Spies Like Us, Con't

The Trump regime Ukraine scandal is only getting worse for the Tangerine Tyrant, but it wouldn't be our media if it wasn't an opportunity to use the completely fabricated nonsense against Joe Biden as "both sides do it!"

Despite the outrage that greeted reports of the president’s actions, Biden’s immediate response was no simple matter. His son Hunter Biden’s lucrative contracts with Ukraine — at the same time the vice president was in charge of U.S. policy toward the country raised — raised the prospect of fueling a narrative with downside political risk for Biden. 

“This puts him on the ropes over having to talk about this,” said Patrick Murray, a pollster with Monmouth University. “He certainly doesn’t want to talk about this, his family.” 

Murray suggested the ethical dimensions of the controversy — and the implications of Trump’s actions for impeachment, which Biden at present does not support — made any extended discussion of the story potentially perilous for Biden. 

“At the primary level, I don’t think Democrats would believe these charges [concerning Biden] because of how polarized the debate is right now, but then they could start worrying that this could hurt him if he is the nominee,” Murray said. “It’s ‘can Biden fight back? Will this hurt his ability to take Trump on fully?’ And will it undermine that electability argument that he’s been making?” 

The only way this becomes an issue for Biden is if the media makes this about Biden by writing stories about how this issue is really about Biden.  If this all seems familiar, I have some Hillary Clinton e-mails that would like a word with you.

The Village would love nothing more than for both Biden's Democratic primary rivals and Trump regime Republicans to attack him over this nonsense that I remind you was debunked back in May, and that was after the previous Ukraine government decided to close an investigation into Paul Manafort in exchange for military aid.  It all stinks.

Again, the Biden story appeared in May and was debunked a few weeks later, and let's not forget that the Ukrainina co-author of that bullshit NY Times story on Biden is now Volodymyr Zelensky's spokesman.The Biden story is disinformation, guys.  Pure and simple.

This is all complete nonsense.  Do not let these assholes do to Joe Biden what they did to Hillary and give us another four years of goddamn Donald Trump.

Hizzoner Hits The Showers

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is out of the 2020 presidential race, and with his poll numbers somewhere within the margin of error of zero, it's no wonder.  But it turns out he's probably going to have political problems long after his quixotic quest, as the Trump regime doesn't forgive or forget a foe.

Mayor Bill de Blasio's presidential campaign is over, but concerns over his fundraising practices linger on. 

An official with the Federal Election Commission sent a letter to the mayor's presidential campaign, which ended Friday, highlighting a problem that has been the subject of multiple POLITICO reports and two formal complaints from watchdog groups.

In a July public filing, the de Blasio camp noted a $52,852 debt owed to the NY Fairness PAC, a state political action committee controlled by the mayor. The campaign had argued that this was a permissible loan from one organization to another. But the FEC's senior campaign finance analyst, Robin Kelly, wrote this week that the practice is not allowed by campaign finance rules. 

Such transfers are capped at $5,000 per election cycle, Kelly's letter said, meaning the campaign took more than ten times the permissible amount from the state PAC and spent it on travel and advertising. Kelly mandated that the campaign refile an amended report by late October that corrects the transfer, and noted that an audit of the campaign may follow. 

The campaign repaid the loan Thursday, the day it received the FEC’s letter, spokesperson Jaclyn Rothenberg said. 

Last year, de Blasio created a federal political action committee called Fairness PAC — ostensibly to fund his trips around the country advocating for progressive causes and to offer financial support to other left-leaning Democrats. However, the mayor also quietly created a state committee called NY Fairness PAC and used both to fund exploratory efforts for his own presidential campaign. 

Last month, the Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the FEC illustrating why it found this practice problematic. Essentially, donors who had already given the max to de Blasio's presidential campaign were also donating to both of his PACs. And PAC money was being shifted back into the presidential warchest. 

“[The campaign] appears to have concocted a shell game to arrange for a small number of wealthy donors to support de Blasio’s presidential run above and beyond legal contribution limits,” the group's complaint said. 

Mayor de Blasio's semi-shady shell game aside, did anyone not expect the Trump regime to make ongoing trouble for somebody Trump has had an ongoing feud with for years?  FEC harassment is only the beginning, I suspect.  Trump's enemies' list is as long as his ridiculous ties, after all.

Still, de Blasio's cavalier attitude and pointless presidential run brought this retribution upon himself.  It doesn't look like he's going to pull a Bloomberg and try to get a third term or anything, there's no way City Council would play ball.  As to who will replace him, well he still has another two years to go on that, but the primary fights aren't that far off.

Deportation Nation, Con't

The deal for mass deportations of migrants and asylum seekers (and eventually undocumented and undesirable political enemies already in the country) the Trump regime pressured both Mexico and Guatemala to take may yet go to an eager El Salvador instead.

The United States planned to sign an agreement on Friday to help make one of Central America’s most violent countries, El Salvador, a haven for migrants seeking asylum, according to a senior Trump administration official. 

The official said acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan would sign a “cooperative asylum agreement.” 

Two other officials described the agreement as a first step measure in the governments’ working together on asylum. Details of the broad agreement will be hammered out in the weeks and months ahead, they said. The officials weren’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. 

The agreement could lead to migrants from third countries obtaining refuge in El Salvador even though many Salvadorans are fleeing their nation and seeking asylum in the United States. A Salvadoran delegation has been in the U.S. this week discussing the matter. 

It’s the latest effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to force asylum-seekers in Central America to seek refuge outside the United States. Immigration officials also are forcing more than 42,000 people to remain in Mexico as their cases play out and have changed policy to deny asylum to anyone who transited through a third country en route to the southern border of the U.S. 

The senior administration official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. 

The agreement would be another step by the Trump administration aimed at stopping the flow of migrants coming into the United States. McAleenan also signed a so-called “safe third country” agreement with Guatemala, but officials in that country are still working out how it would be implemented. 

The arrangement with El Salvador was not described as a “safe third country” agreement, under which nations agree that their respective countries are safe enough and have robust enough asylum systems, so that if migrants transit through one of the countries they must remain there instead of moving on to another country. 

The U.S. officially has only one such agreement in place, with Canada, but has been working toward others in Honduras and agreed to the one in Guatemala that has not yet been implemented.

The courts have made it clear that without a safe third country agreement, the Trump regime can't begin mass deportations of millions out of the US.  Canada is big enough to not get pushed around by the US too, and besides, it's pretty easy to check to see if people came in through the southern US border or the northern one.

Honduras is the next country in line if Guatemala and El Salvador don't work out.  But the Trump regime can't begin the deportations without somewhere to actually send them, and the for-profit concentration camps on the US border will start becoming an albatross on Trump's neck for 2020 unless he proves he can empty them out.

Besides, his base will demand the deportations sooner rather than later.