Maddow still lets ostensibly 'neutral' journalists off the hook. The amount of
journalistic resources squandered on the Trump-Russia boondoggle, for instance by the New
York Times and the Washington Post , will never be fully quantified. Both newspapers
were lavished with Pulitzer Prizes and every other pointless accolade for their supposedly
intrepid journalism. Their constant 'bombshell scoops' routinely ricocheted across Twitter
before they were injected into the rest of the turbocharged media ecosystem, each one
breathlessly touted on cable news for hours at a time. The harsh truth is that most all of
these 'scoops' were predicated on a fiction. There was supposed to be a core conspiracy, which
was meant to explain why Trump associates kept getting caught in lies – why their
communications were extrajudicially intercepted, why they were surveilled on dubious pretenses.
But no underlying conspiracy was ever revealed. The whole thing was based on a fairytale.
Shouldn't the Times and WaPo therefore apologize and give back their Pulitzers?
Or at very least toss them in the dumpster.
Benjamin Wittes, the LawFare website guru and arguably the most lauded Twitter authority on
the Trump-Russia scam, became well-known for his fun slogan, 'BOOM!,' which he would gleefully
tweet every time a supposed bombshell article burst on the scene. Here's a Washington
Post
story from October 21 last year headlined 'Special counsel examines conflicting accounts as
scrutiny of Roger Stone and WikiLeaks deepens,' which got the Wittes 'boom'
treatment. Wow, very dramatic! Sounds a lot like Mueller and his squad were closing in on Stone
as the evil mastermind behind some grand Trump-Russia conspiracy plot, given his suspicious
ties to WikiLeaks, right? The only problem is, when Stone was indicted three months later,
Mueller not only brought zero charges alleging Stone as party to any conspiracy, he
dispelled such notions.
All the correspondence cited in Mueller's indictment showed that
Stone had no
advanced knowledge of WikiLeaks releases or any privileged access to its operations. Roger
Stone was just doing what Roger Stone does best: bullshitting.
Stone was eventually charged by Mueller for making false statements, but again: none of
those statements pertained to a conspiracy cover-up. They pertained to the dirty trickster
being who he's been for decades: a fabulist who frequently misrepresents himself and gets in
stupid feuds with fellow political hucksters. The October 2018 story about which Wittes tweeted
'boom' ultimately had no real significance. Like so many other stories touted at the time as an
incredible BOMBSHELL, everyone got amped up over a total fantasy. The story had no serious
value, other than to temporarily scintillate now-discredited obsessives like Wittes.
Special scorn should be reserved for those in prominent media positions who ought to have
known better, but indulged day after day in conspiratorial nonsense anyway. Take Chris Hayes,
the popular 8pm MSNBC host, who unlike Maddow has a journalistic background (he was formerly
the Washington Editor of The Nation magazine). Theoretically, Hayes should have been imbued
with a greater sense of ingrained skepticism regarding CIA and FBI claims, which are what drove
the entire Trump-Russia investigation to begin with. He is also a genuinely intelligent person,
having (ironically) written the excellent Twilight of
the Elites (2012), a book which examined the propensity for upper-crust society to
engage in self-defeating groupthink.
But Hayes too ended up witlessly amplifying the most
obscene Russiagate antics – no doubt influenced by the pressure of having to turn in big
ratings every night. His shows were always brimming with security state spooks like John Brennan
, the former CIA Director and proven
fantasist . Brennan was eventually hired by NBC, becoming one of Hayes's colleagues
despite having played a central role in instigating the original Trump-Russia investigation in 2016 and inflaming its most
incendiary elements (Brennan infamously declared Trump guilty of treason on Twitter following
the Helsinki summit).
For further insight on the subject, Hayes generally turned to pseudo-journalistic figures
like Natasha Bertrand of The Atlantic , whose frenetically conspiratorial Russia
coverage has also proven to have been total bunk – as well as former prosecutors and
FBI
officials like Chuck Rosenberg, disreputable security state apparatchiks like former NSA
lawyer Susan Hennessey, and outright charlatans like purported 'intelligence expert' Malcolm
Nance. (Here's an example from 2016 of the esteemed Nance getting tricked by a Twitter
troll.)
Hayes even went so far as to promote the theory that Trump had been colluding with
Russia since 1987, a story somehow featured on the cover of New
York magazine despite drawing on source material that literally originated with the
recently deceased, notorious madman Lyndon LaRouche. Hayes's descent into fact-free mania
culminated with his
declaration to Stephen Colbert on March 8 last year that Trump and his associates were
'super guilty' of collusion. Whoops!
While many once-respectable media figures like Hayes have seen their reputations inserted
directly into the toilet, maybe the most bizarre case of all is Marcy Wheeler, the independent
journalist known as @emptywheel .
Wheeler appeared on Hayes's first show after Mueller decisively cleared Trump of collusion
– you know, the central tenet of the Special Counsel's mandate. The fact that Hayes would
have Wheeler on at that moment – after the entire Trump-Russia drama was definitively
exposed as a ludicrous fantasy – showed that Hayes was committed to perpetuating the
deceit even in the face of all countervailing evidence, whether unconsciously or consciously.
That's because Marcy Wheeler is almost certainly a deluded basket case.
The most obvious evidence for this is Wheeler's sensational admission in July 2018 that she
burned a source to the FBI, voluntarily and proactively, thereby committing one of
journalism's mortal sins. Wheeler justified her demented action on numerous fronts. First, she
claimed that she possessed bombshell, smoking gun info that proved a Trump-Russia conspiracy,
and felt a patriotic duty to hand this over to the FBI – in retribution for what she
called Russia's 'attack' on the United States. Let's remember, shall we, that said attack at
most amounted to some Twitter bots, goofy Facebook memes, and spear-phished Gmail accounts:
John Podesta famously clicked on a phony link, which led to his emails being swiped. Hardly
9/11 or Pearl Harbor, wouldn't you say? However, those comparisons have been seriously made by
various prominent elected officials, including Rep.
Jerrold Nadler of New York, who would have presided over impeachment proceedings had things
panned out differently.
When pressed – even after the Mueller clearly asserted that no such Trump-Russia
conspiracy ever existed – Wheeler still refuses to divulge any details about the
extraordinary dispositive evidence she mysteriously claims to possess. Second, Wheeler further
justified her insane conduct by insisting she could literally be killed by some unknown
sinister alliance of Russians and Trump-backed mafia figures, or something ( I'm not making this up .).
Shamefully, Wheeler's outlandish assertions were treated as gospel by members of the media who
failed to apply even a modicum of critical scrutiny; Margaret Sullivan of the Washington
Post
heralded Wheeler as following her conscience and wrote this about the supposed Russian hit
squad out to get her: 'Overly dramatic? Not really. The Russians do have a penchant for
disposing of people they find threatening.' Utter lunacy. Since the Mueller finding, Wheeler
has strangely not revealed any additional information about the nature of these would-be
assassins.
Think about it. For months, Wheeler dangled cryptic hints about the explosive info that she
alone supposedly knew about, enthralling blog readers and Twitter followers – and earning
her major platforms not just on MSNBC but even the New York Times , where she
contributed columns
that contained blatant falsehoods. In the pages of the world's most influential newspaper, she
claimed that Mueller had been 'hiding' evidence showing Trump's participation in a Russia
conspiracy, and it would all come out once Mueller issued his final verdict. No dice.
Last week, Wheeler finally admitted her suspicion that the FBI may have just decided
she is 'crazy.' Yes, sounds plausible.
So much journalistic energy was wasted chronicling the ins-and-outs of the Russiagate
non-story. Imagine if instead that time was devoted to reporting in the public interest: like,
say, I don't know – investigating the militaristic think tanks which attempted to
undermine Trump's key diplomatic initiatives (such as North Korea), or how Trump was co-opted
by the Republican donor class, or his various actual corruptions that didn't happen to involve
any international espionage conspiracy.
Sadly, all the media figures who might have been
assigned to legitimate evidence-based inquiries were wrapped up in the never-ending Russia
melodrama, based on the hunch that it would result in the revelation of treasonous collusion,
followed by the arrest of Trump's family and his swift impeachment. None of this happened. So
what was the point?
Most disturbing of all is how otherwise-smart journalists and commentators lost their minds
and integrity throughout the debacle. It was all a joke, a scam, and I've barely even scratched
the surface here. It will take years to fully sift through the wreckage.
The Last but not LeastTechnology is dominated by
two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt.
Ph.D
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