Guest Post by The Zman
A good rule to live by in modern America is that you can never be too cynical. No matter how negative your view of something, particularly politics, you are most likely being naive or optimistic relative to reality. If you go back a few decades, you’ll find that every cynical joke about how things will get worse turned out to be sunny optimism, at least with regards to politics and culture. Sadly, the doomsday predictions about economics, meteor strikes and other catastrophes turned out to be false.
As the Biden – Ukraine story begins to unfold, that old rule about being too cynical starts to look prudent. The degree of corruption in the Obama years among the Democrats is beyond what even the cynical imagined. So far, this looks like Joe Biden, while Vice President, pressured the Ukrainian government to give his crooked son a pass on some crooked energy deal in Ukraine. Biden’s son was being paid fifty grand a month for what appears to be a no-show job in a business about which he knows nothing.
Financial shenanigans are nothing new in politics, but this rises to a whole new level, which raises the first question. How crooked were these people? It’s one thing to use your influence to pressure a business for favors to a relative or political ally. This appears to be an effort to manipulate foreign policy in an effort to funnel cash to the son of the sitting VP. This is much more flagrant and much more dangerous than shaking down a contractor or taking a bribe from a donor.
This is not some one-off thing with Biden’s kid. His crooked dealings in China have long been part of the background noise of the Democrat primary. He’s also been into shady dealings with domestic financial firms and lobbying shops. The picture that emerges is of the loser son, who uses his family name to facilitate get-rich-quick schemes. He’s protected from scrutiny by his famous father. This is not Hillary Clinton level corruption, but the flagrant and reckless way in which it has gone on is amazing.
Speaking of Clinton, the effluvia of corruption that surrounds Hillary Clinton’s time in the Obama administration adds some context. The assumption has been that she was selling favors out of the State Department while she was Secretary of State. She was also eyeball deep in the Uranium One scandal. You can’t help but notice how the old Soviet Union keeps playing a role in these stories. The whole Russian collusion narrative takes on a new meaning in light of these revelations.
Of course, this not only leads back to the Russian collusion hoax, but to another question that naturally flows from all of this. How stupid are these people? Take a look at the recent Biden flap. It has been known for a while that the Trump administration was trying to get that story in the media for a year. It was ignored for the obvious reasons, so they appear to have pushed this whistle blower story. The media took the bait, only to learn that it was not the smoking gun of impeachment they imagined.
Now, this may have been dumb luck on the part of Team Trump. In politics, it is better to be lucky than good. Luck in politics is to be blessed with very stupid opponents. That seems to be the case here, but at a much wider scale. Biden had been bragging in public about throwing his weight around with the Ukrainians when he was VP. Rudy Giuliani had been pushing this story for a year. It should not have been too hard for the media to see what was coming, but they fell for the story anyway.
The question of competence is even stronger when you bring in the seditious plot run by the FBI against Trump in 2016. There was never a reason to do this. All Clinton needed to do was run a reasonably competent race and make sure to grease the Democrat machines in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Instead they went for the insanely complicated entrapment plan. Cartoon super-villains in the movies are more sober minded with regards to their schemes than these people.
This brings up something else. Why did they go after Paul Manafort, who was also involved with the Ukrainians? The assumption has been that he was low hanging fruit, but now that it is clear Biden was involved in similar dealings with Ukraine, the case takes on a new dimension. Maybe going after Manafort was about protecting Biden and by extension the Obama administration. It could be serendipity, but if you were going to look into Biden’s corrupt dealings, paying a visit to Manafort in prison is a good idea.
When Hillary Clinton arrived in Washington, her first move was to seize the raw FBI files on the political class. At the time, it was alleged she did this to get dirt on Republicans, but everyone knows Republicans are harmless. Given that Clinton operatives eventually made it to the top of the FBI, it brings that scandal back to life. Is it possible that the point of that caper was to seed the FBI with Clinton operatives? Maybe that caper was really about turning the FBI into an arm of Clinton Inc.
That sort of thinking raises the obvious question as to the purpose of the Obama administration. It is looking more and more like it was taken over by Clinton cronies and Obama was just a decoration. The most cynical said Obama was a figurehead and the real power were left-wing ideologues. Maybe the real power was the Clinton graft machine that had slowly consumed the Democrat party and the political class of Washington. Team Obama was just assimilated by the Clinton Borg.
Every time a new rock is overturned, new questions arise about what went on in the Obama years. They always seem to have some connection to Hillary Clinton, which raises a lot of other questions. The main question, of course, is will we ever get the answers to any of this. The answer to that is where we started. You can never be too cynical these days, with regards to politics. That means we will never know the truth of these scandals and we will never reach the end of them either.
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One question to ask is ‘how did we get here?’
“Classical liberalism is at [its] bottom a critique of the Old Regime. The overall effect of its cherished values – freedom, equality, individualism, tolerance, rights and so forth – is to weaken and dissolve the social order. Over a long enough period of time, it will poison, erode and destroy any culture in which it becomes the framework of a “pluralistic society.” The host culture on top of which classical liberalism and free-market capitalism is imposed lacks the means and authority to defend and sustain itself.
In the long run, the churn of the open society of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism will grind away the solidarity and cohesion that is the basis of nations and will leave behind nothing in its wake but a miserable society of deracinated consumers, blue haired lesbians, mulattoes and economic migrants. It is the nature of the system itself that inexorably lurches in this direction.”
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I see a lot of budding columnists here, and good grist for future pieces. Keep the typed ruminations coming , our fellow sleeping citizens will need them, sooner than later, I fear, on their journey to wokeness. I am certain the next 25 to 50 years will be the most turbulent times this iteration of civilization has seen since the last ice age 12,000 or so years ago. Hold on tight, make sure your seat belt is on, cause we’re in the front row, which means incoming will be danger close. It will be getting worse before it gets better. Good night and good luck.
If a tree falls in a forest…
If they don’t cover it, it isn’t a story.
That is their fervent desire.
A cynic is someone who sees too well without their glasses.
And Peq sure does love the cynic’s optique; cuts through nonsense like a laser .
A nice juicy sentence.
“…effluvia of corruption that surrounds Hillary Clinton’s time…”
I don’t understand why bloggers like Zman bother anymore with essays like this. Is there anyone left on the planet who still doesn’t know that corrupt pedos run our government, raid our treasury and break numerous laws for personal gain without a single ounce of fear of ever having to answer to their crimes?
Ben Sassehole, Mitt Romney and a lot of Mormons.
The most irritating thing about it all is that there is no interest at all, from Dem, Repub, or Independent, in rooting out any of the inept corruption which permeates DC, most state capitals, cities, counties, school systems, etc. There are too many people dependent on this mess continuing, and there is not a damned thing a common mutt citizen can do about it. There will come a time when there are too many people riding in the wagon for the underfed working horses to haul, but I have a feeling that time is a ways off yet.
And there never will be when ANY form of government has become this corrupt. I remember reading about the decline of Rome and where the term “suburbium” originated. In a nutshell, the populares fled from the city to the countryside — suburbium — to get out of the shitshow they saw on the horizon. When the marauders came (I can’t remember WHICH particular sacking of Rome this one was), they all but begged the brigands to keep Rome and not return them to its rule.
This country is going to get it good and hard and the best possible outcome is a Marcus Aurelius or a Gaius Quintus Cincinnatus. Period. I’m at the point in life where I couldn’t give a rat shit what happens to DC, so long as the brigands don’t return me to its rule.
AofC……
“And there never will be when ANY form of government has become this corrupt.”
Both of your comments on this thread hit center mass, IMHO. This government, from it’s inception, was designed by the ‘illuminated’ deists to deceive. The father of all lies-the prince of the power of the air, is the ‘light’ that guided them !
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <<<——–==
Puff piece.
1. Why waste your time speculating about all the little minutiae? Clinton is corrupt, everyone knows it, and she’ll never be prosecuted.
2. BULLSHIT about Obama. Anyone who’s been in management will tell you that as goes the head, so goes the body. He not only KNEW about all of this shit, he was IN ON IT. He didn’t just morph from community organizer to multi-millionaire magically.
3. Yes, most people in politics are not the most intelligent. If they were, they’d be producing and creating. They are, however, the most psychopathic. There’s a difference.
75 percent of mass shootings in America are committed by blacks
http://www.unz.com/sbpdl/how-can-we-blame-this-on-white-gun-owners-at-high-school-football-game-in-philadelphia-pa-between-all-black-schools-black-gunman-shoots-two-people-causing-mass-chaos/
Father time takes care of these ilk. I am much younger than them all. I will be a dancing taxi driver when they all expire naturally.
Obama just bought a $15 million dollar house seaside house (real worried about the rising seas, huh?). Where’d that kinda jack come from?
Clinton’s have over a $100 million stashed for Chelsey, the mongoloid child of Mr. Hubble. Where’d that jack come from?
I’d like to see a forensic accountant to take a peek. The results would no doubt be astounding….
” Where’d that kinda jack come from?”
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <<———-==
From the American taxpayer ! Great comment, btw.
Answers? Nope.
Everybody knows.
How that term pisses me off. For the last 10 years we’ve known about Benghazi, Fast and Furious and uranium one. For the last 20 years we have been kept in the dark about Epstein, Las Vegas and even going back to 9-11.
Then our white knight came on the scene with promises about “her going to jail,” “draining the swamp” etc. After 3 years, even though he “has all the dirt,” all we get are tweets of how bad he is being treated.
Everybody knows, yet the swamp dwellers continue with their book deals, gigs on the media and that look that says “suckers, you got nothing on me.”
Well, the impeachment proceedings are moving forward and the liberals get bolder every day, while the president seems to be shrinking back into his little corner, clutching his pearls and crying harassment.
Maybe he should just come out and become an activist for the # Me too movement; instead of draining the swamp, he appears to have fallen victim to it.
“…….instead of draining the swamp, he appears to have fallen victim to it.”
That’s exactly the desired result…….I can see the white knight being re-elected by the most-votes-ever-landslide victory……..finally, “peace and safety” the trumpsters will cry, and god emperor Trump will “keep them safe” by monitoring/tracking every word you speak and place you go……..the ‘beast system’ is in place and ready to implement.
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <<———-==
Remember the scene in 1984 when Winston realizes They were always listening?
That all his attempts to escape the oversight of Big Brother were futile.
Well…I live in a bit of a bubble. I admit that. We do not have to interact with anyone.
Unless we choose to do so.
I get up, thank Creator God for the day and March boldly to the throne.
And then I turn on the news and wonder why Nancy Pelosi is still alive.
Pineal glands of young children?
I hope our Bubble holds. The world encroacheth in a slouching way.