Search
Recent comments
- a peace deal....
12 hours 27 min ago - peace now!
13 hours 52 min ago - a nasty romance....
13 hours 58 min ago - blackmail?.....
16 hours 29 min ago - ukraine's agony has not started yet....
1 day 9 hours ago - all defeated.....
1 day 10 hours ago - beyond crime.....
1 day 11 hours ago - the end....
1 day 11 hours ago - odessa....
1 day 12 hours ago - weitz....
1 day 14 hours ago
Democracy Links
Member's Off-site Blogs
more crucifixions for the donald team...
Two associates of US President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani have been arrested on charges that they schemed to funnel foreign money to US politicians in a bid to affect US-Ukraine relations and launch a marijuana business, according to a newly unsealed indictment.
The two men, who helped Giuliani investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, were arrested on Wednesday night in Virginia, according to a person familiar with the charges. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman have been under investigation by the US Attorney's office in Manhattan and are expected to make an initial court appearance later on Thursday, local time, in Alexandria.
The indictment, packed with allegations of political donations being made in secret for the benefit of foreign interests, only adds to the growing legal and political pressure on President Trump and his attorney as they try to fend off Democrats’ efforts to impeach him over his efforts to spur a Ukraine investigation of Biden.
Read more:
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/two-business-associates-of-ru...
Me thinks that whatever is happening is a beat-up. Throw rotten tomatoes at me if you wish, for me saying this. The media were what got Nixon out. Now the media, full of their ownhubris, are concocting anything in order to get Trump out. And despite the many ill winds going against the Donald, he is not going to go, nor is he going to be impeached. I could be wrong, but I can smell the sewers running through the too eager media... Yes we don't like the Donald either, but going down to his level is stupid. The presidential Democrat candidates are presently a collection of not very bright people that try to pass as savvy politicians, apart from Tulsi and Pete... But the media and the Dems are also trying to bury these two, to promote favourite old boy Biden and that woman Warren...
So, I feel the whole thing is a fabrication... For example:
After former CIA agent-turned whistleblower John Kiriakou blasted holes in the anonymous source for House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into US President Donald Trump on Wednesday night, the mainstream media came after him, smearing his name while ignoring the content of his past actions and the price he paid.
With the word “whistleblower” dominating US headlines in connection with an August complaint filing by an anonymous CIA agent about Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, some real whistleblowers have been taking to media stages to raise their own concerns about the use of the term.
On Wednesday, Kiriakou told Fox News talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that “I don’t think it’s a whistleblower at all. I think this is an anonymous source for the Democratic staff in the House of Representatives. This is an insult to real whistleblowers. Actual whistleblowers go on to have their whole lives upended.” Trump, an increasingly avid viewer of Carlson’s show, tweeted out the quote after the show, drawing heavy fire toward Kiriakou from the mainstream press.With remarkable consistency, stalwarts of the mainstream media quickly resorted to ad hominem attacks, deriding Kirakou as a “fraud,” attacking him for working for Sputnik and misrepresenting the very basis of his punishment for whistleblowing, rather than addressing the serious questions he raised about the Democrats’ latest holy lance against Trump.
To review, in 2013, former CIA officer Kiriakou was sent to federal prison for having disclosed classified information to a journalist, becoming the first person ever convicted on that charge. His report, given in a live television interview on ABC in December 2007, confirmed to the world the existence of the Central Intelligence Agency’s hitherto-secret torture program. He served 30 months in prison for violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act in the process of his disclosures.While then-US President Barack Obama falsely claimed to support whistleblowing, even while prosecuting more whistleblowers than any previous administration, under Trump, the Department of Justice has moved to clamp down on whistleblowing still further. WikiLeaksfounder Julian Assange is charged under the 1917 Espionage Act for receiving classified information from another whistleblower, former US Army analyst Chelsea Manning, and publishing it in 2010. At present, both Manning and Assange are in jail in connection with the report, which exposed US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The simple truth is that the mainstream media has never found a whistleblower it liked - at least at first. Kiriakou pointed out in a Thursday interview with Sputnik that “usually whistleblowers are called ‘leakers,’ until they’re able to convince the public that they’re whistleblowers.” He added, “The media told us that this guy was a whistleblower, so they just bestowed the term on him.”Ironically, some in the media today have derided Kiriakou as merely a “leaker” and not a whistleblower, showing that the term is used to bestow legitimacy and moral urgency on those deemed worthy of it.
“The definition of a whistleblower is actually in the law,” Kiriakou pointed out. “A whistleblower is any person who brings to light evidence of waste, fraud, abuse, illegality or threats to the public health or public safety. So it’s not up to Vice, it’s not up to CIA, to decide who’s a whistleblower - they don’t get to decide that; the law’s already decided it.”Manning, Edward Snowden, Bill Binney, Daniel Ellsberg and yes, Kiriakou - these people paid heavy prices to expose criminality by the US government. All encountered heavy resistancefrom the mainstream media, who have repeatedly refused to print their stories, driving them to alternative media outlets like WikiLeaks to get the word out about wrongdoing. Kirakou said he didn’t think that describes the August whistleblower’s experience. “I think that he went forward, maybe, with some information that is unethical or stupid - right, something stupid the president may have done, but not evidence of any crime.”
Rather, he thinks the whistleblower, or leaker, or whatever you want to call him, is probably “a guy thought he had seen something wrong, he’s gonna report it, and then elements inside the [Central Intelligence] Agency believed that they had stumbled on something that they could use against [Trump].”
"This person is not an undercover CIA operative," Kirakou told Carlson. "You cannot hide this person's name or identity just to save him from embarrassment or the trouble of being recognized because it's just not appropriate. If this is a whistleblower, he needs to come forward in public, testify in open session and blow that whistle."“At the CIA at least, when you have information that you want to use in a whistleblowing complaint, the law says you go to your supervisor, and then to the inspector general, and then the inspector general investigates and goes to the oversight committees,” Kirakou noted. “That’s not what happened here … They just decided, ‘Ah, we have somebody now on the inside that we can call a whistleblower, and now we can implement our program or our plan,’ or whatever it was, and that’s just not how any of the rest of us were ever treated.”
Read more:
https://sputniknews.com/us/201910101077014498-real-whistleblower-kiriako...
And further more:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says there was "no blackmail" in the phone call with US President Donald Trump that helped spark an impeachment inquiry.
Key points- Mr Zelenskiy said it was after the call, during which Mr Trump asked him to investigate Joe Biden, that he learned the US had blocked aid
- Congressional Democrats believe Mr Trump was using the aid as leverage to pressure Ukraine and advance his political interests
- Mr Zelenskiy is trying to end a five-year conflict with Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, while maintaining US support
Responding to reporters' questions on Thursday, Mr Zelenskiy said he only learned after their July 25 phone call that the US had blocked hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine.
"We didn't speak about this" during the July call, Mr Zelenskiy said, saying the military aid was not the "theme" of the conversation.
He spoke during an unusual, all-day "media marathon" in a Kiev food court amid growing questions about his actions as President.
Mr Trump asked Mr Zelenskiy during the call to investigate his Democratic rival Joe Biden, according to a rough White House transcript.
Congressional Democrats believe Mr Trump was holding up the military aid to use as leverage to pressure Ukraine and advance his domestic political interests ahead of next year's US presidential election.
Mr Trump said the military aid was frozen because of concerns about corruption in Ukraine, but the move prompted congressional outcry and the money was released in September.
The July call is central to the impeachment inquiry, and it embarrassed Mr Zelenskiy because he appeared eager to please Mr Trump and critical of European partners.
Read more:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-10/donald-trump-did-not-blackmail-me...
So the story woven by the Democrats is full of holes, a bit like the story made up by MI6 about the Skripals in the UK or the Mueller report, with nothing to show... But the Western media like a good dog saw another plastic toy thinking it was a bone... I could be wrong, but I have the feeling that is not going to end well for the Democrats...
- By Gus Leonisky at 11 Oct 2019 - 8:05am
- Gus Leonisky's blog
- Login or register to post comments
still some dark clouds above biden's head...
Author`s name Dmitry Sudakov
04.10.2019 17:14
Joe Biden must be prosecuted for orchestrating coup in Ukraine
The case of Joe Biden should be investigated in Ukraine not only in connection with his corruption at Burisma Group, but also in connection with his participation in the coup of 2014.
According to the published transcript of the telephone conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky, the US President "asked" his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate into circumstances of the dismissal of the former Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Viktor Shokin. Shokin had investigated the activity of Burisma Group, whose directors included Hunter Biden - the son of Joe Biden, the current leader of the presidential campaign from the Democrats.
In the USA, Joe Biden is suspected of corruption in Ukraine, for the purpose of which he had used his official position. In particular, he used his position in the interests of his son, who had been introduced to the administration of Burisma Group in 2014 (a gas production company in Ukraine). According to the Hill, the former Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Yuri Lutsenko, (Shokin's successor) was ready to give the White House leverage against Biden. Lutsenko himself denies the existence of the case against Hunter Biden, however, he confirms that there were cases on the investigation into company CEO, Nikolay Zlochevsky.
Читайте больше на http://www.pravdareport.com/world/142805-joe_biden/
It's time for the Democrats to realise "should they manage to dislodge Trump", they will end up with Spence, who is a fundamentalist Christian committed to "more wars"... But moreover, by trying to attack Trump on the Biden issue, the dirt will eventually come out on Biden... It's a "pissing into the wind tactic"... You know the rest.
to the senate!...
President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said he will make a decision soon about whether to accept Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-S.C.) invitation to testify before Congress about Ukraine.
“That’s a decision I’ve got to make with my client over the course of the next week or so,” Giuliani told Hill.TV on Wednesday without elaborating further.
His comment came a day after Graham changed course, and announced plans to invite the former New York City mayor to testify before before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The senator previously indicated that he wanted "all things Ukraine" investigated but didn't think the Senate should lead the probe.
“Given the House of Representatives’ behavior, it is time for the Senate to inquire about corruption and other improprieties involving Ukraine,” Graham said in a series of tweets.
While Graham didn’t specifically mention former Vice President Joe Biden, he added that he made the decision after hearing “numerous occasions disturbing allegations” from Giuliani about alleged corruption in Ukraine, particularly concerning the firing of the country's then-top prosecutor general Viktor Shokin.
The announcement comes as Trump and his allies double down over claims that Biden, while serving as vice president, pushed for Shokin to be fired in order to help his son, who serves on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
There has been no evidence of wrongdoing by the former Vice President.
Giuliani, meanwhile, has become a key figure in the ongoing House impeachment inquiry arising from Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
House Democrats subpoenaed Giuliani last month as part of the investigation, though Giuliani denied this in his interview with Hill.TV.
“With regard to the House…I didn’t get a subpoena — I’ve gotten a letter,” he said. “They haven’t gotten to the stage of a subpoena.”
—Tess Bonn
gaslighting...
Opinion by: Saagar Enjeti
Former Vice President Joe Biden came out swinging yesterday, or I guess his version of it, in his strongest worded statement to date calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
The impetus for this call is of course Trump's own highlighting of Biden's son Hunter and his past role on the board of a Ukrainian energy company and his involvement with a private equity firm that received a large payment from the Chinese government.
According to Biden's statement, Biden's borrowed from a common woke Democratic refrain by likening Trump and his critics highlighting of Hunter's past business dealings to Nazi propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. This is a disgusting smear. Are there people who are using Hunter's past business dealings in bad faith to damage him? Sure! But branding anybody who dares question the holy Vice President's motives and that of his family as a Nazi is the lowest of low blows.
Worse the media is covering for him. They are united in their total and complete belief that there is absolutely nothing to see here at all to see when it comes to Hunter's past business dealings and its intersection with Biden's own Vice Presidency. Just look at the words that The New York Times uses in its own story about Biden's speech.
"There is no evidence that Hunter Biden made millions of dollars from his overseas work or that his father intervened inappropriately with Ukraine or China, the other country Mr. Trump was alluding to in his tweet." That is an incredible statement, given that The New York Times own reporting confirms that Hunter was paid $50,000 a month by the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Furthermore, you all may remember my monologue from last week detailing the connections between Hunter and Joe Biden.
Well guess where I got all that information? The New York Times people!
To recap that case Hunter accompanied his father on a 2013 trip to Beijing catching a ride on Air Force 2. Days later a private equity firm called BHR Equity Investments raised $1 billion, later raised to $1.5 billion, in funding from the Chinese government. The company's largest shareholder is literally the bank of China. Hunter at the time sat on the board of BHR Holdings.
While in China, Joe Biden shook hands with the future CEO of BHR Holdings and he also met with Hunter Biden on a so called "social call." Hunter by his own admission continues to own 10% of the company, even though he assures us all he's yet to make any money for it?
What the hell is The New York Times talking about? There is evidence in their own paper I just laid out that Hunter Biden made untold sums profiting off his father's Vice Presidency. Is there any evidence that his father intervened solely for the purpose of saving his son's company from his investigation? No there isn't, but that’s why it’s called a conflict of interest and why ethical people avoid them. To spare even the question.
Even worse, Biden's Democratic opponents are covering for him. Kamala Harris has told us all that we must leave Joe alone.
Elizabeth Warren in a recent interview said that "What happened in Ukraine is about Donald Trump." Again this is the candidate who just bought $10 million in ads touting a pledge to crack down on corruption in American politics.
Why is it so hard for people to admit quite clearly that what Hunter Biden did was shady as hell. Why is the paper of so called record putting unfounded claims to borrow, from their language, of defense for Biden which are easily proven false by their own reporting. The answer is that Donald Trump will be the undoing of both the media and the Democrats if they continue down this path.
And by the way? Thats what nazism actually looked like. Having a message pushed by powerful people with a lot to lose and the media gobbling it up in order to preserve their status with the powerful.
The media and the Democrats, they hate Trump so much that if he says something with a grain of truth, it becomes their job in life to gaslight the American public to believe he is lying. The thing is, though, is that Trump says things which aren't true all the time. They could stick to just those and have enough for a lifetime, but they just can't resist and it leads to gaslighting like this.
Read more:
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/465280-saagar-enjeti-media-is-covering...
Read from top.
fighting like hell on fire...
US President Donald Trump took his dialogue to another level on Thursday evening in criticizing Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and an impeachment inquiry launched by the Dems over Trump's notorious July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
At a rally in Minneapolis Trump brought supporters to their feet by claiming that Biden's only useful feature as US vice president was his ability to "kiss Barack Obama's a**".
Trump slammed Biden for allegedly pressing Facebook and major television networks not to cover alleged corruption in regard to his tenure as US vice president.
"The Bidens got rich and that is substantiated while America got robbed [...] Sleepy Joe and his friends sold out America [...] And in a brand new report, just came out as I'm walking on the stage, it turns out that when Joe Biden was vice president - he worked with the so-called whistleblower. This is nothing more than a partisan witch hunt, sabotage, and I'm sure they're going to say, 'totally unsubstantiated'", Trump said.Trump fired back after the publication of a new story in The Washington Examiner suggesting that the whistleblower at the centre of the Trump impeachment inquiry allegedly worked with Biden.
The whistleblower's attorney, Mark Zaid, acknowledged that his client had "contact" with current presidential contenders "from both parties", according to the media report.
The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has launched its long-awaited impeachment inquiry over allegations that Trump, in an attempt to boost his 2020 re-election bid, pressed Zelensky to probe the business activities of Biden's son Hunter in Ukraine in the July phone talk. House Dems allege that Trump threatened to withhold financial aid to Ukraine unless Zelensky did him that favor.
The White House has declassified what it claims is an un-redacted transcript of the phone conversation.
The transcript revealed that the US president asked Zelensky to work with his personal lawyer and the US attorney general to "look into" whether Joe Biden, who "went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution", committed crimes alongside his son in Ukraine. The transcript did not contain signs that the US president overtly threatened to withhold financial assistance to Ukraine.
Trump earlier said that the investigation into his telephone call with Zelensky as a "political witch hunt".
Read more:
https://sputniknews.com/us/201910111077016517-kiss-barack-obamas-a-trump...
Read from top.
tick tick tick tick tick...
Donald Trump likes to tick boxes.
As 2020 closes in and he faces the challenge of re-election, you can bet he's looking to check off what he promised at all of those rowdy rallies in 2016.
And so on.
Several of the President's promises are stalled — notably the building of the wall on the border with Mexico, the repeal and replacement of Obamacare and the renegotiation of the Iran nuclear deal.
Under deep domestic pressure amid the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry, and plainly frustrated and in need of a distraction, a phone call from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last weekend was timely.
After all, another of those core promises he made in 2016 was to extricate America from several "endless wars".
Trump has been planning this move for monthsThe President retreated back into his box after being shouted down when he announced plans to withdraw all US troops from Syria last December, but he's not easily diverted.
With the gruff, sensible defence secretary Jim Mattis out of the way (he quit after the December episode)Mr Trump reverted to part of his original plan.
"We're not fighting," he told reporters.
Read more:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-11/trumps-decision-on-syria-election...
Read from top.
Read also:
when "peace" is a war with invasion...a private interests slippery slope?...
Marie Yovanovitch tells Congress of 'private interests' acting 'for their own gain' in Donald Trump impeachment inquiry
The former US ambassador to Ukraine on Friday told a House of Representatives impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump that he ousted her based on "unfounded and false claims" after she had come under attack by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Key points:Marie Yovanovitch, who was abruptly recalled as the US envoy to Ukraine in May, appeared for a closed-door deposition, according to Democratic politicians leading the inquiry, after she had been told by the State Department at the behest of the White House not to show up.
The Democrats said they then issued a subpoena for her appearance and she complied.
Read more:https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-12/marie-yovanovitch-testifies-donald-trump-impeachment-inquiry/11596640
————————————————————
But is is not true:
Between 2009 and 2013, including when Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state, the Clinton Foundation received at least $8.6 million from the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, according to that foundation, which is based in Kiev, Ukraine. It was created by Mr. Pinchuk, whose fortune stems from a pipe-making company. He served two terms as an elected member of the Ukrainian Parliament and is a proponent of closer ties between Ukraine and the European Union.
In 2008, Mr. Pinchuk made a five-year, $29 million commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative, a wing of the foundation that coordinates charitable projects and funding for them but doesn’t handle the money. The pledge was to fund a program to train future Ukrainian leaders and professionals “to modernize Ukraine,” according to the Clinton Foundation. Several alumni are current members of the Ukrainian Parliament. Actual donations so far amount to only $1.8 million, a Pinchuk foundation spokesman said, citing the impact of the 2008 financial crisis.
The Pinchuk foundation said its donations were intended to help to make Ukraine “a successful, free, modern country based on European values.” It said that if Mr. Pinchuk was lobbying the State Department about Ukraine, “this cannot be seen as anything but a good thing.”
– From the Wall Street Journal article: Clinton Charity Tapped Foreign Friends
When I first came across the title to this article, I didn’t think much of it. In fact, I almost didn’t even click the link thinking it was just a repeat of a prior expose I highlighted in the post: Hillary Clinton Exposed Part 2 – Clinton Foundation Took Millions From Countries That Also Fund ISIS.
Fortunately, I did decide to take a look and pretty soon my jaw absolutely hit the floor. Although the Wall Street Journal didn’t play up the connection, I was stunned to see that of all the oligarchs connected to foreign governments who donated to the Clinton Foundation while she was Secretary of State, Ukraine was at the very top. I thought this to be strange, but as I read on I just couldn’t believe how connected the main donor was to the current regime in power. Considering this is the main geopolitical hotspot on earth right now, many, many questions need to be asked.
https://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/03/20/clinton-foundations-deep-financial-ties-to-ukrainian-oligarch-who-pushed-for-closer-ties-to-eu-revealed/not testifying...
US President Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has notified several US House committees he "will not participate" in their impeachment inquiry, including cooperating with a subpoena issued late last month.
In the Tuesday letter from Giuliani's counsel, Jon A. Sale, the former New York mayor tells the chairmen of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and two other House committees that "Mr. Giuliani will not participate" in their impeachment inquiry into Trump "because this appears to be an unconstitutional, baseless and illegitimate" probe.
"By way of this response, Mr. Giuliani adopts all the positions set forth in Mr. Cipollone's October 8, 2019, letter on behalf of President Donald J. Trump," the letter continues. "In addition, the subpoena is overbroad, unduly burdensome, and seeks documents beyond the scope of legitimate inquiry. Moreover, documents sought in the subpoena are protected by attorney-client, attorney work-product, and executive privileges."Read more:
https://sputniknews.com/us/201910151077056653-trump-lawyer-rudy-giuliani...
Read from top.
same words, different circumstances...
From MAD magazine about 45 years ago:
rudy gets flustered...
In the carpark of the Four Seasons Hotel, one saw Rudy Giuliani have a hissy fit... For Mr cool cucumber leadership, it was not a good look...
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0hEFa52Bdo
see also: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/35369
Read from top.