FILE – In this Jan. 30, 2010, file photo, Vice President Joe Biden, left, with his son Hunter, right, at the Duke Georgetown NCAA college basketball game in Washington. Hunter Biden is expressing regret for being discharged from the Navy Reserve amid published reports that he tested positive for cocaine. The Wall Street Journal reports that Hunter Biden failed the drug test last year and was discharged in February. In a statement issued Thursday, Oct. 16, Biden doesn’t say why he was discharged. He says he’s embarrassed that his actions led to his discharge and that he respects the Navy’s decision. The vice president’s office declined to comment.(AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)

The Democrats – including those embedded in the legacy media – will NEVER figure out President Trump. He has them chasing their tails with each tweet and public utterance. There are several reasons for his public statements: forcing focus on a topic of his choice, misdirection, fortifying his base, doubling down when Democrats attack him, etc. Oh, and I think he has fun doing it, too! Take his public requests to China, Ukraine, and other foreign countries to help “investigate the Bidens’ corruption.” The Democrats take everything at face value and almost always miss the point. It’s not about the Bidens per se; they are merely the vehicle by which the larger topic of public corruption among the political class is being addressed.

When POTUS speaks of dealing with corruption, I believe he is taking a much more expansive view of the subject. It should be remembered that he has been speaking about corruption as it relates to foreign aid for a long time. It was a keen topic of interest way back during the transition period, and the moribund US and global foreign policy establishment went apoplectic in pushing back on suggestions that US foreign aid (and funds for the UN) be curtailed due to corruption and ineffectiveness. Here is just one article among many such that pushed back on the notion of foreign aid cuts. And the flagship Foreign Policy Magazine spins it in terms of “saving foreign aid in the age of Trumpian populism”:

[T]he political mood in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other wealthy Western countries has turned against spending on foreign aid. National interests, not global goals, seem the currency of the times. The win-win mindset inherent in U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s invocation that “a rising tide lifts all boats” is today challenged by a Trumpian zero-sum mindset that appeals to America Firsters, Brexiteers, and nationalist, xenophobic, populist parties across Europe.

Read the rest here. That’s really twisting JFK’s famous quote into a pretzel! There is a contrary view that foreign aid supports corrupt regimes, and that US political elites have figured out how to cash in via kickbacks, etc. Hold that thought for a minute.

As is now known, President Trump spoke about dealing with corruption in Ukraine back in May on Fox News. And we also know that AG Barr and Special US Attorney Durham have been making the rounds overseas investigating the origins of the counterintelligence investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign, with Ukraine being the next stop after Italy. Isn’t it just a bit coincidental that this Ukraine “whistleblower” complaint just popped up in advance of their lawful investigative mission to Ukraine?

And yes, it’s ENTIRELY a legal mission, as the US and Ukraine have a mutual legal assistance treaty for just such actions. The treaty is entitled, “Treaty with Ukraine on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters.” It obligates the two countries to collaborate in exchanging information on criminal activities in either country. I like this quote from the letter of transmittal:

Mutual assistance available under the Treaty includes: taking of testimony or statements of persons; providing documents, records, and articles of evidence; serving documents; locating or identifying persons; transferring persons in custody for testimony or other purposes; executing requests for searches and seizures; assisting in proceedings related to restrain confiscation, forfeiture of assets, restitution, and collection of fines; and any other form of assistance not prohibited by the laws of the requested state.

Read the whole treaty here. That sure reads to me like POTUS had plenty of legal standing to go after Ukrainian collusion with the DNC and Clinton campaign, as well as the Bidens’ corruption!

The Democrats and their lickspittle media have been apoplectic about that investigation and are doing everything they can – including bald-faced lying by members of Congress and paid media – to twist the Ukraine story into something it’s not. It’s ironic that the Democrats are accusing Trump of doing something he has not done (demanding a quid pro quo) when one of their leading presidential candidates actually admitted getting a quid pro quo from Ukraine on videotape! Anything to shift the topic away from Democrat crimes and corruption. And that’s what this is all about. The Democrats are misdirecting bigly in the face of mounting evidence of Democrat shenanigans in Ukraine during the 2016 election, as well as the Bidens’ corruption.

By now, everyone has heard about Hunter Biden receiving the princely sum of $50,000 per month from Burisma Holdings Ltd, an “independent” gas conglomerate in Ukraine. There has been a LOT of speculation about what that money bought since Hunter Biden had zero prior experience in the oil and gas industry. But there has been very little consideration given to where that money actually came from.

The Democrats have been masters at using public funds for corrupt political purposes for a long time. They have learned how to launder public money through federal agencies to their cronies, donors and family members. [Republicans do it, too, but on a much smaller scale.] Examples include congressional earmarks (as reported annually by Citizens Against Government Waste), grants from federal agencies (e.g., to Solyndra and other green companies during the Obama regime), funds to public employee unions (with in-kind kickbacks to Democrat Party operations), and tax-exempt donations from all sources (including foreigners) to foundations set up expressly for the purpose of laundering money, nepotism, and pay-for-play.

I believe there is a real nugget in POTUS’s quest to deal with Ukraine (and the Bidens) that has not been mentioned, and that nugget is what has the Democrats so up in arms and willing to march over the cliff politically with this impeachment ruse. There is a high likelihood that US taxpayer funds in the form of foreign aid were laundered through Ukraine (and other corrupt countries), with kickbacks to the likes of Hunter Biden and other politically-connected Americans. And there are even reports that Nancy Pelosi’s son Paul Jr. was on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, too! No wonder San Fran Nan is pressing ahead with the impeachment “inquiry.” Here is one of those reports:

https://twitter.com/HowleyReporter/status/1179893713214025729

Did you know that US foreign aid to Ukraine DOUBLED from $272M in 2015 to $513M in 2016? I wonder where that money went? Accountability under the Petro Poroshenko regime in Ukraine was a joke, and corruption was the key issue that led to Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s landslide victory in April 2019. I am certain that Poroshenko’s defeat was a severe blow to Democrats, in particular the Bidens, because they expected him to keep the lid on their corrupt dealings. However, the new Ukraine president is a reformer who is tackling corruption, and that is welcome news for those of us who, like our president and attorney general, want to find out about the likes of Crowdstrike’s and also various DNC operatives’ activities in Ukraine during the 2016 campaign.

Bottom line: I strongly suspect that the retainer Hunter Biden received was part of the kickback scheme involving US foreign aid laundered through Poroshenko’s regime using Burisma Holdings Ltd. as a cutout. In short, US taxpayers paid Hunter’s salary, thanks to a real quid pro quo executed by his father who was the vice president of the United States! And this misuse of foreign aid dollars is what POTUS is actually targeting, with the Bidens being the means of exposing it all. That’s what the Democrats cannot tolerate because Ukraine wasn’t the only country in which this kickback scheme was practiced during the Obama era. For starters, think about Obama’s Iran nuke agreement and the $1.5 billion…

The end.