TRUMP IMPEACHMENT DESIGNED TO PROTECT HILLARY CLINTON

EVEN IF GOD ASKS ME, I WON’T FORGIVE: NIRBHAYA’S MOM

ing the daily struggle to keep Trump happy.

The fact is that Hunter Biden did get princely sums of money from entities in the very countries that his father (Vice-president Joe Biden) was personally handling on behalf of President Obama. Or that his qualifications for such lucrative posts was nonexistent, as seems to have been the case with whatever he was (as distinct from his VVIP father) doing for the companies which paid him immense sums of money. Given the fact that Joe Biden is the preferred choice of Bill and Hillary Clinton to be the next US President, skilful networking has ensured that the activities of Hunter Biden in the foreign companies with which he was associated have not been seriously probed even by Trump-friendly news outlets. Strangely, Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell (a strong backer of President Erdogan of Turkey) seems disinclined to seriously pursue the option of bringing Hunter Biden to testify about his activities before a Senate panel at a time when the Clinton machine saw to it that the younger son of the former Vice-president was kept far away from giving testimony on the floor of the US

House of Representatives. The Senate Majority Leader justifies this lack of interest in Hunter Biden as part of an overall policy of dispensing with witnesses altogether as the Senate considers and decides on the Articles of Impeachment handed over to them by the House of Representatives. Such a proceeding would not just be a farcical eyewash, but be shown before voters as being an eyewash, thereby damaging President Trump’s chances of re-election for a fresh four-year term, an essentiality if he and some of his family members are to avoid being prosecuted for a roster of complaints that have been prepared by Democratic Party veterans. Rather than a Clinton-friendly candidate, should a truly independent individual (such as Senators Warren or Sanders) emerge as the Democratic Party nominee in July, and should that candidate go on to defeat Trump, that would not only be bad news for the Trumps but also for the Clintons, for while the Clinton Foundation (and Hunter Biden) would be in clover during a Biden Presidency, a Sanders or a Warren White House would look askance at the many money-making schemes of the Clintons, a level of cupidity that has thus far escaped serious legal and political consequences thanks to the network of the former Empress of the Beltway, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who still retains substantial influence in the world’s most consequential capital. Indeed, a weakened and vulnerable Donald J. Trump would be preferred by the Clintons to a Warren or a Sanders as the next US President.

Given that the lucrative jobs given to Hunter Biden (apparently for no just cause) were during the time when his father as Vice-president was directly involved with high policy regarding the countries in which the job-giving enterprises were located, there is an arguable case of corruption. Of course, what is questionable is the withholding of assistance to Ukraine after the government there had been directed by Rudy Giuliani to investigate Hunter Biden and to do so publicly but had yet to obey. Seeking to frame any request to a foreign government by the USG to investigate possible wrongdoing by a US citizen as an impeachable offence seems designed to ensure that there will not be any future enquiry via foreign governments into the money flow into the Clinton Foundation during the period when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. In other words, among the grounds for impeachment is the implicit premise that using a foreign government to investigate a US citizen who is in politics is a misdemeanour. As pointed out by Beltway insiders, not only do the terms of the items of impeachment of the Democratic Party-controlled House of Representatives do Joe Biden a huge favour by casting him as the biggest electoral danger to President Trump, they seek to foreclose any future enquiry by the USG against any politician through the use of a foreign government. This when a foreign government is in several situations the only way in which such an enquiry can succeed in finding out the truth. The flimsy nature of the terms of impeachment where public opinion is concerned ensure a less than blockbuster viewership for the Senate proceedings, unless of course during those moments when Hunter Biden or John Bolton (or both) are allowed to testify. The Clinton machine saw to it that the articles of impeachment drawn up by the House committee focused on the Ukraine saga and nothing other than the Ukraine saga. This when there are other actions of President Trump that are likely to have a grave impact on US security in the years ahead.

Rather than destroy ISIS the way he has been claiming, President Trump has opened a pathway for the terror organisation to regroup. He has done this by abandoning the Kurdish allies of the US military in 2019 and months afterwards, in causing public opinion within the Shia majority in Iraq to turn toxic against US forces in that country by assassinating the commander of the Iraqi Shia militia that has done the most to rid the country of ISIS together with Qassem Soleimani, the killing of whom has almost certainly ensured that Iran will follow the Pakistan and North Korea example in nuclear proliferation, rather than that of Libya and Ukraine. The raising of the red flag atop the Jamkaran Mosque in Qom indicates that the IRGC has entered upon a campaign designed to remove US forces from the Middle East, no matter what the cost in Iranian or other blood. After the treachery shown to the Kurds (who were asked to leave fortified positions soon afterwards occupied by Turkish troops intent on their destruction), it would have to be a very credulous Middle Eastern potentate who has confidence in US pledges. Just as the killing of Gaddafi terminally affected any chances for the voluntary handing over of WMD to the US and its allies by any other power, the killing of Soleimani means that any country hosting US bases will be the direct target of the IRGC, both in conventional as well as in asymmetric terms should the US use such bases to launch attacks on Iran. By his embrace of Erdogan and apparently his interests and values in the Middle East, and by initiating the start of a risky, inevitable and escalatory cycle of violence with Iran, President Trump has placed the interests of the US in far greater jeopardy than by “asking a favour” of the Ukrainians in the matter of the Biden investigation. However, the Kurds count for even less in the minds of US voters than the Ukrainians do, while the effects of the Soleimani strike will become visible only over the coming three years, or well after the 2020 polls. Fortunately for Trump, the choice of the Ukraine saga as the only platform for impeachment is likely to make him seem a victim rather than a perpetrator, and ensure his re-election, especially if his opponent is Joe Biden. After ensuring the victory of Donald J. Trump in 2016, the Clinton machine seems on course to enabling his reelection in 2020. Unless (a) the US economy slows down substantially by the autumn of 2020 and (b) either Warren or Sanders rather than Biden is the Democratic Party challenger to Trump.

NEW DELHI: Reacting to a tweet by ace lawyer Indira Jaising urging her to forgive the four men on death row for brutally raping that finally took her life, Nirbhaya’s Mother Asha Devi said on Saturday: “Even if God asks me, I won’t forgive them.” Asha Devi, who had been fighting for seven long years to send her daughter’s killers to the gallows, said, “...even if god comes and asks me to forgive them, I will not. People like these (Jaising) are a blot on the society.” Commenting on Jaising’s tweet, she said: “Who is she to tell or suggest to me to forgive them. What relation does she have with me. I have nothing to do with such people. She can be a relative of those (the convicts) that she is having a soft corner for.” “She is an insult to women. She is running a business in the name of human rights. She is a veteran, she should give a message to the society. But she instead will go against her own kind,” she added. Earlier in the day, Jaising had requested Asha Devi to follow the example of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who had moved for the clemency of a woman, Nalini Murugan convicted for the assassination of her husband and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. “While I fully identify with the pain of Asha Devi I urge her to follow the example of Sonia Gandhi who forgave Nalini and said she didn’t want the death penalty for her. We are with you but against death penalty,” Jaising tweeted on Friday.

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