An Apology (To Biden)
Editor’s note: Trump and his enablers have been spreading extremely well-constructed anti-Biden propaganda. Some of it has been dangerously convincing–so much so that even very thoughtful commentators have been fooled by it.
Case in point: our own contributor, Rabbi Yeshaia Charles Familant, saw an article in The Hill that seemed to provide good evidence that Joe Biden and his son really did something questionable in Ukraine. He wrote a piece about that and sent it to us.
Fortunately, I was traveling when Rabbi Familant’s piece came in and so didn’t have a chance to post it. This turned out to be a very good thing because, as Rabbi Familant discovered, the article in The Hill was in fact written by one of Trump’s supporters and was itself more than a little questionable. Now, Familant has written a retraction and an apology for his original piece.
As I say, Familant’s piece was never posted in LR Net, but I felt that his retraction was itself a valuable piece if only because it is shows how easily even the most insightful of us may fall for Fake News. Therefore, I have posted his retraction, and below that his original piece so that both the readers and editors of this publication can see what not to believe.
With thanks to Rabbi Familant for his honesty and honor…
An Apology
Well, this is (only) the second time on this website that I naively placed false or misleading information. I’ve been conned, hoodwinked and misled by by an apologist for the Trump organization, this time by the author of the above linked article. I unknowingly took Solomon’s piece as an unbiased and objective account. This, in fact, is not the case. I thought of removing the article from this page, but realized that some (I flatter myself in thinking) may have already read it. So, in the interest of full disclosure, I confess my error – please don’t string me up – and give me 30 lashes. Here’s an excerpt from a much longer – and more authoritative account, the link to which I shall include below for those who have sufficient interest in reading the account in full. “March 20, 2019 – The Hill’s conservative opinion writer John Solomon publishes an interview with Ukrainian Prosecutor General Lutsenko, who by this point has been widely criticized as ineffective and likely corrupt.
“Note: Solomon and Fox News’s Sean Hannity are among a constellation of conservative media figures who regularly help spread Trump and Giuliani’s Biden and Manafort theories as well as other right-wing conspiracy theories, such as Uranium One, which have been debunked and shown to exclude vital information. Solomon was moved to the opinion section at The Hill, and announced Sept. 18, 2019, that he was leaving the publication.” https://www.
~Rabbi Yeshaia Charles Familant
The following is the original work which Rabbi Familant is now retracting:
“Curiouser and Curiouser,” said Alice.
What if Trump is correct when he intimated to the newly elected president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, that Joe Biden withheld promised funds to that country until former Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, investigated to discover the “truth” which led to the firing of Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, not because of the prosecutor’s refusal to investigate Burisma Holdings (as Joe Biden and the corporate media are now contending), but, quite the contrary, Shokin was aggressively pursuing the investigation of Burisma, upon whose board was then sitting Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden? And is this a case where both Bidens are corrupt? Moreover, can this be used by the corporate media as a devious way to shoot Joe Biden far ahead of Elizabeth Warren who is presently breathing down his back? “Curiouser and curiouser” said Alice.
Furthermore, what is really prompting investigations into the impeachment of Donald Trump?! Trump, as we all know, is no angel, to put it mildly; yet, in this case was Trump committing an act any more egregious than that of Joe Biden? And maybe even less so? See here: