Monday, September 4, 2023

JOE BIDEN'S UKRAINE PAYMASTERS - NY Times Wakes Up to Corruption in Ukraine as Officials Admit Military Contract Money ‘Vanished’

OH, AND WHO'D A THOUGHT THIS WOULD HAPPEN. NOT WITH UNCLE JOE, I MEAN.

Cutting Through Biden’s ‘Illusions’

Shokin is talkin,’ and that could spell even more bad news for Joe Biden’s stubborn insistence, in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary, that he had nothing to do with his son’s slimy “business” activities.

Though the former Ukrainian Chief Prosecutor cannot independently confirm what the FBI’s trusted confidential source alleges --- that Viktor Shokin’s Biden-arranged departure was the result of Burisma bribes --- the stench surrounding the whole affair is becoming too oppressive for even some liberals to ignore. Expect to see more damaging details filter out very shortly.

So under the circumstances the only logical thing for Democrats to do is pile on another batch of indictments to the already lengthy list of criminal charges facing Donald Trump, as viciously partisan Fulton County Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis has just seen fit to do.

But try as they might to divert attention away from the Bidens by going more forcefully after Trump, a giant boulder of trouble is gaining speed on its downhill roll despite the best Democrat efforts to halt its progress.

So why not try to first flatten Trump before the big rock overtakes Joe?

The explanations Biden’s apologists offer for the breathtaking corruption he and his family have clearly engaged in seem a lot like desperate pitches on behalf of an unsellable movie script; changing fiction offered in an attempt to address each freshly sprouting revelation of their surprisingly brazen bribery and political protection operation. But despite laboring to appear unruffled, even contemptuous of investigators’ discoveries, each newly-filled piece of the payoff puzzle puts in sharper focus Joe’s betrayal of the multiple oaths of office he’s taken over the course of his long public career.

Now his loyalists have seized upon something former Biden partner Devon Archer regurgitated to a House committee in his recent closed-door appearance. Archer quite damagingly admitted that Joe had indeed spoken to Hunter’s associates numerous times, and further revealed that Shokin’s activities were seen as a threat to Burisma. His mentioning of the Biden “brand” did no great help to their cause either. But likely in an attempt to balance the scales and soften the effect of his testimony, he volunteered a carefully worded construct designed to camouflage the immense wrongdoing the public’s lying eyes plainly have before them: The Illusion of Access.

In this narrative, the drug-dependent Hunter conveniently serves as the sole central character. Always in need of money to fuel his various habits, and craving familial approbation despite his degenerate ways, he is the prime mover in this last ditch attempt to keep Joe out of the soup.

As the story goes, to serve his ends, Hunter placed his blissfully unknowing dad on the phone with, or made casual restaurant introductions to, the unsavory characters who were his business partners. This deceptive tactic allowed him to pretend to be plugged-in, influential, a guy who could get things done; at the same time appeasing the foreign benefactors who considered buying politicians as just another routine business expense, but impatiently demanded tangible results for the money they forked over.

The cornered Archer, walking a tightrope, subtly implied it was all a contrivance from which Hunter’s serving V.P. father was kept safely ignorant and carefully insulated. And so you have it: The Illusion of Access --- even sounds like a film title --- nevertheless to its advocates a user friendly concept even the rubes and simpletons the Democrats take us to be can easily understand.

But once again, as with other, more homegrown products of the Biden brain trust such as transitory inflation or the more current, undefinable Bidenomics, any informed observer can spot it as unadulterated baloney.  Or to employ the term our more sophisticated betters prefer: disinformation.

Future students of psychology or even amateur sleuths examining the puzzling human penchant for self-demolition will study the actions of the Bidens closely, for they are textbook examples of people who secretly desire to be exposed. Whether we’re talking about abandoned laptops containing pornographic, drug-fueled images and incriminating e-mails, or overlooked diaries bearing salacious family secrets, or perhaps the ultimate manifestation of this variant of exhibitionism: a video-taped boast before a prestigious gathering about successfully demanding a foreign official’s firing --- the wish to be ultimately found screams out.

Biden’s compulsive bragging provides the specific quid while Congress works through the complicated financial quo. When they unravel that LLC knot, it will show that the current “leader of the free world” was the receiver of bribes --- very large ones to be sure --- but still acts of corruption as abject as any small town building or health inspector’s pocketed envelope of cash.

And that’s really how one sums up “Scranton” Joe Biden: an illusory product created by artifice and the exigencies of Democrat politics; elevated to a position far beyond his abilities or strength of character. Instead of the return to integrity and, above all, decency we were promised if we chose him over the reviled Trump, he has brought degradation, even gangsterism, to nearly everything he’s touched.

It will soon be recognized as a great misfortune that at a time when China and Ukraine are at the center of world affairs, requiring people of good will everywhere to grapple with how best to parry Chinese threats of aggression against a free Taiwan while at the same time rejecting Russia’s brutal, unwanted violation of Ukraine, honest debate is skewed, indeed polluted by the corrupt takings of this First Family for Sale.

Despite all the “Russian Collusion” Democrat-driven sewage we were forced to wade through during the Trump years, the real pros with regard to interference in American political processes were the Ukrainians; the Russians were bumbling amateurs. Ukrainians didn’t bother with stupid Twitter “bots” or phony Facebook identities in clumsy, obvious attempts to sway public opinion. They went straight to the top and their method was cash on the barrelhead.  

But people familiar with European history, even those of us skeptical of President Zelensky’s international canonization, genuinely offended by Ukrainian political interference, know it to be immutably true that a stable Ukraine --- and more importantly a secure, unthreatened Poland to its west--- will be the key to future peace on the continent. That will not be possible if Putin’s aggression is allowed to stand. Poland, in Putin’s eyes, is just another runaway province of the 21st century tsar’s reassembling empire.

Let’s hope this searing ordeal the Ukrainians are suffering through will somehow work to purge them of some of the more underhanded habits they’ve acquired through decades under the Soviet thumb.  By now it may have occurred to the factions that purchased the Bidens’ assistance that the presidential ascension of the man they hired as a champion of their interests probably served as the green light for Putin to commence re-absorbing Ukraine back into the Motherland.

China too has lavished generous sums upon the Bidens, but their infiltration of his incompetent White House is probably one of their lower yielding inroads into American leadership and decision-making. Their tentacles are firmly wrapped around many key facets of the “free market” system they hold in barely disguised contempt. Areas such as banking, the academy, agriculture and medical technology are serving up to them almost everything they need in their push to replace the U.S. as the dominant world power.

The Bidens are a very minor holding in their vast American portfolio.

Can anyone blame the Bidens and their supporters for believing they can continue to put over this “illusion” of Joe’s good faith? In 2020, with the help of a corrupt DoJ, FBI, and even a member of Trump’s own cabinet, they hoodwinked millions into believing the fiction of quiet competence and transparent government that never quite appeared. While many still argue over whether Joe Biden received 81 million legitimate votes, it’s now indisputable that the electorate went to the polls severely misinformed about the nature of the eventual “winner.”

How many Americans have the moral courage to confront the fact that in their distaste for Donald Trump, they allowed themselves to be fooled, lied to, and horribly misled?

Casting aside that particular illusion may very well determine if the damage the Bidens have wrought is reversible.

Image: Gage Skidmore, via Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0


Joe Biden didn’t do anything wrong? A time-honored method of taking bribes is having them paid to a family member, usually in exchange for nominal or nonexistent services. It is comical to watch “reporters” pretend not to understand this. MONICA SHOWALTER

 

WHERE DID ALL OF GAMER LAWYER JOE BIDEN’S BIG BUCKS COME FROM?

video

Where did Biden's millions come from?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlS88MKI-DA

 

I’d be inclined to disagree with Don except for one thing: Biden has proven to be a very adept criminal mastermind. For decades, he has funneled millions of dollars to his children and siblings and, especially, to his debauched, deviant son, Hunter. ANDREA WIDBURG

 

There it is.  That's the issue.  To begin, you have the corrupt family Biden.  They've been scamming us and our system well for almost fifty years.  The man is supposedly worth over 250 million dollars.  How is this possible on his salary?  It's not.  So where did his wealth come from?  Not from being a brilliant businessman. DAVID PRENTICE


NY Times Wakes Up to Corruption in Ukraine as Officials Admit Military Contract Money ‘Vanished’

TOPSHOT - US President Joe Biden (R) walks next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) as he arrives for a visit in Kyiv on February 20, 2023. - US President Joe Biden made a surprise trip to Kyiv on February 20, 2023, ahead of the first anniversary of Russia's invasion …
DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images

In a potential signal of shifting attitudes on how the war in Ukraine is covered in the legacy media, the New York Times is starting to slowly acknowledge the endemic corruption that has been a defining feature of the former Soviet state as officials have admitted that money for military contracts has “vanished”.

Following the dismissal of Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov amid a slew of corruption scandals surrounding the war effort against Russia, the New York Times acknowledged that the “enduring challenge of corruption in Ukraine” has “emerged as a rare area of criticism of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s leadership.”

Although Reznikov has yet to be tied with any of the corruption scandals personally, the Times went on to admit that the resignation has “elevated the issue to the highest level of Ukrainian politics”. Unnamed Ukrainian officials even told the paper that some funds intended for military contracts “failed to produce weaponry or ammunition and that some money has vanished,” while claiming that the issue was merely confined to the early days of the war.

The neo-liberal outlet has previously been keen to highlight claims from the Biden administration on how the Zelensky government has been “committed to fighting corruption,” citing as evidence statements from officials such as veteran Washington insider and Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who played a pivotal role in the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine that saw the overthrow of democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.

Despite nine senior government officials being sacked over allegations of corruption, including purchasing military food supplies at vastly inflated prices and taking luxury vacations, the paper went on to write in January that “corruption has otherwise not been a significant factor in the war, despite Russian propaganda claims to the contrary that are aimed at undermining his [Zelensky’s] government.”

The proclamation from the NY Times aged rather poorly. Just days later, as Breitbart News reported at the time, Transparency International gave Ukraine a score of 33 out of 100 in its annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), ranking 116th in the world and the second-lowest in all of Europe, only behind Russia.

Expressing concerns over the fate of the $113 billion in American taxpayer dollars sent to Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee went on to note in February that “Ukrainian government officials allegedly engaged in bribery, used government vehicles for personal use, and purchased inflated food supplies for Ukrainian forces.”

Since then, corruption scandals surrounding the war effort have continued to emerge. Last month, for example, every single head of regional recruitment offices throughout Ukraine was fired amid allegations of widespread bribery of officials from those seeking to avoid conscription into the war. Two weeks later, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotskyi and another unnamed economic minister were sacked on suspicion of misappropriating $1.68 million in government funds.

Following the ousting of Defence Minister Reznikov on Monday, the New York Times acknowledged that although there have yet to be specific allegations of corruption involving American funding, the nature of graft in the country has shifted from its traditional avenues, of exploiting state-run enterprises to a focus on war profiteering as billions pour into the country from abroad.

Speaking to the paper, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center in Ukraine, Daria Kaleniuk said: “The question here is, ‘Where is the money?’”

“Corruption can kill,” she added. “Depending on how effective we are in guarding the public funds, the soldier will either have a weapon or not have a weapon.”

The Times went on to claim that there is a shifting mood within Ukraine on the issue, which the paper said was “mostly taboo throughout the first year of the war, as Ukrainians rallied around their government in a fight for national survival.”

The corruption scandals “are nonetheless piercing the sense of unquestioning support for the government that Ukrainians had exhibited throughout the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion,” the NY Times continued.

The critical reporting of the issues of corruption in Ukraine from the hitherto vociferously supportive paper may signal a shift in attitude overall towards the war and perhaps the Biden administration’s strategy of dumping weapons, hardware, and money into the conflict.

The White House is currently trying to convince Congress to green-light an additional $24 billion in aid to the country, however, elections loom and more voters are now questioning the extent of the state’s largess while so many problems are unresolved at home.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter:  or e-mail to: kzindulka@breitbart.com

Establishment Media Begin to Scrutinize Joe Biden’s Involvement in Family Business 

US President Joe Biden on a smartphone during a National Small Business Week event in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, May 1, 2023. The White House said Biden administration investments in America has led to 10.5 million applications to start small businesses …
Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The establishment media in recent weeks have ramped up their examination of President Joe Biden’s involvement in the Biden family business.

Though the scrutiny is shrouded in caveats and deflections, it could represent a departure from how the establishment media cover the Biden family moving forward.
The congressional testimony from Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s best friend in business, appears to have altered the media’s narrative on Joe Biden’s role in the business. Since Archer’s testimony, the media have shifted from reporting on “allegations” levied by Republicans to serious “claims” made by a witness inside the Biden family’s inner circle.

The first example of the media’s change in tune came from Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen, who published an entire article noting his shift in perspective towards the Bidens’ elaborate scheme.

“I have long dismissed the Hunter Biden story as an irrelevant sideshow, but recent revelations have changed my mind,” Olson wrote. “There’s more than enough evidence to merit a thorough investigation of President Biden’s involvement in his son’s business dealings.”

Olsen cited Devon Archer’s testimony as one of the greatest reasons he changed his mind:

Devon Archer, Hunter’s former business partner, recently testified before the House Oversight Committee that Hunter’s value to these firms was his family’s “brand” — his presumed access to the then-vice president. At the time, according to Archer’s testimony, Joe Biden attended dinners in Washington with Hunter and members of Burisma, the Ukrainian firm on whose board Hunter served. Joe Biden also regularly participated in phone calls with Hunter and his clients, Archer said.

In a second instance, Atlantic Magazine columnist Sarah Chayes published an article Wednesday that blamed Joe Biden for permitting the family’s “access-peddling business.”

“The biggest problem with Hunter Biden’s access-peddling business may have been that his father, the president, thought it was fine,” she wrote. “For a president and a political party whose brand stresses integrity, that’s a self-inflicted wound.”

Citing Archer’s testimony, Chayes highlighted the elaborate business operation the Bidens conducted:

Archer’s descriptions of the associates’ activities illustrate what I have found to be the typical modus operandi of such networks. His own corporate holdings, as well as those in which Hunter Biden had a stake, were subdivided and recombined in a dizzying array of similarly named entities that makes any attempt to trace money flows exceedingly difficult. The principals looked outside Europe, the U.S., and Singapore for markets “that were less sensitive,” Archer explained, to public scrutiny of questionable business practices—such as Kazakhstan. “It was pretty wild,” he bragged, citing a hastily assembled lucrative drilling project. “We pulled off a lot.”

A third example of the media’s altered tune came from NBC News. Joe Biden, who is reportedly “consumed” with his son Hunter’s scandals, angrily dismisses White House aides who believe Hunter Biden’s controversial history might politically hurt his father, NBC News’  and 

“Those close to the president have given up trying, even in the most gingerly of ways, to explain to him the potential political fallout,” the report stated:

For months as Hunter Biden’s legal woes persisted and he prepared to mount a public defense against Republican attacks after several years largely staying silent, Biden’s closest political and legal advisers have had to balance their instincts to protect their boss with his parental desire to protect his son, according to the people familiar with the dynamic. That has resulted in tensions between legal teams for the president and Hunter Biden and very delicate attempts by the president’s advisers to explain to him how his son’s elevated public profile may not be in his best interest when it comes to political goals — specifically winning re-election in what could be a rematch of the 2020 race against Donald Trump, these people said.

Even as some outlets published a few critical articles about Joe Biden, the media overall continued to defend the Bidens.

Hunter Biden receives worse treatment from the Justice Department (DOJ) than an average citizen in his position, New York Magazine’s Ankush Khardori claimed in a 1,500-word article.

Khardori argued that recently appointed Special Counsel David Weiss victimized Hunter Biden because the prosecutor succumbed to political pressure. Republican lawmakers manipulated Weiss’s team with IRS whistleblower leaks, which “strongly suggests that Biden has been treated worse — not better — than typical people in his position,” Khardori claimed:

People get off without criminal charges for failing to pay much larger sums of money than Biden owed to tax authorities. The gun charge is similarly dubious, and the notion that there is a chargeable case against Biden under FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act] or a related statute — an idea that is basically now taken for granted in conservative media — is also open to serious doubt.

Polling shows public trust in national news media has plummeted in recent years. Six out of ten Americans say the establishment media are to blame for misinformation, a poll revealed in May.

A February poll found 50 percent of Americans say the national media intend to mislead, misinform, and persuade the public. Only 35 percent say most news organizations can be relied upon.

The same poll found 35 percent of respondents say national news organizations, such as CNN, MSNBC, NPR, the Washington Post, and Politico care more about pushing cultural activism than reporting news that interests their readers, viewers, or listeners.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality 

‘Middle Class Joe’ Is Actually Multi-Millionaire Joe

Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images

HARIS ALIC

fr Vice President Joe Biden, who often pitches himself as “Middle Class Joe” on the campaign trail, is a multi-millionaire, according to his most recent tax returns.

On Tuesday, Biden’s presidential campaign released three years worth of tax filings showing the Democrat frontrunner and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, earned more than $15.6 million since leaving the White House. The majority of the couple’s income came from a book deal — estimated to be worth $8 million — and lucrative speaking engagements.

In 2017, Biden’s first year out of elective office since 1973, the couple earned more than $11 million. This was exponentially more than the $396,552 both reported making in 2016. The following year, the couple’s annual income decreased slightly to $4. 58 million.

Biden’s political standing appears to be the reason for the couple’s new found wealth. The returns show that Biden earned $9.49 million in 2017 through CelticCapri Corp., a shell company named after the couple’s Secret Service code names.

CelticCapri, which was incorporated in Delaware only days after Biden left office, serves as the main vehicle for the former vice president’s public engagements. In 2018, Biden was paid $2.73 million through the company for appearances and speeches all across the country. In total, over the two year period, Biden made 49 speeches with some generating honorariums upwards of $249,000.

Not to be outdone, Jill Biden also cashed in on her public persona. The former second lady delivered 18 speeches between 2017 and 2018, earning on average $36,000 per event. Giacoppa Corp., the former second lady’s shell company named after her family’s original last name, reported paying her more than $557,00 in 2017 and $506,000 in 2018 for such engagements.

Rounding out the couple’s income was Biden’s pension from the U.S. Senate and the vice presidency which generated $241,00 in 2017 and more than $190,000 in 2018. Biden also earned a six figure salary from the University of Pennsylvania. The former vice president leads the university’s Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C., a position that paid more than $371,000 in 2017 and more than $405,000 in 2018.

The couple’s income for both 2017 and 2018 put them squarely within the top one one percent of economic earners, a threshold set at $480,930 by the IRS. In fact, the former vice president’s income was the largest of any of his fellow 2020 Democrats.

Biden’s ascension into the economic elite comes relatively late in life. For the majority of his political career, Biden was one of the poorest members of Congress. The couple’s income barely edged above $300,000 until Biden’s first year in the vice president’s office, when he became eligible to to receive social security and his governmental pension.

Despite waiting so long to break into the one percent, the Bidens appear to have comfortably transitioned into their new lifestyle. Last month, it was disclosed the couple now resides in a 11,750 square foot Georgian-style mansion overlooking the Potomac River in McLean, Virginia. Biden rents the house, which once belonged to the late-Secretary of State Alexander Haig, even though he owns two properties within driving distance in his home state of Delaware. One of those is a recently purchased $2.7 million vacation house on the Atlantic Ocean.

Some signs of the couple’s prior lifestyle, however, appear to have remained in tact. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, Biden’s charitable giving has only slightly increased. According to the most recent tax returns released, Biden gave 1.4 percent of his income to charity in 2016. The following year, when the couple reported making 11 million, they donated just around 9.2 percent to charity. The percentage fell significantly in 2018 to six percent, even though the couple earned more than $4.58 million.

Since signaling his intention to run for president, Biden has sought to regain some of the working-class appeal that was exhibited in his early career.

“I know I’m called Middle-Class Joe. It’s not meant to be a compliment. It means I’m not sophisticated. But I know what made this country what it is: ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” the former vice president said last year.

Treasury Withholds Biden Family Suspicious Bank Records, James Comer Threatens Subpoena

80Drew Angerer/Getty Images, NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images

WENDELL HUSEBĂ˜

27 Jan 20230

4:16

The Treasury Department on Wednesday denied the House Oversight Committee’s request to disclose 150 suspicious reports flagged by U.S. banks concerning Biden family business transactions, causing the committee’s chairman to threaten a subpoena.

U.S. banks have flagged over 150 suspicious financial transactions from Hunter and James Biden, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), House Oversight Committee chair, told Breitbart News. The wire transfers included “large” amounts of money tripped for further review by American banks.

Wire transfers are widely used by money launderers. To mitigate the risks to the financial institutions, suspicious wire transfers over $10,000 are flagged for review. Wire transactions involving more than $10,000 are also to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service.

Comer demanded the Treasury on January 11 to turn over the suspicious bank records. But the Treasury denied Comer’s request, citing “improper disclosure” of relevant information that could reduce the Biden administration’s ability to “conduct of law enforcement, intelligence, and national security activities.”

Treasury’s legislative affairs chief Jonathan Davidson asked Comer to provide more justification for seeking “highly sensitive” information on the Biden family business.

The Oversight committee responded Thursday and vowed to retrieve the bank reports by the “power of the gavel if needed.”

“[T]his coordinated effort by the Biden Administration to hide information about President Biden and his family’s shady business schemes is alarming and raises many questions,” he added.

 

The Biden family bank records are a key trove of information related to the House’s investigation into the Bidens for alleged violations, including wire fraud and money laundering.

The suspicious records will provide details about how the family business operates and desired transparency on Hunter’s anonymous art sales and foreign business transactions, along with knowledge of whether Joe Biden remains compromised by foreign governments through his family’s business.

CNN reported in January the family business remains operational, even as Joe Biden is president. On at least two separate occasions, Frank Biden, Joe Biden’s younger brother, publicly cited the president as a means by which he has influence, despite holding no government position or relation to the White House other than by having the same last name as the president and being his sibling.

The Biden family has been alleged to have been peddling influence many times over Joe Biden’s career.

According to Breitbart News’s senior contributor Peter Schweizer, Hunter earned great sums of money from Ukraine for which he “offered no real work,” a statement that infers Hunter was profiting from peddling White House influence. In one of the most blatant examples, Hunter was paid $83,000 per month in 2017 to be on the board of Burisma. Hunter was appointed to the board of Burisma in 2014 with no prior experience in the energy sector or Ukraine.

 

In 2018 and 2020, Breitbart Senior Contributor and Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer published Secret Empires and Profiles in Corruption. Each book hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and exposed how Hunter Biden and Joe Biden flew aboard Air Force Two in 2013 to China before Hunter’s firm inked a $1.5 billion deal with a subsidiary of the Chinese government’s Bank of China less than two weeks after the trip. Schweizer’s work also uncovered the Biden family’s other vast and lucrative foreign deals and cronyism.

Breitbart Political Editor Emma-Jo Morris’s investigative work at the New York Post on the Hunter Biden “laptop from hell” also captured international headlines when she, along with Miranda Devine, revealed that Joe Biden was intimately involved in Hunter’s businesses, appearing to even have a 10 percent stake in a company the scion formed with officials at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.

 


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