seen at CTH

SDY....when you see that graphic pop up on the MSM you will know their days are numbered. Until then I'm not holding my breath.

Porky Pig ain't got nothin' on this sumbitch.

Biden's bid to oust Ukraine prosecutor followed intense pressure by son's Burisma firm

https://justthenews.com/accoun..._campaign=newsletter

Six high-level meetings included a previously undisclosed contact with U.S. ambassador in Kiev, records show.



Hunter Biden and representatives of Burisma Holdings secured at least six high-level meetings with senior Obama administration officials in the weeks just before Vice President Joe Biden forced the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the gas company, according to newly disclosed memos and testimony.

During some of the meetings, a Democratic firm called Blue Star Strategies that was representing Burisma repeatedly pressed U.S. officials to help end corruption allegations that long had dogged the Ukrainian gas firm, which appointed Hunter Biden to its board in 2014.

In one previously undisclosed contact in December 2015, Blue Star secured a meeting with then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt in which the Burisma lobbyists made a case that the gas firm should not be prosecuted any longer.

The meeting came at a sensitive time. Pyatt just a few months earlier had given a speech demanding that Burisma and its owner Mykola Zlochevsky be prosecuted for corruption, and Ukrainian prosecutors had begun stepping up activity in the case, including sending evidence to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau for further investigation and eventually securing a new asset forfeiture against Zlochevsky.

The New York Times also had just reported a story saying Hunter Biden's presence on Burisma's board during the investigation was undercutting U.S. credibility in the fight against Ukrainian corruption. State Department officials divulged Joe Biden also made the first effort to fire the lead prosecutor in the Burisma case that same month.

Amos Hochstein, a senior energy policy official at the State Department and confidant of Vice President Biden, told Senate investigators he took meetings with Blue Star in late 2015 and again in March 2016. He also met once with Hunter Bidem during the same time frame to discuss Burisma.

In the latter of its meetings with Hochstein, Blue Star argued there was no longer a reason to pursue the gas firm or its founder Mykola Zolchevsky, Hochstein testified.

"They told me that they believed that Zlochevsky was tried, prosecuted, and the charges against him were dismissed by the U.K. and, therefore, there was no reason to hold him responsible since the judicial system worked," Hochstein said, describing the March 2016 meeting.

"I was very clear about my views that I disagreed," he added. "… They clearly did not agree with me, and I expressed my disappointment."
File
2020-09-17-Hochstein Interview with Exhibits.pdf

Hochstein, Pyatt and former Undersecretary of State Catherine Novelli all got pressured by Blue Star and testified they held the U.S. line that Zlochevsky and Burisma should be prosecuted by then-Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin.

By mid-March 2016, Blue Star had gotten a clear message: The State Department was not budging and planned to let the prosecution of Burisma proceed.

Then in late March 2016, Vice President Biden took an extraordinary step. By his own admission on videotape, Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in badly needed aid to Ukraine unless then-President Petro Poroshenko fired Shokin.

Ukraine caved, and Shokin was sent packing by the Ukrainian legislature on March 29, 2016.

Shokin has long claimed he was fired at Joe Biden's insistence because he would not drop the Burisma probe. Joe Biden denies he was trying to help Burisma, and instead pressed for Shokin's dismissal because the international community wanted a change in the prosecutor's office.

Shokin had only been in the job about a year when he was canned, and during last year's impeachment hearings Democrats and their allies in the news media claimed Shokin was fired for corruption.

But State officials testifying before the Senate Finance and Homeland Security committees' joint investigation of Hunter Biden and Burisma could not corroborate the corruption claims.

George Kent, who was a senior State official in Kiev during the time, repeatedly was asked whether Shokin ever took any bribes, including from Burisma. Kent answered he had no knowledge of such corruption and that Shokin was dimissed after just a year on the job because he was deemed ineffective.

"I can assess that Viktor Shokin did not seriously advance any case of corruption against any known corrupt individual during his tenure," Kent testified.
File
2020-09-17-Hochstein Interview with Exhibits.pdf

Whether Biden forced the firing of Shokin for good or nefarious reasons, the removal of Shokin gave Burisma and its Blue Star lobbyists an extraordinary opening which ultimately benefitted Hunter Biden's firm.

Shokin's successor as prosecutor general, Yurii Lutsenko, settled the allegations against Burisma with almost no penalty, pleasing both Blue Star and the gas company.

Kent testified how disappointing the final outcome was.

"What Mr. Lutsenko claimed, and did, was settle the charges against Zlochevsky, downgrade it from money-laundering to nonpayment of taxes, and accept a settlement and a payment that allowed Mr. Zlochevsky to return to Ukraine after that payment was made," he said.

In other words, the pressure campaign by Burisma ultimately succeeded even though U.S. officials believed Burisma had been corrupt for years and had even paid a $7 million bribe in 2014 to Ukrainian prosecutors under Shokin's predecessor.

Obama administration officials in their testimony defended Joe Biden's effort to fire Shokin, saying there was widespread support to do so. But their records also indicate that the vice president veered from the U.S. messaging on Burisma.

During a December 2015 visit to Ukraine, Joe Biden and his staff decided they would not call Zlochevsky corrupt, like Pyatt, Hochstein, Kent and so many others did.

"I'm not going to get into naming names or accusing individuals," Biden was instructed to say in talking points prepared by his staff.

Whether intentional or not, Joe Biden's demurral on Zlochevsky and his pressure to fire the Ukrainian prosecutor leading the probe of Burisma ultimately benefited the firm that had hired Hunter Biden and had lobbied so hard through Blue Star to drop the prosecution.

Biden called another lid at 9:52 AM this morning.

If we had a normal, functioning media in this country they would be asking some questions, but since it's a dem, nah, we'll just pretend this is normal.

This guy is running for president and I've worked twice as many hours/days as him this month.

By looking at the calendar it appears Joe works every other day and Tuesday is not a work day.

So far it looks like Joe is going to surprise many of us and actually show up.

Still time to catch the China virus before Tuesday, so nothing is set in stone.

quote:

So far it looks like Joe is going to surprise many of us and actually show up.
Still time to catch the China virus before Tuesday, so nothing is set in stone.

I think he will show. If you asked me a month ago I would have said No Way!
It'll be interesting!

My opinion is that they are changing his sleep schedule up so he will be alert later on in the evening during the debate. He'll be there.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

quote:

So far it looks like Joe is going to surprise many of us and actually show up.
Still time to catch the China virus before Tuesday, so nothing is set in stone.

I think he will show. If you asked me a month ago I would have said No Way!
It'll be interesting!

He and his handlers know that all he has to do is remain upright and appear at least semi lucid and the media will declare him the winner and best debater in the history of presidential debates. You know he has the specific questions and his team has been drilling him on the answers - no way he is going into this cold.

quote:

Originally posted by kimber1911:
Still time to catch the China virus before Tuesday, so nothing is set in stone.

I've asked you guys four or five times to stop saying this stupid unfounded shit. Here we are, one day away from the debate and you guys are STILL offering up this same Goddamned stupid crap. Two days after the debates, someone is still going to be saying it, I'll bet. Stop it. You are WRONG. Accept it. You are wrong. Damn, this is so silly. It's nothing but cool-sounding, silly speculation. Stop it.

All Trump has to do as Para said is rattle him early on and none of this prep will matter.

If he does show up, I guarantee you Trump will have him reduced to a ranting, babbling mess within 10 minutes. Chris Wallace will have to stop in to save him, you watch.

He'll show up and be his normal self....it will not matter. The 'media' will declare him the winner and insist Trump was publicly flogged. This narrative can only be changed by voters.

Joe Biden Exploited S-Corporation Loophole to Avoid Payroll Tax

The establishment media is all aflutter Monday after a New York Times story over the weekend about incumbent GOP President Donald Trump’s tax records, but it turns out Democrat candidate former Vice President Joe Biden used a series of tax code loopholes to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes over the years.

Back in August, the Wall Street Journal’s Chris Jacobs exposed how the Biden family structured what is called an “S-Corp” to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes.

“How the Bidens Dodged the Payroll Tax,” was Jacobs’ headline on Aug. 10.

In it, the Journal details how the Bidens set up an S-Corporation to avoid paying more than half a million dollars in taxes they would have otherwise owed.

“Joe Biden responded to President Trump’s partial suspension of payroll-tax collections with a statement calling it the ‘first shot in a new, reckless war on Social Security,’” Jacobs wrote. He continued: “‘Our seniors and millions of Americans with disabilities are under enough stress without Trump putting their hard-earned Social Security benefits in doubt.’ Mr. Biden’s objections might be more persuasive had he and his wife, Jill, not gone out of their way to avoid funding seniors’ entitlement benefits. According to their tax returns, in 2017 and 2018 the Bidens and his wife Jill avoided payroll taxes on nearly $13.3 million in income from book royalties and speaking fees. They did so by classifying the income as S-corporation profits rather than taxable wages.”

Jacobs continued in his expose by noting the corporation the Bidens established to avoid paying the payroll taxes on millions of dollars in income amounts to more than half a million dollars in taxes that Joe and Jill Biden did not pay.

“According to the Urban Institute, a couple featuring one high earner and one average earner, retiring this year, will have paid a total of $209,000 in Medicare taxes during their working lives,” Jacobs wrote. “The Bidens avoided paying nearly twice that much in Medicare taxes during two years. The maximum payroll tax affected by Mr. Trump’s suspension is $1,984—less than 1/250th of the amount the Bidens avoided in 2017-18. The Bidens didn’t avoid any Social Security tax, which applied only to the first $127,200 of income in 2017 and $128,400 in 2018. But they would under Mr. Biden’s tax plan, which would impose the 12.4% Social Security tax on income over $400,000; the same loophole he used in 2017-18 would shield him from his own tax. And how can Mr. Biden claim to protect Medicare and ObamaCare when he avoided more than $500,000 in taxes that fund the two programs? The media have largely ignored the Bidens’ accounting legerdemain, fixating on Mr. Trump’s tax returns instead. But at least the president isn’t looking to raise taxes on everyone else.”

“The former vice president and 2020 presidential contender and his wife Jill Biden reported about $10 million in income in 2017 from a pair of S-corporations, CelticCapri and Giacoppa,” Mercado wrote in CNBC. “The two entities were paid for the couple’s book deals and speaking gigs. That mean any amounts the Bidens received as a distribution wasn’t subject to the 15.3% combined Social Security and Medicare tax. Here’s how it works. S-corporations pay their employee shareholders in two ways: wages and distributions.The S-corps reported another $3.2 million in income in 2018.”

In other words, on much of the income Joe and Jill Biden generated through the corporations they established to pay themselves—CelticCapri and Giacoppa are the names of the two so-called S-Corporations—they did not have to pay payroll taxes collected to fund Social Security and Medicare.

Those on the left are not happy with the Bidens over the hypocrisy, either. The Intercept’s Ryan Grim in 2019 noted Biden has used Delaware corporation laws to hide his financial information from the American people.

https://www.breitbart.com/poli...cial-security-taxes/

joe forgot about that...

quote:

Originally posted by kimber1911:
By looking at the calendar it appears Joe works every other day and Tuesday is not a work day.

I've said it before, and I continue to be convinced that it's probably true: this is Bob Dole's revenge - no one will ever accuse him of running a half-assed, lazy campaign for the Presidency again now that Biden is the poster boy for half-assed, lazy Presidential campaigning.

Rush Limbaugh was theorizing Friday from what he’s been hearing that Biden was taken back to the bunker and will remain there more or less until Election Day because his handlers actually think he’s got the election in the bag and any more exposure is MORE DAMAGING than the hiding! If you notice, he’s got ads everywhere on TV and YouTube as well and it’s giving people the impression he’s actually out there like Trump has been all along.

If you ask me, they are repeating the same exact mistake that Hillary made where she thought she had this and she didn’t need to campaign and skipped several crucial states altogether.

Dr. Jill dismisses talk of Joe's gaffes -- "You can't even go there". Just like "C'mon Man", knee-jerk Biden response implies you're the problem for bringing something up.




Twatter

Snake oil salesmen pops to mind every time Democrats speak

jill & joe have gaffe denial down to a science. But let President Trump make one mistake and it's all over the media.