Fools Rush In

While it is difficult to grasp all that’s going on in our world today, there is this certainty: there’s a lot of evil going on.

I can’t even summarize well. But here’s the bare bones outline:

Putin threatened for a long time and finally invaded its neighbor Ukraine. Putin is not part of Western Civilization; we should not expect him to think the way we do.

map found here

Ukraine is one of the top ten most corrupt countries in the world. I don’t know if that includes their current elected leader, who was an entertainer, not a politician, and whose election seemed to surprise everyone. Is he part of the corruption, a puppet of it, or a hindrance to it? I don’t know. But he does seem to be inspiring his people to stand stronger than expected.

Our current president is deeply involved in Ukraine’s corruption (remember this); that should be considered in evaluating anything he or his administration says on the subject.

Putin may be an evil power monger, but he is also against the worldwide Great Reset cabal; he’s an interference in someone’s programs, and having an excuse to get rid of him might be part of their planning.

Parts of Ukraine are ethnically Russian. It appears the people in that region would like some level of independence or representation. I’m picturing as Quebec in Canada, or as any one of the United States. It does not follow that those people would prefer being under Putin’s dictatorial regime, simply because Putin is Russian.

It appears to me that neither Ukrainians nor Russians—the people, not the governments—want war. They are the ones suffering for decisions of leaders they cannot control.

Back in 2014, Russia invaded Crimea, without consequence. Those who allowed him to do that are the very ones saying how wrong he is to do this.

image found here

Our country’s leaders just very recently botched our exit from Afghanistan, for no reason beyond either their foolishness or their purposeful effort to weaken America and strengthen those who hate us. There are still abandoned Americans there. Such leaders should not be given any support in sending our troops and treasure to a far-off nation that is not a direct danger to us.

However, our country set up Ukraine for this situation. As J. D. Vance pointed out,

Our leaders foolishly pressured Ukraine to give up their nuclear arsenal in the 1990s, which stripped them of their leverage to deter an eventual Russian invasion. These supposed “experts” wrongly predicted that these moves would deter Russia instead of provoking them; on this, as with so much else, they were catastrophically wrong.

Putin cannot be threatened by a possible acceptance into NATO of Ukraine. NATO is strictly defensive, so it is no threat to him—unless he is on offense. Allowing Ukraine into NATO only binds us, the major component of NATO, to step in militarily, rather than helping in less kinetic ways.

US oil independence was a deterrent to Russia. We had that—until Biden got in, shut down the Keystone Pipeline, meanwhile greenlighting Russia’s Nord Stream 2 oil pipeline to Europe, and quickly made the US oil dependent again. Purposefully.

Meanwhile our own southern border is kept open, with record numbers of illegal aliens flooding in. We cannot seriously consider sending troops across the world to defend someone else’s border when we do not defend our own.

All of this is to say, I am only in the beginning stages of learning about this situation, and I have not reached any personal conclusion about how the Ukrainian people should be helped. They should be helped. Let us—our churches, our nonprofits, whatever resources we have—find ways to help the beleaguered people who are suffering.

image found here

But our nation’s resources and resolve are and must be limited while we have the current regime in power. Calls from either Democrats or Republicans (and both are calling) to rush in militarily are premature at best, and possibly intended to further weaken America.

Below I have collected some of the voices I’ve been reading and hearing—very little of any sort of mainstream news, which I have learned I cannot trust to tell the truth about anything, let alone something so momentous. I’m finding more and will continue. But these below I have found useful in gaining information, history, and perspective.

 

Written Resources

·         “J. D. Vance Issues Statement on Russia Invasion of Ukraine” full statement, February 24, 2022. 

·         “An Unserious People Confront a Serious Man” Erick Erickson column, February 24, 2022. 

·         “Ukraine: Putin's Misadventure Unites the West” Larry Elder column, March 2, 2022. 

·         “The War in Ukraine” Glenn Greenwald, February 24, 2022. 

 

Video Resources

·         “Ep. 102: Russia Invades Ukraine? Canada Off the Rails! Olympics & MORE!” Viva & Barnes livestream, February 27, 2022. 

·         “Ukraine: Why It Happened and Why It Matters |Dr. Kori Schake” We Hold These Truths podcast, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, March 1, 2022. 

·         “The ACTUAL State of Our Union: Wars & Rumors of Wars... | Glenn TV | Ep 175” Glenn Beck Special on The Blaze, March 2, 2022. 

·         “Is Putin Dying?” Mr. Reagan podcast, March 1, 2022. 

·         “Russia, Ukraine, and the West | Frederick Kagan| The JBP Podcast | #230” Jordan Peterson interviews Frederick Kagan on the Jordan Peterson podcast, February 28, 2022. 

·         “How Israel is THREATENED by Russia's Ukraine Invasion | Watchman Newscast” Erick Stakelbeck on The Watchman podcast, March 1, 2022. 

·         “What you don't know about the war in Ukraine” сФилином (translates from Russian as “with Owl”) podcast, February 25, 2022.  

·         “Ukraine-Russia PROPAGANDA Revealed in MEDIA as WHITE HOUSE Prepares for SOTU” Robert Gouveia podcast, February 28, 2022. 

·         “Putin's mind, is he mad?” Dr. John Campbell podcast, with Vlad Vexler, February 28, 2022. 

·         “Vladimir Putin: Body Language Reveals REAL Anger to Ukraine and USA” The Behavior Panel podcast, March 2, 2022. 

·         “Victor Davis Hanson | War in Ukraine” John Anderson podcast, March 2, 2022. 

Misdirection from the Larger Story, Part I

Instead of impeachment hearings Wednesday, I watched the third in a series of Glenn Beck specials on the larger background of Ukrainian corruption—and the even larger background of worldwide power mongering. They relate tangentially.

Glenn Beck's interactive chalkboard on Ukraine corruption
image from here

Before I left for the day and tuned out all news until evening, I heard just a bit of the opening statements from the open impeachment hearings. Chairman Adam Schiff’s comments were what you would expect from him by now, if you’re paying attention. He was followed by Republican Devin Nunes, who laid out the Democrats’ pattern of behavior, leading to the conclusion that this is just the next in a long series of attempts to overthrow the vote of the people in electing President Trump.

And then Congressman Jim Jordan asked when we could expect to see scheduled the opportunity to question the whistleblower: 

Reps. Adam Schiff (left) and Jim Jordan
screenshot from here

Jordan: Do you anticipate when we might vote on when we will be able to have the whistleblower in front of us? Something that you— Of the 435 members of Congress, you are the only member who knows who that individual is, and your staff is the only staff of any member of Congress who’s had a chance to talk with that individual. We would like that opportunity. When might that happen in this proceeding today?

Schiff: First, as the gentleman knows, that’s a false statement. I do not know the identity of the whistleblower, and I’m determined to make sure that identity is protected.

As Schiff (not a gentleman) knows, his statement is false. He does know the identity of the whistleblower. 

Back in September, Schiff says, “We have not heard directly from the whistleblower. We would like to.” 

Then, on October 2, the New York Times reveals that Schiff or staff (and are we to believe his staff would handle this entirely without his knowledge?) was apprised of the whistleblower’s story days ahead of the filing of that report. 

In tweets House Minority Whip Steve Scalise points out that Schiff had blatantly lied back in September. And House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says, “Schiff lied. The question is why?” So, to “clarify,” a committee member claims Schiff had supposedly meant the Intelligence Committee members as a whole, including Schiff personally, perhaps, had not heard directly from the whistleblower. Right [sarcastic tone].

Are we to believe that his staff had no other contact with the whistleblower? Didn’t direct him on how to file, where to file, how to word the statement? And also never mentioned it to their boss, Chairman Schiff? They only mentioned that there was a whistleblower, some individual with a second-hand story of a phonecall, and their boss doesn’t say, “What do we know about this person so that we can gauge whether they are credible?” No questions about the whistleblower’s possible motivations or connections? He just directs them, “Go ahead with your work. Don’t tell me anything”?

I’m picturing one of those movie scenes where a high ranking official shows up somewhere to direct a CIA operative, gives instructions, and then says, “And remember, I was never here.” Cliché.

We do know, unofficially, who the whistleblower is. This includes, I presume, Congressman Jordan, who asked the question. It was called an open secret in media circles for weeks. Some sites started using the name in early October. I heard it from The Blaze and The Daily Wire at least three weeks ago.

The name is Eric Ciaramella. He was a holdover in the National Security Council from the Obama administration, kept on because of his expertise on Ukraine issues, but was fired in 2017 for leaks, after which he returned to the CIA. (The NSC leaking sharply decreased, coincidentally.)

And note, for the record, that there’s a complaint that the transcript of the president’s phonecall in question was made classified, which was a supposed extraordinary action, because there was something nefarious to hide, Schiff implies. But such phonecalls were, as a matter of course, made classified—a change in protocol that had already been in place for a long time, in an attempt to prevent leaks. In other words, the protocol was set in place long before the phonecall—because of the behavior of Ciaramella and possibly others.

Ciaramella’s history also included working directly under James Clapper, and working with Joe Biden at the time when the Obama administration made Biden the “point man” on Ukraine (see Ukraine corruption story here). Ciaramella worked with CIA Director (until January 2017) John Brennan, and he was of course a registered Democrat. He worked directly with DNC operative Alexandra Chalupa, who instigated digging up false dirt to put into the dossier used for the faulty FISA application to get permission to wiretap Trump. Remember that?

If you were looking for a Deep State operative—not a head guy, just a functionary in such a meta-organization—this is the guy.

Schiff had insisted the whistleblower’s story was necessary and important—until just five days after Glenn Beck’s first chalkboard special on Ukrainian corruption. Then suddenly we didn’t need to hear from him, and his identity must be protected at all costs. Odd timing. Unless they suddenly realized someone was onto them.

Tween from Turning Point USA's Benny Johnson
from page 236 of the transcript of US Ambassador
to Ukraine's testimony. Image found here.

And then there were the transcripts of the closed-door impeachment hearings a couple of weeks ago. Schiff’s staff accidentally failed to redact the name of the whistleblower when a witness was questioned about knowing him. Oops. 

The point here is that, if you’re starting off the hearings with someone who blatantly lies to the American people, and the truth shows that there are nefarious reasons for lying about something as simple as having had contact with the whistleblower whose testimony the whole circus is supposedly based on—well, then, you know there’s no truth to be gotten from these hearings.

The Babylon Bee, the parody news site that accidentally becomes
your best source of news, illustrates the impeachment circus.
image from here

While we’re talking the hearings, let’s add a dash of humor. A friend made a link to the REO Speedwagon song “Take It on the Run,” which starts out “I heard it from a friend who / heard it from a friend who / heard it from another …” and suggested this should be the theme song for these hearings.

And then today, in the satirical news parody Andrew Klavan does at the beginning of his podcast, he says,

Eager to get off to a powerful start that would bring forward their best anti-Trump testimony, Democrats introduced their star witness: Alexa, the electronic information assistant from Amazon. Committee Chairman Adam Googly-eyes Schiff started the questioning saying, (quote) “Alexa, did the President demand a quid pro quo from Ukraine?” (unquote).

Alexa answered, (quote) “A man passing the White House Tuesday overheard a guard in the sidewalk booth speaking on the phone to his mother and saying he had met a janitor who said he was cleaning an office in the West Wing when he saw an assistant to an aide in the press department texting a disgruntled former employee of the State Department who said he was willing to bet that old meany Trump would do anything to bring down Joe Biden, who will be a terrific threat to him in the 2020 election, if he can ever complete an English sentence without his teeth falling out and his eye exploding. That text was recorded by Facebook, who was spying on everyone and recorded by myself, who’s spying on Facebook, which is how I know Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself” (unquote).

Regarding the sources of information—all supposedly better than the actual transcript of the phonecall in question, which President Trump made public the day after the whistleblower’s report made news—that isn’t too much of an exaggeration.

We haven’t even gotten to the actual meat, the bigger background. And we are still learning about that, even though the media is conveniently—what’s the term magician’s use?—misdirecting by pretending the impeachment hearings are about protecting the American people from Trump’s supposed wrongdoing. Even though the media is doing their part in Schiff’s show, there’s a plausible reason for Deep State actors to want to hide what Ukraine corruption was really about. The Biden scandal was only a small speck in the overall picture.

But, just so I get it said, even if President Trump had asked for investigation into the Bidens’ possible corruption, wasn’t that in both the interest of Ukraine and the US to know? Would we want to have people possibly voting for a former VP, who was up to the wazoo in corruption, without knowing the facts? 

There’s never been an accusation that Trump asked for made-up information about Biden, only that he wanted an investigation into things that Biden himself had bragged about doing. Was he supposed to say, “Investigate all the corruption you can, because we want Ukraine to go forward with your new presidency having rooted that all out—except, you know, it would have bad optics if you stumbled across corruption by former VP Joe Biden, since he’s currently a candidate; so don’t follow any of those leads”? No. Even if Trump’s inquiries had been only about Biden’s actual corruption, there was nothing there that wouldn’t be in the interest of the US voting public to know.

And it wasn’t only about that relatively minor part of the overall corruption.

The larger Ukrainian corruption—and the even larger worldwide power-mongering—are what interest me much more than the impeachment hearings. But it took this much just to get past the preliminaries of the hearing, so this will require a part II.

Too Much for a Soundbite

One of my (very minor) superpowers is being able to gather and synthesize information, and then lay it out for easier understanding. But there are limits. So, today I’ll show you a bit what is in the process of coming to an understanding, not fully ready for certainty.

But one pattern I’ve seen: If the enemies of freedom,prosperity, and civilization accuse their opposition of something, you can assume they’re doing that very thing.

Glenn Beck, explaining the Ukraine Scandal, October 4, 2019
screenshot from here

Last Thursday I watched the full two-hour chalkboard presentation Glenn Beck did of the Ukraine Scandal. I’ve included the 51-minute essential video below. But it was too much for me to digest in a sitting. Or two. So I went through it again, piece-by-piece, taking notes, to see it in writing. So I might as well share that. After that, I’ll share some additional materials you can check out to educate yourself.

·         February 2014 Ukraine got a new president.

·         March 2014 Obama administration offers help to financially strapped Ukraine. Joe Biden placed to oversee the help.

·         Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, along with John Kerry’s son, has set up an investment firm—for which the younger Biden has no experience (although he does have a record, having been kicked out of the military for drug problems, and is known for other scandals. See YouTube “Joe Biden Scandal in Ukraine.”)

·         April 2014 Joe Biden, along with Devon Archer, flies to Ukraine.

·         May 2014 Devon Archer (Biden’s friend) is made a board member of Burisma, a gas company. Also, Hunter Biden is placed on that board (without experience in oil and gas)—where he receives $50,000 a month (or $600,000 for a year). The oligarch owner of Burisma is too corrupt to get a visa to enter the US.

·         Also in May 2014 Obama offers a $1 Billion loan guarantee, plus $320 Million in general assistance, plus $118 Million for security equipment and training, plus $20 Million for law enforcement reform, plus lots of advisors—for banking, politics, energy, media, and human rights.

·         November 2014 Obama administration insists that Ukraine establish a national anti-corruption bureau (NACB), with the US as a partner. This puts the US in a position to get direct information on anything this bureau uncovers. Advisors include Greg Craig, former Obama White House Counsel; Tad Devine, Bernie Sanders’ chief strategist; and Tony Podesta, brother to John Podesta (who was counsel to Obama in 2014-2015); Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist; Joel Benenson and John Anzalone, Obama campaign pollsters.

·         Meanwhile, the corrupt oligarch owner of Burisma gets $1.8 B of money going to Burisma to be placed in his private bank—and that money disappears in a “banking error.” And at this point, the ban on his visa to the US is lifted, meaning he is no longer considered corrupt.

·         June 2015 Trump announces his presidential candidacy.

·         Late 2015, in the climate of corruption tied to Obama operatives, the Democrat National Committee (DNC) hires Alexandra Chalupa, daughter of Ukrainian, to do opposition research on Trump. (She had been doing work for the DNC since 2004.)

·         January 2016 Chalupa approaches DNC officials, suggests (no evidence; she just has a feeling) that Trump is connected somehow to Russia. This is before Manafort or Papadopoulos were in the picture for the Trump campaign, and before the Steel dossier. She focuses on Paul Manafort, who had worked for the campaign of the ousted Ukrainian president in 2014, but ignores the fact that Tad Devine and Tony Podesta had also advised the ousted president (these two were later appointed as advisors to the new president).

·         January 2016 Ukraine NACB meets with White House about two issues: Joe Biden and his son related to Burisma, and Paul Manafort. Only Manafort gets investigated. Those at the meeting later report they were pressured not to investigate the Burisma $1.8 B loss of money that had come from US taxpayers. (Contrast this with the current claim that possibly Trump pressured Ukraine to look into this very thing.)

·         March 2016 Ukraine prosecutor Shokin had been looking into Burisma; Joe Biden steps in and gets him fired. (He later brags about this; there is video.) According to Shokin testimony in another case, when he was fired, there had been no complaints about his work, and Biden presented no incidents of his supposed corruption. He claims he was fired because of Biden and assumes it was because of his investigation into Burisma, because of Biden’s son’s connection with that company. But he was also investigating an NGO supported by both the US government and a George Soros-owned organization.

·         Also in March 2016, another “accounting error” loses and additional $2.2 million in US taxpayer IMP loan to Ukraine.

·         Also in March 2016, Lutsenko takes over as prosecutor in Ukraine.

·         Also in March 2016, Manafort briefly works for the Trump campaign. And Chalupa, still a DNC operative, starts working directly with the Ukrainian Embassy in the US, where she worked to (mis)direct reporters researching Manafort and Russia, to damage the campaign of the Republican candidate for president.

·         April 2016 Chalupa spoke at Open World Society forum on Manafort, bringing in Michael Isikoff, whom she had connected with the Ukrainians. In a May email she hinted about a Trump connection she was working on. Later Isikoff wrote a story on the Steel dossier; he had received that dossier—which eventually showed up with the FBI and was used to obtain a FISA warrant to investigate Trump.

·         Also April 2016, the DNC hired FusionGPS to investigate Trump. Bruce Ohr of the DOJ was married to a woman who worked for FusionGPS, which was hired by the DNC. It is reasonable to say, then, that the DNC was colluding with Ukraine to interfere with a US presidential election.

·         June 2016 The FBI officially combined with the Ukraine NACB.

·         June 2016 A black ledger containing financial records kept by the former Ukrainian president, used for under-the-table payments. The black ledger was put together by head of NACB, Sytnyk and Leshchenko. They illegally release these documents in August 2016. The same day that info comes out that sends Manafort to jail, Tony Podesta (who had been doing the same work for the former Ukrainian president) retires, closes doors on his lobbying business, and no one investigates.

·         Also in June 2016 Obama appoints a new US Ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch. She calls in Lutsenko and instructs him not to investigate Burisma (and the missing $1.8 B) or the Soros-connected organization (and the missing $2.2 M), or a number of unnamed Ukrainians. Lutsenko, the new prosecutor for Ukraine, wanted to meet in the US with the DOJ. But the ambassador refused visas to him and his team. Specifically, they had wanted to discuss the following:

Glenn Beck explains what prosecutor Lutsenko wanted to share with DOJ
screenshot from here

o   DNC and Ukrainian officials were trying to gather dirt on Trump.

o   Misappropriation of $7 B in US money.

o   Ukrainian officials who admitted to influencing the US election.

o   Records showing Burisma sending $3 M to Hunter Biden (apparently way beyond his $600,00 in pay for being on their board).

o   Report of Biden pressuring Ukraine to fire Shokin.

o   US officials had interfered in cases in Ukraine.

·         November 2016 Trump won the election, a surprise to all these operatives.

·         July 12, 2017 Sarah Huckabee Sanders, at that time the incoming White House Press Secretary, in an off-camera briefing, tells media any actual collusion had happened between the DNC and the Ukrainian government and had specifically targeted people in the Trump campaign to influence the election. No follow-up questions from the media.

·         October 2017 Two Ukrainians (Sytnyk of NACB and Leshchenko) are found guilty of interfering in US election. US media doesn’t cover this. Evidence included prosecutor Lutsenko mentioning, in April, an audio the Americans had of Sytnyk conversation at his home, discussing how he would like to help Hillary, who was of the US and world hegemony, even though Trump would be better for the American people. Rosenblat leaked the audio recording, after the court heard it, in October 2017. It was front-page news in Ukraine, but not covered here.

·         Throughout 2018 Mueller investigation underway in US, and political upheaval is underway in Ukraine.

·         April 18, 2019 Mueller report shows there was zero collusion between Trump campaign and Russia.

·         April 29, 2019 Ukraine elects a comedic commentator as their new president, following an anti-corruption campaign.

·         May 2019 Trump fires US Ambassador to Ukraine Yovanovitch.

·         Also May 2019 DOJ investigates the investigation into Trump. (Results are due out in the near future. There is some speculation that the impeachment talk is an effort to discredit the president and his administration ahead of this report.)

·         July 2019 New Ukrainian president recalls the Ukrainian ambassador to the US for corruption. Now no one is in the way of what prosecutor Lutsenko wanted to tell the US.

·         July 2019 Trump has a phone conversation with new Ukrainian president.

·         September 2019 a whistleblower with no direct information on the phonecall reports that Trump was pressuring Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden. The next day Trump provides the entire transcript of the call showing there was no wrongdoing; that same day Nancy Pelosi announces that ongoing committees will now be called an impeachment inquiry.

Earlier today, Glenn Beck interviewed investigative journalist John Solomon, who has done much of the digging into this story. The audio is available here (about 125 minutes in, during the 3^rd hour of the radio broadcast). 

Here are a couple more explanations from Glenn Beck:

·         “What Whistleblowers Are Supposed to Do,” procedures that were not followed in this case. Here on Facebook

·         This second one is more about the DNC operative: “The Chalupa Behind the DNC’s Ukraine Scandal.” Here  on Facebook

Here are several of the stories coming from John Solomon for The Hill:

·         March 20, 2019 “Senior Ukrainian official says he's opened probe into US election interference”    

·         April 1, 2019 “Joe Biden's 2020 Ukrainian nightmare: A closed probe is revived” 

·         September 26, 2019 “Solomon: These once-secret memos cast doubt on Joe Biden's Ukraine story" 

·         October 8, 2019 “John Solomon claims newdocument shows 'significant shift' in 'factual timeline' of Ukraine matters”  Fox News Sean Hannity interview

John Solomon (left) being interviewed by Sean Hannity
screenshot from here

Here are a few more articles on the issue:

·         May 13, 2019 “Why Isn’t the Senate Investigating Joe Biden’s Son Hunter Over China, Ukraine Dealings?” for American Thinker by Monica Showalter 

·         September 26, 2019 “When Hillary Clinton Colluded with Ukraine” for American Thinker by Daniel John Sobieski 

·         October 10, 2019 “Ukraine President: We’re Ready To Investigate Ukraine’s Alleged Meddling In 2016 U.S.Election” for The Daily Wire by James Barrett 

Most of what you’re hearing on mainstream media is about Trump trying to discredit Biden and maybe hinting at something in a phonecall to the president of Ukraine. They’re missing the largest part of the story. You can find the facts, but it’s not that easy. The Glenn Beck Ukraine Scandal Explained video, below, was shadowbanned—meaning that some algorithm made it difficult to find even though it was much searched for.

The people who tried to effect a particular outcome in 2016 will be trying (harder) to do that in 2020. At least arm yourself with some truth.