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Journalism, can it get worse?
The president gave an outstanding press availability today. He flipped the middle finger to the Washington press corp and the entrenched dinosaurs in the permanent bureaucracy. He basically said, bring it on. Watch here.
WT editorial:
“…Joe Biden just couldn’t quit Ukraine. When he served as vice president, Mr. Biden travelled more than once to Ukraine to strongarm the Slavic country into ousting its top prosecutor, one Victor Shoki. On his December 2015 visit to Kyiv and a subsequent March 2016 journey to the country, Mr. Biden brought with him what is commonly referred to as “leverage.” The Obama administration threatened to withhold aid from the country, unless they canned Mr. Shoki. A lot of aid, too: Some $1 billion in loan guarantees. That was a serious threat to war-torn Ukraine, which can at times barely keep its own lights on.
Why did the vice president want Mr. Shoki gone? Corruption, the story goes. Mr. Shoki was a notoriously venal figure, and that’s why it wasn’t only the Obama administration that wanted him out — the European Union, International Monetary Fund and other international bodies pined for his dismissal as well.
They were probably onto something. Ukraine is indeed a notoriously corrupt country. According to Transparency International, the NGO that tracks such things, Ukraine ranks 120 out of 180 countries worldwide on the perception of public corruption. It rates somewhere in the neighborhood of the Dominican Republic, Djibouti and Kazakhstan. Pakistan, Turkey, Panama are less corrupt than Ukraine, says Transparency International. (Placid Denmark is deemed the world’s least corrupt country, by the way.)
And indeed, the appointment of Hunter Biden, the vice president’s son, to a plum, $50,000-a month directorship at a Ukrainian natural gas company, while the senior Biden was still vice president, points to a country where corruption is the norm. And also, unfortunately, where competence and expertise aren’t: Prior to his appointment, Hunter Biden had exactly zero experience in the energy industry.
Was there something untoward in Hunter Biden’s appointment and the vice president’s subsequent pushing for Victor Shoki’s ouster? “No!,” the mainstream media and their Democratic allies cry. The Bidens have been “exonerated,” they say. It’s an answer that satisfies only if one doesn’t look too closely at who precisely did the exonerating…”
Peter Van Buren:
“…After three years of trying to keep Trump from assuming office, then cycling through ways to throw him out, this plops onto the field. If an impeachment vote comes, it will literally be with Trump having only a few months left in his term. This is no longer about overturning 2016; it is about circumventing 2020, fear by the Democrats of what will happen if they let the deplorables vote again. Is the Dem slate that weak? They are acting as if they have nothing to lose by trying impeachment…
…Pity Nancy Pelosi, who tried to hold back her colleagues. Now instead of answering the needs of constituents, Democrats will instead exploit their majority in the House to hold hearings that will likely lead to a show vote that would have embarrassed Stalin. History will remember Pelosi as the mom who, after putting up with the kids’ tantrums for hours, finally gave in only a few blocks from home…
…The last thing Joe Biden needed was more baggage. It’ll take awhile for him to realize it, but he’s done, doomed by kompromat never actually found. Impeachment will so dominate the media that no one will listen to whatever the other primary Dems have to say. Kamala Harris in the midst of all this was so desperate for attention she was still trying to drum up support for impeaching Brett Kavanaugh. Elizabeth Warren will emerge as the nominee. Goodbye then to all the minor Dems, see you in 2024, perhaps running against Mike Pence after Trump’s second term.
The case is weak, though with their House majority, that might not stop the Dems from impeaching a president just months ahead of an election based on a partisan interpretation of a few words to a minor world leader. Impeachment didn’t even come up in the last Democratic debate, yet heading into the early caucuses, the faces of the party will be Adam Schiff and the agita-driven Hillary. Democrats are taking that road instead of talking about jobs, health care, immigration, or any of the other issues voters do care about…”
Because “non-African Americans think African-Americans all look the same.”
You can’t make this up!
The president was correct yesterday when he described Congressman Schiff as a liar and a fraud.
STEPHEN KRUISER:
“…The press remains eternally indignant about the fact that Trump refuses to just shut up and go away already…
President Trump’s approval ticked up to 49 percent — its highest mark this year, according to a new Hill-HarrisX survey released on Wednesday.
The figure marks a 2-point increase from a Sept. 11-12 poll, but a 2-point decrease from its previous peak of 51 percent last August.
Trump’s disapproval rating, meanwhile, dropped to 51 percent, which marks his lowest level so far this year.
The nationwide survey was conducted on Sept. 28 and 29, less than a week after House Democrats launched a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump over concerns raised in a whistleblower’s complaint about the president’s communications with Ukraine.
Body blow!