Oh
to live the pampered, regal life of a politician’s child. Never to have to worry about getting into a
great college, never having to worry about paying tuition or getting a good
paying job to pay off your massive tuition debt (thanks to the Senator Joe
Biden Bankruptcy Bill). Debt that can’t even be expunged with
death. Such is life for the Bidens. Today, it was announced that Vice-President
and self-proclaimed Zionist Joe Biden has secured a seat for his boy Hunter on
the board of Ukraine’s largest gas producer. From Washington Times:
Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s
youngest son, Hunter, has been appointed head of legal affairs at Ukraine’s largest
private gas producer.
Burisma Holdings said in a statement that Hunter Biden will
be in charge of the company’s legal unit and will provide support for the
company among international organizations.
White House press secretary Jay Carney
said Tuesday that Mr. Biden’s
new position “does not reflect an endorsement by the administration,” Time
magazine’s Zeke
Miller reported.
The announcement comes just one day after
Russia’s state energy giant Gazprom threatened to halt natural gas shipments
to Ukraine unless
the country pays in advance for supplies.
The
vice president has condemned Russia for its intervention in Ukraine and has pledged to support efforts to reduce its dependency on Russian
energy, The Moscow Times reported.
Funny
thing, since the overthrow of the elected government of Ukraine, there’s a
little problem with their accounts payables.
Ukraine has an outstanding invoice with Gazprom and Gazprom will now
provide gas to Ukraine on a C.O.D. basis only.
Prime
Minister Dmitry Medvedev instructed Gazprom to start supplying gas to Ukraine
on a prepaid basis from May 13.
“Gazprom has a right to do what has been
repeatedly discussed, namely to switch over to advance payments for Ukrainian
consumers and Ukraine under the contract,” Medvedev said on Monday, May 12. “I
think it’s high time we stopped dandling about. Notify them and move on to
advance payments starting tomorrow,” he said at a meeting with Gazprom CEO
Alexei Miller and Energy Minister Alexander Novak.
Gee, what
happened last time you failed to pay your utility bill? I guess Central Bankers like Yats don’t know
that as of May the utility companies can shut off your heat for nonpayment.
“I
think Gazprom has taken all possible steps to settle the situation: we talked
with them, we consulted several times, you reported to me and to the president,
but we were not heard,” the prime minister said. “If this is so, we must start
acting because this can’t be tolerated anymore.”
Medvedev
said advance payments for Russian gas would not mean an end to supplies. “The
transition to advance payments means only one thing: we will supply as much as
they pay for. If they pay one euro, we will supply one euro’s worth [of gas];
if they pay a billion, we will supply a billion’s worth [of gas],” he said.
“Our
Ukrainian partners have money,” Medvedev said, referring to the first portion
of a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Oh, come on Dmitry,
you know the Federal Reserve stole all our gold. What are we supposed to pay you with,
worthless gold certificates from the Goldman Sachs?
Miller said Ukraine had to pay for
Russian gas supplies before June 2.
“If Ukraine does not pay for the June
supplies, Gazprom will notify Ukraine by 10 a.m. June 3 how much gas would be
supplied to Ukraine in accordance with the advance payment made,” he said.
If no prepayment is made, no gas will be
supplied to Ukraine in June, he added.
Miller said that Ukraine’s current debt
for gas had exceeded 3.5 billion U.S. dollars, which matches 9.420 billion
cubic meters of gas. This would be enough to supply gas to Poland for 12
months.
Ukraine did not make any payments for gas
in March and April, he said.
You
know, it all goes back to the leaked conversation between U.S. Deputy Secretary
of State, Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt
discussing how they were going to overthrow the elected Ukrainian Government. From BBC:
Voice thought to be Pyatt's: I think we're in play. The
Klitschko [Vitaly Klitschko, one of three main opposition leaders] piece is
obviously the complicated electron here. Especially
the announcement of him as deputy prime minister and you've seen some of my
notes on the troubles in the marriage right now so we're trying to get a read
really fast on where he is on this stuff. But I think your argument to him,
which you'll need to make, I think that's the next phone call you want to set
up, is exactly the one you made to Yats [Arseniy
Yatseniuk, another opposition leader]. And I'm glad you sort of put him on the
spot on where he fits in this scenario. And I'm very glad that he said what he
said in the end
Nuland: Good. I don't think
Klitsch should go into the government. I don't think it's necessary, I don't
think it's a good idea.
Boy, all that eavesdropping is paying off. Poor old
Klitschko is out, he’s having marriage troubles.
Pyatt: Yeah. I guess... in
terms of him not going into the government, just let him stay out and do his
political homework and stuff. I'm just thinking in terms of sort of the process
moving ahead we want to keep the moderate democrats together. The problem is
going to be Tyahnybok [Oleh Tyahnybok, the other opposition leader] and his
guys and I'm sure that's part of what [President Viktor] Yanukovych is
calculating on all this.
Yeah, the opposition leaders that you’ve recruited and are
paying all want a piece of the Ukrainian pie.
Nuland: [Breaks in] I think
Yats is the guy who's got the economic experience, the governing experience.
He's the... what he needs is Klitsch and Tyahnybok on the outside. He needs to
be talking to them four times a week, you know. I just think Klitsch going
in... he's going to be at that level working for Yatseniuk, it's just not going
to work.
So, now that they’ve decided that Yats is the guy…
Pyatt: Yeah, no, I think
that's right. OK. Good. Do you want us to set up a call with him as the next
step?
Nuland: My understanding from
that call - but you tell me - was that the big three were going into their own
meeting and that Yats was going to offer in that context a...
three-plus-one conversation or three-plus-two with you. Is that not how you
understood it?
Pyatt: No. I think... I mean
that's what he proposed but I think, just knowing the dynamic that's been with
them where Klitschko has been the top dog, he's going to take a while to show
up for whatever meeting they've got and he's probably talking to his guys at
this point, so I think you reaching out directly to him helps with the
personality management among the three and it gives you also a chance to move
fast on all this stuff and put us behind it before they all sit down and he
explains why he doesn't like it.
Yep, Vicky reach out personally to Klitschko so we can move
fast before he can explain why he doesn’t like it.
Nuland: OK, good. I'm happy.
Why don't you reach out to him and see if he wants to talk before or after.
Pyatt: OK, will do. Thanks.
Nuland: OK... one more wrinkle
for you Geoff. [A click can be heard] I can't remember if I told you this, or
if I only told Washington this, that when I talked to Jeff Feltman [United
Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs] this morning, he had a new
name for the UN guy Robert Serry did I write you that this morning?
Yes, the pieces are all falling into place, like government
coup 101.
Pyatt: Yeah I saw that.
Nuland: OK. He's now gotten
both Serry and [UN Secretary General] Ban Ki-moon to agree that Serry could
come in Monday or Tuesday. So that would be great, I think, to help glue this
thing and to have the UN help glue it and, you know, Fuck the EU.
Out
of all the above, the only thing that the US press seems to have found
important there was “Fuck the EU”. But
there’s more.
Pyatt: No, exactly. And I
think we've got to do something to make it stick together because you can be
pretty sure that if it does start to gain altitude, that the Russians will be
working behind the scenes to try to torpedo it. And again the fact that this is
out there right now, I'm still trying to figure out in my mind why Yanukovych
(garbled) that. In the meantime there's a Party of Regions faction meeting
going on right now and I'm sure there's a lively argument going on in that
group at this point. But anyway we could land jelly side up on this one if we
move fast. So let me work on Klitschko and if you can just keep... we want
to try to get somebody with an international personality to come out here and
help to midwife this thing. The other issue is some kind of outreach to
Yanukovych but we probably regroup on that tomorrow as we see how things start
to fall into place.
Ha, ha send in a midwife to birth their Frankenstein’s baby,
guess who?
Nuland: So on that piece
Geoff, when I wrote the note [US vice-president's national security adviser
Jake] Sullivan's come back to me VFR [direct to me], saying you need [US
Vice-President Joe] Biden and I said probably tomorrow for an atta-boy and to
get the deets [details] to stick. So Biden's willing.
Pyatt: OK. Great. Thanks.
Yes, so once you overthrow a government and put your toadies in place, it’s time for the pillaging to start. So Joe’s boy gets a job as head of legal affairs at Ukraine’s largest private gas producer. Oh, the perks you get from being a politician’s kid.
According to Global Research:
Ukraine has Europe’s third-largest shale
gas reserves at 42 trillion cubic feet, according to the U.S. Energy
Information Administration. While for years U.S. oil companies have been
pressing for shale gas development in countries such as Britain, Poland,
France and Bulgaria only to be rebuffed by significant opposition from
citizens and local legislators concerned about the environmental impacts of
shale gas extraction – including earthquakes and
groundwater contamination caused by hydraulic
fracturing or “fracking” – there has
been considerably less opposition in Ukraine, a country that has been
embroiled in numerous gas disputes with the Russian Federation in recent years.
Yes,
I bet having the U.S. Vice President’s son handling your legal affairs removes
a lot of road blocks to using “fracking” for gas extraction.
Russia’s state-owned Gazprom, controlling nearly one-fifth of the
world’s gas reserves, supplies more than half of Ukraine’s gas annually, and
about 30 percent of Europe’s. It has often used this as political and economic
leverage over Kiev and Brussels, cutting gas supplies repeatedly over the past
decade (in the winters of 2005-2006, 2007-2008, and again in 2008-2009),
leading to energy shortages not only in Ukraine, but Western European countries
as well. This leverage, however, came
under challenge in 2013 as Ukraine took steps towards breaking its dependence
on Russian gas.
Gee,
what happened in 2013? Oh, yeah. Ukraine’s elected president turned down your
shit sandwich deal.
On Nov. 5, 2013 (just a few weeks before
the Maidan demonstrations began in Kiev), Chevron signed a 50-year agreement
with the Ukrainian government to develop oil and gas in western Ukraine.
According to the New York
Times, “The government said that Chevron would spend $350 million on
the exploratory phase of the project and that the total investment could reach
$10 billion.”
In announcing the deal, President Viktor
Yanukovych said that it “will let Ukraine satisfy its gas needs completely and,
under the optimistic scenario, export energy resources by 2020.” Reuters characterized the
deal as ”another step in a drive for more energy independence from
Russia.”
The United States offered its diplomatic
support, with Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, saying,
“I’m very determined to cooperate with the Ukrainian government in
strengthening Ukraine’s energy independence.”
Yes,
good old Geoff, determined to work with the Ukrainian government of Yanukovych.
At the time of Yanukovych’s ouster in
February, Chevron and the Ukrainian government had been negotiating an
operating agreement for the shale development effort in western Ukraine, and
Chevron spokesman Cameron Van Ast said that
the negotiations would go forward despite Yanukovych fleeing the country. “We are continuing to finalize our joint
operating agreement and the government continues to be supportive,” Van Ast
said.
So,
I was wondering “what kind of spectacular background” does someone that young
have to land such a prestigious position.
Legal counsel to the world’s soon to be largest gas extractor?
By Jenny Strasburg and Thom Weidlich -
January 31, 2007 12:40 EST
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- R. Hunter
Biden, a Washington lobbyist, fraudulently excluded a partner from
the purchase of a hedge-fund investment firm, the partner claims in a lawsuit.
Biden and his uncle James Biden squeezed
investment consultant Anthony
Lotito Jr. out of the 2006 acquisition of New York-based Paradigm
Cos., Lotito says in a complaint filed Jan. 5 in New York state court. The
Bidens lied to Lotito about their joint offer while negotiating a better deal
alone, Lotito's complaint says. The Bidens deny the claims.
``He wants back what was stolen from
him,'' said Lotito's lawyer, Brian Wille of Kostelanetz & Fink LLP in New
York. ``He entered into this transaction believing in the honesty and integrity
of the Bidens.''
Ha,
ha is there no honor among thieves?
Hunter Biden, 36, son of U.S. Senator Joseph Biden,
stepped down this month from daily oversight of Paradigm Global Advisors LLC, a
unit of Paradigm Cos. that manages investments in hedge funds. He became the firm's chairman and remains a
lobbyist, an unusual dual role as scrutiny of the hedge-fund industry has
increased.
Boy,
talk about failing up. What a great way to
be born. You can’t lose.
Paradigm was founded in 1991 and has about $500 million of clients' money
farmed out to hedge funds.
Lotito,
49, introduced Hunter Biden to Paradigm executives in January 2006 after
Senator Biden said he was concerned that his son's lobbying might affect a
planned presidential campaign, Lotito said in his complaint. Under the original purchase that
included Lotito, Hunter Biden was to be paid $1.2 million a year as
Paradigm's president and chief executive officer, according to the complaint.
Ca-ching!
Soon to be Vice-President’s son on your resume gets you a great job at 32 years
of age making $1.2 mil/year. Prior to that, he had been a senior vice
president at MBNA. Bet that was a really
great job too. After all Joe Biden made
sure the bankruptcy bill gave credit card companies the same exemption from
bankruptcy laws as child support. Joe
Biden made sure student loans could never be expunged, even in death and
bankruptcy. Joe has earned lots of
favors.
James
Biden (Joe’s Bro) and Lotito planned to work as consultants to LBB and would be
paid $25,000 a month to find financing for the Paradigm acquisition, according to Lotito's complaint. In addition, they would work to attract
public pension funds to invest in Paradigm and would split half of the
management fees earned from those clients, according to an agreement with
Paradigm Cos.
Prospective
pension-fund clients included New York City Employees' Retirement System,
New Orleans Fire Fighters Association and the Illinois Public Pension Fund
Association, according to the complaint.
Yeah,
I bet the “Biden” name goes a long way in selling magic beans to Employee’s
Retirement Systems, New Orleans Fire Fighters Association and The Illinois Public
Pension Fund.
Well, I have to admit, Hunter is the right guy for the job. If
Hunter was making $1.2 million/year at Paradigm, I wonder what he makes at Burisma
Holdings, if that is even a real company and not some CIA front.
It
is clear that all of these oil and gas companies – backed by their governments,
including those of the Russian Federation and the United States – are deeply
embroiled in the Ukrainian crisis, with much invested and much at stake. But
with their disproportionate influence over Ukraine’s future, it should be kept
in mind that the number one responsibility of any corporation is to increase
profit margins for its shareholders, not necessarily to promote the democracy
or sovereignty of the countries they are operating in.
This
is particularly the case for Chevron and Shell, both of which have been
implicated in major human rights violations in Nigeria. Chevron has been accused of
recruiting and supplying Nigerian military forces involved in massacres of
environmental protesters in the oil-rich Niger Delta, and Shell has faced charges of
complicity in torture and other human rights abuses against the Ogoni people of
southern Nigeria.
So,
what’s a little nepotism when it comes to Ukraine’s riches?
By
Patricia Baeten
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