Biden, Ukraine, impeachment and absurdity
75% of all people live in Eurasia (which, with Eastasia, we have always been at war with). Most of the world’s physical wealth is there, in its enterprises and beneath its soil. US global dominance depends on Eurasia (Europe, Russia, the Indian subcontinent, East Asia and the Middle East); thus the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and subsequent military interventions. Ukraine is one of the more important parts to control.
In 2014 the US helped incite a coup in Ukraine in part by exposing corruption (“rule by thieves” – the modern standard), making allegations and calling attentions to miserable living standards.
The Donbas industrial region in east Ukraine is mostly Eastern Orthodox and pro-Russia. 10,000 people there, mostly ethnic Russians, have been slaughtered in the US-encouraged “Anti-Terror Operation” waged by the coup regime against eastern Ukrainians who objected to the violent ouster of President Yanukovych, winner by large majorities in those areas. The Western billionaire owned media point to a Russian invasion much as they claim Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gassed his own people.
Ukraine, the largest country entirely in Europe, has 7 US$ billionaires (the world has 2043, Europe 560, the US 585) and ample natural resources: mineral deposits including cement raw materials, coal, nuclear fuel raw materials, and also lots of hydroelectricity. The population is about 42 million, the 32nd largest in the world, but the economy is about 45th. Ukraine has the second largest military in Europe after Russia, the largest country in the world.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine was reestablished as an independent state (1991); most of its lower peninsula was organized as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, with the city of Sevastopol given special status. Russia continued to base its fleet in Crimea; both the Ukrainian Naval Forces and Russian's Black Sea Fleet were headquartered in Sevastopol. Ukraine extended Russia's lease of the naval facilities under the 2010 Kharkiv Pact in exchange for further discounted natural gas.
In February 2014, after President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted, a Crimean referendum (purportedly unconstitutional under Ukrainian and Crimean constitutions), was held on reunification with Russia, with a 97% vote for integration of the region into the Russian Federation by an 83% voter-turnout. In Sevastopol, Crimea’s port and major city, it was also 97% for integration into Russia, with an 89% turnout. This was declared illegitimate by Western governments and the UN, but Russia formally annexed Crimea on 18 March 2014. 65.3% of the population of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea are ethnic Russians – 200,000 to 400,000 Crimean Tatars were deported by Stalin to Uzbekistan, and following that deportation, large numbers of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians replaced them.
Joe Biden has a problem because three months after the US-backed overthrow of the Yanukovych government Ukraine’s largest private gas firm, Burisma Holdings, appointed his son, Hunter Biden, to its board of directors. Burisma, a shadowy Cyprus-based company, also lined up well-connected lobbyists, some with ties to Secretary of State John Kerry, including Kerry’s former Senate chief of staff David Leiter, according to lobbying disclosures. But a Ukrainian judge says there was no impropriety, and media reports on THAT fail to mention the prevalence of corruption amongst Ukrainian officials.
The President since May 2019, Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, played the role of President of Ukraine in a television political satire comedy series called ‘Servant of the People’. Zelenskyy's first major proposal to change the electoral system was rejected by the Ukrainian parliament, which also refused to approve Zelenskyy’s dismissal of the country's Foreign Minister, Minister of Defense and Head of the Security Bureau of Ukraine (secret service). Zelenskyy is pro-membership of both the EU and NATO, but wants referendums on membership. He regards Russian President Vladimir Putin “as an enemy”.
However, Ukraine has a semi-presidential system in which the roles of the head of state and head of government are separate, and the president of Ukraine is not its head of government. The prime minister is - currently Oleksiy Honcharuk, appointed to the position in August 2019.
From Wiki: “On 7 February 2019, the Ukrainian parliament voted with a majority of 334 out of 385 to change the Ukrainian constitution in order to help Ukraine to join NATO and the European Union. After the vote, Ukrainian president Poroshenko (who’d led Ukraine since the 2014 revolution) declared: “This is the day when the movement of Ukraine to the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance will be consolidated in the Constitution as a foreign political landmark." The law needs to be signed by the president and the parliament chairman before taking effect.”
Also, “In September 2019 it was reported that U.S. President Donald Trump had pressured Zelensky during a July phone call between the two Presidents to investigate alleged wrongdoing by Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who took a board seat on Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings. This report was the catalyst for the Trump–Ukraine scandal and the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump. Zelensky has denied that he was pressured by Trump and declared that "he does not want to interfere in a foreign election."” And, “In a 2014 interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda v Ukraine Zelensky said that he would have liked to pay a visit to Crimea, but would avoid it because "armed people are there".”
Biden’s youngest son, Hunter Biden, was given a seat on the board of Burisma Holdings, Ukraine’s largest private gas producer, at $50,000 a month, despite no experience in the energy business - purportedly to help reduce Ukraine’s dependence on Russia for energy. Burisma leases natural gas fields in Crimea… the situation has raised questions about integrity. Disputes between Ukrainian oil and gas company Naftohaz Ukrayiny and Russian gas supplier Gazprom over natural gas supplies, prices, and debts have become trans-national issues involving political leaders from several countries, and threaten natural gas supplies in European countries dependent on imports from Russia, largely transported through Ukraine. Russia provides about 25% of the natural gas consumed in the EU; 80% of it goes through pipelines across Ukraine. In one instance during 2010 a Stockholm court of arbitration ruled Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas company Naftohaz must return 12.1 billion cubic meters of gas to RosUkrEnergo, a Swiss-based company half-owned by Gazprom. Ukrainian officials stated the return “would not be quick”! In another dispute, in 2014 Naftogaz sued Chornomornaftogaz for delayed debt payments of almost €1 billion, in the Economic Court of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Attempting interference, the US placed sanctions against negotiations between Chornomornaftogaz and Gazprom. Then Naftogaz made a pipeline access deal with Slovakia's Eustream to allow Ukraine to use a 20-year-old but never used pipeline on Slovakia’s eastern border with western Ukraine. Late in 2015 Gazprom halted exports of Russian natural gas to Ukraine, but a settlement of principle was reached at the end of 2019.
Meanwhile Russia continues to cite a betrayal of Russia's deal with NATO reached in 1997 under which the Western alliance would not permanently site significant forces inside the territories of its newer members. With about 64,000 US troops in Europe, ~33,000 in Germany, and recent NATO expansion, Russia has reason for concern.
Clearly proxy agent-provocateurs have become part of 21st Century realpolitik, in Ukraine much as in Syria, parts of Africa, Columbia and further north in Central America. Ukrainian fascists have even gone to the US to train White Supremacist thugs. As they say in Mississippi and Alabama, it’s just cultural heritage and tradition, and so beyond reproach. All this isn’t due to a hidden agenda of the chimerical Deep State (or even to deeply buried slate), but rather to the expenses of empire (the reason Ukraine regained independence and a trillion dollar annual expense to the US), to military/industrial greed, petrochemical addiction and to the needs of a capitalist economy, which must grow or collapse.
From learning these things, I begin to somewhat understand Trump’s strange word choice for an interaction: a “perfect” phone call. He won’t have thought of it this way, but he gave Zelenskyy a Morton’s fork Hobson’s choice, to either rat on the Bidens or lose funding. In l'état c'est moi fashion, Trump saw it as a perfect win-win: undermine his competition or alternately aid Putin. Whatever is good for The Rump is good for all, as preached by the Pentecostal Evangelical Church of the Selfish Jesus (believe ON the name Jesus and He'll give you what you want). Mayhaps the impeachment is, in large part, to exonerate Sleepy Joe. If Democrats went after Trump for everything he's done, many of them might also get charged, if not for emoluments then for insider trading, kickbacks, extortion – who knows? The corruption, especially since “Citizens United”, is pervasive, and using the Constitutional emoluments might backfire. We’re ALL all too aware of blowback from unintended consequences anymore, and profiting from golf trips and diplomats renting at Trump Towers, etc, is small potatoes when considered in light of possibility of Democrats also having their quid pro quos exposed.
That Trump never enforced any sanctions and even lifted many may be relevant; importation of Russian goods (steel) seems to be tariff free and helping to close more American steel plants. Already the US “sphere of influence” is reduced to those weak enough to be bullied – even the Philippines is restricting access to its soil by US politicos. The state department (DEEP State) is a shell of its former self and Russia and China have been able to extend and expand influence. Putin seems not to dictate much policy in Syria and Turkey, and NATO has been weakened to the point where it's almost a joke. So off to a back burner with all of this, while someone, somewhere, plans for something, but about the real threats to human society, well, yawn… and hey, apparently the Bidens have similar problems in China. Where DID Plan B go?
In 2014 the US helped incite a coup in Ukraine in part by exposing corruption (“rule by thieves” – the modern standard), making allegations and calling attentions to miserable living standards.
The Donbas industrial region in east Ukraine is mostly Eastern Orthodox and pro-Russia. 10,000 people there, mostly ethnic Russians, have been slaughtered in the US-encouraged “Anti-Terror Operation” waged by the coup regime against eastern Ukrainians who objected to the violent ouster of President Yanukovych, winner by large majorities in those areas. The Western billionaire owned media point to a Russian invasion much as they claim Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gassed his own people.
Ukraine, the largest country entirely in Europe, has 7 US$ billionaires (the world has 2043, Europe 560, the US 585) and ample natural resources: mineral deposits including cement raw materials, coal, nuclear fuel raw materials, and also lots of hydroelectricity. The population is about 42 million, the 32nd largest in the world, but the economy is about 45th. Ukraine has the second largest military in Europe after Russia, the largest country in the world.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine was reestablished as an independent state (1991); most of its lower peninsula was organized as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, with the city of Sevastopol given special status. Russia continued to base its fleet in Crimea; both the Ukrainian Naval Forces and Russian's Black Sea Fleet were headquartered in Sevastopol. Ukraine extended Russia's lease of the naval facilities under the 2010 Kharkiv Pact in exchange for further discounted natural gas.
In February 2014, after President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted, a Crimean referendum (purportedly unconstitutional under Ukrainian and Crimean constitutions), was held on reunification with Russia, with a 97% vote for integration of the region into the Russian Federation by an 83% voter-turnout. In Sevastopol, Crimea’s port and major city, it was also 97% for integration into Russia, with an 89% turnout. This was declared illegitimate by Western governments and the UN, but Russia formally annexed Crimea on 18 March 2014. 65.3% of the population of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea are ethnic Russians – 200,000 to 400,000 Crimean Tatars were deported by Stalin to Uzbekistan, and following that deportation, large numbers of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians replaced them.
Joe Biden has a problem because three months after the US-backed overthrow of the Yanukovych government Ukraine’s largest private gas firm, Burisma Holdings, appointed his son, Hunter Biden, to its board of directors. Burisma, a shadowy Cyprus-based company, also lined up well-connected lobbyists, some with ties to Secretary of State John Kerry, including Kerry’s former Senate chief of staff David Leiter, according to lobbying disclosures. But a Ukrainian judge says there was no impropriety, and media reports on THAT fail to mention the prevalence of corruption amongst Ukrainian officials.
The President since May 2019, Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, played the role of President of Ukraine in a television political satire comedy series called ‘Servant of the People’. Zelenskyy's first major proposal to change the electoral system was rejected by the Ukrainian parliament, which also refused to approve Zelenskyy’s dismissal of the country's Foreign Minister, Minister of Defense and Head of the Security Bureau of Ukraine (secret service). Zelenskyy is pro-membership of both the EU and NATO, but wants referendums on membership. He regards Russian President Vladimir Putin “as an enemy”.
However, Ukraine has a semi-presidential system in which the roles of the head of state and head of government are separate, and the president of Ukraine is not its head of government. The prime minister is - currently Oleksiy Honcharuk, appointed to the position in August 2019.
From Wiki: “On 7 February 2019, the Ukrainian parliament voted with a majority of 334 out of 385 to change the Ukrainian constitution in order to help Ukraine to join NATO and the European Union. After the vote, Ukrainian president Poroshenko (who’d led Ukraine since the 2014 revolution) declared: “This is the day when the movement of Ukraine to the European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance will be consolidated in the Constitution as a foreign political landmark." The law needs to be signed by the president and the parliament chairman before taking effect.”
Also, “In September 2019 it was reported that U.S. President Donald Trump had pressured Zelensky during a July phone call between the two Presidents to investigate alleged wrongdoing by Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who took a board seat on Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings. This report was the catalyst for the Trump–Ukraine scandal and the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump. Zelensky has denied that he was pressured by Trump and declared that "he does not want to interfere in a foreign election."” And, “In a 2014 interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda v Ukraine Zelensky said that he would have liked to pay a visit to Crimea, but would avoid it because "armed people are there".”
Biden’s youngest son, Hunter Biden, was given a seat on the board of Burisma Holdings, Ukraine’s largest private gas producer, at $50,000 a month, despite no experience in the energy business - purportedly to help reduce Ukraine’s dependence on Russia for energy. Burisma leases natural gas fields in Crimea… the situation has raised questions about integrity. Disputes between Ukrainian oil and gas company Naftohaz Ukrayiny and Russian gas supplier Gazprom over natural gas supplies, prices, and debts have become trans-national issues involving political leaders from several countries, and threaten natural gas supplies in European countries dependent on imports from Russia, largely transported through Ukraine. Russia provides about 25% of the natural gas consumed in the EU; 80% of it goes through pipelines across Ukraine. In one instance during 2010 a Stockholm court of arbitration ruled Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas company Naftohaz must return 12.1 billion cubic meters of gas to RosUkrEnergo, a Swiss-based company half-owned by Gazprom. Ukrainian officials stated the return “would not be quick”! In another dispute, in 2014 Naftogaz sued Chornomornaftogaz for delayed debt payments of almost €1 billion, in the Economic Court of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Attempting interference, the US placed sanctions against negotiations between Chornomornaftogaz and Gazprom. Then Naftogaz made a pipeline access deal with Slovakia's Eustream to allow Ukraine to use a 20-year-old but never used pipeline on Slovakia’s eastern border with western Ukraine. Late in 2015 Gazprom halted exports of Russian natural gas to Ukraine, but a settlement of principle was reached at the end of 2019.
Meanwhile Russia continues to cite a betrayal of Russia's deal with NATO reached in 1997 under which the Western alliance would not permanently site significant forces inside the territories of its newer members. With about 64,000 US troops in Europe, ~33,000 in Germany, and recent NATO expansion, Russia has reason for concern.
Clearly proxy agent-provocateurs have become part of 21st Century realpolitik, in Ukraine much as in Syria, parts of Africa, Columbia and further north in Central America. Ukrainian fascists have even gone to the US to train White Supremacist thugs. As they say in Mississippi and Alabama, it’s just cultural heritage and tradition, and so beyond reproach. All this isn’t due to a hidden agenda of the chimerical Deep State (or even to deeply buried slate), but rather to the expenses of empire (the reason Ukraine regained independence and a trillion dollar annual expense to the US), to military/industrial greed, petrochemical addiction and to the needs of a capitalist economy, which must grow or collapse.
From learning these things, I begin to somewhat understand Trump’s strange word choice for an interaction: a “perfect” phone call. He won’t have thought of it this way, but he gave Zelenskyy a Morton’s fork Hobson’s choice, to either rat on the Bidens or lose funding. In l'état c'est moi fashion, Trump saw it as a perfect win-win: undermine his competition or alternately aid Putin. Whatever is good for The Rump is good for all, as preached by the Pentecostal Evangelical Church of the Selfish Jesus (believe ON the name Jesus and He'll give you what you want). Mayhaps the impeachment is, in large part, to exonerate Sleepy Joe. If Democrats went after Trump for everything he's done, many of them might also get charged, if not for emoluments then for insider trading, kickbacks, extortion – who knows? The corruption, especially since “Citizens United”, is pervasive, and using the Constitutional emoluments might backfire. We’re ALL all too aware of blowback from unintended consequences anymore, and profiting from golf trips and diplomats renting at Trump Towers, etc, is small potatoes when considered in light of possibility of Democrats also having their quid pro quos exposed.
That Trump never enforced any sanctions and even lifted many may be relevant; importation of Russian goods (steel) seems to be tariff free and helping to close more American steel plants. Already the US “sphere of influence” is reduced to those weak enough to be bullied – even the Philippines is restricting access to its soil by US politicos. The state department (DEEP State) is a shell of its former self and Russia and China have been able to extend and expand influence. Putin seems not to dictate much policy in Syria and Turkey, and NATO has been weakened to the point where it's almost a joke. So off to a back burner with all of this, while someone, somewhere, plans for something, but about the real threats to human society, well, yawn… and hey, apparently the Bidens have similar problems in China. Where DID Plan B go?
posted by Mythorelics | 4:44 AM
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