Friday, September 27, 2019

The real conspiracy is the effort to cover up for Hunter Biden

Hunter Biden.  What a train wreck.  49-year-old Daddy's boy who couldn't accomplish anything on his own. 

Democratic Impeachment BACKFIRE: Hunter Biden’s Position Sort of Undermined American Policy This is CNN:
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And let's note this too:

🚨FLASHBACK 🚨 Remember the Mainstream Media actually covered the Hunter Biden Scandal? Now, anyone who asks questions is called a “Conspiracy Theorist”. Here’s a clip from June 2019. Why did the Media stop covering ?!?
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Hunter's actions should be called out.  They reflect poorly on him and poorly on his father. 

There was a clear conflict of interests.  Ethics were broken.  Joe Biden is not fit to be president.  He should have been forced to resign as vice president.  He put his family's greed ahead of American interests.


This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Friday, September 27, 2019.. Ethics.

In the United States, the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination continues.  Jim Newall (SLATE) notes:

While most of the news focus this week pertained to certain goings-on in the House of Representatives—goings-on that of course Elizabeth Warren was the first candidate to call for, in April—Warren has started to take Joe Biden’s lead. She led Biden narrowly, for the first time, in two national polls released this week, and she has taken the lead in the Iowa polling average as well. She took the lead in a New Hampshire poll. She is nearing the lead in Nevada. She is drawing healthy shares from supporters of both Clinton and Sanders in the 2016 primary contest. She is starting to see some movement among black voters. Democrats are the most enthusiastic about her candidacy. There is … nothing going wrong right now? Nothing! This newsletter likes to make jokes about how politicians are failing at politics, and she’s just not giving us anything.


So while Elizabeth is up, Joe is down, dragged down by his own actions.  Over at US NEWS AND WORLD REPORTS, Susan Milligan speaks with University of New Hampshire's Dante Scala:


Biden, in fact, might have some vulnerability on the Ukraine matter with voters, Scala says, because voters might wonder how and why the younger Biden went to work for a Ukrainian firm while his father was in the White House.
"It's not a great look, even though there's not any evidence of wrongdoing," Scala says.

There is absolutely the evidence of wrong doing.

This lowering of our standards is how we end up with presidents unfit to serve.

Joe Biden's son Hunter gets employed by a firm and that's the wrong doing.  Yes, Hunter needed a job.   Three months prior the US military had kicked him out of the reserves because of his use of cocaine.  They should have referred it over to a court, he should have been arrested.  Instead, they just kicked him out.  Three months later, with no experience to speak of, he's brought on and paid $50,000 a month.

That is unethical.  And his father at the time was vice president.  Joe then has interactions with the government of Ukraine.  That is unethical.

Hunter never should have taken the job to begin with.  Once he did, Joe should have been removed from any and all dealings with Ukraine.

It is unethical.  And as vice president, Joe insisting, "I didn't do anything wrong," isn't enough.  Joe has to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.  He was the Vice President.  He has to be held to a higher standard while in that office.




It was Joe Biden’s family that almost kept him from running. Now, it could help drag him down. 
Why it matters: The former vice president has to answer questions about family controversies just as Elizabeth Warren is catching him in the polls.
  • Hunter Biden was a paid board member of a Ukrainian gas company while his father was in the White House.
Top Democrats tell us they worry the Ukraine fracas winds up being an albatross for Biden because he'll be associated with an unpopular issue and process, and won't be able to shake questions about Hunter Biden.

No, wrong doing?  Corruption in office is wrong doing.  There is ample public knowledge that suggest wrong doing without any investigation.

Joe did not do his job as vice president because that job included avoiding even the appearance of a conflict of interest.  Joe did not do his job.

His actions look smarmy, his actions appear unethical.  And that's without any probe taking place.

The usual idiots of the faux left are refusing to look seriously at what is right before their eyes.  In some cases, they're afraid of 'helping' Donald Trump.  Try helping yourselves, you idiots.  This is about democracy, this is about fairness, this is about basic expectations of those in public office.

I can understand the press being leery to go into too much detail after the verbal attacks on THE NEW YORK TIMES.  I don't like THE TIMES.  I'm not a fan.  That was long ago established.  But they published an article -- this one -- that I've read over and over trying to understand the need to attack the paper for it.

Didn't REUTERS already report that the whistle-blower or 'whistle-blower' was CIA?

I don't understand the anger at NYT.  The person is of public interest.  The news report -- fairly bland to begin with -- serves the public interest.

But you have all these idiots claiming on Twitter that NYT did something wrong.  Then claiming that they've cancelled their subscriptions -- most never subscribed.  Some even bigger idiots insisting that they're going to subscribe to the physical paper of THE WASHINGTON POST -- who's going to deliver that to most of your homes?  Lots of luck with that.

How could NYT do this!!!! They insist the paper was wrong and you protect a source and -- The person who filed the complaint is not a source to the paper.  People don't even understand journalism.  It's not -- REPORT WHAT I LIKE!!!!!

The immaturity is just astounding.

On impeachment . . .

One person wrote a lengthy e-mail to the public account stating that the snapshot was brief because I was avoiding the topic of impeachment?

No, that’s not why it was brief.  I’ve explained why it was brief.  I will probably note a hearing in Monday’s snapshot.  I went back and forth over including it today but wanted to just focus on ethics.

The e-mail informs me that I was wrong (wouldn’t be the first time) when I stated that I didn’t believe Donald Trump broke a law as it was being described in press reports.  I still don’t.  Based on the latest details.  If you want to say it was unethical, I’ll hop on board that.  But the Justice Dept was correct not to prosecute.  If Congress wants to pass a law, they can do so.  Whether or not the Court would uphold it is a big if, but they can pass a law on this.  Currently, there is no law.

The e-mailer, like Nancy Pelosi yesterday, wants to insist that Donald was attempting to ensure that he won the 2020 election.

You’re ascribing motive.

On someone you don’t even know.

As noted here many times over the years, and at THIRD, I do not like Donald Trump and that’s based upon my knowing him.

As someone who has known him over the years, I don’t think he was trying to get re-elected.

I think he’s on a kamikaze mission.  I’m ascribing motive but I’m basing it on my personal interaction with him in the past.  (And that’s limited, I’ve noted before that I would walk away if I saw him approaching.)

Bob Somerby and others have done crazy lunatic talk.  Donald’s not going to leave!!!! He’s going to lose the election and he’s not going to leave!!!!

First, there’s a good chance he will win the election.

Second, if he loses, he’ll leave and he’ll leave playing the victim and spend the rest of his life saying how the US screwed up and how every president after him screwed up.  That’s Donald.

You know what else is Donald? Thinking the world is against him.  “He didn’t even want to win!”  That’s what some said as the 2016 election approached and after.  Yes, he did.  But he didn’t think he would and he didn't want to be seen as wanting it as much as he did because he felt the world would then laugh if he lost.  That’s his low self-esteem.  That same low self-esteem tells him he probably won’t be re-elected.  As such, he’s out to destroy now.  This was about punishing others.  It was not, “Joe could beat me!”  It was, “Democrats have been corrupt and I’ll take out any I can on my way out the door.”  That’s Donald.

To be clear, I have not stated he will lose in 2020.  There’s a good chance he’ll win.  Especially if impeachment is pursued.  Especially if No-Enthusiasm Joe is the nominee.

But he has low self-esteem and that’s what he operates from.

“He has a huge ego!!!!”  He has bravado that covers (for some) his low self-esteem.

So I think he’s on a kamikaze mission to take out as many as he can before January 2021 when he fears/suspects/believes he will be leaving the White House.

That’s me ascribing motive.  I don’t deny it.  But I’d argue my insight is a little greater than some speaking on his possible motives.

Donald has low self-esteem.  If he lost the election, he would see it as part of the world victimizing him and would leave the White House.  I do not get the crazy that Bob Somerby has repeatedly preached on Donald locking himself in the White House after losing the election and refusing to go.

But I also don’t get the nonsense Bob preaches about Donald being crazy.  His actions do not surprise me, they do not mystify me.  I do not believe he’s insane.  I do believe he is the wounded child who never recovered.

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Note, the snapshot this morning included Stan's "PRODIGAL SON" -- I don't know how that happened but it was in here twice.  To be clear, Stan wrote that.  It also included the impeachment section 3 times.  That's been reduced to one.  Stan did a strong review of "PRODIGAL SON" and I want to be sure he gets credited for that.  Ava and I do our TV pieces at THIRD.  -- C.I., 9/27/19 12:37 pm EST.
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The following sites updated:








Thursday, September 26, 2019

In thirty years, what will the political landscape look like?

Daniel M. Bring (Spectator) writes:

The Green party’s 2016 presidential ticket, headed by Jill Stein, captured just about 1 percent of the national popular vote, a far cry from the 2.74 percent infamously won by Green nominee Ralph Nader in 2000. Now with its presidential primaries underway, party leaders are betting that voters will look to the left of the Democratic party.
‘The Green party’s just taking all the people who are too crazy for the Democratic Socialists of America,’ an insider in the Democratic party’s left wing told me.
But the Greens have reasons to be optimistic about their future in American politics.
‘For decades, our candidates have been talking about single-payer healthcare, the Green New Deal, ending the war on drugs, and now these are really coming into the mainstream,’ said Gloria Mattera, one of the Green party’s co-chairs and a member of its steering committee.
The headline policy objective of the Green party’s 2020 platform is an ‘eco-socialist’ Green New Deal. Mattera’s not sure if the ‘Green New Deal’ branding, supposedly coined by the Greens, was ‘co-opted’ by the Democrats or had just entered into the mainstream.
The rest of the platform includes ‘an economic Bill of Rights’ and an end to the war economy.
‘The money going to the war machine is what’s going to fund the kinds of programs that are needed to interrupt the climate crisis and uplift people who have been oppressed by capitalism,’ Mattera said.
‘I’m confident that if the voters heard the platforms and the articulate way how our candidates discuss Green party policies, that it would really resonate.’

I do think the Green Party will be the emerging party.  I think the GOP will be gone in about thirty years.  I think the Democrats have moved so far to the right that they've replaced the Republicans.  And for non-right wing voters, I think the Green Party will be where they head to.

Political parties die out.  The Whig party did and it was once one of the two big parties in the country.



  • Dario was invited to speak at a Green Party of Quebec event. Did you know Dario was a lawyer in Canada? His bilingual speech, emphasizing the Green value of seeking justice, begins at 18:03.
  • Did you catch last Friday's Green Party Presidential Candidate Debate?



  • This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

     
    Thursday, September 26, 2019.


    Starting in the US where the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination continues.  War Hawk Joe Biden wants to be president.  And so does his family.  Including his niece who stole over $100,000 and just got a slip on the wrist (see Ruth's "Biden's only tough on crime when it comes to people of color") because, well, "as a Biden."  Joe's word as a Biden is looking even more laughable.


    Apparently, Caroline Biden's family didn't use that record player enough at night or maybe they didn't have social workers coming in teaching her parents how to parent -- that's Joe's answer for African-Americans, right?  What's his answer for spoiled White kids in his own family?  Oh, right, look the other way.  Always.

    With more on the trashy Biden family, Ben Schreckinger (POLITICO) reports:


    Joe Biden’s brother told executives at a healthcare firm that the former vice president’s cancer initiative would promote their business, according to a participant in the conversation, who said the promise came as part of a pitch on behalf of potential investors in the firm.

    The allegation is the latest of many times Biden’s relatives have invoked the former vice president and his political clout to further their private business dealings. It is the first that involves the Biden Cancer Initiative, a project Joe Biden made the centerpiece of his post-White House life following the death of his son Beau. 

    Biden’s brother, James, made the promise to executives at Florida-based Integrate Oral Care during a phone call on or around November 8, 2018, according to Michael Frey, CEO of Diverse Medical Management, a health-care firm that is suing James Biden. At the time, James Biden’s business partners were pursuing a potential investment in Integrate, according to Frey and court records. Frey, who had a business relationship with James Biden and his associates, had introduced the group to Integrate. 



    James Biden told the Integrate executives that he would get the Biden Cancer Initiative to promote an oral rinse made by the firm and used by cancer patients, Frey, who said he participated in the call, told POLITICO. He added that James Biden directly invoked the former vice president on the call. "He said his brother would be very excited about this product,” Frey said. 

    Crony capitalism.

    Joe claims wisdom.  His family is unethical and he wants to be president?  His niece stole over $100,000 and she's not going to do time?  That's not fair, that's not fair and equal. That's the Biden corruption that runs through that family.

    Simon Lewis (REUTERS) reports:

    U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday edged past former Vice President Joe Biden for the first time in a major national opinion poll for the Democratic presidential primary, making her largest gains among white voters with a college degree. 
    Warren drew 27% support to Biden’s 25% in a Quinnipiac University poll of Democratic voters and independent voters who lean Democratic, though her lead was within the margin of error.
    The results marked a significant shift from Quinnipiac’s prior polls for the Democratic nominating contest to choose a candidate to take on President Donald Trump in November 2020. Biden had been ahead of Warren by double digits since it began polling in March and by 13 points in the same poll in August.


    Joe had been ahead.  He had been.  Before people started seeing who and what he was.

    And what happens to his niece is an issue  This goes to the whole 1% argument.  And this is not fair -- again, we're talking $100,000.  There are actresses who are in trouble  for using their money and influence to get their children into colleges.  But his niece steals $100,000 and she's not serving time?

    If she wasn't his niece, she would be doing time.

    Joe wants to be president as this happens and feels no embarrassment.  This goes back to Hunter Biden getting caught for cocaine usage while in the reserves and being allowed to walk when many others would have served time.

    This goes to the issue of corruption and his family -- his brother and his son Hunter -- using his name and his positions to make money.  It's unethical.  This is not a new development.  This nothing new.  It did not develop last week, last year or last decade.  These are policies that have been in effect throughout Joe's political career -- in fact, before his career started.

    Joe's allowed this unethical behavior to go on and on.  And now he wants to be president.  It is a serious issue and he needs to be asked about it and he needs to answer for it.  Serious issues are not addressed by sitting down with Jimmy Kimmel, for example.  And that's not slamming Jimmy.  He does an entertainment talk show, he has no background in news, his audience is watching for laughs.  The problem is not Jimmy or any other late night talk show host.












    The following sites updated: