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Jul 01, 2021 | www.wsj.com
Patients receiving emergency medical care would no longer get surprise medical bills from providers outside their insurance network under a rule issued Thursday by the Biden administration.
The long-awaited rule is the first to follow the so-called No Surprises Act, passed in December 2020 by Congress that sought to protect patients from receiving significant medical bills when they are unwittingly treated by an out-of-network doctor, lab, or other type of provider.
The rule seeks to implement key parts of the legislation protecting patients from being billed by out-of-network doctors who provide treatment at in-network hospitals, as well as protecting them from surprise bills for both emergency and nonemergency care. The interim final rule will undergo 60 days of public comment and largely go into effect on Jan. 1, 2022, when the law takes effect.
"No patient should forgo care for fear of surprise billing," said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra in a statement. "Health insurance should offer patients peace of mind that they won't be saddled with unexpected costs."
Congress and policy makers have sought to tackle surprise medical bills because patients are paying more out-of-pocket for their care, and many out-of-network charges can occur when patients are unaware that they are being treated by a provider who isn't covered by their health insurance.
Out-of-network charges have added to medical debt and rising out-of-pocket payments for consumers: An April 2021 study in the journal Health Affairs found that patients receiving a surprise out-of-network bill for emergency physician care paid more than 10 times as much as in-network emergency patients paid out-of-pocket .
The interim final rule is expansive. Emergency services, regardless of where they are provided, would have to be billed at lower, in-network rates without requirements for prior authorization.
The rule also bans higher out-of-network cost-sharing, such as copayments, from patients for treatment they receive either in an emergency or nonemergency situation. Under the rule, any coinsurance or deductible can't be higher than if such services were provided by an in-network doctor.
The interim final rule also stipulates that patients can't be charged out-of-network for "ancillary" care, which can happen when an out-of-network anesthesiologist or assistant surgeon provides treatment at an in-network hospital.
Regulations that will be released at a later time will implement a procedural process so medical providers and insurers can arbitrate out-of-network payment disputes, a solution that was so contentious it threatened to scuttle passage of the No Surprises Act. Insurers raised concerns that arbitration could put them at a disadvantage and instead favored linking out-of-network reimbursement to a benchmark rate.
The legislative fight over the No Surprises Act that spurred the interim rule was contentious. The American Medical Association and some state medical associations worried it could financially hurt small physician practices that were still reeling from the pandemic. The American Hospital Association supported the arbitration provision but raised concerns about the possibility for uneven enforcement of the law.
The bill will lead to "dangerous, unintended consequences, right in the middle of a surging pandemic," according to a Dec. 15, 2020, letter to then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) from conservative groups such as Action for Health.
Cost-sharing includes deductibles, copayments paid at the time of treatment, and coinsurance, which is the percentage of a bill that consumers pay that isn't covered by insurance. Patients are paying increasingly more for their own care because cost-sharing has increased over time, research shows. Most workers also face additional cost-sharing for a hospital admission or outpatient surgery. Sixty-five percent of workers with employer-sponsored coverage have coinsurance and 13% have a copayment for hospital admissions, according to a 2020 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Out-of-network charges from anesthesiologists, pathologists, radiologists and assistant surgeons increase spending by $40 billion annually, according to researchers at the Yale School of Public Health.
Congress in its legislation sought to protect patients from unknowingly receiving care from an out-of-network provider. To that end, the rule bans other out-of-network charges without advance notice.
The regulations issued Thursday will take effect for healthcare providers and facilities Jan. 1, 2022. For group health plans, health-insurance issuers and Federal Employees Health Benefits program carriers, the provisions will take effect for plan, policy or contract years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2022.
Write to Stephanie Armour at [email protected]
Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the July 2, 2021, print edition as 'Rule Aims to Stop Surprise Health Bills.'
Jul 06, 2021 | www.wsj.com
... ... ...
The 32-year-old's abdominal and pelvic scan at Avera St. Luke's cost $6,422, the highest out of a wide range of rates the Avera hospital charges for that service based on the new data. The price billed to Mr. Macias was roughly three times the best deal negotiated by an insurance company.
Another scan of his chest came to $4,194, approximately $280 to $2,800 more than any prices negotiated between St. Luke's and an insurer. The prices for identical scans performed at Avera's heart hospital were also among the highest that the hospital charged. His total hospital bills came to $59,800.
... ... ...
Services including emergency-room visits, imaging scans and procedures such as an angioplasty and stenting often performed on heart-attack patients have been identified by researchers and federal data as commonly needed in emergencies by those without insurance.
The analysis used data compiled by Turquoise Health Co., a pricing-transparency startup. At least 44% of the country's roughly 4,900 short-term, rural and children's hospitals hadn't published data that complied with the January rule as of June 18, according to Turquoise.
The Journal analysis looked at the 1,550 hospitals in the Turquoise data that released both insurance and cash-payment rates.
Among the Journal's findings:
- Hospitals routinely bill uninsured patients at their highest rates. About 21%, or 319, of the hospitals did so for the majority of the services included in the analysis. At 171 of those hospitals, the cash rate was higher than all of the rates billed to insurers, or tied for the highest rate, for every service in the analysis. That was true at some hospitals owned by major systems including Sanford Health and Yale New Haven Health System.
- On average, across the 1,166 hospitals that included rates for Medicare Advantage plans in their disclosures, the fees for uninsured patients were 3.6 times the average rates paid by the Medicare Advantage plans. Medicare rates are typically set by the government to at least cover hospital costs and are considered a baseline for comparing prices. Rates for Medicare Advantage plans, which are administered by private insurers, are generally close to these mandated prices.
- Some dominant local and regional nonprofits, including Mass General Brigham, based in Boston, and Avera, based in Sioux Falls, S.D., billed the uninsured at their general hospitals some of their highest prices while also setting some of the most restrictive financial-aid policies for free care nationwide, according to tax filings, Turquoise data and patients' medical bills.
- Cash prices, which haven't been available publicly to help patients choose where to seek medical care, often vary widely even among hospitals in the same county. In the 270 counties where at least two hospitals have disclosed their cash prices, the average spread between the lowest and highest rates for a complex emergency-room visit is $1,852.
In Shelby County, Tenn., home to Memphis, the spread for that type of ER visit is $2,054. It would cost an uninsured patient $884 at any of the three Baptist Memorial Health Care hospitals; $1,480 at Regional Medical Center; $2,653 at Saint Francis Hospital-Memphis; and $2,938 at Saint Francis Hospital-Bartlett.
... ... ...
Hospitals that offer additional discounts for the uninsured don't always automatically make the cuts to patient bills, leaving cash-pay patients with significantly higher charges, the Journal found. It can take long negotiations, often by hiring lawyers or professional advocates, to bring about reduced charges.
... ... ...
Those discounts slash bills by an average of 85% off its top price, the company said in a recent statement to the Journal. But patients must apply to receive the discount. The vast majority of cash prices for emergency services at Tenet hospitals reviewed by the Journal instead reduced bills by 20% to 30%.
"It's really criminal, the mess that our current system is in," said Mary Daniel, chief executive of ClaimMedic, which helps patients negotiate payment with hospitals. "It is a deliberate attempt for these hospitals to gouge the uninsured."
About 11% of U.S. residents under age 65 were uninsured in 2019, or about 29 million people, according to an analysis of federal data by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
... ... ...
The differences between the prices for uninsured people and insurance companies can be wide.
At Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in Danville, Ky., an uninsured person getting a stent after a heart attack could be billed around $66,226 for the procedure. An Anthem Inc. health-maintenance organization plan would pay just $17,895 at the hospital, and the insurer's Medicare plan even less -- $12,445.
Ephraim McDowell Health said the cash prices are the highest rates but that it offers discounts and bill forgiveness for those who qualify for financial assistance. In a written statement, the hospital system said, "it is rare that an uninsured patient would pay the total gross charge amount due to the variety of financial assistance programs available."
Eligibility under the program cuts off at three times the federal poverty level, according to the hospital system, which is an annual income of $38,640 for a single person.
Prices typically haven't been publicly available before now. Yet for expensive procedures like angioplasty and drug-coated stenting, the difference in the cash price within a single county can be over $100,000. The reasons for high cash prices are complex and, even to many healthcare experts, baffling.
Hospitals typically have a sticker price, often called the "chargemaster" price, that can be the starting point for negotiations with insurers. Discounts off that sticker price tend to be steeper for those that bring large volumes of patients. Insurance plans offered under government programs like Medicare and Medicaid get even lower rates, tied to prices mandated by federal and state agencies.
The cash prices for patients who must pay for their own care can be equal to the sticker prices or sometimes represent a percentage lopped off that top rate. Sometimes, those cash rates are also applied to people who have some form of insurance but get a service that the insurance doesn't cover.
Will Fox, who advises hospitals on pricing as an actuary with Milliman Inc., says hospitals often keep cash prices above the rates negotiated by big insurers.
"They don't want to give away too much of a discount because they really want the best discounts to go to these larger volume negotiated insured rates," he said. "Somebody walking off the street, we'll give you a 20% discount, but we're going to give our favorite customer, who sends us millions or even billions of dollars in business, we're going to give them a much bigger discount."
Yale New Haven Health offers cash prices that represent a discount off sticker rates, but it keeps them above all of the prices negotiated by insurers, says Pat McCabe, the system's senior vice president of finance. "We didn't want there to be that tension, for an insurer to look at that data and say, 'you're providing better rates to uninsured patients than you are to our insureds, how do we justify that to our members and/or employer partners?' "
For individuals who struggle to pay, financial aid is hard to get at some hospitals with high cash prices, the Journal analysis found. That is true even among the nearly 3,000 nonprofit hospitals that get tax breaks on the condition they give back to the community.
Hospitals typically set household income limits for financial aid, with free care for patients below a cutoff.
The quarter of hospitals with the most generous free-care policies write off the entire bill for those with monthly incomes under about $2,600 a month, and even up to roughly $6,400 a month, for a one-person household, the Journal found.
Those that rank in the quarter of hospitals with the most-restrictive policies draw the line at or below about 160% of the federal threshold for poverty, disqualifying for free care patients with monthly income of more than around $1,700 for a one-person household, according to a Journal analysis of nonprofit hospital tax filings.
Brigham and Women's Hospital, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, falls in this most-restrictive group, with income cutoffs for free care at $1,610 a month for a one-person household. For 12 of 17 emergency services at Brigham and Women's reviewed by the Journal, its highest rates are for uninsured patients, and insurance companies pay significantly less.
A patient paying cash at the hospital for the stenting procedure is charged $84,792. Local insurer Fallon Health spends $36,755 for the procedure under one of its health-maintenance organization plans. A Medicare insurance plan from Aetna, part of CVS Health Corp. , pays $16,648.
Mass General Brigham, the system that includes Brigham and Women's, said in a written statement it has policies to prevent someone without insurance from paying full price.
Some hospitals, including Brigham and Women's, also partially discount patients' bills for some who earn too much for free care. Others write off bills that are large relative to a patient's income. But policies vary widely. The most-restrictive quarter of hospitals cut off discounts at 2.5 times the federal poverty level, the Journal found.
Patients who don't qualify for financial aid at nonprofit hospitals also aren't protected by pricing limits under federal law. The Affordable Care Act requires nonprofit hospitals to cap prices for patients who qualify for financial aid.
Hospitals apply financial aid and discount policies inconsistently, say consumer advocates and patients. Offers may be one-time-only, or discounts may emerge only when a skilled negotiator is pushing for them.
In January 2018, Joannie Berthiaume spent two days at Broward Health Imperial Point hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and got emergency surgery to remove her appendix. She was uninsured and the hospital charged Ms. Berthiaume its highest prices. Her bill totaled about $42,000, including a $6,033 abdominal CT scan. For that same scan, an Aetna subsidiary gets a 24% break, according to the newly public data from Broward Health. That discount would have meant a fee of around $4,600 for the scan, based on the price charged in 2018.
Ms. Berthiaume, who is Canadian but was living in Florida at the time of her illness while finishing graduate school, went in person to Broward Health to ask about the bill. She was told it could be cut in half, to about $21,000 total -- if she paid in full right then. Ms. Berthiaume, then working in a part-time bookkeeping job, says she couldn't do that. The hospital later continued to seek the full amount, including in letters sent by a law firm and reviewed by the Journal.
"If you charge me $42,000 and your costs are justified, how can you knock it in half in a matter of minutes," Ms. Berthiaume says. "You must be overcharging."
Ms. Berthiaume hired attorney Jacqueline Grady to negotiate on her behalf, and in October 2019 the hospital offered to accept $20,000, in addition to $2,000 she had already paid, if she paid within 16 days. Ms. Berthiaume declined.
Broward Health declined to comment on the details of Ms. Berthiaume's case, although she signed a consent form allowing the hospital system to do so. The hospital system said that U.S. citizens and people with a permanent U.S. residence who come to its hospitals for unplanned care, and don't qualify for its financial assistance program, are offered a discounted rate.
In the pricing data files Broward Health has disclosed under the federal transparency requirement, the cash prices are shown as Broward's highest rates. However, the hospital system pointed the Journal to a consumer tool on its website that displays lower prices for self-pay patients. Broward Health said in a written statement that the tool "provides the most current pricing for consumers," and "discounted prices may not be reflected" in the data files. The system didn't respond to questions about the reasons for the discrepancy.
High cash prices inflate bills that uninsured patients often struggle to pay. Hospitals collected 5% of the amount they billed uninsured patients before writing off bills after a year of seeking payment, according to Crowe LLP, an accounting, technology and consulting firm, based on an analysis of 600 client hospitals. That is compared with collecting 40% of bills sent to patients with insurance for amounts owed under deductibles, copays and other out-of-pocket costs, based on a separate analysis by Crowe of about 1,500 hospitals.
Hospitals closely track their "payer mix," or the mix of patients with commercial insurance, Medicare, Medicaid and the uninsured, who might be unlikely to ever pay for their treatment. That could play a role in how hospitals set prices.
For Mr. Macias, debt from Avera hospitals plus other bills related to his November hospitalization amount to about 75% of his annual income, according to Resolve Advocates, one of a growing number of companies that patients hire to negotiate hospital medical bills on their behalf.
Avera's hospital in Aberdeen charged him the highest price for some emergency room services, according to a review of medical bills for Mr. Macias and the Journal's analysis of Avera's negotiated rates with insurers.
Avera in some cases has multiple contracts with a single insurer and said the prices it made public are the average price it charges an insurer for each service.
The Avera Heart Hospital of South Dakota, in Sioux Falls, gave Mr. Macias a 20% discount. Even with the discount, some of the heart hospital prices were in the top third of what the hospital charged patients with insurance for some services.
Mr. Macias, a superintendent for a construction company, earned too much for free care at Avera, where the income cutoff is among the lowest nationally for nonprofit hospitals, ranking in the bottom quarter, according to the Journal analysis.
But he appears to qualify for other financial assistance, such as a partial discount based on income or because Mr. Macias's medical debts are large when compared with his household finances, said Resolve's chief executive, Braden Pan.
Avera rejected the request, saying that Mr. Macias could have had workplace health benefits but didn't enroll, according to Resolve. Mr. Macias said in an interview that he missed the sign-up after miscommunication with his former employer. Buying insurance in the marketplace was too costly, he said.
Avera also rejected an appeal, after factoring in his assets alongside his income, according to Resolve. Mr. Macias said he needs his years of savings for a house down payment.
Resolve also offered about $8,000, or slightly more than the company estimated Medicare would pay, for Mr. Macias's $24,800 emergency-room bill at Avera St. Luke's, Mr. Pan said. The hospital said no, and despite denying financial aid, offered to reduce the bill by 50%, Mr. Pan said. The amount excluded another $34,994 he owes Avera's heart hospital.
Mr. Macias, citing his unhappiness about the fight, told the Journal he wouldn't give Avera permission under federal privacy laws to speak about his interactions with it.
"Health care delivery comes with a cost -- and when individuals have the means to pay, it allows us resources to help those most in need," Lindsey Meyers, a spokeswoman for Avera, said in a written statement. "We have thoroughly reviewed the case you have mentioned and identified that all processes were followed as described, and we made every effort to work with the patient."
Mr. Macias said he has largely recovered with new blood-pressure medication and months of rehab exercises he devised on his own. He now lives in Austin, Texas, with his fiancée and their children, ages 6 and 3. Avera's debt collectors call constantly, he said. "They're still blowing me up."
Nov 27, 2017 | marknesop.wordpress.com
Posted on November 27, 2017 by marknesop
"The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease."
"No, I mean I'm sorry that you've inherited such a miserable, collapsing Old Country. A place where rich Bankers own everything, where you've got to be grateful for a part-time job with no benefits and no retirement plan, where the most health insurance you can afford is being careful and hoping you don't get sick
Cory Doctorow; Homeland
"Until fairly recently, every family had a cornucopia of favorite home remedies–plants and household items that could be prepared to treat minor medical emergencies, or to prevent a common ailment becoming something much more serious. Most households had someone with a little understanding of home cures, and when knowledge fell short, or more serious illness took hold, the family physician or village healer would be called in for a consultation, and a treatment would be agreed upon. In those days we took personal responsibility for our health–we took steps to prevent illness and were more aware of our bodies and of changes in them. And when illness struck, we frequently had the personal means to remedy it. More often than not, the treatment could be found in the garden or the larder. In the middle of the twentieth century we began to change our outlook. The advent of modern medicine, together with its many miracles, also led to a much greater dependency on our physicians and to an increasingly stretched healthcare system. The growth of the pharmaceutical industry has meant that there are indeed "cures" for most symptoms, and we have become accustomed to putting our health in the hands of someone else, and to purchasing products that make us feel good. Somewhere along the line we began to believe that technology was in some way superior to what was natural, and so we willingly gave up control of even minor health problems."
Karen Sullivan; The Complete Family Guide to Natural Home Remedies: Safe and Effective Treatments for Common Ailments
No, I haven't abandoned Uncle Volodya, or shifted my focus to American administration; what follows is a guest post on the American healthcare system, by our friend UCG. As I've mentioned before – on the occasion of his previous guest post, in fact – he is an ethnic Russian living in the Golden State.
As an American in America, naturally his immediate concern is going to be healthcare in America; but there are lessons within for everyone. Don't get me wrong – doctors have done a tremendous amount of good, and medical researchers and many others from the world of medicine have made tremendous advances to which many of us owe their lives. Sadly, though, once a field goes commercial, the main focus of attention eventually becomes profit, and there are few endeavors in which the customer base will be so desperate. While there are obvious benefits to 'socialized medicine' such as Canada enjoys and American politicians scorn as 'Commie' – enough to earn the admiration of many – it results in such a backlog for major operations that those who don't like their chances of dying first, and have the money or can somehow get it, often flee to America, where you can get a good standard of medical care without running out of time waiting for it.
Without further ado, take it away, UCG!!
Healthcare in America
This article is my opinion. My hope is that others will do their own research on America's Healthcare Industry, because this is an issue that needs to be addressed, and for this article to be a mere starting point in this research. The reason for my citations is so that you, the reader, can verify them. Once again, this is my opinion. I write this in the first paragraph, so that I can avoid stating "in my opinion" before every sentence.
Let's start with Owen Davis who was charged $14,018 for going to a hospital because he sliced his hand, and they fixed it . A study published by Johns Hopkins showed that for $100 of ER treatment, some hospitals were charging patients up to $1,260 . A redditor claimed that :
I tore my ab wall a month ago and didn't think much of it until my pain kept worsening. I went to an immediate care facility to rule out a hernia (I had all the symptoms) and they told me to get to ER ASAP. I go to the ER and they give me a CT scan and one x-ray and say it's not a hernia and let me go. Fast forward to today and I got a bill for $9,200 and $3,900 of it is out of pocket. $9,200 for two tests???? No pain meds were administered; it was literally those two tests. What should I do to contest it? I will be calling tomorrow to demand an itemized bill, but is there anything else I should do in the meantime?
All of these took me a few minutes on Google to find, and another few minutes to post. The reason I chose that reddit, is because one of the readers offered an ingenious solution: Next time you hurt yourself – book a return ticket to NZ – go to accident and emergency, say you're a tourist and you hurt yourself surfing, pay nothing – fly home and pocket $8,000 in spare change. If that was me, I'd spend at least $2,000 on tourism in New Zealand. You guys have that system, so you clearly deserve the money! Anyone interested in a startup?
But I am not done with examples just yet. Shana Sweney described her experience in the emergency room : I delivered in 15 minutes. During that time, the anesthesiologist put a heart rate monitor on my finger and played on his phone. My bill for his services was $3,000. $200/minute. I talked to the insurance company about it – and since I ran my company's benefit plans, I got a little further than most people, but ultimately, that was what their contract with the hospital said so that's what they had to pay. Regardless of if he worked 15 minutes or 3 hours. Similarly, my twins were born prematurely and ended up in the NICU for 2 weeks. While the NICU was in-network for my insurance, for some mysterious reason, the neonatologists that attended the NICU were out of network. I think that bill was $16k and they stopped by to see each kid for an average of about 30 min/day.
Almost done with the examples, just please bear with me. How would you like a hospital billing you $83,046 for treating a scorpion sting , if a Mexican ER might have treated you for the same type of sting for $200? Perhaps being charged $546 for six liters of saltwater is more to your liking? $1,420 for two hours of babysitting ? $55,000 for an appendicitis operation ? $144,000 to deliver a perfectly healthy, albeit quite impatient baby? According to my interpretation of the sources linked, all of these actually happened. I encourage you to do your own research.
The World's Biggest Legalized Corruption (IMHO)
$984.157 billion. That's $984,157,000,000. That is how much money I believe the United States wastes on Healthcare. Not spends; wastes. As in money down the drain. The astute reader figured out that equates to five percent of America's 2016 GDP . Said reader is absolutely correct. How did I estimate such a gargantuan amount? According to the OECD data , in 2013 the United States spent 16.4 percent of its GDP on Healthcare; the two next biggest spenders, Switzerland and the Netherlands spent 11.1 percent. Even if one was to give the United States the benefit of doubt, and claim that the United States healthcare is just as efficient as that of Switzerland or the Netherlands – which is most likely not true according to an article from Business Insider , but even if it was – that meant that the United States wastes 5.3% of its GDP on healthcare. Wastes. I just want to make sure that the amount of this alleged legalized corruption, which will most likely reach a trillion dollars by 2020, is noted.
Let me place those funds into perspective: it's almost as much as the amount that the rest of the World spends on the military, combined . The SCO member states, including China, Russia, India, and Pakistan spent roughly $360 billion on the military . The wasted amount is equivalent to the GDP of Indonesia, and greater than the GDP of Turkey or Switzerland . In 2016, the US Federal Government spent $362 billion, or 36.8% of the wasted amount, to run all Federal Programs , including the Department of Education and NASA, with the exception of Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, Veteran's Affairs, the military, and net interest on the US debt. All other Federal Programs were covered with the $362 billion. The US Federal Debt stands at $20.4 trillion , meaning that the debt can be paid off in 30 years, merely if the Healthcare Waste is eliminated.
But why stop there? The US Housing Crisis started partly because loans were allowed to be taken out without the 20% down payment. Could this funding, if applied directly to the housing market, stop the 2008 Great Recession? Absolutely, and all the Federal Government had to do was to gear these funds towards down payment on subprime mortgage loans to meet the 20 percent barrier. I can go on and on about what can be accomplished, like making collegiate attendance free, or at least very inexpensive, or drastically improving the quality of education, paying off the national debt, reinvesting into the economy, reinvigorating the rural sector, and so on, and so forth. A trillion dollars is a lot of money.
Lobbyists, the Media and the Waste
Any guess how much was spent on lobbying by the Healthcare, Insurance, Hospitals, Health Professionals, and HMOs? How about 10.5 billion dollars? I knew that was your guess! That's a lot of money, and that does not include "speaking fees", or when a politician who constantly made calls beneficial to the Healthcare Lobby gets $150,000 to speak in front of an audience after they retire from politics. Obama made a speech in front of Wall Street, netting $400,000 . And by pure coincidence, only one Wall Street Broker was jailed as a result of the scandal. That $10.5 billion is just a tip of the iceberg, because "speaking fees" are notoriously hard to track, and not included in said amount.
Obama genuinely tried to reform US Healthcare to the Swiss Model. He was going to let Wall Street slide, he was going to let Neocons conduct foreign policy, just please, let him have healthcare! First, the lobbyists laughed in his face. Second, they utilized the Blue Dog Coalition to block Obama's attempt at Healthcare Reform, until it was phenomenally nerfed, and we have the disaster that we have today. As a result, Obama's Legacy, Obamacare is having major issues, including the rise of racism.
Obamacare helped the poor, (mostly minorities,) at the expense of the middle class, (mostly whites,) thus transferring funding from whites to minorities. While the intent was not racial, it is being called out as racial by the mainstream media . This probably suits the lobbyists, because if the debate is about racism, one cannot have a genuine discussion about Healthcare Reform.
Racism strikes both ways. Samantha Bee came out with a "fuck you white people" message right after the election. Jon Stewart, without whom she probably wouldn't have her own show, pointed out that it was simply economics, like the healthcare insurance premium increase , that brought Donald Trump to power. Interestingly enough, James Carville made the same argument when Bill Clinton beat George Bush, but when Hillary Clinton lost, Carville was quick to blame Russia. These delusions on the Left are letting the Right mobilize stronger than ever before. And all of this takes away from the Healthcare Debate.
In an attempt to blame Trump's Election on white racism, rather than basic economics, numerous outlets simply fell flat. For instance, Eric Sasson writes : white men went 63 percent for Trump versus 31 percent for Clinton, and white women went 53-43 percent. Among college-educated whites, only 39 percent of men and 51 percent of women voted for Clinton What's more, these people hadn't suffered under Obama; they'd thrived. The kind of change Trump was espousing wasn't supposed to connect with this group.
Did this group thrive? The collegiate debt went from $600 billion to $1.4 trillion under Obama's Administration, while the health insurance increased from $13,000 to $18,000 per family . This is thriving? Was the author experimenting with medical marijuana when said article was written? Nevertheless, the parade of insanity continued, with Salon assuring us that it was blatant racism that gave us Trump . The Root, which also claimed that Russians attempted to hack election machines, pointed out that Russia exploited America's racism , and thus Trump won the election. Washington Post claimed that racism motivated white people more than authoritarianism . Comedian Bill Maher tried to sway the discussion back to economics, by pointing out that outrage over Pocahontas or Halloween should not stop the Democrats from working for the working man . Sadly, Maher and Stewart are in the minority, and instead of a Healthcare Debate, the US is now stuck in a debate over racism, which isn't even three-fifths as effective. Meanwhile the US continues to waste almost a trillion dollars on healthcare .
Who Benefits?
Let's start with the banks. Medical students graduate with an average of $416,216 in student debt . The average interest rate on said loan is seven percent. Roughly 20,055 students go through this program, per year . Presuming a twenty year loan, the banks are looking at about $7.185 billion in interest payments. It really is a small fraction of the cost. Prescription drug prices are another story. In 2014, Medicare spent $112 billion on medicine for the elderly . Oh la la! Cha-ching. I would not be surprised if at least half of that was wasted on drug price inflation. You know the health insurance companies? It's a great time to be one, since profits are booming – to the tune of $18 billion in projected revenue for 2017.
Of course the system itself is quite wasteful, with needless hours spent on paperwork, claim verification, contractual review, etc, etc, etc. Humana's revenue was $54.4 billion , Aetna's was $63.2 billion , Anthem's was $85 billion , Cigna's was $39.7 billion , and UnitedHealth's was $184.8 billion . Those are just the top five companies. None of them ia a mom-and-pop shop or small business store. Do any of these insurers support Obamacare? Even if they do, it is without much enthusiasm . They are leaving, and leaving quite quickly. Thirty-one percent of American counties will have just one healthcare insurer . Welcome to a monopoly that is artificially creating itself. And despite the waste, 28.2 million Americans remain uninsured . Mission accomplished!
Who else benefits? Those who hire illegal immigrants instead of American workers, since illegal immigrants cost the United States roughly $25 billion in Healthcare spending . Meanwhile those who hire them can avoid certain types of taxes and not have to cover their Healthcare; communism for the rich, capitalism for the rest of us. Of course that is just a rough estimate, since this spending is also quite hard to track.
The Future
The problem with changing Healthcare is that too many people have their hands in the proverbial pie. There is not a single lever of power that isn't affected by Healthcare, and most of the levers that are affected, benefit quite a bit. Insurance companies will fight to the death, because Universal Healthcare will be their death knell. Banks will defend it, because who doesn't want to make billions from student loans? Medical schools too – since it lets them charge higher and higher tuition. Pharmaceutical companies can use the increase in Healthcare expenditure to justify their own price hikes, even though a major reason for those price hikes is artificial patent based monopoly.
What is an artificial monopoly? In my opinion, it's when a patent is utilized to prevent competitors from manufacturing the same exact drug. In less than a decade, the price of Epi-Pen soared from $103.50 to $608.61. When asked the justify said increase, one of the reasons provided by the CEO was that the price went up because we were making investment; as I said, about $1 billion over the last decade that we invested in the product that we could reach physicians and educate legislatures. "Reaching" doctors and legislators; I wonder, how was said "education funding" spent? According to US News, a website that is extremely credible when it comes to internal decision making within the United States, drug companies have long courted doctors with gifts , from speaking and consulting fees to educational materials to food and drink. But while most doctors do not believe these gifts influence their decisions about which drugs to prescribe, a new study found the gifts actually can make a difference – something patient advocates have voiced concern about in the past. Do you feel educated? Would you feel more educated if I paid you a $150,000 consulting fee? What about $400,000? What? It's just consulting; no corruption here!
Everyone knows that this is going on. But there is not going to be change. Why not? The same reason that there was not change with Harvey Weinstein, until Taylor Swift came along. Remember how I said that almost everyone has their hands in the Healthcare Pie? It was not much different with Weinstein. Scott Rosenberg explained why it took so long for people to speak out against Harvey , and the reasons were numerous. First, Harvey gave many people their start in Hollywood, and treated all of his friends like royalty. That drastically increased their loyalty. Second, he ushered the Golden Age of the 1990s, with movies like Pulp Fiction, Shakespeare in Love, Clerks, Swingers, Scream, Good Will Hunting, English Patient, Life is Beautiful – the man could make phenomenal movies. Third, even if one was willing to go against his own friends, workers, mass media, and so on, there was no one to tell. There was no place to speak out. Fourth, some of the victims took hefty settlements.
That fourth reason enabled mass media to portray rape victims as gold diggers. Rape Culture is alive and well. In California, a Judge gave minimal sentencing to a convicted rapist , because he was afraid a harsher sentence would damage the rapist's mental psyche for life. Uh dude, from one Californian to another, he, uh, raped. His mental psyche is already damaged; for life. That's the kind of pressure that Rose McGowan had to deal with. She had a little kerfuffle with Amazon , and she thinks it was partially because of Harvey Weinstein. How many times had the word "socialism" been thrown around to describe Universal Healthcare? Switzerland has it – are they Socialist?
Enter Taylor Swift . In order to destroy allegations that women are filing sexual harassment claims as gold diggers, she sued her alleged sexual assaulter for a buck; one dollar. She won. Swift stated that the lawsuit was to serve as an example to other women who may resist publicly reliving similar outrageous and humiliating acts. On top of that, Weinstein was no longer as popular as he used to be, and an avenue to tell the story, an outlet was created. The additional prevalence of the internet caused the stories of Weinstein's sexual abuse to leak. Within a month, the giant fell.
Something similar is needed to change Healthcare in America. But until that comes along, racism will increase, the cost of Healthcare will rise, emergency room costs will most likely double every ten years, and the future remains bleak. As if that was not enough, more and more upper class Americans, (like yours truly,) are seeking treatment abroad. It cost me less money to lose five weeks of wages, spend three weeks partying in Eastern Europe, (Prague to be more specific,) after my two weeks of treatment, buy a roundtrip plane ticket, and stay in a five star, all-inclusive hotel, than the cost of the same treatment in the US. If anyone wants to utilize this as a startup – let me know!
Of course its effects on Healthcare will hurt, since it is a huge chunk of business that will be traveling across the Atlantic. But what can be done to stop it? One cannot stop Americans from traveling to other countries. One cannot force the poor to work for free. Perhaps this is the change that is needed to make those who benefit from the Healthcare Waste realize that this cannot continue. Perhaps not. What we do know, is that Obamacare insured the poor, at the expense of the middle class . And that is regarded as a failure in America.
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Northern Star , November 27, 2017 at 3:12 pmAs for Obongo Care ??:ucgsblog , November 28, 2017 at 3:58 pm"In trying to show that he was successfully managing the Obamacare rollout, the president last week staged a high-profile White House meeting with private health insurance executives -- aka Obamacare's middlemen. The spectacle of a president begging these middlemen for help was a reminder that Obamacare did not limit the power of the insurance companies as a single-payer system would.
****The new law instead cemented the industry's profit-extracting role in the larger health system -- and it still leaves millions without insurance."*** (THAT is the Achille's lower torso of the ACA)https://www.healthcare-now.org/blog/single-payer-healthcare-vs-obamacare/
Exactly! That's why I stated that they're now oligapolizing the market, and will slowly start to increase their insurance rates and profits once again.Northern Star , November 27, 2017 at 3:23 pm"Prince Harry.. Do you take this American mulatto negress - aka raghead untermensch - as your lawfully wedded royal wife?*Northern Star , November 27, 2017 at 3:52 pm
http://www.newsweek.com/prince-harrys-worst-moments-meghan-markle-rogue-723177
https://www.sbs.com.au/guide/sites/sbs.com.au.guide/files/styles/body_image/public/nazi.jpg?itok=q1oxMi44&mtime=1503879842Ummm Advice to Meghan .make sure the honeymoon motorcade stays clear of tunnels in Paris or elsewhere!!!
Appurtenant to many of the issues raised in Mark's post:Patient Observer , November 27, 2017 at 5:17 pmhttp://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/27/pers-n27.html
(Socialist or not..the WSWS writers continue to state that which NEEDS to be hammered home)
"The vast wealth of the financial oligarchy, expressed in their ownership of massive corporations, must be seized and expropriated, while the complex technologies, supply chains, and advanced transportation systems must be integrated in an organized, planned manner to harness the anarchic force of the world economy and eliminate material scarcity.
Amazon is a prime example. Its supply lines and delivery systems could distribute goods across the world, bringing water, food, and medicine from each producer according to his or her ability, to each consumer according to his or her need.
The massively sophisticated computational power used by the technology companies to censor and blacklist political opposition could instead be used for logistical analysis to conduct rescue and rebuilding missions in disaster zones like Houston and Puerto Rico. Drones used in the battlefield could be scrapped and rebuilt to distribute supplies for building schools, museums, libraries, and theaters, and for making Internet service available at no cost for the entire world.
The ruling class and all of the institutions of the political establishment stand inexorably in the way of efforts to expropriate their wealth. What is required is to mobilize the working class in a political struggle against the state and the socio-economic system on which it is based, through the fight for socialism.
Eric London "Particularly for American Stooges:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/F1TMsSbPszw?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&start=861&wmode=transparent
https://www.youtube.com/embed/mzJYXPI1hng?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent
Advanced technology is helpful but not essential for a humane and just society. Its what we believe and feel that matters. FWIW, I like socialism on a national/international level and individual accountability on a personal level.saskydisc , November 27, 2017 at 4:04 pmWhile general medical care is single payer in Canada, dental services are not. For major work on teeth, it is cheaper to fly to Mexico. The downside is for Mexicans -- such practices will drive the costs up in Mexico.Patient Observer , November 27, 2017 at 5:12 pmMark, today's posting provided is a nice change of pace to a topic of local impact (for me at least). UGC presented a good overview peppered with supporting data.marknesop , November 28, 2017 at 12:10 amIn an earlier career incarnation, I worked as a systems analyst involved with development of online systems for state social services. Data showed that our systems were able to administer a comprehensive health care program for social services recipients for about 3-4% of the cost of services. Private medical insurance providers required approximately 20% of the cost of services to provide similar services. Yet, private providers were supposedly driven by invisible market forces to maximum efficiency. BS. In fact, they are driven by greed and they found it much easier to maximize profits by colluding with politicians and health care providers. That is the trouble with free markets – its just so damn easy to cheat and cheaters are never in short supply.
One more thing, prescription drugs costs may exceed $600 billion in the US by 2021:
That would be nearly $2,000 per year for every American!
If a tiny fraction of that amount were spent on prevention, education, improved diets and other similar initiatives, the population ought to be healthier and richer. But, greed overpowers the public good every time. The US health care system is a criminal enterprise in my opinion. The good that it does is grossly outweighed by greed and exploitation of human suffering.
I believe the author is also a systems analyst, so you are thinking along similar lines.ucgsblog , November 28, 2017 at 4:05 pmI agree with that. Plus, it seems like they have an entire staff dedicated to giving their "customer" the run around. A friend of mine had to deal with several different departments regarding his healthcare bill. The billing office told him that they only deal with billing questions, and that for explanations for the bill, he should call the doctor's office. The doctor's office told him to call the hospital, since that's where the service took place. The hospital told him to call his primary doctor, who sent him there, and his primary doctor referred him back to the specialist, where he was referred back to the billing department, which promptly told him that they're closing for the day, since he spent 6 hours being transferred from one department to the next.[email protected] , November 27, 2017 at 6:02 pmI find it terribly silly that we should even consider med student's debt as an excuse. First, American doctors are the best paid professionals in the country. Internists make a median 190 thousand a year, and they are among the worst paid specialties. I cannot possibly see the problem with paying your income for 5 years, knowing that you get access to a caste that will allow you make good money into your eighties.ucgsblog , November 28, 2017 at 4:08 pmSecond, the debt is not that high as you claim. Harvard Medical School tuition is 64 thousand. You can rent across the street with 20 thousand a year – I currently live there.
Third, med students know all this. The reason why they borrow far more is because they know they can afford it. I went to med school somewhere in a developing world. We shared toilets in the dorm. As a matter of fact, most under-30s in Boston live in shared accommodation. The outliers? Med students. Even the lowly Tufts and BU students that I met own cars and live by themselves, mainly in new buildings across the street from their hospitals.
Every time I go to the doctors, I am thinking how I am going to sue their asses if they make a mistake.
It's not an excuse. It's a bill. When you rent an apartment, did you know that most landlords also factor in the property tax when figuring out what your rent payment should be? Similarly, the interest payments on the doctoral students' loans are passed off to the consumer, and that is yet another reason why Healthcare is so expensive. That's why I think that medical school should be free for those students who promise to charge their patients no more than x amount of money.kirill , November 27, 2017 at 8:38 pmInteresting article. Looks like the rot in the US is terminal. But Canada and its "socialized" medicine is not far behind. Operating an emergency ward with only one doctor doing the rounds at the rest of the hospital during the night is absurd. But that is what major Canadian hospitals do. Don't bother going to emergency at 2 am unless you are literally dying. Wait until 7 am when the day day crew arrives and you can actually receive treatment.Ryan Ward , November 28, 2017 at 3:19 amThe problem in Canada, as in the USA, is overpaid doctors and not enough of them (because they are overpaid). Instead of paying a doctor $300,000 per year or more, the system needs to have 3 or more doctors earning $100,000 per year. Then there is no excuse about being overworked and "requiring" a high compensation. Big incomes attract crooks and not talent. If you want to be a doctor then you should do 5 years of low income work abroad or at home. That would weed out a lot of the $$$ in the eyeballs leeches. A nasty side effect of having overpaid doctors and living adjacent to the US, is that they act like a mafia and extort the government by threatening to leave to the USA. I say that the Canadian provinces should make all medical students sign binding contracts to pay the cost difference between their Canadian medical education and the equivalent in the USA if they decide to run off to America.
At the undergraduate level, the physics courses with the highest enrollment are aimed at streams going into medicine. There are hordes of money maker wannabes trying to make it big in medicine. But they are all nearly weeded out and never graduate from medical school. So the system maintains the fake doctor shortage and racket level salaries. On top of this, hospitals pay a 300% markup for basic supplies (gauze, syringes, etc). It is actually possible for private individuals to pay the nominal price so this is not just a theory. Clearly, there is no effort to control costs by hospital administrations since basic economics would imply that hospitals would pay less than individuals for these items due to the volume of sales involved. At the end of the day North American public medicine is a non-market bloating itself into oblivion since the taxpayer will always pay whatever is desired. That is, the spineless politicians will never crack the whip.
This is part of the problem in Canada. One way to help deal with it in my view, beyond simply cutting doctors' fees (which any government with the political will to do so can do) is to simply make it easier for International Medical Graduates to get licensed in Canada. Canada has legions of immigrants (and could have pretty much however many more it likes) with full medical qualifications who would be thrilled to work for much less than the current pay rates. It's a scandal how many qualified doctors we have in Canada driving taxis rather than practicing medicine. If we just took advantage of the human resources we already have, we could easily say to doctors who threaten to leave for the US, "Fine, go. We've got 10 guys from India lined up to do your job." This isn't to say that doctors shouldn't be very well-paid. Anyone who has ever known someone in med school knows it's hell. But doctors would be very well-paid at half the rates they're getting now.marknesop , November 28, 2017 at 10:32 amAnother part of the problem is an over-reliance on hospitals. There are a lot of people in the hospitals more in "holding" than anything else, because there's no space in the proper facilities for them (The book "Chronic Condition" talks about this). The problem with this is that the cost per day to keep someone in the hospital is much higher than in other kinds of facilities. This is an entirely unnecessary loss.
For all that though, the Canadian system is leaps and bounds better than the American. We spend a vastly smaller percentage of our GDP on health care, and in return achieve higher health outcomes, as measured by the WHO. If we were willing to spend the kind of money the Americans do on health care, we could have patients sleeping in golden beds even with the structural flaws of our current system. That's worth constantly remembering, because some of the proposals for health reform floating around now lean in the direction of privatization, and we've seen where that road leads.
Before he retired from politics, Keith Martin was my MLA, and he was also a qualified MD. He used to rail against the convoluted process for certification in medicine in Canada, while others complained that we were subject to an influx of doctor-immigrants from India because Canada required less time spent in medical school than India does. I never checked the veracity of that, although we do have quite a few Indian doctors. My own doctor – in the military, and still now since he is in private practice – is a South African, and he explained that he had gone in for the military (although he was always a civilian, some military doctors are military members as well but most are not) because the hoop-jumping process to be certified for private practice in Canada with foreign qualifications was just too onerous.Jen , November 27, 2017 at 11:15 pmUnsurprisingly, I completely agree on the subject of privatization, because it always leads to an emphasis on profit and cost-cutting. I don't know why some people can't see that.
Thanks very much UCG, for your article. Very interesting reading for us Australians as the Federal Government eventually wants to shove us kicking and screaming into a US-style privatized healthcare insurance model.Fern , November 28, 2017 at 7:02 amFunnily enough I'm currently considering changing my private health insurer. I'm with Medibank Private at present but considering maybe going with a smaller non-profit health fund like Australian Unity or Phoenix Health Fund.
I was just about to post along the lines of "I don't know if Jen has experienced this in Australia but here in the UK ." so I'll finish the thought. In the UK, successive governments, not just Conservative ones, have been trying to dismantle the NHS and move us to the American system. It is pure ideology – no amount of the very abundant evidence of the inefficiencies of the US system, its waste etc makes any dint in the enthusiasm of those pressing for change.ucgsblog , November 28, 2017 at 4:17 pmThank you Jen! My advice: don't let the Government cajole you into wasting your money on Corporate Greed. Share the article with your fellow Australians, if you must, but don't let our wasteful system be replicated. Interestingly enough, one of my friends, Lytburger, send me a meme right after Ukraine adopted America's Healthcare System, it said: "ISIS refused to take responsibility for Ukraine's Healthcare Reform!" I'd be happy to provide other data or answer questions about the Healthcare System here.James lake , November 28, 2017 at 12:21 amAs for insurance, I'm not sure if Australia has the in-network and out-of-network rules. Does it? Whatever insurance you get, make sure that it has good coverage. If you own a home in the US, and you end up in a hospital's emergency room that's not covered by your insurance, the hospital can take your house under certain circumstances. Ironically, even the Government cannot. All of my real property is in various Trust Accounts, just in case, and I make sure that I have insurance where all major hospitals are in-network and that's the best I can do.
This is s very interesting insight into healthcare in the USA. The cost is shocking. I live in the UK and the healthcare system is paid for from taxation. When it was established over 70 years ago the health service would be available to all and financed entirely from taxation, which meant that people paid into it according to their means.marknesop , November 28, 2017 at 10:25 amIt was the best thing in my view that government has ever done. Good healthcare should be available to all and not dependent on peoples ability to pay. However there always a private healthcare system that ran alongside it
And over the years it had been unpicked as successive governments have tried to privatize it. Claiming they will save the taxpayer money
– opticians and dentistry have become part private after 18 if you are employed.
Which many people do not mind.
-Elderly care was also privatised as it's the most expensive
-care for the disabled also is a issue for local councils
-Mental health became care in the community – society's problem!
Privatisation has meant profits for businesses, poor services to vulnerable groups.
And yet still more and more taxation is needed for the NHS!
The issue of more money was even part of the Brexit debate as it was stated that leaving the EU would mean more money for the NHS which people are proud of.
There was a quote I was thinking of using in the lead-in, but decided in the end not to since I didn't want to have too many and it might have become confusing. It related that you would get the best medical care of your lifetime – after you died, when they were rushing to save your organs, for transplant. Obviously this would not be true if you were not an organ donor (at least in this country) or died as the result of general wasting away so that you had nothing left which would be particularly coveted. But this is a major issue in medicine in some countries and there have been various lurid tales of bodies being robbed of their organs without family permission, bodies of Ukrainian soldiers harvested of their organs and rackets in third-world countries where the poor or helpless are robbed of organs while they are alive. From my standpoint, since I haven't done much research on it, I have seen little proof of any of them despite plenty of allegation, but it is easy to understand that traffic in organs to those who will pay anything to live a little longer would be tremendously profitable, and the potential for disproportionate profit seldom fails to draw the unscrupulous.et Al , November 28, 2017 at 1:32 amAs I alluded in the lead-in, Canada has what is sometimes described as 'socialized medicine' and alternatively as 'two-tier healthcare' although I have never seen any real substantiation for the latter charge. My mom had an operation for colon cancer some time back, and she paid nothing for the hospitalization or the operation. My father-in-law is scheduled for the same operation as soon as he gets his blood-sugar low enough, and he already had one for a hernia and removal of internal scar tissue from an old injury – again, we paid nothing. He had a nurse come here for a couple of months, once a week, to change his dressing (because the incision would was very slow to heal because he is diabetic – nothing. That's all great, from my point of view, and I've paid into it all my life without ever using it because I was covered by the government under federal guidelines while I served in the military, although I was a cheap patient because I never had to be hospitalized for anything and was almost never even sick enough not to come to work. But the great drawback to it, as I said, is the backlog which might mean you have to wait too long for an operation. And in my small practical experience – the two cases I have just mentioned – both were scheduled for surgery within a month of diagnosis. So perhaps the long wait is for particular operations such as heart or brain surgery.
Thank you very much for a very interesting article UCG! Quite the horror story. I've heard quite a few about the US over the years from people I know too. I think one of the BBC's former America correspondent gave an interview to the Beeb as he was leaving America a few years back (MAtt Frei?) and was asked what were the best and worst things about living there. The worst was certainly healthcare.yalensis , November 28, 2017 at 3:21 amI've also read that healthcare costs for the self-employed, independents, freelancers can also be crushing in the land of the free where everyone can become rich. Has this changed? I would have thought that those were the ideal Americans, making it off their own back, but apparently not.
There's also another issue that is not addressed: an ageing population. This is a very current theme and it is now not at all unusual for people to live another 30 odd years after retirement. Now how on earth will such people manage their healthcare for such a period? Will they have to hock absolutely everything they have? America is already at war with itself (hence the utmost need to for foreign enemies), but nothing is getting done. Just more of the same. Meanwhile the Brits are trying to copy the US through stealth privatization of their health system. It might work as well as privatizing its rail service
Thanks for an interesting post, UCG. Hopefully this will stimulate some ideas on how to fix the American healthcare system, which seems to be badly broken.Patient Observer , November 28, 2017 at 4:34 amBroken for us but working perfectly for Big Pharma and insurance companies. That is a fundamental reason why it will be extremely difficult to "fix" because it ain't broken as a money making machine.yalensis , November 28, 2017 at 1:25 pmTrue. And the insurance companies, in particular, have been really raking it in, especially with Obamacare and the various Medicare Advantage options.Ryan Ward , November 28, 2017 at 3:40 amWith health care in general, there's a bit of a trade-off. The most cost-efficient systems, like the system in Sweden for example, are fairly regimented and don't leave much room for individual choice (unless someone pays out of pocket for treatment completely outside the public system). On the other hand, systems that give people a little more choice, like the system in Germany, tend to be a little on the pricey side. I think, given American political culture, something along the lines of the German model is much more likely to attract widespread public support. In any case, it's still cheaper than the American system, and achieves some of the best results in the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_GermanyPatient Observer , November 28, 2017 at 5:03 pmQuite different from my expectation of spartan if not rudimentary medical care and overworked staff in a small Russian town. The blog on schools was interesting as well. Given where Russia was in the 90's compared to now, it is easy to understand the strong popular support for the government and Putin in particular.Moscow Exile , November 28, 2017 at 5:18 amOff topic but just saw a 2-3 minute piece on CBS news (a very long story for an American national news show) about a Russian woman (former Playboy "model') who is challenging Putin. The reporter assured us the if she became too popular, Putin would never allow her to win. The last time Russia was allowed to protest, according to the reported was back in 2011 where the masses were demanding change. The implication being that a subsequent crackdown has suppressed further protest.
The piece showed her speaking to a group (the camera view was such that is was impossible to determine the audience size but it had to be at least 10 and possibly up to 30 people). The reporter also speculated that the woman coud be a Kremlin plant to create a fake opposition. Just a mishmash of a story all in all.
re: Health Care in RussiaMoscow Exile , November 28, 2017 at 9:49 amSpeaking as someone who has been hospitalized 3 times in Russia and still live to talk about, I have no complaints.
In the twilight years of the USSR everything was deficit, including medicine, and the hospitals were often dilapidated, understaffed and lacking modern equipment. It was socialized medicine, of course, but you only got the basics for "free". They would not let you die, but if you wanted any "extras", you had to pay or provide "gifts" to the staff. The doctors were and still are good, but were grossly underpaid.
I was first in hospital here, in isolation because I had diphtheria, in 1993. They saved me. I thought my number was up. When I was recovering, a nurse asked me when my wife would visit me.
"I have no wife."
"Your friends, then?"
"No friends. I only arrived here 3 weeks ago."
"You're going to be hungry!"
Our first child was born in 1999. The maternity wing of Moscow Hospital №1, opened 1837, was nightmarish. I paid the anaesthetist so that he could ensure that my wife did not suffer during her labour: it was a long, slow painful birth.
Our last child was born in 2008: brand new hospital; my wife had her own room; everything state-of the-art. I paid nothing. My wife came out healthy with a healthy baby. I gave the obstetrician a "present" after delivery.
A bribe? Not in my opinion: just a token of gratitude for a job well done.
I broke my left collarbone at the dacha that same year. I was in a village/small town (Ruza) hospital. It was only 2-years old. There were problems because I have broken both collarbones before. Anyway, the orthopaedic surgeon did a good job, and I didn't pay anything: emergency treatment is free for British citizens, likewise Russians in the UK. A remnant of when the UK and the USSR were glorious allies against the Beast.
I have also had varicose veins removed. Only 2 days in hospital. A job well done. I gave the surgeon a present. He didn't ask me for one, but I thought it was right that I do so.
There have been great improvements in treatment and medical technology here. And the doctors and nursing staff are well trained and competent.
Not perfect -- nothing is -- but more than satisfactory.
Yes, you do hear horror stories, as you do about the British National health Service, but all in all, satisfactory.
And there is a private health system now financed by private insurance.
And I have had dental treatment here "on the state": no complaints -- and "free", paid by taxation.
An old Russian colleague of mine has lived in Germany many years now, but he comes back to Moscow to see an orthodontist.
"They are just as good as in Germany, sometimes have even trained there, and much, much cheaper", he says.
PS I paid the anaesthetist so he could get the best stuff to help a woman in labour and was unavailable on the state health service. I forget what it was called now: some German manufactured stuff, I suppose.Patient Observer , November 28, 2017 at 3:56 pmMy wife said it was the norm in Romania to provide small gifts to bureaucrats – too small to be considered a bribe but a necessary gesture of appreciation. Its not entirely different from the custom of bringing a small gift when visiting friends (bottle of wine, flowers, box of chocolate, etc.).marknesop , November 28, 2017 at 4:37 pmVery much so; I'm sure I mentioned before the controversy surrounding my marriage in Russia; the waiting period that must follow an application to marry is 30 days (I guess this is a period during which anyone opposing the marriage may make their case), while a tourist visa is also for a maximum of 30 days. Therefore, I could not legally remain in Russia long enough to get married. Sveta was very matter-of-fact about it; we would just, she said, announce that she was pregnant, which is one of the exceptional conditions which will override the waiting period.Patient Observer , November 28, 2017 at 5:10 pmI said she would never get a doctor to sign a certificate that she was pregnant if she was not. Within a week she had her choice of three. We gave the doctor who furnished the certificate some flowers and a box of chocolates. I never considered it a bribe, and still do not, and the gift followed the act. We would have gotten the certificate anyway.
I notice that Russians typically take such a gift with them whenever they visit friends; Ukrainians do, too. They never arrive empty-handed, and it seems much more a ritualized courtesy.
It seem odds to me how Russia or Romania can be stifling bureaucratic (as ME can attest) yet rules will often be bent with hardly a blink to facilitate a reasonable request.Cortes , November 28, 2017 at 1:42 pmAn interesting article. Thanks.My tuppenceworth?
The healthcare system in a country probably reflects the dominant elements in said country's culture. Our family's longtime GP was a buffoon. In my interactions with him his enthusiastic "hands-on" gung-ho approach caused several problems, not least when I visited him to get a "line" certifying I was unfit for work a week after a total hip replacement operation (he insisted on examining the wound and re-dressing it with a dressing whose adhesive I had been tested for in hospital and deemed allergic to it; fun and games, anxiety and discomfort ).
Nevertheless he made an immediate decision to admit a close relative of mine for surgery on the basis of his examination of her.
In my case I could have "sued his ass."
And then? A couple of years later?
Jun 06, 2021 | www.wsj.com
The problem with conspiracy theories (CIA invented term to whitewash CIA participation in killing of JFK) that some of them in ten to twenty years no longer viewed as conspiracies. They enter mainstream.An online poll this week from Ipsos reported 15% of Americans agree that the government, media and financial worlds are controlled by Satan-worshiping pedophiles. Not 15% of Republicans or conservatives, but of Americans. That's a lot.
... ... ...
America is a lonely place. When you hold to a conspiracy theory, you join a community. You're suddenly part of something. You have new friends you can talk to on the internet ...
... One of the enduring and revealing songs of America asks "Which side are you on / Which side are you on? / You go to Harlan County / There is no neutral there / You'll either be a union man / Or a thug for J.H. Blair."
... ... ...
Conspiracy believers don't believe what the mainstream media tell them. Why would they? Newsrooms are undergoing their own revolution, with woke progressives vs. journalistic traditionalists, advocacy versus old-school news values. It is ideological. "We are here to shape and encourage a new reality." "No, we are here to find and report the news." It is generational: The young have the upper hand and the Slack channel. The woke are winning.
...
When you think your country has grown completely bizarre...Think of what normal human beings have been asked to absorb the past year. The whole country was shut down and everyone was told to stay in the house. They closed the churches, and the churches agreed. There was no school and everyone made believe""really, we all made believe!""screens were a replacement. A bunch of 13-year-old girls in the junior high decided they were boys and started getting shots, and no adults helped them by saying, "Whoa, slow down, this is a major life decision and you're a kid." The school board no longer argues about transgender bathrooms, they're on to transgender boys wanting to play on the girls team. Big corporations now tell you what you should think about local questions, and if this offends you, they don't care. There were riots and protests last summer and local government seemed overwhelmed.
Jun 06, 2021 | www.wsj.com
The problem with conspiracy theories (CIA invented term to whitewash CIA participation in killing of JFK) that some of them in ten to twenty years no longer viewed as conspiracies. They enter mainstream.An online poll this week from Ipsos reported 15% of Americans agree that the government, media and financial worlds are controlled by Satan-worshiping pedophiles. Not 15% of Republicans or conservatives, but of Americans. That's a lot.
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America is a lonely place. When you hold to a conspiracy theory, you join a community. You're suddenly part of something. You have new friends you can talk to on the internet ...
... One of the enduring and revealing songs of America asks "Which side are you on / Which side are you on? / You go to Harlan County / There is no neutral there / You'll either be a union man / Or a thug for J.H. Blair."
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Conspiracy believers don't believe what the mainstream media tell them. Why would they? Newsrooms are undergoing their own revolution, with woke progressives vs. journalistic traditionalists, advocacy versus old-school news values. It is ideological. "We are here to shape and encourage a new reality." "No, we are here to find and report the news." It is generational: The young have the upper hand and the Slack channel. The woke are winning.
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When you think your country has grown completely bizarre...Think of what normal human beings have been asked to absorb the past year. The whole country was shut down and everyone was told to stay in the house. They closed the churches, and the churches agreed. There was no school and everyone made believe""really, we all made believe!""screens were a replacement. A bunch of 13-year-old girls in the junior high decided they were boys and started getting shots, and no adults helped them by saying, "Whoa, slow down, this is a major life decision and you're a kid." The school board no longer argues about transgender bathrooms, they're on to transgender boys wanting to play on the girls team. Big corporations now tell you what you should think about local questions, and if this offends you, they don't care. There were riots and protests last summer and local government seemed overwhelmed.
Jun 06, 2021 | www.unz.com
It further appears that Bill Gates, then head of Microsoft, made a personal investment in CommTouch at the behest of Isabel Maxwell. In an October 2000 article published in the Guardian , Isabel "jokes about persuading Bill Gates to make a personal investment" in CommTouch sometime during this period.
The Guardian article then oddly notes, regarding Isabel Maxwell and Bill Gates:
"In a faux southern belle accent, [Isabel] purrs: 'He's got to spend $375m a year to keep his tax-free status, why not allow me to help him.' She explodes with laughter."
Given that individuals as wealthy as Gates cannot have "tax-free status" and that this article was published soon after the creation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Isabel's statements suggest that it was the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, which manages the foundation's endowment assets, that made this sizable investment in CommTouch.
Furthermore, it is worth highlighting the odd way in which Isabel describes her dealings with Gates ("purring," speaking in a fake Southern accent), describing her interactions with him in a way not found in any of her numerous other interviews on a wide variety of topics. This odd behavior may be related to Isabel's previous interactions with Gates and/or the mysterious relationship between Gates and Epstein during this time.
Isabel Maxwell as CommTouch PresidentAfter 2000, CommTouch's business and clout expanded rapidly, with Isabel Maxwell subsequently crediting investments from Microsoft, led by Gates, and Paul Allen for the company's good fortune and the success of its effort to enter the US market. Maxwell, as quoted in the 2002 book Fastalliances , states that Microsoft viewed CommTouch as a key "distribution network," adding that "Microsoft's investment in us put us on the map. It gave us instant credibility, validated our technology and service in the marketplace." By this time, Microsoft's ties to CommTouch had deepened with new partnerships, including CommTouch's hosting of Microsoft Exchange .
Though Isabel Maxwell was able to secure lucrative investments and alliances for CommTouch and saw its products integrated into key software and hardware components produced and sold by Microsoft and other tech giants, she was unable to improve the company's dire financial situation, with CommTouch netting a loss of $4.4 million in 1998 and similar losses well into the 2000s, with net losses totalling $24 million in 2000 (just one year after the sizable investments from Microsoft, Paul Allen and Gates). The losses continued even after Isabel formally left the company and became president emeritus in 2001. By 2006, the company was over $170 million in debt. Isabel Maxwell left her position at CommTouch in 2001 but for years retained a sizable amount of CommTouch stock valued at the time at around $9.5 million . Today, Isabel Maxwell is, among other things, a " technology pioneer " of the World Economic Forum.
Epstein, Edge, and Nathan MyhrvoldAnother indication of a relationship between Epstein and Gates prior to 2001 is Epstein's cozy ties with Nathan Myhrvold, who joined Microsoft in the 1980s and became the company's first chief technology officer in 1996. At the time, Myhrvold was one of Gates's closest advisers, if not the closest, and cowrote Gates's 1996 book, The Road Ahead , which sought to explain how emerging technologies would impact life in the years and decades to come.
In December of the same year that he became Microsoft's CTO, Myhrvold traveled on Epstein's plane from Kentucky to New Jersey, and then again in January 1997 from New Jersey to Florida. Other passengers accompanying Myhrvold on these flights included Alan Dershowitz and "GM," presumably Ghislaine Maxwell. It is worth keeping in mind that this is the same period when Gates had a documented relationship with Ghislaine's sister Isabel.
In addition, in the 1990s, Myhrvold traveled with Epstein in Russia alongside Esther Dyson , a digital technology consultant who has been called "the most influential woman in all the computer world." She currently has close ties to Google as well as the DNA testing company 23andme and is a member of and agenda contributor to the World Economic Forum. Dyson later stated that the meeting with Epstein had been planned by Myhrvold. The meeting appears to have taken place in 1998, based on information posted on Dyson's social media accounts. One photo features Dyson and Epstein, with a time stamp indicating April 28, 1998, posing with Pavel Oleynikov, who appears to have been an employee of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center. In that photo, they are standing in front of the house of the late Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet nuclear scientist and dissident, who is alleged to have had ties to US intelligence. Sakharov and his wife, Yelena Bonner, were supporters of Zionist causes .
The photos were taken in Sarov, where the Russian Federal Nuclear Center is based. That same day, another photo was taken that shows Epstein inside a classroom full of teens, apparently also in Sarov, given the time stamp.
Another Dyson image , one without a visible time stamp but with a caption stating the photo was taken "at Microsoft Russia in Moscow" in April 1998, shows Nathan Myhrvold. Dyson's caption further states, "This was the beginning of a three-week trip during which Nathan and a variety of hangers-on (including a bodyguard) explored the state of post-Soviet science." Epstein appears to be one of the "hangers-on," given the photographs, dates, and the described purpose of the trip.
Myhrvold and Epstein apparently had more in common than an interest in Russian scientific advances. When Myhrvold left Microsoft to cofound Intellectual Ventures, Vanity Fair reported that he had received Epstein at the firm's office with "young girls" in tow who appeared to be "Russian models." A source close to Myhrvold and cited by Vanity Fair claimed that Myhrvold spoke openly about borrowing Epstein's jet and staying at his homes in Florida and New York. Vanity Fair also noted that Myhrvold has been accused of having sex with minors provided by Epstein by none other than Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who stands accused of the same crime and who had previously flown with Myhrvold on Epstein's private plane.
In addition, a former colleague of Myhrvold's at Microsoft later developed her own ties to Epstein. Linda Stone , who joined Microsoft in 1993 and worked directly under Myhrvold, eventually became a Microsoft vice president. She introduced Epstein to Joi Ito of the MIT Media Lab after Epstein's first arrest. "He has a tainted past, but Linda assures me that he's awesome," Ito later said in an email to three MIT staffers. In Epstein's famous little black book, there are several phone numbers for Stone, and her emergency contact is listed as Kelly Bovino, a former model and alleged Epstein coconspirator. After Epstein's 2019 arrest, it emerged that Epstein had "directed" Bill Gates to donate $2 million to the MIT lab in 2014. Epstein also allegedly secured a $5 million donation from Leon Black for the lab. Ito was forced to resign his post as the lab's director shortly after Epstein's 2019 arrest.
Nathan Myhrvold , Linda Stone , Joi Ito, Esther Dyson , and Bill Gates were all members of the Edge Foundation community (edge.org website), alongside several other Silicon Valley icons. Edge, which is described as an exclusive organization of intellectuals " redefining who and what we are ," was created by John Brockman, a self-described "cultural impresario" and noted literary agent. Brockman is best known for his deep ties to the art world in the late 1960s, though lesser known are his various "management consulting" gigs for the Pentagon and White House during that same period. Edge, which the Guardian once called "the world's smartest website," is an exclusive online symposium affiliated with what Brockman calls "the Third Culture." Epstein appears to have become involved with Brockman as early as 1995, when he helped to finance and rescue a struggling book project that was managed by Brockman.
Edge, however, is more than just a website. For decades, it was also instrumental in bringing together tech executives, scientists who were often Brockman's clients, and Wall Street financiers through its Millionaires' Dinner, first held in 1985. In 1999, this event rebranded as the Billionaires' Dinner, and Epstein became intimately involved in these affairs and the Edge Foundation itself. Epstein was photographed attending several of the dinners as was Sarah Kellen, Ghislaine Maxwell's chief "assistant" and coconspirator in the Epstein/Maxwell-run sex trafficking and blackmail scheme.
Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft and Jeffrey Epstein at the 2000 Edge Billionaires' Dinner Source: https://www.edge.org/igd/1200From 2001 to 2017, Epstein funded $638,000 out of a total of $857,000 raised by Edge. During this period, there were several years when Epstein was Edge's only donor. Epstein stopped giving in 2015, which was incidentally the same year that Edge decided to discontinue its annual Billionaires' Dinner tradition. In addition, the only award Edge has ever given out, the $100,000 Edge of Computation prize, was awarded in 2005 to Quantum computing pioneer David Deutsch -- it was funded entirely by Epstein. A year before he began donating heavily to Edge, Epstein had created the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation to "fund and support cutting edge science around the world."
Since the Epstein scandal, regular attendees of the Billionaires' Dinner, sometimes called the Edge annual dinner, have referred to the event as an "influence operation." If one follows the money, it appears it was an influence operation largely benefitting one man, Jeffrey Epstein, and his network. The evidence points toward Myhrvold and Gates as being very much a part of that network, even before Epstein's involvement in Edge increased significantly.
A Tale of Two BillsIt is worth exploring the ties between the "philanthropic" endeavors of Bill Gates and Bill Clinton in the early 2000s, particularly given Epstein's and Ghislaine Maxwell's ties to the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative during that period. According to former Israeli intelligence operative Ari Ben-Menashe, Bill Clinton had been the main focus of Epstein's sexual blackmail operation in the 1990s, a claim supported by Epstein victim testimony and Epstein's intimate involvement with individuals who were close to the former president at the time.
Bill Gates at the White House Conference on the New Economy in 2000, Source: LA TimesDespite tensions arising from the Clinton administration's pursuit of Microsoft's monopoly in the late 1990s, the Gates and Clinton relationship had thawed by April 2000, when Gates attended the White House " Conference on the New Economy ." Attendees besides Gates included close Epstein associate Lynn Forester (now Lady de Rothschild) and then secretary of the treasury Larry Summers, who has also come under fire for his Epstein ties. Another attendee was White House chief of staff Thomas "Mack" McLarty, whose special assistant Mark Middleton met with Epstein at least three times at the Clinton White House. Middleton was fired after press reports surfaced detailing his ties to illegal donations linked to foreign governments that had been made to Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign. Another participant in the conference was Janet Yellen, Biden's current Secretary of the Treasury.
Gates spoke at a conference panel entitled "Closing the Global Divide: Health, Education and Technology." He discussed how the mapping of the human genome would result in a new era of technological breakthroughs and discussed the need to offer internet access to everyone to close the digital divide and allow the "new" internet-based economy to take shape. At the time, Gates was backing a company , along with American Telecom billionaire Craig McCaw, that hoped to establish a global internet service provider monopoly through a network of low-orbit satellites. That company, Teledesic, shut down between 2002 and 2003 and is credited as being the inspiration for Elon Musk's Starlink.
Bill Clinton and Bill Gates entered the world of philanthropy around the same time, with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launching in 2000 and the Clinton Foundation, in 2001. Not only that but Wired described the two foundations as being "at the forefront of a new era in philanthropy, in which decisions -- often referred to as investments -- are made with the strategic precision demanded of business and government, then painstakingly tracked to gauge their success."
Other media outlets, however, such as the Huffington Post , challenged that these foundations engaged in "philanthropy" and asserted that calling them such was causing "the rapid deconstruction of the accepted term." The Huffington Post further noted that the Clinton Global Initiative (part of the Clinton Foundation), the Gates Foundation, and a few similar organizations "all point in the direction of blurring the boundaries between philanthropy, business and non-profits." It noted that this model for "philanthropy" has been promoted by the World Economic Forum and the Milken Institute. It is also worth noting that several of Epstein's own "philanthropic" vehicles were also created just as this new era in philanthropy was beginning.
The Milken Institute was founded by Michael Milken , the notorious Wall Street "junk bond king," who was indicted on 98 counts of racketeering and securities fraud in 1989. He served little prison time and was ultimately pardoned by Donald Trump. Milken committed his crimes while working alongside Leon Black and Ron Perelman at Drexel Burnham Lambert before its scandalous collapse. Black was deeply tied to Epstein, even having Epstein manage his personal "philanthropic" foundation for several years, even after Epstein's first arrest. Perelman was a major Clinton donor whose 1995 fundraiser for the then president was attended by Epstein and whose companies offered jobs to Webster Hubbell and Monica Lewinsky after their respective scandals in the Clinton administration. Like Gates, Milken has transformed his reputation for ruthlessness in the corporate world into one of a "prominent philanthropist." Much of his "philanthropy" benefits the Israeli military and illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine.
Years after creating their foundations, Gates and Clinton discussed how they have "long bonded over their shared mission" of normalizing this new model of philanthropy. Gates spoke to Wired in 2013 about "their forays into developing regions" and "cites the close partnerships between their organizations." In that interview, Gates revealed that he had met Clinton before he had become president, stating, "I knew him before he was president, I knew him when he was president, and I know him now that he's not president."
Also in that interview, Clinton stated that after he left the White House he sought to focus on two specific things. The first is the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), which he stated exists "thanks largely to funding from the Gates Foundation," and the second is the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), "where I try to build a global network of people to do their own thing."
The Clinton Health Access Initiative first received an $11 million donation from the Gates Foundation in 2009. Over the last twelve years, the Gates Foundation has donated more than $497 million to CHAI. CHAI was initially founded in 2002 with the mission of tackling HIV/AIDS globally through "strong government relationships" and addressing "market inefficiencies." The Gates Foundation's significant donations, however, began not long after CHAI's expansion into malaria diagnostics and treatments. Notably, in 2011, Tachi Yamada, the former president of the Gates Foundation's Global Health program, joined CHAI's board alongside Chelsea Clinton.
Bill Gates and Bill Clinton at the annual Clinton Global Initiative in 2010Regarding the CGI, Epstein's defense lawyers argued in court in 2007 that Epstein had been "part of the original group that conceived of the Clinton Global Initiative," which was first launched in 2005. Epstein's lawyers described the CGI as a project "bringing together a community of global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges." The Gates Foundation gave the CGI a total of $2.5 million between 2012 and 2013 in addition to its massive donations to the CHAI and an additional $35 million to the Clinton Foundation itself. In addition to the Gates Foundation donations, Gates's Microsoft has been intimately involved in other "philanthropic" projects backed by Clinton.
In addition to these ties, Hillary Clinton established a partnership between the Clinton Foundation and the Gates Foundation in 2014 as part of the Clintons' No Ceilings initiative. That partnership sought to "gather and analyze data about the status of women and girls' participation around the world" and involved the two foundations working "with leading technology partners to collect these data and compile them." Months before the partnership was announced, Gates and Epstein met for dinner and discussed the Gates Foundation and philanthropy, according to the New York Times . During Hillary Clinton's unsuccessful run for president in 2016, both Bill and Melinda Gates were on her short list as potential options for vice president.
In addition, Epstein attempted to become involved in the Gates Foundation directly, as seen by his efforts to convince the Gates Foundation to partner with JP Morgan on a multibillion-dollar "global health charitable fund" that would have resulted in hefty fees paid out to Epstein, who was very involved with JP Morgan at the time. Though that fund never materialized, Epstein and Gates did discuss Epstein becoming involved in Gates's philanthropic efforts. Some of these contacts were not reported by the mainstream press until after the Bill and Melinda Gates divorce announcement. Yet, as mentioned, it was known that Epstein had "directed" Gates to donate to at least one organization -- $2 million in 2014 to the MIT Media Lab.
Recent revelations about Gates and Epstein meetings that took place between 2013 and 2014 have further underscored the importance Epstein apparently held in the world of billionaire "philanthropy," with Gates reportedly claiming that Epstein was his "ticket" to winning a Nobel Prize. Norwegian media, however, reported in October 2020 that Gates and Epstein had met the Nobel Committee chair, which failed to make a splash in international media at the time. It is worth asking if Epstein managed to arrange such meetings with other individuals who also coveted Nobel Prizes and if any such individuals later received those prizes. If Epstein had such connections, it is unlikely that he would use them only once in the case of Bill Gates, given the vastness of his network, particularly in the tech and science worlds.
The year 2013 is also when Bill and Melinda Gates together met with Epstein at his New York residence, after which Melinda allegedly began asking her soon-to-be ex-husband to distance himself from Epstein. While the stated reason for this, in the wake of the Gateses' divorce announcement, was that Melinda was put off by Epstein's past and his persona, it could potentially be related to other concerns about Melinda's reputation and that of the foundation that shares her name.
Indeed, 2013 was also the year that the Gates mansion systems engineer, Rick Allen Jones, began to be investigated by Seattle police for his child porn and child rape collection, which contained over six thousand images and videos. Despite the gravity of his crime, when Jones was arrested at the Gates mansion a year later, he was not jailed after his arrest but was merely ordered "to stay away from children," according to local media reports. From Melinda's perspective, this scandal, combined with Bill Gates's growing association with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein may have posed a threat to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's reputation, well before Epstein's 2019 arrest.
2013 was also the year that the Maxwells become involved in the Clinton Foundation. That year, Ghislaine Maxwell's TerraMar Project, which officially supported UN Sustainable Development Goals as they relate the world's oceans, made a $1.25 million commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative as part of an effort to form a Sustainable Oceans Alliance. TerraMar shut down shortly after Epstein's 2019 arrest.
Isabel Maxwell and Al Seckel at the World Economic Forum's 2011 Annual MeetingNotably, Ghislaine's TerraMar Project was in many ways the successor to Isabel Maxwell's failed Blue World Alliance, which was also ostensibly focused on the world's oceans. Blue World Alliance was set up by Isabel and her now deceased husband Al Seckel, who had hosted a "scientific conference" on Epstein's island. The Blue World Alliance also went under the name Globalsolver Foundation, and Xavier Malina, Christine Maxwell's son, was listed as Globalsolver's liaison to the Clinton Foundation. He was previously an intern at the Clinton Global Initiative.
Malina later work ed in the Obama administration at the Office of White House Personnel. He now works for Google. It is also worth noting that during this same period, Isabel Maxwell's son, Alexander Djerassi , was chief of staff at the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in the Hillary Clinton–run State Department.
Gates Science and Epstein ScienceWhile the Gates Foundation and the Clinton Foundation intermingled, and the latter had ties to Epstein and Maxwell, it also appears that Epstein had significant influence over two of the most prominent science advisers to Bill Gates over the last fifteen years -- Melanie Walker and Boris Nikolic.
A screenshot from a 2019 presentation Melanie Walker gave for Rockefeller Foundation, where she is a fellow. Source: YouTubeMelanie Walker , now a celebrated neurosurgeon, met Jeffrey Epstein in 1992 soon after she graduated from college, when he offered her a Victoria's Secret modelling job. Such offers were often made by Epstein and his accomplices when recruiting women into his operation and it is unclear if Walker ever actually worked as a model for the Leslie Wexner-owned company. She then stayed at a New York apartment building associated with Epstein's trafficking operations during visits to New York, but it is unclear how long she stayed there or at other Epstein-owned properties. After she graduated from medical school in 1998, she became Epstein's science adviser for at least a year. By 1999, she had grown so close to Prince Andrew that she attended a Windsor Castle birthday celebration hosted by the Queen along with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. During this period, Melanie appears on Epstein's flight logs under her birth name , Melanie Starnes , though it looks like "Starves" on the flight logs.
The close relationship between Prince Andrew and Melanie Walker came under scrutiny after Epstein's former housekeeper at the Zorro Ranch property, Deidre Stratton, stated in an interview that Prince Andrew had been "given" a "beautiful young neurosurgeon" while he stayed at Epstein's New Mexico property. Given that only one neurosurgeon was both close to Prince Andrew and a part of Epstein's entourage at the time, it seems highly likely that this woman "gifted" to Andrew was Melanie Walker. According to Stratton, Andrew "kept company" with this woman for three days. The arrangement was set up by Epstein, who was not at the property at the time. The exact timing of the stay is uncertain, but it likely took place between 1999 and 2001.
Stratton said the following about the stay:
"At the time, Jeffrey had this, she supposedly was a neurosurgeon, quite young, beautiful, young and brilliant, and she stayed in the home with him At one point we had all these different teas and you could pick the teas that you wanted and she asked me to find one that would make Andrew more horny.
I'm guessing she understood her job was to entertain him because I guess, the fear, I don't know; the fear would be that Andrew would say, "No I didn't really find her that attractive." . . . He would tell Jeffrey that and then she would be on the ropes.
I'm guessing that, another theory is, that Jeffrey probably had her on retainer and she knew what her job would be, should be, to make these people happy. . . . Sex was all they thought about. I mean, I know for sure that Jeffrey would ideally like three massages a day."
Sometime later, Walker moved to Seattle and began living with then Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky, who now serves as a board partner at the venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz. Andreesen Horowitz notably backs Carbyne911, the Israel intelligence-linked precrime start-up funded by Epstein and his close associate, former prime minister of Israel Ehud Barak, as well as another Israeli intelligence-linked tech company led by Barak, called Toka . Toka recently won contracts with the governments of Moldova, Nigeria, and Ghana through the World Bank, where Melanie Walker is currently a director and a former special adviser to its president. It is unclear when, how and under what circumstances Walker met Sinofsky.
After moving to Seattle to be with Sinofsky and after a brief stint as a "practitioner in the developing world" in China with the World Health Organization, Walker was hired as a senior program officer by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2006. Given that the main feature of Walker's resume at the time was having been a science adviser to another wealthy "philanthropist," Jeffrey Epstein, her hire by the Gates Foundation for this critical role further underscores how Bill Gates, at the very least, not only knew who Epstein was but knew enough about his scientific interests and investments to want to hire Walker. Walker went on to become deputy director for Global Development as well as a deputy director of Special Initiatives at the foundation. According to the Rockefeller Foundation , where she is a fellow, Walker later advised Gates on issues pertaining to neurotechnology and brain science for Gates's secretive company bgC3 , which Gates originally registered as a think tank under the name Carillon Holdings. According to federal filings, bgC3's focus areas were "scientific and technological services," "industrial analysis and research," and "design and development of computer hardware and software."
During her time at the Gates Foundation, Walker introduced Boris Nikolic, Gates's science adviser, to Epstein. Today, Melanie Walker is the cochair of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Neurotechnology and Brain Science, having previously been named a WEF Young Global Leader. She also advises the World Health Organization, which is closely linked to Bill Gates's "philanthropy."
At the WEF, Walker wrote an article in 2016 entitled " Healthcare in 2030: Goodbye Hospital, Hello Home-spital ," in which she discusses how wearable devices, brain-machine interfaces, and injectable/swallowable robotic "medicines" will be the norm by 2030. Years before COVID-19 and the Great Reset–inspired efforts to change health care in just this way, Walker wrote that while the dystopian scenario she was painting "sounds crazy . . . most of these technologies are either almost ready for prime time, or in development." Of course, a lot of those technologies took shape thanks to the patronage of her former bosses, Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Gates.
In the case of Boris Nikolic, after being introduced to Epstein through Walker, he attended a 2011 meeting with Gates and Epstein where he was photographed alongside James Staley, then a senior JP Morgan executive, and Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury and a close Epstein associate. Nikolic was chief adviser for science and technology to Bill Gates at the time, advising both the Gates Foundation and bgC3. According to the mainstream narrative, this is supposed to be the first time that Gates and Epstein had ever met. In addition, this may have been when Epstein pitched the joint Gates Foundation–JP Morgan "global health charitable fund."
The 2011 meeting at Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan mansion attended by James E. Staley, Larry Summers, Jeffery Epstein, Bill Gates and Boris NikolicIn 2014, Nikolic " waxed enthusiastic " about Epstein's supposed penchant for financial advice ahead of a public offering for a gene-editing company that Nikolic had a $42 million stake in . Notably, both Nikolic and Epstein were clients of the same group of bankers at JP Morgan, with Bloomberg later reporting that Epstein regularly helped those bankers attract wealthy new clients.
In 2016, Nikolic cofounded Biomatics capital, which invests in health-related companies at "the convergence of genomics and digital data" that are "enabling the development of superior therapeutics, diagnostics and delivery models." Nikolic founded Biomatics with Julie Sunderland, formerly the director of the Gates Foundation's Strategic Investment Fund.
At least three of the companies backed by Biomatics -- Qihan Biotech , eGenesis , and Editas -- were cofounded by George Church, a Harvard geneticist with deep ties to Epstein and also closely associated with the Edge Foundation. Biomatics investment in Qihan Biotech is no longer listed on the Biomatics website. Church's Qihan Biotech seeks to produce human tissues and organs inside pigs for transplantation into humans, while eGenesis seeks to genetically modify pig organs for use in humans. Editas produces CRISPR gene-editing "medicines" and is also backed by the Gates Foundation as well as Google Ventures.
Church has been accused of promoting eugenics as well as unethical human experimentation . Epstein's significant interest in eugenics was made public after his death, and Bill Gates, as well as his father William H. Gates II, have also been linked to eugenics movements and ideas.
After Epstein's death in 2019, it was revealed that Nikolic had been named the "successor executor" of Epstein's estate, further suggesting close ties to Epstein despite Nikolic's claims to the contrary. After details of Epstein's will were made public, Nikolic did not sign a form indicating his willingness to be executor and did not ultimately serve in that role.
The Epstein Cover-Up ContinuesDespite the relatively abrupt shift in the mainstream media regarding what is acceptable to discuss regarding the Jeffrey Epstein–Bill Gates relationship, many of these same media outlets refuse to acknowledge much of the information contained in this investigative report. This is particularly true in the case of the Evening Standard article and Bill Gates's odd relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell's sister Isabel and CommTouch, the company Isabel previously led.
The likely reason for the continued cover-up of the true extent of Epstein's ties to Gates has much more to do with Gates's company Microsoft than with Bill Gates himself. While it is now permissible to report on ties that discredit Gates's personal reputation, the information that could tie his relationship with Epstein and the Maxwells to Microsoft has been omitted.
If, as the Evening Standard reported, Epstein did make millions out of his business ties with Gates prior to 2001 and if Gates's ties to Isabel Maxwell and the Israeli espionage–linked company CommTouch were to become public knowledge, the result could easily be a scandal on a par with the PROMIS software affair. Such a disclosure could be very damaging for Microsoft and its partner the World Economic Forum , as Microsoft has become a key player in the WEF's Fourth Industrial Revolution initiatives that range from digital identity and vaccine passports to efforts to replace human workers with artificial intelligence.
There are clearly powerful actors with a vested interest in keeping the Epstein-Gates narrative squarely focused on 2011 and later -- not necessarily to protect Gates but more likely to protect the company itself and other top Microsoft executives who appear to have been compromised by Epstein and others in the same intelligence-linked network.
This is hardly an isolated incident, as similar efforts have been made to cover up (or memory hole) the ties of Epstein and the Maxwells to other prominent Silicon Valley empires, such as those led by Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk . One key reason for this is that the Epstein network's blackmail operation involved not only sexual blackmail but electronic forms of blackmail , something used to great effect by Robert Maxwell on behalf of Israeli intelligence as part of the PROMIS operation. Given its nature, electronic forms of blackmail through illegal surveillance or backdoored software can be used to compromise those in power with something to hide, but who were uninclined to engage in the exploitation of minors, such as those abused by Epstein.
That Isabel and Christine Maxwell were able to forge close business ties with Microsoft after having been part of the front company that played a central role in PROMIS-related espionage and after explicitly managing their subsequent companies with the admitted intention to "rebuild" their spy father's work and legacy, strongly points to the probability of at least some Microsoft products having been compromised in some fashion, likely through alliances with Maxwell-run tech companies. The lack of mainstream media concern over the documented ties of the Epstein network to other top Microsoft executives of the past, such as Nathan Myhrvold, Linda Stone, and Steven Sinofsky, makes it clear that, while it may be open season on the relationship between Bill Gates and Epstein, such is not the case for Microsoft and Epstein.
The ties of Epstein and the Maxwells to Silicon Valley, not just to Microsoft, are part of a broader attempt to cover up the strong intelligence component in the origin of Silicon Valley's most powerful companies. Much effort has been invested in creating a public perception that these companies are strictly private entities despite their deep, long-standing ties to the intelligence agencies and militaries of the United States and Israel . The true breadth of the Epstein scandal will never be covered by mainstream media because so many news outlets are owned by these same Silicon Valley oligarchs or depend on Silicon Valley for online reader engagement.
Perhaps the biggest reason why the military/intelligence origins and links to the current Silicon Valley oligarchy will never be honestly examined, however, is that those very entities are now working with breakneck speed to usher in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which would make artificial intelligence, automation, mass electronic surveillance, and transhumanism central to human society. One of the architects of this "revolution," Klaus Schwab, said earlier this year that rebuilding and maintaining trust with the public was critical to that project. However, were the true nature of Silicon Valley, including its significant ties to serial child rapist and sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein and his network, to emerge, the public's trust would be significantly eroded, thus threatening what the global oligarchy views as a project critical to its survival .
kapoore , says: June 6, 2021 at 2:48 am GMT • 1.3 hours ago
I'm always impressed with the vigorous detail and documentation in your articles. What a menace these philanthropic organizations are to the ordinary and lowly. These billionaire creeps never stop plotting and figuring out even more ways to stomp on people and push their creepy agendas, which remain forever hidden.
May 22, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
Authored by Thomas Lifson via AmericanThinker.com,
If there was a conspiracy to assassinate a man who knew compromising information about the power elite, two of the lowest level conspirators are getting away with no jail time.
The two prison guards who allowed Jeffrey Epstein to die with nobody checking up on his safety (despite having been on suicide watch), are getting a slap on their wrists: 100 hours of community service and 6 months of pretrial supervision . This seems a very light penalty considering that they falsified documents attesting to their carrying out the duties that they neglected, and the profound consequences of their perjurious neglect of duty. Public confidence in the integrity of the Bureau of Prisons and the entire justice system has been tanked.
There is a faint ray of hope, however.
According to a letter submitted to court seeking approval of the arrangement, the two guards, Michael Thomas and Tova Noel, "will cooperate with a pending Department of Justice Office of Inspector General review by providing truthful information related to their employment by the Bureau of Prisons, including about the events and circumstances described in the Indictment."
Their cooperation will be enforced because the plea is a "deferred prosecution," meaning that if their cooperation is deemed inadequate, they can be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, likely meaning prison time. But are the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York really interested in finding out if someone took advantage of (and possibly encouraged) the guards' negligence to assassinate Epstein, as so many believe? We have been told that Epstein had extensive video surveillance of the activities of his guests and that his New York home was searched. Why has there been no sign of criminal prosecution of sex with underage girls, as has been almost universally assumed to be taking place at his mansion?
The guards may have benefited from consideration of their state of overwork due to short staffing at the Manhattan facility. One was on a second consecutive 8-hour shift while the other had worked mandatory overtime 5 days in a row. The prosecutors are not pushing a narrative that would embarrass their fellow Justice Department colleagues at the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
And that sort of self-protective instinct among federal employees, avoiding embarrassment, could extend to letting sleeping dogs lie when it comes to getting to the bottom of Epstein's activities with the rich, powerful, and famous.
A few years ago, I would have been mildly hopeful that the two guards would spill the beans to prosecutors if Epstein didn't kill himself and there was some sort of conspiracy that disabled security cameras and kept the guards away as an assassin killed him. But after witnessing the behavior of the DOJ during the Trump presidency and after, In have no faith whatsoever in the integrity of its prosecution decisions.
May 09, 2021 | www.nakedcapitalism.com
"Melinda Gates Warned Bill About Jeffrey Epstein" [The Daily Beast].
Normally if I want to quote a gossip rag, I go for Page Six.
Nevertheless: "Melinda Gates met with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein alongside her husband, Bill, in New York City and soon after said she was furious at the relationship between the two men, according to people familiar with the situation.
The previously unreported meeting occurred at Epstein's Upper East Side mansion in September 2013, on the same day the couple accepted the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award at The Pierre hotel and were photographed alongside then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
The meeting would prove a turning point for Gates' relationship with Epstein, the people familiar with the matter say, as Melinda told friends after the encounter how uncomfortable she was in the company of the wealthy sex offender and how she wanted nothing to do with him.
Gates' friendship with Epstein "who for years was accused of molesting scores of underage girls" still haunts Melinda, according to friends of the couple who spoke to The Daily Beast this week in light of the pair's divorce announcement, which had been weeks in the making.
... ... ...
May 09, 2021 | www.wsj.com
The split between Bill and Melinda Gates, announced last week, has been in the works for a long time.
Ms. Gates consulted with divorce lawyers roughly two years before she filed for divorce from Mr. Gates, saying their marriage was "irretrievably broken," according to people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The 56-year-old philanthropist has been working with lawyers at several firms since at least 2019 to unwind the marriage of more than 25 years, according to these people and the documents.
Last Monday, the billionaire couple announced they were ending their marriage . In a joint statement posted on Twitter , they said, "we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives."
The couple hasn't said what prompted the split. One source of concern for Ms. Gates was her husband's dealings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to the people and a former employee of their charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Ms. Gates's concerns about the relationship dated as far back as 2013, the former employee said.
... ... ...
In early 2020, Mr. and Ms. Gates surprised many people when they said they wouldn't attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, an annual gathering of business and world leaders that the power couple had attended for years.
https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
A few months later, on March 13, Mr. Gates said he was resigning from the boards of Microsoft Corp. MSFT 1.09% and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK.B 0.42% The Microsoft co-founder said he planned to focus more on his philanthropic efforts.
May 08, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
Melinda Gates, whose 'people' are undoubtedly trying to distance her from Bill's controversies, was reportedly 'furious' after the couple had an uncomfortable 2013 meeting with Jeffrey Epstein - who by then was a convicted pedophile .
People 'familiar with the matter' tell the Daily Beast , the previously unreported meeting was held at Epstein's Upper East Side mansion in September, 2013, the same day the couple was awarded the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service award at the Pierre Hotel , where they were photographed with then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
According to said 'people', the 2013 meeting would "prove a turning point for the Gates' relationship with Epstein,' with Melinda telling friends after the encounter how uncomfortable she was to be hanging around the wealthy sex offender.
According to the New York Times , Gates and Epstein met at least six times , including visits to Epstein's New York mansion on 'multiple occasions,' staying at least once into the night.
So - the Gates' had no problem traveling across the country to meet with the convicted pedophile - who named Gates adviser Boris Nikolic as a fallback executor in a will Epstein amended just days before his August 2019 death in a Manhattan jail cell.
... ... ...
Gates hilariously claimed that he wasn't aware it was Epstein's plane!
In March 2013, Mr. Gates flew on Mr. Epstein's Gulfstream plane from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey to Palm Beach, Fla., according to a flight manifest. Ms. Arnold said Mr. Gates -- who has his own $40 million jet -- hadn't been aware it was Mr. Epstein's plane . - New York Times
Meanwhile, employees of the Gates foundation also visited Epstein's mansion on multiple occasions, while Epstein also "spoke with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and JPMorgan Chase about a proposed multibillion-dollar charitable fund -- an arrangement that had the potential to generate enormous fees for Mr. Epstein ," according to the Times .
In late 2011, at Mr. Gates's instruction, the foundation sent a team to Mr. Epstein's townhouse to have a preliminary talk about philanthropic fund-raising, according to three people who were there. Mr. Epstein told his guests that if they searched his name on the internet they might conclude he was a bad person but that what he had done -- soliciting prostitution from an underage girl -- was no worse than "stealing a bagel," two of the people said.
How Gates and Epstein met , according to the New York Times ;
Two members of Mr. Gates's inner circle -- Boris Nikolic and Melanie Walker -- were close to Mr. Epstein and at times functioned as intermediaries between the two men.
Ms. Walker met Mr. Epstein in 1992 , six months after graduating from the University of Texas. Mr. Epstein, who was an adviser to Mr. Wexner, the owner of Victoria's Secret, told Ms. Walker that he could land her an audition for a modeling job there , according to Ms. Walker. She later moved to New York and stayed in a Manhattan apartment building that Mr. Epstein owned. After she graduated from medical school, she said, Mr. Epstein hired her as a science adviser in 1998.
Ms. Walker later met Steven Sinofsky, a senior executive at Microsoft who became president of its Windows division, and moved to Seattle to be with him. In 2006, she joined the Gates Foundation with the title of senior program officer.
At the foundation, Ms. Walker met and befriended Mr. Nikolic , a native of what is now Croatia and a former fellow at Harvard Medical School who was the foundation's science adviser. Mr. Nikolic and Mr. Gates frequently traveled and socialized together.
Ms. Walker, who had remained in close touch with Mr. Epstein, introduced him to Mr. Nikolic, and the men became friendly.
Mr. Epstein and Mr. Gates first met face to face on the evening of Jan. 31, 2011 , at Mr. Epstein's townhouse on the Upper East Side. They were joined by Dr. Eva Andersson-Dubin , a former Miss Sweden whom Mr. Epstein had once dated, and her 15-year-old daughter. (Dr. Andersson-Dubin's husband, the hedge fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, was a friend and business associate of Mr. Epstein's. The Dubins declined to comment.)
The gathering started at 8 and lasted several hours, according to Ms. Arnold, Mr. Gates's spokeswoman. Mr. Epstein subsequently boasted about the meeting in emails to friends and associates. "Bill's great," he wrote in one, reviewed by The Times.
"I didn't go to New Mexico or Florida or Palm Beach or any of that," claims Gates. "There were people around him who were saying, hey, if you want to raise money for global health and get more philanthropy, he knows a lot of rich people."
And it looks like Gates was one of Epstein's "rich people." According to the report, Gates donated $2 million to MIT's Media Lab, which university officials described as having been "directed" by Epstein .
According to Arnold, Gates' spokeswoman, "Over time, Gates and his team realized Epstein's capabilities and ideas were not legitimate and all contact with Epstein was discontinued."
Perhaps 'Gates and his team' should have steered clear of the known pedophile in the first place?
Apr 14, 2021 | www.nakedcapitalism.com
Slaughter Central: The United States as a Mass-Killing Machine Posted on April 14, 2021 by Yves Smith
Yves here. Tom Engelhardt tries to get his arms around US weapons sales and use. The figures are depressing, particularly in comparison to those of our nominal peers. And the intensity of our fixation with killing has only grown only over time. Just look at TV. In its early, tamer days, frontier shows like The Rifleman and Gunsmoke gave weapons top billing. Now in our post-Vietnam, post Archie Bunker of greater realism, police shows have gory gunplay as their prime offering, with big side portions of blowing things up and car chases/crashes. We even have a prime time show, The Blacklist, where the lead is assured to shoot at least one person every episode. Better to look at the fictionalized version, where we know no actors were hurt, than clips of the real thing from the Middle East, which are oddly absent from news shows.
By Tom Engelhardt Originally published at TomDispatch
By the time you read this piece, it will already be out of date. The reason's simple enough. No matter what mayhem I describe, with so much all-American weaponry in this world of ours, there's no way to keep up. Often, despite the headlines that go with mass killings here, there's almost no way even to know.
On this planet of ours, America is the emperor of weaponry, even if in ways we normally tend not to put together. There's really no question about it. The all-American powers-that-be and the arms makers that go with them dream up, produce, and sell weaponry, domestically and internationally, in an unmatched fashion. You'll undoubtedly be shocked, shocked to learn that the top five arms makers on the planet -- Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and General Dynamics -- are all located in the United States.
Put another way, we're a killer nation, a mass-murder machine, slaughter central. And as we've known since the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, there could be far worse to come. After all, in the overheated dreams of both those weapons makers and Pentagon planners, slaughter-to-be has long been imagined on a planetary scale, right down to the latest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) being created by Northrop Grumman at the cost of at least $100 billion. Each of those future arms of ultimate destruction is slated to be " the length of a bowling lane " and the nuclear charge that it carries will be at least 20 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. That missile will someday be capable of traveling 6,000 miles and killing hundreds of thousands of people each. (And the Air Force is planning to order 600 of them.)
By the end of this decade, that new ICBM is slated to join an unequaled American nuclear arsenal of -- at this moment -- 3,800 warheads . And with that in mind, let's back up a moment.
Have Gun -- Will Travel
Before we head abroad or think more about weaponry fit to destroy the planet (or at least human life on it), let's just start right here at home. After all, we live in a country whose citizens are armed to their all-too-labile fingertips with more guns of every advanced sort than might once have been imaginable. The figures are stunning. Even before the pandemic hit and gun purchases soared to record levels -- about 23 million of them (a 64% increase over 2019 sales) -- American civilians were reported to possess almost 400 million firearms. That adds up to about 40% of all such weaponry in the hands of civilians globally, or more than the next 25 countries combined.
And if that doesn't stagger you, note that the versions of those weapons in public hands are becoming ever more militarized and powerful, ever more AR-15 semi-automatic rifles, not .22s. And keep in mind as well that, over the years, the death toll from those weapons in this country has grown staggeringly large. As New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote recently , "More Americans have died from guns just since 1975, including suicides, murders and accidents (more than 1.5 million), than in all the wars in United States history, dating back to the Revolutionary War (about 1.4 million)."
In my childhood, one of my favorite TV programs was called Have Gun -- Will Travel . Its central character was a highly romanticized armed mercenary in the Old West and its theme song -- still lodged in my head (where so much else is unlodging these days) -- began:
"Have gun will travel is the card of a man.
A knight without armor in a savage land.
His fast gun for hire heeds the calling wind.
A soldier of fortune is the man called Paladin."Staggering numbers of Americans are now ever grimmer versions of Paladin. Thanks to a largely unregulated gun industry , they're armed like no other citizenry on the planet, not even -- in a distant second place -- the civilians of Yemen, a country torn by endless war. That TV show's title could now be slapped on our whole culture, whether we're talking about our modern-day Paladins traveling to a set of Atlanta spas ; a chain grocery store in Boulder, Colorado; a real-estate office in Orange, California; a convenience store near Baltimore; or a home in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
Remember how the National Rifle Association has always defended the right of Americans to own weapons at least in part by citing this country's hunting tradition? Well, these days, startling numbers of Americans, armed to the teeth, have joined that hunting crew. Their game of choice isn't deer or even wolves and grizzly bears , but that ultimate prey, other human beings -- and all too often themselves. (In 2020, not only did a record nearly 20,000 Americans die from gun violence, but another 24,000 used guns to commit suicide.)
As the rate of Covid-19 vaccination began to rise to remarkable levels in this country and ever more public places reopened, the first mass public killings (defined as four or more deaths in a public place) of the pandemic period -- in Atlanta and Boulder -- hit the news big-time. The thought, however, that the American urge to use weapons in a murderous fashion had in any way lessened or been laid to rest, even briefly, thanks to Covid-19, proved a fantasy of the first order.
At a time when so many public places like schools were closed or their use limited indeed, if you took as your measuring point not mass public killings but mass shootings (defined as four or more people wounded or killed), the pandemic year of 2020 proved to be a record 12 months of armed chaos. In fact, such mass shootings actually surged by 47%. As USA Today recounted , "In 2020, the United States reported 611 mass shooting events that resulted in 513 deaths and 2,543 injuries. In 2019, there were 417 mass shootings with 465 deaths and 1,707 injured." In addition, in that same year, according to projections based on FBI data, there were 4,000 to 5,000 more gun murders than usual, mainly in inner-city communities of color.
In the first 73 days of Joe Biden's presidency, there were five mass shootings and more than 10,000 gun-violence deaths. In the Covid-19 era, this has been the model the world's "most exceptional" nation (as American politicians of both parties used to love to call this country) has set for the rest of the planet. Put another way, so far in 2020 and 2021, there have been two pandemics in America, Covid-19 and guns.
And though the weaponization of our citizenry and the carnage that's gone with it certainly gets attention -- President Biden only recently called it "an international embarrassment" -- here's the strange thing: when reporting on such a binge of killings and the weapons industry that stokes it, few here think to include the deaths and other injuries for which the American military has been responsible via its "forever wars" of this century outside our own borders. Nor do they consider the massive U.S. weapons deliveries and sales to other countries that often enough lead to the same. In other words, a full picture of all-American carnage has -- to use an apt phrase -- remained missing in action.
Cornering the Arms Market
In fact, internationally, things are hardly less mind-boggling when it comes to this country and weaponry. As with its armed citizenry, when it comes to arming other countries, Washington is without peer. It's the weapons dealer of choice across much of the world. Yes, the U.S. gun industry that makes all those rifles for this country also sells plenty of them abroad and, in the Trump years, such sales were only made easier to complete (as was the selling of U.S. unmanned aerial drones to "less stable governments"). When it comes to semi-automatic weapons like the AR-15 or even grenades and flamethrowers, this country's arms makers no longer even need State Department licenses, just far easier-to-get Commerce Department ones, to complete such sales, even to particularly abusive nations. As a result , to take one example, semi-automatic pistol exports abroad rose 148% in 2020.
But what I'm particularly thinking about here are the big-ticket items that those five leading weapons makers of the military-industrial complex eternally produce. On the subject of the sale of jet fighters like the F-16 and F-35 , tanks and other armored vehicles, submarines (as well as anti-submarine weaponry), and devastating bombs and missiles , among other things, we leave our "near-peer" competitors as well as our weapons-making allies in the dust. Washington is the largest supplier to 20 of the 40 major arms importers on the planet.
Buy the BookWhen it comes to delivering the weapons of war, the U.S. leads all its competitors in a historic fashion, especially in the war-torn and devastated Middle East. There, between 2015 and 2019, it gobbled up nearly half of the arms market. Unsurprisingly, Saudi Arabia was its largest customer, which, of course, only further stoked the brutal civil war in Yemen, where U.S. weapons are responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians . As Pentagon expert William Hartung wrote of those years, U.S. arms deliveries to the region added up to "nearly three times the arms Russia supplied to MENA [the Middle East and North Africa], five times what France contributed, 10 times what the United Kingdom exported, and 16 times China's contribution." (And often enough, as in Iraq and Yemen , some of those weapons end up falling into the hands of those the U.S. opposes.)
In fact, in 2020, this country's arms sales abroad rose a further 2.8% to $178 billion. The U.S. now supplies no fewer than 96 countries with weaponry and controls 37% of the global arms market (with, for example, Lockheed Martin alone taking in $47.2 billion in such sales in 2018, followed by the four other giant U.S. weapons makers and, in sixth place, the British defense firm BAE).
This remains the definition of mayhem-to-come, the international version of that spike in domestic arms sales and the killings that went with it. After all, in these years, deaths due to American arms in countries like Afghanistan and Yemen have grown strikingly. And to take just one more example, arms, ammunition, and equipment sold to or given to the brutal regime of Rodrigo Duterte for the Philippine military and constabulary have typically led to deaths (especially in its "war on drugs") that no one's counting up.
And yet, even combined with the dead here at home, all of this weapons-based slaughter hardly adds up to a full record when it comes to the U.S. as a global mass-killing machine.
Far, Far from Home
After all, this country has a historic 800 or so military bases around the world and nearly 200,000 military personnel stationed abroad ( about 60,000 in the Middle East alone). It has a drone-assassination program that extends from Afghanistan across the Greater Middle East to Africa, a series of "forever wars" and associated conflicts fought over that same expanse, and a Navy with major aircraft carrier task forces patrolling the high seas. In other words, in this century, it's been responsible for largely uncounted but remarkable numbers of dead and wounded human beings. Or put another way, it's been a mass-shooting machine abroad.
Unlike in the United States, however, there's little way to offer figures on those dead. To take one example, Brown University's invaluable Costs of War Project has estimated that, from the beginning of the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 to late 2019, 801,000 people , perhaps 40% of them civilians, were killed in Washington's war on terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere. Of course, not all of those by any means were killed by the U.S. military. In fact, some were even American soldiers and contractors. Still, the figures are obviously sizeable. (To take but one very focused example, from December 2001 to December 2013 at TomDispatch , I was counting up civilian wedding parties taken down by U.S. air power in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen. I came up with eight well-documented ones with a death toll of nearly 300, including brides, grooms, musicians, and revelers.)
Similarly, last December, Neta Crawford of the Costs of War Project released a report on the rising number of Afghan civilians who had died from U.S. air strikes in the Trump years. She found that in 2019, for instance, "airstrikes killed 700 civilians -- more civilians than in any other year since the beginning of the war." Overall, the documented civilian dead from American air strikes in the war years is in the many thousands, the wounded higher yet. (And, of course, those figures don't include the dead from Afghan air strikes with U.S.-supplied aircraft.) And mind you, that's just civilians mistaken for Taliban or other enemy forces.
Similarly, thousands more civilians were killed by American air strikes across the rest of the Greater Middle East and northern Africa. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which followed U.S. drone strikes for years, estimated that, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen, by 2019 such attacks had killed "between 8,500 and 12,000 people, including as many as 1,700 civilians -- 400 of whom were children."
And that, of course, is just to begin to count the dead in America's conflicts of this era. Or thought of another way, in this century, the U.S. military has been a kind of global Paladin. Its motto could obviously be "have gun, will travel" and its forces and those allied to it (and often supplied with American arms) have certainly killed staggering numbers of people in conflicts that have devastated communities across a significant part of the planet, while displacing an estimated 37 million people .
Now, return to those Americans gunned down in this country and think of all of this as a single weaponized, well-woven fabric, a single American gun culture that spans the globe, as well as a three-part killing machine of the first order. Much as mass shootings and public killings can sometimes dominate the news here, a full sense of the damage done by the weaponization of our culture seldom comes into focus. When it does, the United States looks like slaughter central.
Or as that song from Have Gun -- Will Travel ended:
Paladin, Paladin,
Where do you roam?
Paladin, Paladin,
Far, far from home.Far, far from home -- and close, close to home -- indeed.
Fireship , April 14, 2021 at 7:26 am
The US is a failed experiment. It was always based in nihilism. What we are seeing is like the rise in human sacrifices of the Mayans as their world was being eclipsed by the Spanish. Ironically, "thoughts and prayers" are offered up at these sacrifices too. Did the Mayans realize it was futile?
As more and more Americans realize that it is over and that the American dream is bunkum, expect to see more carnage.
Tom Stone , April 14, 2021 at 8:06 am
That figure of 400 Million guns in the USA is undoubtedly low, The late Kevin RC O'Brien looked at production reports for various manufacturers and came up with the figure of 300 Million sold in the USA this century alone.
Sales of rifles aren't broken out by rifle type or model, but the best guess is that there are somewhere between 10-15 Million AR 15 style rifles owned by us Citizens if you take into account home made versions such as those made from 80% recievers or laminated wood.
The last reporting period was 2019 and a total of a little less than 400 murders were committed by people using rifles of any kind, you ere 4 x as likely to be beaten to death with fists and feet than killed by someone using any kind of rifle.
Want to reduce violent crime?
Reduce poverty, inequality and lack of opportunity, when the majority of the populace has a stake in society they act like it, when they don't you get what we have.dcblogger , April 14, 2021 at 8:26 am
American gun culture is pure idolatry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWmdoI3fHI0&t=70sDavid , April 14, 2021 at 9:05 am
TBH the article is a mess, and reading it is rather like being accosted by a stranger in a bar with a strong personal agenda (" and another thing.")
But (as a non-Murkin) I just wanted to make the point that we're into American Exceptionalism again, in this case of the negative rather than the positive kind. You get the feeling that the author's knowledge of the outside world is pretty much limited to what's on CNN, and that perhaps he doesn't actually know that the US isn't the only nuclear power in the world. And so on.How do you put an article like this into context?
Well, for a start, you wouldn't make comparisons with Yemen unless you had been to Yemen, would you? There are lots of guns in Yemen (virtually the entire adult male population is armed) but these are in addition to the massive holdings of the military. And we're talking serious stuff here: AK47s are 7.62mm automatic weapons, and there are millions of them. It was not uncommon for males you passed in the street to be carrying these weapons, and once outside the cities (as in Afghanistan) they were everywhere. Shooting incidents were common, the more so since, after midday, a lot of the male population was blasted out of its skull on Khat, which is an amphetamine-like substance derived from chewing a local plant. There were occasional clashes when security forces from different tribes opened fire on each other. Oh, and many tribesmen in the city carry long bladed knives, and fatal stabbings in the street are very common. All that's in peacetime, of course.Second, as in the Yemeni example above, the vast majority of all the deaths in wars since 1989 have been from the use of Soviet, Russian and Chinese weaponry, often dating back to the 1970s. The wars in the DRC from about 1996-2000, involving seven nations and known as "Africa's World War" killed anything between two and five million people, depending on how you calculate the figures, and were almost exclusively fought with Soviet and Chinese supplied weaponry. During the Cold War, the Soviets and Chinese flooded Africa with millions of AK47s, Makarov automatic pistols, landmines, and 12.7 and 14.5mm heavy machine-guns. As any African specialist will tell you, these were the real weapons of mass destruction, because, unlike the F35, they actually work. Together with Soviet-era tanks and APCs, they were also the principal weapons used in the fighting in Syria and Libya, and in Yemen before (and mostly since) the Saudi-led intervention. Oh, and those photos you've seen of the Myanmar military firing on the people? They use mostly weapons supplied by China.
This is not whataboutism. Two wrongs don't make a right. But I wish that, just occasionally, writers from the US would take the trouble to do a bit of research about the rest of the world. Perhaps it's true that there is a link between the sale of F35s to Japan and gun violence among black youths in the inner cities, but that has to be argued, not just assumed. I don't know how you measure these things, but I seriously doubt that the US is somehow a uniquely psychopathically violent country. The author needs to get out more.
PlutoniumKun , April 14, 2021 at 9:19 am
I assume the authors point is that there is an inherent violence to US culture, and it is exporting it. There may well be some truth in this, but you can well look at plenty of other places in the world where there is a cultural worship of violence (or there was at times past) and it infected other nations. Japan and Germany as obvious examples. But on the optimistic side of things, both those countries at least partially cured their addition to worshiping militarism, although to be fair, the USAF had a major say in that.
The one thing that is often missing from this sort of analysis, is they way other countries use the US's (and others) addition to militarism as a means of exerting control. An obvious example is the Middle East, where the vast military expenditures are as much a means of purchasing influence in Washington (and London and Paris and Moscow) as it is a way of building up their respective militaries.
David , April 14, 2021 at 11:33 am
I think that may well be his point, or the point he's trying to make. I think it's true, at least to some extent, but it's hardly a unique case, and there are plenty of other societies in the world where you feel (correctly) much more threatened by violence than I ever have in the US.
Keith Newman , April 14, 2021 at 10:30 am
@David
Mr. Engelhardt is a US writer who understandably focuses on current US issues. He lays out his point at the start: the U.S is "a mass-murder machine". He illustrates it by pointing out how the US supplies weapons around the world, promoting, funding, and facilitating violence, and itself slaughters people, directly and through proxies, by the millions. He also outlines the remarkable violence prevalent in the U.S. These facts are undeniable.
With respect to context, of course the U.S. is not now, nor has it been in the past, the source of ALL evil in the world. However It has been the source of a very large part of it in the past century. From a practical point of view, what would be the point of Mr. Engelhardt focusing on Russian and Chinese actions in, say, the 1980s, when his own country is engaging in "mass murder" right now? It leads nowhere except to distract from current slaughter that he may be able to help slow down.
The US as "a uniquely psychopathically violent country": the author does not actually say that. Nonetheless the US is certainly a very violent country compared to other developed countries and for that matter past imperialist countries. Collectively Britain, France, Belgium, etc., etc., massacred millions, even tens of millions, of people in their empires but to my knowledge were not especially violent at home. Germany was an exception to this. The fact it slaughtered white people at home is what made its actions unacceptable to the majority of the elites of most European countries.
The link between US violence abroad and at home: Chris Hedges has written about this. I suggest you read what he has to say.Alex Cox , April 14, 2021 at 12:05 pm
It is absurd to pretend that Russia or China is anything like as great a danger to peace as the United States is. Forty four years ago Martin Luther King observed, ""As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems But they asked, and rightly so, 'what about Vietnam?' They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government."
The US was the greatest purveyor of violence in the world then; it is an even greater purveyor of violence today.
The only criticism I would make of the article is the disparagement of Palladin. Though his business card read, 'Have Gun, Will Travel', in almost every episode the protagonist was able to resolve the situation without killing anyone. The episodes are very entertaining, as was his sidekick, Kim Chan (Kam Tong), who went by the extremely un-woke nickname of Hey Boy.
David , April 14, 2021 at 12:21 pm
It would indeed be absurd to pretend that Russia or China is as great a threat to world peace as the US, which is why I didn't say that.
rowlf , April 14, 2021 at 9:34 am
I am always amazed at the hypocrisy of US politicians complaining of violence in the US while ignoring or even approving of violence committed by the US outside the US borders.
I also support censoring violence in entertainment media.
Starry Gordon , April 14, 2021 at 11:56 am
Censoring anything, including displays of violence, would require state force, which is based on the use of guns and other weapons -- another 'war to end war', I suppose.
Starry Gordon , April 14, 2021 at 12:15 pm
According to the Violence Policy Center (about which I know nothing but will provisionally trust), motor vehicle deaths still outnumber gun deaths, although guns are closing the gap. [1] As I have been hit by private cars far more often than I have been shot at -- I ride around on a bicycle as basic transportation, so the ratio is about 10:0 -- I'd like to suggest that the proper metaphor for mortal violence in the US is the automobile, rather than the gun. However, urban liberals like to focus on their political rivals, and gun fans tend to be suburban or rural, so guns rather than vehicles are the choice of symbol. Yet again, tribalism permeates every discussion, indeed, it seems, almost every thought.
[1]https://vpc.org/regulating-the-gun-industry/gun-deaths-compared-to-motor-vehicle-deaths/
Apr 02, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
karlof1 , Apr 2 2021 19:32 utc | 84
Today's Strategic-Culture Editorial speaks for me, and I'd bold it all:
"What Washington and its allies are doing is trampling over international law and kicking it to the curb. Their conduct is that of rogue states who perceive themselves to be above the law, entitled to act in whatever way they please with no accountability.
"Ironically, and sickeningly, the Americans, Europeans, Canadians, Australians and other partners, talk loftily about respecting "values' and 'rules-based international order'. They are the ones who are trashing any semblance of order. It is these NATO powers that have launched numerous criminal wars of aggression without any mandate from the UN Security Council. They have carried out covert regime-change operations which have unleashed mayhem and terrorism. They impose unilateral sanctions on nations suffering from NATO's intrigues, such as Syria and Venezuela. They run assassination programs and torture-renditions to black sites around the world. Their troops kill Afghan civilians in cold blood after kicking down their doors in the middle of the night. The United States rips up nuclear arms control treaties with Russia, while sailing warships into Chinese territory."
So, under the tenets of International Law, both Russia and China have the right to counter-attack and have. But the initial law breaking by the Outlaws must be stopped, and it appears they must be forced to do so. And since two of the Outlaws sit on the UNSC, using that organizations Article 7 powers won't do the job as the Veto will be invoked. IMO, the only alternative is to turn to the UNGA and ask it to override the deadlocked UNSC and warrant the arrest of the Outlaws by all UN member states wherever they may be.
I hope barflies take the time to read the editorial as it ends with an excellent news item that's more than apt for our times.
Apr 02, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
PJB , Apr 2 2021 21:50 utc | 107
Meanwhile Biden's son Hunter, the "smartest guy" his father knows, has his feet firmly in his mouth in excerpts from an interview this Sunday about his 💻 that was full of underage porn & business dealings involving his father when VPOTUS.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hunter-biden-laptop-certainly-could-be-mine
Will the media still try to bury this, or is it time to replace old Joe?
ZH does a good job tee Ukraine v Russia today:
Mar 28, 2021 | www.nakedcapitalism.com
Kouros , March 27, 2021 at 1:33 pm
What are the facts that indicate that "China wants to dominate the entire world"? There is little or no evidence of that. Just repeating this pabulum on and on doesn't make it true. It just makes hoi polloi think it is true.
Aaron , March 27, 2021 at 2:24 pm
There is no specific speech or document that clearly states that China wants to dominate the entire world. It is an inference from many things pieced together, some of which are:
1. China's behavior after it was admitted to WTO. When it happened in 1999, the expectation was that they would open up their market to global firms. Instead, what happened was rampant technology theft and currency manipulation. They manipulated their industrial policy to deny foreign firms a level playing field that Chinese companies were given in other countries.
2. The Belt and Road projects. These are basically debt traps for poorer countries in Asia, Africa and Europe in the name of infrastructure development. They give soft loans to these countries for economically unviable infra projects, and when they fail, the Chinese take ownership. Kinda like loan sharks loaning money to gamblers.
3. They have started grabbing territory from all neighbours using salami tactics, showing some old "maps" that was never agreed and claiming they own the area. (Google "Nine-dash line").
Add to this the planting of spies using Confucius institutes, secretly paying many academic researchers to steal technology (Example: Charles Lieber from Harvard), paying newspapers to carry China Daily propaganda supplements (WaPo, NYT, LA Ttimes, The Boston Globe, WSJ just for starters), the Houston embassy spying, They have done this stuff not just to USA but most major countries in the world.
Now of course we can ask, "But where did they say they want to rule the world?". Well, Hitler didn't either. In 1938, he solemnly swore to Neville Chamberlain, the British PM that he had no intention of conquering another country. We all know what happened after that. Naivete is dangerous in these situations. If a country acquires enough power, it will start having imperial ambitions. It's human nature. Germany under Bismarck in 1880s tried to stay away from conquering other countries as long as possible, but they couldn't resist the temptation. Now none of this means China will try to dominate the world at any cost. If others resist strongly enough, they will back off. But that's something we have to do, and get others to do.
Roger , March 27, 2021 at 3:12 pm
1. So China copied the way in which the US industrialized in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Following the Washington Consensus script has a history of leading to dependency – Ha-Joon Chang has written some very good papers and books on the basic hypocrisy of the West in this area. In the eighteenth century Britain protected its infant textile industry against the Indian one with very high tariffs. They also stole woollen technology from the Dutch.
2. This is Western propaganda, perhaps reflecting the IMF/World Bank efforts of yore upon China. The "debt trap" BRI myth has been pretty much debunked among academic researchers, but that doesn't fit the Western anti-China discourse.
3. Grabbing territory from all their neighbours? What territory? Compare the nine-dash line mirrors to the declared hegemony of the US over the Caribbean and Central American nations – backed up by repeated invasions and destabilizations (Haiti, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba etc.). Take a look at the US history of grabbing lands (the Philippines, Puerto Rico, half of Mexico, Hawaii), China is exceedingly tame compared to US history, as well as the US recent aggressions such as the illegal invasion of Iraq and destabilization of Syria.The MSM that you quote are the purveyors of fake news with no actual backing apart from intelligence community briefings, the "stenographers of the intelligence community" as one commentator put it. This is the classic propaganda designed to rile up the population to support action against a new "enemy", very 1984.
Aaron , March 27, 2021 at 9:41 pm
1. Oh I know they are China is copying USA's policy in 18th and 19th century. That is what is concerning. That is a successful playbook to gain a lot of economic power very quickly. Of course the USA pointing fingers is hypocrisy. But that does not make this any less of a threat.
2. Debunked by "academic researchers"? Care to share some sources? Multiple countries like Malaysia, Kenya, Myanmar, Sierra Leone and Bangladesh have either cancelled projects or trying to renegotiate them. The reason is because the projects are nothing but jobs and demand creation programs for Chinese workers and companies. Contracts are awarded at inflated rates to Chinese contractors without competitive bidding. Then they bring in workers and equipment wholesale from mainland china. Some projects are economically viable, others are just white elephants, like the highway in montenegro or a port/airport in Sri Lanka in the middle of the jungle.
3. I am not denying what USA has done to other countries. China is just starting, so what they do looks tame. Give them a little time.I fully agree that the MSM are purveyors of fake news. I was referring to how they all have taken Chinese money to print stuff favourable to them, and even articles entirely written by Chinese foreign ministry. Now of course, they might change tack and start beating the war drums if TPTB wants them to. That confirms my opinion that most MSM are just mouthpieces for hire with no moral principles.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/dec/07/china-plan-for-global-media-dominance-propaganda-xi-jinpingPlease note, I am not defending all the terrible things America has done. Pointing out that China is a threat need not come attached with any moral judgement on America.
Also, the proper response to China IMO should be more in economic policy than military saber-rattling. Tariffs are just a start. Why are we not building more manufacturing in USA? Sure, wages are high and prices will shoot up. But do we really need to import 15bn worth of sneakers (that's about 200 mn pairs a year)? Let us make shoes in America that may cost twice as mush, but three times more durable. Same with cellphones. Decrapifying products will go a long way in making american manufacturing viable. But that requires great sacrifice by the consumers. Shopping or goodies has been turned into a dopamine-drip. Investing class and business are just as addicted to high profit margins & ROIs. Cut the dependence on China, and watch them scramble to fix their internal issues like falling wages and unemployment. The pity is we have lost the will as a nation to make such sacrifices.
drumlin woodchuckles , March 28, 2021 at 2:53 pm
I am not sure the will does not exist. I think the will might be suppressed and thwarted.
We would need a Protectionist Party to explain everything you have touched on and run candidates on that basis and on that program to see whether the diffuse and muffled will might be uncovered and re-aggregated and recovered and weaponised for domestic political re-conquest of government and hence of political economic policy.
I envision a delicious scenario-vision in which the Protectionist Party finally wins all three branches and the Protectionist Party President makes a speech and at the end of that speech, AND IN MANDARIN to to make sure the prime perpetrator of export aggression hears the message and gets the point, the following phrase . . . . in MANDARIN, remember . . .
" America has stood up!"
Felix_47 , March 27, 2021 at 4:52 pm
Hmmnm "If a country acquires enough power it will start having imperial ambitions?" I agree completely with your statement. The rest seem pretty much what I have been reading in the Washington Post and New York Times lately. I am not sure about their objectivity. One thing is certain and that is that war talk very easily can slip into war. Having served in the military for over 30 years and deployed many times the best advice I ever got was from that political analyst Mike Tyson, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face." War talk with China and Russia and Iran and trying to cripple economies with sanctions never has and never will work but we can always try to educate a new young generation of politicians like Joe.
km , March 27, 2021 at 4:53 pm
The last time China attacked another country was 1979.
The United States since that time?
Late Introvert , March 27, 2021 at 5:29 pm
Carry water for the MIC much?
Aaron , March 28, 2021 at 9:48 am
Nah. But I know we need a military to defend ourselves, especially if something that happens on the other end of the world would make the supermarket shelves go empty in a jiffy. I think we need to reduce external economic dependence and then cut the military to a fraction of it's current size, just enough to patrol the borders and coasts.
Darthbobber , March 27, 2021 at 8:01 pm
The bulk of the "rampant technology theft" was their insistence on building the requirement for specified technology transfers into the agreements that let companies set up shop there. They had watched neocolonialist behavior long enough not to want to be locked permanently into a subservient position. This part was of course not theft at all. For the rest of it, yeah, industrial espionage is a thing. But one notes that the firms generally stayed there.
Currency manipulation is only bad when the other guys do it. We have periodically deliberately weakened the dollar to try to address balance of trade issues, and in the aftermath of the '08 recession everybody was doing competitive devaluation, trying to accomplish by that means what they would have tried tariffs for in an earlier era.
I haven't seen a decent scholarly piece that concurs with the propaganda about belt and road loans as sinister debt traps.
Territorial disputes aside, most of those neighbors have China as a major trading partner, and none of the disputes have gone hot. The neighbors are also not entirely lacking in power. Russia and India are nuclear powers, and if Japan chose to field a more formidable military it could easily do so.
Phil in KC , March 27, 2021 at 10:29 pm
One of the hardest and most disturbing lessons we've learned from the Nixon China gambit was that capitalism doesn't necessarily lead to democracy. Nor is a democratic society a prerequisite for capitalism to flourish.
Aaron , March 28, 2021 at 9:35 am
That came much after the Nixon thaw with China, after the fall of Soviet Union. Francis Fukuyama solemnly proclaiming "End of History" and all that. The turning point was China being let into WTO in 1999. Clinton, Bush II and Obama swallowed that "capitalism leads to democracy" idea hook, line and sinker.
Aaron , March 28, 2021 at 9:33 am
Technology theft, spun any way, is still technology theft. Sure, Industrial espionage is "a thing" that everyone does. So is currency manipulation. Since we feel guilty that USA gained global power by doing all these, we should let others do it too, just to even the scales? Foreign policy mixed with moral feelings is a recipe for disaster.
drumlin woodchuckles , March 27, 2021 at 4:28 pm
Russia and China . . . soft-pedal one and hard-pressure the other? To prevent them co-operating? Too late.
That bus has left the station, that ship has sailed and sunk, that dog won't cut the mustard hunting-wise, etc.
Mar 21, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
michaelj72 , Mar 21 2021 2:46 utc | 174
fyi
dave decamp at Antiwar.com has some nice coverage of the fireworks at this 'summit'
https://news.antiwar.com/2021/03/19/us-and-china-conclude-tough-alaska-talks/
"....Yang responded sharply to the US officials and criticized Washington for both domestic and foreign policy issues. "The United States uses its military force and financial hegemony to carry out long arm jurisdiction and suppress other countries," he said. "It abuses so-called notions of national security to obstruct normal trade exchanges, and incite some countries to attack China."
"....The US took several steps ahead of the talks that made it clear the meeting would be contentious. Blinken visited Japan and South Korea with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin earlier this week. While meeting with his Japanese and Korean counterparts, Blinken slammed Beijing, accusing China of using "coercion and aggression" in the region. On Wednesday, the US slapped sanctions on 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials...."
using coercion and aggression - two very definitive qualities of American Imperialism post WWII
Mar 21, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
lulu , Mar 20 2021 19:06 utc | 137
18 years ago on this day,US, UK & their allies used the lie of WMD to invade Iraq , which has caused 1 million death and total destruction of the country.Now they are pushing the "China genociding Uyghurs" lies to frame the minds of Americans and people in the West and around the global to prepare a hot war against China.
Arch Bungle , Mar 20 2021 19:19 utc | 138
Posted by: lulu | Mar 20 2021 19:06 utc | 136
Now they are pushing the "China genociding Uyghurs" lies to frame the minds of Americans and people in the West and around the global to prepare a hot war against China.
There is no "Hot War" in preparation against China, this is simply procedural posturing in the absence of any other means of relating to the Chinese civilisation.
The Zio-American empire is well aware this would mean a nuclear annihilation or at the least a re-shuffling of the global order against their interests.
The US has developed no means of relating to civilizational challenges other than violence, so it is merely cycling through the motions it knows of but with an understanding that it cannot take them to their logical conclusion.
It's all foreplay and nothing more ...
Mar 21, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
Kapusta , Mar 20 2021 2:37 utc | 89
@ 73 Posted by: xototox
@ 78 Posted by: jamesThanks for your perspective, xot! Interesting insights.
trump changed that, suddenly the ugly side of the empire became visible
I've heard this about Trump a lot, but I've always wondered why Trump was the ultimate catalyst for this epiphany. You would think that the Iraq War should have been that watershed moment, or even Libya (and perhaps they were for many, like me). I suppose from the perspective of inter-imperialist relations in the first world, a lack of decorum of the level of Trump's is more anomalous and egregious than the imposition of death and destruction of people in the global south.
Fyi , Mar 20 2021 3:13 utc | 92
Mr. xototox
I think that the presidency of Mr. Trump revealed the ugly side of the United States; suddenly the gilded papier marche of America, carefully created by the best propaganda techniques over 70 years, was shredded and USA was revealed to be a country just like so many others.
It is up to American people, Judeo-Christians as well as others, to address the deep deep social problems of the United States.
Mar 21, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
Debsisdead , Mar 20 2021 2:25 utc | 88
Despite a roomful of hot air amerikans will always be considered War Criminals by the rest of us
I have to admit having become totally bored with the words which any gang of elites from any nation whose population is far too large to have the types at the top comprehend much less represent citizens' points of view, spout.
I get that there are fans of particular nations here, who believe some of these nation states have more humane policies than other nation states, but all of them however humane are essentially spouting toop down driven attitudes.
We know that amerika with its narrow & prescriptive "you can vote for anyone as long as it is someone from one of these two virtually identical political organisations" system pays little attention to their citizens' views. Unfortunately humans being humans, once a person gains a little power their priorities focus on retaining & increasing power, so that after time, no matter how egalitarian things may have been at the start, a shift to imbalance between the governors and the governed is inevitable.
It is impossible to imagine that President Xi Jinping would do as Mao Zedong did and hand power to the people, especially the nation's young people to trigger the 1966 Cultural Revolution.One thing is for sure though, that is however many may have died during the cultural revolution, the casualties were confined to China's citizens and the casualties & atrocities were infinitesimal compared to the murders, rapes and savagery committed by amerika's war upon the people of Indochina.
IOW 50+ years ago China moved to resolve generational differences with an internal, domestic debate, whilst amerika tried to resolve that issue by indoctrinating its young people into a thoroughly racist anti-asian POV, then sent their youth to "kick out the jams" on the heads of the people of Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia.
The results were horrific and since courtesy of TV, they were far better documented than the horror inflicted upon the citizens of Korea less than a decade before have stuck in all non-amerikans minds ever since.I have sounded off here at MoA quite a few times that most amerikans view the Indochina conflict negatively because it was such a waste of 'young amerikan' lives, rather than the way the rest of us see it, that amerika butchered and raped their way through Indochina without the slightest remorse.
Last week I stumbled across an old documentary released back in 1972 "Winter Soldier". The film documents the 1971 Winter Soldier hearing held by Vietnam Vets Against War.VVAW had tried to stop the Indochina slaughter by the standard means - protests, marches, contacting politicians, all to no avail. So then they came up with the 'Winter Soldier' hearing which had veterans of the war against the people of Indochina, telling their stories of the atrocities they had committed.
The witnesses came from across the range of amerika's military; from grunts - surprisingly most were volunteers rather than draftees, to a Marine captain who served as a helicopter pilot.These guys who returned to amerika lauded as heroes while deep down feeling nothing but Guilt & shame, make it clear that My Lai was no outlier, it was SOP.
It is also clear from what they tell us of their boot camp experience that racist anti-asian indoctrination featured big time in their training which led them to regard all Vietnamese as the enemy.
The behaviour got worse and worse, particularly rapes and the mutilation of children, once the troops realised no one was would restrict their cruel antics against those they all considered to be less than human. Senior officers either joined in or 'looked the other way'.
Most of this documentary is in the form of testimony as cameras were generally kept away from the 'fun' but even so I found just hearing the stories too much to bear.Anyway although copies of 'Winter Soldier' do become available on You Tube from time to time, they can be hard to find and are frequently taken down, so if anyone does want to know what is commonplace for the brave amerikan military, they can download a copy of Winter Soldier from here .
The hearings likely did the job eventually, in that the thugs in control of amerika got the message that if the war continued, more and more truth about the scale & horror of awful amerikan atrocities would become public and that would be counter to satiating these elite thugs' greed inside and outside amerika. A peace agreement was signed and VVAW went back to emphasising the damage done to amerikan soldiers rather than the horrors inflicted upon a much, much larger Indochinese civilian population.
This is why BidenCorp are confidently denying their crimes while asserting all these other nations are killers, simply because amerikans have never been required to comprehend the true scale of the crimes amerika has committed upon their (mostly unjustly selected, amerikan created) enemies.
All the words spouted by elites only ever reinforce prevailing attitudes. Change in the way amerika views itself will only be effected when amerikans are forced to honestly consider all the crimes which have been committed in their name.
I'm not holding my breath, neither do I see much point in any analysis of who said what to whom as words are worthless in the face of fell deeds.
annamaria , says: March 10, 2021 at 2:22 am GMT • 9.7 hours agoMar 10, 2021 | www.unz.com
Zoom-Copter , says: March 9, 2021 at 1:20 pm GMT • 22.7 hours ago
@The New Anti-Racist lass="comment-text">BannedHipster , says: Website March 9, 2021 at 1:24 pm GMT • 22.7 hours agoEpstein is also foreshadowed in the "Turner Diaries" in the person of "Kappy the Kike." On the subject of Dr. Pierce and his works, the jews and their canp followers deleted hundreds of hours of videos– first from YT then from every other video site– of Dr. Pierce's weekly broadcasts set to some very skillful video editing.
One in particular named Wexner, Victoria's Secret, and how after buying Abercrombie and Fitch he introduced "thongs for pre-teens" into their clothing line.
If you have never seen the aforementioned videos of dr. Pierce's broadcasts set to video, highly recommend scouring various torrents until you find themannamaria , says: March 10, 2021 at 2:17 am GMT • 9.8 hours agoThe FBI/SDNY reported they had seized DVD's from Epstein's Manhattan townhouse that were labeled "Young [name] + name."
Why hasn't the FBI/SDNY arrested anyone found on the videotapes? Why haven't they confirmed or denied future prosecutions? If they have the tapes, they can prosecute.
So what's the hold up?
According to former FBI Sibel Edmonds, the FBI and everyone else knew about Dennis Hastert and they had video evidence. But the Clinton administration refused to prosecute because it was better for them to use it as blackmail and political leverage.
Why hasn't Glenn Dubin andEva Andersson been arrested and charged for human trafficking? There is already eyewitness testimony they had confiscated the passport of an underage girl they had kidnapped and were holding against he will.
@restless94110 ated software that was then sold to governments and companies throughout the world. That plot's success was largely due to the role of a close associate of then-President Ronald Reagan and an American politician close to Maxwell, who later helped aid Reagan in the cover-up of the Iran Contra scandal.Perhaps the best illustration of how the connections between many of these players often meld together can be seen in Ronald Lauder: a Mega Group member, former member of the Reagan administration, long-time donor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel's Likud Party, as well as a long-time friend of Donald Trump and Roy Cohn.
@restless94110 Mega Group members -- and B'nai B'rith, particularly its spin-off known as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The Bronfman brothers were major donors to the ADL, with Edgar Bronfman serving as the ADL's honorary national vice-chair for several years.In addition, Max Fisher of the Mega Group founded the National Jewish Coalition, now known as the Republican Jewish Coalition -- the main pro-Israel neoconservative political lobbying group, known for its support of hawkish policies, and whose current chief patrons, Sheldon Adelson and Bernard Marcus, are among Donald Trump's top donors.
Yes, we can only hope and pray for justice.
Mar 10, 2021 | www.unz.com
It is now going on a year and a half since "financier" and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein died, allegedly by hanging himself in a New York City prison. Since that time it has surfaced that there were a number of "administrative" errors in the jail, meaning that Epstein was not being observed or on suicide watch even though he had reportedly attempted to kill himself previously. The suspicion that Epstein was working for Israel's external intelligence agency Mossad or for its military intelligence counterpart also seemed confirmed through both Israeli and American sources. A recent book Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales written by Ari Ben-Menashe the former Israeli intelligence officer who actually ran the Epstein operation, described inter alia how Epstein was blackmailing prominent politicians on behalf of Israeli intelligence. Epstein had been working directly for the Israeli government since the 1980's and his operation, which was funded by Israel and also by prominent American Jews, was a classic "honey-trap" which used underage girls as bait to attract well-known politicians from around the world, a list that included Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton. The politicians would be photographed and video recorded when they were in bed with the girls. Afterwards, they would be approached and asked to do favors for Israel.
It doesn't take much to pull what is already known together and ask the question "Who among the celebrities and top-level politicians that Epstein cultivated were actually Israeli spies?" And of course there is a subplot. Assuming that Epstein was in fact involved in recruiting and/or running high level American agents in an "influence operation" that may have involved blackmail it is possible to come to the conclusion that he was killed in prison and that the suicide story was just a convenient cover-up. The Epstein case remains "open" and under investigation though it doesn't seem that anything is actually happening, the sure sign that someone powerful in the Establishment is making sure that nothing incriminating surfaces. Indeed, there already exists some evidence that Epstein was being protected when he was convicted in Florida of sex crimes in 2008 and was given a sentence that was little more than a slap on the wrist. After the fact, the U.S. Attorney for Miami Alexander Acosta involved in the case reported that the arrest and sentencing were above his pay grade, that he had been told that Epstein "'belonged to intelligence', and to leave it alone" a comment that apparently has never been pursued by investigators.
That the Epstein investigation appears to be in reverse gear suggests that one or more powerful Americans are still not implicated in the case but are concerned that that might change, but there remains an accessory to what went on at the Epstein mansion in Manhattan and on his private island in the Caribbean. That would be Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently in prison in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and will be tried in July. Like the Epstein story in general, she has largely dropped off the media screen and one has to wonder what "get out of jail free" card she might be holding.
It has long been assumed that Epstein video recorded the sexual encounters with the underage girls that he used in his intelligence activity to blackmail prominent politicians among others. It has been suspected that Ghislaine has at least some of those tapes hidden in a secret location and may be using them to cut a deal with investigators and prosecutors. It now appears that she briefly discussed the tapes with CBS News 60 Minutes producer Ira Rosen, also making clear that there were tapes of both Bill Clinton and Donald Trump . The conversation took place in 2016 and she reportedly told Rosen that, given Trump's involvement in the upcoming election, she would not release any information derived from the tapes relating to Clinton until after the election and she would only do so while also exposing Trump. Up until now, she has done neither.
It has long been known that Epstein knew both the ex-and future presidents, though both have denied knowing the sex offender well for obvious reasons. Clinton, for example, flew on Epstein's Lolita Express private 727 at least 26 times and his presence at Epstein's island refuge has also been well documented. Trump clearly knew Epstein but has denied having any contact with him after his registration as a sex offender in 2008.
Ghislaine, for her part, was allegedly recruited young girls for Epstein to exploit and was a partner in his activity, though she has denied any guilt. Numerous victims say otherwise. Her lawyers have tried a number of ploys to free her, including claims that she had been abused by prison staff and that the jury being selected to try her will be "too white." Her brother Ian claimed last week that she is enduring "brutal and degrading treatment" in prison with four guards watching her at all times. He added that she has lost 20 pounds and "ability to concentrate."
Ghislaine also offered to post a $28.5 million bail or a $5 million bond for home arrest in which she would wear an ankle monitor, but the judge decided that given her extensive resources she constitutes a considerable flight risk even if she turns in her American, British and French passports. She would also be able to flee to Israel based on her father Robert's religion and service to that country and Israel does not normally extradite.
The most interesting aspect of the arrest, imprisonment and trial of Ghislaine Maxwell is what it does not do. She basically is being tried on whether it can be confirmed that she was a "pimp" for Jeffrey Epstein. Her father was an Israeli intelligence asset and it is believed that he made the connection between Epstein and the Jewish state's military intelligence. But no one in that New York court room in July will be asking that. Nor will there be any revelations about Epstein's "intelligence connection" nor of the possibility that the Israelis had their hooks in both a former and a future American president. None of that will be on the table and meanwhile Ghislaine might have those possibly incriminating tapes squirreled away somewhere. That is the really important stuff that I would like to have the answers to. The fact that the answers are not forthcoming sounds a bit like a cover-up, doesn't it?
Zoom-Copter , says: March 9, 2021 at 5:03 pm GMT • 19.0 hours agoPhilip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is https://councilforthenationalinterest.org address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is [email protected]
John Hagan , says: Website March 9, 2021 at 7:59 am GMT • 1.2 days ago
LondonBob , says: March 9, 2021 at 8:06 am GMT • 1.2 days agoMore on the Merchant of Vice
Video PlayerJon Halpenny , says: March 9, 2021 at 8:33 am GMT • 1.1 days agoI always wondered what it was the Israelis had on Clinton.
Not Only Wrathful , says: March 9, 2021 at 10:39 am GMT • 1.1 days agoJust imagine how differently the Epstein story would be covered by the media if Epstein and Maxwell were ethnic Russians, and if Maxwell's father had received a State funeral in Russia.
anon [318] Disclaimer , says: March 9, 2021 at 11:38 am GMT • 1.0 days agoA recent book Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales written by Ari Ben-Menashe the former Israeli intelligence officer who actually ran the Epstein operation,
He did that after being cut by the Israelis in the 80s for treason? Or he did that while working with them on the Iran Contra scandal – must have been busy!
Lol
You, Philip Giraldi, are such a total fraud
Bardon Kaldian , says: March 9, 2021 at 12:08 pm GMT • 23.9 hours agoAmerica is notorious for justifying or even undertaking with full knoeldege each and every illegal activity as a necessity against foreign and domestic threat or for national seciruty.
But often more than not,the secuirty is ignored and threat is not adderssed . Eptesin tape ,Ghisling – Quisling tapes arent going to disappear even if their lives are erased from the memories of the victims ,politicians,or from their handlers.I wonder ifSaudi and UAE royals also flew or if they flew the gilrs to London or Riyadh. Theur capitulations to Israeli demands could only be explained as results of manipulations.
TKK , says: March 9, 2021 at 12:35 pm GMT • 23.5 hours agoI don't see that Epstein was so certainly an Israeli asset. Anyway- what could sex blackmail achieve? Those politicians were already supportive of Israel. Why bother with blackmailing them?
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The entire affair is something truly- sleazy. And pathetically humiliating. One would imagine that all those powerful guys could get laid as they wished, in any privately arranged surroundings, fulfilling their geriatric sex fantasies. And here, all that is an old-fashioned pimping via some sleazebag to get a piece of meat from runaway girls.
Truly degrading.
aandrews , says: March 9, 2021 at 2:37 pm GMT • 21.4 hours agoThe deal Epstein received in Florida is nothing short of ..world shaking.
This creature's entire life was raping 13 year old girls who were white, poor and had no fathers. Remember- they legally cannot give consent. It's an old bar exam troupe: Man has 16 year old girl execute notarized statement agreeing to sex , has her mother deposed, buys her a 5 carat diamond, has a psych eval to make sure she is emotionally sophisticated enough to have sex and then has sex with her. Legal? Never.
Legally, a human being is incapable of giving consent to have sexual intercourse under the age of 18 in Florida.
When a few gumshoes and state Detectives began aggressively investigating Epstein- Epstein hired Private Investigators to harass th em.
Let that sink in. He hired a PI to shine his headlights in a Detective's home at 3AM for hours and blow his horn. If we did that, we would be getting our head kicked in at the jail and probably be recorded as accidental death.
The naked brazenness of Epstein is prima facie evidence he was and is being protected by the US government for the Israeli government . And he still is. His ferret faced pimp Maxwell thought he would protect her and that is why she foolishly remained in American -- -because she knew Epstein was alive and believed his power was her talisman.
Who is that dumb? To believe a man who treated young girls like a masturbation dishrags was going to be her hero?
... ... ...
Unit472 , says: March 9, 2021 at 3:59 pm GMT • 20.1 hours ago"A recent book Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales written by Ari Ben-Menashe ."
I don't see him listed as an author.
@Bardon Kaldian no sense. If Epstein was as 'connected ' as we are led to believe, why did he leave Paris and return to the US to face arrest? Surely he would have been tipped off that he was under investigation.macilrae , says: March 9, 2021 at 4:24 pm GMT • 19.7 hours agoThen there is the $158 million Epstein was paid by Apollo Capital's Leon Black. As you note a man with his wealth could rustle up his own stable of teeny boppers if that was his desire. He had no need for an Epstein. Further the 'fees' he was paying Epstein were raising eyebrows with other senior managers at Apollo.
Something sinister going on for sure but what could be so valuable for billionaires to risk their reputations by associating with an Epstein?
anonymous [400] Disclaimer , says: March 9, 2021 at 4:30 pm GMT • 19.6 hours agoThe apparently irrational support for Israel and extreme Jewish causes on the part of those highly placed in society has to be far more to do with blackmail than with mere financial leverage as is generally believed. This thing is now on an industrial scale and I should suppose 'they' can now get to just about anybody that they want to 'influence'.
UncommonGround , says: March 9, 2021 at 4:31 pm GMT • 19.5 hours agoA couple of pervs being useful to foreign intelligence services. The true source of all his unlimited money doesn't seem to ever have been truly explained so it's quite possible that the Israeli state was secretly subsidizing him from behind the scenes. Maxwell has three passports? That's quite unusual. The trial will have a narrow focus on the pimping so we'll never hear about anything beyond that so I have to agree with Mr Giraldi on that. I can't agree with this Epstein is alive idea. It's like the mafia: he became just a liability, knew too much and had outlived his usefulness. Dead people don't talk. They're not in the business of rescuing people. Murder or suicide, he's dead.
There's been lots of speculation about the sexual depravities of the political class. Where there's smoke there's fire. It's hard to see, though, what a foreign government could get through blackmail that they couldn't get with old-fashioned bribery. Perhaps it works best at the second tier of elites, inducing corporate heads to make investments here and there, allowing technical knowledge to be transferred, letting them spy through internet backdoors, etc.
@Bardon Kaldian ith underage females (no pedophilia) for Anglo & Anglo-American elite with a strong Jewish presence.It's possible. But why would he have done that? Probably the business with the girls costed millions. What would he get back from it? What have politicians payed him for the service? Why would he do very expensive favours for politicians?
If your idea is right, there would be money involved in the business and there would be many other "clients". But we never heard about them, only about a few names of politicians. It seems that the Prince was more or less close to him, but this is apparently not the case with other possible famous clients.
Cauchemar du Singe , says: March 9, 2021 at 6:05 pm GMT • 18.0 hours agoA Question For Mr. Girardi,
Mr. Girardi, Given your experience in world of espionage and time spent in the UK, could you possibly take a shot at answering this?
OK– given who Robert Maxwell was and that his infamy went so far that even a teenage American pleb like me knew about his raid on the pension funds and his "suicide" 20+ years ago, how the hell did MI-5 not know?
Assuming MI-5 knew, how could they not call up The Royal Protection Squad and say to them: " hey, mention to Randy Andy he is bringing mossad spies into the royal palaces and God only knows what they could be planting in there."
Or is MI-5 so Jewed they dare not even mention the obvious?
@Stan d Muteanon [413] Disclaimer , says: March 9, 2021 at 6:05 pm GMT • 18.0 hours agoThe FBI grabbed the safe and its contents that were in Epstein's NYC townhouse that he got from Leslie Wexner of the New Albany and Columbus Wexners.
The FBI, now in possession of all that Blackmail material, continues J. Edgar Hoover's tradition of shakedown and manipulation of Gubbamint perverts.
Democracy In Action.Sean , says: March 9, 2021 at 6:06 pm GMT • 18.0 hours agoPhil Giraldi,
Thanks so much for writing this. Our politicians, business and civic leaders, and young up-and-coming leading citizens all need to be forewarned that various intel agencies still run honey-traps using secret recordings.
I imagine they watch a target's online life also. If a business magnate is sneaking around on a website like Adultfriendfinder, or orders an expensive hooker from a website to come to a hotel's penthouse in New York, these intel agencies may have ways of knowing this and setting him up. They could have assets approach hin in the hotel bar also. Im grateful your colum can serve as a warning, and hope its widely shared.
@anon l case entails. The police chief did that because Epstein legal and investigative team were running rings round the state police.Agent76 , says: March 9, 2021 at 8:00 pm GMT • 16.1 hours agoExtremely wealthy men are not what the legal system is set up for dealing with, so Epstein got off lightly, compared to what the average man would have got. However it must be borne in mind that his victims got paid very substantial compensation–totaling tens of millions– as part of the deal, and Epstein was sent to prison as a sex offender and publicly disgraced. Not a very impressive result for a centi-millionaire who also had high level Deep State people intervening for him. Ditto Ghislaine.
restless94110 , says: March 9, 2021 at 8:48 pm GMT • 15.3 hours agoOct 31, 2020 Ghislaine Maxwell stonewalls & dodges questions about Epstein, Prince Andrew & Bill Clinton
Ghislaine Maxwell stonewalls & dodges questions about Epstein, Prince Andrew & Bill Clinton.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/qlAdwj7TMnE?feature=oembed
Titus Jerusalem Smasher , says: March 9, 2021 at 8:52 pm GMT • 15.2 hours agoFirst, a pedophile is a person who is attracted sexually to prepubescent females. Since Epstein was not that then he is definitively not a pedophile.
Second, a pimp is a person, almost always male, who has a "stable" of 2 or more girls that he sends out to have sex for money, all or most of which he takes. Since Maxwell is at most accused of asking older teenagers–all of them within 18 months of or over the legal age of consent, depending on the individual state and the individual country–if they would go take money for sex, and since Maxwell did not take any part of the money the girls received, and since the girls voluntarily had the sex for the money, it is definitively clear that Maxwell was not a pimp, and there is no case at all against her.
Third and last, I followed the link referenced in regard to Maxwell saying that she had tapes on Trump and Clinton, and that's not what she said. The source is murky and weird anyway, but what there is of it is that it comes from a producer of 60 Minutes who no longer works there but had a book to sell. He asked her a leading question ("There are tapes aren't there?") and she gave a couple of noncommittal responses that neither admitted nor revealed anything. It looks like the guy was trying to pump up his boring book to get more sales.
The fact is that your article is just regurgitated nonsense. Maxwell will walk. She should have been given bail months ago. She wasn't running and she wasn't hiding before. Obviously the felt strongly that she had done nothing illegal. And it's clear, she hadn't.
This is a complete waste of time and money. It is obvious that female prosecutors are behind it. We can only hope and pray for justice. Don't let them get away with their Stalinist show trials one day longer.
Annony Mouse , says: March 9, 2021 at 10:18 pm GMT • 13.8 hours agoAfter the fact, the U.S. Attorney for Miami Alexander Acosta involved in the case reported that the arrest and sentencing were above his pay grade, that he had been told that Epstein " 'belonged to intelligence' , and to leave it alone" a comment that apparently has never been pursued by investigators.
This is absolutely key. How has this not been followed up? How is Acosta able to live a normal life without being hounded day and night to reveal who told him this? Which intelligence agency? Why isn't this the subject of counter-intelligence investigations? Where is Acosta now?
lysias , says: March 9, 2021 at 11:01 pm GMT • 13.0 hours agoI believe the fact that Bill Clinton was recorded to have been on the Lolita Express approximately 26 times illustrates that he was shown tapes very early on and thought "in for a penny – in for a pound" and went back for more helpings. I am not surprised at all that he was compromised as he is known to think with his lower regions, but for others, i.e. Prince Andrew, surely he would be aware of Ashkenazi tactics – especially with blackmail.
Alden , says: March 9, 2021 at 11:19 pm GMT • 12.7 hours agoI think the blackmailed put themselves in a position to be blackmailed because they were told that that was the way to join the insiders whose careers were guaranteed.
@Curmudgeon n an act of prostitution at 17, or under the age of 18, even the day before his or her 18 birthday.CanSpeccy , says: Website March 10, 2021 at 4:34 am GMT • 7.5 hours agoAlthough being a prostitute age 18 and over is legal in the UK; pimping pandering soliciting for prostitution running a brothel and being the customer of a prostitute is still illegal in England
If, as you say she was paid by Epstein $5,000 for sex with Andrew, Guiffre committed an illegal act of prostitution . If Epstein paid her, that was pimping or money for sex; illegal in the UK. If, as Guiffre claimed, the act of prostitution took place in Maxwell's home, that was Maxwell committing the crime of running a brothel or house of prostitution.
@Annony MouseCommentator Mike , says: March 10, 2021 at 7:34 am GMT • 4.5 hours agobut for others, i.e. Prince Andrew, surely he would be aware of Ashkenazi tactics – especially with blackmail.
Question is, what the Hell werePrince Andrew's official "protection officers" doing? These people are presumably managed by one or other of Britain's security services. They must have known what Andrew was doing. Why, then, did the security service not intervene and warn Andrew off Epstein's Island? Or was he doing a job for them -- spying on Epstein's spying operation?
@Alden n well and correctly the technicalities of the situation in the UK and that Guiffre, Maxwell and Epstein were all guilty of some crimes relating to the illicit sex trade. But was Prince Andrew guilty of anything? Unless he was soliciting for sex with Guiffre? He wasn't offering her money, but if he knew she was being paid by Epstein and trafficked across borders by Epstein and Maxwell? Of course he may have been using underage girls of this sex ring elsewhere that we have not been told about. But you are right, Curmudgeon should know that even transporting a grandmother across borders to engage in paid sex, i.e prostitution, is sex/human trafficking and a crime in most countries.Mulga Mumblebrain , says: March 10, 2021 at 7:44 am GMT • 4.3 hours ago@annamariaActually, if you read the 'Chicago Jewish News', October 24, 2008, the article by Pauline Yearwood, entitled 'Obama and the Jews', you will find that Abner Mikva, Chicago Jewish society stalwart, former Congressman, judge and Clinton apparatchik, declared Obama 'the first Jewish President'. Obviously Clinton was just another useful Sabbat Goy idiot.
Feb 24, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
karlof1 , Feb 23 2021 18:04 utc | 233
Explosive Global Times Editorial today. My comment from Escobar's FB:
As we saw with Lavrov's latest interview, the gloves are coming off as China and Russia escalate the diplomatic war in response to the "US-centered, racist, and mafia-styled community" attacking them. The quote is from the Global Times Editor and deserves to be put in full:
"Canada, the UK and Australia, three members of the Five Eyes alliance, have recently taken action to put pressure on China. They have formed a US-centered, racist, and mafia-styled community, willfully and arrogantly provoking China and trying to consolidate their hegemony as all gangsters do. They are becoming a racist axis aimed at stifling the development rights of 1.4 billion Chinese."
Despite the proven fact that there's only one race of humans--the Human Race--the 5-Eyes nations continue to employ racism as a key tool of their so-called diplomacy. Again, the GT Editor:
"Five Eyes alliance members are all English-speaking countries. The formation of four states, except the UK, is the result of British colonization. Those countries share the Anglo-Saxon civilization. The Five Eyes countries have been brought together by the US to become the 'center of the West.' They have a strong sense of civilization superiority . The bloc, which was initially aimed at intelligence sharing, has now become an organization targeting China and Russia. The evil idea of racism has been fermenting consciously or unconsciously in their clashes with the two countries."
And this "idea" is nothing new and has existed for centuries. My research led me to a 100+ year-old work, The Day of The Saxon , and to the work that suggested it, The Empire of "The City" , both of which are freely available at The Archive. What is suggested by them and the recent work ( Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy ), reviewed by Pepe about the planning that resulted in the post-war Outlaw US Empire is that Empire is merely the continuance of the global Saxon Empire that still exists, and that what we're experiencing are the ongoing "political adjustments" that confer superiority to the Saxons since that's what they seek. In updated parlance, that would be Full Spectrum Dominance. As we know, the Chinese have already felt Saxon love and want no more of it and have finally made the connection between past and present. The Editor again:
"With a common language, a common historical background, and a coordinated attack target, such an axis is destined to erode international relations and allow hooliganism to rise to the diplomatic stage in the 21st century." [My Emphasis]
Hooliganism, an apt term given its roots in British football. Do read the entire editorial for there is much more commendable content. Those in the EU need to understand that they're doing the Saxon's bidding even through the UK is no longer a member as NATO still remains and is dominated by Saxons.
Feb 19, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org
gm , Feb 17 2021 20:56 utc | 25
Chris Hedges, Just talkin' 'bout revolution [against the Borg? Chris can't quite bring himself to name just who "they" are] on Jimmy Dore yesterday:
"These people...you know, quite literally, will kill us...not just us...I'm talking about snuffing out the possibility of the next generation...my kids...and they have to be stopped"
CJ , Feb 17 2021 21:42 utc | 30
Astonishing lack of understanding of history, basic humanity and common sense.
It seems no one among the current group of "victors" has heard the phrase "win the battle but lose the war."
With all the witch hunting and hate mongering going on, it also seems no one in authority has heard "treat others as you would have them treat you."
Also applies to WEF Great Reset Masters of the Universe.
A huge amount of karma heading their way.
Feb 16, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
For those who read and study history, it has long been known that the CIA has placed their operatives throughout every agency of the U.S. government, as explained by Fletcher Prouty in The Secret Team ; that CIA officers Cord Myer and Frank Wisner operated secret programs to get some of the most vocal exponents of intellectual freedom among intellectuals, journalists, and writers to be their voices for unfreedom and censorship, as explained by Frances Stonor Saunders in The Cultural Cold War and Joel Whitney in Finks , among others; that Cord Myer was especially focused on and successful in "courting the Compatible Left" since right wingers were already in the Agency's pocket.
1 play_arrowMs No PREMIUM 14 hours ago (Edited) remove link
They are always leading you. They deal with different levels of awareness with different narratives.
Did you ever stop and wonder for a single minute if one man, Rockefeller, was really the single power behind standard oil? Ever hear of front men? Those are the ones meant to be seen.
How few ever wonder who TF really controlled the CIA and it's precursor?
No, people stop right there. They think they are super informed by knowing Rockefeller and the CIA. They try to hold the line there.
This suppression of conspiracy theory tactic, of trying to get people to fixate on operation paperclip, which is a limited hangout nothingburger, is also really over used.
Ever hear of the Mossad Honeypot run by Epstein and other enemy foreign agents? How about how the whole world watched the FBI cover it up?
Oh, that's way too hot to touch. Let's talk about standard oil and operation paperclip.
Why was Epstein's island named Little St James? What did the feds bury there with that heavy equipment? What Intel agency did Robert Maxwell and Mega group work for? Why doesn't anybody mention that they are all Mossad
Oh yeah, there is the answer to all of it. Now let's go revisit those "anti-Semitic conspiracy theories" on currency ownership.
Feb 11, 2021 | www.unz.com
annamaria , says: February 11, 2021 at 12:56 am GMT • 10.1 hours ago
@onebornfree nomy/">https://thesaker.is/does-the-us-still-have-an-economy/Wall Street killed the truth squad and protected the profits from job and investment offshoring. This is what happens to elected officials when they attempt to represent the general interest rather than the special interests that finance political campaigns. The public interest is blocked off by a brick wall posted with a sign that says get compliant with the Establishment or get out of politics.
As for the "direct collision course" re the EU and Russia, the collision course has been imposed by the Master-oligarchy of U. S. on the hapless vassal EU.
Feb 03, 2021 | www.nakedcapitalism.com
DJG , February 2, 2021 at 6:38 pm
Hunter Biden's laptop. The article is by Peter Van Buren, who indeed is not a nutcase.
Anyone here ever / currently a free lance? You'll love these details:
"for example, on September 28, 2018, Hunter ordered $95,000 transferred without explanation), a "business" run by Jim Biden out of a residential address. Jim regularly invoiced Hunter for office expenses and employee costs, as well as a monthly retainer cost of some $68,000, plus other fees in the tens of thousands of dollars."
Sure: My accountant would have been ga-ga for that. Then there's this little tidbit in which the CPA seems to believe that paying taxes is voluntary:
"The CPA's concern is that the IRS is sensitive to the fact that some try to conceal income as loans to be written off as expenses later, especially if the amounts are large. This can trigger an audit. If the loans are "forgiven," then they are income. If not declared, that is potential fraud. The same note from the CPA indicates Hunter owes $600,000 in personal taxes and another $204,000 for Owasco and urges him to file a return even if he is not going to pay the taxes."
Feb 03, 2021 | www.theamericanconservative.com
The most charitable reading of the sleazy saga is that Joe Biden, one of the most powerful men in the world, is an incredibly gullible idiot. (By vasilis asvestas / Shutterstock)
DECEMBER 31, 2020
|12:01 AM
PETER VAN BURENIread the files on Hunter Biden's laptop. They paint a sleazy picture of multi-million dollar wire transfers, potential money laundering, and possible tax evasion. They raise serious questions about the judgment and propriety of Jim Biden, the president-elect's brother, and Joe himself. Call it smoke not fire, but smoke that should not be ignored. The files were supplied to TAC by a known source previously established to have access.
Joe Biden is lucky a coordinated media effort kept Hunter out of the campaign. The FBI has had the laptop since 2019, when they subpoenaed the files in connection with a money laundering investigation. Federal investigators also served a round of subpoenas on December 8, a month after the election, including one for Hunter Biden himself. While the legal thrust of the investigation by the federal prosecutor in Delaware is taxes, the real focus seems to be on Hunter's Chinese connections. This all comes after the FBI has had over a year to examine some of the same files TAC looked at.
https://lockerdome.com/lad/13045197114175078?pubid=ld-dfp-ad-13045197114175078-0&pubo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theamericanconservative.com&rid=&width=838
In the final weeks before the election, Hunter's laptop fell into Republican hands. The story went public in the New York Post , revealing that Hunter Biden introduced his father, then vice president, to a top executive at Ukrainian energy firm Burisma less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company. The meeting is mentioned in a message of appreciation that Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, sent Hunter Biden about a year after Hunter himself joined the Burisma board at a salary of $ 83,000 a month with no obvious work duties past making such introductions.
Nice work if you can get it, and to get it your dad better be vice president. If all that alone does not meet the test of impropriety, we need a new test. Hunter Biden's value to clients was his perceived access to the White House. His father Joe was at least a passive participant in the scheme, maybe more than that.
The problem was many Americans never heard this story. Twitter led a social media charge to not allow the information online. After years of salivating over every bit of Trump family gossip, the mainstream media claimed the Biden story did not matter, or was Russian disinfo . Surveys suggest the information could have swung the election if voters had known about it. One survey showed that enough people in battleground states would have changed their votes to give Trump 311 electoral votes and reelection.
No mind, really. As soon as it became clear Joe Biden was going to win, the media on all sides lost interest in the laptop. The story became about the story. It devolved into think pieces about the Orwellian role of social media and some online giggling about the sex tapes on the laptop. But our short attention spans have consequences. The laptop still has a lot to tell us.
00:11 / 01:00 Next Video First Panel, TAC's 7th Annual Foreign Policy Conference What Does 2020 Mean For Foreign Policy Cancel Autoplay is pausedHunter's laptop was chock-a-block with video that appears to show Hunter smoking crack while engaged in a sex act with a woman, as well as numerous other sexually explicit images. There's evidence there that Hunter spent money on escorts , some $21,000 on cam sites, big plays on all sorts of depravities . There is also Joe's car insurance information, Hunter's SSN, pages of call logs, and lots of email addresses, bank account numbers, and personal information of prominent people. None of the material is encrypted, just dumped on a standard MacBook Pro using the password "Hunter02." The machine was regularly connected to the internet and might as well have had an electronic sign on it saying "My dad is important, here's what you'll need to blackmail me and others to get to him."
But there is more. The laptop shows Hunter, through a number of front companies, accepted money from Chinese and Ukrainian entities and moved that money to the U.S. where it was parceled out to other entities, including Joe Biden's brother. Some of it then went back to Chinese hands. There is no way a simple read-through can tell if the money was legal consulting fees or illegal money laundering and tax fraud. But it all smells bad: multi-million dollar transfers to LLCs without employees, residences used as multiple business addresses, legal tricks from Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands, and even a minor CIA connection.
Ask yourself if this demands more investigation. Ask yourself if voters might not have benefited from knowing more about Joe Biden's side of all this.
The majority of the contents of the laptop are a jumbled record of Hunter's international business ventures and financial records. Outstanding in the haystack are a large number of wire transfers. Those with traceable addresses appear to be mostly anonymous shell companies run out of lawyers' offices, with no employees and fuzzy public paper trails. One off the top involved $259,845 traveling on April 2, 2018, from the Hudson West III in New York to a numbered account held by Cathay Bank. Hudson West was created by Hunter Biden's own law firm, Owasco, with several Chinese nationals, including a Ye Jianming associate, Gong Wendong. Ye Jianming is chairman of CEFC China Energy, who reportedly had close ties to both the Chinese government and the People's Liberation Army. He's been arrested in China on corruption charges and has conveniently disappeared.
Biden in August 2018 also returned $100,000 back to CEFC in China via its own New York subsidiary LLC, Hudson West V, whose listed address is 12 Foxwood Road, Great Neck, NY 11024. That address is not a business office but instead a single family home worth over $6 million. Phone records suggest two people live there, including Gong Wendong. Money appears to move from physical China to virtual Hunter back to virtual China in the U.S., starting and ending in accounts tied to Gong Wendong after touching base with Hunter, a potential indicator of laundering. Chinese money in China changed into Chinese money in America. Caution is needed; while what looks like money laundering at first glance may indeed be so, it may be designed to hide the cash from the Chinese government while staying inside American law, a quasi-legal service Hunter possibly supplied.
That 12 Foxwood address shows up again on Biden's laptop as the mailing address for another Gong Wendong venture, ColdHarbour Capital, which sent and received money to Biden. It is also listed as the residence of Shan Gao, who appears to control accounts in Beijing tied to Hudson, CEFC, and 12 Foxwood.
The most significant appearance of 12 Foxwood was as the mailing address for a secured VISA card in the name of Biden's company, Hudson West III. The card is funded by someone unnamed through Cathay Bank for $99,000 and guaranteed by someone's checking account held by Cathay worth $450,000. Shared users of the card are Hunter and Gong Wendong. The card was opened as CEFC secured a stake in a Russian state-owned energy company. Biden and others subsequently used the credit card to purchase $101,291.46 worth of extravagant items, including airline tickets and multiple items at Apple stores, pharmacies, hotels, and restaurants. A Senate report characterized these transactions as "potential financial criminal activity." Putting money on a secured VISA card in lieu of a direct wire transfer to Biden may be seen by some as an attempt to hide the source of the money and thus allow Biden not to claim it as income.
James Biden and Sara Biden were also authorized users of the credit card, though their business connection to Hunter and Gong Wendong is unclear. Jim is Joe's brother, Sara his wife. Jim over the years has been a nightclub owner, insurance broker, political consultant, and investor. When he ran into financial trouble having triple mortgaged his home, he was bailed out via loans from Joe and Hunter and by a series of Joe's donors. Jim also received a loan of $500,000 from John Hynansky, a Ukrainian-American businessman and longtime donor to Joe Biden's campaigns. This all was in 2015, at the same time the then-vice president oversaw U.S. policy toward the country. As a senator, Joe Biden made use of a private jet owned by Hynansky's son.
The 12 Foxwood address also appears on millions of dollars worth of bank transfers among Cathay Bank, CEFC, and multiple semi-anonymous LLCs and hedge funds. One single transfer to Hudson West III on August 8, 2017, represented the movement of $5 million from Northern Capital International, which appears to be a Chinese government-owned import-export front company.
Switch over to the CDB Bank folder and you see a wire transfer from Burisma for 36,000 euros, run through a bank in Cyprus, to Biden's own account on that island. Burisma is the one company from the laptop that made the news. Hunter's role, what he actually did besides introduce his father to other people, is still unclear.
Burisma must be an interesting place. Hunter's laptop partially exposes a complex web of sub-companies in Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands such that figuring out who owns who is near impossible. Hunter, speaking to his business partner, speculates about buying a Lithuanian bank to receive the Ukrainian money, and he also notes that Joseph Cofer Black , former director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, sits on Burisma's board. Black previously served as vice chairman at mercenary provider Blackwater Worldwide (now Academi).
All just business, right? Not everyone saw it that way. An email from Wells Fargo's corporate compliance team (Wells Fargo handled many of the international wire transfers) asks on September 20, 2018, what the actual business of Hudson West is, who its owners are, and where it is located. Also asked is what the purpose of all the incoming wires is. It notes some business accounts appear to be for personal expenses. It also questions numerous outgoing wires to the Lion Hall Group (for example, on September 28, 2018, Hunter ordered $95,000 transferred without explanation), a "business" run by Jim Biden out of a residential address. Jim regularly invoiced Hunter for office expenses and employee costs, as well as a monthly retainer cost of some $68,000, plus other fees in the tens of thousands of dollars.
There is no record of these questions being answered. It is possible to see the disbursal of funds via credit card to Jim Biden as a way to diffuse the amounts away from Hunter, and via Jim's invoices, a way to convert income from China into deductible business expenses for Hunter in America, reducing his tax burden. The involvement of Lion Hall and Jim Biden also spreads the money around, lowering its profile. If the invoices were shown to be fraudulent (i.e., Jim did not actually consult for Hunter), the potential for tax fraud exists.
Besides Wells Fargo, others also had questions. Hunter's own CPA, preparing to file 2018 federal taxes, wrote to Hunter asking, "As far as Owasco [Hunter's law firm] is concerned there were some receipts we classified as loans. Owasco received approximately $550,000 from Burisma and paid about one half this amount to, I believe, someone named 'Devon.' I am not sure of the payee The one half payment to 'Devon' was not recorded as income."
Devon is likely Devon Archer , co-founder and managing partner of Rosemont Capital alongside Hunter. Who else was part of Rosemont? Christopher Heinz , John Kerry's son. And, small world, Devon Archer sat on the board of Burisma alongside Hunter Biden. The CPA's concern is that the IRS is sensitive to the fact that some try to conceal income as loans to be written off as expenses later, especially if the amounts are large. This can trigger an audit. If the loans are "forgiven," then they are income. If not declared, that is potential fraud.
The same note from the CPA indicates Hunter owes $600,000 in personal taxes and another $204,000 for Owasco and urges him to file a return even if he is not going to pay the taxes. Besides taxes, things did not always go well for Hunter. On March 6, 2019, he sent an email to a friend saying, "Buddy do you have a cash app to send me $100 until wire goes. I have no money for gas and I'm literally stuck at a rest stop on 95." He earlier had sought a $35,000 advance from his regular "draw" out of Owasco. And keep an eye on Hunter's health -- he pays close to $9,000 a quarter for life insurance.
Joe Biden is one lucky S.O.B. When the powers that be decided Barack Obama needed someone a little more, you know, establishment, as his VP to calm voters, there was Joe, as white-bread as the state he represented, vaulted into the White House that had otherwise eluded him. His only controversial points came from having supported the status quo for so many years that it had changed underneath him. Are we tough on crime, or do Black Lives Matter? Didn't matter to Joe, just point him in the right direction so he knows what to agree with. And so in 2020, when the Democrats realized exactly what kind of man they needed to wipe away the sins of two dishonest and chaotic primaries, well, there was Joe again.
Joe was fortunate that the mainstream media memory-holed Hunter's story and conservative media lost focus looking for a tweetable smoking gun when the truth was a bit too complicated to parse out in a sentence or two. But there is still a story here.
The short version is there's a lot to suggest money laundering and tax fraud on Hunter's part. The purpose of the money in and out was always unclear, with invoices for vague expenses and lots and lots of "consulting." One could invent a legal explanation for everything. One could imagine many illegal explanations. There is no way anyone could know the difference without seeing Hunter's taxes, asking him questions, and doing some serious forensic accounting. It is unlikely any of that will happen now that the election is over. Even to Guiliani et al., it really doesn't matter any more. They took one shot, missed, and walked away.
That will leave undigested the bigger tale of president-elect Biden, who ran in part on an anti-corruption platform following the Trump family escapades. While Joe Biden no doubt regrets what appears to have been a one-off meeting with the Burisma official, he did indeed take the meeting as VP. It's always easier to apologize when caught than seek permission in advance in Joe's world.
A 2017 email chain involving Hunter brokering an ultimately failed deal for a new venture with old friend CEFC, the Chinese energy company, described a 10 percent set-aside for the "big guy," whom former Hunter Biden partner Tony Bobulinski publicly identified as Joe Biden . Joe also took Hunter to China with him on Air Force Two and met with Chinese leaders while Hunter tried to make deals on his own. Joe also had Hunter and partner Devon Archer to the White House only two days before they joined Burisma. It was Joe's donors and pals who bailed out brother Jim over the years with sweetheart loans.
A lot of appearance of improprietous malarkey from a senior statesman who knows better. In places like China and the Ukraine, where corruption is endemic, it is assumed the sons of rich and powerful men have access to their father and that access is for sale. Hunter Biden traded on those assumptions for millions of dollars, and Joe stood by understanding what was happening. Every father wants to help his son, and Hunter, one can imagine, went to his dad time after time pleading for just one more little favor to get him clear of his sordid past. Joe, a decent man at heart, likely nodded. So a meeting. A handshake. An office visit, a posed photo, whatever would help but was still plausibly deniable. Until the next time. Just one more, Dad. Please?
Joe's larger role in all things Hunter needs to be questioned. Joe, as well as the Obama State Department, knew about Hunter's antics. Joe pretended Hunter's financial windfalls had nothing to do with their relationship and were simply a constant series of coincidental lucky breaks for a ne'er-do-well son who happened to fail upward while his dad was VP. Joe says he and his son never talked about business. Maybe Joe assumed Hunter's Porsche was just a lucky find (his car payments are on the laptop).
While, of course, Hunter is an adult with his own mind, his father was one of the most powerful men in the world and yet apparently did nothing to stop what was going on among Hunter, his brother Jim, the Chinese, the Ukrainians, and himself -- at minimum, the gross appearance of impropriety over a period of years. Biden's defense has always been sweeping : "My son did nothing wrong." That alone raises questions of judgment on the part of Joe Biden. Not least because in a few weeks he becomes president of the United States. And if the president does it, it's not illegal, right?
Peter Van Buren is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People , Hooper's War: A Novel of WWII Japan , and Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the 99 Percent .
danram kouroi • a month agoMaybe it is the sad truth..?
kouroi danram • a month agoMaybe you're just deluded enough to believe it because it's what you want to believe.
5JimBob danram • a month ago • editedWhy do you project your certitude onto others. "Maybe" does not imply certainty, just the opposite...
Katepacomen • a month agoMaybe you can offer information that contradicts the assertions and alleged facts in this article? Please make the effort to enlighten the rest of us. It'll force you to seriously read the article and learn its contents in order to refute them. If you can't do that then you haven't the courage to try and support your own assertions. It's hard to face the possibility that you're wrong, but if you build a case maybe you'll actually change a few minds here and there. As things stand right now you seem guilty to me of being "just deluded enough to (not) believe it (the article) because it's what you want to (not) believe."
kenofken • a month agoJared Kushner and I don't care
former-vet kenofken • a month agoNobody outside the Trump Cult cares about Hunter Biden and since they know Biden isn't really the president, they have no cause for concern.
penelopeo former-vet • a month agoThat's exactly how I would have felt if Trump's kids had a strong appearance of selling their father's influence for tens of millions of dollars! And if the Trump kids business partners turned on them and gave testimony under oath to the FBI about it, and volumes of documentary evidence supported it!
Nothingburger! I'm sure you and the media would have agreed with how I felt, and completely ignored Trump corruption before the election. 'Cause that's the fair and balanced media we all enjoy!
Joe_Hubris penelopeo • a month agoSilly vet. Trump's kids HAVE A STRONG APPEARANCE OF SELLING THEIR FATHER'S INFLUENCE.
Have you been living under a rock? Why did Ivanka get several Chinese patents AT THE SAME TIME Daddy was letting a Chinese company off the hook and hosting the Chinese leader at Mar-A-Lago? Why is Jared Kushner jetting off to ME countries looking for investment money while an active advisor in the West Wing? Why are Beavis and Butthead (Don Jr and Eric) looking for foreign properties while Daddy is president?
Wake up.
Rick Mercier Joe_Hubris • a month agoTrump's children were actively involved in international business concerns long before Trump ran for office. Hunter Biden is a low-life crack head who never achieved anything until his daddy was VP. If you can't acknowledge the difference, you are incapable of reason.
kasandra Joe_Hubris • a month ago@Joe_Hubris Quite right, we all heard that donkey jr met with the Russians at Trump Tower. There was ample evidence, before he let it out himself. But that wasn't exactly conducting business, that was trying to steal an election.
Honest, Ivanka seems rather smart. Of course, Midlle Eastern money into Jared's businesses will dry up, still, they'll save the furniture.
But, as soon as they are given the chance, Beavis and Butthead will do their best to blow Trump Inc to smithereens and burn all that remains of it to the ground.sentry1 Joe_Hubris • a month agoOh, Hunter was in on the grift long before Joe became VP. He was brought into MBNA's "Executive Training" program and made a member of the Board of AMTRAC while his daddy was in the Senate.
former-vet penelopeo • a month agoIs crack his drug of choice? That would surprise me.
steve j. former-vet • a month agoI'm awake. Whenever there have been allegations of corruption against Trump's family, I've tried to track the facts down (same as I've done with Biden, and before either of them other candidates/Presidents).
There is one difference. My perception of major media the past four years is that with Democrats, they've worked to minimize the damage on any story harmful to the left (Hunters' laptop and Tara Reades' allegations of rape being prime examples), while any story involving Trump they've exaggerated, left important facts out of their coverage, or outright lied. So I believe that if there was any real corruption involving Trump, the MSM would have covered it endlessly, just like they did with the bogus allegations of Trump collaborating with the Russians to steal the election, and many other examples.
I'm not hiding from facts involving Trump family corruption. I just haven't seen anything supporting it yet. I don't know if Jared Kushner was soliciting investment money in the ME; that has been rumor and innuendo by his political enemies with no factual basis so far. Ivanka having a fashion line and protecting it globally seems normal to me (China is a huge market - bigger than the U.S.). Don Jr. and Eric seem like they're doing the same things they were doing before DJT sought office, which is managing a normal business.
Everything about Hunter and Joe's brothers' business activities seem incredibly suspicious to me, on the other hand.
danram former-vet • a month agoAnd there is solid evidence with the laptop, witnesses who have testified (no anonymous ones) and J Biden's recorded comments on Burisma.
patrick danram • a month agoRight! For example, I'm sure that Ivanka Trump got all of those lucrative licensing deals in China SOLELY because of her amazing financial and business acumen! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
JasonT danram • a month agoAt least she has an actual product to sell in an actual business
sentry1 danram • a month agoShe has been in business much longer than her dad has been in politics.
Shakin' my head sentry1 • a month agoIt ain't that hard if you're not afraid to deal with the Chinese.
mrlyn60 danram • a month agoWell,cwe know "covid"Joe isn't shy about doing business with them,bright? He said he had more time with Chinese leaders than any modern president. And, using those chinese connections,he had a virus made, and crazy Nancy Pelosi helped him spread it on her end of the country. They used the impeachment, then the antics of the democratic socialists kicked in, with Nancy calling him fat. And, when he tried to restrict flights from china, they called him xenophobic and racist. Then distracted him more by inviting people to Chinese new year! Before the virus, Trump was unstoppable. With ultra low unemployment rates, and factories going strong, not to mention the legislation"Alzheimer's" Joe got going, causing at least one man twenty years in prison for stealing a shovel! No one really considered Biden to be a serious rival to trump then once they got the virus going, they used the lowering of the presidents ratings and the virtual emptying of every other candidates, plus the virus allowed them to get that mail in voting going, which is easier to tamper with than electronic voting machines. Did you notice,with all the super sick people,we had the highest turnout in history? Before you say it can't be true, another nugget to chew:right before the election, about 90% of the bad things"Dirty" Joe did just know kinda "vanished from social media!! We all know, if it shows up there, it never goes away, right? Wrong when the democratic socialists control them...so in honoring Joe's greatest accomplishment, I give to you....the JOVID virus...it's kinda...catchy, eh?but we need to shout out loud, so he can hear, that everyone knows what he did last year! JOVID! JOVID! Put your hands in the air like you just don't care and, with half the country hating this Biden clown we should be as loud as Metallica in a phone booth!! Don't let them get away with it!!!!
Michael Schaefer kenofken • a month agoUnlike Joe Biden's grifting clan, Trump's offspring had successful enterprises well before their father entered into politics. And yes, in China and a number of international countries also. Like their father, and unlike the Biden's, the Trump family didn't strike it rich from political office. In fact, President Trump donated his entire presidential salary of $400k/yr to charities all four years. Imagine Joe Biden doing that.
sentry1 Michael Schaefer • a month ago • editedReal cults are into infanticide a la abortion on demand like the DNC.
sentry1 kenofken • a month agoIt is a sad state we find ourselves in today. Democrats whine about "white privilege" against people who had nothing to do with slavery and in fact lost ancestors fighting it. Meanwhile in a more real and present instance of privilege at the expense of other humans, current vaccinations against Covid19 were developed using cell lines derived from aborted human children. To my knowledge not a single vaccine is being offered that does not rest on this heinous recipe.
M Orban • a month ago • editedBuaaaaaahahahahahaha!
- It worked when swiftboating Kerry,
- it worked with Hillary's emails.
...now it fell flat. 2:1. still a winning score.any good so much winning memes out there?
Jan 28, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
By now, most people know that Leon Black has stepped down as CEO of Apollo Global Management after ties to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, including paying the late Epstein $158 million for "tax advice". We documented the details of Black's departure in this piece , out earlier this week.
Now the question becomes: how deep does the rabbit hole continue to go?
Edwin Dorsey, founder of The Bear Cave newsletter , posted an epic Tweet thread (you can follow Dorsey here ) back in December 2020 that - if accurate - shows that more Epstein-related bombs could soon be going off.
"John J. Hannan, Apollo's cofounder and senior partner, donated $166k to Epstein in 1999. Hannan also replaced Epstein on the Black Foundation Board in 2013," he notes.
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Dorsey also notes: "Marc Rowan, another Apollo co-founder that worked at Drexel in the 1980s, met with Epstein in his townhouse in 2015."
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Further, he points out that "one of Epstein's defense attorneys, Gerald Lefcourt, also represented Drexel. Yet another tie between the two entities."
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He also notes that Epstein appears to have hired Black's key employees from Drexel over the years:
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Beller's name also shows up in a subpoena:
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Dorsey concludes: "If Harry Beller, Epstein's longtime notary/accountant, worked closely with Black, Rowan, or Hannan this would take the story to a whole new level. My guess is there is much more that has not been reported yet."
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But thanks to Dorsey's digging, there may very well be more on the way.
Recall, the announcement of Black's departure came as Apollo revealed the conclusion of a review by law firm Dechert into Black's relationship with Epstein, which reportedly "cleared" Black and Apollo of any "involvement in criminal activities" with Epstein.
"I have advised the Apollo board that I will retire as C.E.O. on or before my 70th birthday in July and remain as chairman, " Black said in a statement.
Over the past year and a half, Apollo CEO and founder Leon Black had been caught in a web of allegations that he was "too close" to Epstein after it emerged Black had paid Epstein $158 million after he was released from jail.
And while Black published a letter in which he admitted that "it was a terrible mistake" to associated with Epstein and "like many people I respected, I decided to give Epstein a second chance," Black said last October, it wasn't nearly enough as some asset managers froze their new capital allocations to Apollo. It eventually prompted Apollo to hire Dechert to conduct an "independent review" of Black's dealings with Epstein to clear Black's - and Apollo's - name.
Among the key findings of the Dechert report:
- Apollo never retained Epstein for any services and Epstein never invested in any Apollo-managed funds
- Dechert found no evidence that Black was involved in any way with Epstein's criminal activities at any time
Black "believed, and witnesses generally agreed, that Epstein provided advice that conferred more than $1 billion and as much as $2 billion or more" in tax savings, the report states, which - needless to say - is ridiculous for a person who was already surrounded by the biggest tax experts on earth who also happened to be Black's employees. 11,410 33 NEVE play_arrow
Cable Guy 45 minutes ago
1Y4NixfGQ4MbMO4f 1 hour ago remove linkGoogle Bill Clinton and Leon Black. Have fun. We live in a very corrupt country.....
cookiesanyone 56 minutes agoSomething is rotten in the state of denmark
End Times Prophecy 11 seconds agoEVERYTHING is rotten in the state of Denmark
YoodenVranx 8 minutes agoThirty two years and counting since ABSOLUTELY NOTHING has been done. Even if 100% of the world's no longer existent law enforcement layers were still in business you couldn't be much more criminally incompetent, negligent or complicit than this.
joyful-feet 28 minutes agoBlack "believed, and witnesses generally agreed, that Epstein provided advice that conferred more than $1 billion and as much as $2 billion or more" i
Sure..by not releasing a few very particular photos, Epstein saved Black well in excess of that.
Jumanji1959 38 minutes agoAs if the psychopaths in Washington both D and R care one bit. They support these things. Their lapdog enforcers will do what they tell them to do. There is no justice, they are just crackdown arm to censor and attack those who threaten their power.
Jeffrey & Gisele say hello from the beaches of Tel Aviv.
Jan 19, 2021 | www.rt.com
46 Follow RT on Outgoing US President Donald Trump has delivered his "parting gift" to the Moscow-led Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, with newly announced sanctions targeting a pipe-laying vessel and companies involved in the multinational project.
The specialist ship concerned, named, 'Fortuna,' and oil tanker 'Maksim Gorky', as well as two Russian firms, KVT-Rus and Rustanker, were blacklisted on Tuesday under CAATSA (Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) as part of Washington's economic war on Moscow. The same legislation had been previously used by the US to target numerous Russian officials and enterprises.
Russian energy giant Gazprom warned its investors earlier on Tuesday that Nord Stream 2 could be suspended or even canceled if more US restrictions are introduced.
ALSO ON RT.COM Gazprom warns investors that Nord Stream 2 could be canceled as Trump announces more US sanctions in 'parting gift'However, Moscow has assured its partners that it intends to complete the project despite "harsh pressure on the part of Washington," according to Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov. Reacting to the new package of sanctions on Tuesday, Peskov called them "unlawful."
Meanwhile, the EU said it is in no rush to join the Washington-led sanction war on Nord Stream 2. EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, said that the bloc is not going to resist the construction of the project.
"Because we're talking about a private project, we can't hamper the operations of those companies if the German government agrees to it," Borrell said Tuesday.
Nord Stream 2 is an offshore gas pipeline, linking Russia and Germany with aim of providing cheaper energy to Central European customers. Under the agreement between Moscow and Berlin, it was to be launched in mid-2020, but the construction has been delayed due to strong opposition from Washington.
ALSO ON RT.COM One more European firm caves to US pressure on Nord Stream 2 project – mediaThe US, which is hoping to sell its Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) to Europe, has hit the project with several rounds of sanctions over scarcely credible claims that it could undermine European energy security. Critics say the real intent is to force EU members to buy from American companies.
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Fatback33 4 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 11:20 AM
The group that owns Washington makes the foreign policy. That policy is not for the benefit of the people.DukeLeo Fatback33 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:06 PMThat is correct. The private banks and corporations in the US are very upset about Nord Stream - 2, as they want Europe to buy US gas at double price. Washington thus introduces additional political gangsterism in the shape of new unilateral sanctions which have no merit in international law.noremedy 4 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 11:22 AMIs the U.S. so stupid that they do not realize that they are isolating themselves? Russia has developed SPFS, China CIPS, together with Iran, China and Russia are further developing a payment transfer system. Once in place and functioning this system will replace the western SWIFT system for international payment transfers. It will be the death knell for the US dollar. 327 million Americans are no match for the rest of the billions of the world's population. The next decade will see the total debasement of the US monetary system and the fall from power of the decaying and crumbling in every way U.S.A.Hanonymouse noremedy 2 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 01:37 PMThey don't care. They have the most advanced military in the world. Might makes right, even today.Shelbouy 3 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 12:25 PMRussia currently supplies over 50% of the natural gas consumed by The EU. Germany and Italy are the largest importers of Russian natural gas. What is the issue of sanctions stemming from and why are the Americans doing this? A no brainer question I suppose. It's to make more money than the other supplier, and exert political pressure and demand obedience from its lackey. Germany.David R. Evans Shelbouy 2 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 01:58 PMRussia and Iran challenge perpetual US wars for Israel's Oded Yinon Plan. Washington is Israel-controlled territory.Jewel Gyn 4 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 11:34 AMSanctions work both ways. With the outgoing Trump administration desperately laying mines for Biden, we await how sleepy Joe is going to mend strayed ties with EU.Count_Cash 4 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 11:20 AMThe US mafia state continues with the same practices. The dog is barking but the caravan is going. The counter productiveness of sanctions always shows through in the end! I am sure with active efforts of Germany and Russia against US mafia oppression that a blowback will be felt by the US over time!Dachaguy 4 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 11:24 AMThis is an act of war against Germany. NATO should respond and act against the aggressor, America.xyz47 Dachaguy 42 minutes ago 19 Jan, 2021 03:20 PMNATO is run by the US...lovethy Dachaguy 2 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 01:04 PMNATO has no separate existence. It's the USA's arm of aggression, suppression and domination. Germany after WWII is an occupied country of USA. Thousand of armed personnel stationed in Germany enforcing that occupation.Chaz Dadkhah 3 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 12:19 PMFurther proof that Trump is no friend of Russia and is in a rush to punish them while he still has power. If it was the swamp telling him to do that, like his supporters suggest, then they would have waited till their man Biden came in to power in less than 24 hours to do it. Wake up!Mac Kio 3 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 12:34 PMUSA hates fair competition. USA ignores all WTO rules.Russkiy09 2 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 01:33 PMBy whining and not completing in the face of US, Russia is losing credibility. They should not have delayed to mobilize the pipe laying vessel and other equipment for one whole year. They should have mobilized in three months and finished by now. Same happens when Jewtin does not shoot down Zio air force bombing Syria everyday. But best option should have been to tell European vassals that "if you can, take our gas. But we will charge the highest amount and sell as much as we want, exclude Russophobic Baltic countries and Poland and neo-vassal Ukraine. Pay us not in your ponzi paper money but real goods and services or precious metals or other commodities or our own currency Ruble." I so wish I could be the President of Russia. Russians deserve to be as wealthy as the Swiss or SIngapore etc., not what they are getting. Their leaders should stand up for their interest. And stop empowering the greedy merchantalist Chinese and brotherhood Erdogan.BlackIntel 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:27 PMAmerica i captured by private interest; this project threatens American private companies hence the government is forced to protect capitalism. This is illegalOhhho 3 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 12:15 PMThat project was a mistake from the start: Russia should distance itself from the Evil empire, EU included! Stop wasting time and resources on trying to please the haters and keeping them more competitive with cheaper Russian natural gas: focus on real partners and potential allies elsewhere!butterfly123 2 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 01:58 PMI have said it before that part of the problem is at the door of the policy-makers and politicians in Russia. Pipeline project didn't spring up in the minds of politicians in Russia one morning, presumably. There should have been foresight, detailed planning, and opportunity creation for firms in Russia to acquire the skill-set and resources to advance this project. Not doing so has come to bite Russia hard and painful. Lessons learnt I hope Mr President!jakro 4 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 11:37 AMGood news. The swamp is getting deeper and bigger.hermaflorissen 4 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 11:49 AMTrump finally severed my expectations for the past 4 years. He should indeed perish.ariadnatheo 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 03:06 PMThat is one Trump measure that will not be overturned by the Senile One. They will need to amplify the RussiaRussiaRussia barking and scratching to divert attention from their dealings with ChinaNeville52 2 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:01 PMIts time the other nations of the world turned their backs on the US. Its too risky if you are an international corporation to suddenly have large portions of your income cancelled due to some crazy politician in the US5th Eye 2 hours ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:03 PMFrom empire to the collapse of empire, US follows UK to the letters. Soon it will be irrelevant. The only thing that remains for UK is the language. Probably hotdog for the US.VonnDuff1 1 hour ago 19 Jan, 2021 02:10 PMThe USA Congress and its corrupt foreign policy dictates work to the detriment of Europe and Russia, while providing no tangible benefits to US states or citizens. So globalist demands wrapped in the stars & stripes, should be laughed at, by all freedom loving nations.
Dec 05, 2020 | www.rt.com
Prince Andrew's chief accuser was a prostitute who lied about her age and was paid "half a million" by disgraced businessman Jeffrey Epstein, new court papers allege, according to the Telegraph.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who is now an advocate for victims of sex trafficking, has claimed she had sex with the royal at least three times in 2001, when she was 17.
Giuffre claims this happened after she met with American financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was charged with procuring underage and young women for powerful clients, together with his close associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
According to the report , Sharon Churcher, the journalist who first revealed that Giuffre was among Epstein's victims, told New York publisher Tony Lyons that Giuffre lied about her age when she met Epstein.
"She took a year off [her age]. Apparently she was 16, not 15, when she was recruited [by Epstein]. But she'd been on the game for about a year then. Epstein's women were – he basically had prostitutes," the paper quoted Churcher as saying about Giuffre, citing a transcript of her conversation with Lyons.
Churcher was quoted as saying that Giuffre was "suing everybody," including Epstein's lawyer, Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz. "The idea is that he will then pay her off. This really is blackmail," she said, adding that Giuffre would "just move on to other people" and that Epstein had "paid her off."
"She had settled with Epstein. She'd taken half a million, I think it was."
The journalist also reportedly suggested that Giuffre may have produced fake emails that were later presented as having been written by Churcher.
In a comment to the Telegraph, Giuffre's lawyer, Chuck Cooper, said: "We are looking forward to taking Ms. Churcher's deposition under oath."
Prince Andrew has denied ever having sex with Giuffre. He admitted to having been friends with Epstein but claimed he had no idea at the time that the businessman was involved in sex trafficking. In 2001, the prince was photographed wrapping his hand around Giuffre's waist in Maxwell's London apartment.
Epstein was found dead in August 2019 inside a prison cell in New York, where he was awaiting trial. Maxwell was arrested in July and charged with helping Epstein to procure underage girls for sex trafficking.
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Dec 04, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Bill Clinton's former top aide and Chelsea Clinton nemesis Doug Band has told Vanity Fair that former President Bill Clinton did visit Jeffrey Epstein's infamous "pedo island" in January 2003, and that he was unable to push Epstein out of Clinton's orbit since they flew to Africa together in 2002 aboard the the pedophile's (Epstein's) private 727, dubbed the "Lolita Express."
Band said he had no idea about Epstein's sex crimes back then but got enough bad vibes that he advised Clinton to end the relationship. But Clinton continued to socialize with Epstein and take his money. In 2006 Epstein donated $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Clinton made more than two dozen trips on Epstein's jet around this time, Epstein's flight logs show. In January 2003, according to Band, Clinton visited Epstein's private Caribbean island, Little St. James. Band said it was one of the few trips he declined to go on in his time with Clinton. - Vanity Fair
Band - who revealed the Clinton Foundation's 'for-profit' activity and accused Chelsea Clinton of tapping Foundation funds to pay for her wedding (known only because of WikiLeaks) - also says Chelsea Clinton had a relationship with Epstein and his alleged co-conspirator in an underage sex trafficking ring, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Chelsea had ties to Epstein and Maxwell, Band said; he showed me a photo of Bill and Chelsea posing with Epstein and Maxwell at the King of Morocco's wedding. Chelsea remained friends with Maxwell for years after the press revealed Maxwell was a close associate of Epstein's. For instance, Chelsea invited Maxwell to her 2010 wedding at the Brooke Astor estate in Rhinebeck, New York, after Epstein had pleaded guilty in Florida to procuring sex from a minor. - Vanity Fair
"Ghislaine had access to yachts and nice homes. Chelsea needed that ," said Band.
Bill Clinton walks with Doug BandBand notably created the now-defunct Clinton Global Initiative, which has helped to raise $74 billion for Clinton global charities, according to Newsmax . Thanks again to WikiLeaks, we also know that Band was soliciting donations for Clinton through his PR and investment firm, Teneo in an sordid example of "pay for play" which most of the mainstream media refused to cover - which he worried about in an email to John Podesta, saying: " If this story gets out, we are screwed ."
In response to Band's claims about Chelsea, a family spokesperson said that " Chelsea was on friendly terms with Maxwell because of a mutual friend (Gateway computer founder Ted Waitt) and only took one yacht trip with Maxwell in 2009: "It wasn't until 2015 that Chelsea became aware of the horrific allegations against Ghislaine Maxwell and she hopes that all the victims find justice."
In 2011, Band says he instructed Bill Clinton's staffers to ban Maxwell 'from all Clintonworld events' to try and drive a wedge between Chelsea and Ghislaine .
"I knew in telling everyone to stop including Ghislaine that Chelsea and her father would be very angry. It made it harder for them to justify being close to her," said Band.
Nov 23, 2020 | www.rt.com
Ghislaine Maxwell was a voracious photographer who "constantly" snapped photos of topless girls at Jeffrey Epstein's mansion and kept the pictures in an album, according to freshly released court documents.
A former butler at Epstein's Florida home told lawyers that Maxwell was an "avid" photographer who routinely took photos of scantily clad girls with a "special camera".
Most of the images were taken poolside and were of "topless" young women, which Maxwell would later store in an album she kept on her desk, according to former employee John Alessi.
"She was very avid with photographs," Alessi said in federal court papers unsealed on Saturday. "She had this high-tech camera. She was constantly taking photographs."
Alessi said most of the girls were European and some were American.
© Giuffre v. Maxwell, Southern District of New YorkBritish socialite Maxwell is in a New York jail awaiting trial on multiple counts of procuring girls as young as 14 for Epstein to abuse, and of allegedly abusing some of the girls herself. The 58-year-old has denied all the charges she faces.
Alessi's statements to lawyers were made in June 2016 and were unsealed by a judge on Saturday. They relate to a settled defamation case between Maxwell and Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claims she was coerced into having sex with Prince Andrew from the British royal family.
The FBI wants to interview Prince Andrew but he has denied all claims of wrongdoing. A lawyer representing Epstein's victims branded it "outrageous" that a year has passed since the queen of England's second-eldest son publicly promised to cooperate with the US authorities.
Lisa Bloom called on the royal to submit to an interview with the FBI, saying "it is never too late to do the right thing."
Disgraced businessman Epstein was found dead in a New York jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. His death was officially ruled a suicide, and intense speculation has surrounded the circumstances.
TheRealElDee 6 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 02:03 PM
Even Maxwell is still a fall guy for the many people who used Epstein's services. People like Alan Dershowitz (who benefitted from the deal he made Epstein MORE than Epstein did) and well known politicians who are said to include a British Prime Minister (they don't actually say it's Blair) and other well known US Clintons called Bill. There had been no appetite under Obama to pursue this and as Biden is about to take the reins I'm sure that this will not be pressed as hard as it should be. I still think Maxwell will be convicted, but it will be left there, as though she obtained the girls purely for Epstein to abuse and not any of the hundreds of others who have walked away due to Dershowitz's deal. Enough money and you have the power to buy your way out of anything..neeon9 TheRealElDee 3 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 04:44 PMThere was a lot of Jewish secret service and CIA involved as well, blackmailing with honey traps.Cosmicwaffles 10 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 09:51 AMI'm sure trump loved them! He, like many celebrities and politicians, was good friends with epstein. In 2009, when an employee leaked epstein's personal address book it showed multiple phone numbers for trump and his wife. Additionally, was uncovered that he left two phone messages for epstein in November 2004 on a message pad obtained by investigators from epstein's home. Republicans and democrats alike were and still are involved shows how broken the system isBig Tex 9 hours ago 22 Nov, 2020 10:42 AMWe are tired of hearing the Prince Andrew stories. Tell us what is happening to all of the Americans who did the same thing. Where are the stories about Bill Clinton, Harvey Weinstein, Les Wexner, Kevin Spacey, and Bill Gates?Cryptoid 34 minutes ago 22 Nov, 2020 07:45 PMFemale pedophiles are very,very common but mostly they fly under the radar.
Nov 05, 2020 | www.theamericanconservative.com
Exclusive: How The Bidens Made Off With Millions In Chinese Cash
New documents show that as regulators closed in, Hunter struck a fresh deal with his Chinese partners World Food Program USA Board Chairman Hunter Biden speaks at the World Food Program USA's Annual McGovern-Dole Leadership Award Ceremony at Organization of American States on April 12, 2016 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for World Food Program USA)
NOVEMBER 3, 2020
|12:01 AM
ARTHUR BLOOMThe Senate's report on Hunter Biden's activities released several months ago, which was spun by the New York Times as having shown "no evidence of wrongdoing," nevertheless had several important gaps in the business activities of the troubled son of the former vice president.
Draft legal documents and 2017 bank records obtained by The American Conservative show at least $5 million was transferred to Hunter and Jim Biden from companies associated with the Chinese conglomerate CEFC, with millions coming after the company had come under legal scrutiny both in the United States and China.
https://lockerdome.com/lad/13045197114175078?pubid=ld-dfp-ad-13045197114175078-0&pubo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theamericanconservative.com&rid=www.theamericanconservative.com&width=838
CEFC official Patrick Ho was arrested in November 2017 and charged by the Southern District of New York with corruption, and was convicted last year. In addition, on or about March 1, 2018, CEFC Chairmen Ye Jianming was arrested in China for economic crimes and hasn't been seen since. CEFC assets in China were seized by Chinese state agencies. In the U.S., major beneficiaries were Hunter and Jim Biden.
What the following documents show is that as regulators moved to seize CEFC's assets, Hunter Biden attempted to take control of the company founded in partnership with it. Instead, after striking a deal with two CEFC employees in the U.S., the funds were disbursed over the next six months to his and his uncle's companies until it was all gone, in total at least $5 million.
2017 Bank Records
On August 5, 2017, the Bidens and CEFC entered into a 50-50 limited liability company agreement (Hudson West III) between Owasco, Hunter Biden's company, and Hudson West V (CEFC). The Sep 22, 2020 report from the Senate Judiciary Committee (the "HGSAC Report") surmised an agreement like this, but a copy can be seen, for the first time here . In early 2017, CEFC was ranked as one of the top 500 corporations in the world.
00:18 / 00:59Hudson West III set up two bank accounts with Cathay Bank, with the first set up on or about August 5. A company associated with CEFC deposited $5 million into the account on August 8; no contribution was made by the Bidens. On Nov 2, 2017, CEFC Limited deposited a further $1 million into the account. (Subsequently, the Hudson West III account shows a wire of $1 million back to CEFC Limited on Nov 21, followed a few days later on Nov 27 by a credit memo for $999,938. The HGSAC Report interpreted the Nov 21 wire transfer as a return of the $1 million, but appear to have omitted consideration of the credit memo apparently reversing the return). The net result is that CEFC and its affiliates deposited almost exactly $6 million into Hudson West III in 2017.
In the 5 months between August 8 and Dec 31, 2017, Hudson West III disbursed almost $1.6 million to Owasco (Hunter Biden) in wire transfers and credit card binges by the Bidens. The transfers appear to have been structured as $165,000 in monthly payments, plus two other payments of $400,000 and $220,387.
The HGSAC Report reported on the $99,000 credit card spree by the Bidens in early September 2017, but, in addition to that spree, there was an additional $77,700 in credit card sprees, making a total of $176,700 for the five month period.
Total expenditures by Hudson West III in the five months were $1,947,439, of which $1,522,000 went to the Bidens (via Owasco and credit cards). Hudson West III bank accounts contained more than $4 million in cash at the end of 2017.
March 2018 Deal
Shortly after the arrest of CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming on March 1, 2018, there appears to have been a rolling seizure of CEFC assets. Even with the profligate spending by the Bidens, Hudson West III would still have had about $3.5 million in cash in March.
On March 26, a Chinese-American employee who was fiercely loyal to Hunter suggested to him that Hunter and the two CEFC employees in the U.S. (Mervyn Yan and Kevin Dong) figure out a way to appropriate the Hudson West III cash before it was frozen by Chinese regulators or receivers:
you guys (You/Mervyn/Kevin) figure out a way to have the money transferred to the right U.S. account before any restriction levied by Chinese regulators or appointed new boss in charge of manage the enterprise Ye left behind.
In fact, Hunter had already begun the process of appropriating Hudson West III cash before a receiver could arrive. On March 18, Hunter's lawyer sent a letter to Mervyn Yan proposing that Hudson West V (the proximate CEFC entity) assign its interest in Hudson West III to Owasco (Hunter), a transaction which would give control of all the cash to Hunter (see here , and here ).
On or about March 30, 2018, Hunter and the two Chinese appear to have worked out a different arrangement. Among the newly available documents are redlined versions of an assignment agreement in which Hudson West V assigned its 50% interest in Hudson West III to Coldharbour Capital Inc., with Kevin Dong the proposed signatory for Hudson West V, Mervyn Yan for Coldharbour Capital and Hunter signatory for Owasco's consent to the assignment.
The HGSAC Report does not appear to have had access to these documents: they noted that ownership of Hudson West III at some point was 50% Coldharbour, but does not appear to have been aware of the prior ownership of this interest by Hudson West V or the assignment to Coldharbour in late March 2018.
During the next six months, the cash was completely drained into the accounts of Owasco and Coldharbour, spent on consulting fees and expenses. According to the HGSAC Report, total payments from Hudson West III to Owasco amount to an astonishing $4,790,375 by September 2018, when the Hudson West III accounts were totally depleted. In November 2018, Hudson West III was dissolved by Owasco and Coldharbour.
From the 2017 bank records, we know that $1,444,000 had been transferred to Owasco in 2017 (excluding direct payment of credit card sprees); thus, transfers to Owasco in the first eight months of 2018 were approximately $3,345,000.
The assignment of Hudson West V's interest in Hudson West III to Coldharbour and the dissipation of cash to the Hudson West III managers would probably not have stood up to a determined receiver appointed by the Chinese parent company, but there doesn't appear to have been any attempt by the parent company to stop or control the dissipation of Hudson West III's cash reserves.
Lion Hall (Jim Biden) Invoices
Included in the newly available material are invoices to Owasco and, separately, to Hudson West III from Jim Biden doing business as Lion Hall Group. The HGSAC Report stated that, between Aug 14, 2017 and Aug 3, 2018, Owasco sent 20 wires totaling $1,398,999 to Lion Hall Group. The newly available documents show that Jim Biden charged Owasco $82,500 per month as a "monthly retainer for international business development":
Readers will recall that Hudson West III bank statements showed regular monthly payments of $165,000 for the last 5 months of 2017. The corollary is that Hunter split this regular monthly payment from Hudson West III 50:50 with Jim Biden. The HGSAC Report notes that the payments to Lion Hall Group had been flagged by Owasco's bank (Wells Fargo) for potential criminal activity. The new documents contain an inquiry email from Wells Fargo compliance, together with a reply from Hunter which was unresponsive on the key compliance questions. By the time that Wells Fargo raised its compliance concerns, the Hudson West III cash had been exhausted and with it, presumably the stream of 50-50 payments to Uncle Jim.
As noted above, in addition to the regular $165,000 monthly payments, Owasco received other large transfers in 2017 and presumably in 2018. It is not known whether Uncle Jim split these 50-50 as well, or whether this was a side transaction by Hunter.
Concurrent with this flood of money from CEFC, Hunter continued to receive a lavish stipend from Burisma. Nonetheless, by the end of 2018, Hunter had hundreds of thousands in tax liens. In March 2019, despite having received millions from Chinese business interests, Hunter even had to plead with former partner Jeffrey Cooper to email him $100 for gas so that he wouldn't be stranded on the highway. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Arthur Bloom is editor of The American Conservative online. He was previously deputy editor of the Daily Caller and a columnist for the Catholic Herald. He holds masters degrees in urban planning and American studies from the University of Kansas. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Spectator (UK), The Guardian, Quillette, The American Spectator , Modern Age, and Tiny Mix Tapes. email
Hannibal Jubal Jim9310 • a day ago
Kent Hannibal Jubal • a day agoNot by the Conservative press. But certainly by the Liberal press. I was born in a country where all the news sources were owned by one of the political parties. Now I live in a country where we have the de facto situation. In America we are very good at setting the standard as the de jure state of affairs, while ignoring the de facto state of affairs. Every country has its share of hypocrisy. But there are few places, if any, where it is institutionalized as America. We need to do much better. Despite what the Conservatives say, the Liberal press used to try to do journalism. But they have given up.
FL Transplant Kent • a day agoI'm old enough to remember when CNN was a pretty middle of the road news organization. But Fox came along and proved that naked partisanship, half-truths, innuendo, and brightening up the hate centers of the brain was a far more profitable way of doing business. CNN just had to compete.
FL Transplant Hannibal Jubal • a day agoYep. When it's all about the money and Fox showed how to print it others naturally follow.
Tom Riddle FL Transplant • a day agoWe do have the Fox "News" Network (Most watched cable news channel, or so the continually brag, and with TV/cable being where most Americans get their news from that makes them a pretty big player) and One America "News" Network. Ad in the Sinclair Broadcasting Network--they have no problem sending out canned od-eds supporting Trump so they should have no ideological objection to pursuing this story. Perhaps they could do some investigating and reporting instead of filling their airtime with unsubstantiated accusations made by others that they take at face value.
Not to mention there are some print sources--The Washington Times, the NY Post, the Orange County Register, Des Moines Register, etc.
Seek Hannibal Jubal • a day agoRight? Between Fox News, the Murdoch owned papers, Breitbart, the Daiky Caller/Wire, and Sinclair, the idea that right isn't represented in the media is frankly insane. Even Q Anon has a better reach in Facebook than the NYT and they are a pure distillation of conservatism.
"There is no conservative media" is an idea about as tethered to reality as conservative media is in general.
Hannibal Jubal Seek • a day agoThis is news. Hunter Biden is most likely a crook. And a well-known watchdog group has just filed a 12-page complaint with DOJ requesting an investigation. Also check out this TV appearance on Newsmax.
Schopenhauer • 2 days agoHunter Biden is most likely a crook. But what a person "most likely is" is not news. I used to watch Newsmax because it is good to hear about stories that the liberal press doesn't cover. And it is good to get varying perspectives on news events even if the liberal press covers them. But I can't take tv news any more. They are all mostly useless for people like me who detest both political parties. I watch only Newsy. You should try if you are really interested in news.
"watchdog group" you say? And that is supposed to me make me think that there is a difference between that and the Republican Party? The liberals pioneered that trick. Now everyone uses it. That is, name (effectively) an arm of the Democratic Party a "watchdog" and that is supposed to give it credibility. But the trick is subject to our First Law of Politics. Whatever tactic one party deploys, as long as it is successful, the other party will deploy it. No matter how much they denounced it previously. At best, they will rename it. But usually, they don't bother.
In any case, unless this "watchdog group" is alleging a crime there is no basis for a DOJ investigation. What is the criminal accusation?
Victor_the_thinker Schopenhauer • 2 days agoSo this blockbuster piece of information that's so important for us to know before we vote--
Came out months ago and TAC is reporting it on the morning of the election? OK then, I'm sure it will get the consideration it deserves.
We can all revisit it after Biden crushes Trump and the Senate's GOP majority is shown the door.
Schopenhauer Victor_the_thinker • 2 days ago • editedI'm not gonna lie, I didn't even waste my time reading this piece. Arthur seems to have all of a sudden become interested in corruption (which likely didn't even happen) in a way he expressed no interest in for the last 4 years. Forgive me if I don't vote him as an honest broker.
brian_in_brooklyn Schopenhauer • 2 days agoIt's just so weak. This isn't an October surprise -- this is like a turkey surprise casserole served two weeks after Thanksgiving. Even if this were a game-changing piece of reporting, it seems a dubious tactic to release it on the morning of the election on a website that probably gets less views than some random 16 year old dancing on Tik-Tok.
Seek Victor_the_thinker • a day ago"This isn't an October surprise -- this is like a turkey surprise casserole served two weeks after Thanksgiving. "
Thank you for a good laugh
Victor_the_thinker Seek • a day agoI believe Arthur Bloom. He's done his homework. And believe it, the Bidens are very corrupt.
Blood Alcohol Schopenhauer • 2 days ago • editedWhatever dude. Why do I care if you believe him?
tonyrendon • 2 days agoIt takes time for some gossip columnists who "write' for TAC to spit shine the garbage they collect.
Gerber tonyrendon • a day agoThis is absolutely pathetic.
Guest • 2 days agoTAC's pivot over the last couple years into Brietbart territory is embarrassing. A lot of rightwing media and personalities held out for awhile on Trump, but eventually saw where the wind was blowing and jumped in the deep end. I hope no one on the principled right or left ever lets them forget it. No shelter for scoundrels....
Victor_the_thinker Guest • 2 days agoThanks for publishing this. I hope more such pieces appear here in the next few weeks. TAC's regular readers from the Left don't like it. Good. Rub their noses in it.
Schopenhauer Guest • a day agoDon't like it? We're laughing at you guys. Please do keep publishing this stuff. No one cares outside of the conservative ghetto.
Ruth Harris Guest • a day agoHey, snowflake, most of us regular readers from the left contribute far more to this site than a million drive-by Trump sycophants.
mhopeful • 2 days agoI was mentioning Hunter Biden and his Ukraine dealings back in 2014 but I don't have a public forum outside email and social media and no one thought it of interest till his dad was running for president against a man who by many accounts has been a crook his entire adult life, and proud of it.
Zgler mhopeful • a day agoThis will absolutely ruin Hunter Biden's chances of being elected President this year.
RIIP • 2 days ago^^^This!
Seek RIIP • a day ago • edited1. What on earth does any of this have to do with Joe Biden? It's not a crime to have a relative who's committed a crime.
2. Even if $5 million bucks went right into Joe Biden's pocket, it's chump change compared to the Trump family criminal enterprise.
I'm just curious, do people actually pay to read this garbage?
Ruth Harris Seek • a day agoJoe Biden claims he had no knowledge of his son's dealings. Evidence from his business partnerships with the Chinese say otherwise. Here's a sample:
JonF311 • 2 days agoSo Hunter failed to register as a foreign agent. Isn't that what Mike Flynn got busted for along with some other Trump campaign officials? And hasn't Trump demanded his people all be forgiven for their transgressions cause it wasn't really a bad thing?
Blood Alcohol JonF311 • 2 days agoSigh. I appreciate that TAC will present a diversity of views. I did not expect this magazine to descend into the midden of mere scandalmongering.
JoeMyGod • 2 days agoI recommend a new by-line to replace the one printed on the cover of the TAC print copies: GOSSIP OVER REALITY - BULLSHIT OVER SUBSTANCE. Sigh.
bradleyscreek JoeMyGod • a day agoTypical load of crap from this nutjob site.
JoeMyGod bradleyscreek • a day agoOut of curiosity, among the hundreds if not thousands of websites you could be reading right now, apart from thousands of decent monographs and works of fiction, why are you spending time this morning at this "nutjob site," going so far as to login to the comments section to express to the other presumably "nut job" readers that you're better than them?
This speaks VOLUMES about your worth as a human being. When you wake up around 3 AM over the next few nights, it'll hit you. Let it sink in. Let it marinate. From such truths character is built.
Annie from Alaska bradleyscreek • a day agoYou've got moobs. Sad.
RAF • 2 days agoIt's pretty extreme. TAC comment section has become unusable bickering and taunts even after blocking half the content. I don't know what they are hoping to accomplish other than confirming our worst guesses about their character.
Schopenhauer RAF • 2 days agoExclusive? Of course! No one in their right mind would print it. And the enemy of the state-fake news outlets are all looking for scoops and looking to win major awards and prizes for breaking a story-----and for some reason all of these thousands of journalists did not get this "exclusive."
Does credibility mean anything anymore?
fred lapides • 2 days agoI guess that's the advantage of writing for a magazine that's beyond the reach of the market. The irony, the irony.
Siberian Khatru • 2 days ago • editedall unproved nonsense.Where is the indictment, when, after all Trump and Barr woprk hand in hand...simply BS stuff to support Trump. Should Trump lose, watch the legal stuff that he will confront. Now worry about that
Schopenhauer Siberian Khatru • 2 days ago • editedWhen did this site turn into The Tucker Carlson show ? Please return to the thoughtful conservative thought that you are know for. Sign of the times I guess and how internet culture can demean us all.
Victor_the_thinker Schopenhauer • 2 days agoI'm always tickled when conservatives/ Republicans float Tucker Carlson as a viable Presidential candidate. Please, please, please -- do it, GOP! He'd make Trump's defeat today look measured.
But he won't do it; he's nowhere near as deluded as his audience. More cynical, perhaps, but not more deluded.
Blood Alcohol Siberian Khatru • 2 days ago • editedIt's the same delusion they engaged in with Trump. They overweight the feelings of their in group and underweight the population as a whole. Tucker doesn't actually have many viewers in the scheme of winning a national election. He couldn't appeal to moderates.
Victor_the_thinker Blood Alcohol • 2 days agoTAC editors have decided "thoughtful conservative thought" doesn't sell. Hence the garbage.
They've been watching "White Grievance Tonight with Tucker Carlson" and seen the numbers he's been doing and think they will be that, just in print.
Nov 03, 2020 | www.theamericanconservative.com
An email from the famous hard drive indicates a Chinese state-owned company wanted an introduction from Rosemont Seneca Hunter Biden, from ABC News Nightline one year ago ( Source )
NOVEMBER 3, 2020
|8:00 AM
ARTHUR BLOOMBack in March, I wrote a column in these pages about the Chinese business entanglements of major media companies in the U.S. By far the most seriously entangled is Comcast, the owner of NBCUniversal, parent company of NBC and MSNBC, which is in the process of opening a Universal Studios theme park in Beijing.
Portions of Hunter Biden's hard drive have now been shared with TAC. On the drive is an email from president of Rosemont Seneca Eric Schwerin, a company co-founded by Hunter and John Kerry's stepson, saying that Chinese state-owned enterprise CITIC was hoping they would make introductions with Universal employees and propose the Beijing theme park.
https://lockerdome.com/lad/13045197114175078?pubid=ld-dfp-ad-13045197114175078-0&pubo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theamericanconservative.com&rid=www.theamericanconservative.com&width=838
"They'd like an introduction to Universal (Comcast) as they'd like to open a Universal Studios China theme park outside of Beijing," Schwerin writes. "As I said, that one should be easy via Melissa Mayfield/David Cohen [two Comcast executives]."
"She said they'd like to pay us for our help on these -- I told her we'd discuss whether we could do that -- but were sure we could figure something out even if it was success fee based on the US side but that I would talk to you," Schwerin added.
To what extent this was followed up on is at this point unclear. However, what it indicates is that a company founded by two Democratic political scions was willing to facilitate a deal for their friendliest media network, a network that has been unrelentingly hostile to Trump and more or less completely ignored recent Hunter Biden disclosures. If Hunter helped facilitate a sweet deal like this, it's only fair that they scratch his back too.
00:13 / 00:59 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Arthur Bloom is editor of The American Conservative online. He was previously deputy editor of the Daily Caller and a columnist for the Catholic Herald. He holds masters degrees in urban planning and American studies from the University of Kansas. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Spectator (UK), The Guardian, Quillette, The American Spectator , Modern Age, and Tiny Mix Tapes.
Nov 02, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Hunter Biden's 'Laptop From Hell' Was National Security Nightmare
by Tyler Durden Sun, 11/01/2020 - 15:45 Twitter Facebook Reddit Email Print
Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop contained a 'treasure trove of top-secret material, including his father's private emails and mobile phone numbers,' and was protected by the password "Hunter02", according to the Daily Mail .
The younger Biden's MacBook Pro was full of 'classic blackmail material' between compromising sexual material and the private information of not only the Bidens, but also Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Hunter's passport, driver's license, social security and credit card numbers were also on the laptop, which revealed that he spent $21,000 on a 'live cam' porn website (while claiming he was too broke to pay his stripper baby-mama child support?).
Via the Mail :
The material, none of which was encrypted or protected by anything as basic as two-factor authentication, includes:
- Joe Biden's personal mobile number and three private email addresses as well as the names of his Secret Service agents;
- Mobile numbers for former President Bill Clinton, his wife Hillary and almost every member of former President Barack Obama's cabinet;
- A contact database of 1,500 people including actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Coldplay singer Chris Martin, former Presidential candidate John Kerry and ex-FBI boss Louis Freeh;
- Personal documents including Hunter's passport, driver's licence, social security card, credit cards and bank statements;
- Details of Hunter's drug and sex problems, including $21,000 spent on one 'live cam' porn website and 'selfies' of him engaging in sex acts and smoking crack cocaine;
The article does not that while Hunter may have used his family name to boost deals with Chinese and Ukrainian firms, there is nothing implicating Joe Biden in any wrongdoing (just a massive like that he 'never spoke with Hunter' about his business dealings).
"'It's a data breach and dangerous to have this type of material floating around," one former police commander told the Mail . "For someone prominent, there is not only a risk of great reputational damage but also a risk of blackmail should the material fall into the wrong hand s."
Hunter's laptop was filled with 11 gigabytes of material covering the period from when his father was Vice President, to when Hunter dropped it off at a Mac Store in Wilmington, Delaware. wee-weed up , 10 hours ago
Macho Latte , 10 hours ago"What laptop?" -- MSM
systemsplanet , 9 hours agoThe Progs are now using the MSM to broadcast the Biden corruption scandal so that they can use it to justify elevating Queen Kam El Tow to POTUS very soon after the Biden inauguration. He'll be gone before April 1. Queen Kami will give him a pardon within minutes of seizing power. All investigations into the Criminal Elite will be disappeared and all evidence will be destroyed.
Progs don't take a dump, son, without a plan.
- Admiral PainterImGumbydmmt , 5 hours agoFBI was planning on using Hunter's laptop as Biden's control file.
Kan , 4 hours agoAnd they are BOTH (Hunter and Hitlery) still walking out and about the world as free people.
Sessions?
Barr?
Durham?
Wray?
Riiiiight.
ballot box?
Cartridge box is all thats left folks
BaNNeD oN THe RuN , 9 hours agoClinton crime family is still doing the 501.3c TAX dodge for trillions of dollars from the gates foundation and over 100 universities in the jUSSA.... many other fun things.
BGen. Jack Ripper , 10 hours agoExactly, plus there is no way that the NSA did not have the IP and MAC address of every computer that had ever downloaded every email to and from Hunter Biden. The "Big Guy" had been on the Senate Intelligence Committee and already knew this which is why he insisted on verbal directions only.
What "voters" don't fully understand is that elected representatives are the first line of "useful idiots" for deep state.
Vivekwhu , 10 hours agoThe FBI and CIA are the real national security nightmare
Macho Latte , 9 hours agoSpot on! Good luck in claiming back the US Republic from these traitors at the top. This must start this Tuesday or it is all done for.
Argon1 , 5 hours agoToo many people succumb to the psychological warfare that has been raging against us for 5 decades. It is very difficult to break free from the indoctrination regardless of intelligence or education. The backbone of the DemonRat organization is a very strong emotion that overcomes all logic and reason. It is HATE. Today it is called by the gentle name of Identity Politics. Nevertheless, it is still a hate based psychological manipulation. Women need to hate men. Blacks need to hate everyone. Whites need to hate themselves. Everybody needs to Hate Trump.
Proudly Unaffiliated , 6 hours agoThey have power, they are corrupt, but such things are not absolute. Which is why people are made examples of in law (pour encourager les autres ), but enforcement is minimal. Number of Federal employees 2 million, population 330 million, number of FBI employees 35,000 of which we can say only a 3rd will be available some are office staff, sick and others have long term commitments. So these riots would have meant FBI would have been deployed even if not used etc or would have been at the Mexican border since the wall closing has allowed a much tougher border regime.
LetThemEatRand , 10 hours agoAs represented by FBIbook and DNCIA.
ponchoramic , 10 hours agoCountdown to charges being brought against everyone who ever possessed the hard drives.... Certainly more likely than anyone with the last name Biden getting in trouble. MSM has already declared that there is no evidence that Joe had any involvement in Hunter's business deals, which is demonstrably false. There's the "Big Guy" emails; there's the fact that these foreign entities kept paying Hunter millions for his "name," and they would not have continued to do so if they were getting nothing in return; there's the fact that Bobulinksi has proof that Joe attended meeting with Hunter's employers; and that's just scratching the surface with what we know now.
hashr_syndicate , 2 hours agoThe laptop/ hard drives were abandoned for more than 90 days, transffering ownership to the shop owner, by law!
cabystander , 6 hours ago@ Caloot
Crack is not purified, it is just changed to a base form which lowers it melting point allowing someone to smoke it, hence the term free base. Smoking allows for a faster uptake into the body giving more or a rush. The only way you can get the same rush with coke is to shoot it up. The closest you could come your statement of it being true is to perform an acid/base extraction by turning it into crack and then filtering contaminants and then using an acid to drop the carbon back off and returning it to cocaine.
Gobble D. Goop , 9 hours agoTo quote Schumer (+/-): the intelligence agencies have six ways from Sunday of getting you.
That can be extended to the Government, in general. In spades.
HardlyZero , 9 hours agoApparantly, C. Wray has an interest in keeping the laptop suppressed:
https://www.infowars.com/posts/the-fbi-snow-job-on-bidens-laptops/
radical-extremist , 10 hours agoYes. Wray and Barr.
Floki_Ragnarsson , 9 hours ago"This has all been debunked and we're not going to dignify it by responding to it."
- The Democrat News Media Complex
invention13 , 9 hours agoThe FBI has NEVER had America's interests at heart. Ruby Ridge ring a bell?
edotabin , 9 hours agoNo, the FBI has it's own interests at heart. I would love to see the files that J. Edgar had on everyone in Washington.
TBT or not TBT , 7 hours agoWhy are you surprised? You are dealing with a culture so corrupt, so rabid, so evil.... These people smell worse, are dirtier than and are harder to remove than than 6 months of cat urine in an abandoned house.
Anyone who has dealt with cat urine in abandoned and severely neglected houses knows how extensive the steps required are to remove the rot/stench.
Hint: When you open the doors and windows and run outside, you can still smell it 30-40 yards away. I've even had to use a jackhammer at an angle to chisel it out from the concrete slab.
Vivekwhu , 10 hours agoThe D after the name is the tell. It's a party of racketeers, pervs and grifters seeking more power. The very best of them are merely amoral cynical AF Machiavellians.
radical-extremist , 9 hours agoAnd the FBI kept all this secret while Trump was being impeached over a phonecall to the Ukrainian president? Why? So they could blackmail and control another US President, as in this vile corrupt Biden creature, when he was quietly elected next week? This is the only possible explanation for Wray and his band of corrupt leaders.
Just how rotten is the FBI, uh, the premier law enforcement agency in the world???
J J Pettigrew , 9 hours ago"We'll be prepared to issue comments on Hunter Biden's laptops after the election. For right now our focus is on dangerous white supremacist militias and hate crime hoaxes."
- C. Wray, Director of the FBI
novictim , 9 hours agoAnd why did Christopher Wray sit on this for ten months?
Comey protected Hillary
Wray protects Biden
radical-extremist , 9 hours ago"'It's a data breach and dangerous to have this type of material floating around," one former police commander told the Mail . "For someone prominent, there is not only a risk of great reputational damage but also a risk of blackmail should the material fall into the wrong hand s."
Show of hands:
Who thinks that the CCP spy chief that the Bidens were in business with did not already have all of this blackmail material?
The Bidens kept the secrets from the USA and even screwed that up. But the Ukrainians, Russians and Chinese Communist Party had all of this all along. That is why China Joe is such a great alternative to Trump for them. China Joe is totally and completely compromised and millions have already voted for him. Which would be funny if not for the insane Deep State that also seems to be owned by the Communists.
cjones1 , 9 hours agoBiden is in no way compromised because any evidence the CCP goes public with will never be reported on, except by maybe Fox News.
J J Pettigrew , 7 hours agoMueller was FBI Director when both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden were committing national security violations and money grubbing, "pay to play" diplomacy - 2012 election interference by the IRS, etc., too!
This "Deep State" complicity in and enabling of such corruption runs several levels deep in our intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
Shut. It. Down. , 9 hours agoComey protected Hillary
Wray protects Biden
and as luck would have it...both Democrats.
And the attacks on the GOP elected President...fake and falsified with the assistance of......
those who protected Biden and Hillary.
Remarkable for an apolitical entity such as the FBI.
LetThemEatRand , 10 hours agoStripper mama's lawyer needs to file a subpoena for access to the hard drive.
No telling what assets Hunter was hiding while trying to weasel out of child support.
Should be good for another couple mil.
quanttech , 8 hours agoNote that the FBI investigation into Hunter is for "money laundering," as opposed to anything involving public corruption or influence peddling. That tells me that they are carefully avoiding anything that would involve Joe. And we all know that a year or two from now or whenever this story settles down, there will be a page 8 newspaper article about how the FBI found insufficient evidence of any criminal activity by Hunter to justify charges.
They keep using the same script, and it always ends in a twist ending involving anyone you've ever heard of doing nothing wrong other than "poor judgment."
SummerSausage , 9 hours agoBiden values - bomb children in countries that never attacked us. tell supporters they're organic, grass-fed love bombs.
Trump values - bomb children in countries that never attacked us. tell supporters we're withdrawing from the wars while INCREASING the bombings.
American values - duuuuuuuh i dont care as long as inocent children are being bombed. duuuuuuuh i'm so sad they cancelled keeping up with the khardashians. duuuuuuuuuuuh i need a chicken sandwhich but i'm too fat to get out of my lazyboy duuuuuh
J S Bach , 9 hours agoCIA trailed Hunter to brothels and drug dens when he was overseas. They knew.
Foreign countries sucked electronic information off Hunters computers and phones when he was overseas. They knew.
Jill and Joe kept Hunter away from children. They knew.
Kerry's step son was in business with hunter. They knew.
Obama spied on everybody. He knew.
American media covered up for Hunter & Joe for years. They knew.
Looks like normal Americans were the last to know.
freedommusic , 7 hours ago"There is not only a risk of great reputational damage but also a risk of blackmail should the material fall into the wrong hands."
Yep... and with this knowledge... ANYONE who votes for Joe Biden is a traitor to this country whether they like it or not.
From Dante's "Inferno"...
The ninth (deepest) circle of hell is reserved for traitors...
"9). Treachery: The deepest circle of Hell, where Satan resides. As with the last two circles, this one is further divided, into four rounds. The first is Caina, named after the biblical Cain, who murdered his brother. This round is for traitors to family. The second, Antenora -- from Antenor of Troy, who betrayed the Greeks -- is reserved for political/national traitors. The third is Ptolomaea for Ptolemy, son of Abubus, who is known for inviting Simon Maccabaeus and his sons to dinner and then murdering them. This round is for hosts who betray their guests; they are punished more harshly because of the belief that having guests means entering into a voluntary relationship, and betraying a relationship willingly entered is more despicable than betraying a relationship born into. The fourth round is Judecca, after Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Christ. This round is reserved for traitors to their lords/benefactors/masters. As in the previous circle, the subdivisions each have their own demons and punishments."
Not to take all of this literally, but it shows the wisdom of our ancestors and the intense acrimony they felt towards this most nefarious act.
jeff montanye , 7 hours agoImagine what was on Weiners laptop.
So let's review boys and girls.
The FBI now has Anthony Weiner's and Hunter Biden's laptops.
If Law enforcement and the DOJ do NOT do the jobs they swore an oath to, then who does that leave to uphold the Constitution and Rule of Law?
Chew on that for a moment...
UnicornTears , 9 hours agodon't forget seth rich's phone and laptop never looked at by either the d.c. police or the fbi.
corruption in washington d.c. is like the hindus' turtle akupara on the back of a larger turtle, on the back of . . .
OpenEyes , 8 hours agoNational pulse has the story.
Christopher Wray is directly implicated in the laptop emails. He recieved a 14% stake in Rosneft shares. Arrest everyone in DC and get some rope.
Floki_Ragnarsson , 9 hours agoYes, it's coming out that Wray was actually on the other side of the table in Hunter's negotiation for his Chinese "chairman" in the deal to buy into the Russian energy company. Wray was working for the law firm representing the Russian energy company (he made millions there before coming into the FBI). Not only was Wray aware of the crime, he was a player in that deal. No wonder the laptop, and all other evidence, has sat untouched in a dark vault at the FBI for almost a year.
I'm hoping that Trump fires Wray, Haspel and Barr on Wednesday regardless of the election outcome. Then I'm hoping that Wray is facing an indigtment before Christmas.
BinAnunnaki , 8 hours agoWhat REALLY sinks the Bidens is having to account for all of that cash that they a) never paid taxes on and b) Potato Head Joe NEVER declared on his financial disclosure forms as required by law!
OllieHalsall , 9 hours agoThey both go to jail for not registering under FARA.
Just like Michael Flinn
American2 , 9 hours agoGiving evidence to a criminal organisation like the FBI is like asking Joe Biden to babysit your 11 year old daughter.
You wouldn't do it would you!
Someone Else , 8 hours agoImmediately, ask for Bill Clinton, or Jeffery Epstein as his replacement.
desertboy , 9 hours agoLandslide for Trump!
Nunny , 9 hours agoAnybody who could think the Biden's would be played by the CCCP in China business dealings is a conspiracy theorist.
And everyone knows Joe Biden is too smart to be co-opted by his son in his dealings, anyway.
(straight-face delivery)
UnicornTears , 9 hours agoBada-bing
Ision , 9 hours ago"Never underestimate Joe's ability to screw things up"
The MagicNegro
MTGOPLAYER , 9 hours agoI wonder if Hunter ever held a government job, or appointment, which involved the handling of classified information? I have no idea.
But, exactly how did Hunter get TS information on his computer?
No matter. The National Security Act of 1947 applies. Since it does, multiple felonies have been committed. How many people are involved in the commission of these felonies, besides Hunter?
Just like Hillary's illegal servers...the existence of which automatically gives rise to dozens of felonies...Hunter's felonies are automatic with the existence of ANY TS classified information, found outside of officially controlled, and authorized, locations.
If anyone planned to deliberately deliver such information to unauthorized individuals, additional felonies are involved.
There is simply no excuse, or defense.
I say this as a former NSA field agent. It appears Hunter should be in prison, along with Hillary.
vasilievich , 9 hours agoAccording to the FBI, as long as his intentions were pure, no crime was committed.
Invert This MM , 7 hours agoI can't begin to describe how shocked and angry I am - and I've been involved to the extent of risk to my life.
I've had one US Army person say to me: You were in...!?
9.0onthericterscale , 9 hours agoThe crime families like to keep together. There are pictures on the laptop of Hunter doing Malia Obama. Her cocaine riddled credit card was in the picture. Hunter has a tattoo of the Finger Lakes on his back. That region is suspected of being an area heavy into child trafficking. These people are sick.
Mzhen , 9 hours agoDemlibs keep screeching out 'Russia Russia Russia!' like they have Tourettes Syndrome.
They can't help it anymore .It's so far past the point of meaningfulness you gotta feel sorry for the little +ards.
almostnuts , 9 hours agoHunter took three laptops to the repair shop. And they were all wet . Which appears to indicate a deliberate attempt by someone to destroy the data. Before there were second thoughts. This period of time coincided with the final breakup with Hallie.
DavidJoshimisk , 7 hours agoTsk, tsk, tsk. Hmmmm. Hiding assets from child support, all those cozy names with phone numbers attached, passport info, ss info, 21,000$ in **** sites. This isn't going to well huh Robert? Anyhow the fbi has you covered, but your drug habit is going to kill you because you are a liability to a lot of people, places, and things. From now on Robert i'd beware of pretty women in a foreign land and don't sleep in the same place every night. You may be well connected, but you're marked for disposal. Tah, tah, be reading about you.
Oilwatcher , 10 hours agoSo if I understand this correctly.........Hunter and Jim Biden were front men for the Biden Family operations and the Big Guy was calling the shots. So...Obama and the FBI knew nothing of this? Seems unlikely.
Anonymous IX , 10 hours agoDude must be baked hard all the time to go off and leave data like that at a repair shop instead of coughing up an $80 repair bill.
ponchoramic , 10 hours agoExactly.
"Baked hard" + arrogance (with having always gotten away with no consequences for all his illegal/immoral actions in the past).
Sometimes the powerful and mighty fall hard. Evidently, we're in one of those epoches. He may suffer very little criminal action against him, but he'll never recover...nor will the Bidens...from a scandal of this magnitude and distasteful revelations.
Samual Vimes , 9 hours agoHe probably hates his Pop. I think it's in some of his texts. Def the blacksheep of family. Prob why he was on drugs in the first place.
glasshour , 8 hours agoRecovering drug addict Hunter Biden 'broke sober streak ...
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13029782/hunter-biden-party-los-angeles-drugs-sober-mansion/
HUNTER Biden rented a pricey Los Angeles mansion for a party and allegedly "broke his sober streak" after fighting with his new wife weeks ago, according to a new report. Joe Biden's son ...
OpenEyes , 9 hours agoThe Bidens are compromised.
Detain. Interrogate. Jail.
OpenEyes , 8 hours agoIt's coming out that Wray was actually on the other side of the table in Hunter's negotiation for his Chinese "chairman" in the deal to buy into the Russian energy company. Wray was working for the law firm representing the Russian energy company (he made millions there before coming into the FBI). Not only was Wray aware of the crime, he was a player in that deal. No wonder the laptop, and all other evidence, has sat untouched in a dark vault at the FBI for almost a year.
I'm hoping that Trump fires Wray, Haspel and Barr on Wednesday regardless of the election outcome. Then I'm hoping that Wray is facing an indigtment before Christmas.
And Fauci too. God, I hope he gets rid of that slime-ball.
Nov 02, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
Hunter Biden's Story Could Help Hillary Clinton To Become Vice President
The recently revealed business deals of Hunter Biden will strongly influence politics after an eventual Joe Biden win in tomorrows election.
On October 15 the New York Post published a story on Hunter Biden based on data from a laptop Joe Biden's son had left with a repair shop. The Biden family has not disputed that the laptop or the data on it is genuine. Next to the porn on the laptop there were thousand of emails which describe shady deals with a (now defunct) large Chinese energy company , CEFC.
Twitter , Facebook and other media like the Intercept tried to prevent the distribution of the story. They falsely claimed that the information was 'hacked' or unproven. The censorship inevitably made the story more prominent and increased the number of people who learned of it.
A week after the NY Post story ran Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, went public with further allegations against him:
Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, said Wednesday night that he can confirm details regarding his overseas business dealings, including that a reference to a "Big Guy" in a May 13, 2017 email did, in fact, refer to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.In a lengthy statement, Bobulinski identified himself as the CEO of Sinohawk Holdings, a firm he described as "a partnership between the Chinese operating through CEFC/Chairman Ye and the Biden family." He added that Hunter Biden and James Gilliar, another business associate, brought him on as CEO of the venture.
"Hunter Biden called his dad 'the Big Guy' or 'my Chairman,' and frequently referenced asking him for his sign-off or advice on various potential deals that we were discussing," Bobulinski said. "I've seen Vice President Biden saying he never talked to Hunter about his business. I've seen firsthand that that's not true, because it wasn't just Hunter's business, they said they were putting the Biden family name and its legacy on the line."
A number of outlets have each carried various snippets of the whole story of Hunter Biden's very profitable dealings with foreign companies. That has created a confusing picture. Stephen McIntyre, who has done useful investigative research on climate change, Russiagate, and the OPCW shenanigans in Syria, has thankfully created a 19 pages long timeline with all the Biden-China evidence that has so far seen the daylight. He writes:
The Biden family was involved in two major Chinese deals:Nearly all of the interesting texts and emails from 2017 and Bobulinski's information are limited to this second deal. These were only a small fraction of sleazy transactions by Hunter Biden, Devon Archer and associates. Concurrent with this affair were transactions in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Russia as well as participation in major frauds by John Galanis and Jason Sugarman in which Archer (but not so far, Hunter Biden) have been convicted. The texts and emails have been released in a piecemeal and disorganized way. In this article, I'll attempt to re-assemble a narrative of events for the CEFC affair.
- a carried stake in Bohai Harvest Partners Investment Fund. Their interest in this deal began in 2013. Hunter Biden, Devon Archer and James Bulger each had 10% interests. This fund is still active. Bobulinski was not involved in this deal.
- a second deal initiated in 2017 in which the Bidens received $5 million from Chinese energy company CEFC and/or its officers. CEFC had, in a short period, become a huge company and, even more quickly, disintegrated. This second deal was the one involving Patrick Ho, who was arrested in Nov 2017 in US for corruption, Gongwen Dong and its chairman Ye Jianming, who was arrested in China and/or disappeared in March 2018.
...Another timeline of the Hunter Biden affairs with slightly different material has been collected by Seamus Bruner and John Solomon. They write:
The New York Post broke news last week that Joe Biden himself may have benefited from his son's dealings. The Post quoted a cryptic message from one of Hunter's partners, saying that "10 [percent] held by H for the big guy?" The recipient of that message, Tony Bobulinski, says "there is no question" that "H" stands for Hunter and the "big guy" is Joe Biden.
We gain further insight into the operations of Biden Inc. in emails provided to us by Bevan Cooney, a former business associate of Hunter Biden. Cooney, who is currently in prison for his role in the Indian Bond Scheme that is sending Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer also to jail, shared 26,000 emails that show what Hunter's role was in their business ventures. The Biden name was considered "currency" for their foreign business ventures, and was a "direct pipeline" to the Obama-Biden administration. Deals involving Hunter benefited from the "Biden lift," the help that the name would provide in overseas dealings.
What might the Bidens' foreign benefactors have expected in return for all this largesse? We can't say. But some may see a correlation between that foreign money and Joe Biden's policy posture toward the sources of that money.
Stephen McIntyre has promised to update his timeline with the material revealed by the other authors. As McIntyre is always diligent in his work his timeline can be taken as an authoritative source.
While I am still digging through the above collections here my first thoughts on why these matter.
The facts show that Hunter Biden and other traded on and profited from Joe Biden's position by selling his 'influence' to foreign companies. It is likely that Joe Biden at least indirectly also profited from that work.
The evidence is not rumored Russiagate material like the shoddy Steele dossier but real stuff which has legal consequences :
A federal judge named Joe Biden as a possible "witness" along with his son Hunter in a criminal fraud case last year that ended in the convictions of two of Hunter's business partners, according to little-noticed court documents. The Democratic presidential candidate's appearance on a witness list casts new doubt on his claims he knew nothing about his son's shady business dealings.As revenge for Russiagate the Republicans will use the affair to their utmost advantage.
There are only two ways for Joe Biden to prevent Republicans and independent media from further digging into the affair and all the potentially illegal issues it reveals.
- If Joe Biden loses the election the scandal will likely vanish as soon as he retreats from the public view.
- If Joe Biden wins the election the scandal will fester until he resigns.
The second case is especially interesting. Vice President candidate Kamala Harris has been groomed by Hillary Clinton's inner circle since 2017 :
The Democrats' "Great Freshman Hope," Sen. Kamala Harris, is heading to the Hamptons to meet with Hillary Clinton's biggest backers.The California senator is being fêted in Bridgehampton on Saturday at the home of MWWPR guru Michael Kempner, a staunch Clinton supporter who was one of her national-finance co-chairs and a led fund-raiser for her 2008 bid for the presidency. He was also listed as one of the top "bundlers" for Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, having raised $3 million.
Clinton's recent Foreign Affairs piece, A National Security Reckoning - How Washington Should Think About Power , must be seen as a job application for a high position in a Harris (Biden) administration. Removing Joe Biden soon after he has won may well be in Clinton's interest.
Should the somewhat demented Joe Biden leave 'for health reasons' soon after he has been sworn into office Kamala Harris would become President. She then could use the 25th Amendment to select Hillary Clinton as the new Vice President.
If, after a Biden win in the election, Hillary Clinton supporters in the liberul media stop censoring the Hunter Biden affair or even start to further expose it we can be sure that such a scheme is on the verge of being implemented.
Posted by b on November 2, 2020 at 19:07 UTC | Permalink
Jose Garcia , Nov 2 2020 19:27 utc | 1
Bingo. The Clintons are never too far away from all political shenanigans that go on in the US. They and their cohorts were called the Southern Mafia for a reason.lysias , Nov 2 2020 19:29 utc | 2Once LBJ became president, the corruption case against him quickly disappeared.lysias , Nov 2 2020 19:31 utc | 3If Kamala Harris does this, she must have a death wish.Perimetr , Nov 2 2020 19:33 utc | 4As I suggested once before on MoA, Harris was chosen by the Clintons. B has explained why. ,Ghost Ship , Nov 2 2020 19:35 utc | 5Once Hillary is VP, something happens to Harris and Hillary becomes president.Christian J. Chuba , Nov 2 2020 19:41 utc | 6A Joe Biden impeachment if guilty of payouts from China would be a victory of our system of checks and balances. Still not voting for Trump.Jackrabbit , Nov 2 2020 19:49 utc | 7Steele Dossier update I read that the primary source for Steele was Ms. Galkina, basically a nobody creating fiction for pay and not a 'a high ranking Kremlin official'. Does this mean that the Trump Shills like Don Jr, Hannity, Ingraham, et al will stop calling it Russian misinformation sent to the Democrats to attack Donald Trump?
This is plausible.Down South , Nov 2 2020 19:53 utc | 8Hillary as Pres. or V. Pres. is the only reason why the Deep State might prefer Biden over Trump.
!!
It explains why they chose Joe Biden as presidential candidate even though he is clearly not up to the job. He is to be the expendable Trojan horse through which some very unpalatable to the public people will gain power they otherwise would not have been able to.Jpc , Nov 2 2020 19:57 utc | 9This should worry those who will vote for Biden. What they are voting for and what they are going to get is not the same thing.
The US electorate have been grossly deceived by the MSM and social (hah!) media providers.Down South , Nov 2 2020 19:58 utc | 10Paul Damascene , Nov 2 2020 20:02 utc | 11after an eventual Joe Biden win in tomorrows electionI don't agree with this though.
I think Trump is going to win.
Useful clarity, b, as always.Daniel Lynch , Nov 2 2020 20:02 utc | 12
Not sure I can agree that Republican reps will drag this into the light post election.
My impression was that they didn't go into Ukraine defense at impeachment was that the campaign finance / money laundering / influence peddling gravy train there, as elsewhere, probably, was and is bipartisan.I can buy everything B is saying, but who exactly will investigate President Biden if D's win both Houses of Congress?urblintz , Nov 2 2020 20:05 utc | 13Bill Barr could start an investigation, if one has not already been started, but government moves slowly so it is hard to see the Trump administration bringing charges before Biden is sworn in.
But if Hillary wants to throw Biden under the bus after the election, well she could probably do so.
@#10Wind Hippo , Nov 2 2020 20:16 utc | 14
Alas, DS... no one wins here. We all lose, either way.The best arguments against life extension science are people like Clinton, Biden, and Pelosi. Imagine them as speaker or senator or Supreme Court justice for the next 1000 years.james , Nov 2 2020 20:18 utc | 15thanks b... as jr the bunny notes - this is plausible... the clintons sure are creepy... this is a good halloween story..Old and Grumpy , Nov 2 2020 20:24 utc | 16Wouldn't the 25th amendment be the desired method of transferring power to Harris? Although it has always struck me a wee bit odd that the computer repairman called the FBI after making a copy, which in turn he gave to Rudy Giuliana. Do all computer repairmen have Rudy on speed dial by any chance? Sadly the weird of the whole scenario is very Clintonian. How long til an Arkancide or two happens. Can't the Clintons just go away for good?Bill , Nov 2 2020 20:35 utc | 17
@ Daniel Lynch | Nov 2 2020 20:02 utc | 12pnyx , Nov 2 2020 20:37 utc | 18The democrats will investigate and kick Biden out. The democrats knew all along that this stuff about Biden was real but they had no chance to win with the other losers. So, the order was given to the others to drop from the race and let strawman Biden beat Bernie. If Biden gets elected, they will bring all his dirt up, impeach him and govern from the shadows through Kamala who has no principles and questionable character (e.g., slept with Willie to move her career up).
Or maybe Harris poisons Biden to speed things up and invites Micky Mouse to become her vice president.Tsar Nicholas , Nov 2 2020 20:37 utc | 19Come on B, this is really clumsy, below your standard. We all know that Biden is corrupt, but we also know that Tronald is even more corrupt, that he is a fascist who has filled every post in his administration with the most disgusting reactionary you can find in the country. And that means something. The man belongs to scrap iron. One cannot reject the bad in favor of the even worse. That is irrational.
Biden will not win, MoA. You were also wrong about Covid-19.NemesisCalling , Nov 2 2020 20:49 utc | 20Yes, this has been hinted on by my local conservative radio host since Pelosi introduced legislation re: removing unfit presidents about a month ago.oldhippie , Nov 2 2020 21:08 utc | 21It was always about removing Biden, if he were elected, not Trump.
Biden has never struck me during his whole campaign of a genuine interest in the presidency.
It has always seemed more like he was doing it begrudgingly for "the cause."
Contrast this to the emotion Trump exhibited during his 2016 run when he gripped and nearly ripped his notes in anger after a debate with Hillary Clinton ended. Or how he sat stone-faced during Obama's speech during a white house correspondence dinner where Obama tore into Trump and the audience roared with laughter. Trump just stared right back.
These are pieces any sane person can put together with the understanding that these men are all still subject to egoism and revenge. It is not all elites against us as some simpletons wish to boil it down to. It is much more subtle and so you must use discernment and study their tells and what gives their true desires away.
lulu , Nov 2 2020 21:10 utc | 22
Hillary is so unlikely to have authored the Foreign Affairs article. Staff work. Whose staff? Uninteresting to pursue. Other than that appearance Hills has been very quiet. Suspiciously quiet. Could be that Obama or whoever succeeded in shutting her up, that would have been daunting and just plain hard. Better bet is her health is failing.b, you may need to check this story:teri , Nov 2 2020 21:11 utc | 23Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai 's right-hand man "I'm not a spy" Mark Simon falls on his sword for the Hunter Biden story .
In short, Mark Simon took initiative and gave $10,000 to a guy called Crhistopher Balding , an associate professor at Beijing University and late moved to Vietnam on Fulbright Scholarship, to prepare and disseminate the "Aspen dossier" detailing supposed Chinese influence ops targeting the Biden family basing an the "info/disinformation" from a supposed Swiss investigator Martin Aspen.
After NBC article exposes Martin Aspen is actually an AI-created persona, Jimmy Lai, who depends on the support from USG to continue his anti-China activities in HK, publicly distance himself from the whole operation, and his trusted lieutenant Mark Simon, a possible CIA agent, announced his resignation from Apple Daily after Balding exposed his involvement. Detail here
Okay, sleazy and yet very normal (one might say habitual) corruption in a US political family. But by 2017, Joe Biden was out of office, and there is nothing that suggests that he, rather than his repulsive son, was profiting before that.Plymouth Rock , Nov 2 2020 21:13 utc | 24
The stake in the Bohai Harvest Partners Investment Fund (2013) does not name Joe Biden as an investor at all.This may be why the FBI, the media, and even Glenn Greenwald in his article, say that there is nothing in this pile of dog crap that implicates Joe Biden at this point.
All very plausible, all very Byzantine and decadent. The "United States of America" is in the midst of decay and breakup, which will occur no matter who is "elected" or otherwise gains power, legally or militarily. It is only a question of which "gang in power" -to use Murray Rothbard's phrase- is running your successor state.lulu , Nov 2 2020 21:25 utc | 25c1ue , Nov 2 2020 21:29 utc | 26
How a fake persona laid the groundwork for a Hunter Biden conspiracy deluge .A quick search on BHR Partners , it says:
According to The New Yorker, in June 2013, "[Jonathan] Li, Archer, and other business partners signed a memorandum of understanding to create the fund, which they named BHR Partners, and, in November, they signed contracts related to the deal. Hunter became an unpaid member of BHR's board but did not take an equity stake in BHR Partners until after his father left the White House →".The Aspen Dossier was peddled by Balding to right wing websites, which then first published in mid-Sept and now got the momentum.
The notion that the Democrats will allow their party name to be associated with a deposed Democrat President seems more than far-fetched.Norwegian , Nov 2 2020 21:31 utc | 27
Far more likely is that the "investigation" will drag on long enough to fade from public view, then quietly pardon everyone.
This Biden to Harris to HRC seems much more like a plot for a fantasy/spy novel.Stephen McIntyre is a very credible source. I have followed his climate work, it is top notch.H.Schmatz , Nov 2 2020 21:33 utc | 28Hillary Clinton as vice president? Who could have guessed? /s She will have the same role as Cheney had over Bush. A nightmare scenario.
Meanwhile...we are being distracted by the Huntergate ...an autum of terror in being prepared in Europe...H.Schmatz , Nov 2 2020 21:36 utc | 29At least 150 private military contractors have been transported to Europe on Pentagon-chartered flights over the last weeks, including from Benghazi, #Libya via #Malta to Sofia, #Bulgariahttps://twitter.com/dgaytandzhieva/status/1322605905054257155
Posted by: H.Schmatz | Nov 2 2020 21:33 utc | 28Sunny Runny Burger , Nov 2 2020 21:40 utc | 30Someone also added to this:
Harris could simply resign some weeks after Clinton II gets the VP, Harris could do so for any reason but if it was me writing the script I would cook up some mumbo jumbo about "clean slate", "not yet ready", "for the sake of blah-blah" and so on.vk , Nov 2 2020 21:47 utc | 31That way Harris can come back and fill the gap between Clinton II and Clinton III (no prizes for guessing who).
Not that I don't think the US won't be gone long before that can happen or won't be in a civil war if any of it does or maybe from Biden or the "election" alone.
I agree with many here: looks like a typical political elite family corruption (Roman-style corruption).Willy2 , Nov 2 2020 21:51 utc | 32But I have a theory: with Reagan's hegemony (1980-1992), the old Democrat elites were wiped out. The Democratic Party came near to extinction, the USA almost becoming a single-party nation. Reagan looked invincible, the consensus he commanded among the American people incontestable. He easily elected his successor (George H. W. Bush).
The Democrats were reborn, like a Phoenix, thanks to a huge transformation: the rise of the so-called "Southern Democrats". This newly-born faction, much more conservative, had one clear leadership: Bill Clinton, from Arkansas.
Bill Clinton then surprisingly won against George H. W. Bush and got extremely lucky: he got the USSR in tatters, ready for the sack. The ransacking of the Soviet Sphere marked the only time after the post-war miracle (1945-1974) when the USA registered a trade surplus (+38%).
This ransacking, in my theory, generated the rise of a new set of families of a new Democrat elite. All of then are vassals to the Clinton family (as we can deduce from the de facto fusion between the Clinton Foundation and the DNC), but each got the right to a piece of the ex-Soviet cake. Victoria Nuland, for example, got the telecommunication industries of the ex-Yugoslavia through her husband. My guess is the Bidens are part of this new, "Southern Democrat" elite, hence their casual connections with ex-Soviet states and mafias.
Everything must have been done quickly and hastily, as Bill Clinton wasn't able to elect his successor (Al Gore). This realization that "time was short" may explain the apparent amateurish partition of the ex-socialist cake by those families. Hence the laptop episode.
The Obama phenomenon may be easily explained: the crisis of 2008 prompted Wall Street to enter the field because they needed the bailout (Bush's Congress blocked the bailout in November 2008, putting the Texan on his knees) to pass as soon as January 2009. Hilary Clinton was senator for New York (you cannot be elected in NY without Wall Street's consent), so it wasn't that she was in any position to rig the DNC at that moment. Penny Pritzker somehow convinced Wall Street moguls Obama (senator from Illinois, USA's second financial center) was the better candidate to the task. Even then, Hilary competed with Obama, and there were primaries, so the process wasn't as smooth as many alt-rightists like to tell us today. Plus, Hilary was still young, so she had time: she may have calculated Obama would be left to clean the shit from the crisis and she would reap the economic recovery as his successor; that Obama survived and easily got reelected is merely one of those windfalls of destiny.
Anyhow, the fact is that Obama disappeared after his second term and the Clintons came back to the forefront of the Democratic Party. This is an indication he was more of a detour on the party's project, the Southern Democrats never really losing grip. I don't think the Bidens are, therefore, part of Obama's entourage, but of the Clinton's.
- When I read that Hillary Clinton has put out a job application then I almost want Trump to win the presidential election of 2020.lulu , Nov 2 2020 21:58 utc | 33
- There was one person who said that the choice between Clinton and Trump (in 2016) and Biden and Trump (in 2020) was the choice between having typhoid and having cholera.Quick check on Chinese webiste, the exact name of the joint fund Hunter Biden's company participated is Bohai Harvest RST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Co. Ltd , a sub fund of Bohai Harvest Partners Investment Fund.Sakineh Bagoom , Nov 2 2020 22:03 utc | 34Its aim is to use Shanghai FTA to covert Chinese Yuan to dollar to invest overseas.
(Somehow, I personally doubt this kind of funds could be used by rich Chinese tycoons and corrupt officials to shift their illegal gains out of China.)
As mention above, Hunter was unpaid board member of BHR and didn't have an equity stake in BHR Partners .
Obviously, it looks rather nepotism, but isn't it the fact that lots of relatives of the American (Chinese, European, Japanes, etc.) politicians have been doing these kind dubious business deals all the time?
Are any patriotic Trump supporters making a big fuss about this: Wilbur Ross Remained on Chinese Joint Venture Board While Running U.S.-China Trade War .
Probably, the pot shouldn't call the kettle black?
I don't know b. Too many if, then, elses, for this nirvana to occur.SteveLaudig , Nov 2 2020 22:05 utc | 35
I'll bide/bite my time and wait.Hunter was quite the sleaze an "honorary" Trump family member.Jackrabbit , Nov 2 2020 22:05 utc | 36I don't know much abou the Hillary-Kamala relationship but I do know that Hillary is prehaps the only person that Congress can agree on to be VP.Carlton Meyer , Nov 2 2020 22:15 utc | 37Fact check: If the vice president becomes president, House speaker doesn't become new VP
"Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress," Section 2 of the amendment explains.
!!Biden is a petty criminal compared to the Clinton crime family.oldhippie , Nov 2 2020 22:15 utc | 38Her role in massive arms smuggling from Benghazi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc4wrSIOUxc
And the coup in Honduras: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3RXl3u9oxw
Vk@31S , Nov 2 2020 22:16 utc | 39Penny Pritzker? Where do you come up with this stuff? She's a nasty piece of work all right but that she moved Wall Street or played kingmaker is just absurd.
Penny couldn't even manage basic South Side real estate swindles without buckets of help. Including from Obama. Who has a long family pedigree and outranks Pritzkers in every way.
@Christian J. Chuba #6lulu , Nov 2 2020 22:16 utc | 40I read that the primary source for Steele was Ms. Galkina, basically a nobody creating fiction for pay and not a 'a high ranking Kremlin official'. Does this mean that the Trump Shills like Don Jr, Hannity, Ingraham, et al will stop calling it Russian misinformation sent to the Democrats to attack Donald Trump?You might have missed this, but it has been established by U.S. scientists that Russians are not animals. Russians is a giant fungal mycelium that may form animal mimic fruiting bodies colloquially known as "Russian individuals". Thus, while it may appear to you that Galkina is a separate organism, in reality "she" is a mere outgrowth of Russians. Any action taken by "her" is an action of the entire organism. That is why any time a Russian fruiting body misbehaves, the sanctions are imposed on the entire mycelium. Hope this helps.
Suddenly , some of the woke liberals and MSM journos start to doubt the corrupt Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui aka Miles Kwok, a fugitive, and MSM's mostly beloved master of Chinese "leaker", is working for CCP(!) and begin to expose his undemocratic behavour:vk , Nov 2 2020 22:19 utc | 41
- Guo Wengui Is Sending Mobs After Chinese Dissidents
- They once peddled misinformation for Guo Wengui and Steve Bannon. Now they're speaking outAll because of his involvement of collecting/making-up disinformation "leaks" about Biden family?
@ Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 2 2020 22:15 utc | 38gottlieb , Nov 2 2020 22:21 utc | 42She was Obama's main fundraiser I think. This is public knowledge.
Obama raised double of what John McCain did. It was a comfortable victory.
I think Biden was chosen, because no one wanted him, as a 'consensus candidate' against Bernie Sanders. Sanders is a much more existential threat to the 'establishment' than Donald Trump. And yeah, sheep dog etc. the point is the ideas behind Sanders - to begin mitigation of corporate power - is the enemy.Bemildred , Nov 2 2020 22:29 utc | 43Hillary Clinton? If the plan is to seal the deal for a third party movement to actually rival the two-party monopoly, then good plan.
Posted by: lulu | Nov 2 2020 22:16 utc | 40Jen , Nov 2 2020 22:38 utc | 44Yeah, no doubt they suckered Hunter, then saved the laptop for October while making up a story for how they got it. I have always felt - I won't say thought - that the whole story stunk, it was just too convenient, the timing too perfect, the scandal too juicy, and Trump is a vindictive person, it's payback. Perhaps they enhanced the contents a bit too. If there is an investigation, it could be interesting.
B's prediction that Joe Biden being pushed out early during his first term as President, either because of Hunter Biden's scandals or his own worsening dementia, to be replaced by Kamala Harris as President who would then nominate The Klintonator as her VP, will depend on Biden winning the Presidency.james , Nov 2 2020 22:50 utc | 45The way the election seems to be going - I have seen some news that an Australian news reporter in the US, monitoring the news polls and speaking to people, is confused because while the polls predict a Biden win, the majority of the people he talks to (I presume he travels quite a lot and speaks to people of very different backgrounds and communities) are voting for Trump - the results may be very close, they will depend on votes coming from US voters casting votes overseas or mail-in votes, the Electoral College voting may be very close and I hazard that the final result may not be known until December.
Plenty of time then for both Democrats and Republicans to accuse each other of stalling on the results, for fighting to break out all around the nation, and cities to try to enforce lockdowns to the extent of calling in the military. Perhaps when civil war breaks out, someone will propose some kind of unity government, Congress in its panic will agree and somehow The Klintonator manages to wangle her way into the Presidency or a position as Secretary of Defense or Secretary of State.
here is a post from someone at sst - jersey jeffersonian - quoting from a website... i don't know if or how much of this is true, but it goes with all of this..lysias , Nov 2 2020 22:57 utc | 46"It seems now that Chris Wray's FBI was sitting on the Hunter Biden laptop, too.
And probably, beyond permitting the whole impeachment farago to plow ahead by hiding evidence supportive of President Trump's actions, or lack thereof, in Ukraine, because certain activities in which Wray had been involved earlier might come back to haunt him. Here is a passage quoted from James Kunstler's blog post of this morning on this point:
"...here's a strange Swamp sidelight to all this: CEFC's main exploit during the Biden hook-up years was the purchase of a 14 percent stake in Russia's oil-and-gas giant, Rosneft, to help China circumvent US sanctions on Russia's oil sales. Guess who was one of the lawyers working for Rosneft: Christopher Wray, just before he became FBI director. And guess who has been sitting on Hunter Biden's laptop since at least December of 2019. Oh, the FBI. And guess what else: the Rosneft files have since been deleted by Mr. Wray's old law firm, King and Spalding."
Recall here Biden's negotiations with the head of CEFC, Ho Chiping, to establish a humongous LPG facility in Louisiana (see the referenced blog post for more information)." here is the website link as well for the specific quote - The Awful Reckoning
When the last serious dispute about who had won a presidential election occurred, in 1876, they had four months between the election and the inauguration of the new president to resolve the matter, and then the dispute was only resolved at the last moment, just before the inauguration date.JoeG , Nov 2 2020 23:00 utc | 47Now, with the inauguration date moved back from March to December, they will have considerably less time to resolve a dispute.
Trump has already won FL.
The early voting makes that clear.
https://joeisdone.github.io/florida/
← Previous Next → Frank P Huguenard Oct 29Oct 31, 2020 | greenwald.substack.com
An attempt to assess the importance of the known evidence, and a critique of media lies to protect their favored candidate, could not be published at The Intercept Oct 29 675 380
I am posting here the most recent draft of my article about Joe and Hunter Biden -- the last one seen by Intercept editors before telling me that they refuse to publish it absent major structural changes involving the removal of all sections critical of Joe Biden, leaving only a narrow article critiquing media outlets. I will also, in a separate post, publish all communications I had with Intercept editors surrounding this article so you can see the censorship in action and, given the Intercept's denials, decide for yourselves (this is the kind of transparency responsible journalists provide, and which the Intercept refuses to this day to provide regarding their conduct in the Reality Winner story). This draft obviously would have gone through one more round of proof-reading and editing by me -- to shorten it, fix typos, etc -- but it's important for the integrity of the claims to publish the draft in unchanged form that Intercept editors last saw, and announced that they would not "edit" but completely gut as a condition to publication:
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TITLE: THE REAL SCANDAL: U.S. MEDIA USES FALSEHOODS TO DEFEND JOE BIDEN FROM HUNTER'S EMAILS
Publication by the New York Post two weeks ago of emails from Hunter Biden's laptop, relating to Vice President Joe Biden's work in Ukraine , and subsequent articles from other outlets concerning the Biden family's pursuit of business opportunities in China , provoked extraordinary efforts by a de facto union of media outlets, Silicon Valley giants and the intelligence community to suppress these stories.
One outcome is that the Biden campaign concluded, rationally, that there is no need for the front-running presidential candidate to address even the most basic and relevant questions raised by these materials. Rather than condemn Biden for ignoring these questions -- the natural instinct of a healthy press when it comes to a presidential election -- journalists have instead led the way in concocting excuses to justify his silence.
After the Post's first article, both that newspaper and other news outlets have published numerous other emails and texts purportedly written to and from Hunter reflecting his efforts to induce his father to take actions as Vice President beneficial to the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, on whose board of directors Hunter sat for a monthly payment of $50,000, as well as proposals for lucrative business deals in China that traded on his influence with his father.
Individuals included in some of the email chains have confirmed the contents' authenticity . One of Hunter's former business partners, Tony Bubolinski, has stepped forward on the record to confirm the authenticity of many of the emails and to insist that Hunter along with Joe Biden's brother Jim were planning on including the former Vice President in at least one deal in China. And GOP pollster Frank Luntz, who appeared in one of the published email chains, appeared to confirm the authenticity as well, though he refused to answer follow-up questions about it.
Thus far, no proof has been offered by Bubolinski that Biden ever consummated his participation in any of those discussed deals. The Wall Street Journal says that it found no corporate records reflecting that a deal was finalized and that "text messages and emails related to the venture that were provided to the Journal by Mr. Bobulinski, mainly from the spring and summer of 2017, don't show either Hunter Biden or James Biden discussing a role for Joe Biden in the venture."
But nobody claimed that any such deals had been consummated -- so the conclusion that one had not been does not negate the story. Moreover, some texts and emails whose authenticity has not been disputed state that Hunter was adamant that any discussions about the involvement of the Vice President be held only verbally and never put in writing.
Beyond that, the Journal's columnist Kimberly Strassel reviewed a stash of documents and "found correspondence corroborates and expands on emails recently published by the New York Post," including ones where Hunter was insisting that it was his connection to his father that was the greatest asset sought by the Chinese conglomerate with whom they were negotiating. The New York Times on Sunday reached a similar conclusion : while no documents prove that such a deal was consummated, "records produced by Mr. Bobulinski show that in 2017, Hunter Biden and James Biden were involved in negotiations about a joint venture with a Chinese energy and finance company called CEFC China Energy," and "make clear that Hunter Biden saw the family name as a valuable asset, angrily citing his 'family's brand' as a reason he is valuable to the proposed venture."
These documents also demonstrate, reported the Times, "that the countries that Hunter Biden, James Biden and their associates planned to target for deals overlapped with nations where Joe Biden had previously been involved as vice president." Strassel noted that "a May 2017 'expectations' document shows Hunter receiving 20% of the equity in the venture and holding another 10% for 'the big guy' -- who Mr. Bobulinski attests is Joe Biden." And the independent journalist Matt Taibbi published an article on Sunday with ample documentation suggesting that Biden's attempt to replace a Ukranian prosecutor in 2015 benefited Burisma.
All of these new materials, the authenticity of which has never been disputed by Hunter Biden or the Biden campaign, raise important questions about whether the former Vice President and current front-running presidential candidate was aware of efforts by his son to peddle influence with the Vice President for profit, and also whether the Vice President ever took actions in his official capacity with the intention, at least in part, of benefitting his son's business associates. But in the two weeks since the Post published its initial story, a union of the nation's most powerful entities, including its news media, have taken extraordinary steps to obscure and bury these questions rather than try to provide answers to them.
The initial documents, claimed the New York Post, were obtained when the laptops containing them were left at a Delaware repair shop with water damage and never picked up, allowing the owner to access its contents and then turn them over to both the FBI and a lawyer for Trump advisor Rudy Giuliani. The repair store owner confirmed this narrative in interviews with news outlets and then (under penalty of prosecution) to a Senate Committee; he also provided the receipt purportedly signed by Hunter. Neither Hunter nor the Biden campaign has denied these claims.
Publication of that initial New York Post story provoked a highly unusual censorship campaign by Facebook and Twitter. Facebook, through a long-time former Democratic Party operative, vowed to suppress the story pending its "fact-check," one that has as of yet produced no public conclusions. And while Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey apologized for Twitter's handling of the censorship and reversed the policy that led to the blocking of all links the story, the New York Post, the nation's fourth-largest newspaper, continues to be locked out of its Twitter account, unable to post as the election approaches, for almost two weeks.
After that initial censorship burst from Silicon Valley, whose workforce and oligarchs have donated almost entirely to the Biden campaign, it was the nation's media outlets and former CIA and other intelligence officials who took the lead in constructing reasons why the story should be dismissed, or at least treated with scorn. As usual for the Trump era, the theme that took center stage to accomplish this goal was an unsubstantiated claim about the Kremlin responsibility for the story.
Numerous news outlets, including the Intercept , quickly cited a public letter signed by former CIA officials and other agents of the security state claiming that the documents have the "classic trademarks" of a "Russian disinformation" plot. But, as media outlets and even intelligence agencies are now slowly admitting, no evidence has ever been presented to corroborate this assertion. On Friday, the New York Times reported that "no concrete evidence has emerged that the laptop contains Russian disinformation" and the paper said even the FBI has "acknowledged that it had not found any Russian disinformation on the laptop."
The Washington Post on Sunday published an op-ed -- by Thomas Rid, one of those centrists establishmentarian professors whom media outlets routinely use to provide the facade of expert approval for deranged conspiracy theories -- that contained this extraordinary proclamation: "We must treat the Hunter Biden leaks as if they were a foreign intelligence operation -- even if they probably aren't."
Even the letter from the former intelligence officials cited by The Intercept and other outlets to insinuate that this was all part of some "Russian disinformation" scheme explicitly admitted that "we do not have evidence of Russian involvement," though many media outlets omitted that crucial acknowledgement when citing the letter in order to disparage the story as a Kremlin plot:
Despite this complete lack of evidence, the Biden campaign adopted this phrase used by intelligence officials and media outlets as its mantra for why the materials should not be discussed and why they would not answer basic questions about them. "I think we need to be very, very clear that what he's doing here is amplifying Russian misinformation," said Biden Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield about the possibility that Trump would raise the Biden emails at Thursday night's debate. Biden's senior advisor Symone Sanders similarly warned on MSNBC : "if the president decides to amplify these latest smears against the vice president and his only living son, that is Russian disinformation."
The few mainstream journalists who tried merely to discuss these materials have been vilified. For the crime of simply noting it on Twitter that first day, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman had her name trend all morning along with the derogatory nickname "MAGA Haberman." CBS News' Bo Erickson was widely attacked even by his some in the media simply for asking Biden what his response to the story was. And Biden himself refused to answer, accusing Erickson of spreading a "smear."
That it is irresponsible and even unethical to mention these documents became a pervasive view in mainstream journalism. The NPR Public Editor, in an anazing statement representative of much of the prevailing media mentality, explicitly justified NPR's refusal to cover the story on the ground that "we do not want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories . . . [or] waste the readers' and listeners' time on stories that are just pure distractions."
NPR Public Editor @NPRpubliceditor Why haven't you seen any stories from NPR about the NY Post's Hunter Biden story? Read more in this week's newsletter➡️ tinyurl.com/y67vlzj2October 22nd 2020
7,781 Retweets 20,498 LikesTo justify her own show's failure to cover the story, 60 Minutes' Leslie Stahl resorted to an entirely different justification . "It can't be verified," the CBS reporter claimed when confronted by President Trump in an interview about her program's failure to cover the Hunter Biden documents. When Trump insisted there were multiple ways to verify the materials on the laptop, Stahl simply repeated the same phrase : "it can't be verified."
After the final presidential debate on Thursday night, a CNN panel mocked the story as too complex and obscure for anyone to follow -- a self-fulfilling prophecy given that, as the network's media reporter Brian Stelter noted with pride , the story has barely been mentioned either on CNN or MSNBC. As the New York Times noted on Friday : "most viewers of CNN and MSNBC would not have heard much about the unconfirmed Hunter Biden emails.... CNN's mentions of "Hunter" peaked at 20 seconds and MSNBC's at 24 seconds one day last week."
On Sunday, CNN's Christiane Amanpour barely pretended to be interested in any journalism surrounding the story, scoffing during an interview at requests from the RNC's Elizabeth Harrington to cover the story and verify the documents by telling her: "We're not going to do your work for you." Watch how the U.S.'s most mainstream journalists are openly announcing their refusal to even consider what these documents might reflect about the Democratic front-runner:
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/oSB_fQHbSiA?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0
These journalists are desperate not to know. As Taibbi wrote on Sunday about this tawdry press spectacle: " The least curious people in the country right now appear to be the credentialed news media, a situation normally unique to tinpot authoritarian societies."
All of those excuses and pretexts -- emanating largely from a national media that is all but explicit in their eagerness for Biden to win -- served for the first week or more after the Post story to create a cone of silence around this story and, to this very day, a protective shield for Biden. As a result, the front-running presidential candidate knows that he does not have to answer even the most basic questions about these documents because most of the national press has already signaled that they will not press him to do so; to the contrary, they will concoct defenses on his behalf to avoid discussing it.
The relevant questions for Biden raised by this new reporting are as glaring as they are important. Yet Biden has had to answer very few of them yet because he has not been asked and, when he has, media outlets have justified his refusal to answer rather than demand that he do so. We submitted nine questions to his campaign about these documents that the public has the absolute right to know, including:
whether he claims any the emails or texts are fabricated (and, if so, which specific ones);
whether he knows if Hunter did indeed drop off laptops at the Delaware repair store;
whether Hunter ever asked him to meet with Burisma executives or whether he in fact did so;
whether Biden ever knew about business proposals in Ukraine or China being pursued by his son and brother in which Biden was a proposed participant and,
how Biden could justify expending so much energy as Vice President demanding that the Ukrainian General Prosecutor be fired, and why the replacement -- Yuriy Lutsenko, someone who had no experience in law ; was a crony of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko; and himself had a history of corruption allegations -- was acceptable if Biden's goal really was to fight corruption in Ukraine rather than benefit Burisma or control Ukrainian internal affairs for some other objective.
Though the Biden campaign indicated that they would respond to the Intercept's questions, they have not done so. A statement they released to other outlets contains no answers to any of these questions except to claim that Biden "has never even considered being involved in business with his family, nor in any business overseas." To date, even as the Biden campaign echoes the baseless claims of media outlets that anyone discussing this story is "amplifying Russian disinformation," neither Hunter Biden nor the Biden campaign have even said whether they claim the emails and other documents -- which they and the press continue to label "Russian disinformation" -- are forgeries or whether they are authentic.
The Biden campaign clearly believes it has no need to answer any of these questions by virtue of a panoply of media excuses offered on its behalf that collapse upon the most minimal scrutiny:
First , the claim that the material is of suspect authenticity or cannot be verified -- the excuse used on behalf of Biden by Leslie Stahl and Christiane Amanpour, among others -- is blatantly false for numerous reasons. As someone who has reported similar large archives in partnership with numerous media outlets around the world (including the Snowden archive in 2014 and the Intercept's Brazil Archive over the last year showing corruption by high-level Bolsonaro officials ), and who also covered the reporting of similar archives by other outlets (the Panama Papers, the WikiLeaks war logs of 2010 and DNC/Podesta emails of 2016), it is clear to me that the trove of documents from Hunter Biden's emails has been verified in ways quite similar to those.
With an archive of this size, one can never independently authenticate every word in every last document unless the subject of the reporting voluntarily confirms it in advance, which they rarely do. What has been done with similar archives is journalists obtain enough verification to create high levels of journalistic confidence in the materials. Some of the materials provided by the source can be independently confirmed, proving genuine access by the source to a hard drive, a telephone, or a database. Other parties in email chains can confirm the authenticity of the email or text conversations in which they participated. One investigates non-public facts contained in the documents to determine that they conform to what the documents reflect. Technology specialists can examine the materials to ensure no signs of forgeries are detected.
This is the process that enabled the largest and most established media outlets around the world to report similar large archives obtained without authorization. In those other cases, no media outlet was able to verify every word of every document prior to publication. There was no way to prove the negative that the source or someone else had not altered or forged some of the material. That level of verification is both unattainable and unnecessary. What is needed is substantial evidence to create high confidence in the authentication process.
The Hunter Biden documents have at least as much verification as those other archives that were widely reported. There are sources in the email chains who have verified that the published emails are accurate. The archive contains private photos and videos of Hunter whose authenticity is not in doubt. A former business partner of Hunter has stated, unequivocally and on the record, that not only are the emails authentic but they describe events accurately, including proposed participation by the former Vice President in at least one deal Hunter and Jim Biden were pursuing in China. And, most importantly of all, neither Hunter Biden nor the Biden campaign has even suggested, let alone claimed, that a single email or text is fake.
Why is the failure of the Bidens to claim that these emails are forged so significant? Because when journalists report on a massive archive, they know that the most important event in the reporting's authentication process comes when the subjects of the reporting have an opportunity to deny that the materials are genuine. Of course that is what someone would do if major media outlets were preparing to publish, or in fact were publishing, fabricated or forged materials in their names; they would say so in order to sow doubt about the materials if not kill the credibility of the reporting.
The silence of the Bidens may not be dispositive on the question of the material's authenticity, but when added to the mountain of other authentication evidence, it is quite convincing: at least equal to the authentication evidence in other reporting on similarly large archives.
Second , the oft-repeated claim from news outlets and CIA operatives that the published emails and texts were "Russian disinformation" was, from the start, obviously baseless and reckless. No evidence -- literally none -- has been presented to suggest involvement by any Russians in the dissemination of these materials, let alone that it was part of some official plot by Moscow. As always, anything is possible -- when one does not know for certain what the provenance of materials is, nothing can be ruled out -- but in journalism, evidence is required before news outlets can validly start blaming some foreign government for the release of information. And none has ever been presented. Yet the claim that this was "Russian disinformation" was published in countless news outlets, television broadcasts, and the social media accounts of journalists, typically by pointing to the evidence-free claims of ex-CIA officials.
Worse is the "disinformation" part of the media's equation. How can these materials constitute "disinformation" if they are authentic emails and texts actually sent to and from Hunter Biden? The ease with which news outlets that are supposed to be skeptical of evidence-free pronouncements by the intelligence community instead printed their assertions about "Russian disinformation" is alarming in the extreme. But they did it because they instinctively wanted to find a reason to justify ignoring the contents of these emails, so claiming that Russia was behind it, and that the materials were "disinformation," became their placeholder until they could figure out what else they should say to justify ignoring these documents.
Third , the media rush to exonerate Biden on the question of whether he engaged in corruption vis-a-vis Ukraine and Burisma rested on what are, at best, factually dubious defenses of the former Vice President. Much of this controversy centers on Biden's aggressive efforts while Vice President in late 2015 to force the Ukrainian government to fire its Chief Prosecutor, Viktor Shokhin, and replace him with someone acceptable to the U.S., which turned out to be Yuriy Lutsenko. These events are undisputed by virtue of a video of Biden boasting in front of an audience of how he flew to Kiev and forced the Ukrainians to fire Shokhin, upon pain of losing $1 billion in aid.
But two towering questions have long been prompted by these events, and the recently published emails make them more urgent than ever: 1) was the firing of the Ukrainian General Prosecutor such a high priority for Biden as Vice President of the U.S. because of his son's highly lucrative role on the board of Burisma, and 2) if that was not the motive, why was it so important for Biden to dictate who the chief prosecutor of Ukraine was?
The standard answer to the question about Biden's motive -- offered both by Biden and his media defenders -- is that he, along with the IMF and EU, wanted Shokhin fired because the U.S. and its allies were eager to clean up Ukraine, and they viewed Shokhin as insufficiently vigilant in fighting corruption.
"Biden's brief was to sweet-talk and jawbone Poroshenko into making reforms that Ukraine's Western benefactors wanted to see as," wrote the Washington Post's Glenn Kessler in what the Post calls a "fact-check." Kessler also endorsed the key defense of Biden: that the firing of Shokhin was bad for Burima, not good for it. "The United States viewed [Shokhin] 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," Kessler claims.
But that claim does not even pass the laugh test. The U.S. and its European allies are not opposed to corruption by their puppet regimes. They are allies with the most corrupt regimes on the planet, from Riyadh to Cairo, and always have been. Since when does the U.S. devote itself to ensuring good government in the nations it is trying to control? If anything, allowing corruption to flourish has been a key tool in enabling the U.S. to exert power in other countries and to open up their markets to U.S. companies.
Beyond that, if increasing prosecutorial independence and strengthening anti-corruption vigilance were really Biden's goal in working to demand the firing of the Ukrainian chief prosecutor, why would the successor to Shokhin, Yuriy Lutsenko, possibly be acceptable? Lutsenko, after all, had "no legal background as general prosecutor," was principally known only as a lackey of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, was forced in 2009 to "resign as interior minister after being detained by police at Frankfurt airport for being drunk and disorderly," and "was subsequently jailed for embezzlement and abuse of office, though his defenders said the sentence was politically motivated."
Is it remotely convincing to you that Biden would have accepted someone like Lutsenko if his motive really were to fortify anti-corruption prosecutions in Ukraine? Yet that's exactly what Biden did: he personally told Poroshenko that Lutsenko was an acceptable alternative and promptly released the $1 billion after his appointment was announced. Whatever Biden's motive was in using his power as U.S. Vice President to change the prosecutor in Ukraine, his acceptance of someone like Lutsenko strongly suggests that combatting Ukrainian corruption was not it.
As for the other claim on which Biden and his media allies have heavily relied -- that firing Shokhin was not a favor for Burisma because Shokhin was not pursuing any investigations against Burisma -- the evidence does not justify that assertion.
It is true that no evidence, including these new emails, constitute proof that Biden's motive in demanding Shokhin's termination was to benefit Burisma. But nothing demonstrates that Shokhin was impeding investigations into Burisma. Indeed, the New York Times in 2019 published one of the most comprehensive investigations to date of the claims made in defense of Biden when it comes to Ukraine and the firing of this prosecutor, and, while noting that "no evidence has surfaced that the former vice president intentionally tried to help his son by pressing for the prosecutor general's dismissal," this is what its reporters concluded about Shokhin and Burisma:
[Biden's] pressure campaign eventually worked. The prosecutor general, long a target of criticism from other Western nations and international lenders, was voted out months later by the Ukrainian Parliament .
Among those who had a stake in the outcome was Hunter Biden , Mr. Biden's younger son, who at the time was on the board of an energy company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch who had been in the sights of the fired prosecutor general .
The Times added: "Mr. Shokhin's office had oversight of investigations into [Burisma's billionaire founder] Zlochevsky and his businesses, including Burisma." By contrast, they said, Lutsenko, the replacement approved by Vice President Biden, "initially continued investigating Mr. Zlochevsky and Burisma, but cleared him of all charges within 10 months of taking office."
So whether or not it was Biden's intention to confer benefits on Burisma by demanding Shokhin's firing, it ended up quite favorable for Burisma given that the utterly inexperienced Lutesenko "cleared [Burisma's founder] of all charges within 10 months of taking office."
The new comprehensive report from journalist Taibbi on Sunday also strongly supports the view that there were clear antagonisms between Shokhin and Burisma, such that firing the Ukrainian prosecutor would have been beneficial for Burisma. Taibbi, who reported for many years while based in Russia and remains very well-sourced in the region, detailed:
For all the negative press about Shokhin, there's no doubt that there were multiple active cases involving Zlochevsky/Burisma during his short tenure. This was even once admitted by American reporters, before it became taboo to describe such cases untethered to words like "dormant." Here's how Ken Vogel at the New York Times put it in May of 2019:
"When Mr. Shokhin became prosecutor general in February 2015, he inherited several investigations into the company and Mr. Zlochevsky, including for suspicion of tax evasion and money laundering. Mr. Shokin also opened an investigation into the granting of lucrative gas licenses to companies owned by Mr. Zlochevsky when he was the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources."
Ukrainian officials I reached this week confirmed that multiple cases were active during that time.
"There were different numbers, but from 7 to 14," says Serhii Horbatiuk, former head of the special investigations department for the Prosecutor General's Office, when asked how many Burisma cases there were.
"There may have been two to three episodes combined, and some have already been closed, so I don't know the exact amount." But, Horbatiuk insists, there were many cases, most of them technically started under Yarema, but at least active under Shokin.
The numbers quoted by Horbatiuk gibe with those offered by more recent General Prosecutor Rulsan Ryaboshapka, who last year said there were at one time or another " 13 or 14 " cases in existence involving Burisma or Zlochevsky.
Taibbi reviews real-time reporting in both Ukraine and the U.S. to document several other pending investigations against Burisma and Zlochevsky that was overseen by the prosecutor whose firing Biden demanded. He notes that Shokhin himself has repeatedly said he was pursuing several investigations against Zlochevsky at the time Biden demanded his firing. In sum, Taibbi concludes, "one can't say there's no evidence of active Burisma cases even during the last days of Shokin, who says that it was the February, 2016 seizure order [against Zlochevsky's assets] that got him fired."
And, Taibbi notes, "the story looks even odder when one wonders why the United States would exercise so much foreign policy muscle to get Shokin fired, only to allow in a replacement -- Yuri Lutsenko -- who by all accounts was a spectacularly bigger failure in the battle against corruption in general, and Zlochevsky in particular." In sum: "it's unquestionable that the cases against Burisma were all closed by Shokin's successor, chosen in consultation with Joe Biden, whose son remained on the board of said company for three more years, earning upwards of $50,000 per month."
The publicly known facts, augmented by the recent emails, texts and on-the-record accounts, suggest serious sleaze by Joe Biden's son Hunter in trying to peddle his influence with the Vice President for profit. But they also raise real questions about whether Joe Biden knew about and even himself engaged in a form of legalized corruption. Specifically, these newly revealed information suggest Biden was using his power to benefit his son's business Ukrainian associates, and allowing his name to be traded on while Vice President for his son and brother to pursue business opportunities in China. These are questions which a minimally healthy press would want answered, not buried -- regardless of how many similar or worse scandals the Trump family has.
But the real scandal that has been proven is not the former Vice President's misconduct but that of his supporters and allies in the U.S. media. As Taibbi's headline put it: "With the Hunter Biden Exposé, Suppression is a Bigger Scandal Than the Actual Story."
The reality is the U.S. press has been planning for this moment for four years -- cooking up justifications for refusing to report on newsworthy material that might help Donald Trump get re-elected. One major factor is the undeniable truth that journalists with national outlets based in New York, Washington and West Coast cities overwhelmingly not just favor Joe Biden but are desperate to see Donald Trump defeated.
It takes an enormous amount of gullibility to believe that any humans are capable of separating such an intense partisan preference from their journalistic judgment. Many barely even bother to pretend: critiques of Joe Biden are often attacked first not by Biden campaign operatives but by political reporters at national news outlets who make little secret of their eagerness to help Biden win.
But much of this has to do with the fallout from the 2016 election. During that campaign, news outlets, including The Intercept, did their jobs as journalists by reporting on the contents of newsworthy, authentic documents: namely, the emails published by WikiLeaks from the John Podesta and DNC inboxes which, among other things, revealed corruption so severe that it forced the resignation of the top five officials of the DNC. That the materials were hacked, and that intelligence agencies were suggesting Russia was responsible, not negate the newsworthiness of the documents, which is why media outlets across the country repeatedly reported on their contents.
Nonetheless, journalists have spent four years being attacked as Trump enablers in their overwhelmingly Democratic and liberal cultural circles: the cities in which they live are overwhelmingly Democratic, and their demographic -- large-city, college-educated professionals -- has vanishingly little Trump support. A New York Times survey of campaign data from Monday tells just a part of this story of cultural insularity and homogeniety:
Joe Biden has outraised President Trump on the strength of some of the wealthiest and most educated ZIP codes in the United States, running up the fund-raising score in cities and suburbs so resoundingly that he collected more money than Mr. Trump on all but two days in the last two months....It is not just that much of Mr. Biden's strongest support comes overwhelmingly from the two coasts, which it does.... [U]nder Mr. Trump, Republicans have hemorrhaged support from white voters with college degrees. In ZIP codes with a median household income of at least $100,000, Mr. Biden smashed Mr. Trump in fund-raising, $486 million to only $167 million -- accounting for almost his entire financial edge....One Upper West Side ZIP code -- 10024 -- accounted for more than $8 million for Mr. Biden, and New York City in total delivered $85.6 million for him -- more than he raised in every state other than California....
The median household in the United States was $68,703 in 2019. In ZIP codes above that level, Mr. Biden outraised Mr. Trump by $389.1 million. Below that level, Mr. Trump was actually ahead by $53.4 million.
Wanting to avoid a repeat of feeling scorn and shunning in their own extremely pro-Democratic, anti-Trump circles, national media outlets have spent four years inventing standards for election-year reporting on hacked materials that never previously existed and that are utterly anathema to the core journalistic function. The Washington Post's Executive Editor Marty Baron, for instance, issued a memo full of cautions about how Post reporters should, or should not, discuss hacked materials even if their authenticity is not in doubt.
That a media outlet should even consider refraining from reporting on materials they know to be authentic and in the public interest because of questions about their provenance is the opposite of how journalism has been practiced. In the days before the 2016 election, for instance, the New York Times received by mail one year of Donald Trump's tax returns and -- despite having no idea who sent it to them or how that person obtained it: was is stolen or hacked by a foreign power? -- the Times reported on its contents .
When asked by NPR why they would report on documents when they do not know the source let alone the source's motives in providing them, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David Barstow compellingly explained what had always been the core principle of journalism: namely, a journalist only cares about two questions -- (1) are documents authentic and (2) are they in the public interest? -- but does not care about what motives a source has in providing the documents or how they were obtained when deciding whether to reporting them:
Michael Barbaro @mikiebarb Why NYT's David Barstow does not care who leaked us Trump's tax return, or what the motivation was. Listen: The Journalist Who Broke Open Trump's Taxes On Why He Doesn't Care Who The Source Is David Barstow, the three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and co-author of the bombshell New York Times investigation of Donald J. Trump's taxes, was asked whether he cared who had anonymously m soundcloud.comOctober 4th 2016
418 Retweets 812 LikesThe U.S. media often laments that people have lost faith in its pronouncements, that they are increasingly viewed as untrustworthy and that many people view Fake News sites are more reliable than established news outlets. They are good at complaining about this, but very bad at asking whether any of their own conduct is responsible for it.
A media outlet that renounces its core function -- pursuing answers to relevant questions about powerful people -- is one that deserves to lose the public's faith and confidence. And that is exactly what the U.S. media, with some exceptions, attempted to do with this story: they took the lead not in investigating these documents but in concocting excuses for why they should be ignored.
As my colleague Lee Fang put it on Sunday : "The partisan double standards in the media are mind boggling this year, and much of the supposedly left independent media is just as cowardly and conformist as the mainstream corporate media. Everyone is reading the room and acting out of fear." Discussing his story from Sunday, Taibbi summed up the most important point this way: "The whole point is that the press loses its way when it cares more about who benefits from information than whether it's true."
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Reply 85 replies Alex G. 23 hrGlen, I just paid for a subscription so that I can say this one FACT. The PODESTA EMAILS WERE NOT THE RESULT OF A HACK.
Please stop reporting this nonsense. The cover story was all part of the plan (approved by HRC) to shift attention to a Trump-Russia collusion narrative that has always been fiction. Guccifer 2.0 was created out of this same scheme. The meta data on the files prove that it's impossible that those emails were hacked, they had to be downloaded on a local device (thumbdrive most likely).
The FISA Abuse, the spying on Trump, The plan to implicate collusion, the Flynn frameup, the Impeachment, The Mueller investigation were not the base crimes, those were all part of a cover up. By you insinuating that the DNC server got hacked (which there is zero evidence for), you are wittingly or unwittingly complicit in perpetuating the lie that it was. You're missing a much, much bigger story here. The biden laptop isn't even the tip of the icebeg here.
Ask yourself this; "Why would dozens of high level DOJ, FBI, CIA and Whitehouse officials in the Obama Administration put their careers on the line and commit literally hundreds of felonies all in an effort to obstruct/neutralize Trump?" That is first question any true journo should be asking right now.
ReplyI became a fan of yours when I was in law school at UC Hastings in 2003. Your the best, for sure. But fuck...
I got to be honest...I'm glad the press is ignoring this story. There's just too much at stake. Biden might be losing his edge, his family might be trading in his name, but who gives a shit? The alternative is worse by light years.
And yeah, I don't trust the "people" out there to get it right. The "people" are rubes. Those idiots voted for this piece of shit once before, they'll do it again, in a heartbeat.
More importantly, you really want to do Rudy Giuliani's work for him? I don't know, I don't get it...why so eager to make the campaign's case for them? It's not a rhetorical question. I just don't get it.
Oct 31, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Authored by Sara Carter via SaraACarter.com,
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee confirmed Wednesday the information exposed by former Hunter Biden business associate Tony Bobulinski that connects the former Vice President to companies and ventures in China. But you wouldn't know it by following the main stream press.
Bobulinski's bombshell interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson Tuesday, along with Carlson's follow up exclusive on Wednesday, revealed that Democratic candidate Joe Biden was aware of his son's business questionable overseas business dealings. It should be a huge story. After all, Joe Biden has publicly denied knowing about his son's business ventures in China, Ukraine and other parts of the world.
So why isn't this story on the front page of every newspaper and covered by every cable network?
How is it possible that the majority of main stream media outlets, newspapers and cable networks had no problem running unsubstantiated stories about President Donald Trump, his family and his businesses only to find out later – without corrections- that the information they published was bogus.
Here, there is an eye witness to the Biden family operations: Bobulinski. He has come forward and shown his credibility. He has verified documents, photos, receipts from Hunter Biden's hard drive that the FBI had obtained, along with President Trump's friend and personal lawyer former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Why hasn't the FBI done anything with this before the election? The bureau has had it for almost a year. Giuliani then did the only thing he could do – he turned over the documents to The New York Post. Those documents obtained from Hunter Biden's laptop are the massive breadcrumbs to a real political scandal.
These documents raise serious questions as to whether or not our possible future president really is compromised by foreign adversaries, or whether or not he was using his position in government to profit his family.
Still, it's only crickets from the main stream media. At the same time, big tech giants like Twitter, Google and Facebook are also working diligently to squash the story and keep the truth from the American people.
Tucker Carlson had the highest ratings – historic ratings – at Fox News Tuesday night with more than 7 million viewers tuning in for the Bobulinski story. Yet, the Bobulinski interview wasn't trending on Twitter, and in fact, it appeared that his story was non-existent on the other networks.
Not even the Senators, who held a hearing on Wednesday, could get a straight answer from Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey on why his platform banned The New York Post stories.
Sen. Ted Cruz said on Twitter "What @Jack told the Senate, under oath, is false."
"I just tried to tweet the @nypost story alleging Biden's CCP corruption. Still Blocked."
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Censorship in full force. However, this is not like the old Soviet censorship – this is a bizarre new self-censorship by elitist leftists who believe they know what's best for the American people.
Think about this – what if this story was about information these news agencies discovered on Donald Trump Jr. or Eric Trump. How would they treat it?
Let's start with the most widely discussed and central to the issue of alleged corruption was Hunter Biden's paid position on the board of Ukrainian energy giant Burisma Holdings. Despite the fact Hunter Biden had no background in energy he was being paid more than $50,000 a month and in some instances as much as $83,000 a month.
What about the most concerning connection for the Biden's with China's CEFC, an energy giant that is compared to Goldman Sachs. It is directly connected to the Chinese Communist Party and according to Bobulinski, as well as senior lawmakers investigating, possible used as leverage against the Bidens by the communist government.
"Joe Biden and the Biden family are compromised" said Bobulinski in Tuesday night's hour long interview with Carlson. He said he turned over evidence to the FBI and openly spoke about his alleged meetings with then Vice President Joe Biden. Biden is referred to by his son Hunter Biden in emails obtained by the FBI and first published by The New York Post as the 'Big Guy' and or 'the Chairman.'
Bobulinski revealed that he "held a top-secret clearance from the NSA and the DOE. I served this country for four years in one of the most elite environments in the world, the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command, and to have a congressmen out there speaking about Russian disinformation or Joe Biden at a public debate referencing Russian disinformation when he knows he sat face-to-face with me, I traveled around the world with his son and his brother. To say that and associate that with my name is absolutely disgusting to me ."
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Joe Biden, however, has publicly denied having any financial gain from his son's, Hunter, business ventures. He said at the second Presidential debate, "I have not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life." However, Biden has refused to answer any questions regarding the allegations or address some of the accusations against him or his son.
The American public has the right to know if their next president has been compromised by their families business dealings with the communist Chinese. Moreover, many of the business ventures his son was connected with were during his tenure as Vice President.
Our nation has been divided but not by President Trump. It's been divided by an army of bureaucrats, liberal elites, the New Democratic socialists, special interests and more importantly a biased partisan media.
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For now, Americans will be left in the dark. On Wednesday committee Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson, R- WI, told The Daily Caller, that Bobulinski will not be called to testify before the Nov. 3 elections. He said the committee is working to review all the information that has been provided to the committee by Bobulinski.
The information has to be verified, as it is subject to the same false information to Congress laws that verbal or written testimony does.
However, a Johnson spokesperson told the Caller that all the material provided by Bobulinski to the committee is legitimate and verified .
The committee has "also" not come across any "signs" or evidence to suggest the content Hunter Biden and Bobulinksi content is false , the spokesperson added.
It's tragic to think that if by chance – a small remote chance – that Biden actually wins the election justice will never be served and our nation will fundamentally change.
America will be at a crossroads on November 3. The main stream media is doing its part to ensure that the American people are not informed, so it is up to you to vote your conscience and seek out the truth.
Col. Leghorn CSA , 9 hours ago
I suggest enabling RICO charges against any media that conspires to hide the truth.
Political Economist Oct 29Oct 20, 2020 | yasha.substack.com
What's truly scandalous about this whole Hunter thing is that it shows just how normalized elite corruption is in our imperial society and how little anyone at the top cares.Last week I stepped away from the Internet for 24 hours and came back to find the most ridiculous thing took place: Twitter decided to just straight up censor a New York Post story that weaponized Hunter Biden's boring rich kid degenerate life and his corrupt dealings in Ukraine. This crude attempt at censorship only inflamed interest in this obvious h
Cypher Oct 29ReplyGlenn, was curious for your take on Yasha Levine's piece on the matter. As far as the censorship angle goes, I think you are both in agreement, but as far as just how big a story this really is, he seems to be a little more jaded. https://yasha.substack.com/p/yes-hunter-biden-is-corrupt-its-one
Reply Cypher Oct 29It's unclear at this point how much Joe knew about what was going on. For my part, I suspect he knew but was not actually directing Hunter's activities. I actually also doubt that he has any idea that a piece of the China deal was being held for him, if indeed it was.
That said, I think it is clear that he knew that Hunter was throwing the Biden name around to gin up business deals and he didn't tell him to stop it.
I think it's also clear that the media in general is desperate to avoid any mention of the story...which is, in my mind at least, the best argument to vote for Trump. A lapdog media is no check on the crazy stuff that happens in DC
Reply SAH 8 hrHere's Yasha's conclusion:
If you want a quick rundown of the Burisma op and Hunter's role in it, check out this 2019 report in the Wall Street Journal. This respectable news outlet might not have called what he did there as "corruption" or "graft," but that's exactly what it was: Hunter traded his dad's name and access for money.
So it's strange that people have been getting so worked up over this New York Post story. Even if the emails end up being fake or some details were fudged, it's doesn't change anything because they're riffing on something real. If Hunter hadn't sold his access to a Ukrainian oligarch, there would be no story here -- fake emails or no. And that's what's truly scandalous about this whole Hunter Biden thing: It shows just how normalized elite corruption is in our imperial society and how little anyone at the top cares about it.
Watching liberals deflect this reality by screaming about some devious foreign plot to subvert democracy well, it's hard to be shocked or outraged anymore. All you can do now is mock it and laugh.
-- Yasha Levine
PS: Aside from all the other problems, screaming about "the Russians" every time Hunter's corruption comes up is yet another example of the xenophobia and racism that's become totally normalized among our liberal elite.
Reply Cypher Oct 29Each time I read about Hunter's scandal in Ukraine, I have to think of VP Joe Biden and his family! They all, in this way, traded in VP Biden's name and position! So the real question is, why is this behavior so widespread amongst these family members?! Honestly...without cooperation from the VP, would that have happened to the degree it did?!
Let's see...."If you don't fire the prosecutor, you're not getting the one billion dollars!"
Reply Candis 22 hrAlso, I see that you brushed on the fact that it might be corruption, but it's been legalized: "But they also raise real questions about whether Joe Biden knew about and even himself engaged in a form of legalized corruption."
So what Levine is saying is that - yeah it's bad, but it's not only legal - it's been going on for years and across both parties.
judd 21 hrYeah..the swamp..we know.
Replyfrom a purely political standpoint, the reason once credible liberal/mainstream sources seek to suppress/malign right wing and conservative voices is simple: these voices would inform policy as most americans would embrace those voices. most people want to hear tucker carlson call looters...looters - especially when no one else is saying it. and want to see fair and impartial handling of media. so every viewpoint is ignored, or derided...this isnt to say that righwing voices are always correct - just that they appeal to a deep seated need that is missing on the left: simplicity. not everything has to be analyzed to death. not everything has shades of white supremacy. not everything reeks of...the list goes on and on. some things are just simple. we need safety. we need a good economy. the truth is multiplex and evolving, and not everything is just because a dark web of college educated journalist elitist say so. trump and his supporters exist because of msm. they enabled him, they created this massive nationwide gaslighting of simple straight forward policies and ideas that most people have held peacefully for decades (like the fact that censorship is indeed bad). and if he wins, it'll be because of the deeply corrupt media elites. and i hope he wins. they deserve it.
on this article, it looks like hunter did some shady stuff, but as for this story, it lacks real credibility, and as a consumer of news in america, i'd ask the question why msm ran with russiagate for 3 years with zero credible evidence but is silent now. the truth is simple. we don't need to go further.
Oct 31, 2020 | www.rt.com
UPS has found documents that went missing in transit to Tucker Carlson, putting to rest questions about the whereabouts of a trove that the Fox News host had called "damning" of presidential candidate Joe Biden's family."After an extensive search, we have found the contents of the package and are arranging for its return," a UPS spokesman told the Daily Beast on Thursday. "UPS will always focus first on our customers and will never stop working to solve issues and make things right."
ALSO ON RT.COM Hunter's ex-business partner says Joe Biden is 'COMPROMISED' by China, while detailing family deals in explosive interviewWhile the successful search resolved the issue of the documents' whereabouts, questions remain about how they disappeared from a package sent to Carlson in California from a producer in New York -- and who, if anyone, was behind it. Without naming the company involved or specifically saying the papers were purposely targeted and stolen, Carlson suggested on his show on Wednesday night that the disappearance wasn't coincidental.
"As of tonight, the [shipping] company has no idea and no working theory even about what happened to this trove of material – documents that are directly relevant to the presidential campaign just six days from now," Carlson said. The company's executives "seemed baffled and deeply bothered by this, and so are we."
//www.youtube.com/embed/Wuul_R-vwhI
Carlson described the package as containing confidential documents about the Biden family and said they were "authentic, real and damning." He said he asked a Fox producer in New York to send the documents to him in Los Angeles, where he had traveled to interview former Biden business associated Tony Bobulinski on Tuesday. The package didn't show up on Tuesday morning, prompting UPS to begin an exhaustive search.
Mainstream media critics mocked Carlson for saying the documents had disappeared, including some who suggested that they never existed. HuffPost said Carlson "concocted yet another conspiracy theory " to explain the disappearance of documents related to what they called his "conspiracy theory" about Biden's son, Hunter.
Carlson devoted his entire show on Tuesday night to the Bobulinski interview, which provided more specific allegations about the Biden family's business dealings in China following an Oct. 14 New York Post report on the ventures. Although Bobulinski provided legal documents, text messages and recordings to back up his claims, the interview was largely ignored by other mainstream media outlets.
//www.youtube.com/embed/2zLfBRgeFFo
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Oct 30, 2020 | www.foxnews.com
Tuesday night, we heard at length and on camera from one of the Biden family's former business partners. His name is Tony Bobulinski. He's a very successful businessman and a Navy veteran.
Bobulinski spoke to "Tucker Carlson Tonight" for a full hour. He told us he met two separate times with Joe Biden himself. Not just with Joe Biden's son or his brother, but with Joe Biden -- the former vice president and the man now running for president -- to discuss business deals with the communist government of China .
That's a very serious claim, and whatever your political views, it's hard to dismiss it when Tony Bobulinski makes it because Bobulinsky is an unusually credible witness. He's not a partisan, he's not seeking money, he's not seeking publicity. He did not want to come on our show.
But when Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and the Biden campaign accused Tony Bobulinski of participating in a Russian disinformation effort, he felt he had no choice. That was a slander against him and against his family. So Bobulinski came to us. He arrived with heaps of evidence to bolster the story he was telling. He brought contemporaneous audio recordings, text messages, e-mails, many financial documents.
VideoBy the end of the hour, it was very clear to us that Tony Bobulinski was telling the truth and that Joe Biden was lying. We believe that any honest person who watched the entire hour would come to the same conclusion.
Well, on Wednesday, a Senate committee confirmed it . The Senate Homeland Security Committee reported that all of Tony Bobulinski's documents are, in fact, real. They are authentic. They are not forgeries. This is not Russian disinformation. It is real.
Bobulinski told a remarkable story. Joe Biden -- who, once again, could be president of the United States next week, was planning business deals with America's most formidable global opponent. And when he was caught doing it, Joe Biden lied. And then he went further. He slandered an innocent man as a traitor to his own country. It is clear that Joe Biden did that. That's not a partisan talking point uttered in bad faith on behalf of another presidential campaign. It's true.
https://c0c754eabe03683fa93ffdd97cfadeee.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html
So the question is, what is Joe Biden's excuse for doing that? What is his version of this story? Everyone has a version and we'd like to hear it, but we don't know what Joe Biden's version of the story is, because no one in America's vast media landscape has pressed Joe Biden to answer the question. Instead, reporters at all levels and their editors and their publishers have openly collaborated with Joe Biden's political campaign. That is unprecedented. It has never happened in American history.
VideoWednesday morning, the big papers completely ignored what Tony Bobulinski had to say. So did the other television networks. Not a single word about Bobulinski appeared on CNN or anywhere else. Newsweek decided to cover it, but came to the conclusion that the real story was about QAnon somehow. This is Soviet-style suppression of information about a legitimate news story. Days before an election, the ramifications of it are impossible to imagine. But we do know the media cannot continue in the way that it has.
No one believes the media anymore and no one should. You should be offended by this, not because the media are liberal, but because this is an attack on our democracy. You've heard that phrase again and again, but this is what it looks like. In a self-governing country, voters have a right -- an obligation -- to know who they're voting for. In this case, they have the right to know the Democratic nominee for president was a willing partner in his family's lucrative influence-peddling operation, an operation that went on for decades and stretched from China and Ukraine all the way to Oman, Romania, Luxembourg and many other countries. This is not speculation once again, and it's not a partisan attack. It's true, and Tony bobulinski confirmed it.
Bobulinski met with Joe Biden at a hotel bar in Los Angeles in early May of 2017, and when he did, Joe Biden's son introduced Bobulinski this way: "Dad. Here's the individual I told you about that's helping us with the business that we're working on and the Chinese."
The man I told you about.
VideoNow, written documents confirmed this is real. At one point, Joe Biden's son texted Tony Bobulinski to say that Joe Biden, his father, was making key decisions about their business deals with China.
CARLSON: When Hunter Biden said his chairman, he was talking about his dad.
BOBULINSKI: Correct, and what Hunter is referencing there is, he spoke with his father and his father is giving an emphatic 'no' to the ask that I had, which was putting proper governance in place around Oneida Holdings.
CARLSON: So, Joe Biden is vetoing your plan for putting stricter governance in the company. I mean, and it's it's right here in the email.
BOBULINSKI: Yes, Tucker, I want to be very careful in front of the American people. That is not me writing that. That is not me claiming that. That is Hunter Biden writing on his own phone. Typing in that 'I spoke with my chairman,' referencing his father.
All this is spelled out in the clearest possible language in documents that Bobulinski provided us, documents that subsequently federal authorities have authenticated as real.
On May 13, 2017, for example, Hunter Biden got an email explaining how his family would be paid for their deal with the Chinese energy company. His father, Joe Biden, was getting 10%.
BOBULINSKI: In that email, there's a statement where they go through the equity, Jim Biden's referenced as, you know, 10%. It doesn't say Biden, it says Jim. And then it has 10% for the big guy held by H. I 1,000% sit here and know that the big guy is referencing Joe Biden. It's, that's crystal clear to me because I lived it. I met with the former vice president in person multiple times.
That was three years ago, and we still don't know where all that money went, because the media haven't forced Joe Biden to tell us. But Tony, Bobulinski did add a telling detail. Joe Biden's brother, Jim, saw his stake in the deal double from 10% to 20%. Was Jim Biden getting his brother's share again? It might be worth finding out.
We also know that according to an email from a top Chinese official, this one written on July 26, 2017, the Chinese proposed a $5 million dollar interest-free loan to the Biden family, "based on their trust on [sic] BD [Biden] family." The e-mail continued, "Should this Chinese company, CEFC, keep lending more to the family?" And indeed, CEFC was supposed to send another $5 million dollars to the Bidens' business ventures. Apparently, that money never made it to the business. Where did it go? A recent Senate report suggests it went to Hunter Biden directly. And from there, who knows? Again, no one's asked.
JIM BIDEN REFUSES TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT FAMILY'S BUSINESS DEALINGS
Tony Bobulinski also told us he learned Hunter Biden became the personal attorney to the chairman of CEFC, Ye Jianming, just as they were tendering 14% of a Russian state-owned energy company. That was a deal valued at $9 billion dollars. It's pretty sleazy. It's pretty amazing, actually, that this happened and no one noticed.
We're not going to spend the next six months leading you through a maze of complex financial transactions. This isn't that complicated: Millions of dollars linked directly to the Communist Party of China went to Joe Biden's family, and not because they're capable businessmen. Jim Biden's one business success appears to have been running a nightclub in Delaware that ultimately went under.
No, the Bidens were cut in on the world's most lucrative business deals, massive infrastructure deals in countries around the world for one reason: Because Joe Biden was a powerful government official willing to leverage his power on behalf of his family.
Now, if that's not a crime, it's very close to a crime and it's certainly something every person voting should know about. The Bidens didn't do this once. They did it for decades. So the question is, how did they get away with it for so long? Tony Bobulinski asked Jim Biden that question directly. To his credit Jim Biden answered that question honestly.
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BOBULINSKI: And I remember looking at Jim Biden and saying, 'How are you guys getting away with this?' Like, 'Aren't you concerned?' And he looked at me and he laughed a little bit and said, 'Plausible deniability.'
CARLSON: He said that out loud.
BOBULINSKI: Yes, he said it directly to me. One on one, in a cabana at the Peninsula Hotel.
"Plausible deniability." In other words, "we lie." We get away with selling access to the U.S. government, which we do not own, because we lie about what we're doing. And as we lie, we try to make those lies plausible. That's why we call it "plausible deniability." That is the answer that Joe Biden's brother gave when asked directly.
So the question is, what is Joe Biden's answer to that question? We wish we knew.
ForFoxSake!!! 1 hour ago Everything that is happening right now is because Trump was right about the swamp, the media, and the ruling class families who have been selling out America for decades. ohhappyday657 1 hour ago Tucker is doing this country a great service. The FBI doesn't seem to want to engage. Mr. Bobulinski is a patriot and we are lucky he came forward. The Bidens need to be called out for their high crimes and misdemeanors. Joe should be impeached for his time as VP. Thank you Tucker. resipsaloquitor ohhappyday657 29 minutes ago You can smell the desperation on the Trump supporters. The lies, the distortions and the grasping, pathetic search for the proverbial Hail Mary to salvage the quickly sinking ship. If Mr. Bobulinski is the best you have the Democrats will 'trump' you with: 227,000 dead Americans, close to 9 million more infected and an economy in tatters. The day of reckoning is approaching and a dozen Bobulinskis won't change that. Trump and his unseemly administration are doomed.
Oct 28, 2020 | www.americanthinker.com
On Tuesday night, Tucker Carlson did something he'd never done before: he dedicated his entire show to a single interview. The person he interviewed was Tony Bobulinski, an experienced international businessman who found himself working with Hunter Biden, James Biden, and others on a deal between the Biden group and CEFC, a Chinese energy company with ties to the communist government and the military. Bobulinski powerfully confirms that Joe Biden was deeply involved in the transaction, which had its beginnings when Joe was still vice president.
Fox News has not yet uploaded (and may never upload) the interview in its entirety. However, the four videos below bring together almost everything from the interview.
Tucker opened by making the point that he was dedicating his show to the Bobulinski interview because the rest of the American media are assiduously ignoring the story, downplaying it, or claiming it's a Russian smear. The leader of the Russian smear approach is, naturally, Rep. Adam Schiff, a man who has all the hallmarks of a conscienceless psychopath. Ironically, it was Schiff's smear about Hunter Biden's hard drive that led Bobulinski, a Democrat, to go public with his story.
If you can't watch the interview, here's a brief overview:
Bobulinksi is a former naval officer with a Q clearance. That's an extremely high clearance level for people working in the Department of Energy -- and Bobulinski worked in the Navy's nuclear program. He comes from a military family and is very proud of that legacy.
After leaving the Navy, Bobulinski became an international businessman. His expertise led to Hunter Biden and his people wooing Bobulinski to give them the business expertise they needed to get their partnership up and running.
The partnership, SinoHawk, was intended to bring together CEFC and the Biden family. Both Hunter and James Biden, after all, brought nothing to the table other than their last name and, with it, the promise that China would have access to political influence at the highest level of American government.
Bobulinski's name recently became public knowledge when James Gilliar, another businessman working on SinoHawk, sent an email to Tony Bobulinski, setting out the terms Gilliar had been negotiating with CEFC. What caught everyone's interest was the statement that Hunter would hold "10[%] for the Big Guy." Bobulinski confirmed that Joe Biden was the "Big Guy."
At this point, Schiff, the media, and Joe Biden, none of whom ever denied the legitimacy of the email, claimed that the whole thing was a Russian smear. This unfounded accusation got Bobulinski's dander up. As a naval officer from a military family and a true patriot, being smeared as a Russian agent was beyond the pale.
Bobulinski demanded that Schiff retract the insult, and when Schiff failed to do so, he went public and did a full document dump. Bobulinski had saved everything -- every document, every email, and every text.
That's the quick background to the interview with Carlson, during which Bobulinski said that
- Hunter and James Biden brought nothing to the deal other than the Biden family name.
- What China wanted was the Biden family name.
- Joe Biden was involved in the business deal, so much so that he had veto power over negotiations.
- In 2017, Bobulinski met Joe Biden twice when the Biden side of SinoHawk was courting him to step in and act as CEO.
- Bobulinski also spoke at length with James Biden, Joe's brother.
- When Bobulinski asked James how they could get away with this kind of deal, which seemed to be falling into dangerous territory, given that Joe could run again for president, James announced, "Plausible deniability."
- The Biden group stiffed Bobulinski, leaving him out of pocket for all his expenses while channeling CEFC's money into another entity that did not involve Bobulinski.
If we had a decent media establishment, this story would be on every front page and at the top of every news hour. Instead, Bobulinski is trying desperately to get Americans to know that he is not a Russian agent and that Joe Biden was in bed with the communist Chinese government, starting when he was vice president and continuing after he left the White House. This screen shot from Memeorandum shows that none of the legacy media outlets is touching the story:
(As an aside, and separate from the Bobulinski interview, a former CIA operations office believes it's entirely possible that Biden was already doing China's bidding in 2012, when the Obama administration gave China free rein in the South China Sea.)
In case the embedded videos do not play, you can find them here , here , here , and here .
We've always known that Joe Biden is an odd bird. Just think of the lies, the egotistical boasting, the offers to fight people, the skinny-dipping, and the way he fondles and sniffs little girls. He is a genuinely creepy man.
It speaks volumes about Washington, D.C. and the Democrat party that Joe spent 47 years in the swamp and rose to the second highest office in the land. What we've learned now, though, irrefutably and without any Russian hokum, is that Joe Biden is also a profoundly corrupt man who willingly sold out America and her allies to enrich himself and his sleazy, incompetent family.
Image: Tony Bobulinski Tucker Carlson interview . Tucker Carlson Show screen grab.
Fox News has not yet uploaded (and may never upload) the interview in its entirety. However, the four videos below bring together almost everything from the interview.
Tucker opened by making the point that he was dedicating his show to the Bobulinski interview because the rest of the American media are assiduously ignoring the story, downplaying it, or claiming it's a Russian smear. The leader of the Russian smear approach is, naturally, Rep. Adam Schiff, a man who has all the hallmarks of a conscienceless psychopath. Ironically, it was Schiff's smear about Hunter Biden's hard drive that led Bobulinski, a Democrat, to go public with his story.
If you can't watch the interview, here's a brief overview:
Bobulinksi is a former naval officer with a Q clearance. That's an extremely high clearance level for people working in the Department of Energy -- and Bobulinski worked in the Navy's nuclear program. He comes from a military family and is very proud of that legacy.
https://lockerdome.com/lad/9371484590420070?pubid=ld-8832-1542&pubo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.americanthinker.com&rid=www.americanthinker.com&width=610
After leaving the Navy, Bobulinski became an international businessman. His expertise led to Hunter Biden and his people wooing Bobulinski to give them the business expertise they needed to get their partnership up and running.
The partnership, SinoHawk, was intended to bring together CEFC and the Biden family. Both Hunter and James Biden, after all, brought nothing to the table other than their last name and, with it, the promise that China would have access to political influence at the highest level of American government.
Bobulinski's name recently became public knowledge when James Gilliar, another businessman working on SinoHawk, sent an email to Tony Bobulinski, setting out the terms Gilliar had been negotiating with CEFC. What caught everyone's interest was the statement that Hunter would hold "10[%] for the Big Guy." Bobulinski confirmed that Joe Biden was the "Big Guy."
At this point, Schiff, the media, and Joe Biden, none of whom ever denied the legitimacy of the email, claimed that the whole thing was a Russian smear. This unfounded accusation got Bobulinski's dander up. As a naval officer from a military family and a true patriot, being smeared as a Russian agent was beyond the pale.
Bobulinski demanded that Schiff retract the insult, and when Schiff failed to do so, he went public and did a full document dump. Bobulinski had saved everything -- every document, every email, and every text.
That's the quick background to the interview with Carlson, during which Bobulinski said that
- Hunter and James Biden brought nothing to the deal other than the Biden family name.
- What China wanted was the Biden family name.
- Joe Biden was involved in the business deal, so much so that he had veto power over negotiations.
- In 2017, Bobulinski met Joe Biden twice when the Biden side of SinoHawk was courting him to step in and act as CEO.
- Bobulinski also spoke at length with James Biden, Joe's brother.
- When Bobulinski asked James how they could get away with this kind of deal, which seemed to be falling into dangerous territory, given that Joe could run again for president, James announced, "Plausible deniability."
- The Biden group stiffed Bobulinski, leaving him out of pocket for all his expenses while channeling CEFC's money into another entity that did not involve Bobulinski.
If we had a decent media establishment, this story would be on every front page and at the top of every news hour. Instead, Bobulinski is trying desperately to get Americans to know that he is not a Russian agent and that Joe Biden was in bed with the communist Chinese government, starting when he was vice president and continuing after he left the White House. This screen shot from Memeorandum shows that none of the legacy media outlets is touching the story:
Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/10/tucker_carlsons_interview_with_tony_bobulinski_is_mustsee_tv.html#ixzz6cECCtpGU
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
Oct 30, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
In the aftermath of the widespread blowback amid Apollo clients, many of whom have frozen their new capital allocations to the private equity giant in response to recent reports that co-founder Leon Black had paid "suicided" pedophile Jeffrey Epstein $50 million after he was released from jail, during a conference call on Thursday morning discussing Apollo's third-quarter results, Black said he regretted doing business with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, even though other prominent people had done the same.
"Like many people I respected, I decided to give Epstein a second chance," Black said Thursday during a conference call to discuss Apollo's third-quarter results.
"This was a terrible mistake", the former Drexel banker added pointing out the obvious, although it still remains unclear just what "second chance" services Epstein provided to Black that was worth a whopping $50 million in compensation, but we are confident we will find out soon enough.
And in what may be the greatest example of "whataboutism" in modern history, Black said that Epstein worked with many prominent individuals after he was released from jail, and that "the distinguished reputations of these individuals gave me misplaced comfort."
In other words, if everyone is going to "picnics" on Epstein's underage girl island in their private jets, it's all cool.
Laughably, Black - who is surrounded by the most brilliant financial minds of his generation 24/7 - has said he sought advice from Epstein for matters such as taxes, estate planning and philanthropy.
Apollo hired law firm Dechert LLP to conduct a review that's expected to take 60 to 90 days, according to people familiar with the matter.
That said, we doubt their reputations will be just as "distinguished" once it emerges just what "services"
underage girlsEpstein was providing them.Also on the call we learned that despite the posturing, Apollo's clients were not really turned off by the ongoing scandal, and the PE giant raised another $4 billion in the third quarter even though it expects fundraising to slow, co-founder Joshua Harris said on the call.
Oct 30, 2020 | www.americanthinker.com
October 28, 2020 Tucker Carlson's interview with Tony Bobulinski is must-see TV By Andrea Widburg
On Tuesday night, Tucker Carlson did something he'd never done before: he dedicated his entire show to a single interview. The person he interviewed was Tony Bobulinski, an experienced international businessman who found himself working with Hunter Biden, James Biden, and others on a deal between the Biden group and CEFC, a Chinese energy company with ties to the communist government and the military. Bobulinski powerfully confirms that Joe Biden was deeply involved in the transaction, which had its beginnings when Joe was still vice president.
Fox News has not yet uploaded (and may never upload) the interview in its entirety. However, the four videos below bring together almost everything from the interview.
Tucker opened by making the point that he was dedicating his show to the Bobulinski interview because the rest of the American media are assiduously ignoring the story, downplaying it, or claiming it's a Russian smear. The leader of the Russian smear approach is, naturally, Rep. Adam Schiff, a man who has all the hallmarks of a conscienceless psychopath. Ironically, it was Schiff's smear about Hunter Biden's hard drive that led Bobulinski, a Democrat, to go public with his story.
If you can't watch the interview, here's a brief overview:
Bobulinksi is a former naval officer with a Q clearance. That's an extremely high clearance level for people working in the Department of Energy -- and Bobulinski worked in the Navy's nuclear program. He comes from a military family and is very proud of that legacy.
After leaving the Navy, Bobulinski became an international businessman. His expertise led to Hunter Biden and his people wooing Bobulinski to give them the business expertise they needed to get their partnership up and running.
The partnership, SinoHawk, was intended to bring together CEFC and the Biden family. Both Hunter and James Biden, after all, brought nothing to the table other than their last name and, with it, the promise that China would have access to political influence at the highest level of American government.
Bobulinski's name recently became public knowledge when James Gilliar, another businessman working on SinoHawk, sent an email to Tony Bobulinski, setting out the terms Gilliar had been negotiating with CEFC. What caught everyone's interest was the statement that Hunter would hold "10[%] for the Big Guy." Bobulinski confirmed that Joe Biden was the "Big Guy."
At this point, Schiff, the media, and Joe Biden, none of whom ever denied the legitimacy of the email, claimed that the whole thing was a Russian smear. This unfounded accusation got Bobulinski's dander up. As a naval officer from a military family and a true patriot, being smeared as a Russian agent was beyond the pale.
Bobulinski demanded that Schiff retract the insult, and when Schiff failed to do so, he went public and did a full document dump. Bobulinski had saved everything -- every document, every email, and every text.
That's the quick background to the interview with Carlson, during which Bobulinski said that
- Hunter and James Biden brought nothing to the deal other than the Biden family name.
- What China wanted was the Biden family name.
- Joe Biden was involved in the business deal, so much so that he had veto power over negotiations.
- In 2017, Bobulinski met Joe Biden twice when the Biden side of SinoHawk was courting him to step in and act as CEO.
- Bobulinski also spoke at length with James Biden, Joe's brother.
- When Bobulinski asked James how they could get away with this kind of deal, which seemed to be falling into dangerous territory, given that Joe could run again for president, James announced, "Plausible deniability."
- The Biden group stiffed Bobulinski, leaving him out of pocket for all his expenses while channeling CEFC's money into another entity that did not involve Bobulinski.
If we had a decent media establishment, this story would be on every front page and at the top of every news hour. Instead, Bobulinski is trying desperately to get Americans to know that he is not a Russian agent and that Joe Biden was in bed with the communist Chinese government, starting when he was vice president and continuing after he left the White House. This screen shot from Memeorandum shows that none of the legacy media outlets is touching the story:
(As an aside, and separate from the Bobulinski interview, a former CIA operations office believes it's entirely possible that Biden was already doing China's bidding in 2012, when the Obama administration gave China free rein in the South China Sea.)
In case the embedded videos do not play, you can find them here , here , here , and here .
We've always known that Joe Biden is an odd bird. Just think of the lies, the egotistical boasting, the offers to fight people, the skinny-dipping, and the way he fondles and sniffs little girls. He is a genuinely creepy man.
It speaks volumes about Washington, D.C. and the Democrat party that Joe spent 47 years in the swamp and rose to the second highest office in the land. What we've learned now, though, irrefutably and without any Russian hokum, is that Joe Biden is also a profoundly corrupt man who willingly sold out America and her allies to enrich himself and his sleazy, incompetent family.
Image: Tony Bobulinski Tucker Carlson interview . Tucker Carlson Show screen grab.
Fox News has not yet uploaded (and may never upload) the interview in its entirety. However, the four videos below bring together almost everything from the interview.
Tucker opened by making the point that he was dedicating his show to the Bobulinski interview because the rest of the American media are assiduously ignoring the story, downplaying it, or claiming it's a Russian smear. The leader of the Russian smear approach is, naturally, Rep. Adam Schiff, a man who has all the hallmarks of a conscienceless psychopath. Ironically, it was Schiff's smear about Hunter Biden's hard drive that led Bobulinski, a Democrat, to go public with his story.
If you can't watch the interview, here's a brief overview:
Bobulinksi is a former naval officer with a Q clearance. That's an extremely high clearance level for people working in the Department of Energy -- and Bobulinski worked in the Navy's nuclear program. He comes from a military family and is very proud of that legacy.
https://lockerdome.com/lad/9371484590420070?pubid=ld-8832-1542&pubo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.americanthinker.com&rid=www.americanthinker.com&width=610
After leaving the Navy, Bobulinski became an international businessman. His expertise led to Hunter Biden and his people wooing Bobulinski to give them the business expertise they needed to get their partnership up and running.
The partnership, SinoHawk, was intended to bring together CEFC and the Biden family. Both Hunter and James Biden, after all, brought nothing to the table other than their last name and, with it, the promise that China would have access to political influence at the highest level of American government.
Bobulinski's name recently became public knowledge when James Gilliar, another businessman working on SinoHawk, sent an email to Tony Bobulinski, setting out the terms Gilliar had been negotiating with CEFC. What caught everyone's interest was the statement that Hunter would hold "10[%] for the Big Guy." Bobulinski confirmed that Joe Biden was the "Big Guy."
At this point, Schiff, the media, and Joe Biden, none of whom ever denied the legitimacy of the email, claimed that the whole thing was a Russian smear. This unfounded accusation got Bobulinski's dander up. As a naval officer from a military family and a true patriot, being smeared as a Russian agent was beyond the pale.
Bobulinski demanded that Schiff retract the insult, and when Schiff failed to do so, he went public and did a full document dump. Bobulinski had saved everything -- every document, every email, and every text.
That's the quick background to the interview with Carlson, during which Bobulinski said that
- Hunter and James Biden brought nothing to the deal other than the Biden family name.
- What China wanted was the Biden family name.
- Joe Biden was involved in the business deal, so much so that he had veto power over negotiations.
- In 2017, Bobulinski met Joe Biden twice when the Biden side of SinoHawk was courting him to step in and act as CEO.
- Bobulinski also spoke at length with James Biden, Joe's brother.
- When Bobulinski asked James how they could get away with this kind of deal, which seemed to be falling into dangerous territory, given that Joe could run again for president, James announced, "Plausible deniability."
- The Biden group stiffed Bobulinski, leaving him out of pocket for all his expenses while channeling CEFC's money into another entity that did not involve Bobulinski.
If we had a decent media establishment, this story would be on every front page and at the top of every news hour. Instead, Bobulinski is trying desperately to get Americans to know that he is not a Russian agent and that Joe Biden was in bed with the communist Chinese government, starting when he was vice president and continuing after he left the White House. This screen shot from Memeorandum shows that none of the legacy media outlets is touching the story:
Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/10/tucker_carlsons_interview_with_tony_bobulinski_is_mustsee_tv.html#ixzz6cECCtpGU
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
Oct 30, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Authored by Ivan Pentchoukov via The Epoch Times,
A collection of confidential documents related to the Biden family mysteriously vanished from an envelope sent to Fox News host Tucker Carlson , the host said on Wednesday night.
Carlson's team allegedly received the documents from a source on Monday. At the time, Carlson was on the West Coast filming an interview with Tony Bobulinski, the former business partner of Hunter Biden and James Biden. Carlson requested the documents to be sent to the West Coast.
According to Carlson, the producer shipped the documents overnight to California using a large national package carrier. He didn't name the company, saying only that it's a "brand name company."
"The Biden documents never arrived in Los Angeles. Tuesday morning we received word from our shipping company that our package had been opened and the contents were missing," Carlson said. "The documents had disappeared."
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1321608055549775872&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fhunter-biden-documents-mysteriously-vanish-overnight-envelope-tucker-carlson-says&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px
The company took the incident seriously and immediately began a search, Carlson said. The company traced the package from when it was dropped off in New York to the moment when an employee at a sorting facility reported that the package was opened and empty.
" The company's security team interviewed every employee who touched the envelope we sent. They searched the plane and the trucks that carried it. They went through the office in New York where our producers dropped the package off. They combed the entire cavernous sorting facility. They used pictures of what we had sent so that searchers would know what to look for," Carlson said.
"They far and beyond, but they found nothing."
"Those documents have vanished," he added.
"As of tonight, the company has no idea and no working theory even about what happened to this trove of materials, documents that are directly relevant to the presidential campaign just six days from now."
Executives at the shipping company were "baffled" and "deeply bothered" by the incident, Carlson said.
Carlson's interview with Bobulinski aired on Tuesday night. In the interview, Bobulinski opined that Joe Biden and the Biden family are compromised by China due to the business dealings of Hunter Biden and James Biden. Joe Biden has not publicly responded to Bobulinski's allegations, but during a presidential debate on Oct. 22 said he had "not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life."
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Bobulinski provided more than 1,700 pages of emails and more than 600 screenshots of text messages to Senate investigators and handed over to the FBI the smartphones he used during his business dealings with the Bidens. The documents detailed a failed joint venture between a billionaire tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and a company owned by Hunter Biden, James Biden, Bobulinski and two other partners.
While the corporate documents don't mention Biden by name, emails sent between the partners suggest that either James Biden or Hunter Biden held a 10 percent stake for the former vice president. In the email, the stake is assigned to "the big guy," who Bobulinski says is Joe Biden.
_arrow NoDebt , 3 minutes ago
lwilland1012 , 5 minutes agoI heard Tucker talk about this earlier tonight and realized we are FULLY controlled now. Whatever the **** is going on, whether this is true or not doesn't matter. We are just unwitting participants in some kind of TV reality show now. Everything is meaningless.
CatInTheHat , 1 minute agoPlease tell me he was smart enough to make copies...
quanttech , 3 minutes agoOk.
What was IN the documents and from whom?
This is an inside job. Probably a never Trumper at Fox. There are a few.
Nona Yobiznes , 4 minutes agoIf Trump loses, Fox will go full Dem. Trump will start TrumpTV, and Tucker will need a job....
btw, Tucker should get the Nobel Peace Prize for keeping us out of Iran for the last 3.5 years.
icolbowca , 6 minutes agoThis story doesn't make sense. You sent confidential, highly sensitive documents via post? Because Tucker was on the west coast? You couldn't scan them in? Were they originals, and are there copies? This doesn't smell right.
Takes a special kind of moron to send something like that via mail...
Oct 30, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,
Delivery giant UPS confirmed Thursday it found a lost trove of documents that Fox News' Tucker Carlson said would provide revelations in the ever-growing scandal involving Joe Biden 's son Hunter and his overseas business dealings.
UPS Senior Public Relations Manager Matthew O'Connor told Business Insider on Thursday afternoon that the documents are located and are being sent to Carlson.
"After an extensive search, we have found the contents of the package and are arranging for its return," he said in a statement.
"UPS will always focus first on our customers, and will never stop working to solve issues and make things right. We work hard to ensure every package is delivered, including essential goods, precious family belongings and critical healthcare."
It came after Glenn Zaccara, UPS's corporate media relations director, confirmed Carlson used the company to ship the materials before they were lost.
"The package was reported with missing contents as it moved within our network," Zaccara said before they were located. "UPS is conducting an urgent investigation."
During his Wednesday night broadcast, Carlson said that a UPS employee notified them that their package "was open and empty apparently, it had been opened."
"The Biden documents never arrived in Los Angeles. Tuesday morning we received word from our shipping company that our package had been opened and the contents were missing," Carlson also remarked. "The documents had disappeared."
On Tuesday night, Carlson interviewed former Hunter Biden associate Tony Bobulinski, who claimed that the former Democratic vice president could be compromised by the Chinese Communist Party due to Hunter and brother James Biden's business dealings in the country.
Joe Biden has not responded to Bobulinski's allegations. Last week during his debate with President Donald Trump, he said he had "not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life."
Biden's campaign earlier this month said Biden never had a meeting with an executive at a shady Ukrainian gas company, Burisma Holdings, while he was the vice president and his son sat on the board of the firm. A report from the New York Post, citing alleged Hunter Biden emails, suggested Hunter Biden had arranged a meeting between him, the executive, and Joe Biden.
It's now possible that a special counsel will investigate Joe Biden should he win the presidency.
"You know, I am not a big fan of special counsels, but if Joe Biden wins the presidency, I don't see how you avoid one," Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) said . "Otherwise, this is going to be, you know, tucked away, and we will never know what happened. All this evidence is going to be buried."
UPS did not provide further details about the apparent mishap.
Oct 30, 2020 | turcopolier.typepad.com
Bobulinski will sing tonight
"Former Biden insider Tony Bobulinski allegedly has a recording of Biden family operatives begging him to stay quiet , or he will "bury" the reputations of everyone involved in Hunter's overseas dealings.
According to The Federalist 's Sean Davis, Bobulinski will play the tape on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Tuesday , when Carlson will devote his show 'entirely' to an interview with the Biden whistleblower."
"According to a source familiar with the planning, Bobulinski will play recordings of Biden family operatives begging him to stay quiet and claiming Bobulinski's revelations will "bury" the reputations of everyone involved in Hunter's overseas deals."
As The Federalist notes:
The Federalist confirmed with sources familiar with the plans that Bobulinski, a retired Navy lieutenant and Biden associate, will be airing tapes of Biden operatives begging Bobulinski to remain quiet as former Vice President Joe Biden nears the finish line to the White House next week.
Bobulinski flipped on the Bidens following a Senate report which revealed that they received a $5 million interest-free loan from a now-bankrupt Chinese energy company .
According to the former Biden insider, he was introduced to Joe Biden by Hunter, and they had an hour-long meeting where they discussed the Biden's business plans with the Chinese, with which he says Joe was "plainly familiar at least at a high level." " Zerohedge
--------------
First of all, Bobulinski is NOT a "retired Navy lieutenant." He is a former Navy Lieutenant.
Well, folks, it's up to you to watch TC's show tonight if you want to learn about this. Tucker's show is the most watched news show in the history of cable television, so the pain should not be too great, pl
ked , 27 October 2020 at 11:31 AM
Diana L Croissant , 27 October 2020 at 11:59 AMI don't watch cable TV so I'll have to depend on the objectivity of observers. I'll be curious who / what is a "family operative"? are they traceable like a military chain-of-command?
in related news, we can get a fix on the play between private / public behaviors & the pace of Justice winding.
I am willing to predict that these examples will have equal impact on the election.
Deap , 27 October 2020 at 01:23 PMTucker Carlson's show is my favorite news/commentary show. I try not to miss it. Because of the fact that he seems to try hard to verify his sources--and the people he interviews, I trust him. He also tries to provide guests from the left in an attempt to be fair.
He's definitely not a Hannity, who is the one who turns many off of FOX (though Hannity comes right after Tucker).
Paco , 27 October 2020 at 03:37 PMHunter Biden is the modern equivalent of the pre-Reformation papacy selling indulgences. Cash in exchange for unfettered passage into the promised land .
Fred , 27 October 2020 at 03:42 PMselling indulgences.
If St. James day is on Sunday Indulgentia Plena.
GEORGE CHAMBERLAIN , 27 October 2020 at 04:08 PMKed,
Thank goodness the Federal Judge has allowed the lawsuit by the private citizen and writer, based on the 1990s allegation, to procede without government interference. I'm sure nobody will do that to democrats in the future. Meanwhile in the Flynn case the DOJ confirms that the govenment documents and discovery exhibits are ture and correct. I'm sure Judge Sullivan will procede expeditiously with granting the unopposed motion to dismiss that case.
Norber M Salamon , 27 October 2020 at 04:18 PMThis story interests me because I believe he is the first to leave the sinking ship but not the last.
There would be no reason for this if he thought Joe would win and the investigation would be snuffed out.
If Trump wins there will most likely be a new version of "Let's Make A Deal" being aired on the nightly news.
I am down to one package of popcorn. I need to restock.Lyttennnburgh , 27 October 2020 at 04:30 PManother interesting tid-bit:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hunter-biden-confesses-partnership-china-spy-chief-fumes-after-he-and-joe-named-criminalturcopolier , 27 October 2020 at 04:35 PM2Deap
Actually, indulgences were more akin to BitCoins. Especially after 1567, when His Holiness the Pope finally officially banned them... but they had been still produced and sold in large quantities. In France only Richeliue put a stop to this con.
Fred , 27 October 2020 at 08:04 PMLyttenburgh
Yes, the Catholic Church is so old that it has been corrupt and reformed many times
james , 27 October 2020 at 08:28 PMGeorge,
"version of "Let's Make A Deal""
The democrats turned that down a couple weeks ago, thus this is blowing up in their faces right now.
GEORGE CHAMBERLAIN , 27 October 2020 at 08:34 PMlol! you are filling in some of the many blanks in my musical knowledge... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbX2diR9b4U
Diana L Croissant , 27 October 2020 at 09:20 PMServe me my plate a Crow. Maybe.
He is saying now that he is 2nd generation military and that they pissed him off claiming he was a Russian asset.
That is plausible.
Maybe it is both?
Regardless it seems he has a great deal of proof.elaine , 27 October 2020 at 09:22 PMI was convinced during the interview. Bobulinsky seemed pretty convincing in his concern for his own reputation, having been associated with the Biden "Mafia" in the first place.
It was clear during the interview that he had provided Tucker verification for his claims.
I am more concerned that this revelation comes too late and that many, many people have voted early. He referenced some hearings that will be held in Congress. I doubt that will affect the election, given the slow pace of anything getting done in Congress. I voted early, but I am not personally concerned because I did NOT vote for Biden; however, I am concerned that those who voted early for Biden could not now change their votes.
turcopolier , 27 October 2020 at 09:25 PMked, Tucker Carlson Tonight shows are usually on YouTube shortly
after they air on cableakaPatience , 27 October 2020 at 10:12 PMjames
Yes. You have to watch out for unannounced medical visits. "Guido, get in the wagon, you need a check up."
Eric Newhill , 27 October 2020 at 10:12 PMSO, if I understand the situation correctly, Bobulinski was essentially sought after, used and then screwed by the Bidens, which seems risky on the part of the clan. But I guess if Joe wins the election, they will have gotten away with it as I can't imagine, in spite of any damning evidence, the Bidens will suffer the same punishing rectal examination-like scrutiny and vilification the Trump family's been subjected to.
turcopolier , 27 October 2020 at 10:22 PMCol Lang,
Hoping you write about your assessment of B and what he had to say.I found him to be generally credible. All of his motives for singing largely make sense to me. I think he's a patriot. Some good supporting evidence. He's sharp. I liked him. He's the kind of guy I'd enjoy working with.
I don't know anything about the realm of international deal making and finance. I'm wondering how a Navy O3 works his way to enjoying yachts in Monaco while making $millions. Is he an Annapolis guy? Tight with the right classmates? Not a lot to be found on him via Google.
turcopolier , 27 October 2020 at 10:24 PMEric Newhill
He was no longer in the navy when he was messing around with the Biden familia. He was probably in the Navy three or four years. He ought to lay off on that. I'll think it over tonight.
Fred , 27 October 2020 at 10:37 PMakapatience
Yes, bend over for the Silver Stallion. "Ah, I see a polyp!"Deap , 28 October 2020 at 01:55 AMakapatience,
Once Wray's FBI gets done with the Rusty Wallace Noose Case they'll have time to deep dive the laptop he's had for almost a year.
Col.,
Bobulinski seemed awful polished during that interview. Almost too good to be true. Hunter being a druggy and Burisma payments being real certainly lend an air to credibility.
Bobo , 28 October 2020 at 07:52 AMAdam Schiff:........"Bobolinski is a Russian agent".
BAM!Executive summary of the interview.
fakebot , 28 October 2020 at 09:25 AMTurns out Patrick Ho Hunters partner in CEFC had a FISA warrant on him when he was nabbed in New York awhile back. His first call was to Hunter to seek legal advice and Hunter represented him. So them scumbags in the FBI have been sitting on this for awhile and will use it on Joe (if elected) when needed. Must be modus operandi at the FBI in gathering dirt on all politicians via FISA's, Hoover is still there.
As with all of us Bobulinski is not lily white but is making an effort to clean his act and those around him. Lily White always comes in degrees. Not much in the NY Times, Wash Post or WSJ this morning but the WSJ deserves a little credit with McBurn's editorial.
Bobulinski obviously comes from a military family thus his harping on his Navy creds. Guess when your in that much sunshine you fall back strongly on anything available.I don't doubt his credibility and it's good that he at least got on Tucker Carlson to provide some much needed answers, but he's not a known quantity and I have hard time imagining his revelations will change minds.
I think the FBI sandbagging the whole affair is what holds back this story getting the attention it deserves from the public. The president I'm sorry to say has been badly served by Wray, Haspel, and company. I think he should have replaced them months ago and waiting until reelection to do it may have been a mistake.
Oct 30, 2020 | www.foxnews.com
Tuesday night, we heard at length and on camera from one of the Biden family's former business partners. His name is Tony Bobulinski. He's a very successful businessman and a Navy veteran.
Bobulinski spoke to "Tucker Carlson Tonight" for a full hour. He told us he met two separate times with Joe Biden himself. Not just with Joe Biden's son or his brother, but with Joe Biden -- the former vice president and the man now running for president -- to discuss business deals with the communist government of China .
That's a very serious claim, and whatever your political views, it's hard to dismiss it when Tony Bobulinski makes it because Bobulinsky is an unusually credible witness. He's not a partisan, he's not seeking money, he's not seeking publicity. He did not want to come on our show.
But when Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and the Biden campaign accused Tony Bobulinski of participating in a Russian disinformation effort, he felt he had no choice. That was a slander against him and against his family. So Bobulinski came to us. He arrived with heaps of evidence to bolster the story he was telling. He brought contemporaneous audio recordings, text messages, e-mails, many financial documents.
VideoBy the end of the hour, it was very clear to us that Tony Bobulinski was telling the truth and that Joe Biden was lying. We believe that any honest person who watched the entire hour would come to the same conclusion.
Well, on Wednesday, a Senate committee confirmed it . The Senate Homeland Security Committee reported that all of Tony Bobulinski's documents are, in fact, real. They are authentic. They are not forgeries. This is not Russian disinformation. It is real.
Bobulinski told a remarkable story. Joe Biden -- who, once again, could be president of the United States next week, was planning business deals with America's most formidable global opponent. And when he was caught doing it, Joe Biden lied. And then he went further. He slandered an innocent man as a traitor to his own country. It is clear that Joe Biden did that. That's not a partisan talking point uttered in bad faith on behalf of another presidential campaign. It's true.
https://c0c754eabe03683fa93ffdd97cfadeee.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html
So the question is, what is Joe Biden's excuse for doing that? What is his version of this story? Everyone has a version and we'd like to hear it, but we don't know what Joe Biden's version of the story is, because no one in America's vast media landscape has pressed Joe Biden to answer the question. Instead, reporters at all levels and their editors and their publishers have openly collaborated with Joe Biden's political campaign. That is unprecedented. It has never happened in American history.
VideoWednesday morning, the big papers completely ignored what Tony Bobulinski had to say. So did the other television networks. Not a single word about Bobulinski appeared on CNN or anywhere else. Newsweek decided to cover it, but came to the conclusion that the real story was about QAnon somehow. This is Soviet-style suppression of information about a legitimate news story. Days before an election, the ramifications of it are impossible to imagine. But we do know the media cannot continue in the way that it has.
No one believes the media anymore and no one should. You should be offended by this, not because the media are liberal, but because this is an attack on our democracy. You've heard that phrase again and again, but this is what it looks like. In a self-governing country, voters have a right -- an obligation -- to know who they're voting for. In this case, they have the right to know the Democratic nominee for president was a willing partner in his family's lucrative influence-peddling operation, an operation that went on for decades and stretched from China and Ukraine all the way to Oman, Romania, Luxembourg and many other countries. This is not speculation once again, and it's not a partisan attack. It's true, and Tony bobulinski confirmed it.
Bobulinski met with Joe Biden at a hotel bar in Los Angeles in early May of 2017, and when he did, Joe Biden's son introduced Bobulinski this way: "Dad. Here's the individual I told you about that's helping us with the business that we're working on and the Chinese."
The man I told you about.
VideoNow, written documents confirmed this is real. At one point, Joe Biden's son texted Tony Bobulinski to say that Joe Biden, his father, was making key decisions about their business deals with China.
CARLSON: When Hunter Biden said his chairman, he was talking about his dad.
BOBULINSKI: Correct, and what Hunter is referencing there is, he spoke with his father and his father is giving an emphatic 'no' to the ask that I had, which was putting proper governance in place around Oneida Holdings.
CARLSON: So, Joe Biden is vetoing your plan for putting stricter governance in the company. I mean, and it's it's right here in the email.
BOBULINSKI: Yes, Tucker, I want to be very careful in front of the American people. That is not me writing that. That is not me claiming that. That is Hunter Biden writing on his own phone. Typing in that 'I spoke with my chairman,' referencing his father.
All this is spelled out in the clearest possible language in documents that Bobulinski provided us, documents that subsequently federal authorities have authenticated as real.
On May 13, 2017, for example, Hunter Biden got an email explaining how his family would be paid for their deal with the Chinese energy company. His father, Joe Biden, was getting 10%.
BOBULINSKI: In that email, there's a statement where they go through the equity, Jim Biden's referenced as, you know, 10%. It doesn't say Biden, it says Jim. And then it has 10% for the big guy held by H. I 1,000% sit here and know that the big guy is referencing Joe Biden. It's, that's crystal clear to me because I lived it. I met with the former vice president in person multiple times.
That was three years ago, and we still don't know where all that money went, because the media haven't forced Joe Biden to tell us. But Tony, Bobulinski did add a telling detail. Joe Biden's brother, Jim, saw his stake in the deal double from 10% to 20%. Was Jim Biden getting his brother's share again? It might be worth finding out.
We also know that according to an email from a top Chinese official, this one written on July 26, 2017, the Chinese proposed a $5 million dollar interest-free loan to the Biden family, "based on their trust on [sic] BD [Biden] family." The e-mail continued, "Should this Chinese company, CEFC, keep lending more to the family?" And indeed, CEFC was supposed to send another $5 million dollars to the Bidens' business ventures. Apparently, that money never made it to the business. Where did it go? A recent Senate report suggests it went to Hunter Biden directly. And from there, who knows? Again, no one's asked.
JIM BIDEN REFUSES TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT FAMILY'S BUSINESS DEALINGS
Tony Bobulinski also told us he learned Hunter Biden became the personal attorney to the chairman of CEFC, Ye Jianming, just as they were tendering 14% of a Russian state-owned energy company. That was a deal valued at $9 billion dollars. It's pretty sleazy. It's pretty amazing, actually, that this happened and no one noticed.
We're not going to spend the next six months leading you through a maze of complex financial transactions. This isn't that complicated: Millions of dollars linked directly to the Communist Party of China went to Joe Biden's family, and not because they're capable businessmen. Jim Biden's one business success appears to have been running a nightclub in Delaware that ultimately went under.
No, the Bidens were cut in on the world's most lucrative business deals, massive infrastructure deals in countries around the world for one reason: Because Joe Biden was a powerful government official willing to leverage his power on behalf of his family.
Now, if that's not a crime, it's very close to a crime and it's certainly something every person voting should know about. The Bidens didn't do this once. They did it for decades. So the question is, how did they get away with it for so long? Tony Bobulinski asked Jim Biden that question directly. To his credit Jim Biden answered that question honestly.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
BOBULINSKI: And I remember looking at Jim Biden and saying, 'How are you guys getting away with this?' Like, 'Aren't you concerned?' And he looked at me and he laughed a little bit and said, 'Plausible deniability.'
CARLSON: He said that out loud.
BOBULINSKI: Yes, he said it directly to me. One on one, in a cabana at the Peninsula Hotel.
"Plausible deniability." In other words, "we lie." We get away with selling access to the U.S. government, which we do not own, because we lie about what we're doing. And as we lie, we try to make those lies plausible. That's why we call it "plausible deniability." That is the answer that Joe Biden's brother gave when asked directly.
So the question is, what is Joe Biden's answer to that question? We wish we knew.
ForFoxSake!!! 1 hour ago Everything that is happening right now is because Trump was right about the swamp, the media, and the ruling class families who have been selling out America for decades. ohhappyday657 1 hour ago Tucker is doing this country a great service. The FBI doesn't seem to want to engage. Mr. Bobulinski is a patriot and we are lucky he came forward. The Bidens need to be called out for their high crimes and misdemeanors. Joe should be impeached for his time as VP. Thank you Tucker. resipsaloquitor ohhappyday657 29 minutes ago You can smell the desperation on the Trump supporters. The lies, the distortions and the grasping, pathetic search for the proverbial Hail Mary to salvage the quickly sinking ship. If Mr. Bobulinski is the best you have the Democrats will 'trump' you with: 227,000 dead Americans, close to 9 million more infected and an economy in tatters. The day of reckoning is approaching and a dozen Bobulinskis won't change that. Trump and his unseemly administration are doomed.
Oct 30, 2020 | turcopolier.typepad.com
" ... the former CEO of SinoHawk Holdings, which he said was the partnership between the CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming and the two Biden family members.
"I remember saying, 'How are you guys getting away with this?' 'Aren't you concerned?'" he told Carlson.
He claims that Jim Biden chuckled.
"'Plausible Deniability,' he said it directly to me in a cabana at the Peninsula Hotel," he said.
In the interview, he outlines how an alleged meeting with Joe Biden took place on May 2, 2017. Fox News first reported text messages that indicated such a meeting. Bobulinski said that it was the Bidens, not him, who had pushed the meeting.
"They were sort of wining and dining me and presenting the strength of the Biden family to get me engaged and to take on the CEO role to develop SinoHawk in the U.S. and around the world in partnership with CEFC," he said.
He went at length into how Joe Biden arrived for a Milken conference, partly held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, and how he was introduced by Jim and Hunter Biden to the former vice president.
"I didn't request to meet with Joe" Biden, he said. "They requested that I meet with Joe [Biden ]. They were putting their entire family legacy on the line. They knew exactly what they were doing."" FN
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Bobulinski is a successful international business hustler. I know the type well. The Biden familia wanted him in this China deal for the purpose of having him hold the reins of this enterprise even as they looted it for the purpose of quickly enriching the fam.
A TV commentator remarked last night after watching the interview that this defection from the Biden camp is reflective of an old business truth which can be stated as "don't screw your partner if he has enough material to sink you."
I am unimpressed with selfless patriotism as Bobu's most basic motivation in sticking it to Joe, Jimmy and Hunter Biden. A sense of betrayal in a business deal wrecked by the Bidens' overwhelming greed and their desire to consolidate family riches as fast as they could is a more plausible. motivation.
This does not mean that Bobu is not telling the truth. His collection of e-mails addressed to him and incriminating memoranda is most impressive.
IMO, what has been revealed is a truth with regard to the Biden crime family. They are nouveau riche grifters who will have a much grander stage for their efforts if Joe is elected as a presidential figurehead. pl
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/plausible-deniability-tony-bobulinski-biden-family
Deap , 28 October 2020 at 11:39 AM
jonst , 28 October 2020 at 01:04 PMDid Hunter Biden's young business partners bring anything of value to the table, or were they just name brand ride-alongs too. Archer, Conley, Heinz, etc. Biden was running a very leaky ship, with such a large but relatively unsophisticated and compromised entourage.
NancyK , 28 October 2020 at 01:13 PMI am, and I'm sure this is not an original observation, because it's as the Col notes, singularly unimpressed with the entire lot of them. Bobo, Jim B, Hunter B, Duncan Hunter, Joe B, Bulger's nephew, I've seen more gravitas among bookies, juicemen, and fences, that I grew up with in NYC. And I mean that. Not a throw away line. And THESE guys will run the show? And Harris I find singularity creep, artificial, and somehow just down right inappropriate. I would not select any of them to run a post office.
Bill H , 28 October 2020 at 01:26 PMI guess it comes down to a choice between the grifters we know and the grifters we don't know. I still trust Joe Biden more than Trump.
turcopolier , 28 October 2020 at 01:32 PMI got a little tired of the man making so much of his "service to his country." Not that it isn't worth quite a lot and I respect him for it, but four years... I served six years, and what I dwell on is how much I loved serving in submarines and the enormous degree that it contributed to building my character. The degree to which my service benefited my country was trivial. It benefited me enormously.
Like you, I think he is telling the truth in that interview.
Rick Merlotti , 28 October 2020 at 02:38 PMnancyK
What is the evidence that Trump is a "grifter?" Not accusations, evidence?Diana L Croissant , 28 October 2020 at 02:45 PMNancyK
After 4 plus years of the intelligence agencies and MSM looking under every conceivable rock, you think that there is anything left to find about Trump? You are delusional and headed for a massive case of buyer's remorse if swiss-cheese-for-brains gets in.
akaPatience , 28 October 2020 at 03:01 PMThank you for asking that question. I was about to ask it myself. My understanding is that Trump's children are working for him as he is President for little pay. They may be still handling Trump business accounts; but it seems they work for his White House office and its many functions--and for his campaign.
I still believe in the American middle class, the people who make American run. These are the people at his rallies, wearing MAGA hats, and showing up in overflow numbers.
They are not people who are easily swayed by "false prophets."
Trump keeps pointing out how well our economy was doing UNTIL China sent the virus (and, I DO believe they sent it). He promises the return of that economy.
That is why Biden now is totally into frightening people about COVID and pushing masks and social distancing. He is afraid that Trump will indeed be able to bring back a good economy. He doesn't know how to do that, as is clear by this desperate attempt to cover up his shady dealings with first Ukraine and now China.
Where I live, a large percentage of our population are clearly very tired and bored with the COVID scare. We still do as our DEMOCRAT Governor, who hails from the People's Republic of Boulder, Colorado, and the University of Colorado, where Socialist, Marxist, and Ultra Feminists rule in the Arts and Humanities. We call Boulder "forty square miles surrounded by reality." Unfortunately, the Boulder/Denver triangle contains the largest voting block. We used to be able to count on Colorado Springs, but the universities in that area and into Pueblo have also been taken over by the leftists.
What is also clear is that Biden's real hope was to build his own family dynasty by using the Presidency as nothing but a cash cow for him and his inept and useless son.
I don't care really what Bobulinski's motives were for coming forward with his documents and emails, I'm just thankful that he did. I hope it wasn't too late. And I'm thankful he chose Tucker Carlson's show as the place to do it.
JohninMK , 28 October 2020 at 03:15 PMJoe Biden doesn't seem to be the brightest bulb for someone with a JD. To wit: why didn't he just offer that he's given his son some fatherly advice about business now and then? Instead, he's repeatedly and categorically denied discussing ANYTHING with his son about his business dealings, which we now know is provably false. I'm no lawyer but I'd think Joe's repeated lying infers a tacit admission of guilt. Deniability doesn't seem plausible in this case.
I'd even go so far as to infer that Joe's gotten away with business dealings of this sordid sort for SO long that he's become sloppy (e.g., the braggadocio ON VIDEO of withholding US aid to Ukraine until its solicitor investigating Burisma, which was paying his son $50-80 thousand per month, was fired.) He obviously has the [justifiable] expectation of never being held accountable.
eakens , 28 October 2020 at 03:49 PMDid anyone else clock his comment that he wasn't being paid, not even expenses, for all these trips. He said he was funding them himself, presumably until the $5M arrived.
Then it didn't but the Bidens got their $5M. The Bidens arrogance just piles onto their stupidity. Did they really think that kind of operator would take it lying down?
smoke , 28 October 2020 at 06:09 PMNancyK. It unfortunately appears a vaccine for covid is way ahead of anything for TDS
The Twisted Genius , 28 October 2020 at 08:40 PM@ Diana Croissant
With one foot in Colorado Springs, I'd like to suggest that you may be overstating the weight of the local colleges in ColSpr's growing Democrat numbers. El Paso county election results have remained fairly reliably Republican, if not by as sure a margin as once.
Population growth may be more significant mover, the high rate of in-migration to Colorado, esp Denver. The seven county Greater Denver-Boulder area, with a population of 3.3 million, grew 1.1% last year, and has grown as fast or faster in the previous ten years. In number, the Denver population has grown faster than anywhere else in the state. In the past ten years the population of Denver Co alone increased 21%.
Colorado Springs/ El Paso Co. has grown quickly in the same period, but not as much as Denver. The current population of 720,000 increased 16% from ten years ago. A good part of this growth has been driven by Denver's growth and skyrocketing housing prices. A house costs much less in El Paso County.
Too many Denverites are choosing to commute an hour+ from ColSpr to Denver, as seen by the explosion of new housing at the north end of El Paso County and the now-daily traffic crawl at rush hour on I-25 between ColSpr and Denver. Just try to get up to the speed limit on that stretch. The state is adding extra lanes as fast as it can. It appears that Denver attitudes move in with many of these commuters. Is ColSpr fated to become a bedroom community?
Finally, Colorado appears to be one of the places attracting migrants from the blighted, overbuilt, overdetermined coasts. Again, newcomers arrive with attitudes from the places they left.
I am hoping that the open skies and spaces, the particular self-reliance of rural Colorado, and the more democratic openness to citizen initiatives via the ballot will mellow their views.
This level of population growth and shifting politics, lacking a concommitant growth in productivity of local biz and industry, is not viewed with equanimity by older inhabitants of ColSpr. IMO It would be best if Colorado remained independent, with reasonable political compromise and collaboration between parties, as before it has been.
Is a comparable dynamic underway north of Denver in your direction?
turcopolier , 28 October 2020 at 11:19 PMpl and NancyK,
In reference to Trump's reputation as a grifter, I offer the following sample:
- He paid $2 million in fines and had to close down the Trump Foundation for using it as a personal piggy bank.
- The Eric Trump Foundation was forced to close for similar grift. It was funneling money into Trump family businesses and accounts. It's wasn't like the family directly stole money from kids with cancer, but it ended up doing just that.
- His friend Bannon's recent grift with his Build the Wall Foundation, along with Manafort's tax and bank fraud convictions, and Cohen's conviction for paying hush money for Trump's sexual escapades.
- The sham Trump University was forced to close with a $25 million settlement to two class action lawsuits and a NY civil lawsuit.None of this sunk Trump. What it did do was inure the American public to the increasing shittyness of our politician's behavior. Hunter's antics would have caused Joe to withdraw from public life ten years ago, but today it's just par for the course.
-TTG
My friend, as I have told you before, you have no real knowledge of practice in the business world. Nobody says Trump has sold the US for his family's profit.
Oct 25, 2020 | www.realclearpolitics.com
RNC Spox Liz Harrington: Everything Democrats Accuse Us Of Doing Is What They Did With The Steele Dossier Posted By Tim Hains
On Date October 23, 2020RNC's national spokesperson Liz Harrington battled CNN's Christiane Amanpour for refusing to engage with allegations of corruption against Joe Biden and his family after years of hyping unverified Trump-Russia allegations. https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1319351107253141504&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.realclearpolitics.com%2Fvideo%2F2020%2F10%2F23%2Fgop_spox_elizabeth_harrington_everything_democrats_accuse_us_of_doing_is_what_they_did_with_steele_dossier.html&siteScreenName=rcpvideo&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px
"Why don't you want to report this? This is one of the most powerful families in Washington," she asked. "And you're okay with our interests being sold out to profit Joe Biden and his family, while we're suffering during a pandemic from communist China?"
https://c5x8i7c7.ssl.hwcdn.net/vplayer-parallel/20200902_2348/ima_html5/index.html
https://c5x8i7c7.ssl.hwcdn.net/vplayer-parallel/20200902_2348/videojs/show.html?controls=1&loop=60&autoplay=0&tracker=a71d2729-c152-42a5-b839-e31cfd08bff8&height=227&width=402&vurl=%2F%2Fd14c63magvk61v.cloudfront.net%2Fvideos%2Fdgv_rcp%2F20201024150810_5f9441771320b%2Fdgv_rcp_trending_articles_20201024150810_5f9441771320b_new.mp4&poster=%2F%2Fd14c63magvk61v.cloudfront.net%2Fvideos%2Fdgv_rcp%2F20201024150810_5f9441771320b%2Fdgv_rcp_trending_articles_20201024150810_5f9441771320b_new.jpg
- Trump Closing Statement: "Success Is What Will Bring Us Together"
- Joe Biden: "You Know His Character," "Our Character Is On The Ballot, Look At Us Closely"
- Hunter's Ex-Business Partner Says Joe Biden Lied About Business Deals In China, FBI Has Proof
"Absolutely, absolutely," CNN's Amanpour replied. Related Topics: Liz Harrington , Hunter Biden
Oct 25, 2020 | www.newsmax.com
Hunter Biden, son of Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden, addresses the political party's virtual convention Aug. 20. ( Getty Images)
By Eric Mack | Thursday, 22 October 2020 06:08 PM
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Former Hunter Biden business associate Tony Bobulinski is going to turn over his electronic devices and business records to the FBI and appear Friday before two Senate committees investigating accusations centered on content from a laptop linked to Hunter.
Fox News' reporter John Roberts tweeted:
"Tony Bobulinski will announce that he will turn his electronic devices and records of business dealings with Hunter and Jim Biden over to the FBI"Bobulinski, a retired Navy lieutenant and CEO of Sinohawk Holdings, will hold a briefing in Nashville, Tennessee, as he attends Thursday night's debate as a guest of President Donald Trump, Roberts also reported.
https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html
And both the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and Senate Finance Committee will hear testimony from Bobulinski in their investigations into a purported pay-for-play scheme that some have alleged also benefited former Vice President Joe Biden.
Committee Chairmen Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, issued the following statement Thursday, announcing Bobulinski's cooperation Friday:
"As part of the committees' efforts to validate the authenticity of recently publicly released emails involving the Biden family's international financial entanglements, we sent letters to five individuals identified in the emails. Those letters were sent [Wednesday], and the deadline is Oct. 23, 2020. So far, the committees have received a response only from Mr. Tony Bobulinski, who appears to be willing to fully cooperate with our investigation."In fact, Mr. Bobulinski has already agreed to appear for an informal interview by the committees tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 23, 2020."
Oct 25, 2020 | www.newsmax.com
Rudy Giuliani to Newsmax TV: Joe Biden Got 50 Percent of 'Bribe Money'https://www.youtube.com/embed/coFx3ZDXWrg
Tuesday, 20 October 2020 10:00 PM
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Former Vice President Joe Biden used his son Hunter Biden as a "bag man" and got 50% of the "bribe money" from foreign entities, Rudy Giuliani told Newsmax TV .
Appearing Tuesday on "Greg Kelly Reports," Giuliani, who says he is in possession of a copy of a hard drive purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden, said the current Democrat presidential nominee could have used several "flunkies" as a "bag man" rather than his own son, but instead involved Hunter in a purported bribery scheme with Chinese businesses.
"Ten percent of the money that was being whacked up, that was $10 million a year, and then 50% of the profits with three Chinese Communists, one of whom was a Chinese intelligence operative -- that 10% of that was going to H. for 'the big guy,'" Giuliani said.
"The big guy" has been identified by a Fox News source as Joe Biden, and Giuliani said his team has identified Joe Biden by other means as well.
https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html
Pressed by host Greg Kelly for more revelations, Giuliani demurred, saying he has only been able to look through about half the hard drive so far.
Giuliani said the hard drive -- which he noted has never been denied as authentic by Joe or Hunter Biden -- contains evidence of about "five major federal crimes" and "$30-40 million" going to the Biden family as bribes.
The hard drive is said to have come from a laptop left at a Delaware repair shop by a man described by the owner of the shop as Hunter Biden. It was never picked up, and the original drive was given to the FBI.
In one purported email, Hunter Biden complains he receives no respect for his work, but tells his family he will not make them pay him "half your salary" like "Pop" did.
"This is not about Hunter," Giuliani said, but about what a criminal and "horrible father" Joe Biden is.
"These are major bribes in which he sold out the United States to China."
Important: See Newsmax TV now carried in 70 million cable homes, on DirecTV Ch. 349, Dish Network Ch. 216, Xfinity Ch. 1115, Spectrum, U-verse Ch. 1220, FiOS Ch. 615, Optimum Ch. 102, Cox cable, Suddenlink Ch. 102, CenturyLink 1209, Mediacom Ch. 277, Frontier 615 or Find More Cable Systems – Click Here.
Oct 25, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
A few days ago, the MSM and their political allies in the Democratic Party celebrated the release of a "compromising" photo appearing to show former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani with his hands down his pants. Giuliani claimed that he was merely retucking in his shirt after removing some recording equipment, but nevertheless, the whole news cycle played out in full view of the public as social media giants like Twitter and Facebook looked the other way, allowing the photo, and links to news stories covering the controversy (orchestrated by "Borat" prankster Sasha Baron Cohen) to circulate widely.
However, just days later, a Chinese digital media company has published footage showing a man who looks identical to Hunter Biden engaging in a sex fetish act with an unidentifiable woman (along with a photo purporting to show what appears to be the same man engaging in sex with a Ukrainian prostitute). But instead of allowing discussion and links to the video to circulate, Twitter has scrubbed all links and photos related to the video and story, and is suspending accounts that appear to be trying to spread the video or screenshots from the footage.
Some background: Late Saturday afternoon, a mysterious link surfaced on Reddit purporting to be the vaunted Hunter Biden sex tape - or at least, one of the Hunter Biden sex tapes (whispers about more footage have so far gone unsubstantiated).
In it, a naked Hunter Biden can be seen, smoking crack, and laying with an unidentified woman, possibly a prostitute. The woman's face is blurred out, making it impossible to tell whether or not she appeared to be underage.
The video itself was posted by a news site purporting to be an anti-CCP intelligence operation called G-TV, which is also tied to Guo Wengui, the Chinese billionaire dissident who is close to Steve Bannon (Bannon was reportedly arrested after a visit on Guo's yacht in Connecticut).
Interested parties can find the video here .
Footage of the sex act is preceded by footage of Guo Wengui at the national press club raging over a Chinese takeover of the US, "9/11 times a thousand," he says, before transitioning to a screed slamming Western politicians who collaborate with the CCP, and warning about the dangers of American kleptocrats falling sway to CCP "influence" (blackmail etc).
During the opening minutes if the video, Hunter can be heard complimenting the woman on her technique. "That's so professional," Hunter exclaims. "You can't even find that on there," he laughs as he gestures toward something off camera.
A few minutes in, the man who is allegedly Hunter Biden can be seen firing up a crack pipe.
The reaction on Twitter was swift. Users who tried to share the link and photos were quickly blocked (even though Twitter famously allows porn and nudity). Some cracked jokes about Hunter Biden receiving what appeared to be a 'footjob', while shrugging off the video as simply evidence that Biden has been victimized by revenge porn.
Others simply noted the disparity in treatment between the Hunter Biden story and the "Borat" revelations about Giuliani, and wondered aloud how Twitter might be handling this if those photos were of Donald Trump Jr., not Hunter Biden.
Of course, twitter didn't simply ignore the Giuliani photo; the news became one of the top trending topics (thanks to the fact that Twitter's user-base skews toward young leftists).
At any rate, the group that released the footage and the above-mentioned screenshot are promising to release more compromising material, while the MSM and Big Tech rallies to Hunter Biden's defense.
rtb61 , 2 hours agoKrink26 , 3 hours agoIt is not like you were not warned before hand and could have investigated how Biden stole the primary through postal votes, when Gabbard by proposing new legislation to block that electoral fraud. The corporate Democrats are utter ****e, worse than the Republicans and the Libertarians are way better than the Republicans and of course in the USA the Greens are by far the best of them all (what a real political party should look and of course be like and just corruptly and ruthlessly attacked by the corporate Democrats showing how truly evil the corporate Demcrats are, denying Americans democracy).
TBT or not TBT , 3 hours agoWhat a train wreck. The real issue is his father. He sold out the second highest seat in the land. And he'd do it all again if he gets into the top spot.
Propaganda Phil , 1 hour agoHis dad had the presidential level judgement to bring this mess of a person on Air Force 2 diplomatic missions to corrupt countries to be the point man for family deal making. Stellar judgement!
Didymus , 3 hours agoWhat? You don't want to see pics of Hunter smoking crack in the White House?
Gerrilea , 3 hours agoThe "real issue" is the elite culture that produced and supports Biden. Looking at the family, you can tell it's just a bunch of degenerate mobster politicians. They're not even good at what they do. Who's behind them? Who is pushing Joe forward?
It's a vampire squid of globo-homo kleptocracy and militant neoliberalism. Unfortunately the only other contender is our ziostooge DJT.
Didymus , 2 hours agoI wouldn't call it the "elite culture" but one created by the CIA/FBI. They know who's doing what to whom and for how long and they've got the pictures, videos and confessions to prove it. If those agencies aren't shutdown or cleaned up, it won't matter who we elect...they will control them.
palmereldritch , 1 hour agoIt's a "culture" because it involves thousands of people: bureaucrats, journalists, politicians, attorneys, businessmen, bankers, and religious leaders. There is a conspiracy, but most of these people instictively know what to do and don't require orders. This basic class of people has been in power since Woodrow Wilson was put in the WH by Baruch and House.
The politicians are like the Intel Agencies' zoo animals.
Oct 25, 2020 | www.rt.com
is a game and tech journalist from the US. Aside from writing for RT, he hosts the podcast Micah and The Hatman, and is an independent comic book writer. Follow Micah at @MindofMicahC
23 Oct, 2020 15:07 / Updated 1 day ago Get short URL © Getty Images / David McNew / Staff 203 Follow RT on Joe Biden recently suggested that stories circulating about his son Hunter were part of a Russian disinformation campaign. Whatever he has or hasn't been up to, blaming another nation is unwise and won't go down well with voters.
It's safe to say that Hunter Biden, the son of former vice president and current presidential candidate Joe Biden, is having a rough time. After the contents of his laptop, including details of his international business dealings, came into the public domain, it transpired that the computer had been the subject of a subpoena in a money-laundering investigation. Now, former business partners are beginning to turn on him, and one of them has said that he's turning " everything " over to the FBI and the Senate. Another one claimed that Biden was consulted with regard to Hunter's foreign deals.
During the second and final presidential debate, Biden made a key mistake when it came to addressing these issues. Instead of simply stating that he had no comment to make, he decided to blame Russia for the fact that Hunter's emails had been leaked from the laptop's hard drive. Ah yes. So we're back to that old 'reliable' narrative. I'm assuming that Joe may have missed the embarrassment that was the Mueller investigation .
Maybe Biden doesn't like Russia. Whether he does or doesn't is inconsequential. It is a very bad idea to blame his problems on a foreign power. In fact, it's not the proper behavior of someone who wants to be president. Here's the truth. Hunter Biden's dealings across the pond likely had some issues. It's hard to say exactly what these might be, because there's an ongoing investigation. I don't think that Biden is so dumb that he doesn't realize that this hurts his chances of the presidency. However, there is a big lack of responsibility here. Blaming what's happening on anyone except Hunter is a bit silly. I'd even argue that it's incredibly irresponsible.
ALSO ON RT.COM By backing censorship of Hunter Biden story, mainstream media only hurt their own causeWhat's even more obvious is the desperation. Biden and the Democrats in general want this story, whatever it is, to be squashed. It's why you have seen so little coverage on left-leaning TV networks. If Donald Trump Jr was in a similar situation it would be a story on every single one of them, and likely the subject of a Don Lemon lecture or five.
What Biden may not realize is that when voters see something being blamed on Russia, they tend to roll their eyes. It invokes the image of Boris and Natasha grabbing a laptop in the hopes of finally grabbing the moose and squirrel. It's cartoonish. And what happens if the worst-case scenario for Biden comes true and his son is indicted for something? Well, at that point it's more than just a ' Russian disinformation campaign' . It's very real indeed.
And this is where Biden could end up with plenty of egg on his face. If he and his son are in trouble, then no amount of blaming another country is going to change that. And it wouldn't surprise me if this becomes a major factor in the upcoming election. Why would you vote for someone who can't, or won't, take responsibility for what is going on with their own family?
What Biden needs to do at this point is come clean on what his level of involvement was, and simply be a dad to his son instead of a politician. Then again, Biden has been a politician longer than he's been a father, so it's hard saying which hat he plans on wearing for the next two weeks.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
MakeAmericaFree 1 day ago The world is witness to the blatant corruption and deceit at the highest levels of American government. Trump has tried to clean things up and he has a lot more left to do. We should wish him well in those efforts. I am starting to think Attorney General William Barr has capitulated though. Where are all the indictments, Mr. Barr? Reply 14 ariadnatheo MakeAmericaFree 1 day ago Barr? The CIA offspring? He does what he is told, not necessarily by his official boss SJMan333 1 day ago If Joe is running against another regular Republican politician, Hunter Biden's corruption would have been a non-issue. The US politics is a cesspool of corruption, money laundering, sex and all forms of moral decay. Each politician is in it for self-serving purposes. Position, power, money, etc etc. A big section of naive Americans believe their politicians are there to serve the people's interests. Politicians from both sides of the aisle have a tacit understanding NOT to cross a red line. They will never accuse their opponents of corruption. 'You make your money, I make mine.' is their omerta. They put up huge shows of debating with each other in public purportedly in defense of the people's welfare and benefits. Behind closed door, they celebrate their loots from the nation's tax money and illegal brides from businesses in camaraderie together. I don't like Trump. But his exposure of the alleged crimes of the Biden family is something to be applauded, even he's doing it for self-serving purposes. DukeLeo 1 day ago Joe Biden is using Hillary's methods. Not wise. You don't use the same fraud twice. shadow1369 DukeLeo 1 day ago Well the CIA have used the same lies for 75 years. White Elk shadow1369 1 day ago Must be a bit worn out by now. Reply 2 shadow1369 White Elk 1 day ago You would think so, you would also think that everybody would have seen through them by now, but not at all. The CIA orchestrated coup in Kiev used exactly the same methods as the one they orchestrated in Iran in 1953. The details of Operation Ajax are now publicly available, but few bother to look into it. allan Kaplan White Elk 1 day ago Not worn out but perfected! Lois Winters 1 day ago I am not surprised at anything Biden says after seeing his performance in these debates. He is obviously a tired old man and relies on sheafs of notes with the same old so called empathic statements to the citizens of America. It is a wonder that he's a presidential candidate at all. After all the original candidates finally were eliminated, no one but these two want this thankless job. allan Kaplan 1 day ago Now that the shameless "mind managers" the msm propagandists are in the opens, we, the people (an old cliche) must start making noises of holding these anti-American mouth pieces accountable. Compel to change the FCC Rules to take away their broadcasting licensees, penalized those self proclaimed journalists of zero integrities, jailed most of them, and never again allow such ego bloated nincompoops ever to come near the radio and TV stations and banned them from entering any newspaper offices as well. Other punitive measures must be enacted to deface and disregard these paid mouths of fake news and disinformation msm Complex! I'm starting a business of manufacturing toilet bowls and the pubic urinals with the faces impregnated into the ceramic of all those who exploited American freedom of speech to advance their personal careers and that would certainly include almost all the politicians and the tech giants etc. What do you think as a statement to test the real FREE SPEECH?
Oct 25, 2020 | www.thegatewaypundit.com
Lauren Witzke @LaurenWitzkeDE US Senate candidate, DE BIG BREAKING NEWS: "Sources close to and with deep knowledge of the investigation, have informed me that Chris Coons' DAUGHTER in addition to seven other underage girls are also featured on [Hunter Biden's] laptop." 1:22 PM · Oct 24, 2020 5.2K 4.4K people are T
Oct 25, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
3 play_arrow
Cracker Pipes , 29 minutes ago
aspen1880 , 11 minutes agoCCP Hunter Biden sex/crack tape just dropped...
ponchoramic , 19 minutes agothere has been no gov accountability in the USA for any party since Abe
Only people who are genuinely interested in the skulduggery will understand the reality of any political situation. The rest of the public will just scratch & sniff their way through.
General public sentiment: It's politics, they're all the same. Bunch of liars. Lalala.
Oct 25, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
IRC162 , 3 hours ago
Cheap Chinese Crap , 3 hours agoThe Democrat party is an existential threat to the United States of America
Make_Mine_A_Double , 2 hours agoAnd, no, I don't feel bad for R. Hunter Biden, nor is he a victim.
He is a WLLLING PARTICIPANT in his father's vast corruption schemes and lived mega-large while the living was good.
The Devil doesn't steal souls. They are sold by their owners.
He could have walked away but he didn't.
And it makes me wonder how corrupt his brother was since that was Joe's fair-haired boy until he died from spending too much time on a cell phone.
Anno Domini , 3 hours agoYeahhhh, might have to revisit the autopsy and death certificate on that one.
Though Hunter didn't waste any time bangin' deceased bros wifey - what a fambly.
SurfingUSA , 3 hours agoThe Hunter sex stuff merely illustrates that there is mega Kompromat on the Bidens. It gets worse.
Here, just 2 weeks after DJT wins the White House, old Joe is recorded telling Ukraine's leader to clean up the evidence BEFORE Trump gets wind of it. This is it. Pure guilt on display-- it's always the coverup.
Anno Domini , 3 hours agoYour link just goes to a .jpg
I think you mean this:
Go down to "Biden secret phone call," or straight to this Twitter link:
lwilland1012 , 3 hours agoThanx.
Totally_Disillusioned , 3 hours agoMeans nothing without INDICTMENTS! Get off your keister and do something useful for once in your life, Barr, you sad Swamp sack of garbage!
aspnaz , 2 hours agoThe Bidens are so owned by the Chinese CCP it's almost unfathomable...and they are so stupid.
Totally_Disillusioned , 3 hours agoWorrying about Russians while the CCP are infesting the country.
quanttech , 3 hours agoHunter is free and 21 yrs old and can engage in any sexual perversions with a consenting adult. What he can't do however is sell his father's political influence to foreign govts. That's treason.
Templar X , 3 hours agocorrect, and all the sex stuff takes the focus away from the financial crimes.
Kefeer , 3 hours ago...For years, I watched one betrayal after another, as politicians like Joe Biden sold out American Workers at every turn -- shattering the lives of millions of American families while THEIR families raked in millions of dollars...
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1319822460443750402
Where is the story about the rental car return and the left behind crack-pipe? Remember that story - Hertz? 2016
Report: Cocaine Pipe Found In Joe Biden Son's Rental Car In 2016 (fisrt 45 seconds or so (Watter's World)
Oct 25, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
China's Elite-Capture Strategy & The Bidens
by Tyler Durden Sat, 10/24/2020 - 22:30 Twitter Facebook Reddit Email Print
Authored by Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg via The Epoch Times,.
Excerpted from the book: 'Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party Is Reshaping the World'
In 2018 the well-connected Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin pointed out that China had been building networks of influence in the United States over many years, and that the U.S. government "is preparing for the possibility that the Chinese government will decide to weaponize" them to get what it wants. (Although Beijing is not known to use Russian-style "active measures" in the West, deploying them is only a matter of political calculation.)
One of the CCP's most audacious penetration operations, Chinagate in 1996, saw a top intelligence operative meeting a naive President Clinton in the White House, along with donations to the Clinton campaign made through people with ties to the Chinese military.
Beijing has been working to gain influence in the U.S. Congress since the 1970s. Through the activities of the CCP's International Liaison Department, and Party-linked bodies like the China Association for International Friendly Contact, China has made some influential friends. Nevertheless, Congress has for the most part remained skeptical of China, although its voice has been muted at times by the influence of "pro-China" members. The president, the White House, the bureaucracy, think tanks, and business lobby groups have all been targeted by Beijing, to good effect.
Democratic Presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden gestures as he speaks during the final presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 22, 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
Until recently, almost all players in Washington D.C. and beyond were convinced by the "peaceful rise of China" trope, and the value of "constructive engagement." The common belief was that as China developed economically, it would naturally morph into a liberal state. This view was not without foundation, because the more liberal factions within the CCP did struggle with the hardliners, but in the U.S. it reinforced a kind of institutional naivety that was exploited by Beijing. Many of those who stuck to this view even after the evidence pointed firmly to the contrary had a strong personal investment in defending Beijing.
The billionaire businessman and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg was a late entrant in the contest to become the 2020 Democratic Party candidate for U.S. president. He is the most Beijing-friendly of all aspirants. With extensive investments in China, he opposes the tariff war and often speaks up for the CCP regime.
https://lockerdome.com/lad/13084989113709670?pubid=ld-dfp-ad-13084989113709670-0&pubo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com&rid=www.zerohedge.com&width=890
Former Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg addresses his staff and the media after announcing that he will be ending his campaign, in New York City, on March 4, 2020. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
His media company has suppressed stories critical of CCP leaders, and Bloomberg himself claimed in 2019 that "Xi Jinping is not a dictator" because he has to satisfy his constituency.
The Washington Post 's Josh Rogin argued that "his [Bloomberg's] misreading of the Chinese government's character and ambitions could be devastating for U.S. national security and foreign policy. He would be advocating for a naive policy of engagement and wishful thinking that has already been tried and failed."
In May 2019 Joe Biden distinguished himself from all of the other candidates for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination by ridiculing the idea that China is a strategic threat to the United States. "China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man," he told a campaign crowd in Iowa City. Biden had for years adopted a soft approach to China. When President Obama's secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, was taking a tougher position towards China's adventurism in Asia, Vice President Biden was urging caution. Biden had formed a warm personal relationship with Xi Jinping when Xi was vice president and president-in-waiting.
Hunter Biden (R) with then President Barack Obama (L) and Vice President Joe Biden during a college basketball game at the Verizon Center in Washington on Jan. 30, 2010. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
In his second term, Obama replaced Clinton as secretary of state with the more accommodating John Kerry. The dynamics help to explain why Obama's 2012 "pivot to Asia" was a damp squib. The United States stood back while China annexed islands and features in the South China Sea and built military bases on them, something Xi had promised Obama he would not do. Breaking the promise has given China an enormous strategic advantage.
Joe Biden cleaves to the belief, now abandoned by many China scholars and most Washington politicians, that engagement with China will entice it into being a responsible stakeholder. The University of Pennsylvania's D.C. think tank -- named, for him, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement -- aims to address threats to the liberal international order, yet China is absent from the threats identified on its website : Russia, climate change and terrorism. Biden has spoken about China's violation of human rights but still clings to the idea of China's "peaceful rise."
So does it matter if Joe Biden has a different view of China? It does, because there is evidence that the CCP has been currying his favor by awarding business deals that have enriched his son, Hunter Biden. One account of this is given by Peter Schweizer in his 2019 book "Secret Empires." Some of his key claims were subsequently challenged and Schweizer refined them in an op-ed in the New York Times (famous for fact-checking). In short, when Vice President Biden travelled to China in December 2013 on an official trip, his son flew with him on Airforce Two. While Biden senior was engaging in soft diplomacy with China's leaders, Hunter was having other kinds of meetings. Then, "less than two weeks after the trip, Hunter's firm which he founded with two other businessmen [including John Kerry's stepson] in June 2013, finalized a deal to open a fund, BHR Partners, whose largest shareholder is the government-run Bank of China, even though he had scant background in private equity."
The Bank of China is owned by the state and controlled by the CCP. Hunter Biden's exact role in the company is disputed, but one expert has said that his share in it would be worth around $20 million.
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However, the point here is not the ethics of the Bidens (as the news media have framed it) but the way in which the CCP can influence senior politicians. This "corruption by proxy," in which top leaders keep their hands clean while their family members exploit their association to make fortunes, has been perfected by the "red aristocracy" in Beijing .
Cover of the book "Hidden Hand" by Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg.
In the crucial years 2014 and 2015, Beijing was aggressively expanding into the South China Sea while Obama, Kerry, and Biden were sitting on their hands...
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2 play_arrow e-man , 1 hour ago
Soloamber , 1 hour ago" Chinagate in 1996, saw a top intelligence operative meeting a naive President Clinton in the White House"
I wonder how much a naive President Clinton got for selling out America.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States%E2%80%93China_Relations_Act_of_2000
Oldwood , 1 hour agoExactly correct and some of the biggest enemies the USA has are inside the fence .
They include most MSM , "higher education ' , climate change con men , and all levels of government
that are infiltrated or bought .
The intel agencies see the political gong show as theatre to be ignored unless they stage a coup like the one on Trump .
NoDebt , 1 hour agoGlobalism is not nationalism. It pervades all economies, all borders.
This election is NOT a choice between democrat and republican. It is a war to retain America as a constitutional sovereign republic versus capitulation to a globalist regime comprised of unelected elitist organizations unaccountable to anyone. A illusory democracy will remain, where voting will be simply a certification of indoctrinated themes and agendas, and contradictory voices will be expunged as threats to peace and "harmony ", if acknowledged at all.
Sinophile , 35 minutes agoIn his second term, Obama replaced Clinton as secretary of state with the more accommodating John Kerry.
Because there are some thing so distasteful even a Clinton won't do them?
Handful of Dust , 57 minutes agoNeolib: Russia, Russia, Russia.....
Neocon: China, China, China.....
Redpilled: DC, DC,DC.....
Only one of the three admits the truth.
Russia did not destroy America.
China did not destroy America.
Washington DC destroyed Amerika.
Soloamber , 1 hour agoAllegedly, Bloomberg himself is in some of those videos of Pedo Parties with underage Chinese girls.
The FBI will crucify a soccer Mom for trying to get her baby daughter into college, yet ignores widespread pedophilia of some of our top politicians and their sons.
Whiskey Tango Texas , 1 minute agoBiden was in political power the entire time millions of USA jobs were sent to China .
Pay back is a bitch especially when your kid gets rich from pay to play .
Shemp 4 Victory , 1 hour agoAn anti-CCP group called "The New Federal State of China" is now releasing Hunter Biden sex tape footage in order to show the depth of CCP infiltration and how compromised / owned the Bidens are specifically.
They claim to be dropping new stuff every hour.
https://thedonald.win/p/11PVkKV2gr/hunter-bidens-sex-tapes-the-ccps/
East Indian , 1 hour agoTwo China-bashing neocons getting an excerpt of drivel from their book printed in Falun Gong's propaganda megaphone The Epoch Times - what an amazing coincidence.
Well, I suppose weekend Tyler must have bills to pay like anyone else...
Parrotile , 1 hour agoYou may expose the hidden hand or any other part of anatomy, but people of America do not seem to care or notice; if they ever notice, then that story is disappeared by the tech giants; and if the story escapes black out, then a counter-story breaks, whereby America will be caught doing the same things in China...
The time for taking a firm stand is approaching. Whosoever takes a firm stand will survive...
Big drama! The Chinese are copying US decades-old policy!
Yes, Non-Communist China is certainly reshaping the World, despite the US's efforts to stop them (which includes the US -made "China Virus" - NO credible evidence that there was any "leak" from the Wuhan facility, but ZeroHedge just keeps on trotting out the anti-China rhetoric to keep the Republican cretinocracy happy!)
America drops record quantities of munitions on those who don't bend the knee to their "rulers", whilst China has the One Belt, One Road program (and by fortifying the Spratley Island chain, has shown that they are very aware of how the US goaded Japan into the Pearl Harbour incident.
China provides added value via trade, the US indulges in frank piracy.
When the end comes (and it will), may your God help you, since you may rest assured that the rest of the civilised World will be cheering in the streets (and rightly so).
Oct 23, 2020 | redstate.com
(This is the first in a series of articles exploring Hunter Biden and Chris Heinz's business dealings with Chinese entities. Additional reporting and research have been provided by RedState's Scott Hounsell . Links to additional pieces are at the bottom.)
A nearly 60-page intelligence report dated October 2 and provided to RedState late Wednesday, October 21 details the relationship between multiple Chinese State-Owned Entities (SOE's) and companies owned by Hunter Biden, Chris Heinz (stepson of former Secretary of State John Kerry), Devon Archer, James Bulger, and suspected Chinese intelligence asset Michael Lin. Despite what Hunter Biden's attorney claimed in 2019 , Hunter started traveling to China shortly before the Big Guy became Vice President and signed contracts with SOE's while the Big Guy was Vice President.
According to Christopher Balding, Associate Professor at Peking University HSBC School of Business Shenzhen – who notes that he did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016 and will not be voting for him this year – who reviewed the report before publication:
Lost among the salacious revelations about laptop provenance is the more mundane reality of influence and money of major United States political figures. Ill-informed accusations of Russian hacking and disinformation face the documented reality of a major Chinese state financial partnership with the children of major political figures. A report by an Asian research firm raises worrying questions about the financial links between China and Hunter Biden.
Beginning just before Joe Biden's ascendancy to the Vice Presidency, Hunter Biden was traveling to Beijing meeting with Chinese financial institutions and political figures would ultimately become his investors. Finalized in 2013, the investment partnership included money from the Chinese government, social security, and major state-owned banks a veritable who's who of Chinese state finance.
It is not simply the state money that should cause concern but the structures and deals that took place. Most investment in specific projects came from state-owned entities and flowed into state-backed projects or enterprises.
According to the report Hunter Biden made incredible profits for essentially doing nothing, including a tidy sum off of a copper mine in the Congo and another healthy bundle for allowing the Bank of China to allocate its share of an IPO in Hong Kong to his venture capital firm, BHR. So he's either the world's savviest investor or there are some shenanigans/influence-peddling going on.
These activities were directed by people at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party, according to the report.
The entire arrangement speaks to Chinese state interests. Meetings were held at locations that in China speak to the welcoming of foreign dignitaries or state to state relations. The Chinese organizations surrounding Hunter Biden are known intelligence and influence operatives to the United States government. The innocuous names like Chinese People's Institute for Foreign Affairs exist to " carry out government-directed policies and cooperative initiatives with influential foreigners without being perceived as a formal part of the Chinese government."
Balding, an American who lived in China for nine years, says of the report's veracity:
I did not write the report and I am not responsible for the report. I have gone over the report with a fine-tooth comb and can find nothing factually wrong with the report. Everything is cited and documented. Arguably the only weakness is that we do not have internal emails between Chinese players or the Chinese and Bidens that would make explicit what the links clearly imply.
Among the other revelations in the report:
- The state-owned Bank of China, through subsidiary companies, is the majority owner of Hunter Biden's venture capital firm , BHR
- Hunter Biden still owns a 10% share of BHR, (conservatively) estimated value $50 million
- Hunter Biden served on the board of Heinz and Archer's Rosemont Realty, a large US-based commercial real estate firm that was then sold to a Chinese company
- A Chinese company affiliated with Hunter Biden acquired electric vehicle technology and assets from two US companies that were in bankruptcy and which had defaulted on government-backed loans
- Joe and Hunter Biden's December 2013 trip to China overlapped then-Ukrainian President and Joe Biden ally Viktor Yanukovych's trip
- BHR partnered with AVIC, an aerospace and defense SOE (yes, the Chinese military), to purchase US automotive supplier Henniges Automotive in 2016
- Suspected Chinese intelligence asset – and Hunter Biden business partner and frequent travel partner – Michael Lin had official meetings with Joe Biden while he was Vice President
Balding says this information is easily discoverable, that "there is no secret method for discovering this data other than actually looking," and that knowing how the Chinese government operates, the links between Beijing and the Bidens are very worrisome:
Having lived in China for nine years throughout the Xi regime's construction of concentration camps and having witnessed first hand their use of influence and intelligence operations, the Biden links worry me profoundly.
Whether Joe Biden personally knew the details, a very untenable position, it is simply political malpractice to not be aware of the details of these financial arrangements. These documentable financial links simply cannot be wished away.
The entire report can be read here .
Part 2: Hunter, Joe Biden's 2013 China Trip Overlapped With Ukrainian Delegation
Part 3: State-Owned Bank of China is Majority Owner of Hunter Biden's Venture Capital Firm
Oct 24, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Rep. Gosar Calls To Defund NPR As Backlash Grows Over Biden Laptop Coverup
by Tyler Durden Fri, 10/23/2020 - 14:40 Twitter Facebook Reddit Email Print
Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar has called for defunding National Public Radio after the outlet officially refused to cover the Hunter Biden laptop scandal (while happily peddling anti-Trump rumors for years) - calling it a ' waste of time. '
"It's time to defund @NPR. This is appalling. #DefundNPR," Gosar tweeted on Thursday.
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Gosar joins a growing chorus of conservative voices who are furious over the outlet's decision to censor perhaps the biggest political bombshell in decades .
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As Jack Phillips of the Epoch Times notes:
NPR public editor Kelly McBride published an inquiry on its website Thursday from a listener who did not understand why the outlet was ignoring the story.
"Someone please explain why NPR has apparently not reported on the Joe Biden, Hunter Biden story in the last week or so that Joe did know about Hunter's business connections in Europe that Joe had previously denied having knowledge?" listener Carolyn Abbott asked.
McBride responded in saying there are "many, many red flags" in an investigation carried out by the New York Post, which last week published reports that were sourced from the alleged laptop hard drive. NPR then went on to repeat claims that Russia is attempting to interfere in the election.
" Even if Russia can't be positively connected to this information, the story of how Trump associates Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani came into a copy of this computer hard drive has not been verified and seems suspect. And if that story could be verified, the NY Post did no forensic work to convince consumers that the emails and photos that are the basis for their report have not been altered," McBride said, adding: "But the biggest reason you haven't heard much on NPR about the Post story is that the assertions don't amount to much."
Her response included a statement from NPR managing editor Terence Samuel.
" We don't want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories , and we don't want to waste the listeners' and readers' time on stories that are just pure distractions. And quite frankly, that's where we ended up, this was a politically driven event and we decided to treat it that way," Samuel said.
The claims that the reports are part of a Russian disinformation plot were dismissed by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe.
The FBI, meanwhile, did not dispute Ratcliffe's statements earlier this week.
FBI Assistant Director Jill C. Tyson sent a letter to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, in response to Johnson's request for more information about the emails, reports around which have alleged that Hunter Biden tried to introduce a Ukrainian businessman to his father when he served as vice president in the Obama administration. The law enforcement agency said it has "nothing to add at this time" to Ratcliffe's statement.
A number of conservatives and allies of President Donald Trump criticized NPR following its decision to publish the inquiry .
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" Wow. Foreign corruption from a major party is not considered news for taxpayer-funded #fakenews NPR, " wrote the America First PAC on Twitter in response.
It came as Twitter and Facebook also announced they would either block or limit the reach of the NY Post's reports. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany's account and a Trump campaign account were also blocked. The Senate Judiciary Committee, as a result, voted to issue subpoenas on Thursday to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to appear before the committee after raising concerns about censorship and election interference.
Biden's campaign has denied that he ever met with a Ukrainian gas company official, which was allegedly revealed in a trove of emails that purportedly were found on a laptop hard drive belonging to his son, Hunter, who sat on the company's board while his father was the vice president. The NY Post also obtained a hard drive containing the emails from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Other allegations have surfaced in recent reports over the days, including from a former Hunter Biden associate who confirmed the legitimacy of an email.
"The Attorney General of Delaware's office indicated that the FBI has 'ongoing investigations regarding the veracity of this entire story.' And it would be unsurprising for an investigation of a disinformation action involving Rudy Giuliani and those assisting him to involve questions about money laundering, especially since there are other documented inquiries into his dealings," the campaign said.
TheFederalistPapers , 22 minutes agoJeremy Roenick , 22 minutes agoI work way too hard to fund these ****ers. NPR is owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and sneak a peek at their Board of Directors https://www.cpb.org/aboutcpb/leadership/board
NPR = Tax payer funded propaganda
Oct 24, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
Down South , Oct 22 2020 19:39 utc | 15
https://m.facebook.com/wxyzdetroit/posts/10157530043341135
Full statement by Tony Bobulinski on his business dealings with Biden and the Chinese.
Down South , Oct 22 2020 19:52 utc | 17
This is big!
Oct 23, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
lay_arrow 7
yojimbo , 6 hours ago
youshallnotkill , 5 hours agoYou have the F35 program and you believe corruption to be cultural? It sure is though, 85% of oligarchs are of a certain.. tribal persuasion after all.
LibertarianMenace , 5 minutes agoNo, I don't think it's cultural, I think it's funny to pretend that you are protecting culture when in fact you are protecting corruption. Your antisemitic smear nicely rounds out the picture.
Vivekwhu , 5 hours agoFacts have that unfortunate tendency to be, "anti-semitic, as you say, not me.
Stop denigrating the US [neoliberal] Dems. Corruption is not just part of the Dems culture.
IT IS THEIR CULTURE.
Along with most of the Reps in Congress.
Oct 23, 2020 | twitter.com
The more than 400-page deposition was released early Thursday after Maxwell lost an appeal earlier in the week to keep the document sealed. Maxwell was charged by federal prosecutors in early July for allegedly helping recruit and sexually abuse minors as part of a years-long criminal enterprise run by Jeffrey Epstein.
Bloomberg @business
Bloomberg @business A judge has released hundreds of pages of Ghislaine Maxwell's testimony from a civil lawsuit by one of her accusers. The documents are the only substantive public record from Maxwell about what she said she did for her former boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein https:// trib.al/U50D55n9:48 AM · Oct 22, 20209:48 AM · Oct 22, 2020 · SocialFlow
Oct 23, 2020 | www.baldingsworld.com
play_arrow No_Pretzel_Logic 9 hours ago (Edited)
Don't know if this was already posted but it looks like a VERY GOOD read. The Biden/CCP set-up.
https://www.baldingsworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/KVBJHB.pdf
Might want to download that PDF....possible it won't be up for long.
Oct 23, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
johnny two shoes , 9 hours ago
junction , 9 hours agoDuring the years that Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. was helping the credit card industry win passage of a law making it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy protection, his son had a consulting agreement that lasted five years with one of the largest companies pushing for the changes...
It was a savage piece of legislation, and Joe Biden even worked to block an amendment that would have offered bankruptcy protection to people with medical debt. The bill also blocked people from discharging private student loan debt under bankruptcy. Total student loan debt was under $400 billion in 2005; it surged in the wake of the law's passage and is now over $1.5 trillion.
The bank was MBNA. I know from personal experience that MBNA charged a late penalty on online payments for their credit card on the last day due, illegally calling the payment late even though the Federal Reserve Bank has a rule that if you make payment before the cut-off time on the last date due, your payment must be considered as processed that date. MBNA also kept funds that should have been transferred to the state's Abandoned Property Fund, to boost its bottom line while its criminal owners were trying to sell the bank to Bank of America.
Oct 23, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
9 play_arrowOccams_Razor_Trader , 11 hours ago
FreedomWriter , 10 hours agoIn Biden Family News:
The Good News: Media reports of Hunter Biden boffing his dead brother's wife
were media exaggerations ..........................
The Bad News: It appears that Hunter Biden was actually molesting his dead brother's 14 year old daughter
Well, at the risk of sounding tasteless, Joe always liked them young. Why should Hunter be any different?
Oct 23, 2020 | www.baldingsworld.com
1. SUMMARY -3-
2. THE NEXUS OF CHINESE MONEY & INFLUENCE - 4 -
3. HUNTER RECEIVED CHINESE STATE MONEY - 7 -
2010 Hunter Courts Chinese State Money - 7 -
2012 Hunter's First China Deal - Wanxiang - 9 -
2012 - 2013 Hunter's Second China Deal - BHR -10 -
2013 Biden and Hunter visit China and meet BHR CEO LI -11 -
2015 Hunter's Third China Deal - Sino-Ocean -17 -
2012 Archer's China Deal - Sichuan Chemical -17 -
2019 Biden denies knowledge of Hunter's China Deals -18 -
4. HOW BIDEN WAS COMPROMISED BYTHE CPC -19-
Biden Family Compromised -19 -
The Approach -20-
TheStrawman -21-
The Intro - 22 -
Targeted by China's Foreign Influence Organizations - 24 -
Biden and Hunter Mix Business with Politics - 25 -
The Set-Up -26-
Lin Continues to Promote Chinese Culture - 28-
Hunter Cultivated by Chinese Intelligence (Updated) - 31 -
Biden Softens View on China - 32 -
5. THE PLAYERS -33-
HUNTER AND PARTNERS - 33 -
CHINA'S STATE CAPITAL - 34 -
US-CHINATOUCHPOINTS - 39 -
CHINA'S FOREIGN INFLUENCE ORGANIZATIONS - 40 -
6. DETAILED TIMELINE -44-
7. APPENDICES -57-
- 2 -
TYPHOON INVESTIGATIONS PROJECTTIME
l. Joe Biden's compromising partnership with the Communist Part}' of China runs
via Yang Jiechi (CPC's Central Foreign Affairs Commission). YANG met frequently
with BIDEN during his tenure at the Chinese embassy in Washington.2. Hunter Biden's 2013 Bohai Harvest Rosemont investment partnership was set-up
by Ministry' of Foreign Affairs institutions designed to garner influence with foreign
leaders during YANG's tenure as Foreign Minister.3. HUNTER has a direct line to the Politburo, according to SOURCE A, a senior
finance professional in China.4. Michael Lin brokered the BHR partnership and partners with MOFA foreign
influence organizations.5. LIN is a POI for his work on behalf of China, as confirmed by SOURCE В and
SOURCE С (at two separate national intelligence agencies).6. BHR is a state managed operation. Leading shareholder in BHR is a Bank of China
and BHR's partners are SOEs that funnel revenue/assets to BHR.7. HUNTER continues to hold 10% in BHR. He visited China in 2010 and met with
major Chinese government financial companies that would later back BHR.8. HUNTER's BHR stake (purchased for $400,000) is now likely be worth approx.
$50 million (fees and capital appreciation based on BHR's $6.5 billion AUM).9. HUNTER also did business with Chinese tycoons linked with the Chinese military
and against the interests of US national security.10. BIDEN's foreign policy stance towards China (formerly hawkish), has since turned
positive despite China's country's rising geopolitical assertiveness.
Oct 23, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Former Hunter Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski has confirmed that an email published in the New York Post 's bombshell exposé is indeed genuine - something the Biden camp hasn't disputed, and that the "Big Guy" described in one of those emails is none other than Joe Biden himself . Bobulinski also says Joe Biden was lying when he said he and Hunter never discussed business dealings.
"My name is Tony Bobulinski. The facts set forth below are true and accurate; they are not any form of domestic or foreign disinformation. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and offensive. I am the recipient of the email published seven days ago by the New York Post, which showed a copy to Hunter Biden and Rob Walker. That email is genuine .' -New York Post
Bobulinski issued the statement late Wednesday, affirming that, contrary to Joe Biden's claims that he never discussed business dealings with Hunter, the former Veep actually profited from his son's dealings, which were undertaken with the full support of the Biden family.
Bobulinski claims cash and equity positions and 10% stakes in dealings were set aside for " the big guy ," - aka Joe Biden .
Bobulinski said: "I've seen Vice President Biden saying he never talked to Hunter about business" - "I've seen firsthand that that's not true."
" I've seen firsthand that that's not true, because it wasn't just Hunter's business, they said they were putting the Biden family name and its legacy on the line."
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What's more, Bobulinski was admonished at one point for mentioning Joe Biden in communications :
https://lockerdome.com/lad/13084989113709670?pubid=ld-dfp-ad-13084989113709670-0&pubo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com&rid=www.zerohedge.com&width=890
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According to Bobulinski, he was the CEO of Sinohawk Holding, a holding company partnership between now-bankrupt CEFC China Energy Co. and the Biden family. He said the Chinese weren't in partnership for any kind of commercial purpose: they were there to pay for "influence" in the US.
"I realized the Chinese were not really focused on a healthy financial ROI. They were looking at this as a political or influence investment. Once I realized that Hunter wanted to use the company as his personal piggy bank by just taking money out of it as soon as it came from the Chinese, I took steps to prevent that from happening"
In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, Joe Biden has labeled Hunter Biden's emails as a "smear" campaign against him, and Democrats like Adam Schiff have accused these reports of being linked to a Russian intelligence operation, even though intelligence officials have said there's no evidence that this is true.
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Here is Bobulinski's statement in full ( emphasis ours ):
My name is Tony Bobulinski. The facts set forth below are true and accurate ; they are not any form of domestic or foreign disinformation. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and offensive. I am the recipient of the email published seven days ago by the New York Post which showed a copy to Hunter Biden and Rob Walker. That email is genuine .
This afternoon I received a request from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs and the Senate Committee on Finance requesting all documents relating to my business affairs with the Biden family as well as various foreign entities and individuals. I have extensive relevant records and communications and I intend to produce those items to both Committees in the immediate future.
I am the grandson of a 37 year Army Intelligence officer, the son of a 20+ year career Naval Officer and the brother of a 28 year career Naval Flight Officer. I myself served our country for 4 years and left the Navy as LT Bobulinski. I held a high level security clearance and was an instructor and then CTO for Naval Nuclear Power Training Command. I take great pride in the time my family and I served this country. I am also not a political person. What few campaign contributions I have made in my life were to Democrats.
If the media and big tech companies had done their jobs over the past several weeks I would be irrelevant in this story . Given my long standing service and devotion to this great country, I could no longer allow my family's name to be associated or tied to Russian disinformation or implied lies and false narratives dominating the media right now.
After leaving the military I became an institutional investor investing extensively around the world and on every continent. I have traveled to over 50 countries. I believe, hands down, we live in the greatest country in the world.
What I am outlining is fact . I know it is fact because I lived it. I am the CEO of Sinohawk Holdings which was a partnership between the Chinese operating through CEFC/Chairman Ye and the Biden family . I was brought into the company to be the CEO by James Gilliar and Hunter Biden. The reference to "the Big Guy" in the much publicized May 13, 2017 email is in fact a reference to Joe Biden. The other "JB" referenced in that email is Jim Biden, Joe's brother.
Hunter Biden called his dad 'the Big Guy' or 'my Chairman,' and frequently referenced asking him for his sign-off or advice on various potential deals that we were discussing . I've seen Vice President Biden saying he never talked to Hunter about his business. I've seen firsthand that that's not true, because it wasn't just Hunter's business, they said they were putting the Biden family name and its legacy on the line.
I realized the Chinese were not really focused on a healthy financial ROI. They were looking at this as a political or influence investment. Once I realized that Hunter wanted to use the company as his personal piggy bank by just taking money out of it as soon as it came from the Chinese, I took steps to prevent that from happening.
The Johnson Report connected some dots in a way that shocked me -- it made me realize the Bidens had gone behind my back and gotten paid millions of dollars by the Chinese, even though they told me they hadn't and wouldn't do that to their partners.
I would ask the Biden family to address the American people and outline the facts so I can go back to being irrelevant -- and so I am not put in a position to have to answer those questions for them.
I don't have a political ax to grind; I just saw behind the Biden curtain and I grew concerned with what I saw. The Biden family aggressively leveraged the Biden family name to make millions of dollars from foreign entities even though some were from communist controlled China.
God Bless America!!!!
All of which will likely be "muted" in tonight's highly anticipated debate.
Truther , 2 hours ago
jumpnjon , 2 hours agoSo, a presidential candidate with 47 years of non-accomplishments, turns out to be a CCP minion...
FreeMoney , 2 hours agoAnd the amazing thing is they can't see how idiotic they are. Or they are just plain EVIL.
Deck , 1 hour agoIt is TDS or NPC "orange man bad."
No Democrat is voting FOR Biden. He is obviously corrupt and sun downing.
Trump is partially trying to wreck the existing system by eliminating regulation, and unwinding bad trade or military support deals. He shoots holes in just about every international organization that the lefties all love unconditionally, UN? WHO? NATO? WTO? while openly discussing tearing apart the lefties favorite charity of open boarders, unlimited welfare, and permanent communist voter block creation.
Democrats are voting against Trump.
Leroy Whitby , 1 hour agoThe blind delusion and hypocrisy of trumptards never ends.
Which one of you MAGA-bots want to talk about Ivanka getting sweet business deals in China when she flew there on your dime?
Which one of you wants to talk about trumps deals there, or Kushner's cushy job where he has influenced policy that has harmed your families and communities?
Which one of you wants to talk about Trump's Chinese dealing or the taxes he pays there, or that he sells EOs and state department favors at $250,000 a pop out of Mara Lago?
Non of you care about these things, because both sides do them. The only reason you're talking about this you want YOUR corrupt guy in there, but the reality is showing favoritism to kids is as old as time, in politics and in the private sector.
HellKitty , 1 hour agoIn the Biden family, they are both stupid and evil. They are nowhere near as smart as the Obamas or Clintons. The Clintons are just evil. They have heard right and wrong at church and otherwise, and chose to sell out their nation...
Stormtrooper , 53 minutes agoI am still having a hard time to understand why Biden Jr, left his MacBook (not only one, but 3!) at the repair shop and never picked them up. I wish some criminal psychologist stand up and explain that irrational behaviour.
AutoLode , 52 minutes agoHe was probably high on crack-cocaine when he dropped them off and couldn't remember where he took them
CallingDrFraudschi , 1 hour agoIf hunter is making millions upon millions can't he buy a new MacBook Pro or dozens of them if he's prone to spilling stuff on them
and none of his partners are smart enough to tell him to not let go of his hard drives ?
weird
BaNNeD oN THe RuN , 1 hour agoIn order to make an equivalent analogy, you'd have to figure out a way to become business partners with people in Ukraine and in China and make a personal profit from leveraging your political connections all the while selling away the livelihoods of the Americans you purport to support.
Whilst you may not like the way Trump files & "pays" taxes, it's all legal within the tax code framework here in the US. Selling out your country for millions to Ukraine & China however IS NOT.
That's treason and sedition!
DefinitelyNotAFed , 2 hours agoA WWE wrestling match. If you pretend it is anything else you are deluded.
Trump gets 4 more years, unless he demands more in exchange for putting up with the abuse that Deep State is prepared to pay. Hence the delay in releasing final election results. For now, it has to appear that it could go either way.
You think Deep State did not already know what the Bidens and the rest of the Obama crew were up to in 2008-16? Of course they did... the extra grift they collect is part of the reward system for doing as they are told.
Pandelis , 43 minutes agoThe Clintons are more corrupt than the Biden's. So far, there is no evidence of human trafficking of the kind the Clintons were/are involved in.
The Biden's real crime is being dumber and getting caught in their treasonous corruption.
Ex-Oligarch , 1 hour agoBobby Kennedy knew what he was up to and still continued on his fight. John might not have known the full extent of what he was up against, but Bobby certainly did because he saw what happened to his brother etc. It is a long subject it seems to me you are not as tuned in as you think you are... there is plenty out there to read and learn the truth from.
On trump's minions "communications logged, travel, meeting logged" ... for what?? anybody cares or able to check on them ... get real.
do they have a security clearance ... ever ask WHY was not able to obtain one?
without a security clearance and to have the power of the White House beyond you is really corrupt to me ... a bag of money is nothing, here we are talking billions and trillions
knightowl77 , 1 hour agoThere's nothing "dirty" about exposing your competitor's misdeeds.
It is "fighting dirty" to accuse your competitor of things he didn't actually do .
There doesn't seem to be much dispute that the emails are genuine.
Also, the media seems to be starting up a counter-narrative that Trump should be focusing on policy disputes rather than Biden's corruption. But Biden himself has been avoiding policy issues because his party is split between far-left extremists and moderates, and he can't afford to alienate either one. He has flip-flopped over and over trying to appease both constituencies. Instead, his strategy has been to present a choice of personalities, in the hope that the public is so fatigued from the constant hostility directed towards Trump and the president's rough style that they will opt for him instead, regardless of his policy positions.
FreedomWriter , 43 minutes agoExcept that the media was FINE with the Dems investigating Trump for 4 years for his Alleged misdeeds.....the misdeeds that were actually done by Klinton & Hiden.
They even impeached Trump for allegedly doing what Biden actually did in the Ukraine...This FARCE has gone on long enough, and It ALL must be exposed to the public Now!
For 4 years they have accused Trump of everything that they themselves have actually done. ENOUGH!
gordo , 59 minutes agoThat's a pretty weak strategy for Creepy Joe. Do you think it will stand up when his son is arrested for CP possession, sexual assault, corruption, and human trafficking?
But then again, we are talking about Dem voters here.
Hunter's laptop reveals
Joe Biden gets a 10-50% cut of the loot
Hunter banged his 14 year old niece Natalie while smoking his crack pipe and texted Joe about it.
Joe Biden gets a cut of the Burisma loot
Joe Biden gets a cut of the Chinese lootThe CCP has all the dirt on Joe that makes Epstein look like amateur hour.|
am I missing anything?
Oct 22, 2020 | twitter.com
Kayleigh McEnany @kayleighmcenany 10hLesley Stahl "DISCREDITED HERSELF" She repeatedly cited the Senate GOP Report on Biden corruption @realDonaldTrump : "Do you think it's OK for the mayor of Moscow's wife to give him millions?" Lesley falsely says "no real evidence of that" It's in the VERY report she cites! 225K views 0:02 / 2:14 1.4K 11.3K 25K10h Jack Posobiec @JackPosobiec 10hPlanning out my afternoon before the debate. Should I go and take a look at Hunter's hard drive today, folks? 1.4K 3.4K 24.1K10h Rep. Jim Jordan @Jim_Jordan 8hNPR covered the fake Steele Dossier. But won't cover the real Hunter Biden emails. "Journalism." Quote Tweet NPR Public Editor @NPRpubliceditor · 12h Why haven't you seen any stories from NPR about the NY Post's Hunter Biden story? Read more in this week's newsletter https:// tinyurl.com/y67vlzj2 Show this thread8h1.9K 10K 23.7K8h Megyn Kelly @megynkelly 7hActually she tried to mock him (re: the economy) by saying "u know that's not true," & then when he doubled down she retreated: "I'm not going to fact check u now." But she just tried. In an effort to sound tough. & then didn't have her facts ready. Ouch. Lesley Stahl Chides Trump Over Economy Claims in Interview He Stormed Out Of CBS is previewing Lesley Stahl's 60 Minutes interview with Donald Trump, which the president has been raging against ever since he reportedly stormed out in the middle of it. mediaite.com 2.6K 6.2K 23.1K7h Mollie @MZHemingway 9hTHREAD. Lesley Stahl's completely ignorant and partisan and indefensible performance in this interview is an embarrassment to journalists, while also very typical of journalists. Quote Tweet Byron York @ByronYork · 10h In '60 Minutes' interview, Trump says the Obama administration 'spied on my campaign.' Leslie Stahl tells him, 'There's no real evidence of that.' 1/3 https:// facebook.com/153080620724/p osts/10165668067695725 Show this thread 1.3K 9.5K 21.2K9h Scott Adams @ScottAdamsSays 13hHow would you like to run for president against an incumbent who did so well on foreign policy that the debates don't even need to include that topic? That's actually happening. 349 6K 20.8K13h Ronna McDaniel @GOPChairwoman 11hLast night, Hunter Biden's business partner went *on the record* about corrupt foreign business deals involving the Democrat nominee for President of the United States. How many mentions did the story get on CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC and CBS this morning? ZERO. 2K 10K 20.1KShow this thread 11hShow this thread11h Jack Posobiec @JackPosobiec 8hBiden is already impeachable and he isn't even in office yet And they know it Because Kamala is the real candidate 683 5.1K 19.8K
Oct 22, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Mike K , 8 hours ago
ReadyForHillary , 8 hours agoHeadline:
"Chinese Energy Firm Gives Biden Crime Family $5 Million "Interest-Free" Loan Through Investment Vehicle Described as 'Consulting Fees' to Hunter Biden."
Enraged , 10 hours agoThat Hunter must be a brilliant guy! He's being paid a fortune to sit on boards and provide consulting to a number of institutions all over the world!
An email dated May 15, 2017 sent from Jim, Joe's brother, to Hunter and his team revealed the list of key domestic contacts for phase one target projects in the Biden family business: Harris, D-Calif.; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo; NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio; former Virginia Gov. Terry McCauliffe.
Oct 21, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
3 play_arrowLucky Guesst , 2 hours ago
CheapBastard , 2 hours agoHunter Biden's current Wikipedia page.......
Biden served on the board of Burisma Holdings , a major Ukrainian natural gas producer, from 2014 to 2019. He and his father have been the subjects of debunked right-wing conspiracy theories pushed by Donald Trump and his allies concerning Biden business dealings and anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine. [1]
And wiki has the nerve to ask for donations.
Oct 21, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
J S Bach , 2 hours ago
HANGTHEOWL , 2 hours agoSo, Joe... all of those incriminating emails on your son's laptop aren't proof of "profiting off your family name", huh?
The lying never ceases with these wretches. It's all they know how to do.
Their father in hell awaits them all.
snatchpounder , 2 hours agoThey know to just keep lying,,the media will cover for them and so will the government,,,both sides will,,even though they will make it seem like they are doing something about it,,,,,
radical-extremist , 2 hours agoYes the Biden crime family has years of experience yet Boobus Americanus will dutifully line up and vote for the demented old crook.
Reaper , 3 hours agoBecause they know they're protected by the Democrat Media Complex.
Bay of Pigs , 2 hours agoHunter was his father's bagman.
markar , 1 hour agoJoe's denial isn't going to work. Why?
Evidence, that's why.
Hunter used daddie's name to bilk the poor Sioux tribe out of $60 mill in a fraudulent bond deal. His partner Cooney took the fall and is now in prison for it. He's spilling the beans. The other partner in the scam, Devon Archer lost his appeal and is going to prison in Jan for the same crime. Where's Hunter?
Oct 21, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Teamtc321 , 2 hours ago
BOOM! Rudy Giuliani Drops a Bomb -- Joe Biden Broke the Law by NOT Notifying Officials of Hunter's Naked Crack Smoking and Sexual Abuse of Minors (VIDEO
Oct 21, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Joe Biden Insists Son Never Profited Off Family Name; Except Hunter And Ex-President Of Poland Say He Did
by Tyler Durden Wed, 10/21/2020 - 12:25 Twitter Facebook Reddit Email Print
In a Tuesday interview, former Vice President Joe Biden claimed that there was no basis "whatsoever" to claims that his son, Hunter, profited off the family name .
When asked local Wisconsin TV station WISN if there was any legitimacy to comments by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) that Hunter " together with other Biden family members, profited off the Biden name ," the former Vice President replied " None whatsoever, " adding (without finishing the sentence) " This is the same garbage Rudy Giuliani, Trump's henchman... "
"It's the last ditch effort in this desperate campaign to smear me and my family."
https://www.youtube.com/embed/7NDwG-2UqvI?start=280
Except, Hunter admitted he profited off his family name!
"If your last name wasn't Biden, do you think you would've been asked to be on the board of Burisma?" asked ABC News ' Amy Robach in an October 15, 2019 interview.
"I don't know. I don't know. Probably not, in retrospect," said Hunter. " 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 ," he added, " because my dad was Vice President of the United States. "
"There's literally nothing, as a young man or as a full-grown adult that -- my father in some way hasn't had influence over."
https://www.youtube.com/embed/IFlZPnS0gKc?start=52
What's more, the former President of Poland and Burisma board member Aleksander Kwasniewski said last November that Hunter was picked to sit on the company's board because of his name .
"I understand that if someone asks me to be part of some project it's not only because I'm so good, it's also because I am Kwasniewski and I am a former president of Poland. ... Being Biden is not bad. It's a good name ," he said.
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Let's also not glaze over the fact that both Joe and Hunter said that Joe had 'no knowledge' of Hunter's international business dealings, while recently released emails from Hunter's laptop prove that Hunter 'introduced' Joe to a top Burisma executive - a meeting Biden's camp says never happened. Joe also met with a CCP-linked delegation of Chinese investors arranged by Hunter and his business partners, according to emails released by imprisoned ex-Hunter business associate, Bevan Cooney.
- Banana Republican , 3 hours ago
ALLLIVESSPLATTER , 3 hours agoI'll tell ya Joe -- it's not Hunter we're after. It's you.
And you're about to meet your well-deserved demise.Banana Republican , 3 hours agoIsn't that what they said about Hillary.
Awakened Saxon , 3 hours agoGood point. Then again, we don't hear much from her these days.
Joeman34 , 3 hours agoStill alive. Still rich. Still unpunished. Still out of prison.
She won.
BorisTheBlade , 2 hours agoBS, the fact that she never realized her ultimate dream of becoming President is proof she lost. Fine, she's rich and she's not in prison where she should be. At least history isn't tainted by another Clinton presidency. I still hold out hope her, and Bill's, day of reckoning will come. It's just taking a lot longer than it should.
Losing power for power-hungry people is a very punishment. She imagined herself first female president and got her desire crushed. That must've hurt quite a bit, not that I sympathize given how many people she crushed.
Oct 21, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
markar , 53 minutes ago
DefendYourBase4 , 51 minutes agoBiden's global pay for play schemes using his drug addict son as bagman spanned Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Kazakhstan, and the grand daddy of all, China makes him a national security risk. The fact he's this close to being president is a sad commentary on how far the country has fallen into the abyss.
markar , 1 hour agowhat is sad is the FBI do nothing. The FBI is a criminal organization as far as i am concerned, and they are not to be taken seriously. ive already had multiple visits with them and i laugh in their face
Joe Biden was the architect of a 1986 crime bill that specifically targeted Blacks with very stiff sentences for small amounts of crack cocaine. Biden is the spawn of the KKK and a long time racist. Look up his vile comments over the years including recently. That BLM supports this scumbag is proof they care little about the well being of Black people.
Oct 20, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Things just took a very dark turn in the Hunter Biden laptop scandal.
While the alleged crack, cronyism, corruption was enough to spark the biggest media suppression in history, and no denials whatsoever from the Biden camp, the bombshell that Rudy Giuliani just dropped, if true, is egregious to say the least (not just with regard Hunter Biden but the law enforcement authorities who have allegedly had this information since before Trump's impeachment but done nothing about it).
In an interview this evening with Newsmax TV, former NYC Mayor and current attorney to President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani announces he has turned over Hunter Biden's laptop hard-drive to Delaware State Police due to pictures of underage girls and inappropriate text messages.
In one of the texts, Hunter Biden allegedly says to his sister-in-law (also his lover) that he face-timed a 14-year-old girl while naked and doing crack - "she told my therapist that I was sexually inappropriate."
Giuliani adds, "this would be with regard an unnamed 14 year old girl," adding that "this is supported by numerous pictures of underage girls."
Watch the full interview below (the above exchange begins around 5:20):
https://www.youtube.com/embed/coFx3ZDXWrg
Furthermore, JustTheNews' John Solomon reports that former New York Police Department commissioner Bernard Kerik joined him when he delivered photographs and text messages to the New Castle County Police Department.
https://lockerdome.com/lad/13084989113709670?pubid=ld-dfp-ad-13084989113709670-0&pubo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com&rid=www.zerohedge.com&width=890
"I told them other details about what appears to be an inappropriate sexual relationship," he said in an interview. "They told me it would be investigated."
Law enforcement officials in Delaware told Just the News that Giuliani's concerns have been forwarded to the state Department of Justice.
"The FBI has had this for a long time," Giuliani said.
"No indication they did anything about this, so I went to the local police and said, 'What are you going to do about this?'"
Perhaps the most damning statement from Giuliani, with regard the election, was the former mayor alleging that:
"I will tell you the evidence I gave them states it was reported to Joe Biden. What did he do about it?"
Before this is wholly dismissed as yet more Russian disinformation or 'Giuliani' lies, we remind readers that we previously reported that Hunter Biden's alleged laptop contents included a curious piece of evidence - a photograph of an FBI subpoena which bears the signature of the agency's top child porn investigator, special agent Joshua Wilson.
FBI agent Wilson's identity was confirmed by both Western Journal and Business Insider , the latter of which compared his signature to a 2012 criminal complaint and concluded that it "clearly matches the unreversed signature on the subpoena published by the New York Post ."
As BI notes:
NEVER MISS THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOSTIt's unclear whether the FBI employs more than one agent named Joshua Wilson. But the available evidence seems to show **the Joshua Wilson who signed the subpoena for Hunter Biden's laptop, and the Joshua Wilson who investigates child pornography for the FBI, are the same person**. This raises the possibility, not explored by the Post, that the FBI issued the subpoena for reasons unrelated to Hunter Biden's role in Ukraine and Burisma.
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So why is the FBI's top child porn lawyer involved in the Hunter Biden laptop case? OANN 's Chanel Rion says she's seen the contents of the hard drive, which includes "Drugs, underage obsessions, power deals," which make "Anthony Weiner's down under selfie addiction look normal . "
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1316737387943395328&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Frudy-giuliani-turns-over-alleged-photos-underage-girls-hunters-hard-drive-delaware-police&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px
All of which now makes some sense, given Giuliani's alleged findings, and raises a stunning question: if there is/was incriminating child porn on Hunter's computer, what has the FBI been doing about it?
Oct 21, 2020 | turcopolier.typepad.com
A Bidengate summary from the Daily Mail "Documents appear to show Hunter Biden's signature on $85 receipt for repair of laptops left at Delaware store at center of email scandal - while other paperwork reveals FBI's contact with owner
- A receipt from The Mac Shop in Wilmington, Delaware appears to show Hunter Biden's signature for work on three laptops for $85
- It has not been verified yet if that signature is actually Biden's
- FBI paperwork also shows that shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac received a subpoena to testify before the US District Court in Delaware in December 2019
- Last week the New York Post published a report saying e-mails obtained from the laptop show Joe Biden allegedly was in on his son Hunter's business deals
- House Intel chair Adam Schiff said the 'smear' on Biden 'comes from the Kremlin'
- DNI John Ratcliffe said the laptop is not a Russian disinformation campaign
- Biden's campaign says the Democratic nominee engaged in no wrongdoing "
-------------
Well, pilgrims, he sure looks comfy in the tub. I still wonder who took the pictures. Was it the gal in California who later sued him over paternity of her child/fetus, whatever.
Did he take the pictures himself? Interestingly, the Bidens have not denied the implicit charge of corruption, bribery, etc., etc. that is the mass of incriminating e-mail traffic on the hard drive. And then, there are the disgusting sex videos. Does anyone think that these were faked?
SWMBO says that the Bidens have set a new standard for depraved and addled stupidity. As usual, she is right. pl
Eric Newhill , 20 October 2020 at 12:17 PM
Deap , 20 October 2020 at 12:20 PMIt's interesting that Bidens, Epsteins, Clintons, Hollywood types, Weiners, et al engage in all of the sordid behaviors that they accused Trump of in the "Steele Dossier" (and then some).
I always thought the Steele Dossier was poor trade craft; way too over the top. An example being jumping around on a bed and urinating on multiple prostitutes. It puzzled me why they would tell such far out stories. Why stretch credulity?. SWMBO's response was that such behavior is so ubiquitous and frequent among democrat elites that they just assume everyone is doing it. To them it's not far out in the least, it's just a typical Saturday night. I begin to think that she is on to something.
turcopolier , 20 October 2020 at 12:24 PMBorgs for Biden - 50 former intel agents sign statement claiming this Hunter Biden thing is a Russian disinformation racket: https://www.redstate.com/bonchie/2020/10/20/50-former-intel-agents-flush-their-credibility-and-show-why-their-agency-should-be-blown-up/
Any familiar names here, any traps the unwary?
BillWade , 20 October 2020 at 01:42 PMDeap Brennan, Clapper, McLaughlin are all properly described as intelligence bureaucrats, not "agents."
TV , 20 October 2020 at 02:31 PMRudy Guiliani and Steve Bannon stated this morning that more information will be forthcoming within 24-48 hours. The Q folks are thinking that it will be released on Thurs morning for maximum effect at the later in the evening debate. The Admiral who oversaw the Bin Laden raid has endorsed Joe Biden in spite of being a pro life and 2nd amendment advocate. Things are getting interesting to say the least.
NancyK , 20 October 2020 at 02:51 PMAnother oxymoron, like "government worker" - "intelligence" officials.
Self important parasites....oh wait....selfless patriots who "risk their lives every day" for America.Keith Harbaugh , 20 October 2020 at 02:57 PMThe Bidens are not involved, one Biden is. Joe Biden is not responsible for his son's idiocy. I do believe he has massive addiction issues but I need a lot more proof that he took all 3 of his computers in for work and the bill was only $85.00. I need the name of that repair shop it is much more expensive where I live.
ancientarcher , 20 October 2020 at 03:40 PMHere is an account from the MSM documenting Biden Inc.'s practice of graft.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/08/02/joe-biden-investigation-hunter-brother-hedge-fund-money-2020-campaign-227407Quote:
"Don't worry about investors," [James Biden] said, according to the executive,
who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation.
"We've got people all around the world who want to invest in Joe Biden."End quote
Anybody claiming Politico is a Russian disinformation operation?
Thanks to Andrew McCarthy for the link.
https://mobile.twitter.com/AndrewCMcCarthy/status/1318595953893494785TV , 20 October 2020 at 04:10 PMColonel,
While I hope and pray for a Trump victory, I am not so sure that he will be able to overcome systematic rigging. What is your opinion on the level of rigging that is going on?
All sorts of worms from all over the place are crawling up and endorsing the slime ridden corrupt Bidens. Who knows what sort of pressure must have been put on them to do that. And if that is so, can you imagine the level of pressure the democrat machine must have put on those who are in charge of conducting the election? Look at the commission on presidential debates for God's sake. Absolutely, no hint of neutrality there!
The media is pulling the wool over everyone's eyes just like in the last election. The polls are all for democrats, again, just like the last election. Methinks the difference this time might just be the magnitude of vote rigging that the democrats will do. How much more will that be versus the last time? Enough to swing the election?
BillWade , 20 October 2020 at 04:56 PMBillWade:
That's the same (Obama) Admiral who said that Trump should be gone:
"......then it is time for a new person in the Oval Office -- Republican, Democrat or independent -- the sooner, the better."
Like the other retired brass and "intelligence" officials, just more swamp creatures wailing about an "outsider" disturbing their little world of endless losing wars and a foreign policy of bending over.ancientarcher , 20 October 2020 at 05:00 PMNancyK, Which is worse, voting for someone with dementia or voting for someone pretending to have dementia?
I haven't heard anything about Joe's brother or sister-in-law having a drug problem, have you? Maybe they just have a pay to play problem, any thoughts?
Hillary certainly looked wonderful in her Chinese cut clothing in the 2016 debates. Joe's got those nice 3 Red Flags going for him on his campaign poster, maybe he should wear a rice farmer's hat to the upcoming debate, no?
I decided to vote today instead of Nov 5th as you had recommended. Did I do the right thing?
james , 20 October 2020 at 05:56 PMNancyK,
You think Joe is innocent of all that has been done by his family? You think druggy Hunter deserved to get a senior vice president position at MBNA straight after graduating from college at $100k a year or that seat at Burisma at $50k a month? Do you think he deserved all of that not because of his dad's influence but because he was so smart and because he graduated from yale? If you believe all of that, you must be smoking some strong stuff.
Here is something you can read to improve your knowledge. This is not how a normal cv looks like, for sure.
Brats like Hunter don't get these amazing deals because they are smart or create value for their employers because of their work. He got these deals because it is a way of paying off his father, the guy who then bats for these employers in the senate or the white house.Deap ,@ NancyK.. true - biden senior is not responsible for biden junior... however it seems junior got the gig thanks daddys connections and willingness to fire the prosecutor so that junior could continue to have the job! that is the part you appear to be turning a blind eye to.... senior has major dirt on him due all this.. either you think it is a made up russian propaganda set up, or you think it isn't... there is enough info at present to show that it isn't a set up, but that daddy was using his position as vp unscrupulously or criminal depending on how you want to filter it.. the fact the media want to push it under the carpet with whatever excuse they provide, doesn't change any of it..