The Establishment media is in a frenzy about what they hope will be the downfall of Trump, but if the facts come out, it could be the downfall of Joe Biden instead, writes Ray McGovern.
By Ray McGovern
Raymcgovern.com
The Joe Biden-friendly Establishment media has mounted a full-court press to “prove” that Biden is, well, not a crook.
The stakes are extremely high, Biden is vulnerable, and media players are using to a faretheewell the old adage about the best defense being a good offense. The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal are desperately trying to steal the ball and get ahead in the publicity game. But time is about to run out, and pre-emptive propaganda is unlikely to snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat. IF the facts do come out and IF they are reported, Biden’s presidential hopes may suffer a mortal blow.
Hunter and Joe Biden at Obama’s 2009 inaugural parade. (Wikimedia Commons)
When the corruption in which the former Vice President and his son Hunter were involved in Ukraine becomes more widely known, the press wants to be in position to “show” that it’s all the fault of President Donald Trump and his lawyers for trying to derail Biden’s candidacy by exposing him. If past is precedent, the media will largely succeed. The question is whether enough people will, nevertheless, be able to see through this all-too-familiar charade.
In an interview with The National Interest, Joe Lauria put this episode in context:
“’It was in February [2014] when Yanukovych was overthrown, and just a few months later (in May), Joe Biden’s son and a close friend of John Kerry’s stepson, they both join the board of this Ukrainian gas company. And the name of that was Burisma Holdings,’” said Joe Lauria, editor of Consortium News and a former correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. “’So just after an American-backed coup, you have Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and this John Kerry family friend joining the board of probably the largest private gas producer in Ukraine. They installed the new government, and as the bounty of this coup, Joe Biden’s son personally profited. He would not have gotten that job if Yanukovych was still in power,’” Lauria told The National Interest.”
Will U.S. voters have any way of putting these dots together, and also in discerning, for example, how much truth there may be in charges that Vice President Biden pressed hard for the ouster of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, Viktor Shokin, who was canned after investigating corruption at Burisma Holdings Ukrainian gas company of which Hunter Biden was a board member?
In this video Biden admits on the record to essentially using a billion dollar line of credit as a bribe to get the prosecutor fired.
If the truth does come out, no one will have to rely on remarks from the likes of Rudy Giulinai, one of Trump’s lawyers, who has called the episode “an astounding scandal of major proportions.” That may be hyperbole but, still, the damage to Biden could be fatal.
And so, damage control is in full swing today at the Times, the Post, the Journal and other “usual suspects,” with the Times winning the laurels with its Editorial Board, no less, weighing in with “What did Trump tell Ukraine’s president?” There have also been op-eds by Max Boot, Jennifer Rubin, Anne Applebaum, Greg Sargent and (my favorite), George T. Conway III and Neal Katyal at the Post, whose headline is: “Trump has done plenty to warrant impeachment. But the Ukraine allegations are over the top.”
That title is correct.
This piece was republished with the author’s permission.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. Ray was a CIA analyst for 27 years; in retirement he co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
This is to be the prime-time show of the election. Both wings of the same bird should all end up in prison. Biden and his son (+friends) are the criminals everyone suspects them to be. But for Trump to allege he has done nothing wrong is an in your face lie as well. The funny thing (in a sick way) is that they will likely never be held accountable for the real crimes they are guilty of. If Trump succeeds in sinking Biden, fear not, the dems will, one way or another get even. This will be a war of attrition, not a war of winners…although if they both get it stuck to them, the American people might appear winners. Doubtful though, as then we end up with Pence, who is far worse than Trump, or as bad, someone of the Biden/DNC camp. It is especially notable that Gabbard has been neutralized by her own party. Surprise! Not. Seems as though we will still inherit swamp creatures for the foreseeable future. We have ourselves to thank ever since we were smart enough to put a ‘B’ actor in the white house. Today though, they are all career criminals.
As long as Trump has a Republican majority in the Senate there is no way that Trump will be removed from office. And removed to give Pence a headstart in 2020?
Who benefits from a long impeachment process where at the end Trump is still standing? Trump.
The tell is that if Trump and the CIA were working together Trump would have had the whole dossier on his desk without saying a word to Zelensky. The CIA has been working with the DNC since before the first utterings of Russiagate. This is much like, and I know this sounds sacrilegious, but what we seem to have is a rerun of the battle between the CIA and Jimmy Carter.
There is an advantage to this for the Democrats. It provides them with cover for not addressing income inequality, the collapsing infrastructure and economy, and the many oil wars being fought around the globe. They won’t have to do anything. Again.
Clearly the anti-Trump coup by the Democrats is being recharged even after its ignominious disgrace following Mueller’s two-year witch hunt and his embarrassing dance before the congress to avoid perjuring himself. Both the leading party insurgents and their corporate media tools are trying again using the most twisted and deceptive logic that should be risible even to a 3rd-grade kid. It appalls me how someone like Nate Silver or anyone on the NYT or MSNBC editorial staff can claim, with a straight face, that the case is all about Trump blatantly soliciting assistance from a foreign government to sandbag his political opposition in America. That is just a contrived interpretation of events not demonstrated anywhere in the actual evidence (the transcribed phone conversation between Trump and Zelensky).
In fact, the voting public may never have heard any pejorative remarks about Joe Biden’s actions whilst serving in the Obama administration except that some alleged anonymous whistleblower (who may or may not have actually been a witness to the facts–the phone conversation), plus the Democrats, plus the media chose to make them public.
As president of this country Trump is certainly allowed, nay required–at least by his conscience, to use the Justice Department to investigate to the fullest any possible crimes committed in office by his own or by the preceding administrations. Based upon statements made by Joe Biden himself and appearing in the media at the time they occurred (i.e., his bragging about forcing the Ukrainian coup government to dismiss its head justice official–the Ukrainian equivalent of the Attorney General–by imposing financial penalties against the already bankrupt country if it did not dance to his tune) and based upon the concomitant appointment of his son, Hunter, to a position of great power, influence and financial compensation (a reported $600,000 yearly salary) in the leading energy company of Ukraine, Burisma, which was also widely reported in the news media at the time (and under investigation by the sacked justice official, an investigation which ceased upon his dismissal), it is certainly logical and proper to investigate both Bidens for the distinct possibility that the then vice-president used his office to secure financial advantage and gain for the Biden family whilst simultaneously precluding appointments, decisions and actions by the energy company that may have been more advantageous for the Ukrainian or American polities as a whole.
In other words, the actions taken by the two Bidens stinks an awful lot like “nepotism,” a practice prohibited under the laws of this country. They used to teach a whole section on the subject in American Civics courses at about the 7th or 8th grade level. It’s why the Civil Service system replaced the spoils system.
The chief executive is clearly within his rights to investigate whether the moves by our previous vice-president violated those statutes. The scene of the potential crime was in Ukraine, within the milieu of its national government. It is certainly fitting and proper for our leader to ask their leader to do whatever fact-finding is possible within the halls where the relevant events occurred. Mr. Trump did not ostentatiously bring to the American public’s attention any of the Bidens’ potential criminal actions, and they may have heard nothing more about the matter if no faults were found.
The way I see it, the Dems and their many acolytes have chosen to distort the actual course of events here precisely to do what they themselves condemn: to politicize them. Sorry, but they will find no one within the present administration to testify that the reason Trump wanted Biden investigated was to diminish his chances in the Democratic primaries. The only reason to be given will be adherence to American federal law. Period.
Besides, why would Trump want Mr. Biden’s candidacy sandbagged in any way when Joe is an absolute maestro at destroying his own image with his big yap. More likely, this is a false flag by the DNC to get Biden out of the way and to demonize Trump. If the Democratic goal is to remove Trump from office before the end of his term and if they get what they wish for, how do they propose to compete against some other GOP candidate who is considered more knowledgeable, competent and popular, perhaps somebody who has already come close to winning the office? Someone like Mitt Romney perhaps? Or Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio? If so, they’ll be on the outside looking in for another eight, twelve or sixteen years rather than just four.
Trump’s revenge has the dems a scrambling. All they can do is use the “I’ll impeach you!” threat. It’ll tarnish Obama’s legacy. But fair is fair, they did investigate Trump for two years. It’s funny how investigating Biden, a maybe candidate for prez is election interference. But investigating Trump for two years didn’t interfere at all.
In a world where Publishers of state crimes get jailed, it is normal that Presidents get impeached for trying to get the truth out on the actions of former vice-presidents and secretaries of state.
Trump just “Trumped” the Ukraine-gate hoax.
He is releasing the transcript of his phone call, completely unredacted.
If the media were honest (and they are not) they would start asking hard questions about how Hunter Biden got that appointment.
So, let’s take bets on the next “*****gate hoax.”
@ “He is releasing the transcript of his phone call, completely unredacted.”
A caution: Why a transcript rather than the audio? I.e., does the transcript accurately record the conversation on the audio? Notice that the “unredacted” applies to the transcript, not the audio.
@Merrill As the conversation was not recorded there is no audio to release.
These are really good comments about a really good article. The one thought I would add is this— the Yuppie era is dead. T-rump killed it. And the yuppie era was the most destructive era we’ve had since the robber barons. I’m old, 75 now, and have been watching the take down of FDRs and the Sixties values since Raygun. Born in 1958 to 1974, they stormed into the institutions with their laptops and bow ties (no kidding) and have been destroying any thing that stood between them and conspicuous consumption since about ‘85. It was an unstoppable wave and it’s been grim. (I have felt like the Good Germans who watched Hitler rise to power in the 30’s but couldn’t stop him.) The Clinton’s were their heros, and Pelosi is their bitch. And when people upon whom the Yuppies look down put a fascist in the White House, they were shocked, shocked I say, had a tantrum then capitulated, with Pelosi and Nadler and Racheal leading the way. The great yuppie dream of unending greed lies burning in the sun. The only way we of conscience get out of this is to start supporting the new leaders—the kids. The antifa, the Black lives Matter…
Excellent summation of the neoliberal neocon era that refuses to leave our dessicated country. And it’s not as if they’ve come to a reckoning after surveying their utter destruction. No! They are doubling down.
I always hated yuppies.
The truth will not come out as the first thing out of the mouth of the Presstitutes is “unsubstantiated alligations.” Funny that term is never used for the non anointed.
Too funny—I’ve been commenting lately on Hunter Biden’s Wikipedia page not having been scrubbed long before this, and today, just now, lo and behold: Lunchbucket Joe’s team has been all over it. I first started watching it and posting it a year ago so I’m happy to report I have the untampered version to show the contrast with this new one:
“Burisma Holdings[edit]
See also: 2019 Trump-Ukraine controversy
On April 18, 2014, Burisma Holdings announced Biden’s appointment to its board of directors in a press release.[17] Hunter Biden stepped down from the board when his term expired in April 2019.[18]
Bohai Harvest[edit]
Biden is on the board of Bohai Harvest RST (also known as BHR Partners).[19][20]
Now the “old” page for Hunter:
Burisma Holdings[edit]
On April 18, 2014, Burisma Holdings announced Biden’s appointment to its board of directors in a press release.[17] Burisma is the largest non-governmental gas producer in Ukraine; it was incorporated in 2006 and is based in Limassol, Cyprus – a European tax haven.[18][19] Burisma holds licenses covering the Dnieper-Donets Basin, the Carpathian and Azov-Kuban basins and has considerable reserves and production capability.[20] Burisma was founded by Mykola Zlochevsky, the former energy minister and deputy national security council chair under Viktor Yanukovych, in 2006.[21] Burisma Holdings is owned and controlled by the Ukrainian businessman Mykola Zlochevsky.[22][23] Joining Hunter Biden on the Burisma Board of Directors was Aleksander Kwa?niewski.[24] Kwa?niewski was President of the Republic of Poland from 1995 to 2005 during the George W. Bush administration.[25] Hunter Biden stepped down from the board when his term expired in April 2019.[26]
Hunter Biden’s father, Joe Biden, traveled to Kiev on April 22, 2014, and urged the Ukraine government “… to reduce its dependence on Russia for supplies of natural gas.”[27] And he discussed how the United States could help provide technical expertise for expanding domestic production of natural gas.[28] Some critics accuse the United States of maneuvering the Ukraine situation so that Western oil companies have unfettered access to shale gas of “Lublin Basin” (from “fracking”) and to drill all across Ukraine. With the revelation that Hunter Biden was serving on the board of the Ukrainian company Burisma, many raised concerns about Hunter Biden’s interests conflicting with official US government positions. The White House dismissed nepotism charges against Biden’s son.[29][30] But the director of the US-Ukraine Business Council, Morgan Williams, pointed to an “American tradition that frowns on close family members of government working for organizations with business links to active politics”. Williams stated Biden appeared to have violated this unwritten principle: “… when you’re trying to keep the political sector separate from the business sector, and reduce corruption, then it’s not just about holding down corruption, it’s also the appearance.”[31] Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion of loan guarantees if President Petro Poroshenko did not fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was investigating corruption in Burisma Holdings. Shokin was fired on March 29, 2016.[32][33][34] While Rudy Giuliani has stated that Shokin claimed that he had been fired for investigating Burisma, reporting indicates that Shokin’s dismissal was prompted by concerns expressed by the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, and the U.S. government that he was failing to pursue corruption investigations.[35] A spokesperson for the Biden presidential campaign told the New York Times that Biden’s 2016 push for Shokin’s removal was conducted “without any regard for how it would or would not impact any business interests of his son, a private citizen.” Hunter Biden stated, “At no time have I discussed with my father the company’s business, or my board service, including my initial decision to join the board.”[36]
China private equity[edit]
Peter Schweizer, author of Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends, wrote: “In December 2013 Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden, travels with his father aboard Air Force Two to Beijing. … Shortly after they return to the U.S., Hunter Biden’s firm receives a $1 billion private equity deal from the Chinese government. The deal was later increased to $1.5 billion.”[37][38]
Bohai Harvest[edit]
Biden is on the board of Bohai Harvest RST (also known as BHR Partners) which, according to reporting in The Intercept, invested in Face++, a mobile phone app built by the Chinese government to introduce a mass surveillance state and spy on its citizens. The application has been used to spy on Muslims in China’s western province of Xinjiang, where an estimated 1 million Muslims are being held in “re-education” camps, providing government authorities access to data that shows personal information.[39][40]
The website said the company has the support of the state-owned Bank of China. Bohai Harvest has also partnered with a subsidiary of China’s conglomerate HNA Group.[39]
According to Peter Schweizer, Bohai Harvest “became an “anchor investor” in the IPO of China General Nuclear Power Corp., a state-owned energy company involved in the construction of nuclear reactors. In 2016, the US Justice Department would charge CGN with stealing nuclear secrets from the United States”. Bohai Harvest also “joined forces with a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned military aviation contractor Aviation Industry Corporation of China to buy American precision-parts manufacturer Henniges.”[41]
Hunter Biden partnered with James Bulger, son of former Massachusetts state Senate President William Bulger. According to The Intercept, business registration filings in China list Hunter Biden and James Bulger as key officials at Bohai Harvest.[39]
This affair may undermine GOP/Trump strategy, namely, by depriving Democrats of their worst candidate. For optimum effect, attention to Bidens’ Ukrainian adventure should be maximized after some primary victories, making Joe hard to dislodge. The faster he returned to richly deserved retirement (think about all neurons he sacrificed for the cause), the better. Who benefits from discussion if Joe Biden is more corrupt than he is stupid, or vice versa?
Great article and comments!
Thank You all.
Worse news regarding Joe Biden is the role he apparently played in the Obama Administration’s decision to CONTINUE the GW Bush Administration’s clandestine and covert operations to create “regime changes” in Syria and Libya and to start a new “regime change” operation in the Ukraine. Together, those “regime change” operations triggered civil wars in those three countries, and reduced large numbers of cities and villages to rubble!
Joseph Biden is just one more reprobate in a long chain that inhabit the illegitimate US Congress. Even though these criminals receive large salaries for posing as legitimate lawmakers, after their gerrymandered career ends 30 or 40 years later, they retire as millionaires a hundred times over.
They didn’t acquire these riches by collecting their nominal salary.
The US government does not represents We the People. Psychopathic thieves like Biden, Pelosi, the Bushes, the Clintons, the Trumps and the rest of the corporate lickspittles will continue to fleece workers until We the People rise from our lethargy.
“I never thought she was a great candidate,” said Sleepy Joe after Hillary lost. Not only must she be gloating these days, watching Biden’s campaign go full Titanic, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Clintons used their Deep State contacts to fuel the story of the Bidens’ Ukraine adventure.
It is really amazing how MSM is doing everything to prove they are Fake News ! As to the re-election of Trump in 2020, they can not play the incredible surprise attitude anymore , as they are actively increasing his chances of winning the presidential election every time they print a new story on him. Last night on CNN Fareed Zakaria show an expert guest explained that the audience should interpret the Ukrainian episode not as a Biden scandal but as a Trump impeachmentable offense. CNN the world news leader….. ha, ha,ha.
Fortunately there is CN to put things straight.
Eugenie,
You are absolutely correct.
Sometimes I wonder, “what on earth are these people thinking? Don’t they realize that they are destroying their own credibility?”
It was the 2016 election which destroyed my faith in the corporate media.
They hated Sanders and they hated Trump.
They wanted Hilary Clinton to be president. So they threw all journalistic ethics in the trash and launched a campaign to get her elected. It was so obvious that it was appalling.
After the election I honestly thought that they might make some attempt to restore their credibility. But they didn’t even try. And even if they reformed right now, it would take a decade for them to recover their credibility.
The most amazing thing is that they are not even trying.
That trajectory is in play as we speak. It’s not just CNN, I saw it on Drudge and several others that should know better than to push that narrative.
The corporate media is so desperate to get Donnie Murdo (that’s Danger Mouse in Scottish Gaelic) that they’ll do anything, break any rule, violate any ethic to lay waste to the evil Donnie Murdo. In the process, they are destroying the United States of America every bit as much as the Republicans have with their gerrymandering and vote suppression and ALEC’s efforts to turn all the states into little right wing fiefdoms.
At the rate of speed we’re going we’re going to a replay of 2016 with the cheese brain taking the place of Three Names on the Democratic ticket. And, frighteningly, the result may well be the same. Einstein did point out that a functional definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
One of the things that the media is doing – in addition to destroying their own credibility – is getting people to question everything. People have begun thinking, “if the media routinely lies to the public, might the rest of nation’s institutions also be based on lies?” More and more people are now questioning government, medicine, education, law as well as history as it has been taught.
In an attempt to prop-up a broken system, the MSM media morphed itself into a sledge hammer destroying whatever faith people might have still had in the system.
It is the old law of “unintended consequences.”
and our Neocons/Deep State are loath to see Prez Zelensky working on a peace agreement with the Evil Vlad.
I thought it was much worse than that, with Biden bragging about how he had the Chief Prosecutor in Ukraine fired by threatening to withhold $1B in American aid (in something like 6 hours). This was done. That will really have a bad odor.
No worse than Hillary cackling about murdering Gaddafi
I have waited a long time for this concise note on this democracy destroying democratic party subject. Thank you.
Same goes for Venezuela. I believe Senator Kerry’s family had 25,000 hectors of prime farmland returned to the people because it was not being used and merely held as a real estate investment portfolio item.
The bar is very low. They will hang themselves and a new journalism and news spreading will emerge somehow, seperate from the corporate system.
correction:
Also, notice how the Trump Ukraine story just so happened to blow up in our establishment press immediately after Trump refrained from bombing Iran. A bombing campaign that a particular wing of our ruling class has desired and virtually demanded from certain presidents for years.
So Biden is a grifter like Clinton and many other US leaders. Using the power of their political influence for self enrichment. How anyone can give these grifters the benefit of the doubt is unbelievable. Regardless of political ideology. Why in the world would an Ukranian natural gas company hire a lawyer with zero experience in the energy industry? How many other executives have they hired with that have no experience, that can’t even speak Ukranian? Maybe they’ll hire me I’m also grossly unqualified, but would give it by best try for a huge chunk of cash.
Trump will undoubtedly destroy Biden over this in the General, just as he did Clinton and Bush. The problem is that by protecting Biden, they are effectively eliminating Sanders who could beat Trunp.
Why not sing along with Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt to “The Ballad of Jed Clampett”!
Now listen to a story ’bout a man named Joe.
He can’t remember lots of things he really ought to know.
When segregation was a thing he called Strom Thurmond ‘friend’…
He reached across the aisle hoping it would never end!
(School busses, civil rights!)
When Bush and Cheney pushed for war he voted for the fight.
They said Saddam had nookler bombs and Joe said they were right.
Saddam let the inspectors in but Joe said it’s too late,
We’ve got to get into Iraq and change the Head of State!
(Neocons, regime change!)
Lunchbox Joe has plagiarized and made a lot of gaffes.
He said Obama’s ‘stick’ was big and got a lot of laughs.
With “Medicare For All” he claims the bill would introduce:
A tax increase that’s way too high and then his teeth came loose!
(Polygrip, Single Payer!)
Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine was short of cash,
Burisma gas investigations could have caused a crash.
Joe said fire Shokin or we’ll take the offer back-
The pipe they found in Hunter’s car was used for smokin’ crack!
(Bribery, corruption!)
Joe and Hunter flew to China on his Air Force Two,
They must have made a deal with Xi and got some revenue.
Then we hear John Kerry’s son had bailed out on the deal-
They say he thought the Feds would find out how much they could steal!
(Cronyism, fraud and abuse!)
Well next thing you know old Joe’s a millionaire.
All Joe’s cronies said, “Joe move away from there!”
The White House could be yours if you’re the nominee,
But if you falter in the polls we’ll shove in Hillary!
(Y’all come back now, hear? Don’t forget to vote!)
Pure gold… I nominate F.G. Sanford for a Grammy, as lyricist.
Great F.G.! Another pearl.
Excellent lyrics,
An’ up from the ground came a bubblin’ crude.
Biden, that is, lewd, n nude.
Love it!
If Biden is the democratic nominee, Trump will wipe him out detailing all his corrupt dealings.
Biden has a long rap sheet of corruption and double dealing. Trump will use it all. The corporate media won’t be able to drown out Trump’s tweets.
I must agree. Biden is a worse candidate than Hillary Clinton and that he could even be considered by the DNC or any sentient being makes me sure in my understanding that the USA does not resemble a democracy or an advanced nation in any way.
A bugged phone call before the coup confirms that Biden played some part in arranging it. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland told US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt that they needed Biden to give the go-ahead for the plans:
“Nuland: So on that piece Geoff, when I wrote the note [US vice-president’s national security adviser Jake] Sullivan’s come back to me VFR [direct to me], saying you need [US Vice-President Joe] Biden and I said probably tomorrow for an atta-boy and to get the deets [details] to stick. So Biden’s willing.”
Before that in the conversation, Nuland had said that she wanted Yatsenyuk in power:
“I think Yats is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience.”
And Pyatt said that they wanted somebody (…) to “help to midwife this thing”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSxaa-67yGM
A couple of weeks after that recording was leaked, President Yanukovych was overthrown in the coup, and a week later Nulands favourite, Yatsenyuk was appointed Prime Minister.
The first person I recall who reported on Biden’s take over of Burisma Gas was Robert Parry and, what reporting he did.
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/11/02/phony-corruption-excuse-for-ukraine-coup/
This latest episode of impeachment proof (not) allegations against Trump, just like the recent Kavanaugh story that died on the vine, will end up as just another fluke once again. Why the Democrats and the MSM/Deep State keeps running with these dead end charges too nowhere leaves one to suspect almost any motive of deception is in play. While the corporate MSM sells commercials along with the Deep State muddling the political waters the voting public awaits the embarrassment of the accusers as half baked allegations once again lead the Democrats down the proverbial rabbit hole of stupidity.
For what it’s worth go Bernie, go Tulsi!
Joe, Bob was spot on in his reporting, but it was the WSJ that first reported that Hunter got a spot on Burisma’s board.
Thanks Joe for your honesty… I must say though you keep us all well informed no matter how the news gets routed to us. Thank you for Consortium
Joe,
As usual great insight here. “the voting public awaits the embarrassment of the accusers as half baked allegations once again lead the Democrats down the proverbial rabbit hole of stupidity.”
I have to ask a question which is a mystery to all which is why since the 2016 election have democrats faltered and stumbled on the reasons for the last election and also the reasons they specifically blame the Russians?
Clearly the democrats including the old guard consisting of the “venerable” Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton were shills supporting the “blame Russia for everything” movement in Washington. Nothing supports this more than the testimony of former FBI Director James Comey under oath about his knowledge of Russian interference in the election of Trump while democrats failed in a big way to not investigate Comeys own election hack of reopening the Server gate investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails days before the election. Comey was warned by the DOJ that reopening the investigation with just days until the national vote would be seen as a naked attempt at election influencing and perhaps election corruption.
During his testimony Comey was never asked about his role in influencing the election by reopening the investigation and was handed a giant softball to go into detail about how the election was thrown to Trump by Russia. No other foreign nation was similarly investigated by the committee even though such probabilities were obvious, needed to be investigate, and perhaps eclipsed Russia’s attempts at interference.
Trumps often repeated complaint about the behavior of the democrats during this time was that the democrats hated Comey up until the point that they loved him. His point was that democrats hated Comey for fostering and reinvigorating his investigation of Hilary Clinton up until they needed him for investigating Trump and his supposed alleged ties to Russia in an alleged attempt to collude with the Russians to throw the election.
Today we know that Cambridge Analytica had far more influence on voters in the 2016 election than Russia but nary a word is heard about that other than to blame Facebook for providing Cambridge Analytica with private (not shared) data under the assumption of its widely condemned decision to provide “secret” files under the Facebook privacy policy which concluded that Cambridge Analytica was just a research group.
Cambridge Analytica did way more with the information they got to undermine the election than the Russians ever did but rarely do we hear outcries from the democrats about that.
Trump’s complaints over the Comey testimony were later used to suggest that he had tried to “obstruct justice” by trying to handle a turncoat administrator of a major intelligence agency.
But the intelligence agencies were not done yet as they faked a report about how 17 different administration security agencies all concluded that Russia was to blame for Trumps election.
No wonder Trump views the media in general as fake news. Almost every leader in the Democratic Party signed on to the view that Russia and Russia alone hacked the election while they grilled Comey about Russian influence and never asked what else was up.
Had they asked Comey about his own actions, the inquisitors might have reached a different conclusion but they lost their opportunity to represent reality and ended up as shills for the MIC by enforcing sanctions and every hectic attempt to isolate Russia and ban them from the World stage.
What is the takeaway here? Are these democrats who cling to the story about Russian interference going to do anything resembling their supposed search for a balance? Of course not.
We have entered a new and dangerous period.
The democrats are not paid to do any of that.
Joe, thanks for reminding of Robert Parry’s lavish coverage of Ukraine corruption. I confess I had forgotten it.
Now the question is whether any of this can manage to break into mainstream media, I suppose.
I’m somewhat bemused by MSM again attacking Trump whilst hoisting yet another establishment Democrat as their election strategy. That didn’t work so well in 2016.
Joe, thank you for the link to Robert’s article from when everything was going down. This takes it out of the tit for tat fights we are seeing now.
Paul to what you are referring to I need only survey my own household to gauge to where the narrative to this Trump trying to use a foreign power to get dirt on a political foe against an exposure of the Biden family corruption could in my estimation go either way at this point in time. My wife is reading news which makes Trump sound guilty and impeachable and I’m hearing the diverse side where the Biden’s might lose it all with their criminal malarkey and corrupted ways.
We should not forget that there have been and still are investigations going on within our justice department concerning Clinton corruption and, that includes the DNC using Ukraine as a source for dirt on Manafort. I suspect the closer we get to the 2020 Presidential Election the findings which could be damaging to the Democrats will be presented to the American public by the Republicans meant to destroy the Dem’s credibility and ruin any chance of their corporate DNC machine of ever getting control of this run away narrative like ever again for the rest of this upcoming 2020 presidential campaign. The Dem’s by playing so close to the Biden corrupted escapades of power and influence is just one more example of over eager Dem insanity.
Your a lawyer Paul would you make knee jerk headlights based on mere allegations with nothing to back it up? Putting up a Christine Blasey Ford with no corroboration by a reliable witness is just plain malpractice in my opinion. In fact next month who’s face will Bret Kavanaugh have pushed his little mister catholic boy penis into who will not remember to when and how he did it? I know the 5% rule on any news is permanent PR damage even if the allegations aren’t true but more often than not eventually these allegations get called out upon and then everything falls apart for the Democrat voter… is this an accident? You answer that while I contemplate my own question another day.
Playing with Fire will get you burnt but, who cares when made up reality is the name of the game in our nation’s lying capital. Take care Paul Joe
Because of the phony coverage of the US involvement in the Ukraine coup, many Americans do not even have the first clue as to how Obama administration pulled off the corruption and the propaganda against Russia. So, Biden profits from that misinformation. Everything, including Burisma, follows from that. Media spins forever with another false story, and I have little hope that truth will win. Biden may not be the Democrat candidate because of his sinking memory, anyway. US is gaslit beyond belief.
The Orange revolution in Ukraine was to give USA people like Biden and his son access to the resources ( gas and oil) of Ukraine. The coup was and is a patented script of what the USA does around the world to Sovereign Countries.
So, since the citizens of the USA never see (or react) to what Criminal Coups the USA foment around the world why would they protest Biden and his son’s misadventures in Ukraine.
Biden himself believes he and his son are entitled to the spoils created by the Criminal coup by the USA upon Ukraine.
It will be interesting what happens from here on about Biden and his son, Trump, and his persecution by the Criminal Democrats. Stay Tuned! Will truth and legal prosecution prevail.
I am not a fan of Trump, but I see nobody in the Democratic Party’s gang of challengers as being an answer to Trump’s failed performance as Presi8dent. Wake up Voters of the USA. You are not #1. Face it!
> Because of the phony coverage of the US involvement in the Ukraine coup, many Americans do not even have the first clue as to how Obama administration pulled off the corruption and the propaganda against Russia. So, Biden profits from that misinformation.
Unfortunately, it’s not just Americans. Quite a number of Britons, Germans, and Frenchmen are parroting this line already.
Thank you Mr McGovern – good to read a piece by you again.
The corruption of the members of US government, at all levels, really does out do that of any drug cartel or criminal gang in part at least because they are in position to write laws permitting the flow of corporate, interest group/individual money (“lobbying,” electoral contributions, otherwise known as bribery), in a position to hamper, prevent any and all serious investigations into malfeasance, crime, and corruption itself. They are all – in Congress, the WH, the top layers of the bureaucracy, the Pentagon – part and parcel of same sliver of US society, or hope to be, as those they really represent: the 1%. The ruling elites, the corporate-capitalist-imperialists who themselves bend the rules (rules, laws they write or have their lobbyists write) to ensure their continued dominance within and without the boundaries of this country.
So I don’t hold out either much hope that the truth about this whole sordid affair will emerge – after all, it involves Obama’s deliberate interference in the government of another country, his and his person in place, Nuland’s, (successful) efforts to overthrow a legitimate, democratically elected president whose pro-Russian policies they didn’t like. To investigate Biden’s son’s possible connections to any business corruption in Ukraine and then reveal the fruits of that investigation would be to open the whole Obama-Nuland-(Clinton?) engineered coup can of worms. Can’t see the Demrats and their pals in the alphabet soup agencies allowing that.
When it comes to US and western politicians the premise should be corrupt unless proven otherwise. If one follows that premise much falls in place and one avoids confusion or being cheated. Compared to US and westerna politicians Al Capone was a philanthropist
A reading of the excellent latest Capone bio will show that Al and his system are ruling this planet today….nothing has changed, except perhaps Capone had a slightly softer heart and respect for religion. Since him, everything’s only gotten worse.
Thanks Ray for reminding of Biden’s son being shot into position in the Ukrainian energy company very soon after the Ukraine coup, orchestrated by the US under the Obama regime. Hard to believe so many Americans,
helped by social media and mainstream media, can turn a deaf ear to this, just as they did with the absurd theatrical allegations by the Democrats against Russia after they lost the 2016 elections through their own nefarious activities.
Distraction after distraction in our modern times, means little time for quiet reflection on anything. – Kay Weir.
Thanks to Ray McGovern and CN and to you Kay Weir for supporting the Truth…
Thanks to Ray McGovern and Joe Lauria for these insights. But of course the IRS/HSI/FBI will not investigate the profiteering even if the evidence is handed to them, the Judiciary will not prosecute regardless of evidence, and the mass media will say nothing. There is honor among thieves, Liberty and Justice for gangsters, glory be to gold!
Biden did have the courage to hold out longest in 2009 against the NSC/JCS Afghan “surge” where Hillary promptly approved anything those boys with the medals wanted, while Obama and Biden held out for a plan to achieve definite results, and an exit plan. The NSC stiffed them for a plan and Obama capitulated to the “more bombs is better” plan. Biden held out and was simply disinvited from NSC meetings with Obama and Hillary. See Woodward’s The War Within.
It appears that the entire Obama admin was and remained unprepared to control the government, or sought no change.
I do not forgive the Dems doing absolutely nothing in 2008-10 when they controlled both houses and the executive.
This country needs major change to get money out of elections and mass media, clearly not the Dem plan at all.
Exactly how corrupt the installation and promotion of his son was in Ukraine business could be significant.
But I’m happy with dumping the hopey-changey fakers and all of their kind from politics.
It is interesting to me that this news about Joe Biden and his son Hunter is presented as such a “bombshell”. I, your average citizen, have been aware that Joe Biden threatened the Ukranian government with withholding some kind of money the US was going to give the Ukraine if they did not cease and desist the investigation of the Ukranian energy company. There was just an article recently about how John Kerry’s stepson was “stepping away” from Hunter Biden because of, well, really because he saw which way the wind was blowing as far as the Ukranian scheme went. But since our crime investigating branch of government was not anxious to prosecute Hillary Clinton to see if she was guilty of mishandling classified material and using an un-secure server and lying to everybody about it, they sure were not going to step up any investigation about Joe Biden. That does make two Democratic presidential hopefuls with shady dealings. However, IMO, the problem with Joe Biden is that he is in the early stages of Alzheimers and, if elected, he will not be running the country, although I do not know who will.
@ “… the problem with Joe Biden is that he is in the early stages of Alzheimers …”
*The* problem? With his track record, I couldn’t support him even if Alzheimers or dementia were not an issue.
It is corruption, the coup taking out Yanukovych, and the soft coup attempting a take down of Trump.
I had absolutely no clue as to the corruption of our government, until now in later life I have to admit corruption abounds in every corridor.
Look no farther than the broad smile as Biden addressing a union group of working men and women, it is a smile of corruption.
Yes, I’m later in life and have found the same thing. Propaganda in the US is top notch as far as the rich and powerful controlling society. Then again, our society is easy to manipulated. Although, it does seem that some in the general public are starting to catch onto the attempted manipulation.
countykerry
Not just Biden addressing a union group. After Robert Reich (yes that robert reich of recent Russiagate fame) left the Clinton administration as Sec of Labor he wrote about his experiences close to and in the whitehouse. He describes a meeting good old Bill had with the leadership of the AFL-CIO. It was shocking to me how Bill Clinton had those fools wrapped up in knots with his bulls**t rhetoric. It was then that I realized that organized labor had completely lost it. They no longer represented the American worker but were simple tools for a Democratic Party that had long before abandoned the FDR legacy of supporting American workers.