Friday, November 08, 2019

Joe has to go

Hope you saw this:

George Kent, a career official at the State Department, told House investigators conducting the impeachment inquiry against President Trump that he raised concerns about Hunter Biden's lucrative service on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company -- but was told that it wasn't appropriate to discuss the matter because of the health struggles of Biden's eldest son, Beau.
According to a transcript of his Oct. 15 closed-door deposition released Thursday, Kent confirmed that he had no "direct knowledge" that U.S. aid to Ukraine was ever connected to the opening of a new investigation against the Bidens concerning their business dealings there.
Kent said that in January or February 2015, he "became aware that Hunter Biden was on the board" of Ukrainian company Burisma Holdings while his father Joe Biden was overseeing Ukraine policy as vice president.
"I did not know that at the time," Kent testified. "And when I was on a call with somebody on the vice president's staff and I cannot recall who it was, just briefing on what was happening into Ukraine, I raised my concerns that I had heard that Hunter Biden was on the board of a company owned by somebody that the U.S. Government had spent money trying to get tens of millions of dollars back, and that could create the perception of a conflict of interest."
After discussing those concerns with Biden's staff, Kent testified, "The message that I recall hearing back was that the Vice President's son Beau was dying of cancer and that there was no further bandwidth to deal with family-related issues at that time."


Hunter Biden's grift is not going away.

Tiana Lowe (WASHINGTON EXAMINER) explains:

During at least one meeting with Amos Hochstein, a top adviser to then-Vice President Joe Biden on international energy affairs, a Washington-based consulting firm hired by Burisma Holdings invoked the name of Biden's son Hunter, who was on the board of the Ukrainian gas company at the time. A former Obama State Department official confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Hochstein took the initial meeting with Blue Star Strategies without the firm invoking Biden's name to Hochstein, as they did with Catherine Novelli, President Barack Obama's undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment.
Representing Blue Star Strategies in the meeting with Hochstein were CEO Karen Tramontano and COO Sally Painter. The first meeting with Hochstein was in November or December of 2015. Tramontano met with Novelli on March 1 of the following year.
Hochstein, who accompanied Biden in nearly every meeting he had with then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, was a vocal proponent of Ukraine cracking down on Burisma Holdings. The source familiar with the meeting believes that Blue Star Strategies intended to convince Hochstein (but did not) that Burisma was on the level and did not warrant further investigation.
In a lengthy feature piece about the vice president's son from July 2019, the New Yorker reported that Hochstein "raised the matter" of Hunter Biden's role on the Burisma board to Joe Biden. However, Hochstein has publicly maintained that he never heard the elder Biden bring up Burisma or his son in meetings with Poroshenko.
Hochstein was also reportedly in a notable May 7, 2019, meeting during which current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky strategized how to circumvent Rudy Giuliani's attempts to drag the Ukrainian government into the 2020 American presidential election.


It's not going away. 


This particular whistleblower is a material witness to the Biden conflict of interest scandal involving $50,000 paid monthly to Hunter Biden. The whistleblower should absolutely be subpoenaed and asked what he knew about the Biden corruption.


This scandal is not going away but Joe needs to go.

America needs change and brave new ideas.  Joe hasn't had a new idea since 1972.

It's not that he's a certain age, it's that he's long been set in his ways.

We need better.  We need Bernie or we need Elizabeth.

Joe has to go.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 
Thursday, November 7, 2019.  Joe Biden continues to flounder, Iraqis continue to protest in the streets.



'Electability.'  If you vote for the candidate, than they are electable.  War Hawk Joe Biden has based his entire campaign on the claim that he is electable.  Polls are starting to question that.  But yesterday, on a campus, we came across a very rare creature: The young adult supporting Joe Biden.  They are so small in number, but they do exist.

Ralph (his real first name) wanted everyone present for this discussion about war to know a few things -- mainly how uninformed Ralph was.  For example?  Ralph insisted it wasn't fair to blame Joe Biden for the Iraq War "because he wasn't even in the Senate when they voted for it."  Ralph had apparently confused Joe with Barack Obama (something Joe, no doubt, wishes many voters would do).  Barack wasn't in the Senate when that vote took place.  Joe was.  And Joe voted for it.

The uninformed Joe Biden voter is something to marvel over.  They have so much information -- so little of it accurate -- and they really feel the need to educate their peers.  Which is why Ralph wanted to talk about 'electability.'  And here I need to thank Ralph.  I'm really not caught in that conversation, I'm in the real world.  But Ralph insisted that in the general election -- he's watched a lot of conventional 'wisdom' types -- the Democratic nominee will have to steer to the center to get votes.

No, Ralph, you're wrong.

For the first election ever, we're not looking at that, if we're honest.

That's done to peel off swing voters.  Ideally, it would pull of Republican ones as well.

But this is the election, 2020, in which you can honestly say: "So where you gonna go?"

Truly.

Look at all the war mongering neocons, for example.  They loathe Donald Trump.  So let's say Bernie's the nominee.  Let's say Bernie is 'too left' for these Republicans who have publicly hated Donald since he started running for president.

So what?

They're not voting Donald Trump.  They're 'never Trump'ers.

They might go for a third party candidate but that's really not an issue -- thus far -- in a national election.

We lose so many voters, as a country, by this move to the right nonsense each election cycle.

But in 2020,there's really no need to even entertain that.

The right-wing will be represented by Donald.  (Possibly also by a third party candidate.)  Many of them will not vote for him for many reasons that they make public daily on screamathons like THE VIEW.

So there's really no need to make that argument this go round.  In an editorial posted earlier this morning, THE NATION calls on War Hawk Joe to drop out:

Like Hillary Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden offers the promise of picking up where the Obama administration left off: a restoration of business as usual for the K Street lobbyists and Wall Street speculators whose prosperity the 2008 financial crisis did little to disturb. Indeed, as Joseph N. DiStefano reports in this issue, the man posing as “middle-class Joe” has built his career and his family’s wealth on an eagerness to serve not the many Americans crushed by credit card debt but the very banks whose hands are around their throats. The candidate who insists Medicare for All is too expensive for Americans is also the candidate who, like Clinton, endorsed NAFTA, China’s admission to the World Trade Organization, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership—all of which have savaged US manufacturing and workers. Clinton’s record cost her the industrial heartland (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan) and, with it, the election.
Biden’s long record of poor judgment—on everything from the 1994 crime bill that fueled mass incarceration to his botched handling of Anita Hill’s testimony against Clarence Thomas to his defense of Bill Clinton’s brutal welfare cuts to his support for the Iraq War to his role as cheerleader for Wall Street deregulation—renders him an even weaker opponent for a president whose reelection poses a clear and present danger to America’s survival as a constitutional republic.
Stumbling through the primaries, Biden’s zombie campaign crowds out worthier challengers, handing Trump a free pass on the very issues that should be his Achilles’ heel.
On issue after issue, Biden’s candidacy offers Trump a unique opportunity to muddy what should be a devastatingly clear choice. The Nation therefore calls on Biden to put service to country above personal ambition and withdraw from the race.


Joe should drop out. He's doing badly in Iowa -- a front runner doesn't run fourth.




And there's California. The state convention is days away.  And Mark Caputo (POLITICO) reports that Joe's skipping the convention because he's afraid of being booed and also because he's afraid Jorge Ramos (UNIVISION), who will speak at the convention for approximately 15 minutes, will bring up the issue of the vast number of deportations that took place when Barack was president and Joe was vice president.  It's a topic that Joe repeatedly attempts to avoid.


Grace Sparks (CNN) reports on a new poll:

Former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders lead the race for the Democratic primary, according to a new national poll out Wednesday from Monmouth University.
The three candidates make up the top tier with 23% for Biden and Warren each and 20% for Sanders. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has 9% support among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, followed by California Sen. Kamala Harris with 5%, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and businessman Andrew Yang with 3% each, and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar with 2% support. No other candidate receives above 1% in the poll. 



Joe's supposed to be the most electable yet another poll says differently.  Elizabeth and Bernie are right where he is.  (Factoring in the margin of error, Bernie is neck and neck with the other two.)  The realities -- as opposed to the myths and spin -- are seen at Biden events.  Chris Smith (VANITY FAIR) offers:


On the ground his campaign is scuffling, with modest crowds at rallies and mediocre fundraising. He has been losing altitude over the past several months, and some analysts are pessimistic. “The big thing people aren’t playing out is how it’s going to feel if Biden comes in third or fourth in Iowa,” says Jennifer Palmieri, a top adviser to Hillary Clinton in 2016. “His people argue Biden can lose Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, and win South Carolina and be fine. Okay—don’t kid a kidder. I worked on the John Edwards campaign.”


Joe worked on the campaign to destroy Iraq.


 
 
Iraq protests: There is no going back to the status quo ante
 
 


In Iraq, the protests continue.  At FOREIGN POLICY, Audrey Wilson explains:


Iraqi Protesters Step Up Their Tactics
Mass protests are still escalating in Iraq, with demonstrators blocking three main bridges in Baghdad this week as they continue to push back against the political elite. As Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi fails to quell the unrest, the protesters are adjusting their tactics, calling for civil disobedience and strikes. More than 260 people have been killed since the protests began last month, and one person was killed by security forces on Wednesday.
The protests are the largest in Iraq since Saddam Hussein fell in 2003, and the demonstrators are demanding the removal of the factions and political elites that came to power in the years afterward, who are seen as corrupt and subservient to other powers—such as the United States and Iran. So far, the protests have had broad participation: Some of the heroes of the protests have been Baghdad’s tuk-tuk drivers, the Washington Post reports.
Where are people protesting? The demonstrations have only grown since they resumed on Oct. 25, both in the capital and outside of it. Beyond Baghdad, more violent demonstrations have taken place throughout southern Iraq, with people targeting the Iranian Consulate in the city of Karbala and the headquarters of parties tied to Iran. Many of the protesters are from Shiite-majority cities—undermining Iran’s status as an advocate for the Shiite community.

What’s next? Abdul-Mahdi has appealed to protesters to stop sabotaging the economy: A blockade of Iraq’s main Persian Gulf port has cost it nearly $6 million, Reuters reports. The internet was blocked across much of the country on Wednesday. Iraqi President Barham Salih has said he will call for early elections once a new law goes into place, but politicians have yet to offer any immediate reforms to meet the protesters’ demands.



Iraqi security forces fired tear gas and live rounds into the air to disperse protesters in central Baghdad on Wednesday, beating young men they could grab, as the biggest wave of anti-government demonstrations in decades spread across the capital. The human rights commission said at least three people had been killed.
Since Oct. 25, Baghdad’s Tahrir Square has become a vision of a different sort of Iraq. Government authority is largely absent. Young men and women clean the streets and paint walls with pictures of their revolutionary heroes and their dead.
Hundreds have pitched in to cook for the crowd, stirring steaming pots of rice, chopping meat and brewing tiny cups of tea drenched in sugar.
“When I walk out into that square today, I know that if I’m hungry, someone will feed me. If I’m wounded, someone will carry me away,” said Al-Hassan Fahmy, leaning his elbow against a grubby mound of blankets. “This is a different society here.”



so the internetin Iraq has been cut , why ? oh cz the government is so week it cannot stop the protest and it won't till we get our civil rights
 
 



Iraq's internet blackout continues amid violent anti-gov't protests:
 
 



The following sites updated:







Thursday, November 07, 2019

Friends of Jeffrey Epstein's should not be involved in any presidential campaigns

My favorite conspiracy movies?  That's a long list.  But my top three would be KLUTE with Jane Fonda, THE MATRIX with Keanu and CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER with Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson.  Rebecca did a great post on "favorite conspiracy films" so go check that out.

Jeffrey Epstein's story is a conspiracy film waiting to be shot.  The pedophile (and probably Mossad agent) raped young girls and women.  He flew his buddies around on The Lolita Express.  He had his own little hideaway where his pals played.  This play was most likely illegal and it was most likely rape.

So if you were Jeffrey's friend, your ass doesn't belong in a presidential campaign.

Why is that hard for Joe Biden to understand?

I get it, he's losing and he's desperate.

That doesn't excuse bringing Larry Summers on to Team Biden.

Larry was friends with Jeffrey.  Remained good friends -- and Lolita Express travel buddies -- with Jeffrey even after his 2005 arrest (and conviction) for abuse of a 14-year-old girl he raped.

  1. No media outlet should promote Larry Summers until he explains his multi-decade, very close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
  2. Replying to 
    Let’s not forget Larry Summers was a close friend of Jeffrey Epstein
  3. Replying to 
    Blair and Larry Summers must have really bonded when they met on Jeffrey Epstein's fun island. Brothers in the struggle to protect the successful!
  4. Replying to 
    Always a good time to mention Larry Summers was pals with Jeffrey Epstein. For some reason. 🤔
  5. one investor is the guy who was hanging w Jeffrey Epstein and Bill gates in that NYT article: Larry Summers
5. Also, any statement Larry Summers makes against wealth tax has to be weighed against fact he benefits from current inequality since as university major-domo he was showered with plutocratic largess. Addendum: Here's a photo of Summers with Jeffrey Epstein.



The press needs to call out Joe for utilizing Larry Summers and Joe needs to apologize to the country for bringing Larry on Team Biden.

There is no excuse for it.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Wednesday, November 6, 2019.  Joe Biden's so desperate he's got a pedophile Epstein connected man helping his campaign.


In the US, the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination continues.  The press favorite, War Hawk Joe Biden, remains tone deaf and the press continues to avoid addressing the very real problems with Joe.

Let's start with sexism.

Oct 31
Replying to
Alyssa Milano the me-too movement Alyssa Milano headlining a fundraiser for the biggest sexist in the Democratic presidential field Joe Biden and Joe Biden sexism to the sunrise movement


  • Replying to
    Alyssa Milano complains (rightfully) about sexism in Hollywood and then hosts a fundraiser for Joe Biden, a man who inappropriately fondles little girls and women, a man who talks down to women and treats them as if they are idiots?!? Milano is full of sh*t! Biden is a pig.






    That is Joe's image.  Is he trying to improve it?


    Earlier this week, Cedric ("Joe wants your vote but he doesn't want to interact with you"), Wally ("THIS JUST IN! WORTHLESS JOE BIDEN INSULTS YOUNG VOTERS!") and Ann ("Neither Joe Biden nor Alyssa Milano give a damn about women") addressed this issue of Joe's interaction with Lily Levin.  Lily had concerns about climate change.  Joe responded to this prospective supporter (and you can be sure she will be voting -- not for Joe, though) by responding, "Look at my record, child."

    An adult woman, a voter, asks a question and he dismisses her as a "child."  What's next?  New Corn Pop stories where Corn Pop's a "boy"?

    Joe's a sexist pig.  He didn't just fail Anita Hill, according to the recent remarks of what he told Republican senators in real time, he worked to actively undermine her.

    As Anita's noted, he needs to take accountability.

    He's a sexist pig who belongs on a rocker on the front porch, not in the Oval Office.

    He does not improve, he does not learn.

    Earlier this week, Ryan Grim (THE INTERCEPT) reported:

    As the Joe Biden campaign mounts its opposition to a new Medicare for All financing plan rolled out by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, it is directing reporters to former Obama adviser Larry Summers for his bits of wisdom, according to an email obtained by The Intercept.
    [. . .]
    Summers’s lifelong dream of chairing the Federal Reserve — a position he was promised in exchange for agreeing to serve as a senior economic adviser — was thwarted in 2013 by a bloc of progressive-populist senators on the Banking Committee, with Warren playing a lead role internally. Warren helped organize an outside coalition of Summers opponents, including organized labor and women’s groups, while her ally, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., made the public case against him. Once Merkley and Warren locked up five votes on the committee, Summers had no path to confirmation and withdrew his name. He may be most well-known as an advocate of financial deregulation while serving in the Clinton administration.
    According to the email, which The Intercept agreed not to publish to protect the source, the Biden campaign is making Summers available to speak on Warren’s health care plan, which Biden attacked on Friday. Summers, through a spokesperson, declined to comment. “We provided contact information for a number of healthcare and economic policy experts — all of whom have relevant backgrounds in government, academia, or both but none of whom are surrogates for the campaign — and he was one of them,” said a Biden campaign spokesperson.

    It's hard not to scream.

    About Joe?

    About the whole f**king system.

    So here we are and I don't know what to call it, to steal from Maria McKee.



    Where are the women or the men who are aware because I'm scanning the horizon and I'm not seeing it.

    I'm not seeing any improvement from 2008.

    Where is the media?

    Joe Biden is using Larry Summers?


    Laura Strickler (NBC NEWS) reported on Jeffrey Epstein last July:

    In a 2003 Vanity Fair article that referred to “the Epstein Program for Mathematical Biology and Evolutionary Dynamics” at Harvard, Epstein said he was reluctant to have his name attached to the program, but Harvard President Larry Summers “persuaded” him.

    Also last July, E J Dickson (ROLLING STONE) noted:

    Former Harvard president and secretary of the treasury Larry Summers boasted a close relationship with Epstein: the two served on multiple foreign relations advisory panels together, and their friendship was detailed at length in a glowing Harvard Crimson profile of Epstein, who had just donated $30 million to the university. Summers and other former Harvard officials who had close ties to Epstein declined to comment for a 2018 follow-up piece on Epstein following the publication of the Miami Herald report.


    Ashley Feinberg (SLATE) observed:


    Claim to fame: Former president of Harvard, former Clinton treasury secretary
    Connection: A Harvard Crimson article from 2003 noted that Epstein shared “a special connection” with Summers, adding that “their friendship began a number of years ago—before Summers became Harvard’s president and even before he was the Secretary of the Treasury—and those close to Epstein say he holds the University president in very high regard.” Epstein pledged $30 million for Harvard to create the Epstein Program for Mathematical Biology and Evolutionary Dynamics, though he only agreed to have his name attached after being persuaded by Summers himself. Appears in Lolita Express flight logs, and, according to the Daily Beast, Epstein’s private charity also “funded a nonprofit that produces a TV show hosted by the wife of Larry Summers.”
    On Epstein: As far as I can tell, Summers has never commented on his relationship with Epstein.

    How was this not the lede the minute Joe tapped Larry to respond for his campaign?

    Does it not matter, Ryan Grim?

    I don't understand how your brain works.

    Because when I read that Joe's using Larry, my immediate thought is: Child molester.  Pedophile.

    Oh, is Larry innocent?

    Where's the proof of that?

    What we do know is that he was friends with and worked with a convicted pedophile.  What we do know is he traveled on The Lolita Express.

    And Epstein died in custody August 10th.  It's only November.

    In what world is it appropriate for any political campaign to be pulling Larry in?  Let alone a sexist and tone deaf campaign?

    This is outrageous.  Or does it not matter when young girls are raped?

    Are we still stuck in last century thinking?

    Where is the press?

    This is not a minor issue.  Lawrence is being presented to the press to offer expert defense of Joe Biden.  Larry is not an expert.  His entire name and image is muddled.  His own actions have made that so.  The notion that he's worth listening to is outrageous.

    Larry's  a whole ball of wax of problematic.   Women can't do science, it's genetic -- remember when Larry floated that crap?  If not, here's a 2015 PRI report.  To Ryan Grimm's credit, he is aware of that and notes it -- in the final sentence of the report: "After all, he was fired as Harvard University president after speculating in prepared remarks that women are less equipped to do math and science than men."

    That should have been the focus of the report.  Larry is a sexist pig, Larry was side-by-side with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and did his ride-or-die with Jeffrey on The Lolita Express.

    Not only should no one be listening to Larry, the story should be, "Look at how desperate Joe Biden is.  He's so desperate and he hates women so much, that he's using this guy to attack Elizabeth Warren."

    Joe's past choices -- betraying Anita Hill, destroying Iraq (both with his vote for the war and his actions when Barack put him in charge from 2009 through the end of 2016), the crime bill, the crackdown on consumers to make them debt slaves to banks forever, etc -- scream that he is not qualified to be president.  His actions since declaring this latest run go to his refusal to learn from any of his past mistakes.

    If Larry Summers is your go to, the press should be calling you out.  If they're not?  I guess they're okay with pedophiles and that's why so many get away with it -- the press doesn't really see it as a problem.

    Remember though, Hunter Biden did nothing wrong!!!! He broke every ethical guideline (as did Joe) but Joe says he did nothing wrong.

    Joe's moral compass appears to be on the fritz.

    He's not fit to be president.  No one running for the presidency this year should be associating with anyone who took a ride on The Lolita Express -- it's bad optics, it's bad politics and it is disgusting and unseemly.


    I'm wondering if anyone ever asked Joe Biden his plan to finance the Iraq War.






    Turning to Iraq . . .

    Anti-government protests that started in Iraq over a month ago have escalated into countrywide violence and demands for the government to resign. Some 270 people have lost their lives.






    The US Embassy in Baghdad issued the following earlier today:

    The United States has a strong and abiding interest in a secure and prosperous Iraq able to defend the nation against violent extremist groups and able to deter those who would undermine Iraqi sovereignty and democracy.  As the world watches events in Iraq unfold it is increasingly clear that the Government of Iraq and the country’s political leaders must engage seriously and urgently with Iraqi citizens who are demanding reform. There is no path forward based on suppression of the will of the Iraqi people.  
    We deplore the killing and kidnapping of unarmed protesters, threats to freedom of expression, and the cycle of violence taking place. Iraqis must be free to make their own choices about the future of their nation.

    Let's note it's the strongest statement the US government has ever made in defense of the Iraqi people protesting -- that includes the 2011 protesters.  That includes 2013 protesters and let's note their banner.

    From Samarra من سامراء

    Iraqis in Samarra with a message for the world (photo via Iraqi Spring MC).

    "As the world watches"?  That's what the statement issued today says.

    AP wants you to know that there is a long simmering rage against Iran in Iraq.  Is that really a surprise?  Look at the 2013 banner: "Iraqis Did not Vote for an Iranian Dictatorship."

    It's always been there.

    There's more than anger between Iraq and Iran.  There's also bonds of support.

    But as we've repeatedly noted, the fear that Iran will be in charge of Iraq has never been a valid one.  They are neighbors.  That brings associations and, due to their past, it brings friction.

    Smart approaches would include just standing back, not trying to influence anything between the two.  Moqtada al-Sadr is now not just a Shi'ite cleric but also a movement leader.  Part of that is due to his work.  Part of it is due to the US.  Condi Rice felt the need to empower him repeatedly.  He would be fading and then Condi would need to attack him and that would make some Iraqis rally behind him.  If she wanted him to fade away, she should have kept her mouth shut instead of constantly elevating him to leadership with her attacks.

    The same thing is true of the US with regards to Iran.

    Trina wanted me to note this and I'm moving quickly and hoping everyone (community members) can remember what I was saying before about this in the community newsletter.  But the reality is that the press whips up sentiment and often the US press does so in a way that harms others.  They have been pushing so hard for war on Iran.

    If it helps any, grasp that they're so stupid.  They can't even provide details that help them.

    They're lazy so they write about the protest as though it started in October.

    They ignore what really kicked it off: The firing of someone because the Iranian-linked militias wanted him fired.  That's a key detail.  And if you're pimping war on Iran, you should probably have been including it.  But that's how useless and stupid they are, they missed that reality.

    The following sites updated: