Archives for November 2019

Day 1158 We Need Regime Change(or “Throw the Rascals Out!”)

Friday November 29, 2019

341 Days until the 2020 election and 426 days until the Inauguration

Somehow my count got screwed up. It happened on my John Bolton post. It’s been corrected. Now, it brings me in line with what I’ve been counting down. Not saying it’s right, but it’s close enough for now. I have however been thinking a lot about Trump’s “No Quid Pro Quo” statement. 

We now know that he knew about the whistleblower complaint at that time. In other words, he knew he had been caught and that it was about to come out and be made public.

We also know that on the day he had the phone call with the new Ukrainian president and that he initiated the halting of military aid to Ukraine. This was also the last day that anyone at OMB who wasn’t a political appointee had anything to do with the Ukraine aid. Subsequently, two OMB professionals (i.e. not political appointees quit, rather than be mixed up in what was an illegal activity.)

It was at that point in time that Gordon Sondland called the president and Trump, seemingly out of nowhere said, “No quid pro quo.” When, in fact, that’s exactly what it was.

We even have a photo of Trump’s talking points, which look like they were written in crayon (okay black Sharpie) by an eighth grader. (I wonder if it’s the same Sharpie he used to doctor the hurricane map.)

The president’s attempts to cover his tracks, his gas lighting, are so clumsy and amateurish that it’s laughable. Yet, we have Jim Jordan hanging his hat on it. We have Devin Nunes saying Russian disinformation talking points – verbatim. We have Fox News putting up the opposite of what is being said (ie “Sondland says, ‘No Quid Pro Quo’ “ When he was tetifying, “There was a quid pro quo.”) We have Lindsey Graham and Mike Pompeo saying they have to investigate Joe Biden or follow up any leads – but they are all Russian disinformation leads promoted by the far right. The list goes on and on.

The question looming is, “What will happen when the vote for impeachment and removal from office comes to the floor of the Senate?” Will it? Will Mitch figure out a way to block it? Will the Republican Senators vote on an obvious case based on the facts? 

In some ways maybe it doesn’t matter. I am hoping that regardless of the vote enough people will say they’ve had enough of their lies, their misdeeds, their ignoring the obvious facts and the truth that a child can understand and vote them out of office.

I don’t care if you are a Republican, Democrat, Independent or Green/Purple/Blue party. What has been going on is criminal, unconstitutional and it’s destroying our values, our standing in the world and everything we have stood for. We are watching the crumbling of the great American experiment. 

I have just returned from Egypt. We are highly regarded there. We are also respected in France and Germany and Indonesia and Japan and Mexico – all places I have visited in the last year. But people are wondering, “What is going on?”, “Why?” They ask me. “Why is your president [fill in the blank]?” They say, “It makes no sense.”

What can I tell them?

They’re right.

I say, “You aren’t using the ‘L-word’ Logic, are you?” Some don’t understand the phrase at first.

Then they go back to “Why?”

Can you explain it?

Why:

haven’t wages risen?

are the rich getting so much richer?

are we going deeper and deeper in debt?

are our farmers going out of business in record numbers?

are our manufacturing jobs going away?

are we ignoring the rising temperatures of the Earth?

does our health care cost so much?

and our health outcomes so bad?

did our president desert our allies in Syria?

does he want to pull out of NATO?

does he appear so weak around Putin?

are republicans bending over backwards to support him?

is he allowed to break the law and nothing is done?

 

It’s time to get rid of the lot of them.

I don’t care what your political affiliation is, or your beliefs.

It’s time for regime change – here in the U. S. of A.

341 Days until the 2020 election and 426 days until the Inauguration

PS My Egyptian trip summed up in one photo (thanks to fellow Egyptologist Denise for the photo)

Shelby was so disappointed not to go and be able to stare at rocks. (NOT!)

Day 1155 I am so Sick of John Bolton

Tuesday November 26, 2019

344 Days until the 2020 election and 429 days until the Inauguration

Let me be clear, John Bolton is a moral coward. He’s no patriot, if he was he’d be testifying. Instead, he’s teasing his book deal that he reportedly will make two million on. Well, isn’t that great? Mr. “you could lose the top two floors of the U.N. and nothing would change” isn’t willing to come tell the truth without being begged, cajoled, and legally forced. So patriotic. He is however going to reveal all in his book. So we can’t say it’s national security secret hush-hush stuff.

Remember when this guy first burst on the scene, everyone thought him a bit looney then. Now? He hasn’t changed but the world around him has and he seems the adult. Yeah. Right. He’s touting regime change in Iran. Like you can flip a switch. 

You can take him and Pompeo, and stack up there accomplishments with say a recent NSC Advisor and a recent Secretary of State. How do they fair? Well, what have they accomplished? Um, lemme think – nothing? Not true, we’ve pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, which was negotiated by Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama, and the former Secretary of Energy. What do we have instead? Nothing. Iran is now pursuing making a bomb. What about containing China? We had a treaty on the table for consideration. It wasn’t perfect but the idea was we could work with our partners to limit China’s influence. What happened? Nothing. Now China is seen as spreading its influence unabated. Then there’s climate change. We pulled out of the Paris Agreement. What do we have instead? Nothing.

So while the previous administration actually did things and those things accomplished stuff that made the world safer, made us stronger, and contained states that could weaken us, this group of numb nuts has dramatically made us weaker and Bolton is right in there with the bunch of them. Only now he’s can’t even try and take that right wing morale patriotic Constitution and all that high ground because he, like Judas, is collecting his shekels rather than helping our country. 

In other news, some of the Republicans are trying to say they aren’t repeating Russian talking points when they clearly are. Thanks to Fiona Hill, who set them straight publicly, they’ve been back pedaling ever since. (“Oh we didn’t say Russia didn’t meddle in the election of 2016. {BS, BS, BS} What we said is we need to look at Ukraine too.” {which is the Russian disinformation talking point!])

Imagine what Bolton could do if he was a true patriot and not the money grubbing small minded person he really is?

Oh well, moving on. The Fusion GPS boys are out with a new book. Remember Fusion GPS are the folks who paid for the Steele Dossier. The Republican Russia-Speak people like Meadows, Jordan, Nunes, and others have been beating the drum that the DNC and Hillary’s campaign paid for the work, cleverly forgetting that for seven months it was Republicans who were footing the bill. The talking point about Ukraine and Fusion GPS being involved there came down to an interesting little tidbit from Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion GPS. He was on a shuttle bus with Rudy Giuliani, this week. He said to Rudy, “You know, I’ve never been to Ukraine.” To which Rudy said something along the lines of “Oh really? I’ll have to check into that.”

Also, Simpson has been attacked by the right wing constantly since the Steele Dossier has come out. He is in danger for his life in that some nut may come after him.

The book is entitled “Crime in Progress,” and as has been pointed out in Simpson’s original testimony they, Fusion GPS, wasn’t out to dig dirt on Trump they were trying to figure out what he was doing there. Records aren’t publicly available in Russia (imagine that!) and Fusion GPS is a research group that looks at public records. They turned to their contact from their Wall street Journal days, Christopher Steele. Steele was not asked to dig dirt. He was not told who the client was. He was asked to find out what he could about Trump and his dealings in Russia. What he found was so concerning that he wanted to alert the authorities in the U.S.

Trump has been laundering money for Russians for decades. Period. Full stop. 

Trump has been laundering money for Russians for decades. Period. Full stop. 

Trump has been laundering money for Russians for decades. Period. Full stop. 

(ps This was known before the 2016 election – btw.)

Hillary said she would stand up to Putin.

Would Donald?

Heck no.

In fact, I would say he’s their best asset in the west.

Not only has he done their bidding but he has managed to turn the Republicans in Congress and the folks at Fox News into useful idiots. 

Did you ever think we’d see Republicans in Congress spouting Russian disinformation? 

I didn’t.

Forget the flag waving and the phony patriotism, we now have the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, repeating verbatim Russian talking points. 

We have Lindsey Graham saying he’s going to investigate Joe Biden, based on lies that Trump has told that were planted there personally by Vladimir Putin. 

Trump is an errand boy for Putin.

And now? Now Trump is trying to destroy our military. He wants to bring men accused of war crimes on the campaign trail with him. 

There is nothing this man won’t stoop to, the only question is what other terrible thing can he dream up?

Moving on. Mike Bloomberg has thrown his hat in the ring to run for president. He was a Republican, now he’s a Democrat. Just what we need: a 77 year old white man, a billionaire, as president. 

Do the other Democratic candidates worry?

I dunno. Mike spent $31,000,000.00 in ads this week all across the country. Compare that to say Kamala Harris who spent $560,000.00. Yikes. 

Bloomberg is reportedly worth $51B. Last I heard he was worth $31 or was it $39B. He makes $10B every six months. What the heck, spend $31M on ads – no sweat. 

In a startling judicial opinion, the president can not claim absolute immunity for everyone in the executive branch. Well, he can, but as the judge pointed out: he’s not a king, and “absolute immunity” is not a thing.

Warren has fallen off 14 points in Iowa and Mayor Pete is on top of the pack. It’s a weird race.

Bryce Holliwell will be off to the Yucatan on Saturday. Intrepid traveller and all about man of mystery and intrigue (and Rick Kinnaird’s alter-ego) Mr. Holliwell will tread where no man has not tread before.

He is still slightly sick from his trip to Egypt and has been told, basically, to not come home and infect his wife. Not to worry. The woman who organizes the trip is also a horse doctor and has said he can stay in a horse recovery stall at her place while she shoots his rear end with horse get well drugs. 

In other words, there is a plan. It’s a good plan. It’s the plan we are on now.

Ever onward. Into the abyss. Fearless. Resolute. 

344 Days until the 2020 election and 429 days until the Inauguration

PS The winning team! The author posed with his nephew at Richmond’s Tang and Biscuit shuffleboard palace where they whipped up on their opponents delivering a resounding victory for the home team. Ah the sweet smell of success! The glory, the accolades. Unfortunately, they were out of olive leaf crowns at the moment, but you can’t have everything.

Day 1151 The Hearing and Lessons Learned about the Law

Friday November 22, 2019

348 Days until the 2020 election and 433 days until the Inauguration

Then there’s the Republican repeating over and over again that Trump said, “No quid pro quo.”

Therefore, there must not be one? It’s the guilty man defense. (“I didn’t do it!” Okay, then explain the smoking gun in your hand.)

The thing that makes this so bad is they have a photo of Trump’s talking points. It looks like it was written by a grade school kid. “No quid pro quo” “No quid pro quo” “I want nothing” etc.

What is this The Colonel Klink defense? (For those of you too young to remember. There was a TV show “Hogan’s Heroes,” about American POWs during WWII. The lead guard was Colonel Klink. The famous saying of Klink, whenever Hogan asked him a question was “I know nuzing!” 

Let’s review a few of the legal things the likes of Jordan and Nunes bring up:

“Have you ever heard of a courtroom where the accused doesn’t get to face his accuser?

That the accuser can’t have his or her lawyer present?” etc.

Well to answer that, “Yes” and “No.”

In other countries that is true. Not in America.

However these spiffy Republican lawyers keep conveniently forgetting this isn’t a trial. This is an investigation. Have they ever heard of an investigation where the target of the investigation is invited in to see what they’re investigating? To give the target the names of people bearing witness?

Then there’s the “In all these depositions the word ‘bribery’ comes up only once.”

Yeah, Bunky, right on. Why is that? Oh, it’s an investigation? In an investigation you ask for facts. Like “Did you see Mr. Smith pull out a gun and shoot Mr. Jones?” or “Did you see Mr. Ace give an envelope of cash to Mr. Beta and ask for a favor?”

Not “Did Mr. Smith commit murder?” (Objection: “You are asking the witness to draw a conclusion.”)

Likewise not,

“Was Mr. Ace committing bribery?” (that’s for the prosecutor to charge and the judge or jury to decide, not the person giving testimony to the facts of what they heard and saw.

Then there’s the “Oh it’s only circumstantial evidence.” argument. Chuck Rosenberg gave beautiful example. It’s one he says it used all the time in court to explain that circumstantial evidence is often as good as direct evidence. Here goes:

“Say you wake up in the morning and you see snow on the ground, in your yard, in the neighbor’s yard, over the whole neighborhood. You conclude that it snowed last night. That’s circumstantial evidence. If you had stood outside all night and watched the snow come down then you’d have direct evidence. In a court of law you are asked to use common sense and logic. In the case of ‘It snowed last night’ circumstantial evidence is as good as direct evidence.”

Let’s go to the argument “It’s only hearsay.” This is interesting. First off, remember the Intelligence Committee is conducting an investigation, not a court room trial. Also, they are doing this because the Justice Department did not – would not – do the investigation.

I had to look this up. You can too. Hearsay in a court of law is not allowed unless there is an exception.

Hearsay evidence is defined as “an out-of-court statement offered to prove” the point being made in court.

So if Tim is on the witness stand and said, “Sally told me that Ben shot Fred.” and was being used to establish the fact that Ben shot Fred it would be inadmissible as hearsay evidence; unless Sally was able to come to court to say so as well.

However, if what you are doing is to ask, “What did you hear?” or “What were you told by Sally?” Then I think the statement is allowed. Not as whether or not Ben, in fact, shot Fred; but rather that this is what Tim heard Sally say.

As far as I can remember all the claims of hearsay evidence raised by the Republicans were the latter case.

 Then we get to the lies:

“The debunked Steele Dossier” – No, it wasn’t. In fact, the main points have been corroborated.

“Mueller found nothing” – Yes, he did. He found ten instances where Donald Trump met all three conditions of Obstruction of Justice. His investigation has lead to numerous people going to jail.

Then we get to the conspiracies theories:

“The Ukrainians did it” – No, they didn’t that’s a Russian intelligence talking point of disinformation.

“The Crowd Strike Serve is in Ukraine” – No, it isn’t. That’s a Russian intelligence talking point of disinformation and a cockamamy idea was cooked up by the far right.

Then there are the gaslighting lies (a special category imho):

– If you haven’t seen Nunes closing remarks on Wednesday, it is well worth finding because it’s a classic case of gaslighting. And Schiff’s response, is outstanding.

– Gaslighting refers to the idea of telling a person (the victim) that what they are seeing, hearing, or experiencing is in fact not the case, but something else. It is a form of psychological manipulation and uses persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction and lying. The term comes from a 1930s play called Gaslight and a movie by the same name where a husband tries to convince her wife that she is imagining the gaslights in their apartment going dim when he goes upstairs to the woman’s apartment he murdered searching for her jewels. When he turns up her gaslights their apartment below gaslights dim. He tries to convince his wife she’s imagining it.

Gaslighting and The Guilty Man Defense (“I didn’t do it.”) seem to go hand in hand with this crew.

– “The president said ‘no quid pro quo.” Well, isn’t that swell? Tim Allen said that you’d be amazed how many people in prison are there mistakenly.

Lastly, Chuck Rosenberg gave another wonderful explanation of why peoples’ testimonies often change during the course of a trial. He said that as a trial moves along a person who on a scale of 0 to 10 in truthfulness may have started out at a 5 or 6 (10 being completely truthful) sees the evidence mounting may decide to move more towards the truth.

Take the case of Gordon Sondland. In his behind closed door testimony he was towing the Trump line (no quid pro quo) but when he got to the public testimony decided to come clean. At least, a lot cleaner than he had before. People who know his lawyer said that the legal advise he no doubt got was. “This may be your last chance to avoid jail time if you lie.” And did he really want to go to jail for Trump? He’s independently wealthy. He doesn’t need a gig on Fox News. And who in their right mind would want to lie for Trump with the hope of being pardoned? (Roger Stone, I guess.) So, all of a sudden old Gordo’s memory is “refreshed”.

I only have one other point, maybe three. But I’m sick. I took a break and now I’ve forgotten all of them.

Carry on.

 348 Days until the 2020 election and 433 days until the Inauguration

PS In the Tombs

Day 1151 Part B Russia’s Long Game

Friday November 22, 2019

348 Days until the 2020 election and 433 days until the Inauguration

Let’s review a few basic strategic facts before we get into it.

Russia’s only direct access to oceans is through cold water ports or The Black Sea.

They have relations with Syria because they have a submarine base there. It’s on the Mediterranean close to Lebanon. They will do anything and everything to keep that base up and running. Otherwise they have to have their subs trudge up to the Black Sea through the narrow passageways of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. Or they have to go through the North Sea to a base there, or all the way around Scandinavia to a base above or near the Polar Circle.

To get to that base in Syria they can drop down through the countries between the Caspian and Black Sea: Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia; and then go west through southern Turkey, or northern Iraq, and northern Syria. No wonder Putin was smiling when we pulled out of northern Syria! He could now directly resupply his submarine base without our being in the way. Way to win Donald!

The second strategic point, which was made yesterday in the hearings, Russia with Ukraine annexed would be an empire, without it, it is not. Putin wants the glory days of Russian empire back.

Dr. Fiona Hill, ever the diplomat, made the point that by pushing the false narrative that Ukraine was the one that meddled in the 2016 election, only strengthens Russia’s goal to spread dissent and chaos here and throughout the world of western democracies. (Yet, this warning did not dissuade Nunes or Jordan from doing it and thus playing the part of “the useful idiots” for Russia. Way to go guys!)

Let me review several points I have made in regard to some of the points Jordan et al made that we may want to remind ourselves about.

“The Dems paid for the Steele Dossier.” While true they leave out the little fact that it was originally commissioned by Republican opponents of Trump when they were running for the Republican nomination. It was a conservative think tank called “The Washington Free Beacon” that commissioned the investigation. What they did was to ask a research firm that deals in publicly available documentation to find out what they could on Donald Trump. They weren’t asking for dirt on Trump. They were asking, “Who is this guy?” The firm was called Fusion GPS. Apparently, their research time ain’t cheap, because they are only asked from time to time, like every four years, to do some research on a political person. 

What did the co-founder Glenn Simpson testify he did? He bought all the books from Amazon on Donald Trump and read all of them. He got all the court documents on Donald Trump and read all of them. He got all the real estate records on Donald Trump and read all of them.

He testified that there was one question that he had at that point in time, “What was Donald Trump doing in Russia?” According to Trump, and from what Simpson could publicly find Trump had no business dealings in Russia. Other than the Miss Universe Pageant he held there he didn’t seem to have any other business in Russia. Yet, Trump spent a lot of time in Russia. “What?” he asked, “Was going on?”

Simpson says his expertise and his firm’s expertise is in “publicly available information.” There was nothing publicly available on Russia. He turned to the person he knew who knew Russia – Christopher Steele for help.

Here we get another Republican talking point. That the Dems used a foreigner to interfere in the Trump campaign. Let’s be clear. They did not. Fusion GPS after Trump got the nomination The Beacon was no longer interested in paying for the research and Simpson was still curious and peddled his information to the Dems. I doubt the Dems had any idea that Simpson had called upon one of the former British Intelligence Services top experts on Russia. (Maybe, Nunes having been Chair of the Intelligence Committee when the Republicans held the House doesn’t know that we have intelligence connections with our closest allies, like Britain, which is a damn sight different than the president’s personal lawyer calling on a known corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor set up by a Russian mobbed up thug that was paying him. then again maybe Nunes doesn’t know, because he’s been so busy with SLAPP suits against a meme calling itself “Devin Nunes’ Cow” that he hasn’t had time to do his homework. The cow reference is in some regard, I believe, to the fact that Nunes has tried to pass himself off as a dairy farmer from California, omitting the fact that the family sold the California dairy years ago and moved to Iowa. )

Why would Simpson call on Steele? Oh lemme see. Steele not only knows everyone of the folks in Putin’s inner circle; he knows what they like to eat, what their peculiarities are. Whom they like and dislike. What businesses they are in. Who they are mobbed up with.

Jordan and others say the Steele Dossier has been debunked, that it’s a bunch of fabrications on here-say evidence. I guess that’s why the day after it was published a Russian sitting in a meeting was accosted by some thugs who put a bag over his head and as he was dragged from the room was the last time he was seen alive until he showed up in his car having committed suicide? 

Nothing that I have heard has found anything factually wrong in the Steele Dossier, except minor points about dates and times and the like. The big facts remain.

Steele was not asked to get dirt on Trump. He was asked to find out what Trump was doing in Russia because Simpson could find no public material that suggested why he spent so much time there.

When Steele first reached out to his Russian contacts they were freely talking about Trump. It was an open secret that Trump had done various things. The most salacious was that he had stayed in the Ritz Carlton Moscow, a hotel known to be completely bugged, and that he had stayed in the same room as Obama and had hired girls to come in and piss on the bed. Has that been verified?  No. But if it happened, Putin has the tape.

I repeat, Steele was asking open questions, not digging for dirt. He assumed his 16 field reports would be kept in strictest confidence. What he discovered so alarmed him that he urged Simpson to go to the FBI. Simpson demurred. Steele was still so concerned that he asked Simpson would he mind if he went to the American authorities? Eventually, Simpson said okay. Steele meet with contacts he had in the American intelligence community in a meeting in Italy. I forget if they were CIA or FBI, but the reports made it to the FBI. They were also given to McCain, who gave them to the FBI.

The FBI had already been looking into the Trump Russia connections. This dossier merely corroborated and reinforced some of their already gathered evidence.

According to the Wikipedia article on the Steele Dossier many aspects of the dossier have been corroborated. Some of the more sensational ones have not, but neither have they been disproven. The Republicans on the Intelligence Committee made frequent reference that the Mueller Report found the Steel Dossier to be bogus. That’s not what the Wikipedia article says. It says the Mueller Report made passing reference to it. In one particular case, an allegation against Michael Cohen, they dismissed. that’s a far cry from saying the Mueller report showed it to be debunked.

Here’s what I have said before and I’ll repeat here to make sure we have the whole picture in one place.

Rudy Giuliani has a long running relationship with Lev Parnas. Lev Parnas and his buddy Igor Fruman are known to have connections to Russian organized crime. They have made huge illegal contributions to various Republican/Trump organizations and events. Where did they get the money for this? Answer – The Russian mafia and Vladimir Putin. Putin let a man named Dmytro Firtash be in the business of skimming huge amounts of money off the top of Russian gas sales to Ukraine. He didn’t seem to do anything except get paid. How much? At first millions, then billions. Firtash has admitted that he couldn’t have done it without the help of Semyon Mogilevich, Russia’s crime boss of bosses. Firtash has direct links to Putin. He has links to Paul Manafort. Is part owner of Cambridge Analytica through its parent company. Has been involved in a huge corruption case involving RosUrkEnergo and the stealing of gas from Ukraine, a case the U.S. Feds have been trying to extradite him to stand trail. Firtash has fought the extradition, hiring some of the most expensive lawyers in Washington and elsewhere to fight it.

He was arrested in Italy at one point in time and was let out on bail of $165,000,000.00 (I think that was the figure, in that neighborhood). He wrote a check and walked.

He now lives in Vienna, Austria. Parnas and Fruman had one way tickets to Vienna when they were arrested. Giuliani also had a ticket to Austria. 

Giuliani says he’s Trump’s personal attorney. What he forget to mention is he is paid by Parnas. In other words Giuliani works for Parnas.

Speaking of forgetting to mention, Nunes somehow never mentions that Parnas has paid to help Nunes with his investigations in the Ukraine. Old Devin hasn’t said exactly what those investigations were. Parnas also hooked Giuliani up with a crooked prosecutor in Ukraine and it seems he did similar favors for Nunes.

What does Parnas want? He wants what Firtash wants. What does Firtash want? He wants to continue the sweet deal that he had before the new leader of Ukraine took over. He wants to continue to skim millions and billions off the top in the transmission of Russian gas for Ukrainian use. Firtash ultimately reports to Putin. What does Putin want? He wants to keep shipping gas to the Ukraine, to continue to rake billions off the top and keep it in slush funds to corrupt not only Ukrainian officials but other leaders in other countries.

What’s standing in their way? Well the new head of the Ukrainian gas company who is a real straight shooter and is fighting corruption. They need to get rid of that guy. Who is standing in their way? Why Marie Yovanovitch. She is also fighting corruption in the Ukraine. Who else? Joe Biden, he called for the ouster of the former corrupt prosecutor in Ukraine under their corrupt former regime. 

What about his son Hunter? He was on the board of the gas company in question, Burisma. Turns out Hunter did nothing wrong. Turns out he’s a lawyer who advises international companies and governments. Burisma had been corrupt and was trying to clean up their act. Hunter was hired to help in that effort. Having high profile names on a board in such instances it a typical move. Some at the time of his accepting the board position thought the appearance would not be beneficial to the law firm Hunter represented. But there was nothing improper about the actual relationship, and he is a lawyer who does best practices work. Huh? Wait a minute they hired a lawyer to help them with best practices. Imagine that? Did they hope having the son of the Vice President would give them some caché? Yeah. Probably. 

It’s not like he was totally unqualified or did nothing. Nor is there any evidence that Joe Biden benefitted in any way from his son’s activities. Not like say three of the Trump children and one son-in-law who regularly travel on Air Force One at government expense. Or Trump’s two sons who run the Trump Organization that is owned by the Donald, doing deals around the globe from which the president directly benefits. Or the president’s daughter who for 18 months kept her crappy fashion line open in China making that gaudy junk. Or his son-in-law who traveled around the world trying to get a loan for the building in New York he paid way too much for. And, who by the way is buds with MBS and may have passed on U.S. intel to MBS who had Khashoggi killed at the very time Khashoggi was doing research on MBS. (It involved a secret Saudi project called “the Bees.” Saudi activists would be given foreign SIM cards to hide their involvement with the government.)

Then there’s Russia spreading of discord wherever it can. As Dr. Hill pointed out, it was the Russian intelligence services that came up with idea that it wasn’t Russia but Ukraine that hacked into the 2016 elections in the U.S.  And we come full circle.

348 Days until the 2020 election and 433 days until the Inauguration

PS Me and the little Sphinx