“THIS TIME, WE’VE GOT ‘IM!”
September 25, 2019
Dear Friends and Colleagues:
A few years back – before Trump – the “Putintate” decided it really needed the warm water naval port and the iron and coal deposits that were previously controlled by their USSR predecessor, so they stole the Black Sea Port and its province from their Ukrainian neighbors. This was an evil deed and condemned by all responsible nations around the world. As a result of this and the “Putintate’s” further belligerence toward Ukraine, the West “promised” support and funding to help them stand strong against their Russian interlopers. “Support” turned out to be “money” and maybe a few low-caliber “arms” but not anything like “boots on the ground.”
One might think, with Ukraine being west of the Urals and thus part of Europe, that the European nations would be the “standup” guys. But, no, they preferred mostly talk and promises of support and not much more. For our part, we also talked the talk but also provided some big cash and limited military arms support so as to hopefully retard any further incursions on the Ukraine by the “Putintate.” Our contributions totaled in the billions.
Unfortunately, we also found that some of those in charge in the Ukraine were corrupt and enriching themselves at our expense – and that some of them were even making kickbacks to selected American citizens, but not the actual “contributors” — who were the American taxpayers — (PS: that’s you and me). Corruption was learned at the knee of the prior USSR holdovers who held positions in Ukraine even after the Iron Curtain fell.
Now as it turns out, some of those who were taking US taxpayer dollars washed through the “Ukrainian Aid” included US “personalities” and relatives of powerful people. Those personalities were getting kickbacks from Ukrainian recipient entities. Among those was a son of a previous vice president, who was being paid $50,000 a month for having his name on the Ukrainian corporate escutcheon – no actual work or “hours” were necessarily involved… Nice work, if you can get it… and you can get it if your dad is (was) the Vice President.
So let’s break this down into simplest terms: The US sends billions to a foreign country, and in exchange, that country kicks back American dollars to a few selected folks in the US government who provided the funds. Simpler still: This means they wash taxpayer dollars through a foreign country bank account and then pay them to a relative of an important US “figure,” as a thank-you. Worse still, when the country that received American largess tries to clean up its internal corruption, it is threatened by the important person — (former VP Biden) whose son was benefiting from the corruption — with the withholding of $2 billion more in US aid, if the government were to continue to investigate the Ukrainian “front” corporation that is paying $50,000 A MONTH to his son for … for what…? Oh, for having his name on their escutcheon? Now, for those who might be mathematically challenged, that scam amounted to $600,000 a year. Wow, nice work if you can get it. And you CAN; you just need to be the son of a Democrat big shot.
So now, when our current president asks his Ukrainian counterpart to reopen the aborted inquiry into this black hole into which your tax dollars and mine were being funneled, it is suddenly a scandal. Maybe it would have been been less of a “scandal” if our president had not provided the “specifics” as to where some of the corruption of American largess had been kicked back? Just askin’? I guess we’re not supposed to tell them where to look? Just askin.’
Holy Cow! Time to impeach… This time, we’ve got ’im!
Old Frank