I must respectfully object to Editor Jim Cullen’s editorial “Rule of Law Overrules Lies” in terms of its take on the Bidens and Ukraine. I do not believe that it was a false claim that Joe Biden stopped a potential prosecution of his son Hunter. You can view the video of Joe Biden bragging at a January 2018 Council on Foreign Relations event that he had previously threatened a billion-dollar loan guarantee if the prosecutor was not fired. Biden openly said “If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.”
I have contempt for President Trump’s administration on most issues. But it is contrary to fact to excuse Biden for his pressure on the government of Ukraine. Most importantly, the president of Ukraine was overthrown in a 2014 coup. This was under the Obama Administration with John Kerry being Secretary of State.
Besides the illegal invasions and occupations that our nation has done over the decades, including Vietnam and Iraq, the numerous coups against democratically elected governments are among the worst of what our country’s foreign policy has delivered. The interests of corporations have trumped any interest in self-determination on multiple continents.
John Perkin’s “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” detailed some of what our country has done south of the border. Bolivia, Ecuador, and Brazil are some of the recent acts of covert action. Venezuela survived a recent coup attempt. In 2009, the legitimate government of Honduras was overthrown. Never can democracy be allowed to stand against corporate interests.
Laurence Shoup’s “Wall Street’s Think Tank: The Council on Foreign Relations and The Empire of Neoliberal Geopolitics, 1976 – 2014” sums up what that organization is all about. The successful plan was to control the leadership of both major parties to achieve rule by the wealthy at home and abroad. Hence Joe Biden’s presence on their stage is indicative of the role he plays.
Do not be fooled into defending the ill deeds of the Bidens, recipients of the spoils of empire, out of righteous contempt for Trump. Regarding the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which were mentioned by our editor as US allies in favor of the ouster of the Ukrainian prosecutor, since when should progressives be in favor of the IMF? Just ask the people of Greece how well it worked out with the European Union bankers.
Corruption and support of the elites over the people should not be excused on either side of the duopoly aisle. Corporate interests support both sides, with notable, largely Democratic, exceptions.
BERNARD DALSEY, Whitewater, WI
The Editor Replies: Reuters, a relatively neutral observer, noted (Oct. 18) that Rudolph Giuliani alleged, without providing evidence, that Joe Biden pushed for the firing of Ukraine’s top prosecutor to end an investigation into Burisma Holdings Inc. and its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, in order to protect Biden’s son. (Trump also has made reckless and unsupported claims about the Bidens.)
Reuters reporters interviewed more than a dozen people, including executives and former prosecutors in Ukraine, who described Hunter Biden, a lawyer with business and investment experience, as a director who provided advice on legal issues, corporate finance and strategy during a five-year term on the board, which ended in April of this year.
They reported that Biden’s presence on the board didn’t protect the company from its most serious challenge: a series of criminal investigations launched by Ukrainian authorities against Zlochevsky, a multimillionaire, concerning tax violations, money-laundering and licenses given to Burisma during the period where Zlochevsky was a minister of ecology and natural resources, before a 2014 coup toppled the government of then-President Viktor Yanukovich. It was after the coup, when Burisma was trying to clean up its image, that Biden and others joined the board.
Joe Biden has denied any wrongdoing, saying he was sent to Ukraine to call for the removal of then-chief prosecutor Viktor Shokin in 2016 because of his ineffectiveness in tackling corruption in Ukraine, a widespread problem that both the US and the European Union had long criticized.
The Bidens might not be innocent, but there is no evidence they did anything illegal, or even unethical, certainly not by Trump White House standards. Don’t believe anything Giuliani or Trump says about them.
I saw Trump’s TV ad — can’t call it a campaign ad, though his voice-over “approves of this ad.” He wants his followers to see the impeachment proceedings as “Democrats wanting to undo the last election.” Well, no. That’s not it. The Constitution gives our elected Congress the duty of oversight of the presidency. This one we have now, elected with or without (?) foreign interference, is a shambles. President can’t talk. Can’t clearly remember what he’s said one minute to the next. Thinks Colorado is next to Mexico. (Grandkids should give him a puzzle map-of-the-United-States for Christmas this year). Doesn’t know if he communicated with Ukraine’s president via “perfect” phone call or “perfect” letter. In either case, he committed an impeachable offense.Throws away/fires his appointees who try to keep the mess he makes as little mess as possible.Thinks that when he sends our troops to protect the Syrian oil lands, it is now our oil and he’ll decide “what to do with it later.” It’s not about the past election. It’s about the present/recent law-breaking of an ignorant, rules-flouting president.
When Trump coaxes his followers to see the Democrats as having evil motivation, I think of a wildly out-of-her-mind wife in divorce proceedings, poisoning her children (since she has them under her influence) against the father, telling all sorts of lies about him. Children believe the mother-figure, alas. Alas for the Trump followers who think he’s doing something about a metaphorical swamp, when good government of the people, by the people, for the people is an Eden to be cherished.
LYNN RUDMIN CHONG, Sanbornton, N.H.
Heather “Digby” Parton misses the point in her otherwise excellent article analyzing the on-again, off-again respect and condemnation of our secretive security state [“Mike Pompeo and Bill Barr’s Attack on Their Own Government is Nothing New for Republicans,” 12/1/19 TPP] by claiming that the current iteration of CIA/FBI bashing by Trump’s sycophants is to stroke Trump’s ego: a way too simplistic analysis, which conveys far too much agency to Trump’s stature. Instead, they work diligently to protect Trump as a facilitating agent of the ruling class. Nothing else matters.
That the most powerful ruling class in the history of the world would hitch its fortunes to a buffoonish charlatan only to serve his narcissistic interests is preposterous. He serves them. As soon as that relationship ceases to serve their interests, he’ll be scuttled like so much bilge water.
Don’t expect an impeachment conviction to succeed until that occurs.
ROBERT McALLISTER, Lantana, Fla.Many thanks to Wayne O’Leary [in “The Bernie Blackout,” 12/15/19 TPP] for his comprehensive listing of the many instances of the media “blacking out” coverage of candidate Bernie Sanders in the 2020 primary, as well as O’Leary’s convincing counterpoints to various sleights in reportage regarding Sanders’ age and health. At a time when the press is being heralded as a bulwark against distortions emanating from the White House, it’s a bit of a reminder that the corporatist media does have its agendas.
If Sanders, as a consistent runner in the top tier of Democratic contenders, was being regularly spotlighted by the mainstream media for his tireless stamina in barnstorming the country with creative solutions for the nation’s major travails, I would actually need to scratch my head and consider another candidate.
As Ted Rall pointed out in a recent column, a by-product of the 24/7 Democratic push for impeachment is in its creating what he termed a manufactured drag on the momentum of Elizabeth Warren’s progressive push, for one.
But wall-to-wall impeachment has also effectively negated any sense or notion of the entirety of the primaries themselves at this point, and especially their thus far leftward-leaning drift. In the midst of the impeachment swirl, legitimate as it may be, the corporate Dem. establishment seems frozen in fright of their dominating progressive front runners, as if they’d like to black out the imminent arrival of Election 2020 itself.
MIKE WETTSTEIN Jr., Appleton, Wis.
President Trump has gone back to the Christian Evangelical Organization, at which place he got his start and his initial support. You have to wonder why do they support President Trump — this man has been married thrice and had an affair while he was married [Editor’s Note: He has had affairs during each of his marriages]. In his public statements he makes up stories (lies) and God knows he has the habit of “short-changing” his contractors.
Some of his base believe that the US is a Christian nation (like Saudi Arabia is a Muslim nation) and Mr. Trump goes along, agreeing with them. The other day Mr. Franklin Graham, an Evangelical, was all set to rally other Evangelicals to support the embattled and under-fire Mr. Trump. Mr. Graham said the other day, “a lot over nothing,” as if the whole process of impeachment trial was a waste of time.
G.M. CHANDU, Flushing, N.Y.
Re: “Chile and 9/11 (1973),” by John Buell [12/1/19 TPP]
“[Y]ou will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) is a passage in the Gospels cherished by Christians.
Well, the truth is that soon after the first white man pressed his foot upon the “New World,” hordes of his kind began to compile a catalog of crimes from genocide to enlarging their empire by force of arms, and by replacing other countries’ legitimate governments with their own dictators. (The list of all their outrages is long.)
Americans must face the truth: Future generations must not live under the myth that we are only virtuous. The truth must set us free.
Among the many holidays that commemorate our notable heroes and our great deeds, why not set aside another one as “The Day of Atonement” in which we, as a nation, ask forgiveness to all those we have wronged?
Such an act of contrition, I’m sure, would elevate our stature in the world’s eyes.
DAVID QUINTERO, Monrovia, Calif.
From The Progressive Populist, January 1-15, 2020
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