...political shit-slinging is true or false, as long as (it sticks to the proverbial wall) the public believes it. I'm referencing the Swiftboating of John Kerry. This statement is pertinent, given Robert Mackey's post, from Friday, over at the Intercept: "A Republican Conspiracy Theory About a Biden-in-Ukraine Scandal Has Gone Mainstream. But It Is Not True." It's the type of story that becomes "fact" to all who support your opposition.

VIRAL RUMORS that Joe Biden abused his power as vice president to protect his son’s business interests in Ukraine in 2016, which spread last week from the pro-Trump media ecosystem to The New York Times, are “absolute nonsense,” according to Ukraine’s leading anti-corruption activist. That evaluation is backed by foreign correspondents in Kiev and a former official with knowledge of Biden’s outreach to Ukraine after President Viktor Yanukovych was deposed in a popular uprising in 2014.

In an interview with The Intercept, Daria Kaleniuk, an American-educated lawyer who founded Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center, expressed frustration that two recent front page stories in The New York Times, on how the conspiracy theory is being used to attack Biden, failed to properly debunk the false accusation. According to Kaleniuk, and a former anti-corruption prosecutor, there is simply no truth to the rumor now spreading like wildfire across the internet.

The accusation is that Biden blackmailed Ukraine’s new leaders into firing the country’s chief prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, to derail an investigation he was leading into a Ukrainian gas company that the vice president’s son, Hunter, was paid to advise.

The truth, Kaleniuk said, is that Shokin was forced from office at Biden’s urging because he had failed to conduct thorough investigations of corruption, and had stifled efforts to investigate embezzlement and misconduct by public officials following the 2014 uprising.

Properly debunking this particular conspiracy theory is easier said than done, though, since it is set in Ukraine, a country with byzantine political intrigue at the best of times, and these are not the best of times. The rivalries between political factions in Kiev are so intense that even the country’s new anti-corruption agencies are at each other’s throats.

There is no question that Biden did, during a visit to Kiev in late 2015, threaten to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees unless Shokin was dismissed. But the vice president, who was leading the Obama administration’s effort to fight corruption in Ukraine, did the country a favor by hastening Shokin’s departure, Kaleniuk said, since he had failed to properly investigate corrupt officials.“...

In the 2020 political cycle, the reality is that between the Anita Hill debacle, his f*cked up 90's crime bill, his support for the Iraq War, and his incestuous relationship with MBNA, not to mention various other questionable/wrong-headed positions on issues during his lengthy career, I just don't see Biden winning the 2020 Democratic nomination.

On a brighter note, Bernie's long-underestimated political prowess continues to impress. From Dave Jamieson, over at HuffPo this past Wednesday: "Bernie Sanders Hones A Potential Attack On Joe Biden."

WASHINGTON ― Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) devoted a significant chunk of his speech at a union conference Wednesday to talking about defined-benefit pension plans. Most voters reflexively check their phones when such an unsexy subject comes up, but Sanders knew exactly who his audience was.

“A promise made must be a promise kept,” the presidential hopeful said in a riff that drew cheers from members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. “If I’m elected president, my administration will impose an immediate moratorium on any future pension cuts to multiemployer pension plans.”

Sanders was talking about a specific type of pension plan that covers more than one company and that is run jointly by representatives of those employers and the labor union their workers have in common. Often found in construction and service sectors, many multiemployer plans have run into serious trouble in recent years, particularly in industries that are declining (coal) or being de-unionized (trucking). Retirees face the possibility of steep cuts to their benefits due to funding shortfalls.

Some of those pensions have already been slashed. A law passed in 2014 allowed the trustees of troubled multiemployer plans to reduce benefits after receiving approval from the Treasury Department. The aim was to shore up not only the plans themselves but also the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the government-run entity that insures pension plans and is on track to become insolvent in just a few years.

Sanders opposed that law, saying the sacrifices needed to bolster plans shouldn’t fall to retirees. He reiterated that view on Wednesday, noting that pensions are essentially deferred compensation and that workers gave up wage increases over the years in order to steer money toward retirement. “A company cannot renege on that promise,” Sanders told the union crowd.

What he did not say explicitly is that one of his top Democratic primary opponents, former Vice President Joe Biden, had an indirect hand in giving plan trustees the ability to cut benefits. The Multiemployer Pension Reform Act got rolled into an omnibus spending bill that the Obama administration approved. Other Democrats opposed the reform at the time, saying it would lead to unfair cuts for retirees.

The closest Sanders came to calling out Biden on Wednesday was noting that the change was made “five years ago.” But the Vermont senator may be less reserved in his comments in the coming months, especially if he continues to poll second behind Biden, the early front-runner in the Democratic race....

Who said this in '07, and where did she say it? CLUE

Speaking of Biden: what a tragedy of a man he has become. Like John Kerry, he's spent too long in the Senate, and doesn't know when to shut the fuck up. Yes, he had a great moment -- but how sad that he had to curtail an actual reply for a laugh, when to answer it honestly and angrily might have stood him in greater stead. If anyone on that stage that night had actual qualifications for the job, Joseph Biden has them; but he's too corrupt, too divided, he's spent too many years in the protean halls of the United States government... and the very things that qualify for the job also make him the sort of man no one really trusts anymore. I do believe he is a good man, a truly good man -- but he's also a broken man and a compromised man, and I just cannot trust him.

Just went nostalgiac perusing recent uid's on the Member List. huh that is all. Maryscott O'Connor good memories, LOL. tempus fugit

PEACE