Samat sata analyysiä voi lukea aina gallupien jälkeen, mutta minä haluan jotain muuta. Haluan löytää jotain positiivista persujen suosion kasvusta, sellaista jota kaltaiseni markkinaliberaalikin voi iloita – ja uskoakseni olen sellaista löytänyt. Voisiko persujen nousussa nähdä hieman samaa mitä Barack Obaman kampanjassa? Näenkö rivien välistä sanat ”yes we can”, tai siis ”tottahan myö pystymme”?
Varoitus: tämä on vain vaihtoehtoinen katsantakanta yhdestä näkökulmasta – ei absoluuttinen totuus tai kokonaiskuva.
Onko sanoma vain rasismia?
Teen nyt oletuksen, että yleinen näkökulma persujen kannatuksen noususta, eli kasvava rasismi ja ilmastodenialismi, ei ole koko totuus. Syitä on mielestäni useita. Esitän nyt yhden syyn, jonka ainakin haluaisin olevan osa pakettia ja se on persujen sanoman positiivisuus. Kyllä, luit oikein, hengitä syvään, lue sitten perusteluja tai juokse paniikissa loukkaantumaan jonkun puolesta. Jos jatkat yhä, huomautan että puhun tästä miltä asiat näyttävät ja kuulostavat, viestinnässähän käy usein niin että puhujalle sanoma on kovin erilainen kuin kuulijalle. Wiion lait pätevät.
Kas, vihreät ja demarit ovat antaneet ilmi kuvaa siitä, että olemme syyllisiä ja meidän pitäisi hävetä. Heidän ulostuloista jää monille mieleen vain ajatus siitä, että mm. kaikki on suomalaisten (EI, en sanonut ”lihaa syövien heteromiesten”) syytä. Korostetaan asioita missä olemme huonoja tai muita huonompia, asioita joissa emme tee tarpeeksi, asioita joita saisimme hävetä. Puhutaan siitä mitä emme saa tehdä, mistä pitää kieltäytyä, minkä pitää loppua – ja tämä kaikki tarjotaan kovin ehdottomaan äänensävyyn. Ei tämä ole vain ilmastonmuutospuhetta, vaan yleinen ilmapiiri. Syyllisten ja syyllisyyden osoittaminen pätevät toki maahanmuutossa ja ilmastoasioissa, mutta myös työmarkkinoilla, keskusteluilmapiirissä, EU-asioissa ja monessa muussa.
Kotipuolueeni Kokoomus on sekin jäänyt vähän reaktiopuolueen asemaan ja olisi aika piristyä. Olemme tyytyneet reagoimaan muiden puolueiden ulostuloihin, emmekä ole yrittäneet rakentaa omaa agendaa. Tällä hetkellä keskikentän oikealla reunalla olisi hurjasti tilaa selkeälle, järjenkäyttöön pohjautuvalle sanomalle. Tieteeseen uskovan puolueen tulee rohkeasti katsoa eteenpäin ja olla mahdollisuuksien mukaan proaktiivinen. Tämä puoli puuttuu. Kotimaan politiikassa on kaksi selkeää sanomaa, mutta jo pikavilkaisu eurooppalaisille politiikan kentille osoittaa että kolmannelle on ehdottomasti paitsi tilaa, myös kysyntää.
Niin, entäpä Perussuomalaiset? Yhä useampi kuulee heidän sanomansa positiivisessa hengessä. Kyllä me selviämme tästä. Kyllä suomalainen työ kannattaa. Kyllä aurinko nousee huomennakin. Kyllä lapsissa on tulevaisuus. Vaikka heidän perusviestintä onkin sävyltään ikävää, yllättävän moni lukee niissä vähäsen toivoa, hitusen synninpäästöä ja pienoista optimismia. Niitäkin kommentteja lukee, joissa ilmastonmuutoksesta huolestuneet uskovat enemmän persujen kuin vihreiden ratkaisumalliin. He kokevat sen ratkaisevan asiaa kulkien eteenpäin työtä tekemällä, kun vihreiden malli tuntuu lähinnä panikoinnilta ja toivon alasajolta. Viestintäpsykologiaa katsellen, jos lauseen alkupuolella ensin ruoskitaan, ei lauseen jälkipuoli enää pysty tilannetta paikkaamaan. Liekö Matias Turkkila tehnyt saman havainnon?
Toivotalkoot?
Markkinaliberalismiin kuuluu ainakin minun versiossani toivo ja positiivisuus. Sisäinen ääneni rohkeneekin siten toivoa, että gallupit ovat merkki toivon kaipuusta. Ehkäpä suomalainen sisu on herännyt horroksestaan ja kansa haluaisi vihdoinkin lähteä rakentamaan tulevaisuutta tekemällä? Hallitus tarjoaa häpeää, itkua ja tappelua, mutta kenties kansa haluaisikin toivoa, mahdollisuuksia ja haastetta? On sangen mahdollista että kuvailen pöhköä utopiaa, mutta mielestäni tulevaisuuden tekeminen omin käsin on utopia johon on täysin sallittua uskoa.
Totuus on, kuten olen varoittanut, paljon tätä monimutkaisempi, mutta mielestäni täysin jumittunut persukeskustelu kaipaa uutta näkökantaa. Laajemminkin katsoen, Suomesta puuttuu toivoa. Väkivahvasti uskon, että sitä pystyisi tarjoamaan meille useampikin puolue. Älkää jääkö tuleen makaamaan, vaan ottakaa haaste vastaan, oli lipun väri mikä vaan!
Eikä hän tehnyt sitä edes salaa!
” …S ara A. Carter ✔ @SaraCarterDC
” How a classic mafia-like shakedown looks like:
#JoeBiden: ”if you don’t fire that prosecutor, United States will not give you $1Billion in Aid” &
” jos ette potkaise sitä syyttäjää pihalle, USA ei tule antamaan teille 1 miljadin (billion) dollarin sotilasapua! ”
https://twitter.com/i/status/1181303546010095622
As Lutsenko noted in his Facebook post, out of three cases only one, concerning tax evasion, was fullfilled forcing Burisma to pay 180 million hryvnias ($7.17 million) to the state in autumn 2016. … ”
Tämä on venäläisen sivu, mutta se on kokoelma läntisiä julkisia link- kejä institutionaalisimmista tiédostusvälineistä. Tekijät eivät välitä, että sitä kopsitaan, päinvastoin.
Katsotaan välillä itse asiaa eikä vain sen kytkentöjä ja käsittelyä:
https://sputniknews.com/us/201910281077162120-unfortunate-son-muddied-waters-of-ukraines-gas-company-burisma-hunter-bidens-quid-pro-quo/
Unfortunate Son: Muddied Waters of Ukraine’s Gas Company Burisma & Hunter Biden’s Quid-pro-Quo
US 14:00 28.10.2019
by Ekaterina Blinova
While it is not unusual for the offspring of prominent politicians to capi- talise on their family’s name, the story of Hunter, the son of former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, has all the hallmarks of an international political scandal ironically brought to light by the Dems’ impeachment effort against Trump.
”Don’t worry about investors – we’ve got people all around the world who want to invest in Joe Biden”, according to Politico, these words were said by the politician’s younger brother, James Biden, when he and his nephew Hunter embarked on a business venture in 2006.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/08/02/joe-biden-investigati…
The two bought Paradigm Global Advisors, a hedge fund, at the time when Joseph Biden, who represented Delaware in the US Senate from 1973, was a few months away from assuming a position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and throwing his hat into the ring during the 2007/2008 presidential election cycle.
By that time Hunter had behind him experience at the Delaware bank MBNA that hired him fresh from Yale Law School in 1996, a few years at the US Department of Commerce, and time spent as a lobbyist at Oldaker, Biden & Belair.
Managing Paradigm Global Advisors was not smooth for the Bidens: the hedge fund repeatedly found itself in troubled waters, accused of both alleged and confirmed frauds.
https://www.politico.eu/article/joe-biden-presidential-bid-family-busine…
So, in 2010 the uncle and the nephew began unwinding the firm.
Rosemont Seneca, the next endeavour co-founded by Hunter Biden, Christopher Heinz and Devon Archer in 2010 proved much more suc- cessful. It managed to strike a $1 billion private equity deal with a state-owned Bank of China subsidiary in December 2013 and gain over $3 million from Ukraine’s Burisma Holding in 2015. The striking of lucrative deals by Hunter Biden coincided with his father’s tenure as US vice president under Barack Obama.
Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama react after a heckler is removed from the East Room of the White House.
Burisma Holdings’ Muddied Waters
At the time Hunter Biden joined Burisma, the holding had been facing legal difficulties with the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) freezing $23 million in accounts belonging to the company’s co-founder, former Ukrainian parliamentarian and government official Mykola Zlochevskiy, under suspicion of corruption.
Zlochevsky established Burisma as an off-shore company in Cyprus in 2002. While serving as a chairman of the State Committee for Natural Resources from 2003 to 2005 under president Leonid Kuchma and then as minister of environmental protection and minister of the environment and natural resources from 2010 to 2012 under President Viktor Yanukovich, Zlochevsky managed to get over three dozen licenses for hydrocarbon production. This allowed his company to embark on gas production in Ukraine’s main basins starting from 2006.
The SFO insisted that the former politician’s assets were ”unlawfully acquired as a result of misconduct in public office”.
Burisma Holdings has always been anything but transparent. The com- pany does not disclose its financial results, while its site does not con- tain any information concerning its asset history, registration data or financial accounts. While the holding names KPMG – one of the Big Four accounting organisations, along with Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and PricewaterhouseCoopers – as its auditor, it does not release audited statements of its financial condition.
The New Yorker recalled that before joining the holding’s board in April 2014, Hunter Biden recommended that New York-based law firm Boies Schiller Flexner where he was ”of counsel” assessed Burisma’s ”history of corruption”. To that end Boies Schiller hired the investigative agency Nardello & Co. Three months after Biden assumed a director position in Burisma Nardello warned in a draft report that Zlochevsky could be ”vulnerable to investigation for financial crimes” and for ”perceived abuse of power.” However, none of this discouraged Hunter Biden from serving in the company.
Why Burisma Wanted Hunter
Burisma had good reasons to request help from the well-positioned American. The 2014 February coup in Ukraine, also known as Euromaidan, resulted in the ouster of Viktor Yanukovich and triggered the re-distribution of power and wealth among Ukrainian oligarchs and their cronies. Zlochevsky, who came to prominence as one of Yanukovich’s top ministers, found himself on thin ice.
As cited by Reuters, Oleksandr Onyshchenko, a businessman and former member of the Ukrainian parliament, alleged that Zlochevsky brought Biden as well his business associate Devon Archer and former president of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski to the board of Burisma ”to protect (the company)” from potential prosecution.
Rudy Giuliani ✔ @RudyGiuliani
Photo reveals Joe and Hunter Biden golfing with top Ukraine gas com- pany executive in 2014. Jr. G man winner says Devon Archer. He says he preceeded Biden on board of crooked company. But they never discussed Hunter’s either upcoming,or, new big paying gig?
https://t.co/Hokpmr3P2A
A 2014 photo has emerged of Joe Biden (second from right) and his son, Hunter (far right), golfing in the Hamptons with Devon Archer (far left), a Ukrainian gas company executive. Archer served on the board of Burisma Holdings with Hunter
In addition, according to a New York Times’ December 2015 story, just weeks before Burisma hired Hunter, then Vice President Joe Biden was assigned by President Barack Obama to oversee US-Ukraine relations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/world/europe/corruption-ukraine-joe-b…
Zlochevsky loosened his purse to fund his ”dream team”: according to Ukrainian court documents obtained by Novaya Gazeta, between 18 November 2014 and 16 October 2015, the holding sent $3,404,712.82 to Rosemont Seneca for ”consultation services”, while a further €1,000,000 went to Aleksander Kwaśniewski, the media outlet says.
https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2019/10/01/82184-poshli-zlochinnim-…
While later both Joe and Hunter Biden denied that they had ever dis- cussed the Burisma issue, a photo featuring the vice president, his son and Devon Archer, who served on the board of the Ukrainian holding together with Hunter, playing golf in August 2014, appears to prove the opposite.
The Washington Post remarked at that time: ”The appointment of the vice president’s son to a Ukrainian oil board looks nepotistic at best, nefarious at worst”.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/05/14/hunter-bide…
https://sputniknews.com/us/201910191077091642-us-diplomat-raised-alarm-a…
Hunter Biden’s Controversial Record
According to Reuters, sources close to Burisma described Hunter’s role in the company as that of a ”ceremonial figure”.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hunter-biden-ukraine/what-hunter-bide…
They elaborated that then vice president’s son had not visited Ukraine during his five-year contract with the holding, adding that twice a year he attended Burisma’s board meetings all of which were held outside of Ukraine.
https://sputniknews.com/us/201910151077054568-hunter-biden-denies-any-wr…
He was reportedly paid $83,333 per month having expertise neither in energy business nor in Ukraine’s affairs.
Hunter’s actual responsibilities at the company also raise questions. On 12 May 2014, Burisma issued a press release saying that Hunter Biden ”will be in charge of the holding’s legal unit and will provide support for the company among international organisations”.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5980032-Burisma-Announces-Hunter…
However, in his May 2019 interview with The New York Times, Hunter argued that the holding’s release was not accurate saying: ”At no time was I in charge of the company’s legal affairs”.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/us/politics/biden-son-ukraine.html?rr…
To add to the controversy shortly before getting the new job in Ukraine, Hunter was discharged from the US Navy Reserves on 18 February after urine tests indicated cocaine in his system.
Moreover, according to Business Insider, since 2003, Hunter ”was in and out of multiple rehab centers, achieving sobriety for periods of time before relapsing”, ending up with being forced out of the Navy. Later his addiction problems became the trigger for a 2017 divorce from his wife Kathleen Biden, who he was married to for 22 years and had three children with.
https://www.businessinsider.com/hunter-biden-opens-about-addiction-strug…
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden (File)
The Bidens’ ’Shield’ & ’Untouchable’ Mykola Zlochevsky
While Reuters argues that Hunter failed to shield the holding from a series of criminal investigations into Zlochevsky started by the Ukrainian and British authorities, the truth of the matter is that all of those probes mysteriously fell apart while Biden was at the helm.
According to ex-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko’s recol- lection of events outlined in his May 2019 Facebook post there had been three criminal cases targeting Zlochevsky and Burisma, namely tax evasion allegations (Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), money laundering (Art. 209) and misuse of public funds (Art. 191).
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Vitaly Yarema started looking into the Burisma owner’s alleged misconduct in August 2014 and then passed it to Viktor Shokin who became Ukraine’s prosecutor general in February 2015.
A month earlier, on 21 January 2015, the UK’s SFO unblocked Zlochevs- ky’s accounts. Although the British law enforcement agency continued the investigation it ultimately stalled after several months. Speaking to the Guardian in May 2015, a SFO spokesperson bemoaned the fact that the British agency ”was not provided with the evidence by authorities in the Ukraine necessary to keep this restraint order in place.”