Sean Davis on Ukraine envoy Volker’s testimony
First Volker’s pending appearance was hyped to the skies by the Democrats: this was going to implicate Trump.
Then Volker was interviewed in closed session, and the results were misrepresented by the MSM and the Democrats.
Now the testimony is out, although the lie probably got halfway around the world first:
Congressional testimony from the former top American envoy to Ukraine directly contradicts the impeachment narrative offered by congressional Democrats and their media allies. Ambassador Kurt Volker, who served for two years as the top U.S. diplomatic envoy to Ukraine, testified on Thursday that he was never aware of and never took part in any effort to push the Ukrainian government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden or his son Hunter. He also stressed that the interactions between Giuliani and Ukrainian officials were facilitated not to find dirt on Biden, but to assuage concerns that the incoming Ukrainian government would not be able to get a handle on corruption within the country.
Volker’s full remarks, which were obtained by The Federalist, can be read here.
Sean Davis has done excellent and thorough work on Whistlegate.
The left thinks it can completely control the narrative on Whistlegate (and everything else), because it controls so many of the organs of the press, and it has successfully demonized the press on the right to a certain extent. But the left can’t control the narrative as completely as it used to, and many people don’t trust the MSM as well.
Sean Davis has done excellent work, indeed. MSM “reporters” would do well to read the transcript of Volker’s testimony. They probably won’t, because it would destroy their narrative.
Kate,
They don’t need to read them they have already decided what happened.
You didn’t use to hear much about, or see many references to the “Deep State.”
The possible existence of such an entity was just not something that was in the forefront of everyone’s consciousness as a reality.
Well, now, for far more people that it used to be, it pretty clearly is.
I wonder if the members of the Deep State are going to regret surfacing from the Swamp, and revealing both how prevalent they are, their placement, and their power.
When Trump started issuing Executive Orders, I would print them from the WH website to read them. Then, I would read what “journalists” would write about the EO. In many cases, there would be a great difference between what was written and the EO.
The sad thing was in some conservative websites/blogs, the writer would use the articles from NYT, WP, Fox, etc. to discuss the EO, but never go back to read & link the actual source document. I wrote comments about the errors and always included the link to the WH EO page. Note – it was not this site.
Eventually, I noticed that one author did start including the real source document. But, that person still always quoted from other news sites.
So, I thank you Neo, for including a link to the source document that is embedded in the Federalist article.
Liz:
I try to go to the source documents whenever possible. The reason is a similar one to what you describe. One of the reasons for my political change was finding out how often the press distorts a person’s words (especially people on the right), as I discovered by looking at source documents.
I found out long ago the media printed fake news and outright lies. Even worse, they seem perfectly ok with lying. Evidently, they think lying is acceptable for a good cause.
Very well said, Neo. You have encapsulated, in the space of one short post, what I believe is the most serious problem facing those of us who do not want our future to be controlled by a left wing agenda. I am holding on with hope that your point about the anti-left position gaining a media foothold is accurate. I don’t think many of us give proper consideration to the importance of ideas and the ability to disseminate them. The bandwagon effect is extraordinarily persuasive and this is what the left is counting on – if we cannot get exposure and if our outlets are marginalized, we will wither away. In its present form, the ideological makeup of the media and its take no prisoners approach to silencing all who don’t see the world their way will steamroll over us. What can we do? Easy question to ask, hard to answer. Give support and money to right of center outlets, and don’t be afraid to show that you won’t be intimidated. Once others see that this can be done, the left will no longer be able to threaten us and our own bandwagon will grow. Its not an exaggeration to say that our country depends on it.
No one is providing enough background info on what was happening in Ukraine at the time. Lysenko, a comedian, was just elected for his corruption crackdown promises. His aids were equally inexperienced in politics. When the Trump call was made his party just won in parliament. Furthermore, many of the corrupt officials in the country are tied to energy companies and Russia. Given that Russia wants to build the Nordstream Pipeline, which could let them go around Ukraine and make Germany totally dependent on Russian gas, this is a big deal, and it could make our sanctions there less painful.
Is it really crazy to want to offer and inexperienced president help in getting rid of corrupt oligarchs who could cripple his country and strengthen Russia in Europe?
Trump could have wiped out Biden in other ways as a candidate. Trump knows a bit about the difficulty in draining the swamp.
quiet conservative:
Kamala Harris believes that Twitter should ban Trump:
The left keeps on pushing, djt shoves back. With few exceptions he stands alone. His stamina, weird at times, is amazing. I could never imagine he would be so resolute.
Your blog has been read by me often enough that I am putting you in one of my main folders. I like the way you work for accuracy. I enjoy people who are rational enough that I am able to trust listening to them. Will read your stuff more often now & consider what should be next.
Thank you for the quality of your work.
“Lysenko, a comedian…”
Well yes, he was, I suppose, a comedian of a sort. (Had excellent timing and if a bit sloppy on the details, he did get consistently rave reviews from Joseph Vissarionovich!)
But for real (Uk Uk!) stand-up:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Zelensky
(Can’t hold a candle, though, to Schiff…or AOC, or Tlaib, or Omar, or Nadler, or Schumer, or Beto, or de Blasio, or Avenatti, or Pelosi….—gosh, what a cast!)
The reporting of Sean Davis (and he’s not alone) stands out because it is so unusually perceptive and courageously honest among today’s American media.
That’s because our media is too often found to misrepresent the truth in what they report. As a result Americans are no longer confident whether we are getting news – or propaganda. To the extent we are misinformed, we are misled, and our opinions are therefore distorted by the faulty and unreliable information fed to us by our media.
That’s no way to preserve the Republic.
We have a First Amendment because certain rights – religion, speech, the “press”, peaceable assembly – were deemed so essential to liberty that they must be Constitutionally protected from government controls. That is no less true today than it was in 1787.
Thomas Jefferson wrote that a well-informed electorate is a prerequisite to democracy. Jefferson did not mean a misinformed electorate, and he did not mean an indoctrinated electorate.
But, sadly, and with exceptions such as Sean Davis, it seems the trend for our big-business media organizations – and reporters – is to view their role as advocates and activists first, while faithful and factual reporting of news comes second. Even reporters who report thoroughly and fully can be stymied by agenda-driven editors. Stories get killed. We never see them.
My opinion? In this age of unprecedented access to information, Americans are ironically, and increasingly, poorly informed. Public opinion reflects that general lack of good information on which good judgment depends. That’s an ideal environment for demagogues. I have a bad feeling about all this. And not for the first time.
“…no longer confident…”
The default position—with regard to the MSM (in the US, the UK and Europe)—must be: “They’re lying” (by commission or omission—or a masterfully wrought combination of both.
Alas it has come to this—though actually, it’s been this way for some time now.
(To be sure, they can be accurate on occasion, but it’s usually sports, comics, and from time to time the weather. Or sometimes even by accident…. Well that’s not entirely fair. They do sometimes speak/describe truth, but what that means is one has to be super diligent in reading between the lines, and pixels—though I don’t think we’ll ever be as proficient as the Soviet population.)
Last we heard of Davis, he was alleging that the standards for submitting a whistleblower complaint had been suspiciously changed. This was all the rage in birther-right circles for a while.
Even Trump repeated the allegation…by citing Sean…which IMO was a tell that the claim is false (Trump has the power to haul the head of the CIA into the Oval and get to the bottom of it…but chose instead to rely on a low-level source.)
Now, the Trump appointed ICIG has replied. The standards were not changed. The forms have but the whistleblower used the old ones.
The whistleblower had firsthand knowledge. The ICIG independently corroborated much of the rest, deeming the claim credible and urgent.
But Sean doubles down. Is there any reason not to treat him like Dan Rather at this point?
The Incredible Shrinking MSM.
50 years ago the NYT’s readers consulted it for business, the arts, sports, “remember the needy” at Christmas time. A bad theatre review from the NYT would end a Broadway run. No longer.
The Times is now simply the go-to organ for propaganda. The American Pravda/Izvestia.
Sean Davis, Mollie Hemingway, Eric Felten dwarf pygmies like Peter Baker, David Brooks, Jodi Kantor, etc.
The ICIG corroborated by going to the White House and reading the phone conversation transcript (translated) in a SCIF? Uh, no. He didn’t bother reading it anywhere. Some fucking “corroboration” that is, some “investigation”. Pathetic.
Manju,
Quiet! The adults are talking!
Manju: the grift that never stops grifting.
The Times is now simply the go-to organ for propaganda. The American Pravda/Izvestia.
Yep. The last two Sulzberger scions ruined it. The vertiginous decline began with AM Rosenthal’s retirement in 1986. The decay was grossly manifest by 2001, when Howell Raines ran 30+ stories on the membership policies of a golf club in Georgia, something of interest to no one but some hag-bullies who had his ear. (Another gross manifestation was The Times‘ shilling for Michael Nifong in 2006). The problem, really, is that in the professional-managerial class and the patriciate, there’s been a secular decline in the quality of human being raised. Arthur “Punch” Sulzberger wasn’t particularly respected. His father had preferred to bequeath the publisher’s position to his son-in-law rather than his son, but the son-in-law died unexpectedly and the family had to make do; he may have been intellectually second-rate, but he knew how to hire people to produce a satisfactory paper (their stupefying editorial page aside). His degenerate son made the paper worthless, and his grandson is if anything worse.
I will again vote for him (DJT) because he fights for me.
I don’t think the media is the problem. Unless you are Amish, anyone can go to their public library and get online to find sources of, if not always the unvarnished truth, all the information that’s left out of the mainstream/establishment media. Don’t get me wrong, that the media has gone from just sucking at their job to actively trying to mislead the public is bad but I don’t think it’s what we really need to worry about right now.
The problem is people who not only don’t want to know the truth but actively resist knowing it. For example, the way NeverTrump Republicans persistently ignored what folks like Andrew McCarthy and Mollie Hemmingway uncovered about the Mueller investigation was astonishing. It’s not that they argued with what McCarthy and Hemmingway wrote. They simply pretended it didn’t exist.
I just saw some doofus commenter on another blog state “Trump has a VERY BAD record.” What? The economy has done better than anyone expected. Trump has appointed more conservative judges than anyone expected. He’s cut more government red tape than anyone expected. He’s been more supportive of the pro-life and religious freedom agenda than anyone expected. He’s negotiated an improved free trade deal with Mexico and Canada. He’s helping to realign U.S. policy in China, something that is decades over due. He’s fought back against attacks from the media, Democrats, and the Deep State more than any Republican elected official in our lifetimes. And there’s a bunch of other stuff too, ALL of which just don’t exist for that doofus.
What was that line attributed to an anonymous George W. Bush aide back in the 2000s? “We create our own reality?” THAT’S the problem. A bunch of people…well, let’s be honest…a bunch of supposedly financially and socially secure white people see the election of Donald Trump as a challenge to their understanding of reality and instead of examining that understanding, they want to eliminate the challenge.
Mike
Related:
https://nypost.com/2019/10/01/dems-media-aim-to-squash-barrs-probe-of-russia-collusion-hoax/
A) – Thanks to manju for providing a good link to the ICIG’s letter.
” Since Inspector General Atkinson entered on duty as the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, the ICIG has not rejected the filing of an alleged urgent concern due to a whistleblower’s lack of first-hand knowledge of the allegations. ”
B) The letter reads like a CYA document, possibly written by a GOPe type IG.
It says, like manju notes:
1) There is no requirement in the law that it be first-hand info; the IG can’t add requirements not in the law. (Yet treating them as credible or not is hugely discretionary.)
2) The letter writes about the form and two boxes checked: The first box stated that, “I have personal and/or direct knowledge of events or records involved”;
3) Then in the summary, it is restated:
The whistleblower stated on the form that he or she possessed both first-hand and other information. The ICIG reviewed the information provided as well as other information gathered and determined that the complaint was both urgent and that it appeared credible.
The letter doesn’t state what the “first hand” info is, so it gives us the conclusion that it’s credible, without saying what the info is. And without quite saying that the IG is claiming the whistleblower actually does have first hand info.
I now suspect Atkinson is a secret NeverTrumper, hired by other Deep Staters, to appear to be working for Trump, while taking discretionary decisions that are against him.
He could easily have said the complaint is not credible, because there is no first hand knowledge.
He could have said it doesn’t look like a worker’s complaint, it rather looks like a legally advised letter — and he could have asked from whom did the gov’t worker get legal advice.
Trump getting anything done domestically will require gov’t workers to do some of Trump’s agenda, but maybe the only DOJ guy willing to prosecute any Dem is W. Barr. I read that Trump is wanting his NSC to be scaled back. He’d be well served to scale back all the intel agencies.
I’m tired of the deep state already — so it’s going to be a long, long, never ending battle to keep the deep state parasite from killing the American host.
I now believe Trump should set a new intel org, which hires mostly NON-DC folk, vast majority Reps. Whose job is to watch the other intel agencies, and their IGs, for wrongdoing. But I don’t really expect this.
We need “term limits” on “public service” — after 10 years, no more raises; after 12 years, the salary goes down 10%. Can NOT get hired by any other gov’t agency.
“War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.” — William Tecumseh Sherman
he is also known for the quote that is usually cut off
war is hell
which should be
war is hell, and i intend to make it so
Lee Smith, Real Clear Investigations — It’s Not All About the Bidens: Why Trump Has Ukraine on the Brain
rtwt
The Left/Democrats have basically sabotaged our educational system so that–in far too many cases–that compromised system turns out the perfect “low information voter”(LIV) –“graduates” stuffed full of Leftist indoctrination and very, very short on actual facts, history and, moreover, no longer possessing the analytical tools needed to critically examine the supposed facts they have been fed.
In comes the MSM to help with, to continue that indoctrination, and to confirm that the crap that these low information voters have been fed is, in fact, the real thing, the truth, legit and, in fact, that the whole MATRIX-like phony worldview that they have been indoctrinated with is true.
The Left and Democrats are counting on the fact that all of these LIVs are going to buy that their illegitimate machinations and charges are also the real deal, and that in carrying out a legitimate, routine function of his office–talking to another world leader, and asking him to investigate some possible wrongdoing by Americans in this leader’s foreign country (something that a recent Treaty specifically legitimizes and calls for the President to do) President Trump has somehow committed an “impeachable offense.”
If this latest Democrat phony charge fails, I envision the next charges by the Left, Democrats and their MSM propaganda arm will be that simply by breathing, eating, or drinking coffee, President Trump has somehow committed an impeachable offense.
You wanna talk about “interference”?
How about this reportedly leaked 2014 phone call between Obama Administration State Department officials, Victoria Nuland, then Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, and Geoffrey Pyatt, our then Ambassador to the Ukraine, as they apparently discuss toppling and, then, shaping a new government in the Ukraine, apparently with VP Biden’s knowledge and approval.
See https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/10/leaked-obama-officials-including-ambassador-discuss-toppling-ukrainian-government-and-replacing-officials-with-bidens-approval-but-this-was-ok-according-to-media/
Getting some good funny anti-Dem laughs from Kurt Schlichter, who also asks
Where is Hunter Biden right now, anyway?
If we had an actual media that wasn’t a garbage coterie of Democratic transcriptionists, we’d be seeing a dozen TV vans parked outside whatever flophouse he’s squatting in right about now. But we do have a media that’s a garbage coterie of Democratic transcriptionists.
Why was Hunter Biden getting $600k from a corrupt Ukrainian gas company? Dem media doesn’t even ask.
Clowns!
Tom, is DOJ investigating Biden?
You know the DoJ doesn’t announce investigations of individuals. Ukraine, on the other hand, may not have so prudent a policy.
That is correct sdferr.
Now you see why its wrong to ask a foreign government to investigate an American…and in this instance…to go as far as announcing it in a Press Conference:
Trump is using the machinery of the state to advance his political interests.
“…wrong to ask a foreign government…”
Shouldn’t that be, “wrong for a Republican to ask a foreign government…”?
“…an American…”
Shouldn’t that be, “…any old American…”?
Related?:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/us-official-charged-with-leaking-secrets-to-journalists
P.S. OMG! It appears that the NYT has decided that “any old American” is toast (or should that be, “The NYT is toasting ‘any old American'”?:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-campaign-slams-the-new-york-times-ukraine-coverage-in-letter-to-editor-are-you-trulyy-blind-to-what-you-got-wrong-in-2016
Specious stuff there.
Get real.
“…Burisma…”
Well, well, well….
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/joe-biden-personally-paid-900000-burisma-according-ukrainian-mp-bombshell-admission
But this Burisma miasma is probably not even true. (FAKE NEWS!!)
But even if it were true, there is obviously no illegality involved and no scandal. (Honest Joe told us so himself).
But even if it was illegal, he’s a Democrat.
Besides, “TRUMP”!
(So just move along….)
File under: “Say it ain’t so, Joe!”
From the “Amerikkka-is-a-despicable-country-isn’t-America-a-great-country!” files:
https://pjmedia.com/trending/joe-bidens-family-has-been-getting-rich-off-his-political-career-for-decades/