Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, December 8, 2015


Late start this afternoon...

Let's start with a Joe Biden related story, shall we?

Head on over to the Comments Section and read the newsbites for yourselves!

Ho! Ho! 

 
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5 comments:

William R. Barker said...

* THREE-PARTER... (Part 1 of 3)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/world/europe/corruption-ukraine-joe-biden-son-hunter-biden-ties.html

When Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. traveled to Kiev, Ukraine, on Sunday for a series of meetings with the country’s leaders, one of the issues on his agenda was to encourage a more aggressive fight against Ukraine’s rampant corruption and stronger efforts to rein in the power of its oligarchs.

* COULD JOE POSSIBLY MEAN OUR "ALLY'S" CORRUPT LEADERS? (UKRAINE IS THE "GOOD" GUY AND RUSSIA IS THE "BAD" GUY ACCORDING TO THE OBAMA-BIDEN ADMINISTRATION - RIGHT?)

But the credibility of the vice president’s anti-corruption message may have been undermined by the association of his son, Hunter Biden, with one of Ukraine’s largest natural gas companies, Burisma Holdings, and with its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, who was Ukraine’s ecology minister under former President Viktor F. Yanukovych before he was forced into exile.

(*SNORT*)

Hunter Biden, 45, a former Washington lobbyist...

(*SMIRK*)

...joined the Burisma board in April 2014.

* AND HIS QUALIFICATIONS WERE...???

That month, as part of an investigation into money laundering, British officials froze London bank accounts containing $23 million that allegedly belonged to Mr. Zlochevsky.

* HOW'BOUT THE BANK ACCOUNTS OF YOUNG MR. BIDEN?

(*SMIRK*)

Britain’s Serious Fraud Office, an independent government agency, specifically forbade Mr. Zlochevksy, as well as Burisma Holdings, the company’s chief legal officer and another company owned by Mr. Zlochevsky, to have any access to the accounts.

But after Ukrainian prosecutors refused to provide documents needed in the investigation, a British court in January ordered the Serious Fraud Office to unfreeze the assets. The refusal by the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office to cooperate was the target of a stinging attack by the American ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey R. Pyatt, who called out Burisma’s owner by name in a speech in September.

* HMM... I DON'T SEE A BRIGHT FUTURE FOR MR. PYATT WITHIN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY...

“In the case of former Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky, the U.K. authorities had seized $23 million in illicit assets that belonged to the Ukrainian people,” Mr. Pyatt said. Officials at the prosecutor general’s office, he added, were asked by the United Kingdom “to send documents supporting the seizure. Instead they sent letters to Zlochevsky’s attorneys attesting that there was no case against him. As a result, the money was freed by the U.K. court, and shortly thereafter the money was moved to Cyprus.”

* I WONDER WHAT THE DEAL WITH THE U.K. COURT IS?

Mr. Pyatt went on to call for an investigation into “the misconduct” of the prosecutors who wrote the letters. In his speech, the ambassador did not mention Hunter Biden’s connection to Burisma.

* NAH... I WOULDN'T GUESS HE WOULD...

(*GUFFAW*)

But Edward C. Chow, who follows Ukrainian policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the involvement of the vice president’s son with Mr. Zlochevsky’s firm undermined the Obama administration’s anti-corruption message in Ukraine.

* YA THINK...?!?!

“Now you look at the Hunter Biden situation, and on the one hand you can credit the father for sending the anti-corruption message,” Mr. Chow said. “But I think unfortunately it sends the message that a lot of foreign countries want to believe about America, that we are hypocritical about these issues.”

* THE DEMOCRATS... JOE BIDEN... BARACK OBAMA... HYPOCRITICAL? I'M SHOCKED! SHOCKED, I TELL YOU!

(*SNORT*)

* TO BE CONTINUED...

December 8, 2015 at 4:34 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 3)

Kate Bedingfield, a spokeswoman for Vice President Biden, said Hunter Biden’s business dealings had no impact on his father’s policy positions in connection with Ukraine.

“Hunter Biden is a private citizen and a lawyer,” she said. “The vice president does not endorse any particular company and has no involvement with this company. The vice president has pushed aggressively for years, both publicly with groups like the U.S.-Ukraine Business Forum and privately in meetings with Ukrainian leaders, for Ukraine to make every effort to investigate and prosecute corruption in accordance with the rule of law. It will once again be a key focus during his trip this week.”

Ryan F. Toohey, a Burisma spokesman, said that Hunter Biden would not comment for this article.

It is not known how Mr. Biden came to the attention of the company.

(*BURSTING OUT IN UNCONTROLLABLE LAUGHTER*)
Announcing his appointment to the board, Alan Apter, a former Morgan Stanley investment banker who is chairman of Burisma, said, “The company’s strategy is aimed at the strongest concentration of professional staff and the introduction of best corporate practices, and we’re delighted that Mr. Biden is joining us to help us achieve these goals.”

Joining the board at the same time was one of Mr. Biden’s American business partners, Devon Archer. Both are involved with Rosemont Seneca Partners, an American investment firm with offices in Washington.

Mr. Biden is the younger of the vice president’s two sons. His brother, Beau, died of brain cancer in May. In the past, Hunter Biden attracted an unusual level of scrutiny and even controversy. In 2014, he was discharged from the Navy Reserve after testing positive for cocaine use.

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

He received a commission as an ensign in 2013, and he served as a public affairs officer.

(*SILENCE*)

Before his father was vice president, Mr. Biden also briefly served as president of a hedge fund group, Paradigm Companies, in which he was involved with one of his uncles, James Biden, the vice president’s brother. That deal went sour amid lawsuits in 2007 and 2008 involving the Bidens and an erstwhile business partner.

* AGAIN... SHOCKING... SIMPLY SHOCKING...

(*SMIRK*)

Mr. Biden, a graduate of Georgetown University and Yale Law School, also worked as a lobbyist before his father became vice president.

* YOU MEAN... BEFORE HIS FATHER THE SENATOR... BECAME VICE PRESIDENT?

(*ROLLING MY EYES*)

* GOTTA LUV THE NYT!

* TO BE CONTINUED...

December 8, 2015 at 4:35 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 3 of 3)

Burisma does not disclose the compensation of its board members because it is a privately held company, Mr. Toohey said Monday, but he added that the amount was “not out of the ordinary” for similar corporate board positions.

* UH-HUH...

(*CHUCKLING*)

Asked about the British investigation, which is continuing, Mr. Toohey said, “Not only was the case dismissed and the company vindicated by the outcome, but it speaks volumes that all his legal costs were recouped.”

* I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS "DISMISSAL."

In response to Mr. Pyatt’s criticism of the Ukrainian handling of Mr. Zlochevsky’s case, Mr. Toohey said that “strong corporate governance and transparency are priorities shared both by the United States and the leadership of Burisma. Burisma is working to bring the energy sector into the modern era, which is critical for a free and strong Ukraine.”

Vice President Biden has played a leading role in American policy toward Ukraine as Washington seeks to counter Russian intervention in Eastern Ukraine. This week’s visit was his fifth trip to Ukraine as vice president.

Ms. Bedingfield said Hunter Biden had never traveled to Ukraine with his father. She also said that Ukrainian officials had never mentioned Hunter Biden’s role with Burisma to the vice president during any of his visits.

* ANYONE EVER HEAR OF THE EXPRESSION "IT'S UNDERSTOOD?"

(*LAUGHING*)

“I’ve got to believe that somebody in the vice president’s office has done some due diligence on this,” said Steven Pifer, who was the American ambassador to Ukraine from 1998 to 2000. “I should say that I hope that has happened. I would hope that they have done some kind of check, because I think the vice president has done a very good job of sending the anti-corruption message in Ukraine, and you would hate to see something like this undercut that message.”

* OUR ANTI-CORRUPTION MESSAGE... TO... OUR CORRUPT ALLIES. GOT IT!

December 8, 2015 at 4:36 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/08/politics/amnesty-international-isis-weapons-u-s-/index.html?sr=fbpol120815amnesty-international-isis-weapons-u-s-0848PMStoryLink&linkId=19420022

A new report from a prominent human rights group has found that ISIS has built a substantial arsenal, including U.S.-made weapons obtained from the Iraqi army and Syrian opposition groups.

* AND NO DOUBT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT DIRECTLY...

* FOLKS... PLEASE... DON'T BE NAÏVE; WHAT DO YOU THINK AMBASSADOR STEVENS WAS DOING IN LIBYA?

Amnesty International's 44-page report, released late Monday, found that much of ISIS' equipment and munitions comes from stockpiles captured from the U.S.-allied Iraqi military and Syrian rebels.

* "CAPTURED." UH-HUH. RIGHT...

The Amnesty International report...concluded that it was these local forces that had inadvertently contributed arms to ISIS.

* "INADVERTENTLY" MY ASS!

After analyzing thousands of videos and images taken in Iraq and Syria, Amnesty determined that a large proportion of ISIS' current military arsenal is made up of "weapons and equipment looted, captured or illicitly traded from poorly secured Iraqi military stocks."

* "ILLICITLY TRADED." (GIVE... ME... A... FRIGGIN'... BREAK!) TRADED... SOLD... GIVEN...

(*SHRUG*)

ISIS has also gained access to weapons from other sources through the capture or sale of Syrian military stocks supplied to armed opposition groups in Syria by countries including Turkey, the Gulf States and the U.S., according to the organization.

(*SNORT*)

ISIS has captured large numbers of U.S.- and Russian-made armored vehicles in addition to mortars, anti-tank missiles and surface-to-air missiles from the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

In response to the report, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Roger Cabiness told CNN that the U.S. closely monitors equipment provided to partners in order "to prevent and detect illegal transfers to third parties, in order to protect American technology, and, where relevant, to ensure partner compliance with requirements placed on all recipients of U.S. defense articles."

However, the Pentagon admitted that these monitoring programs don't apply to equipment that is lost on the battlefield.

* "LOST," HUH?

(*SPITTING ON THE GROUND*)

December 8, 2015 at 7:53 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/cbo-taxes-spending-deficit-all-first-2-months-fy2016

The federal government taxed more, spent more, and ran a bigger deficit in the first two months of fiscal 2016 than it did in the first two months of fiscal 2015, according estimates the CBO published yesterday.

The federal fiscal year begins on Oct. 1 and ends on Sept. 30.

* SO... JUST TO CLARIFY... WE'RE TALKING OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER OF THIS YEAR.

“The federal budget deficit was $200 billion for the first two months of fiscal year 2016, the Congressional Budget Office estimates,” said the report. “That deficit was $22 billion larger than the one recorded during the same period last year. Revenues and outlays were both higher than last year’s amounts, by 3% and 6%, respectively.”

* TO REITERATE: OUTLAYS UP 6%...

* AREN'T YOU GLAD WE HAVE A "REPUBLICAN" SENATE... THAT "REPUBLICANS" CONTROL BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS...

(*SPITTING ON THE GROUND*)

As of the close of business on Friday, Dec. 4, the total federal debt was $18,786,830,545,682.60, according to the U.S. Treasury.

The Census Bureau says that there were 117,748,000 households in the United States as of September. Thus, the $18,786,830,545,682.60 in federal debt equals approximately $159,551.16 for each household in the United States.

December 8, 2015 at 10:46 PM

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