The Ukraine scandal: the Swamp makes another try

One does get very tired of watching the Washington DC "Swamp" at work, along with its mainstream media allies.  In this case, the alleged "scandal" over President Trump "pressuring" Ukraine to investigate former Vice-President Biden's son for corruption, the storyline being peddled by the mainstream media and the Democratic Party consistently ignores any and all facts that might derail it, if their "investigation" were in any way impartial.

Consider these facts, all confirmed and verified from original sources.


1.  Biden does, indeed, face accusations of a conflict of interest for his behavior towards Ukraine during his Vice-Presidency.  He's openly and blatantly admitted them on television - there is no doubt whatsoever about his actions.  The New York Times reporter who broke the story back in May has added that "potentially damaging details have yet to be reported".


2.  The initial approach over the Ukraine affair came from Ukraine, via the US State Department, to Rudi Giuliani, who met with Ukrainian officials in response to their request.  It was not an overture by President Trump to a foreign country, to put pressure on it - it was a response to that country's overture.


3.  President Trump apparently did not try to link his request for an investigation to US foreign aid or loan guarantees, as former Vice-President Biden has openly stated he did back in 2016.  Ukraine has stated this openly.  Even the anti-Trump Washington Post has acknowledged this, despite its later attempts to link other, seemingly non-related issues to the scandal.


4.  The "whistleblower" who allegedly started this whole brouhaha turns out to have no first-hand knowledge of the conversation between President Trump and Ukraine.  He only has third-hand, hearsay "evidence" - which is no evidence at all, in terms of the requirements of a court of law.  In fact, such "evidence" - or the lack thereof - does not appear to be sufficient grounds to constitute a "whistleblower" complaint or submission, in terms of applicable legislation.  This is apparently why (at least so far) the Trump administration has resisted submitting the complaint to Congress.


5.  Apparently irritated that none of the mud they're flinging seems to be making a difference, some mainstream media outlets are now trying to characterize President Trump's response as being, in itself, a problem.  Consider this headline in the Washington Post, reproduced on MSN:  "Trump’s Ukraine call reveals a president convinced of his own invincibility".  Really?  Was there no more substantive complaint left to make?  And the article is itself filled with inaccuracies, not to say outright lies.  Go figure.


6.  I'll let Jim Kunstler summarize what he thinks is going on (I largely agree with him).

The swamp abides. The latest news media dumpster fire over President Trump’s phone conversation with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is a three-way ruse. Ruse 1: deflect attention from the main issue, which is Joe Biden’s trolling for payoffs on his missions to foreign lands as vice-president, first Ukraine, where son Hunter was gifted a board of director’s chair and $50K-a-month salary with Ukrainian gas company Burisma, and then a $1.5 billion “private equity investment” to Hunter Biden’s wealth management fund from the state-owned Bank of China. Ruse 2: to deflect attention from the damage soon to be inflicted on the Deep State by the forthcoming DOJ Inspector General’s report on FISA court abuses. Ruse 3: To set in motion yet another obstruction of justice trap for Mr. Trump on the basis of false charges.

. . .

The coordination between the news media and the Deep State is impressively blatant in this new gambit, with former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe (dismissed for cause in 2018), in his new position as a CNN “contributor” (while awaiting prosecution) teeing up a new “Trump collusion” narrative with The New York Times, WashPost, and NBC marching in step. In this new age of disinformation, narratives are the political weapon of choice in the campaign to harass and disable the winner of the 2016 election. The big play of RussiaGate failed, the play of “racism” is failing, so UkraineGate is next up.

It’s also obviously an effort to reenergize the impeachment operation in congress, badly botched so far by Jerold Nadler’s House Judiciary Committee.

. . .

Something or somebody will have to put a stop to these seditious turpitudes. The machinery of the law must be turned on the “resistance” and its operatives in the Deep State.

I note that the Democratic Party is facing renewed calls to impeach President Trump over the Ukraine affair.  Its allies in the mainstream media are already making the case for it.  I think that might be a very double-edged sword indeed.  If what President Trump did rises to the level of an impeachable offense (which, frankly, I doubt on the basis of the evidence currently available in the public domain), then what Vice-President Biden did in 2016, and to which he's openly admitted, is doubly so.  Double impeachment, anybody?

Peter