Where in the World is Billy Barr?

It appears the United States Attorney General is MIA. He
was last seen hiding out in Rome espousing President Trump's
handling of the Ukrainian congratulatory phone call to Ukraine's
president-elect. A phone call, Trump said was "beautiful".  He is
also gathering information from countries he feels have the
inside dope on Hunter Biden's activities while he was on the
board of the Ukraine natural gas producing company, Burisma.
And while he is at it there, he is looking at whether the Ukraine
was also involved with the server that processed Hillary Clinton's
missing emails.  Both of the these incidents have been debunked
by the United States intelligence agencies.  The Democrats have
accused Barr of using the Justice Department as Trump's personal
law firm.  This would not be the first time Barr would have
interfered on behalf of a president.

Billy Barr is a lifelong proponent of the 'unitary executive theory'
that allows for unfettered presidential authority.  Much of Barr's
thinking has been influenced by his strong religious convictions,
he is a staunch Roman Catholic.  He believes that Roe v Wade
was incorrectly decided, and in 1992 he wrote a report in
favor of increased incarceration.  However, upon independent
examination, the data Barr used to support his conclusions
did not corroborate his theory that mass incarceration reduced
the crime rate anywhere.

In 1990, Barr was appointed Deputy Attorney General by then
president George H. W. Bush.  Bush was so impressed with Barr's
work that he nominated him to be his Attorney General in 1991.
Barr's squeaky-clean record allowed Barr to be confirmed by the
Senate in two days.

In 1992, an Independent counsel was formed to investigate the
Iran-Contra Affair, it was headed by Lawrence Walsh.  Walsh had
found documents from Casper Weinberger's office of evidence of
a conspiracy among the highest officials in the
Reagan administration, to lie to both Congress and the American
people.  The cover-up was the sale of arms to Iran for their help in
freeing the hostages taken by Hezbollah and being held in Lebanon.
Weinberger was to stand trial and contradict President Bush's
assertion that he had no knowledge of the exchange of arms for
hostages.  It was apparent that Bush would be called to testify in
the court case also.  Billy Barr went into action, He convinced
Bush to pardon Weinberger and five others from the Reagan
administration who were already found guilty, only day before the
end of Bush's term of office.  Thus saving the reputation of the Bush
presidency.  Lawrence Walsh complained, insinuating that Bush and
Barr had covered-up the Iran-Contra Affair.

That wasn't the end, Barr also refused to appoint another Independent
Counsel to investigate 'Iraq-gate'.  Iraq-gate is not as well-known as the
Iran-Contra Affair but it was much more insidious.  For those not as
familiar with what went on, I will try to give you a thumbnail sketch.

During the Reagan/Bush administrations, and while Bill Clinton was
governor of Arkansas, in a small town in Arkansas called Mena, there
was an operation that was working out of the Mena airport that involved
drugs, guns, and billions of dollars under the radar, but with the knowledge
and consent of the CIA.  Drugs were smuggled into the United States,
weapons were smuggled out, and money was laundered thru the banks
in Mena and Atlanta Georgia.

The money and drugs went to support Saddam Hussain in Iraq, yup, that
Saddam Hussain.  Money from the United States, supposedly for agricultural
support, went instead to buy weapons back from the United States.  It
was estimated that more than $5 billion in aid and also weaponry, and
military intelligence, and special ops went to support Hussain's war
against Iran, which by now was in control of the Ayatollah.  All of
which was against the will of the Congress.  The money came from
the drug operation in Mena.  All in all, over a thousand kilos of heroin
was smuggled into our country and over $5 billion of money was laundered
prior to being sent to Iraq.  Everyone involved with the operation in Mena
is now dead, in fact, more than 26 deaths were attributed to it, some under
suspicious circumstances, some were outright hits.  All covered-up by one
Billy Barr, in defense of presidents Reagan and Bush.  His argument;
'a president has complete authority to start or stop a law enforcement
proceeding'.

So why is Billy Barr hiding out in Rome?  Has he finally found a president
he cannot support?  Or is it that this president has implicated him in his
tawdry business dealings?  Squeaky-clean Billy may have finally got
his hands so dirty even he cannot live with himself?

I'm just sayin'.

 

What Every Working Woman Needs

Back in the 1970's, when the talk around the executive
dining room table amongst my female colleagues and
myself - the four of us amid a sea of males - turned to
child care, the standing joke was; what every working
woman needs, is a wife at home to cook, clean and
watch the kids.  Each of us had paid dearly for the
privilege of becoming executives, sacrificing our home
life and time with our children to advance our careers.
Was it worth it?  It appeared that each of us had a different
view.  For me the answer was more than monetary,
though that didn't hurt, but the personal fulfillment of
reaching the top of one's profession was exhilarating.
It is the sense of giving your best and getting recognized
for it, that is incredibly satisfying.

Four female executives were about par for the course in
the 70s in most mid-size companies, even if two of those
were executive secretaries, one for the company President
and the other for the CEO.  After all it wasn't until 1972 when
Kathrine Graham became the first female CEO of a Fortune
500 company.  And women aren't doing that much better
today, women represent less than 20% of the Board members
of the top 1000 major corporations.  Why don't women climb
the corporate ranks at the same rate as men?  It's not that they
are lacking in talent or drive, no, the major root cause of women
being left behind in their careers is the lack of decent, affordable
child care.  This is the motherhood penalty.  When women are
forced to stay home with their children they cannot participate
fully in their chosen field, hence they are not going to have
equal career growth opportunities.

In today's economy, child care can cost as much as college
tuition in most states.  Infant day care costs range from
$5,000 to $17,000 a year, and pre-school day care ranges
from $4,450 to $12,000 per year.  Multiply that by two
or three, and even with a multiple child discount, it is
apparent that child care costs exceed the average net salary
of a mid-level executive.  It takes a gross pay of $36,000 to
cover the cost of $20,000 of day care, and that is assuming
the combined income for husband and wife is in the lowest
tax bracket.  Seventy percent of families spend 10% of
their gross income on child care and forty percent spend
more than 15% of the gross income.

Lack of decent, affordable child care is having a financial
impact on our economy.  New Census Bureau figures out today
show that in fifteen years, in 2034, the over-65 age group will
out number young  children .  This does not bode well, and it
can be traced back to the child care problem.  In a study of more
than 4000 participants with small children, 63% of parents
reported that they made workplace changes to be able to afford
child care; switching from fulltime to part time hours, and 25%
of women quit the their jobs to be stay-at-home caregivers.
The financial impact is more dire; 31% of families said they
went further into debt, 37% said they stopped adding to their
IRA retirement, 37% said they stopped paying off debt, and
44% said that child care costs precipitated major budget cuts.
The effect on the family unit is even harder; 36% said child
care cost was a cause  of relationship tensions, 39% said it
impacted their family planning, and 39% said they chose to
have fewer children.  This is the future of our economy,
who will fund the retirement of those over-65s?  If today's
parents can't afford to have children, we had better change
our immigration policies.

Access to good child care drives local economies as well as
overall economic growth.  Women who have decent child
care available are more likely to enter the workforce and
stay employed.  They are more likely to stay off welfare
 and more likely to pursue a higher education.  The long-
term benefit of subsidized child care is not just a 'women's
issue', its effect will be felt in the hear future, fifteen years
from now when Social Security and Medicare become
unsustainable budget items.  We will need a viable work-
force to support them.  We need the children.

Several of the Democratic candidates running for the
presidency have child care plan options, it behooves
you to check them out, and if your favorite candidate
doesn't have a plan, ask them why.

I'm just sayin'.

In the Land of the Pharaohs

I have just returned from a wonderful trip to Egypt, and
I can definitely recommend the trip to anyone, it is a
beautiful country filled with lovely people who will go
out of their way to make your trip memorable.  And at no
time did I feel that I was not safe, and I am a woman who
travels alone.

Today's Egypt is a very poor country, 31% of the population
is considered living in poverty.  Much of this is due to the
tough economic reforms called for after the $12 billion loan
from the IMF in 2016.  Reforms that included devaluing the
Egyptian currency and cutting the fuel subsidies.  The latter
raised the fuel costs 78% overnight, and with the Pound being
devalued, there are now more people living  below the poverty
line.

On the plus side, however, Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, Egypt's president,
has raised Egypt's credit rating to a 'B' and the economic growth
has exceeded 6.5% for the past three years.  Al Sisi enjoys an
overall approval rating of 78%, something that Donald Trump
would kill for.  Since taking over from the Muslim Brotherhood
in June of 2013, Al Sisi has had the backing and support of the
Egyptian Army in all things, leading some to say he heads a
military junta.  However, the Egyptian people know they have
only two choices for a government, Al Sisi and the Army, or
the Muslim Brotherhood, 97% chose Al Sisi in the last election.

Al Sisi has done some great things for Egypt since taking power;
he ordered and oversaw the construction of a separate Suez canal
along side the present canal, this time using only Egyptian money,
doubling the capacity of ships that pass thru the canal, from 47 to
95, and generating the income for Egypt alone, and he is building
a new capitol city close to Cairo to help with the overcrowding
conditions in the existing capitol.  The unofficial population of
Cairo is estimated at 25 million people.

Today, 96% of Egyptians live on the 3% of Egypt's land along-side
the Nile river, the remaining 97% of Egypt is desert. Egypt is trying
to convert 240,000 additional acres of desert into arable land to increase
food production.  Right now Egypt relies on the Nile river for 90% of
it's fresh water supply.  And that has led to a huge problem.  Ethiopia is
in the process of building one of the largest dams on the Blue Nile, in
Africa and the seventh largest dam in the world.

The new dam, GERD (Greater Ethiopian Renaissance Dam), is scheduled
to be completed in 2022, but some turbines will be put into operation
this year.  The fear is that filling the reservoir, which will take up to
three years or more to complete,  will greatly reduce the water supply
down river. If it is done on the timetable proposed by Ethiopia, it will
dry up Lake Nassar, according to Egypt's calculations.  The three
countries involved, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan have been in negotiations
since before the project began.  Egypt initially signed the agreement in
2015, to show good faith, but since that time several changes have been
made and now Egypt wants to renegotiate the agreement.  Sudan wishes
to remain neutral as they are anticipating buying electricity from Ethiopia.

The latest talks are scheduled for October 23 and 24, 2019 in Moscow,
during the Russian-African Summit. Al Sisi is to meet with the Ethiopian
Prime Minister, Abiy Ahman, to try and work-out a solution to the stalemate.
Al Sisi proclaims that Egypt has plans for the Nile river through 2037,
costing 900 billion Egyptian pounds, or $55 billion.  They have already
spent 200 billion pounds to that end last year, and intend to spend another
400 billion pounds this year.  The plans include a huge desalination plant
and increased sewage treatment facilities.

In meetings with the United States on the sidelines of the United Nations
General Assembly this past September, Al Sisi stressed that failure in
negotiations with Ethiopia will have dire consequences for the stability
across the region.  He appealed to the international community to aid in the
negotiating process.  Al Sisi has proposed a seven to ten-year time-table
for filling the reservoir, and measures that will allow for 40 billion cubic
meters of water to flow annually.  Both of these proposals were soundly
rejected by Ethiopia.

Initially, Ethiopia presented Cairo with a project for a dam that would be
90 meters high with a reservoir capacity of 14.5 billion cubic meters of
water. Ethiopia than began to implement a totally different design with
a dam height of 145 meters and a reservoir capacity of 74 billion cubic
meters of water.  Ethiopia also extended the scope of the dam project
beyond just electricity production and has plans to place 4 million acres
of land under cultivation using water deducted from Egypt's share of the
Nile.

By way of comparison, while Egypt has only the Nile river as a water
source, Ethiopia has twelve rivers.  Egypt gets less than 1.3 billion cubic
meters of rainfall annually, while Ethiopia gets more than 800 billion
cubic meters of rainfall annually, which is 50% of the total rainfall received
by all ten Nile Basin countries.  When Egypt signed the Nile Waters Agreement
in 1959, it's per capita share of the Nile water was 2,500 cubic meters.  Today
Egypt's population has topped 104 million and the water quota remains fixed,
which means the per capita figures are 20% of what they were when the
agreement was signed.

In March, an International Crisis Group report warned of a humanitarian
crisis if there is no agreement reached, millions of Egyptian farmers and
Egypt's food supply could be threatened.  Al Sisi has said, "...you cannot
expose a people whose lives depend on the Nile to the danger of cutting
off their water supply without having an impact on the stability of the
region".

In talking with several locals in Cairo, I was surprised at the vehemence
of their replies, to a man they said they will go to war behind Al Sisi if
it came down to it.  They all supported covert actions to blow up the
dam.  When I countered that it seemed to be extreme to me and that
perhaps the UAR and the rest of the world may not back their actions
they were not phased.  "We will die one way or another; without water
or fighting for it," was the consensus.   Another tinderbox waiting for
a match?   Remember where you read about it.

I'm just sayin'

 

Please Quit Helping...

Our Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Purdue, addressed the World
Dairy Expo in Madison Wisconsin, (my hometown, right now that is)
last week, and he could have brought better news.  He told a gathering
of dairy farmers that, and I quote: "In America, the big get bigger, and
small go out.  I don't think in America we, for any small business,
we have a guaranteed income or a guaranteed profitability". Thank
you, Mr. Purdue!  Farming is not just any business, we all eat Mr.
Purdue, and just looking at you, you do your share of eating.

Wisconsin has, for many years, been known as the 'Dairy State', and
with good reason.  The independent dairy farmer has been the
backbone of the state's economy for over a hundred years.  But
things are changing rapidly, Wisconsin has lost 551 small dairy
farms so far this year, as of August 31, 2019. Last year, 2018, we
lost 638 and in 2017 465 dairy farmers gave up milking.  That is
a 37% increase in loss of dairy farms in 2018 over 2017, and lordy
knows how many there will finally be this year.  And much of it is
due to the tariff wars between the United States and China, the
exports of dairy solids to China fell by 43% this year due to those
tariffs.

The sad news is that Wisconsin leads the nation in farm bankruptcies
even though it is eleventh in number of farms.  And sadder yet, is
that suicide among farmers is five times higher than the rest of the
population, figures that have not been seen since the depression.
Much of this is due to the projected rate of return on their farm assets.
the Farm Bureau calculated the rate of return will be 1.3% in 2019,
that is below the ten-year average of 2%.  Last year farm subsidies
accounted for 73% of production returns.  Farmer's think that these
subsidies are hurting more than helping, as family farms are being
bought up by huge corporations.

The Farm Bill lacks the language to keep these large corporations
from taking advantage of the subsidies that were designed to help
the struggling family farms.  Dairy lobbyists in Washington DC,
spent $7.5 million in 2018 to insure their piece of the pie. The top
spender, was Land O'Lakes, a multibillion-dollar Minnesota
agricultural co-op.  They spent $1.3 million alone.

Across the nation, the projected net farm income, in 2019 will
be the third lowest in the past decade, though higher than 2018
which the second lowest in the past decade.  Farming is, and
always has been, a risky business.  In 2018, there was $15+ billion
in agriculture and dairy subsidies, Wisconsin's share of that
was more than $352 million, and of that, $4+ million went to
out-of-state addresses, and $580,000 went to addresses within
fifty miles of Chicago

However, 58% of Wisconsin farmers did not collect any subsidy
payments.  Wisconsin is 16th on the list of subsidies received,
and receives approximately $9 billion or 2.3% of the government
pie, far below its neighbors; Iowa - 8.3%, Illinois - 6.9%,
Minnesota - 5.8% and Indiana - 3.5%.

Trade wars and the stalling in Congress of NAFTA 2.0, have caused
farm markets to plummet, as there is a backlog of normally exported
crops and dairy products.  And all the signs lead toward consolidation
of agriculture and dairy businesses into factory farms, squeezing out
the family-owned farmers who have acted as stewards of the land
for generations.  These factory farms produce waist on a grand
scale and present a real danger to the environment.  The term
'factory farm' is a misnomer, these are not farms as much as they
are large scale productions, and those that operate them are not
farmers, they are producers with a greater eye to the bottom line
than the health and welfare of the animals and the land.

And this is the future that the Trump administration is promising
you.  Thanks, but no thanks, Mr. Purdue, you can stop helping
any time now.

I'm just sayin'.

Those Who Forget History Are Bound to Repeat It

The legal description of conspiracy is: An agreement
between two or more persons to commit a crime at
sometime in the future.  It is not required that any
steps have to be taken to put the plan into effect.
note: repentance by one or more persons involved
does not affect liability, but may reduce sentence time.

I bring up the matter of conspiracy because it is what
brought the Nixon White House down in 1974, not that
long ago.  What began as an innocuous break-in by five
men at the Democratic National Committee headquarters,
in the Watergate Hotel, on June 17, 1972, to bug the offices
and garner information on the Democratic presidential
campaign.  After the five perpetrators were caught with
money in their possession from the Republican Presidential
slush fund, the depth of the conspiracy began to unravel.
Ultimately, sixty-nine persons were indicted, and forty-eight
were convicted.

Among the high-profile figures in the Nixon White House
were:
   E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, both members of
the intelligence community, and referred to as the 'plumbers'.
Hunt was convicted of burglary, conspiracy, and wiretapping.
Liddy was convicted of burglary, conspiracy and refusing to
testify before the Senate. Both spent time in federal prison
  John Mitchell, United States Attorney General, was convicted
of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury.  He spent time
federal prison.
   H. R. Haldeman, White House Chief of Staff, convicted of
conspiracy and obstruction of justice, he spent time in prison.
   John Ehrlichman, Assistant Domestic Affairs Officer, convicted
of obstruction of justice and perjury, he spent time in prison.
   Charles Colson, White House Counsel, convicted of obstruction
of justice, he spent time in prison.
And who can forget baby-faced, John Dean, the White House Counsel,
on the witness stand, his wife, with her little pearl earrings, sitting
in court, so stoic.  They both looked so young.  Dean, who was the
'master manipulator' of Watergate, pled guilty to obstruction of
justice, and agreed to testify.  As a result, he received a lighter
sentence, and he was disbarred.
While all these men had their sentences reduced, they all spent time
in federal prison for felonies.
Articles of impeachment were being drawn up against President
Nixon on one count of Abuse of Power, however, he resigned
before they could go to the Senate for trial.

As Yogi Berra once said, "It's deja vue all over again."  It now appears
the necessary requirements for a conspiracy have been met, even if
there are only four participants: Donald Trump, William Barr, Mike
Pompeo, and Rudy Giuliani.  Giuliani began the process by convincing
the president that the Ukraine, not Russia, was responsible for the
interference in the 2016 election, and that somehow, they had information
on the whereabouts of the Clinton e-mail server.  The President then
made an unscripted call to the Ukrainian President-elect, and it is
purported that the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, was listening in
on the call, a fact that he first denied to the press, and later confirmed.
During the call, President Trump asked the President-elect of the Ukraine
to 'do him a favor'.  The favor entailed getting dirt on Trump's 2020 election
rival, Joe Biden.  That, in itself, would be a problem.  But the President's
staff, realizing that the phone call might pose a problem, decided to put
the transcript of the call in a hyper-secure data base, hence the cover up
begins.

It is unrealistic to believe that there are only those four participants
involved, as we've seen, the President's staff participated in the
cover-up.  At this juncture, Attorney General, William Barr, is in
the EU soliciting help to try and dispute the Mueller Report.  He
is introducing United States Attorney, John Durham, who will
be leading the investigation of the investigation, hoping to discredit
the intelligence services; the FBI and the CIA.  So far Barr, has been
to the UK, Italy and Australia.  It is widely felt, by the Democrats in
the House, that Trump is again using the powers of the Presidency
for personal retribution of his adversaries.  Is that abuse of power yet?

The House has requested that former Ambassador to the Ukraine, Marie
Yovanovitch, who was brought home early, as Trump tweeted that she
a 'joker', Kurt Volker, Deputy Assistant Secretary, George Kent,  EU
Ambassador, Gordon Sondland, and State Department Counsel, Ulrich
Brechbuhl, testify before them in the next two weeks.  So far, only
Kurt Volker, who resigned his position in the State Department, has
agreed.  The House has also subpoenaed documents from Barr's
office.  Barr has said that those State Department people do not have
to appear, citing harassment.  If so, they will be subpoenaed, forcing
them to testify under law.  Is that obstruction of justice yet?

As it appears this impeachment inquiry bears a strong resemblance
to the Nixon inquiry.  Nixon believed his popularity would help him
ride out any notion of impropriety, that and the destruction of the
tapes that implicated him in the conspiracy.  He was wrong, in the
end, the Republicans saw the gravity of the actions of the President
and put the country ahead of their party loyalty.  Nixon also put
the country first, and rather subject the country to an impeachment
trial that he most likely would lose, Nixon resigned.  Donald Trump
will never resign, he is a man obsessed, first with the fact that he
did not win the popular vote, he was confirmed by the electoral
college, not by a vote of the people.  Second, his popularity has
never reached the fifty-percent mark, and third, he is running behind
all three of the top candidates in the polling for the Democratic
nomination.

Trump's ego will not let that stand, he is Captain Ahab and his
'White Whale' is the 2016 election, and he will replay it until
he is satisfied that he actually won it, on his own, with the
most votes.  And like the white whale, it will be his downfall.
But his minions had best remember 1974; Nixon walked away
to that waiting helicopter, waved to the cameras, and flew off
to his home in California, while his staff walked thru the gates
of the federal prison.  I hope they think it's worth it.

I'm just sayin'.

When is it enough?

When is it enough?

When can I say I did my best?

When I pass the torch to the next generation?
And will they accept it?

I'm tired of fighting.  I took to the streets in the
60's, and the 70's , I marched for equal rights,
women's rights, I marched for a end of an unjust
war, and I took to the streets again after Trump's
inauguration,  along with my female colleagues.

I've been out in the cold, and the blazing heat,
I've been spit on, and called names, and now I'm
tired.  But everyday there is something coming
from this administration that boggles my mind,
it is so outrageous as to be indefensible.  Where
is the outcry, where are the people who should
be incensed by the lies, over 12,000 of them and
counting?  Why is everyone sitting there?  I can't
be the only one left who feels we are losing our
beloved country.

Or is everyone numbed by the constant onslaught?
They say the country is not in the mood for an
impeachment trial, why?  Did they not read what
I read, not see what I saw, not hear what I heard?
Am I Cassandra crying at the city gates?  Yes, I
know to overturn the vote of the people is very
serious, and should not be taken lightly.  God knows
it's been tried twice before, but this time it is not
driven by petty jealousy, by partisan bickering, it
has been well documented by a non-partisan
committee.  It has been parsed in print and the
testimony televised for all to see.

I give up, I cannot keep working for change that
will not happen.  I don't know how to reach those
people who refused to get involved.  Those who
think that this economy is good for their 401K.
Tell me what good will your retirement be when
the policies of this administration no longer
represents the beliefs of the country that you
love.  Will you take your money and go somewhere
else?  And where will that be?  America represents
all that is good and just in the world, and when we
no longer do that, what then?

One look around the world today and you can see
people risking everything; their freedom, even their
lives to protest the authoritarian rule of their
government.  This weekend there were fifty thousand
people in Moscow, and also in St. Petersburg, Russia
and even more in Hong Kong.  What do they see that
we here, in America, do not see?  They believe that
people can and will bring about real change, look at
Puerto Rico.

Ah, but I cannot give up, not as long as I draw breath.
This Saturday I was at the Farmer's market on the Square
in Madison, Wisconsin handing out brochures, bumper
stickers, campaign buttons and answering questions for
my favorite candidate for president in 2020.  I will be
there again next week and the week after that and every
week until the market closes down for the season.  Then
I will be somewhere else where the crowds gather, and then
I will be ringing doorbells and phoning my neighbors. It
matters not who I favor, only that they will serve my country
with honor and civility, and make me proud to be an American
again.  Won't you please join me?

I'm just sayin'.

I Come to Bury Not to Praise...

This is essentially the obituary of Joe Biden's
campaign for president. Even if there is
'no there there'.  I seriously doubt the campaign
will ever regain the momentum it had going in.
The old saying 'where there's smoke there's fire'
will dog the campaign going forward, and even
those who are Biden's fans will harbor that nagging
feeling that something is not right.  The question
will come up again of why isn't Obama openly supporting
him.  What does he know that we should?

The current President and the Republicans will keep
up the drumbeat of 'investigate Joe Biden' at every
rally.  The Committee to reelect the President is
planning to spend $10 million on television and
internet ads beginning today, and when they are done,
Biden's mother wouldn't vote for him.  But perhaps we
should look at what all this fuss is about.

Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's, second born son, is a graduate
of Yale Law School, class of 1996.  He has had a rather
checkered career, in and than out of the Naval Reserve
for testing positive for cocaine.  He registered as a lobbyist
in 2001, and was appointed to the Board of Amtrak in
2006, by then president George W. Bush.  He left the
Board in 2009 when his father, Joseph Biden, became
Vice President.  That is also when Hunter gave up
lobbying, and founded the law firm Rosemont Seneca
Partners.  Hunter Biden also founded the venture capital
firm of Eudora Global, and in 2013, Hunter partnered
with Chinese businessman Jonathan Li, to form a business
that invested Chinese capital outside of China.

After the Ukrainian revolution of 2014, the largest natural
gas company in the Ukraine, Burisma, formed a high-profile
International Board and invited Hunter Biden to join, evidently
to make use of the name of Biden, and paid Hunter a handsome
salary of $50,000 a month for the privilege.  There is no evidence
that Burisma ever sought favor from either of the Bidens.  However,
Victor Shokin, the Prosecutor General of the Ukraine from
February 2015 to March 2016, began an investigation of
Burisma.  The investigation was thought to be nothing except
extortion against Burisma's owner, Mykola Zlochevsky,
and the case was quickly closed.  Hunter Biden was never a
subject of the investigation.

While Joe Biden was Vice President, the United States joined
with a large consensus of Western Nations to encourage the
Ukrainian government to oust Shokin for blocking corruption
investigations in the prosecutor office.  The deputy prosecutor,
Vitali Kosho, had resigned, citing corruption and cronyism in
Shokin's office, and after that, Joe Biden threatened the
Ukrainian government. on behalf of the United States, to
withhold American loan guarantees until Victor Shokin left.
The International Monetary Fund also threatened to withdraw
financial support from the Ukraine. One-month later the
Ukrainian Parliament voted Shokin out.

 While Shokin was still in power, the investigation of Burisma
was suspended before the Vice President made the threat to with-
hold the loan guarantees, and there was no evidence found that
Joe Biden did anything to thwart the effort to investigate Burisma.
Shokin's successor, Yuriy Lutsenko, also investigated Burisma, but
closed the case after ten months.  After meeting with Rudy Giuliani,
in 2019, Lutsenko reopened the case, the reason was unclear and
nothing came of it.  The new Ukrainian President, Volodymyr
Zelenski, requested Lutsenko's removal.  There has never been a
tie-in found between Joe Biden and any dealings with Burisma.
However, in politics perception becomes reality.

Now Biden is making his third run at the presidency.  His first
attempt was in 1988, when he was then accused of plagiarizing
from a Scotsman politician, Neil Kinnock, in Kinnock's run against
Margaret Thatcher, it was not the first time.  Biden admitted he did
plagiarize the speech and withdrew his candidacy.  He ran again in
2008, and left the race after doing poorly in the Iowa caucuses, and
was later selected to be Obamas running mate.  Biden contemplated
running again in 2016, but he was still grieving the death of his son.
Beau, who died of brain cancer the year before.

In Washington D C, Joe Biden has been know as being squeaky clean,
but I don't know anyone who could survive todays investigations
of the candidates. I know I couldn't get elected dog catcher, as the
saying goes, and I would not put myself through it.  Though the
present occupant of the White House survived three divorces,
five bankruptcies, several accusations of extra-marital affairs with
women of dubious character, and being an admitted sexual
predator.  Some resume!

Now Donald Trump is being investigated for trying to influence
the Ukrainian President-elect at the time, Zelenski, to; one, find
the e-mail server used by Hillary Clinton, and two, dig up dirt
on Joe and Hunter Biden.  At the time, Trump was holding back
$250 million in military aid that had already been authorized.

This has all come to light because a whistleblower filed a complaint
with the inspector general's office after receiving complaints from
numerous people about suspected conversations of Trump with various
leaders of foreign countries.  As a result Speaker of the House, Nancy
Pelosi, has opened an impeachment inquiry, and Trump has more than
suggested that Joe Biden is guilty of the same thing, if not worse.

So here we are, Joe Biden will either be a hero or a goat.  There is a
long way to go and a lot of testimony before the full story comes out
on exactly what Trump did or did not do.  Meanwhile the first caucus
is in Iowa in February, followed closely by New Hampshire.  In the
meantime the accusations against Biden will be unanswered, and the
doubt will be foremost in people's minds.  Elizabeth Warren is already
charging Biden's supremacy.  Is there a limit to how much the man can
take before the smile dims and his step loses its buoyancy, and he goes
quietly into history?  Will America be poorer because a gentleman and
a scholar was once again cast aside?  I can't answer that question, only
the voters can.  But then I came to bury him...

I'm just sayin'