By now everyone is aware that Hunter Biden was being paid an inordinate amount of money (by some estimates over $20,000.00 a WEEK) to serve on the board of a Ukraine Energy Company despite having an amazing lack of knowledge of A) The Country B) The Language or C) The industry that he was supposed to be advising on.
There are very few (if any) facts left to dispute in this matter, but that hasn’t prevented those on the left from attempting to poke holes in the Hunter Biden story – to no avail.
So (as many on the left opine) what’s the crime? Who after all wouldn’t accept a posh job with BIG benefits (including a lot of cash) that requires very little actual work? On the surface that seems harmless enough, and you may have heard some on the left argue that point. One such voice and certainly one of the most notable is Aleksander Kwasniewski an Ex-President of Poland who is currently on the same board at the same company (Burisma) where Hunter Biden worked, or sat, or visited, or did whatever in hell it was that he did. Kwasniewski (during a recent interview with the Associated Press conducted on Thursday, Nov. 28, 2019) summed up the whole business as follows:
“I understand that if someone asks me to be part of some project it’s not only because I’m so good, it’s also because I am Kwasniewski and I am a former president of Poland,” he said. “And this is all interconnected. No-names are a nobody. Being Biden is not bad. It’s a good name.”
Sure Burisma is entitled to hire whoever they want and pay them whatever they want, but the matter actually becomes a crime when it crosses the line into influence peddling, and the influence being peddled isn’t (or wasn’t) even Hunter Biden’s – it was his father Joe Biden’s, and Joe Biden just happened to be the Vice President of the United States at the time, an office and a title that should never be for sale
So what exactly is Influence peddling? You could do a little research on Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton or the Clinton foundation and uncover a slew of terrific examples, but this definition from Wikipedia provides a pretty good overview of what influence peddling consists of::
“Influence peddling is the illegal practice of using one’s influence in government or connections with persons in authority to obtain favours or preferential treatment for another, usually in return for payment. Also called traffic of influence or trading in influence. In fact, influence peddling is not necessarily illegal as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has often used the term “undue influence peddling” to refer to illegal acts of lobbying. [1] However, influence peddling bears the stench of corruption that may de-legitimise democratic politics with the general public.”
It certainly sounds as if the Biden’s were engaged in influence peddling up to their eyeballs, but are the Biden’s the only highly placed political family to feed at the trough of money and power that the Ukraine has evolved into? Undoubtedly not, rumors persist that Nancy Pelosi’s son Paul also served on the board of a Ukraine Energy Company as discussed by Carmine Sabia in his article for “The Federalist Paper’s” https://thefederalistpapers.org/opinion/pelosis-ukraine-dilema-son-worked-board-gas-company.
Sabia’s story included a tweet from Patrick Howley which contained a video of Paul Pelosi, Jr., that also provided the added bonus (???) of Nancy Pelosi praising the company that Paul Jr. was working for as if she were providing a testimonial
BOOM: Nancy Pelosi's son Paul Pelosi Jr. (who went to Ukraine in 2017) was a board member of Viscoil and executive at its related company NRGLab, which DID ENERGY Business in UKRAINE!
And Nancy Pelosi appeared in a promotional video for the company!https://t.co/wlndLhPqLe
— Patrick Howley (@HowleyReporter) October 3, 2019
Perusal of the Internet will turn up a plethora of articles that attempt to expose involvement in the Ukraine by various off spring of left wing politicians including the children of Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Joe Biden, etc. In fact the head of the ironically named “Congressional Intelligence Committee” Adam Schiff is also rumored to have connections with the Ukraine,as has Chris Heinz (step son of John Kerry). Heinz involvement can be characterized as tenuous at best and it is likely that his (Heinz’s) friendship and business dealings with Hunter Biden have caused him to be linked to the Ukraine scandal.. Even Mitt Romney (although arguably not a left winger) and his family have connections in the Ukraine. In fact rumors abounded that Romney’s son had dealings with Ukraine energy companies and while the facts of this matter are in dispute there is no disputing the fact that one of Romney’s chief advisors Joseph Cofer Black (who has been identified as having significant deep state affiliations) has been highly involved in the Ukraine Energy goldmine as Shane Trejo reported in his recent article for Big League Politics https://bigleaguepolitics.com/hmm-former-mitt-romney-adviser-sits-on-board-of-ukrainian-gas-company-that-employed-hunter-biden/
“Mitt Romney’s national security advisor in his 2012 campaign — a career CIA spook who rose to its top levels — sits on the board of directors of Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company that formerly paid Hunter Biden $50k a month despite his complete lack of credentials or qualifications.
The article went on to point out that
“…… Mitt has as CNN puts it “been a lone Republican voice expressing concern about President Donald Trump’s July phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump asked Ukraine’s President to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his family.”
So why the fascination with the Ukraine Energy industry? It’s not simply a matter of money (although millions of dollars a year for doing little or nothing does have a certain appeal) it is also a question of power. When Liberals seek to exert influence over other countries (as they so often do), they typically seek control over the infrastructure of the country involved. This was readily apparent with the involvement of Hillary Clinton and her brother Tony and in obtaining rights to Haitian Gold (Tony knows almost as much about Gold as Hunter Biden knows about Energy and it should be pointed out that Tony and Hunter both share a somewhat checkered past that includes (despite their newfound wealth) a serious reluctance to pay child support.
There is a lot of political influence being exerted in the Ukraine, but very little (if any) has been exerted by this administration. Rather it has been Trump’s political rivals that have sought to profit from the corruption and cronyism that has been so prevalent in the Eastern European country and perhaps that is what is truly driving the impeachment train.
Rumors still persist that the former President of the Ukarine Petro Poroshenko was heavily involved in efforts to assist Hillary Clinton’s bid for the US Presidency.
Perhaps the engine that is truly driving the impeachment train is the left’s desperation to hide what has been their illicit involvement in the affairs of Eastern Europe in general and the Ukraine in particular. This would certainly explain how and testimony that addresses the misdeeds of left wing politicians (and their families) never sees the light of day while any evidence or testimony that is perceived as the least bit harmful to this President is selectively leaked.
Of course Left leaning organizations such as Snopes and Politifact have both been working overtime to “debunk” any story about left wing involvement in the Ukraine, but it is difficult (if not impossible) to regard a site such as Snopes which treats almost any negative reporting against Adam Schiff as a “smear” while not (strangely enough) considering hit pieces about President Trump as smears even when said hit pieces were demonstratively false.
It remains to be seen whether or not the left (and certain Never Trumpers) will be held accountable for their actions in these regards. If they are, it will mark the first time that many of them have ever been held accountable for anything.
~Patrick M. Arnold for EnVolve
