Convoluted World of Trump, The Bidens and Ukraine Corruption

Was Joe Biden playing both sides of the table on Ukraine? 
If Hunter Biden hadnt been a director of a company under investigation, Joe Biden did nothing wrong.

Anyone who's paid attention to geopolitics knows that Eastern Europe countries especially are rife with corruption.  It's how things get done. When that regime changes significantly, the leaders and grifters get out with everything they can get their hands on.  {Where do you think all those Russian Oligarchs came from?}
Which leads the successor to launch investigations into the old players.  Usually the International banks get involved.
Such was the case when the Russian leaning government was tossed out. 
But it's tricky.  So the government legal eagles look for something to point out they're doing their jobs and rooting out the bad guys without pissing off too many of the powers that be.
Almost nothing was coming out of these investigations

- AT THE SAME TIME, the UK found a company whose financial twists and turns had a bad smell.. let's say it was Burisma, and energy company with questionable lease licensing practices.  They froze its assets - a piddly 28 million, small potatoes when billions are unaccounted for.
So with UK begging Ukraine for information on this company and help in prosecuting a fraud case, it would make sense for Ukraine's prosecutor to go after that company.

So since lots of people including the US wanted SOME results, Joe Biden pressed for action. Thing is one company loaded up its board with Americans who had connection. That was Burisma. And the folks were.. Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, a close acquaintance of Chris Heinz, John Kerry's stepson.

So the highest profile (and lowest impact) target for the sacrificial sheep was 'shielded.. or so it thought. Evidently Shokol didnt get that message and was going for the easy.

The bottom line was that Biden's demand to have that Prosecutor fired in order to get a Billion in loan guaranty was taken a whole different way by Ukraine.  He was fired alright and Ukraine refused UK requests for cooperation.

And to this day nothing has got done on any of the corruption

SOMEHOW.. despite Biden's strongarm 'Soft Politics' tactics, getting Prosecutor fired, nothing changed. Except Burisma was no longer a target anywhere.   Go figger.

Read this about the UK Serious Fraud Office case against Burisma.. scroll 3/4 down.. and how it fell apart after/despite Joe Biden demanding the Prosecutor be fired, to release 1 billion in loan guaranty

The money machine: how a high-profile corruption investigation fell apart

Change could only be won when international lenders forced President Poroshenko to act. It was tough talk from the west that obliged Ukraine’s parliament – long referred to sarcastically as the biggest business club in Europe – to create the anti-corruption bureau and a dedicated anti-corruption prosecution service. And it was only the bluntest of language from US officials that forced the Ukrainian government to fire crooked prosecutors. According to a valedictory interview by the former vice president Joe Biden in the Atlantic, Poroshenko only sacked the lawman blocking Kasko’s reforms because Biden made a direct threat. “Petro, you’re not getting your billion dollars,” Biden said he had told Ukraine’s president. “You can keep the [prosecutor] general. Just understand, we’re not paying if you do.”

So, that's a good thing, right?  Maybe the SFO case could get somewhere and reforms made.

Well.. except there's other ways to dodge metaphorical bullets and scrutiny.

The credibility of the United States was not helped by the news that since May 2014, Biden’s son Hunter had been on the board of directors of Burisma, Zlochevsky’s company. The White House insisted the position was a private matter for Hunter Biden, and unrelated to his father’s job, but that is not how anyone I spoke to in Ukraine interpreted it. Hunter Biden is an undistinguished corporate lawyer, with no previous Ukraine experience. Why would a Ukrainian tycoon hire him?
Hunter Biden failed to reply to questions I sent him, but he told the Wall Street Journal in December 2015 that he had joined Burisma “to strengthen corporate governance and transparency at a company working to advance energy security”. That was not an explanation that many people found reassuring. The Washington Post was particularly damning: “The appointment of the vice president’s son to a Ukrainian oil board looks nepotistic at best, nefarious at worst,” it wrote, shortly after Hunter Biden’s appointment. “You have to wonder how big the salary has to be to put US soft power at risk like this. Pretty big, we’d imagine.”

Well.. according to some, it's $83,000 a month, which Hunter is still drawing.

So.. Joe Biden's brag about getting a Prosecutor fired for stonewalling the corruption investigations, such as SFO's,  all came to nothing. 
And fell apart.
Much deeper look here: The Hunt for Burisma Date 2/19/2015

Now we come to Trump's calls to the new Ukrainian chief.  He wants investigations into this and other corruption scandals according to him. 
Which is exactly the same as Biden claimed.  Except that the allegedly and probable corrupt Prosecutor Biden got fired was deflecting attention from bigger fish to the Small potatos Burisma case.
Bottom line is that Biden actually DID what Dems want to accuse Trump of.

MeToo! - The Inevitable Lesson of Al Franken and Mob Pressure

I never cared much for Al Franken, not even on SNL.  But he never should have resigned from the Senate.
 Never mind he was elected on the fortuitous discovery of Ballots found misplaced in the trunk of an election officials car, he still was the sworn representative of the people.
I don't know of any charges against Franken while he was a candidate or Senator, do you?

While his comedy stuff was amusing, in a guilty giggle sort of way,  it was demeaning also.  You never knew how to react to a Stuart Smalley skit. On one hand you knew he was making fun of Stuart and self-help motivation.  On the other hand, you got the feeling that there was an element of Franken himself in the perfomance.  It wasn't over the top because it was based on the Human Condition,  but you can get the idea that it would not be acceptable under today's Political Correctness.

But worse was the concept in his other SNL scripting that often dealt with schoolboy attitudes towards Sex, Rape and Sluttiness as comedy.  The shot of him fake groping Leann Tweeden only served as the tipping point in forcing him to make a drastic move.

Because he should have apologized but not resigned his position - what really matters is his behavior as an Elected and Public Official.  It's sad that he suffered the same result as the execrable John Conyers Jr who really was a sexist POS.

Worse is the current reaction of Hollyweird celebs Slut-Shaming Tweeden .. just to defend Franken. Same ones who think Roman Polanski deserves to 'come back'.

Bette Midler just destroyed the entire #MeToo movement in a desperate effort to protect Al Franken

Absolutely Amazing..  No end to political based Pretzel Logic to defend their Virtue Signaling LifeViews
Now let's think about Kavanaugh and Trump.  Yeah the rules are different but they shouldn't be in the 'Church of What's Happening Now'.

What if Martin Luther was Molested as an Altar Boy?

Some loosely related things for believers to think about, that might help explain stuff.

Let's enter a whole world of reasonable conjecture. Not Tin-Foil hat stuff but actually reasonable to assume, based on history of the Church and biblical teachings.
Dark humor jokes about pedophile priests are centuries old and anyone who's read early literature has run across them. The 'Borgia Popes' dynasty is just a gray element in the annals of Rome. Just not talked about.
We all know Luther was no angel, himself.  He had his own sins to answer for. What doi we know about molested kids, as adults?

Remember when Jesus said to Peter, "Upon this Rock (petra) I build my church". In context that was not just a pun but Irony as well. Peter had just denied knowing Jesus three times.

Remember when Satan took Jesus to the wilderness and offered him the world?  And he refused. Some of us reason that Satan did the same to an Arab shepherd 600 hundred years later and that one accepted.
Suppose Satan took advantage of a poor Argentine Priest Novitiate some decades ago.  Of course that would require that the Dark Angel deceiver actually exists.  Has anyone read Francis' view on the existence of Satan as an entity?  Or is Evil just a construct of the dark side of human nature.
'All that is Of Man becomes corrupt.'
And the priest might have just taken it upon himself to correct the injustices of this world as well as the church's past where all sorts of evil was permitted by tacit support of the feudal system.


Why is it whenever I read anything about Francis, the term 'Pharisee' comes to mind?

Pope Sidesteps Allegations Of Massive Sex Abuse Cover-Up To Address Grave Issue – Plastic In The Ocean

Why does he concern himself so much with matters he knows nothing about and appointed Schnellhuber,  a climate Charlatan, to advise him.

Why does he 'revise' scripture with false allegories?


CAVEAT: This certainly does not reflect on the Catholic believer any more than the folks who used to send TV Evangelists their last dollar reflects on them, in God's eyes.  
They did not elect Francis as Pope. The Feudal Vatican system did.
Nor should anyone think that child abuse never happens in the Baptist world, for example.

Progressive Ideology: The cancer that eats its own

"What'cha gonna do when they come for you!"

THE ECONOMIST: The dangers of illiberal liberalism: Liberals who repress speech to prevent harm risk inviting authoritarianism.

Risk, hell!  They long for it.
via Instapundit

also.. HOLMAN JENKINS: The Media Fesses Up:

"If neo-Nazis didn’t exist, the left would have to invent them. And to some extent have"

Make that 'Do' and 'Will' invent them.

Such as..HERE: Newsweek Video: Portland Antifa Beats Bernie Sanders Voter for Carrying an American Flag

The takeaway should not imply 'even beats a Bernie Bro', but that they beat anyone for just carrying a flag.

AntiFa is a Progressive construct and  are the very definition of FASCIST.

Full Stop

Trump a great feminist? Does it matter?

Is President Donald Trump a feminist?

Ummm. no. Obama had Michelle and her mother plus Valerie Jarret telling him what to do. And Samantha Power, Susan Rice and Marie Harf as his mouthpieces, willing to say any stupid thing as Barack's advisors bid them.

- Why I groan every time some proggy accuses Sarah Sanders of 'lying'. I just remember Susan Rice telling us what causes the Benghazi attack.

Then there's Hillary...

 As far as Cabinet and other high profile positions, I'm pretty sure neither Nikki Haley or Betsy DeVos are just waiting for Trump's directions. 

And THEN, there's Omarosa.. who apparently thought she would be front and center in the Trophy Showcase.
So... comparison of the two administrations just comes down to a pissing contest.   I always assumed the best person for the job, all things considered, would be picked.

Some would probably scoff at the idea, noting the infamous leaked Access Hollywood tape that shows Trump saying lewd things about women and allegations that he harassed women when he owned the Miss USA pageant.

Really.. what does that have to do with it?   ...and don't forget Barack never was caught saying ANYTHING of a sexual nature about any woman .. you can take that as you will. 😎
You want counterpoint?  Here it is, Trump bashing.

Taking a Break from making Jimmy Kimmel's Sammiches...

...One of his writers blames Sexism for Netflix cancelling a crap show.













Hmmmm.. Not all of her followers  agree, exactly.

Carol Burnett was unavailable for comment.

H/T Twitchy.

This is ALL just one big Reality Show!

Idiots threaten Maine Restaurant owner and his family for changing his French Fries to straight cut from krinkle cut.
Daily Mail: Furious customers threaten to attack restaurant owner and his CHILDREN after he changed the shape of his famous $4 french fries

But it was a decision that came down to costs, Leslie said, revealing the unique chip shape cost the business 'thousands'. 

'The blades are ridiculously pricey and flimsy. It takes many blades to operate the cutter. 

'We still use the best potato in Maine. It is still a very expensive French Fry and our process minus the crinkle cut is still the same,' she reassured anxious customers.

Even the Bangor PD got into the fracas on their own FB page:

The food is good, the people are real, the fries were straight-cut.    

'We all need to get a grip on being angry with changes which displease us. We can argue the benefits, we can whisper quietly amongst ourselves about how we liked the 'old way' better.

But we really cannot be fighting or throat-punching people over our differences, or the differences between straight and crinkle-cut. 

In the end, it's not about Bolley's fries at all, it's about being civil to one another no matter what the issue. We ALL need to try a little bit harder.'

Ayup.

***
Trump proposes Yuuge Military Parade.
Numbers come in to actually stage it. Trump cancels it.
Second thoughts?  Or another in Trump's Rope a Dope schemes?

"Cost of the parade that never happens, a rock bottom $0. Political reward: priceless."

- Of course, someone had to pay the bean counters so it wasn't 'zero' cost, but way cheaper than actually doing it.
Everyone knows Military Might parades are third world bullshit, anyway.  I was hoping it would turn out like this.

***

Still Fallout from Joe Paterno's Asst Coach's Pedo scandal.
The Sordid, Outre Ohio State story just gets worse!  Now complete with photos of coach Zack Smith's junk from a White House visit.
From 'The Smokeroom

So, just to clarify, Smith has been accused of multiple counts of domestic violence, he was arrested for driving under the influence in 2013, now we’re finding out he reportedly sent photos of his genitals while at the White House and allegedly took photos of himself having sex with staffer. At this point would anything surprise us? I really don’t think so.

Urban Meyer may have his career ruined by following rules in an outdated Head coach leadership manual. 

***
Netflix cancels 'The Break with  Michelle Wolf", staff cries 'No Fair!'

Seems like just yesterday I read Netflix was going to fund a series by 'comedian' Michelle Wolf wherein all Trumpistas and Wrongthinkers would be coerced/shamed into 'RightThink'.  Using Alinsky Rule, of course.
Apparently they couldn't figure out a way to actually MAKE anyone watch it. Think 'Echo Chamber'.
So Netflix cancelled paying for new episodes.
Guess what.  No one notified the production writers and staff.  And THEY'RE BLAMING NETFLIX FOR THAT!
Ummm.. I AM just a pore dumb hick farm boy/ engineer but it seems to me that's the role of the Executive Producer(s), not the 'network'.

Oh wait!  Look at the show cast and crew credits on IMDB...  it was one hot mess
No one takes credit for Series Executive Producer.
And THAT, Gentle Reader, puts it square in the lap of Michelle Wolf, herself.

Funny.. Not funny, who knows.  And don't say that Netflix was keeping viewership close to the vest.  A good Producer would find out what the numbers were. But that show didn't have one. So....

***
Yet ..Sanity prevails, sometimes:
Yale honors prof who enraged students by defending free speech

Issue: "Erika wrote an email arguing that college students are old enough to choose their own Halloween costumes and cope with costumes that they might find offensive."

Students responded: "No, We're not!". Typical mob 'justice' ensued
-via Instapundit

Lost in the Noise - Hillary's Private Email caused all this

What Democrats want to forget is that most of the 'Collusion' hubbub resulted from Hillary setting up a private email server while she was Sec'y of State, and its subsequent hacking by unknown entities.

BBC treats it with a light touch. Read between the lines.
Most believe it was hacked by agents of Russia and it may well have been.  But we know Wikileaks got a large portion of the emails.

The corrupt biased Strzok was put in charge of investigating it and it's obvious he didn't want to find any fault and to minimize what he did find.

FBI director James Comey announced the results of a separate FBI investigation on 5 July and concluded that that while "there is evidence of potential violations" of criminal statues covering the mishandling of classified information, "our judgement is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case". It referred the matter to the Justice Department, which closed the case against Mrs Clinton and her aides with no charges.

Comey, then covering his own rear, came up with some cockamamie conclusions when new info came out in the two months preceding the election.  This didn't endear him with Democrats who wanted him fired  at that time, before they called firing him later a travesty.

When it came out that Trump also uses private email, Dems jumped on it quick... but they're no where near the same.

WaPo: No, the Trump White House's private emails aren't on-par with Hillary Clinton's

So, not only did the email scandal help Hillary lose the election, the shady dealing by FBI operatives make it look as if the Dems are actually colluding with the agency higher-ups to delegitimize Trump.

Top that off with the obvious conclusion that John Brennan had a hand in all this.. including keeping the Russian meddling quiet and you have quite a pile of stink.

Including the hack/spying on Fox's James Rosen and CBS' Sharyl Atkisson who were both pursuing stories on the emails and other Obama scandals, which would have been in Brennan's bailiwick.

So it would seem to anyone with a skeptical mind that Brennan's rants about Trump calling for Russia to help find the missing emails are weak tea when compared to what he should have known.

Hollywood Foretells; Hollyweird ignores.

I used to be optimistic about Truth winning out. Now I'm not so sure.




Dear Bette; As an entertainer, you are first rate.  As a commentator on real life, which I am sure you can barely remember, if at all, you are a blooming idiot re real world issues.. 
What is your authority?  Lemme guess, politicians mouthing (usually misinterpreted) media tripe from trough feeding, rent seeking sciencytists.
And NO, none of these disasters are really unusual or happening for the first time, ever.
How did Trump wreck the world environment in 18 months?  Trump has a Time Machine?

Let's TALK about Hollywood vs Trump voters:

To set the stage, why not review a Reality show based on exactly that premise:
Paris Hilton and Nicole Richey's The Simple Life

- If you identified with the two girls and thought their host families were bumpkins, congrats.. you are a bona fide Hollywoodian Democrat wannabe.
- Of the two, I thought Nicole was classier and had the most character. I'm probably not alone.
Viewed dispassionately, though, the girls' disconnect with real life shows how divided the country has become.  They really COULD have believed in Democratic Socialism.

Political prognostication:
If only Hollywood watched and considered the messages in their own fare:

First off:  Idiocracy
Meant to be a hit piece on politics being taken over by the Uneducated and ill-informed (ie Trump voters), it struck  me as an update on '1984' which, btw, conservatives and Progressives also see altogether differently. Take that and Animal Farm then look at college campuses and tell me who's right.

Urban Black Rights
Want to see how big city urban politics works and fails?
Watch The Wire.. uncannily prescient preview of Baltimore's descent into chaos. Really not that hard to figure out. Homicide: Life on the Street said the same ten years prior.
The Good Wife deserves honorable mention for Chicago style politics.

Clickbait - Lazy and Often Fake, leaves you feeling stupid. Now even more so

.. due, most likely to the laziness of the twenty something who put it together,
IMPORTANT UPDATE:  Indeed I do feel stupid now.. because I was all wrong. It's real and that IS a 'DC-4E' flying over Manhattan in 1939.  And it's memorable because the photo is by Margaret Bourke White.
Initial searches for the triple tail plane got me nothing.  Accidentally ran across another photo of that model which made me look harder. 

The whole story which explains my confusion, here
 
But I was right about about the helicopter.  She WAS in a plane to take the shot.. And it would'a been nice if the article told us the whole story.
In my defense I objected because I flew aircrew in DC4 (R5D)'s at Navy Transport Squadron One (VR-1) And the planes I flew in were way uglier and smaller than that one. And btw, once it landed it needed a prop rod under the tail to keep it from assuming 'wheely' position if as few as 3 people went aft.
Of even more interest: That very plane ...

...was sold and shipped to Japan in 1939. Its fate unclear, faded away in the advent of W.W. II. Later it became clear that it was bought to support Japanese studies into a long-range bomber.

****
 My original post, if you care.

Life Is Amazing: The 31 Most Powerful Images From The Last Hundred Years

Image Source
Slide #1 of a series with fairly ordinary pictures from the past.

Pretty cool huh?  Certainly wasn't an easy task... BECAUSE

That is NOT A DC4, it's a Lockheed L-44, precursor to the Constellation. Note the triple tail and sleek looks, Then find an actual picture of a DC4

It's obviously NOT 1939. Neither plane was in the air at that time  May be 1944 but probably later.

Who said it was taken from a Helicopter?  First commercial choppers were built circa 1942 and were too unreliable to be flown over large cities with no place to set down.  I wouldn't want to do it.
Taken from ordinary plane with high wing, most likely.

So, if you find three grave errors in the very first page, why bother with the rest.

Then I found the one about a soldier encountering a baby moose in the woods.

Do yourself a favor.. The first two pages set it up... the next 38 are filler gibberish.  Change the number in the url bar to 40 and you'll see a rather unusual but NOT RARE story of a lost baby moose
attaching itself to the first animal it found.
- Note that some of the pics show stock shots.. for no reason.  Pretty sure Estonia doesnt have its soldiers wearng US flag patches.

I felt stupider after -once again- falling for a hook I thought might be interesting. 

In 'You can't Do That' Town, Jerky Boy says "Why Not!"

Performance Review, so far:  Exceeds Expectations - Git'n'er Done


Seems to me things are going the right direction.  Pretty good for someone who is essentially an old-timey Democrat.
Besides his cringeworthy demeanor, my greatest objection to Trump was his view on Trade disparities.  I was sure he would muck things up and get the opposite of desired results.  Now I think it might work.  I expected some corrective action on NAFTA rather than just scrapping it, altogether, but was more concerned about the effect of his tariff threats on EU and China. 
Amazing that EU has already gotten the message.

There's going to be some short term discomfort, as with farmers, but the long term corrections should work for the better.  Assuming he can keep the Lawyers at bay, know what I mean?

TRUMP’S SECRET: How A Can-Do Businessman Roils The ‘Proper Order’ In A Town Immobilized By Attorneys

Someone like Donald Trump is almost incomprehensible to the polished Washingtonian marble buildings and cliquish button down power structure that governs the Beltway. Of course, his indefatigable Tweeting, inarticulate speechifying, obnoxious high school bravado and cheerleading are jarring for all but his most ardent supporters. But the real problem is he challenges the orthodoxy of a town that has become so ossified by the legal profession that process has become far more important than any outcome — the exact opposite of Americans’ self-image of can-do rugged individualism.

- Read the whole article, pretty well on the money

Reason 1 - why no one still gets upset over 'Global Warming'

"Starving Polar Bear"  Remember this picture:  'the face of Climate Change'?

Anyone with a brain knew what was going on, there.  Yet it went round the world as 'Starving Polar Bear' because Global Warming.
If you're an animal lover under 18, you were duped.  Animal lover over 30, you're an idiot!

SHOCKER: National Geographic admits they were wrong about “starving polar bear” video

Ignoramous... nah! Ocasio-Cortez does math that suits her...

..ignores it when it doesn't add up.
Which is ALL the time.

Ocasio-Cortez: I plan to pay for my agenda by … er …

and more:

Trevor Noah Asks Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez How She Plans To Pay For Her Agenda And Her Answer Was Typical

Bottom line:  ALL her proposed increased 'Fair Taxing' won't even pay for one of her proposed programs.

And remember she's an Econ Major!

Sure Road to Venezuela!  'Don't have it, Print it.'

Bonus Snark: