It's Not Just Ukraine. Don't Let the Bidens Off the Hook for China
I recently caught myself in the middle of a furious online rant against the comments of a friend who is an avowed democrat. My angry comments were driven by the knowledge that his remarks were completely devoid of facts, that he was parroting commentary that he’d bought without reservation from media and their sources that were lying, and who had done so about this president previously, using information that was provably false.
We were of course discussing the current “scandal de jour,” the proposed impeachment of President Donald Trump for his comments to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
I finally discarded the angry remarks I was prepared to post and instead decided to examine in greater detail the entire situation. More importantly, I wanted an effective way for myself and others to respond to the ongoing lies of an irresponsible media and a Democratic Party that is not only entirely unhinged from reality, but willing to countenance any lie, any act, any behavior, that will return to them the White House in the upcoming election.
My very sincere hope is that the following comments will help my fellow conservatives in responding to Democrats who have bought, without thinking it through, the lies of the Democratic Party and the media who support them.
Rather than argue with these people —it’s pointless I’ve discovered, they simply don’t see through to the truth — approach the discussion in the following fashion.
Let’s suppose you are the president of Burisma, the Ukrainian oil company of which former VP Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, was a board member. The younger Biden has no experience in oil and gas issues, no experience in Ukrainian affairs, no understanding (that has been alleged at any rate) of the language — no qualifications of any sort in fact that would qualify him for this position, much less at a salary of $600,000 per year.
Just to make it clear how huge a salary this is, the average monthly wage in the Ukraine as of August 2019 was 10,537 hyrvnia — or $435.32 USD. That’s 1,323 times the average Ukrainian wage.
According to online sources, the median compensation for an American board member of an S&P 500 company was $240,000 in 2015, based on a report from Equilar. Compare this with Salesforce.com at $599,493, Oracle at $588,486 and Goldman Sachs at $595,104, to choose three companies paying comparable amounts to board members.
Goldman Sachs, in 2018, reported revenues of $36.6 billion. Salesforce, Inc annual revenue for 2019 was $13.282 billion. Oracle’s annual revenue for 2018 was $39.383 billion.
According to Reuters, “Burisma does not disclose it financial results, but based on a minimal gas price set for 2018 on the Ukrainian energy exchange, the company may have generated revenues of at least $400 million last year.”
In other words, these three American companies had from 33 to 98 times more revenue than Burisma, yet Burisma paid Hunter Biden almost three times the average compensation for a U.S. board member.
Anyone care to explain just how Hunter Biden was worth that kind of money?
Back to our game of “let’s pretend.” Close your eyes now. This next exercise is going to take some imagination on your part.
You’re the president of Burisma. How do you justify to your shareholders that large of a payment to someone with no experience in your industry, no experience with conditions in your country, no knowledge of the Ukrainian language — no qualifications at all from what we know of the man? Just what are you really paying for?
Could it be that what Burisma was paying for was access to Hunter’s father, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who just happened to be the point man on Ukrainian issues in the Obama administration?
Let’s be clear — there is nothing illegal in this. Buying access to power is a time honored tradition. There are many ways in which it has been done and most of them are not in the least illegal. Tacky yes, illegal no.
Where things get sticky is when the source of that power, in this case Hunter’s father Joe Biden, actually act in ways that violate their office in some way. Joe Biden did this when he demanded that the Ukraine fire a federal prosecutor investigating Burisma for corruption, and by extension, his son, failing which he would stop the payment of a billion dollars in aid.
The Ukraine, of course, fired the prosecutor, thus giving Burisma a more than respectable ROE — return on investment — for their money.
Now, let’s play the same game on the other side of the world, in China.
Hunter Biden’s firm concluded a deal worth a billion dollars, ultimately increased to 1.5 billion dollars, with China, following a trip to the country with his father. Again, Biden Junior has no experience in China, but somehow the Chinese government decides that his teeny tiny company is the one to handle an investment of that magnitude?
Now here’s the $64 question. Who was the Obama administration’s point man for China? Did you guess Joe Biden, vice president of the USA?
If you did, go to the head of the class.
Here’s the fun question for your Democrat friends: what qualifications did Hunter Biden have for either one of these deals? What, of all the millions of businesspeople in the world who could have been chosen, made Hunter Biden the perfect individual for these deals?
In both cases, he had no experience in the relevant industry. He had no real knowledge we’ve been told about of the countries in question. No knowledge of the language or customs or business practices of either country.
He had just been thrown out of the U.S. Navy Reserves for failing a drug test for cocaine — a year after joining. His personal history involved some sketchy behavior, including a relationship with his deceased brother’s wife after leaving his own wife and children.
Here’s a quote from his ex-wife’s 2017 divorce filing: “His spending rarely relates to legitimate family expenses, but focuses on his own travel (at times multiple hotel rooms on the same night), gifts for other women, alcohol, strip clubs, or other personal indulgences … Throughout the parties’ separation Mr. Biden has created financial concerns for the family by spending extravagantly on his own interests (including drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, strip clubs, and gifts for women with whom he has sexual relations), while leaving the family with no funds to pay legitimate bills.”
So, Mr. President of Burisma — just what makes Hunter Biden such an attractive prospect as a member of the board of your company? Could it be his public persona as a respectable family man and a man of high integrity, a member of the military reserves of his country? His amazing business acumen, his exemplary knowledge of your industry?
Or was it the fact that his father was the second most powerful man in the most powerful country in the world, and the person responsible for that country’s relations with your country?
The next time the question comes up with your Democrat friends, ask them this: what made Hunter Biden so valuable to Burisma?
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