The gas tycoon and the vice president’s son: The story of Hunter Biden’s foray into Ukraine

UncleScoopy

Informative, comprehensive, multi-dimensional report by the WaPo

On the one hand, neither Hunter Biden nor Joe did anything wrong.

On the other hand, it’s complicated. Why didn’t Joe make an effort to avoid the appearance of impropriety?

I can’t answer that question, but I have four grown children, and they decide how to spend their own lives, even when their actions might be strongly contrary to what I would or did advise. The key point is this – they ignore my advice based on what they perceive to be best for THEM, so I rarely bother offering it. Backing off is one of the most important things you have to learn to do as your children become adults. In this case, however, I tend to side with Bill Maher, who said Biden should just have told his kid to get a real job. Of course, the son may not have paid any attention, as was his right as an adult, but at least Joe could have made that effort, and he did not.

3 thoughts on “The gas tycoon and the vice president’s son: The story of Hunter Biden’s foray into Ukraine”

    1. The story in The Hill is a case of (1) spin (2) superficial analysis. It is misleading to suggest that there was an open investigation into Burisma. Yes, the investigation was open, and would not officially close until January of 2017, but that was a mere technicality. The case had been abandoned.

      But the mainstream narrative did get one essential fact wrong. Shokin was not dismissed because of the investigations he did pursue, but the ones he didn’t, including Burisma.

      The prosecutor was fired by the Ukrainian Parliament – not because he was investigating Burisma – but because he wasn’t!!!

      “Shokin was not investigating. He didn’t want to investigate Burisma,” Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center told the Washington Post for a July article. “And Shokin was fired not because he wanted to do that investigation, but quite to the contrary, because he failed that investigation.”

      Yes, that’s right. If Joe Biden had actually wanted to help Burisma, he would have asked the Ukraininans to keep Shokin in the job, not to fire him. Firing him meant that his successor might actively pursue a case that was technically still open, but that Shokin had chosen to ignore. (As it turned out, that did not happen. The case was closed by his successor.)

      But again, there are three important points that need to be kept on the front burner:

      (1) That investigation never had anything to do with Hunter Biden, who had nothing to fear, investigation or not. The investigation focused on a transaction made in November of 2013 and some allegations of misdeeds prior to that. Hunter joined the board after that date. Whether that investigation of Burisma was open or not, it never had anything to do with Hunter Biden.

      (2) Biden was not expressing his personal feelings, but was just a messenger expressing the official position of the USA. (Plus the EU and the IMF. Not to mention foreign investors who would not consider putting money in Ukraine while the corrupt Shokin remained in power.)

      (3) Biden absolutely did the right thing. Shokin was corrupt.

  2. This has nothing to do with the the Joe Biden story. It has to do with Uncle Scoopy’s post in another thread:

    “I pretty much agree with that, but potential Democratic voters are definitely split into two camps – those who want to return the USA to some kind of normality and business-as-usual, and those that desire a bold break from America’s past.

    I am in the former camp: ex-Republican who would support Biden just because he’s a normal human being and is running against a monster. I just don’t know which way I would go in a Warren-Trump match-up. I’m ashamed to type that, but it is true, sadly. Warren is obviously a better human being, but she’ll get no support from me until I know EXACTLY what my new tax bill is going to look like. Will I have to pay for everyone’s medical care and education? If she can pay for all of her pie-in-the-sky by her wealth tax, corporate taxes, closing tax loopholes and asking the top 1% to do more, then I’m all in, but if it’s all about fucking the middle class once again, then she can return to her wigwam.”

    I think you need to think about this. I think you need to think about how much damage a re-election of Trump – essentially saying that the majority of the US should support Trump – would do to the future of the United States. I did not know Americans were so poor that they would put their tax bills ahead of that.

    Maybe I am wrong. is there really not much at stake? Scoopy has always been more intelligent, better informed, and just a much clearer thinker than I am. On the other hand. I think that even if far left Democrats sweep Congress, they will know that the surest way to lose Congress and revive the Republican Party would be big tax increases on the majority of voting Americans.

    I don’t know what to think about this. Except that Trump is vile, and should never have been President, and should not be President for four more years. NO ONE who has any chance of being nominated by the Democrats could be as bad as Trump. Are Americans really in such dire straits, financially, that their taxes matter more than that? Then Republican policies really have triumphed.

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