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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 16, 2023

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This makes me uncomfortable because it reminds me so much of those times that the Democrats would push narratives about Russia and Trump. I remember making arguments at length that regardless of whether or not Trump was 'polite' the office of the presidency should still command respect; I thought these were strong arguments and maybe I still do. When are we going to try to be a more uniting force instead of continuing to hunt down scandals involving relatives?

Kushner being sent to build peace in the middle east was unorthodox in the appearance of nepotism, but in unorthodox times we need unorthodox solutions. I dare call this preoccupation on Biden's spawn obsessive. You're trying to hold 'the system' to a consistency it never had. Trump did things that angered the left and that made me glad, but as I think about a divided country I feel some shame for embracing that power, for now I see in you someone who is angered, much as the left was, over trivial, irrelevant, and imagined corruption.

Do you need to be told that Trump lost, get over it? Do you need to be told to look to the future and not the past? What are you looking for? What are you hoping to find?

What are you looking for? What are you hoping to find?

You can't tolerate corruption like that.

... you think it's normal that Biden bragged about having Ukrainian prosecuted fired for investigating Burisma, the company that was paying off Hunter Biden ?

This is just corruption. In any western European country, that'd cause the government to resign. Ministers there resign over some piddly plagiarism nonsense, or minor oversights. Even in eastern Europe it'd be a major scandal and probably require new elections.

... you think it's normal that Biden bragged about having Ukrainian prosecuted fired for investigating Burisma, the company that was paying off Hunter Biden ?

Probably Bundestag MPs also had their children employed by Burisma.

https://www.uawire.org/news/german-deputies-advise-poroshenko-to-consider-changing-of-the-prosecutor-general

And some guy from SBU who accused Shokin of corruption and demanded his resignation also had dealing with Burisma.

https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2015/11/12/7088525/

And members of Kharkiv Human Rights Group...

https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2016/01/7/7094715/

And dozens of Ukrainian MPs...

https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2015/12/22/7093387/

... and that proves what? That Biden jr. being paid off is okay ?

No, that disproves your assertion that Shokin was fired on behest of Biden Sr because the latter wanted Shokin not to investigate his son. Of course, you could say that it WAS the real reason, and Biden just used reputation of Shokin being a corrupt prosecutor for plausible deniability in getting him fired. But then argue accordingly, not just put it as an undeniable fact.

Also Hunter Biden didn't commit any crime according to Ukrainian law by working there. Zlochevsky, the head of Burisma, most likely did - but then it was during presidential term of Yanukovich, a figure very much beloved by some on American far right and far left, deposed by the evil CIA.

No, that disproves your assertion that Shokin was fired on behest of Biden Sr because the latter wanted Shokin not to investigate his son.

Yeah, it looks like Shokin was fired because he wasn't investigating the 'right' people.

**It still doesn't explain to me why you think politicians getting paid off by through their family getting cushy sinecures in foreign countries is remotely okay. **

It's okay in Ukraine. We get that, it's why Ukraine is that way.

In any normal county, a politician whose junkie son gets $50k a month from a sinecure in a famously corrupt country overseas would instantly be embroiled in a huge scandal.

In any normal county, a politician whose junkie son gets $50k a month from a sinecure in a famously corrupt country overseas would instantly be embroiled in a huge scandal.

Says a person from Slovakia 😩

Our graft is these days mostly limited to 15-20% cost inflation on government contracts. Your president is a an actor whose show was funded by an oligarch, who among other things,stole how many billion $ from Ukrainians by running a bank and giving out loans to friendly companies.. Was it 2 or 5 billion ? They still haven't bothered to wipe that shit off the internet. We had shit like this in mid to late 1990s. That was .. quite some time ago.

If these days Ukraine was as corrupt as Slovakia, you'd probably be as prosperous as Poland what with the better climate, natural resources and sea access.

Now, Slovakia isn't a normal country, but at least half of the parties wouldn't tolerate something like this, and it definitely wouldn't fly anywhere in western Europe.

Yes, yes. Why would anything be wiped from the internet? Kolomoisky is investigated.

It's there for anyone to see — like the fact that Slovakia is one of the most corrupt states in Europe — worse than Georgia or Rwanda. Nothing wrong with it — you made a great progress since mid 90s, being in EU and all that.

Now, Slovakia isn't a normal country, but at least half of the parties wouldn't tolerate something like this, and it definitely wouldn't fly anywhere in western Europe.

But that's interesting — right? The only people who like to talk about Ukrainian corruption or Hunter Biden so much are Orbanites from Hungary, russophiles from Bulgaria, Slovakia in your case, MAGA people (who are linked to Paul Manafort — one of the most corrupt people in recent Ukrainian and American history), Trump himself — all exemplars of honesty and incorruptibility. I find it hilarious. Clean your own stables.

But thanks for Zuzanas.

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