The fourth “unnamed” criminal is Joe Biden, but the DoJ refuses to name him.
…Apologists are already objecting that influence peddling is perfectly legal. Indeed, it is a virtual cottage industry in D.C. However, it is also a raw form of corruption that is being largely ignored by the media…
…For those of us who have denounced influence peddling for years in both parties, the Biden family is in a class to itself. The family has long been associated with influence peddling to the degree that they could add an access key to their family crest.
“At the same time that Department of Justice officials were using spying and corruption statutes to aggressively pursue Donald Trump’s allies based on what turned out to be rumor and innuendo, they declined to use those same laws to investigate evidence of wrongdoing involving Biden family members and one of their corrupt Chinese business partners, DOJ documents and federal court records reveal.
In 2016-2017, the evidence shows, the FBI raided the offices and intercepted the communications of Chi Ping “Patrick” Ho, a Chinese national suspected of espionage even as he was negotiating business deals with former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and brother James.
DOJ later used information obtained from the searches and wiretaps – which included conversations with the current President’s son and brother – to convict Ho of bribery and money laundering, as part of a separate corruption case involving United Nations officials. But it declined to tap into its trove of evidence – including “over 100,000 emails” – to explore the connections between Ho and the Bidens, who received millions of dollars from Ho and a Chinese intelligence front and discussed sharing office space.
At Ho’s 2018 trial, prosecutors hid Hunter’s connection to Ho, redacting his name from court exhibits (see sidebar) while describing Ho as “the person who flies around the world paying bribes to advance the interest of the oil company [CEFC China Energy],” according to hearing transcripts.
A federal database shows the Bidens failed to register as foreign agents while engaged in activities on behalf of CEFC, a state-owned entity suspected of being a front for Chinese intelligence. Federal anti-spying laws require anyone acting as a lobbyist for a foreign power to register with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
The DOJ did not prosecute either Biden family member for potential violations of FARA for representing the interests of the Chinese. ”
—-
“The Biden Justice Department Stands Accused of Hiding This Evidence of Biden-China Corruption”
“The Justice Department is not disclosing to the public or Congress links between President Biden’s son Hunter and brother James and a corrupt Chinese government agent who doled out millions of dollars in bribes. It has scrubbed the connections from court documents and is suggesting it doesn’t have evidence clearly in its possession.
In addition, the department appears to be trying to silence another disreputable partner from coming forward to tell what he knows about the Bidens’ Chinese connection.
In 2016, FBI counterespionage agents began collecting voluminous evidence against Chinese national Chi Ping “Patrick” Ho, who was suspected of paying off officials and their families around the world in exchange for oil rights for a China-based energy conglomerate he represented that has ties to Chinese military intelligence.
From emails, text messages, phone calls, bank records, and other evidence gathered from wiretaps and searches of Ho’s offices in D.C. and New York, investigators discovered that Hunter Biden and his uncle James were targets of Ho and CEFC China Energy, which had struck up a business partnership with the Bidens. The deal, sealed in 2017, netted the Bidens almost $6 million for unspecified work, at least $1 million of which was paid directly by Ho. “
“Utopias by their nature have only two options if they’re to survive. They must lean into totalitarianism or collapse. We’re now at the moment when the Democrats, with complete control of the legacy media, nearly all major institutions of power — including those run by the government — are slowly adopting totalitarian practices to shut out speech they don’t like.
What they want is more power to preserve their utopian vision for a new America. But there are powerful dissidents in this country who continue to stand in their way, like Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk, Matt Taibbi, and Michael Shellenberger. What are the utopians to do?
Well, for starters, they’d like to find a good reason to shut down Carlson and destroy Fox News. That will keep their utopia alive for a little longer, stave off collapse, and allow them to eradicate even more dissent. Dissent is dangerous. Dissent is a threat to Democracy.
In just two short weeks we’ve seen Senator Chuck Schumer bark at Fox News and Rupert Murdoch demanding they silence and censor their top-rated cable news host. We’ve seen a panel of Democratic members of Congress beclown themselves in one of the most embarrassing spectacles in the history of the party.
The Congressional hearing on the Twitter Files made it abundantly clear that Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger weren’t the targets. Elon Musk was the target. They couldn’t give the Twitter Files any oxygen lest they help Musk succeed in his ongoing pursuit to help free the truth from their desire to keep it locked away.
Carlson is the one who has them really nervous. Surely there must be a way they can shut him up permanently. Schumer is ready with threats and hysteria to do just that, and he has a willing army of true believers who back him up every step of the way.
What were they so afraid of anyway? Why not show us what was in those tapes? Because it embarrassed the Democrats and their obedient press who, for years now, have defamed and smeared Jacob Chansley as the face of the “White supremacist armed insurrection” to overthrow the US government and install the second Confederacy.
That was a lie.
Almost everything they said happened at the Capitol that day didn’t happen the way they said it did. We’ve never gotten the full story. We got their narrative, the one that was useful to them, the one they believe would stop Trump and MAGA or at least give them permission to wage war against their own citizens.
The footage, according to Carlson, is mostly uneventful. But showing Chansley walking calmly through the hallways with two police officers by his side paints a very different picture than the one they’ve been selling.
I already knew that their version of Chansley, like their version of Trump, was wrong. I knew because I had listened to an interview with him from prison last year. I knew if I said anything I would be in real trouble so I filed away in the place I keep things I know will matter one day.”
“Chansley is a vegan, the kind of guy you’d see at Burning Man because it was the cool place to be. Like most Trump supporters, he hovers on the fringes of our society, at the opposite end of the spectrum of the do-gooders and eggheads that dominate our culture now.
If you know anything about Q’anon — I mean the real Q’anon and not the media version, you know they’re mostly yoga-oriented granola crunchers who, like so many of us on the Left from the old days, grew up not trusting the government. I felt bad for Chansley because he, like so many of them, had no advocates in government, in civil rights law, or in the press.
But rather than look into it, or demand answers from the powerful, the media did what they always do – they covered for the Democrats.
Oh, how the machine whirred to life to do damage control.
They have to side with the official story or they will be severely punished on Twitter. It might not seem like a big deal but your entire reputation, your status – all of it could go up in smoke in minutes if you dared contradict the party line, which is all over Twitter long before the headlines roll out. It’s the job of every citizen on the Left to go along with it. Anyone who doesn’t will be given the boot — out of our utopia, you must go.”
“Wowsers. What a difference a cold, dark, expensive winter makes.”
HUGE!
Chancellor Hunt unveiling Great British Nuclear during his spring budget statement now: Officially announcing funding of Sizewell C, classification of #nuclear as green in the UK, targeting 25% nuclear for the UK Grid & a new SMR competition w/ gvmt funding! #uranium
“In the culmination of an effort and advocacy begun by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, U.K. chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced yesterday that nuclear energy was being reclassified as “environmentally sustainable” in Britain. That’s not just semantics, It opens nuclear up to all the financing, incentives and opportunities available to any of the so-called Green/renewable energy strategies they’ve been pursuing for the past decade or so. It’s basically the government’s official blessing to go forth and try to multiply.
Nuclear power is to be classed as “environmentally sustainable” in the UK’s green taxonomy, giving it access to the same investment incentives as renewable energy, chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in his spring budget 2023 speech on Wednesday (15 March).
Hunt also said the government would launch the first competition for small modular reactors. It will be completed by the end of this year and if demonstrated as viable “we will co-fund this exciting new technology”.
He announced the launch of Great British Nuclear, a government-backed agency which will he said will bring down costs and provide opportunities across the nuclear supply chain to help provide up to 25% of the country’s electricity by 2050, up from around 15% today.
If their sentiments are any indication, the Sunak government would like nuclear reactors to multiply as quickly and safely as possible, and are all in on facilitating that end.”
Dirty Biden and his crime syndicate have been busy.
Specifically, on March 1, 2017 – less than two months after VP Joe Biden left public office – Robinson Walker, LLC received a $3 million wire from State Energy HK Limited, a Chinese company.
Ultimately, the American people deserve transparency into the extent of the Biden family’s influence peddling.
We intend to deliver legislation that will preclude family members from capitalizing on their relatives’ public office as we suspect the Bidens to have done.
Ranking Member Jamie Raskin “mischaracterized” the Walker transactions as “Papa John’s”&“coffee at Starbucks” but omitted that Robinson Walker, LLC, got $3 million from a Chinese company in March 2017, <2 months after VP Joe Biden left office, then xferred > $1M to Biden accounts
@GOPoversight says the Biden family members paid from Walker’s account are: o Hallie Biden $35,000 in 2017; o James Brian Biden Sr. (James Biden); o Robert Hunter Biden (Hunter Biden); and o A bank account identified as an unknown “Biden.”
@JudiciaryGOP is investigating: (1) why the Chinese energy company waited less than two months after VP Biden left office to send $3M wire; (2) why Walker’s account got the Chinese payment instead of Biden family members’ companies; (3) why Biden payments were structured…
@GOPoversight is “concerned about the national security implications of a President’s or VP’s immediate family members receiving millions of dollars from foreign nationals or companies without any oversight. Current financial disclosure laws” are inadequate.
The quintessential template for a David French take.
A brief throat-clearing section with some centrist sentiments to draw the reader in before getting to the part he really wants to say: right bad. pic.twitter.com/xqPYqNtuBu
As always, David – you only leave yourself room to address bad faith on the right, as though bad faith on the left on wokeness is either nonexistent or not important enough for you. This isn’t what being a straight shooter is about. https://t.co/T88Uzlz7QR
Just when you think David couldn’t stoop any lower, he grabs the shovel and starts digging. David will do anything to continue to lay prostrate in front of the left all for a few dollars and pats on the head. https://t.co/UGOa42GSQf
AJ – There probably were some Antifa folks at the Capitol on Jan. 6, just as there are right-leaning folks mixed in with marches or gatherings of people on the left. Both sides want to see what is going on with the other side, and some may even be looking to stir up some trouble.
Having said that, may I suggest that you check into your sources and videos more carefully before sharing? HRW was correct that the video you shared yesterday as “proof” of Antifa being there showed green leaves on the trees in January, which indicates that the video is not what is was purported to be. Brief clips that seem to prove something we want to believe can so easily be something taken out of context or completely misinterpreted.
The one from a few days ago turned out to be comedians getting ready to do a comedy bit among the crowd, not Antifa guys getting ready to infiltrate the crowd.
It is discouraging that some people on the right are just as likely to deceptively edit videos as are some on the left. We have to be so careful.
Sadly, we even have to be careful about sharing things from fellow Christians. I have seen Facebook posts by conservatives and even a “Christian minister” making false and disgusting allegations against some Democrats that were easy to prove false just by doing a tiny amount of digging. (But people on both sides want to believe the worst about people on the other side.)
(I said “a tiny amount of digging”, but one time, there was a story purporting to show a group of Muslims harassing a couple Christian ministers. It turned out that the truth was the opposite, and the video had been deceptively edited. In that case, the first several pieces that came up on Google were from Christian or conservative sites that merely shared what the original piece had said. Further down the Google page, there was an article with the full video and explanation, from a Christian source.
As I once said to a friend who frequently shared false stories – because they fed into his bias – if we don’t have time to carefully check it out, we don’t have time to share it.)
Maybe Never Trumper christians can show working folks some love by voting for Trump, or even better, DeSantis (if they hate Trump, they’re probably hating on DeSantis too). ;–)
I will say French has surprised me. I never agreed with him politically because he’s a war hawk, which I believe to be truly evil. But I didn’t take him for a political ‘grifter’ necessarily. I guess I was mistaken. I would say one has an uphill battle refuting that claim now.
It’s possible that he was unsettled by sudden influence. He was plucked out of relative obscurity where he was politically impotent, and placed on a pedestal by Bill Krystal and friends with the suggestions of a presidential run. Having sudden influence is probably hard to handle. And he has not handled it well apparently. I hope he doesn’t do more damage to himself or others. And that’s the best I can say for him.
Ben Sasse has done better I think or rather I hope. He had the good sense to leave politics. I read his book years ago (forget the title) and I thought he had solid ideas about family and education. He’s well placed as a university administrator….that’s if he has really left politics behind.
Kathaleena, I had not heard of Waltz. Perhaps the only thing worse than an evil government is one that is evil and competent at the same time. I have thought that it is a blessing that the current administration is incompetent. If they were actually competent to implement their ideas we would all still be stuck at home waiting for permission to go to church, school, grocery, etc.
The revelations about the Biden family aren’t too surprising. I’m sure corruption is bipartisan. It’s concerning how easy it is for foreign companies to funnel money into US politicians. Instead of focusing on one politician for political gain, a more general inquiry is needed. However, the Republicans have ceased committee hearings on Trump – including who was at Mar-a-lago when top secret information was there and which foriegn dignataries and businessmen patronized the Trump Hotel when he was president.
I do wonder if the Republicans push too hard, the law firms and lobbyists who act as middlemen will start dropping information on other members of congress. Now that will be interesting.
As for the Biden investigation, the Trump era taught people to be cynical about politicians. Very few people will change their vote on the basis of a committee hearing.
Sasha Stone’s article is funny – “I know peope are lying because I used to lie” not quite the proof they think it is. And then to cite Carlson and Fox News as telling the truth. So believe Carlson’s edited version because ….?? They forget to mention Carlson is known to lie for ratings and Fox News admits in court that their shows are not news but entertainment. Democrats and others don’t need to destroy FOX/Carlson; they’ve pretty much done themselves in. And the Dominion lawsuit just keeps giving.
Then the claim the media covered for the Democrats about Jan 6th makes no sense. The court system is slowly going through the evidence and the media reports on it. Is the American judiciary system prone to mistakes and bias – clearly if you look at the number of African Americans imprisoned falsely or with longer sentences than whites. It’s more accurate to say FOX and friends are covering for Trump, Republicans and the people who rioted.
Praying for Trump (and all our political leaders and may-be leaders is always appropriate and called for; voting is strictly a matter of individual conscience and I cannot go there.
“a cold expensive winter”? Although natural gas prices were high in Europe, they managed because it was actually quite mild. And electricity production has nothing to do with heating homes. Heat in Europo is mostly natural gas (similar to here) unless you are in an Eastern European home/apartment which didn’t update and still relies on coal.
There has been a change of thought (including myself) about nuclear power over the last decade. First the plants are far better than in the 60s and 70s. Second, we’ve started to look at the full impact of energy generation from source to use. So we look at mining for rare metals, hydro-electric dams, etc. Nuclear power still has problems – radiation storage, heavy water, etc but when you factor everything needed to produce electricity, it’s no worse environmentally than wind.
As for New Jersey natural gas – leftist aren’t to blame. It’s a private corporation on the stock market – thus operating according to quarterly reports, with the profit motive front and center. Infrastructure will decline and will be costly as maintenance is delayed. Apparently, LNG refineries in Texas had maintenance problems and this affected the US price. As well, the Ukraine war led to international price increases which a for-profit company will take advantage of. Meanwhile in a highly regulated environment with leftist far more present, natural gas is cheaper.
Kizzie is right – there’s edited videos for every political viewpoint – some are very well done. However, green leaves on trees is amateur hour. Were there people in DC to stir up trouble and implicate Trump supporters; probably but so far none have been arrested nor outed (there’s one who has been unfairly persecuted though – he is (was?) a Trump supporter). During the BLM protests and riots, similar things happened – store windows were deliberately broken by agitators. In fact, this was encouraged by Proud Boys and other groups. Frequently, accusations about the actions of the “opposition” are a group just projecting what they themeselves do.
HRW, The media has been willingly complicit in the unmistakable rise in fascism in the US. I don’t see any doubt that media has covered for Democrats and other authoritarians (including the bi-partisan war ‘cartel’) in almost every way: invalid impeachments, covid, vaccines, mandates, months of violent riots leading up to the 2020 elections, billions of dollars of destruction, Antifa (the loosely organized militant arm of the fascists in DC), and J6 itself. The J6 hearings promoted faithfully by the MSM were little more than an extenuated attempt to make a 2024 Trump presidency unlikely to happen. But I agree, they will have little impact on the next election. And hopefully, DeSantis will be on the ballot instead of Trump.
And I also hope that the hundreds of non-violent offenders who are being prosecuted will be able to use some of the video evidence Tucker is making available. The government should have released this information to the public long ago.
HRW, you mentioned Citizens United yesterday or the day before in connection with fundraising by our Republican front-runners. I expect they are staying within the legal boundaries. However, I do agree that CU was wrongly decided, although at the time it was considered a conservative ‘win’. We now have no real means of campaign finance reform. Also, if I’m remembering correctly, the issue was decided uncharacteristically broadly— even to the point that bribery is now almost legalized. Conservatives may have cause to regret it if that same principle is extended to the Biden ‘family business’. :–/
I’m sorry, DJ. I was really just messin’ around with you a little bit about voting for Trump. I know you cannot. You are correct: voting is strictly a matter of conscience, and you can’t force your conscience. When we violate our conscience to vote or in any other way, we damage the conscience, and that can have long-lasting personal consequences.
The prayers require love and can be even more valuable than the vote. Thanks for the reminder.
I really am not that picky, either. I likely could cast a vote for most any other Republican who winds up leading the ticket in ’24.
None are ever perfect, and I don’t expect that. Nor are they ever a “perfect fit” for me (or many others). But we have 2 choices and voting is very important.
Trump, to me, was an outlier with a “temperament” issue that just put a stop on my going there. We also don’t cast votes for people when we think they might not be in the nation’s best interest, that’s a fair assessment to come to in the voting booth. None of us has 20-20 when it comes to how good a president might be (or not).
It’s trial by fire for them once elected, with all kinds of unpredictable moving pieces. I wouldn’t want the job!
AJ, didn’t you take me to task maybe 2 months ago for mentioning Trump, insisting that everyone (but me!) had “moved on” from Trump, he was not a factor going into ’24?
For quite some time Christians have held to what was known as a “just war” theory — as a way to avoid both the extremes of pacifism and being to quick to join in entanglements that are better left to others.
My parents were of the WWII generation, though, so I often heard cautions about the tendency the US has, in different periods, toward isolationism. It didn’t serve us or the world well in that horrific conflict in which so many suffered under tyrants run amok. It took an attack on our shores to get us to move.
That said, we’ve also been engaged more recently in wars that, in retrospect, we should have taken a pass on. But that’s 20-20 vision again, of course.
It’s the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War. Some have said this was the start of the modern post truth era. It did undermine the credibility of the US and by extension the West. Now when Putin makes claims about Ukrainian, we give him equal credence as we would Zelensky or Biden. It’s a mistake. We can still assess his credibility with resorting to some false equivilancy.
I mention the above because I’m sure you know I’m not a war hawk and oppose almost any US intervention world wide, but supporting Ukraine does not make someone a war hawk. Sometimes support is the correct action and this is one of the rare times it is.
I don’t believe the rhetorical nonsense that the Ukrainians are stopping Putin so we (the West) don’t have too. Putin has little interest in anything beyond the Carpathians/Vistuala/Baltic line. In his authoritarian world view, the liberal democracies are morally corrupt and would corrupt the pure slavic world. However, the issue can be framed as authoritarian vs liberal democracies (in all its forms). Ukraine may be a flawed democracy (the US is also considered a flawed democracy) but Zelensky’s attempts to join the EU and more integration westward, heavily supported by the populace, points to the trajectory of Ukraine. A trajectory Putin fears – Russians consider Ukrianians to be Russian and if one Russian state can function as a liberal democracy, why not the real Russia?
I favor the Nordic model, I have friends who favor the Rhine model and I’m sure most here prefer the Anglo-American model, but all three are on the same side even though we debate and argue through the democratic process. Thus, support for Ukraine is not a war hawk position but a liberal democratic position. ( I’m sure you realize “liberal democracy” is not the same as American liberal)
For those interested in horse-race predictions, friend of mine, journalist, political watcher, leans right (big fan of DeSantis) and now is quite amenable to Trump though he withheld voting for him in the past as well, forecasts this as far as who will be running in ’24:
~ My guess? Probably a 60% chance it’ll be Trump/Biden, 30% chance Biden/DeSantis, 5% chance Trump/someone else, 5% chance DeSantis/someone else. ~
Debra – I find Americans have their own unique definition of fascism. The conflate communism and fascism together since both involved heavy state intervention. Given they developed both Fascism and Communism, Europeans have a more nuanced view of the left-right divide. Theoretically, fascism was developed by socially conservative Catholics responding to the secular threat of liberal democracy. It’s no accident that fascism had its greatest appeal in Catholic areas of Europe. Communism is a radical extension of modern liberal democracies. In practise, they may look similar but they are not.
Fascism came to power via alliances with right wing conservatives, social conservatives and the military. The individual was suppressed in favor of their station in life and their groups (trade, church, culture, ethnicity). These corporate groups then met and worked together to promote the nation and leader. It’s essentially a modernized version of medieval social political structures. A softer modern approach is called corporatism, which allows the elites to control the economy while paying lip service to various groups. Communism sees this as the feudal order hanging on in the face of modern liberalism. For them fascism has to be destroyed first and then liberal democracies. The Nordic model has mostly eliminated the appeal of Communism.
In the US today, the Republican alliance with Trump and his supporters is similar. The Republicans see/saw Trump as a useful figure. The Republican party has used social conservatives in a similar manner in the last decades. From the 1970s and accelerated in the 80s, there has been an alliance of economic elites and social groups. That’s the path to fascism. It’s not obvious when you live in it.
As for the Democratic party – its a typical liberal democracy party, mostly centrists with the occasional outreach to left leaning people to motivate them to the polls. Antifa is short for Anti-Fascists. Most of those who identify as antifa are left wing anarchists. Antifa is also exaggerated by the right. In many cases, the man in black with the baclavas are undercover police. No left wing anarachists looks like someone who spends hours in the gym and has a brush cut.
The attempt by political parties to use fear as a motivator is mostly due to the Anglo-American model of the first past the post election. Instead of voting for a Republican/Democratic candidate based on fear of the other, the Europeans system of proportional representation allows you to vote by your conscience. A modified version has some electoral districts but uses members at large to ensure parties are represented by voting percentage.
I’m lucky – I get to vote in one of the most left wing districts in North America. And its “old school labour” not “champaign socialism”. A recent by-election elected a social democrat by about 55% while the liberals received 20% and the conservatives 15% and the Greens 8%.
If the US had proportional representation, each group could have their own party and then work in Congress to pass legislation. Instead of Republicans you could have libertarians, social conservatives and right of centre. The Democrats could break similarly. And then you could emerge from the voting booth with a clear conscience.
I have a pretty good record in the last two-three years of predicting US elections. Primaries though are just weird and have weird state by state rules, so predictions are difficult.
I will say I don’t want Biden to run. I do think he’s in amazing shape for his age but sometimes it’s time to pass the torch. The boomer refusal to retire is weird. The GenX in me has no problem letting the millennials take over. I’m not sure who the Democrats should run instead though. Klobuchar is probably the safest bet. From the left, I’m sure Sanders and Warren will fight the good fight. AOC and Mayor Pete are the millennial challengers but Mayor Pete is probably done.
The Repubican race between DeSantis and Trump probably doesn’t matter much. Even Biden could beat both although it will be really close with DeSantis. Klobuchar would probably win – but there’s no polling on that race. Harris would lose. DeSantis and Trump may destroy each other before a general election though. Now if Haley or Pence were the candidate, all bets are off.
HRW, although you are not a war hawk, we disagree greatly on the Ukraine issue. First of all, I have no desire to see NATO (or EU for that matter) expanded to include any other nation, and particularly not Ukraine. From a national view, I don’t see Ukraine as our friend. They can’t even get along with their closest neighbor, who also comprises one of, if not the largest ethnic groups within Ukraine itself: Russian. Why would I think they are of value as a friendly nation to my country thousands of miles away? Generally speaking, I am not of the mindset that we should be spreading democracy for the sake of democracy anywhere. And that includes Ukraine.
I think you’re probably right in saying “Putin has little interest in anything beyond the Carpathians/Vistuala/Baltic line. “ I also don’t see any evidence that he’s trying to revive the old Soviet Union. “In his [Putin’s] authoritarian world view, the liberal democracies are morally corrupt…..” Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
The US helped Ukraine overthrow it’s duly elected president, encouraged their unelected officials to lead the country to join NATO, and turned a blind eye to rising neo-nazi ideology and thugs who were used to accomplish the overthrow. That’s history. History is yesterday’s news. Ancient history is news from a decade ago. No one cares. And so it goes on.
NATO – keep the Germans down, the Americans in, and the Russians out. NATO is a giant umbrella that forces the liberal democracies to get along so expansion is usually a good thing. However, NATO will never expand to include territorial disputes which is why Ukriane would never have been admitted into NATO. (a negotiated peace may change things)
I agree with you on the Maidenhead – I viewed this as American interference allied with neo-Nazi elements (grandchildren of Bandera) but since 2014 Ukraine has moved on and Zelensky is definteley not a neo Nazi Banderisa.
I’ve argued with my Polish/Ukrainian friends since the 90s that Ukraine should give up the Donbass and Crimea to avoid disputes and Russian influence. Without these two regions, a westward orientation would have been far easier.
However, at this point in time, it’s authoritarianism vs liberal democracy. Isolationism is not the answer. Ukraine wants to move to the 2014 borders and Russia won’t give up the “land bridge”. Both positions are unreasonable but liberal democracy needs to assert itself.
Success in Ukraine encourages the CIA and our corrupt leaders to continue destabilization elsewhere. When an orchestrated coup works in one place, why not try it in another. And now it looks like it’s happening again. This time in Georgia.
HRW, I have reasons for not trusting Ukraine besides their notorious corruption. It is not lost on me that President Trump’s first impeachment was precipitated by our questionable relationship with Ukraine, and that a Ukrainian dual citizen, Alexander Vindman, leaked information in order to cause it. Perhaps some in the government have an unspoken deal with leaders in Ukrainian: we help you with your coup and you help us with ours.
Ukraine has probably been used to launder questionable money for some of our political elites. Certainly Biden’s hands appear to be dirty in that regard, and I doubt he’s the only one. That would explain why so many in DC are singing in unison about funding the war there.
And then there are the Ukrainian biolabs whose existence and continued funding were confirmed by Victoria Nuland in a Senate hearing last year. Who knows what is being cooked up in these Soviet era labs that have been under US control for decades. This is not a small thing given the extreme loss of life and freedom we’ve experienced in the last 3 years.
I’m not an isolationist by any means, but with all of these unanswered questions (and more) I think it’s better judgment to just say no to any participation in the war between Russia and Ukraine. It’s a regional matter and best handled as such. But it is the US that seems determined to turn it into WWIII. Don’t encourage us in this endeavor. Please.
Good on them! May the Lord bless them for taking a stand
Wyoming becomes first U.S. state to outlaw abortion pills
The law would take effect on July 1 and would make it illegal to “prescribe, dispense, distribute, sell or use any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion.”
Wandering Views 
Dirty, corrupt, and compromised.
The fourth “unnamed” criminal is Joe Biden, but the DoJ refuses to name him.
LikeLiked by 2 people
They were once again projecting their crime onto others, and the feds played along.
“Feds’ Foreign-Corruption Double Standard: They Protected Bidens Even as They Bore Down on Trumpworld”
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/authors/paul_sperry/
“At the same time that Department of Justice officials were using spying and corruption statutes to aggressively pursue Donald Trump’s allies based on what turned out to be rumor and innuendo, they declined to use those same laws to investigate evidence of wrongdoing involving Biden family members and one of their corrupt Chinese business partners, DOJ documents and federal court records reveal.
In 2016-2017, the evidence shows, the FBI raided the offices and intercepted the communications of Chi Ping “Patrick” Ho, a Chinese national suspected of espionage even as he was negotiating business deals with former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and brother James.
DOJ later used information obtained from the searches and wiretaps – which included conversations with the current President’s son and brother – to convict Ho of bribery and money laundering, as part of a separate corruption case involving United Nations officials. But it declined to tap into its trove of evidence – including “over 100,000 emails” – to explore the connections between Ho and the Bidens, who received millions of dollars from Ho and a Chinese intelligence front and discussed sharing office space.
At Ho’s 2018 trial, prosecutors hid Hunter’s connection to Ho, redacting his name from court exhibits (see sidebar) while describing Ho as “the person who flies around the world paying bribes to advance the interest of the oil company [CEFC China Energy],” according to hearing transcripts.
A federal database shows the Bidens failed to register as foreign agents while engaged in activities on behalf of CEFC, a state-owned entity suspected of being a front for Chinese intelligence. Federal anti-spying laws require anyone acting as a lobbyist for a foreign power to register with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
The DOJ did not prosecute either Biden family member for potential violations of FARA for representing the interests of the Chinese. ”
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“The Biden Justice Department Stands Accused of Hiding This Evidence of Biden-China Corruption”
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/03/15/the_biden_justice_department_stands_accused_of_hiding_this_evidence_of_biden-china_corruption_887223.html
“The Justice Department is not disclosing to the public or Congress links between President Biden’s son Hunter and brother James and a corrupt Chinese government agent who doled out millions of dollars in bribes. It has scrubbed the connections from court documents and is suggesting it doesn’t have evidence clearly in its possession.
In addition, the department appears to be trying to silence another disreputable partner from coming forward to tell what he knows about the Bidens’ Chinese connection.
In 2016, FBI counterespionage agents began collecting voluminous evidence against Chinese national Chi Ping “Patrick” Ho, who was suspected of paying off officials and their families around the world in exchange for oil rights for a China-based energy conglomerate he represented that has ties to Chinese military intelligence.
From emails, text messages, phone calls, bank records, and other evidence gathered from wiretaps and searches of Ho’s offices in D.C. and New York, investigators discovered that Hunter Biden and his uncle James were targets of Ho and CEFC China Energy, which had struck up a business partnership with the Bidens. The deal, sealed in 2017, netted the Bidens almost $6 million for unspecified work, at least $1 million of which was paid directly by Ho. “
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“How I Knew The Democrats and The Media Were Lying About January 6th
Because I used to do it too.”
https://sashastone.substack.com/p/how-i-knew-the-democrats-and-the#details
“Utopias by their nature have only two options if they’re to survive. They must lean into totalitarianism or collapse. We’re now at the moment when the Democrats, with complete control of the legacy media, nearly all major institutions of power — including those run by the government — are slowly adopting totalitarian practices to shut out speech they don’t like.
What they want is more power to preserve their utopian vision for a new America. But there are powerful dissidents in this country who continue to stand in their way, like Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk, Matt Taibbi, and Michael Shellenberger. What are the utopians to do?
Well, for starters, they’d like to find a good reason to shut down Carlson and destroy Fox News. That will keep their utopia alive for a little longer, stave off collapse, and allow them to eradicate even more dissent. Dissent is dangerous. Dissent is a threat to Democracy.
In just two short weeks we’ve seen Senator Chuck Schumer bark at Fox News and Rupert Murdoch demanding they silence and censor their top-rated cable news host. We’ve seen a panel of Democratic members of Congress beclown themselves in one of the most embarrassing spectacles in the history of the party.
The Congressional hearing on the Twitter Files made it abundantly clear that Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger weren’t the targets. Elon Musk was the target. They couldn’t give the Twitter Files any oxygen lest they help Musk succeed in his ongoing pursuit to help free the truth from their desire to keep it locked away.
Carlson is the one who has them really nervous. Surely there must be a way they can shut him up permanently. Schumer is ready with threats and hysteria to do just that, and he has a willing army of true believers who back him up every step of the way.
What were they so afraid of anyway? Why not show us what was in those tapes? Because it embarrassed the Democrats and their obedient press who, for years now, have defamed and smeared Jacob Chansley as the face of the “White supremacist armed insurrection” to overthrow the US government and install the second Confederacy.
That was a lie.
Almost everything they said happened at the Capitol that day didn’t happen the way they said it did. We’ve never gotten the full story. We got their narrative, the one that was useful to them, the one they believe would stop Trump and MAGA or at least give them permission to wage war against their own citizens.
The footage, according to Carlson, is mostly uneventful. But showing Chansley walking calmly through the hallways with two police officers by his side paints a very different picture than the one they’ve been selling.
I already knew that their version of Chansley, like their version of Trump, was wrong. I knew because I had listened to an interview with him from prison last year. I knew if I said anything I would be in real trouble so I filed away in the place I keep things I know will matter one day.”
“Chansley is a vegan, the kind of guy you’d see at Burning Man because it was the cool place to be. Like most Trump supporters, he hovers on the fringes of our society, at the opposite end of the spectrum of the do-gooders and eggheads that dominate our culture now.
If you know anything about Q’anon — I mean the real Q’anon and not the media version, you know they’re mostly yoga-oriented granola crunchers who, like so many of us on the Left from the old days, grew up not trusting the government. I felt bad for Chansley because he, like so many of them, had no advocates in government, in civil rights law, or in the press.
But rather than look into it, or demand answers from the powerful, the media did what they always do – they covered for the Democrats.
Oh, how the machine whirred to life to do damage control.
They have to side with the official story or they will be severely punished on Twitter. It might not seem like a big deal but your entire reputation, your status – all of it could go up in smoke in minutes if you dared contradict the party line, which is all over Twitter long before the headlines roll out. It’s the job of every citizen on the Left to go along with it. Anyone who doesn’t will be given the boot — out of our utopia, you must go.”
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Suffer the winter with heating shortages, and it looks like a little reality has set in.
“U.K. says it’s glow time, declares nuclear “environmentally sustainable”
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2023/03/16/u-k-says-its-glow-time-declares-nuclear-environmentally-sustainable-n537304
“Wowsers. What a difference a cold, dark, expensive winter makes.”
“In the culmination of an effort and advocacy begun by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, U.K. chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced yesterday that nuclear energy was being reclassified as “environmentally sustainable” in Britain. That’s not just semantics, It opens nuclear up to all the financing, incentives and opportunities available to any of the so-called Green/renewable energy strategies they’ve been pursuing for the past decade or so. It’s basically the government’s official blessing to go forth and try to multiply.
Nuclear power is to be classed as “environmentally sustainable” in the UK’s green taxonomy, giving it access to the same investment incentives as renewable energy, chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in his spring budget 2023 speech on Wednesday (15 March).
Hunt also said the government would launch the first competition for small modular reactors. It will be completed by the end of this year and if demonstrated as viable “we will co-fund this exciting new technology”.
He announced the launch of Great British Nuclear, a government-backed agency which will he said will bring down costs and provide opportunities across the nuclear supply chain to help provide up to 25% of the country’s electricity by 2050, up from around 15% today.
If their sentiments are any indication, the Sunak government would like nuclear reactors to multiply as quickly and safely as possible, and are all in on facilitating that end.”
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Dirty Biden and his crime syndicate have been busy.
——-
Here’s the whole thing.
Click to access Bank-Records-Memo-3.16.23.pdf
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Dirty.
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Seriously?
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Grifters grift, right Frenchie?
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https://www.americanexperiment.org/these-guys-why-walz-loses-in-a-head-to-head-with-desantis/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=DeSantis+beats+Walz+on+every+level&utm_campaign=Friday+Newsletter+3%2F17
Waltz being president is a scary thought.
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We were discussing how we are commanded to love our enemies at our home group last night.
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AJ – There probably were some Antifa folks at the Capitol on Jan. 6, just as there are right-leaning folks mixed in with marches or gatherings of people on the left. Both sides want to see what is going on with the other side, and some may even be looking to stir up some trouble.
Having said that, may I suggest that you check into your sources and videos more carefully before sharing? HRW was correct that the video you shared yesterday as “proof” of Antifa being there showed green leaves on the trees in January, which indicates that the video is not what is was purported to be. Brief clips that seem to prove something we want to believe can so easily be something taken out of context or completely misinterpreted.
The one from a few days ago turned out to be comedians getting ready to do a comedy bit among the crowd, not Antifa guys getting ready to infiltrate the crowd.
It is discouraging that some people on the right are just as likely to deceptively edit videos as are some on the left. We have to be so careful.
Sadly, we even have to be careful about sharing things from fellow Christians. I have seen Facebook posts by conservatives and even a “Christian minister” making false and disgusting allegations against some Democrats that were easy to prove false just by doing a tiny amount of digging. (But people on both sides want to believe the worst about people on the other side.)
(I said “a tiny amount of digging”, but one time, there was a story purporting to show a group of Muslims harassing a couple Christian ministers. It turned out that the truth was the opposite, and the video had been deceptively edited. In that case, the first several pieces that came up on Google were from Christian or conservative sites that merely shared what the original piece had said. Further down the Google page, there was an article with the full video and explanation, from a Christian source.
As I once said to a friend who frequently shared false stories – because they fed into his bias – if we don’t have time to carefully check it out, we don’t have time to share it.)
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Maybe Never Trumper christians can show working folks some love by voting for Trump, or even better, DeSantis (if they hate Trump, they’re probably hating on DeSantis too). ;–)
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I will say French has surprised me. I never agreed with him politically because he’s a war hawk, which I believe to be truly evil. But I didn’t take him for a political ‘grifter’ necessarily. I guess I was mistaken. I would say one has an uphill battle refuting that claim now.
It’s possible that he was unsettled by sudden influence. He was plucked out of relative obscurity where he was politically impotent, and placed on a pedestal by Bill Krystal and friends with the suggestions of a presidential run. Having sudden influence is probably hard to handle. And he has not handled it well apparently. I hope he doesn’t do more damage to himself or others. And that’s the best I can say for him.
Ben Sasse has done better I think or rather I hope. He had the good sense to leave politics. I read his book years ago (forget the title) and I thought he had solid ideas about family and education. He’s well placed as a university administrator….that’s if he has really left politics behind.
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Kathaleena, I had not heard of Waltz. Perhaps the only thing worse than an evil government is one that is evil and competent at the same time. I have thought that it is a blessing that the current administration is incompetent. If they were actually competent to implement their ideas we would all still be stuck at home waiting for permission to go to church, school, grocery, etc.
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The revelations about the Biden family aren’t too surprising. I’m sure corruption is bipartisan. It’s concerning how easy it is for foreign companies to funnel money into US politicians. Instead of focusing on one politician for political gain, a more general inquiry is needed. However, the Republicans have ceased committee hearings on Trump – including who was at Mar-a-lago when top secret information was there and which foriegn dignataries and businessmen patronized the Trump Hotel when he was president.
I do wonder if the Republicans push too hard, the law firms and lobbyists who act as middlemen will start dropping information on other members of congress. Now that will be interesting.
As for the Biden investigation, the Trump era taught people to be cynical about politicians. Very few people will change their vote on the basis of a committee hearing.
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Sasha Stone’s article is funny – “I know peope are lying because I used to lie” not quite the proof they think it is. And then to cite Carlson and Fox News as telling the truth. So believe Carlson’s edited version because ….?? They forget to mention Carlson is known to lie for ratings and Fox News admits in court that their shows are not news but entertainment. Democrats and others don’t need to destroy FOX/Carlson; they’ve pretty much done themselves in. And the Dominion lawsuit just keeps giving.
Then the claim the media covered for the Democrats about Jan 6th makes no sense. The court system is slowly going through the evidence and the media reports on it. Is the American judiciary system prone to mistakes and bias – clearly if you look at the number of African Americans imprisoned falsely or with longer sentences than whites. It’s more accurate to say FOX and friends are covering for Trump, Republicans and the people who rioted.
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Praying for Trump (and all our political leaders and may-be leaders is always appropriate and called for; voting is strictly a matter of individual conscience and I cannot go there.
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Social media is a minefield when it comes to determining truth.
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“a cold expensive winter”? Although natural gas prices were high in Europe, they managed because it was actually quite mild. And electricity production has nothing to do with heating homes. Heat in Europo is mostly natural gas (similar to here) unless you are in an Eastern European home/apartment which didn’t update and still relies on coal.
There has been a change of thought (including myself) about nuclear power over the last decade. First the plants are far better than in the 60s and 70s. Second, we’ve started to look at the full impact of energy generation from source to use. So we look at mining for rare metals, hydro-electric dams, etc. Nuclear power still has problems – radiation storage, heavy water, etc but when you factor everything needed to produce electricity, it’s no worse environmentally than wind.
As for New Jersey natural gas – leftist aren’t to blame. It’s a private corporation on the stock market – thus operating according to quarterly reports, with the profit motive front and center. Infrastructure will decline and will be costly as maintenance is delayed. Apparently, LNG refineries in Texas had maintenance problems and this affected the US price. As well, the Ukraine war led to international price increases which a for-profit company will take advantage of. Meanwhile in a highly regulated environment with leftist far more present, natural gas is cheaper.
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Who’s a better hack? Carlson or French?
Kizzie is right – there’s edited videos for every political viewpoint – some are very well done. However, green leaves on trees is amateur hour. Were there people in DC to stir up trouble and implicate Trump supporters; probably but so far none have been arrested nor outed (there’s one who has been unfairly persecuted though – he is (was?) a Trump supporter). During the BLM protests and riots, similar things happened – store windows were deliberately broken by agitators. In fact, this was encouraged by Proud Boys and other groups. Frequently, accusations about the actions of the “opposition” are a group just projecting what they themeselves do.
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HRW, The media has been willingly complicit in the unmistakable rise in fascism in the US. I don’t see any doubt that media has covered for Democrats and other authoritarians (including the bi-partisan war ‘cartel’) in almost every way: invalid impeachments, covid, vaccines, mandates, months of violent riots leading up to the 2020 elections, billions of dollars of destruction, Antifa (the loosely organized militant arm of the fascists in DC), and J6 itself. The J6 hearings promoted faithfully by the MSM were little more than an extenuated attempt to make a 2024 Trump presidency unlikely to happen. But I agree, they will have little impact on the next election. And hopefully, DeSantis will be on the ballot instead of Trump.
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And I also hope that the hundreds of non-violent offenders who are being prosecuted will be able to use some of the video evidence Tucker is making available. The government should have released this information to the public long ago.
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HRW, you mentioned Citizens United yesterday or the day before in connection with fundraising by our Republican front-runners. I expect they are staying within the legal boundaries. However, I do agree that CU was wrongly decided, although at the time it was considered a conservative ‘win’. We now have no real means of campaign finance reform. Also, if I’m remembering correctly, the issue was decided uncharacteristically broadly— even to the point that bribery is now almost legalized. Conservatives may have cause to regret it if that same principle is extended to the Biden ‘family business’. :–/
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I’m sorry, DJ. I was really just messin’ around with you a little bit about voting for Trump. I know you cannot. You are correct: voting is strictly a matter of conscience, and you can’t force your conscience. When we violate our conscience to vote or in any other way, we damage the conscience, and that can have long-lasting personal consequences.
The prayers require love and can be even more valuable than the vote. Thanks for the reminder.
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Debra 🙂
I really am not that picky, either. I likely could cast a vote for most any other Republican who winds up leading the ticket in ’24.
None are ever perfect, and I don’t expect that. Nor are they ever a “perfect fit” for me (or many others). But we have 2 choices and voting is very important.
Trump, to me, was an outlier with a “temperament” issue that just put a stop on my going there. We also don’t cast votes for people when we think they might not be in the nation’s best interest, that’s a fair assessment to come to in the voting booth. None of us has 20-20 when it comes to how good a president might be (or not).
It’s trial by fire for them once elected, with all kinds of unpredictable moving pieces. I wouldn’t want the job!
AJ, didn’t you take me to task maybe 2 months ago for mentioning Trump, insisting that everyone (but me!) had “moved on” from Trump, he was not a factor going into ’24?
Guess that prediction wasn’t quite on target.
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I may be wrong — I often am — but I still lean toward thinking Biden won’t be running for re-election.
I wouldn’t put any money on that one, though lol
My record at election predictions is kind of in the tank recently.
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On war.
For quite some time Christians have held to what was known as a “just war” theory — as a way to avoid both the extremes of pacifism and being to quick to join in entanglements that are better left to others.
My parents were of the WWII generation, though, so I often heard cautions about the tendency the US has, in different periods, toward isolationism. It didn’t serve us or the world well in that horrific conflict in which so many suffered under tyrants run amok. It took an attack on our shores to get us to move.
That said, we’ve also been engaged more recently in wars that, in retrospect, we should have taken a pass on. But that’s 20-20 vision again, of course.
Not easy decisions, ever.
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Debra
It’s the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War. Some have said this was the start of the modern post truth era. It did undermine the credibility of the US and by extension the West. Now when Putin makes claims about Ukrainian, we give him equal credence as we would Zelensky or Biden. It’s a mistake. We can still assess his credibility with resorting to some false equivilancy.
I mention the above because I’m sure you know I’m not a war hawk and oppose almost any US intervention world wide, but supporting Ukraine does not make someone a war hawk. Sometimes support is the correct action and this is one of the rare times it is.
I don’t believe the rhetorical nonsense that the Ukrainians are stopping Putin so we (the West) don’t have too. Putin has little interest in anything beyond the Carpathians/Vistuala/Baltic line. In his authoritarian world view, the liberal democracies are morally corrupt and would corrupt the pure slavic world. However, the issue can be framed as authoritarian vs liberal democracies (in all its forms). Ukraine may be a flawed democracy (the US is also considered a flawed democracy) but Zelensky’s attempts to join the EU and more integration westward, heavily supported by the populace, points to the trajectory of Ukraine. A trajectory Putin fears – Russians consider Ukrianians to be Russian and if one Russian state can function as a liberal democracy, why not the real Russia?
I favor the Nordic model, I have friends who favor the Rhine model and I’m sure most here prefer the Anglo-American model, but all three are on the same side even though we debate and argue through the democratic process. Thus, support for Ukraine is not a war hawk position but a liberal democratic position. ( I’m sure you realize “liberal democracy” is not the same as American liberal)
Note: I forgot to post this at 215
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For those interested in horse-race predictions, friend of mine, journalist, political watcher, leans right (big fan of DeSantis) and now is quite amenable to Trump though he withheld voting for him in the past as well, forecasts this as far as who will be running in ’24:
~ My guess? Probably a 60% chance it’ll be Trump/Biden, 30% chance Biden/DeSantis, 5% chance Trump/someone else, 5% chance DeSantis/someone else. ~
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Debra – I find Americans have their own unique definition of fascism. The conflate communism and fascism together since both involved heavy state intervention. Given they developed both Fascism and Communism, Europeans have a more nuanced view of the left-right divide. Theoretically, fascism was developed by socially conservative Catholics responding to the secular threat of liberal democracy. It’s no accident that fascism had its greatest appeal in Catholic areas of Europe. Communism is a radical extension of modern liberal democracies. In practise, they may look similar but they are not.
Fascism came to power via alliances with right wing conservatives, social conservatives and the military. The individual was suppressed in favor of their station in life and their groups (trade, church, culture, ethnicity). These corporate groups then met and worked together to promote the nation and leader. It’s essentially a modernized version of medieval social political structures. A softer modern approach is called corporatism, which allows the elites to control the economy while paying lip service to various groups. Communism sees this as the feudal order hanging on in the face of modern liberalism. For them fascism has to be destroyed first and then liberal democracies. The Nordic model has mostly eliminated the appeal of Communism.
In the US today, the Republican alliance with Trump and his supporters is similar. The Republicans see/saw Trump as a useful figure. The Republican party has used social conservatives in a similar manner in the last decades. From the 1970s and accelerated in the 80s, there has been an alliance of economic elites and social groups. That’s the path to fascism. It’s not obvious when you live in it.
As for the Democratic party – its a typical liberal democracy party, mostly centrists with the occasional outreach to left leaning people to motivate them to the polls. Antifa is short for Anti-Fascists. Most of those who identify as antifa are left wing anarchists. Antifa is also exaggerated by the right. In many cases, the man in black with the baclavas are undercover police. No left wing anarachists looks like someone who spends hours in the gym and has a brush cut.
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The attempt by political parties to use fear as a motivator is mostly due to the Anglo-American model of the first past the post election. Instead of voting for a Republican/Democratic candidate based on fear of the other, the Europeans system of proportional representation allows you to vote by your conscience. A modified version has some electoral districts but uses members at large to ensure parties are represented by voting percentage.
I’m lucky – I get to vote in one of the most left wing districts in North America. And its “old school labour” not “champaign socialism”. A recent by-election elected a social democrat by about 55% while the liberals received 20% and the conservatives 15% and the Greens 8%.
If the US had proportional representation, each group could have their own party and then work in Congress to pass legislation. Instead of Republicans you could have libertarians, social conservatives and right of centre. The Democrats could break similarly. And then you could emerge from the voting booth with a clear conscience.
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I have a pretty good record in the last two-three years of predicting US elections. Primaries though are just weird and have weird state by state rules, so predictions are difficult.
I will say I don’t want Biden to run. I do think he’s in amazing shape for his age but sometimes it’s time to pass the torch. The boomer refusal to retire is weird. The GenX in me has no problem letting the millennials take over. I’m not sure who the Democrats should run instead though. Klobuchar is probably the safest bet. From the left, I’m sure Sanders and Warren will fight the good fight. AOC and Mayor Pete are the millennial challengers but Mayor Pete is probably done.
The Repubican race between DeSantis and Trump probably doesn’t matter much. Even Biden could beat both although it will be really close with DeSantis. Klobuchar would probably win – but there’s no polling on that race. Harris would lose. DeSantis and Trump may destroy each other before a general election though. Now if Haley or Pence were the candidate, all bets are off.
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Interesting
https://www.ft.com/content/f44e81e6-3401-4e06-94e6-a24a952d6a40?segmentID=dc0a9f57-51f8-2c48-3cb3-4b42eb8c679c
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@4:29, HRW, good refresher post. The distinctions have become blurred over time.
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HRW, although you are not a war hawk, we disagree greatly on the Ukraine issue. First of all, I have no desire to see NATO (or EU for that matter) expanded to include any other nation, and particularly not Ukraine. From a national view, I don’t see Ukraine as our friend. They can’t even get along with their closest neighbor, who also comprises one of, if not the largest ethnic groups within Ukraine itself: Russian. Why would I think they are of value as a friendly nation to my country thousands of miles away? Generally speaking, I am not of the mindset that we should be spreading democracy for the sake of democracy anywhere. And that includes Ukraine.
I think you’re probably right in saying “Putin has little interest in anything beyond the Carpathians/Vistuala/Baltic line. “ I also don’t see any evidence that he’s trying to revive the old Soviet Union. “In his [Putin’s] authoritarian world view, the liberal democracies are morally corrupt…..” Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
The US helped Ukraine overthrow it’s duly elected president, encouraged their unelected officials to lead the country to join NATO, and turned a blind eye to rising neo-nazi ideology and thugs who were used to accomplish the overthrow. That’s history. History is yesterday’s news. Ancient history is news from a decade ago. No one cares. And so it goes on.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/30/russia-ukraine-war-kiev-conflict
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NATO – keep the Germans down, the Americans in, and the Russians out. NATO is a giant umbrella that forces the liberal democracies to get along so expansion is usually a good thing. However, NATO will never expand to include territorial disputes which is why Ukriane would never have been admitted into NATO. (a negotiated peace may change things)
I agree with you on the Maidenhead – I viewed this as American interference allied with neo-Nazi elements (grandchildren of Bandera) but since 2014 Ukraine has moved on and Zelensky is definteley not a neo Nazi Banderisa.
I’ve argued with my Polish/Ukrainian friends since the 90s that Ukraine should give up the Donbass and Crimea to avoid disputes and Russian influence. Without these two regions, a westward orientation would have been far easier.
However, at this point in time, it’s authoritarianism vs liberal democracy. Isolationism is not the answer. Ukraine wants to move to the 2014 borders and Russia won’t give up the “land bridge”. Both positions are unreasonable but liberal democracy needs to assert itself.
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Success in Ukraine encourages the CIA and our corrupt leaders to continue destabilization elsewhere. When an orchestrated coup works in one place, why not try it in another. And now it looks like it’s happening again. This time in Georgia.
https://www.barrons.com/news/georgians-rally-even-as-parliament-scraps-foreign-agent-bill-7f49a8b2
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HRW, I have reasons for not trusting Ukraine besides their notorious corruption. It is not lost on me that President Trump’s first impeachment was precipitated by our questionable relationship with Ukraine, and that a Ukrainian dual citizen, Alexander Vindman, leaked information in order to cause it. Perhaps some in the government have an unspoken deal with leaders in Ukrainian: we help you with your coup and you help us with ours.
Ukraine has probably been used to launder questionable money for some of our political elites. Certainly Biden’s hands appear to be dirty in that regard, and I doubt he’s the only one. That would explain why so many in DC are singing in unison about funding the war there.
And then there are the Ukrainian biolabs whose existence and continued funding were confirmed by Victoria Nuland in a Senate hearing last year. Who knows what is being cooked up in these Soviet era labs that have been under US control for decades. This is not a small thing given the extreme loss of life and freedom we’ve experienced in the last 3 years.
I’m not an isolationist by any means, but with all of these unanswered questions (and more) I think it’s better judgment to just say no to any participation in the war between Russia and Ukraine. It’s a regional matter and best handled as such. But it is the US that seems determined to turn it into WWIII. Don’t encourage us in this endeavor. Please.
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Good on them! May the Lord bless them for taking a stand
Wyoming becomes first U.S. state to outlaw abortion pills
The law would take effect on July 1 and would make it illegal to “prescribe, dispense, distribute, sell or use any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion.”
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