If you thought Russiagate was thin gruel, brace yourself for the shit-show that's going to hog the headlines for the next two years - Ukiegate.
Ukraine is by any metric a failed state. It was a failed state before the US-sponsored Maidan uprising, and its downward spiral has only accelerated since. Not only is it a failed state, it was deliberately failed by its plutocrats in the interest of lining their own pockets.
It's hard to understand the thought process among the DNC brain trust. The first casualty of Ukrainegate will be the Biden election campaign. It will be impossible to investigate Trump's alleged malfeasance without getting lots of splatter on the top Dem contender, something already reflected in the latest polls.
That will leave Warren as the likely Democratic Party candidate for 2020, an unhappy prospect for big-money Dem donors. At that juncture even billionaire never-Trumpers will be holding their noses and voting for one of their own rather than for somebody whinging about income inequality and a wealth tax.
It's also hard to understand the reckless abandon with which the Democentric media has climbed aboard this issue. If they really hate Trump as much as they profess, why are they working so hard for his re-election?
Showing posts with label Maidan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maidan. Show all posts
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Saturday, December 30, 2017
Democracy Canadian style; an exemplar for the world
Doug Saunders got a lot of column inches in the Globe and Mail opinion section today, mainly because Shribman and Kendzior weren't in it. That left some blank space to fill.
Doug was happy to fill it.
Since I've been bemoaning the presence of those Yankee interlopers for some time, you'd think I'd be happy about this.
I'm not.
Dear Doug devotes his three or four pages to lobbying for more Canadian interference in the electoral process in other countries. After all, that's what we used to do when we used to be great, at least according to Doug.
Doug cites our interference in Ukraine as an example of the good things that could happen when we interfere in other countries. He posits that as an example, and then leaves us hanging.
Maybe he lost his train of thought...
OK Doug; by what metric is Ukraine better off today than it was before we, the purveyors of democracy, pushed for the demise of the democratically elected government of Ukraine?
Sorry Doug, you're just peddling bullshit again.
Dear G&M management,
Please bring back Shribman and Kendzior and stop giving that idiot Saunders all those column inches.
Thanks!
Doug was happy to fill it.
Since I've been bemoaning the presence of those Yankee interlopers for some time, you'd think I'd be happy about this.
I'm not.
Dear Doug devotes his three or four pages to lobbying for more Canadian interference in the electoral process in other countries. After all, that's what we used to do when we used to be great, at least according to Doug.
Doug cites our interference in Ukraine as an example of the good things that could happen when we interfere in other countries. He posits that as an example, and then leaves us hanging.
Maybe he lost his train of thought...
OK Doug; by what metric is Ukraine better off today than it was before we, the purveyors of democracy, pushed for the demise of the democratically elected government of Ukraine?
Sorry Doug, you're just peddling bullshit again.
Dear G&M management,
Please bring back Shribman and Kendzior and stop giving that idiot Saunders all those column inches.
Thanks!
Monday, October 31, 2016
Ukraine Pres Poroshenko pays high personal price for nation's freedom and democracy
Petro Poroshenko used to be one of the top oligarchs in Ukraine; those few dozens of visionaries who, due to their integrity, intelligence, and hard work managed to divide up the nation's wealth amongst themselves in the glorious (for them) window of opportunity that opened up just as the sun was setting on the Soviet empire.
While the fortunes of the vast majority of Ukrainians were going down the toilet, Poroshenko and his fellow oligarchs were shamelessly enriching themselves. Like his fellow oligarchs, Petro studiously scaffolded his political connections into an ever-growing personal fortune. In 2012 Forbes magazine welcomed him into the ranks of the world's billionaires. A year later his net worth stood at US$1.6 billions.
Alas, there then blew in the "Nuland-Pyatt Spring," the gentle breezes of which wafted through the Maidan in early 2014, grew and grew and grew in intensity until it was a virtual hurricane for freedom and human rights, its virtuous force 5 winds blowing an elected government clear out of the country!
Under a recent law, Ukraine's parliamentarians are now required to self-disclose their net worth. All to do with the never-ending war on corruption, don't you know, and according this story at Deutsche Welle, Poroshenko has declared a meagre 26 millions!
Wow! From 1,600 millions to 26 millions in a mere two years? That loss is almost Trumpian in scale!
But perhaps we should not feel pity for the man prematurely. Didn't his name come up in those Panama Papers revelations? You don't suppose those shell companies were part of a plan to disappear his assets, do you?
Hmm...
While the fortunes of the vast majority of Ukrainians were going down the toilet, Poroshenko and his fellow oligarchs were shamelessly enriching themselves. Like his fellow oligarchs, Petro studiously scaffolded his political connections into an ever-growing personal fortune. In 2012 Forbes magazine welcomed him into the ranks of the world's billionaires. A year later his net worth stood at US$1.6 billions.
Alas, there then blew in the "Nuland-Pyatt Spring," the gentle breezes of which wafted through the Maidan in early 2014, grew and grew and grew in intensity until it was a virtual hurricane for freedom and human rights, its virtuous force 5 winds blowing an elected government clear out of the country!
Under a recent law, Ukraine's parliamentarians are now required to self-disclose their net worth. All to do with the never-ending war on corruption, don't you know, and according this story at Deutsche Welle, Poroshenko has declared a meagre 26 millions!
Wow! From 1,600 millions to 26 millions in a mere two years? That loss is almost Trumpian in scale!
But perhaps we should not feel pity for the man prematurely. Didn't his name come up in those Panama Papers revelations? You don't suppose those shell companies were part of a plan to disappear his assets, do you?
Hmm...
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Orwell's Hole
Check out today's latest news from Ukraine at the Kyiv Post. I don't know about you, but I find it telling that Kyiv Post gets it's Ukrainian news from the New York Times!
But just what that is telling you, I'm not sure. The Post is the plaything of Mohammad Zahoor, a London-based Ukrainian oligarch of Pakistani origin who, in the style of an entire generation of oligarchs, parlayed being in the right place at the right time when the Soviet Union collapsed, into a fortune in Donetsk steel mills.
Well, you know how it is with this darned internet; one thing leads to another, and before you know it, the day is half over, and you're reading the National Endowment for Democracy's 2013 annual report on where in Ukraine that US government funded Non-Governmental Organization invested the American tax-payers money in that pivitol pre-Maidan year.
It's a lengthy list, but here's my favorite;
Center for International Private EnterpriseDeveloping Market Economy
$357,707
Building Advocacy MomentumTo build the capacity of Ukrainian business associations and improve the entrepreneurial climate through coalition-based advocacy. CIPE will build the skills of reform-minded business leaders through training seminars, workshops and small grants designed to stimulate advocacy on targeted issues. CIPE will also support partner business associations to advocate for improvements in the entrepreneurial environment with a focus on reducing corruption and improving public-private dialogue.
I think it's hilarious that a country that has spawned a alphabet's worth of super-rich from Akhmetov to Zahoor would need something called the "Center for International Private Enterprise," financed by the US government!
You don't imagine that might be some CIA front, do you?
But just what that is telling you, I'm not sure. The Post is the plaything of Mohammad Zahoor, a London-based Ukrainian oligarch of Pakistani origin who, in the style of an entire generation of oligarchs, parlayed being in the right place at the right time when the Soviet Union collapsed, into a fortune in Donetsk steel mills.
Well, you know how it is with this darned internet; one thing leads to another, and before you know it, the day is half over, and you're reading the National Endowment for Democracy's 2013 annual report on where in Ukraine that US government funded Non-Governmental Organization invested the American tax-payers money in that pivitol pre-Maidan year.
It's a lengthy list, but here's my favorite;
Center for International Private EnterpriseDeveloping Market Economy
$357,707
Building Advocacy MomentumTo build the capacity of Ukrainian business associations and improve the entrepreneurial climate through coalition-based advocacy. CIPE will build the skills of reform-minded business leaders through training seminars, workshops and small grants designed to stimulate advocacy on targeted issues. CIPE will also support partner business associations to advocate for improvements in the entrepreneurial environment with a focus on reducing corruption and improving public-private dialogue.
I think it's hilarious that a country that has spawned a alphabet's worth of super-rich from Akhmetov to Zahoor would need something called the "Center for International Private Enterprise," financed by the US government!
You don't imagine that might be some CIA front, do you?
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