The last few days have brought back some memories that you’d think old Joe Biden would be glad were lost in ‘early’ onset; memories that we’ve come to know and loathe. Cornball Joe. Corn Pop Joe. Koan Joe. Gaffy Duck Joe. All it took was an Air Force One trip to Poland as Commander-in-Chief (and CEO of the MIC) to bullshit the troops and say “Jestem polski” to the people for the Joe that Obama is said to have once said, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up,” [p.26] as first reported in a Politico piece back in August 2020.
Gaffy Duck Joe was back with two mal mots. First, he tried to come off as JFK to the Berliners (we now know how that ended). Then he’s quacking to the 82nd Airborne, the famed special forces outfit, that for some unidentified reason finds itself lunching in NATO’s Poland on kielbasa, one spop seemingly ecstatic about his sausage dressing. Quack, quack. He begins (source: White House),
Sounds corny, but it’s the truth of who we are. We’ve never lived up to it, but we never walked away from it. And the rest of the world looks to us. Because, you know, we not only lead by the example of our power, but by the power of our example. And your generation combines both.
Only the developmentally disabled — MAGAs and anti-MAGAs alike, intentionally dumbed down by the MSM and pols trash talking — believe the Old Joes any more. For fuck’s sake , he comes from a tax haven state for banks that make fortunes off debt slaves. Probably half the soldiers in front of him joined for a better life — the military being America’s one certain growth industry. Plenty of work ahead. Power of our example?
Then he sticks it in, the turkey’s cooked:
And you’re going to see when you’re there. And you — some — some of you have been there. You’re going to see — you’re going to see women, young people standing — standing in the middle of — in front of a damn tank, just saying, “I’m not leaving. I’m holding my ground.” They’re incredible. But they take a lot of inspiration from us.
I don’t know, Joe. The Russians would probably run the young Turk from Tiananmen Square thinking he’s a Selfie poet over. Gee, hope there’s no syn tax around here. Too taxed already.
Then at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Old Joe’s talkin’ regime change (“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Mr. Biden said Saturday, his cadence slowing for emphasis), meaning the royal asshole in Moscow. This could be symbolically important. “Poland,” technically, once ruled over Russia, sending Catherine to Russia to “coup” (verb) Peter III, of German extraction, at least that’s what The Great tells the viewer, the comedy series about the Russian Empire under Catherine, tells us. Is Biden implying that Putin’s a Peter? What he said (CBS):
President Joe Biden said during a speech in Poland on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.” But moments later, the White House appeared to walk back his comment, with an official saying he wasn’t talking about regime change.
This is definitely regime change language and not walk-backable. The handlers and props don’t like it when the president just comes out and says what’s on America’s mind. Like Trump, but only worse, because Old Joe’s supposed to have delivered us from the blusterer’s evil rhetoric.
There were other worrisome instances of foaming at the mouth of a worn-out Pavlovian politician who talks squawk whenever the bell rings for a new round of campaigning about something nobody gives a thit about any more — freedom, for instance. Old Joe talked of how Putin has “strangled democracy” in Ukraine and at home. Putin uses “disinformation” and “brute force” in Russia to squash resistance to the war. CBS Report tells us,
Speaking directly to the Russian people, whom he said are not the enemy, Mr. Biden said: “I am telling you the truth: this war is not worthy of you, the Russian people.
Are we hallucinating? Nobody from the lowest MAGA type to highest-browed intellectual seriously believes America is a real democracy any more. Talk about disinformation.
In a recent report, Global Trends 2040 (March 2021), The National Intelligence Council, a US government convergence of minds, essentially concedes that democracy is kaput and, with Jesus on our side, it may return by 2040. In the chapter Scenarios for 2040, the minds “have identified five plausible, distinctive, and illustrative stories of the future. Each reflects the key themes of shared global challenges, fragmentation, disequilibrium, adaptation, and greater contestation.” Things fall apart for a while, but, in the best scenario they come up with for the future, America is there to pick up the pieces by 2040, leading a global “renaissance of democracies.” Nuh-uh. America will have killed democracy, maybe beginning most loudly with 9/11 1973 in Chile, when Nixon’s secretary of state Henry Kissinger was heard to wonder beforehand:
I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.
Democracy? Don’t flatter ourselves. More of a buffet than a sit down meal. More Ponderosa/Bonanza steakhouse than Outback.
And when the pontificator-in-chief says such head-shaking twutch as,
We’re a unique country in many ways. And we’re the only country — the only country in the world not based … on geography or ethnicity or religion or race or anything else; we’re based on an idea.
Joe, you are a lying dog-faced pony soldier. An idea? Tell you what. When I read former war planner Daniel Ellsberg’s Doomsday Machine and he points out that America has a plan to take out China anyway when they take out Russia (we don’t like their idea of communism), I thought that that was a bad idea.
And then he references the late Madeleine Albright. He goes,
And, you know, the woman who just died — the Secretary of State — used to have an expression. She said, “We are the essential nation.” It sounds like a bit of a hyperbole, but the truth of the matter is you are the organizing principle around which the rest of the world is — the free world is moving.
Hyperbole? What a crock of exploding Boston beans. And couldn’t he remember her name?
The other Truth Biden isn’t telling the Russian people, as he looks them in the eye — the one with red light over the camera that indicates ‘on’ — is that the US unilateral economic sanctions are a declaration of war — not approved by the UN — and that there will be tremendous suffering among the Russian people who he sees “unworthy” of such suffering. But, as Madeleine Albright might have added, ‘but we think it’s worth it because you’ll be free of a tyrant in the end.’ Free to buy American again, you mean. Only nukes keep them safe. It goes on,
“The gravity of the threat is why the response from the West has been so swift, so powerful and so united,” Mr. Biden said, speaking of the sanctions the U.S. and its allies have imposed on Russian oligarchs.
SWIFT is our preferred keyboard method of warring these days. Fingertips on the ground. Oligarchs? Is he chitting? Imagine if someone threatened our old endearing carpetbaggers from the wayback in this fashion or our new one-percenters today? Plus, Zelensky’s backed by an oligarch, too, one who looted his own bank filled with pensioner funds.. Koch brothers.
And that slip-of-the-tongue thing Old Joe has going. Calling Putin a “butcher.” Jesus, Joe, you were amongst the sausage people of Poland. What must have they thought? Do you have a thing against butchers, too? You’re lucky one of them didn’t yell out, “Get stuffed.” Had you been ‘orating’ in Ireland, would you have told the shamrock plebs outside the pub that Putin is a “murderous transubstantiationist”? Cue the Enya.
The MSM has gone along so far with Biden treating the Russian invasion as a Putin thing. Making it personalized. “I once looked into Putin’s eyes and said, ‘I don’t think you have a Soul,’” we’ve heard over and over again, like his Corn Pop story about confronting a razor-wielding Black man with a chain in the parking lot of a pool he lifeguarded at one summer long ago. Compare to GW Bush’s gushing assessment of Putin in 2001:
I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul; a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country.
Damned. Some people just change, I guess. Or, more likely, given the illegal Iraq invasion a couple of years later, Putin was a man after his own heart. And BTW, Ukraine is not a swimming pool, Old Joe, and Putin is not merely a Black bully you call Corn Pop, no mere chain length will hold him down.and you’re a fool if you would call a Judo black belt “soulless.” You’re really just full of shit with these cornball tales, aren’t you?
In The Bidens: The Inside Story of the First Family by Ben Schreckinger, [see my review] we’re told of the geopolitical strategic importance of the Ukrainian Burisma Gas company. Putin had just annexed the Crimea and Obama passed the work of doing something about it to Biden. “Obama delegated the crisis to Joe. Ukraine’s fate was largely in his hands,” Schreckinger tells us and that:
To help burnish Burisma’s reputation, Zlochevsky was putting together a board of directors that included non-Ukrainians with name recognition and global contacts. His most prominent get was Aleksander Kwasniewski, former president of Poland and a pro-democracy stalwart.
Hunter Biden was in turn approached by Kwasniewski, who, Hunter’s ghost tells us in his memoir, Beautiful Things, was, “A compelling orator, Kwasniewski delivered a pitch to me that was impassioned, even poetic…It was inspiring. It was consequential. And, to be honest, the pay was good.” Well, surely this was good news to a self-identified drunk and sex addict. But as Schreckinger continues,
Taking the job also meant that Joe would be lecturing stakeholders in the country about cleaning up its culture of corruption while his son worked for an oligarch who himself was under suspicion of serious corruption.
And, as Hunter Biden relates in his memoir, the Biden presence in Ukraine was very personal under President Obama. “To put it more bluntly: having a Biden on Burisma’s board was a loud and unmistakable fuck-you to Putin.” Pretty personal-sounding.
But the board wasn’t complete until, shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration in February 2017, Cofer Black, the ex-head of the CIA’s Counter Terrorism Center (CTC) leading up to the events of 9/11, and afterward ambassador-at-large and in charge of setting black sites for renditions, and later “he conceived, planned, and led CIA’s role in the war in Afghanistan,” took a seat on the board. Having Black on the Board was no doubt a bigger Fuck You to Putin. So, likely, Biden knew and approved of Black’s presence on the board as a Middle Finger.
Black’s appointment is significant. His CTC position is the same one that the legendary rogue CIA operative, Duane Clarridge held many years before. Investigative journalist John Pilger, an Aussie who lives in England, interviewed Duane Clarridge during Venezuela’s Chavez years, and in an opening of the discussion to include the region, the CIA’s role in Chile 1973 came up, leading to Clarridge’s draw-jopping take on American foreign policy in general. Acknowledging the CIA’s role in ousting “what’s his name” in Chile, he adds, “Get used to it, world,” says Clarridge. “We’re not going to put up with any nonsense.” Check it out. So, it probably would be a good idea to know what Black has been up to since February 2017. Does he have any thoughts on the current situation? Is he involved in any kind of planning for operations against Russia and when did they begin?
It may seem a long shot, but the situation begins to creep in the Burismagate stuff and the Biden influence on Ukraine comes back into the picture again. How? Glenn Greenwald quit The Intercept, which he co-found, because its editors decided to “censor” his story on the Biden LaptopGate story, coming primarily out of a NY Post exclusive. Greenwald’s position was that the emails left behind at the computer shop on the machine indicated that Old Joe, in collusion with sons and associates, had shady deals going in Ukraine that were set up as pay-for-play influencers. Greenwald argues that this situation could affect how he deals with Ukraine in the future, and with Russia. See his presentation of evidence at his Rumble site. The current situation regarding the emails is that they have been “authenticated” by the NYT and WaPo, so the MSM can no longer claim them to be Russian disinformation.
While I don’t currently see any outstanding issue that would at all suggest that Putin invaded Ukraine because of something Black or Biden did (other than the potential provocation of the initial weak-kneed response about “a little incursion” might be tolerated), it is notable that Burisma’s board featured two powerful people — Kwasniewski and Black — from NATO countries hostile to Russia.
Eventually — hopefully — there’ll be a ceasefire in Ukraine and a negotiated settlement that eliminates the need for more carnage. It seems certain that the political newbie Zelensky will have to go. Not implementing Minsk was a mistake. The invitation to NATO to move in — with nukes (imagine the Cubans inviting the Russians in) was a provocation. But nothing can defend against the fact that Putin ordered an invasion and began a war. The UN should have taken more vocal steps to stop the carnage (and still should). The universal call should not be for an international foreign legion (this is not Franco’s Spain we’re talking, no VA outpatients are needed to fly in and potentially pretend to be the 82 Airborne or some other private contractor, like Cofer Black’s pal Erik Prince and his monster mercenaries.) With luck, the Russians will oust Putin from the Kremlin in 2024 (or sooner), without American help this time, and he will face war crimes charges at The Hague, if any are called for after an independent investigation not involving Americans.
But Biden’s call for regime change could come back to bite him, too. If the House of Representatives turns Republican in the fall, Biden could well be impeached. The Repugs love payback, and some promised in 2019 to impeach the next Democratic president. A Newsweek poll has indicated that Biden’s response to the Russians has boosted his popularity and wondered whether he can hold the buoyancy through the fall election.
The Bidens’s Ukraine doings — before the war — could surface again, if the Greenwald-sniffed emails point to his corruption as VP, using his office as pay-for-play services. Maybe we’ll all be treated again to multiple impeachments. Recently, progressives got together to seek his impeachment for the way funds were meanly frozen in Afghanistan, leaving hundreds of thousands of “abandoned” Afghans to the double-whammy of the Taliban rule with economic sanction — frozen assets supposed to be spent on 9/11 victims. See “Why Progressive Lawmakers in the US Must Call for the Impeachment of Joe Biden.” Personally, I’d impeach for the Corn Pop story.
Biden’s corny koans had a trot on stage, too, during his visit to Poland. We’re told that his wife, Jill, had taped a Soren Kierkegaard quote on his mirror. Sticky memos reminded him to mention Lech Walesa and Pope John. The quote, “Faith sees best in the dark,” is biblical reference, and not one of Soren’s greatest hits. The moody philosopher and author of Fear and Trembling, an apt title for out times, was always waxing lyrically about the need to take the Great Leap of Faith. Of course, Nietzsche instructs us, in The Anti-Christ,
Faith makes blessed: consequently it lies. That faith makes blessed under certain circumstances, that blessedness does not make of a fixed idea a true idea, that faith moves no mountains but puts mountains where there are none—a quick walk through a madhouse enlightens one sufficiently about this. [probably Kaufmann’s translation]
Of course, Nietzsche ended his days clapping strangers on the back in Turin and saying pointing all around, “Are we not content? I am the god who created this caricature,” and was dragged away shortly thereafter to the loony bin where he died. And, also, in contradistinction to Old Joe’s borrowed point, let’s remember that the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post’s motto is “Democracy Dies In Darkness.” So, it may be good for faith, but….You could almost hear someone at the castle yelling out, “Hey, yankee doodle dandy. why don’t you take a giant leap.”
Of course, that might have been me.
