Cross-posted at IanWelsh.net
With the toxic and stupid Trump 2.0 regime collapsing in the polls and the useless Democratic establishment licking their chops at the prospect of another electoral gimme in 2026, it’s more important than ever to rub shitlibs’ faces in the abysmal and inexcusable record of the murderous Biden administration.
If we keep voting blue no matter who, we’re gonna keep getting what we got.
In the interest of the public good, therefore, I make my humble offering, attempting to chronicle the three mass death events the senile husk of Joe Biden nominally presided over in his four years in the White House.
I covered COVID first. That was a debacle that many Democrats exclusively blame on Donald Trump and many GOPers and Independents have concluded was a hoax or some shit, but the reality is (as brilliantly documented by Lambert Strether at Naked Capitalism in real time) that Biden’s deliberately negligent policies resulted in the death and disabling of over one million Americans.
Next I covered Biden’s role in provoking the Ukraine War from 1992-2008 as a powerful US Senator who never met a war that didn’t give him a stiffy.
Now we’re going to get to the grit, because Vice-President Biden had Ukraine as part of his portfolio under POTUS Obama from 2009-2016 and we all know what he did as President, even if some dumbasses still insist he bears no responsibility for the disaster he spent decades making.
No, Ukraine Is Not ‘Winning’
First I want to establish some facts about the current state of consensus reality by citing some very pro-Ukraine, pro-war authorities who are throwing in the towel.
I’m going to save a few thousand words by using images of the relevant headlines.
Up first, from The Spectator (UK), one of the most bloodthirsty, Russia-hating publications in the English-speaking world:
From the “liberal” Wall Street Journal:
From former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who’s made killing Russians his passion project for years now, in the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post (who had to give it multiple headlines so as not to upset sensitive pro-war liberal readers):
HT Simplicius
With that out of the way, let’s get into the time machine, loser, and go back with me to a time when a young Black President that so many Americans had invested with their “Hope and Change” fantasies needed to have an old racist white guy next to him at all times to make idiots and assholes feel comfortable patting themselves on the back for voting for a Black president.
And note, the point isn’t to excuse Putin for his actions. I’m not Russian, Putin’s not my responsibility. I do have the sense to treat Russia with respect, because I’m a student of history and I don’t know of a single instance where fucking with Russia ever ended up in anything but disaster whether for the Swedish Empire, Napoleon’s France, or Hitler’s Germany.
I’m an American and I’m concerned with the conduct of the elected officials who are supposed to be representing me.
Get In, Loser, We’re Going to Kyiv
Biden wasted no time in building upon the disastrous actions of the Bush/Cheney regime at the 2008 Bucharest summit which called for Georgia and Ukraine to be invited to join NATO. By July 2009, on his first trip to Ukraine as Vice-President Biden was already in Kyiv (we spelled it Kiev back then) lecturing Ukraine’s leadership and then flying off to Tbilisi telling them that NATO membership would be cost free (this is after they’d already had their heads cracked in the 2008 Russo-Georgian War that followed immediately on the heels of the Bucharest Conference. Anyone remember John McCain saying “We’re all Georgians now”, as he tried to campaign for President on his desire to drag America into a war in a place few had heard of?).
Here’s some of what Biden said on that first visit to Kyiv in 2009, per the Christian Science Monitor, which gave Biden that kind of tough-guy headline (“Biden’s tough love for Ukraine”) that got him all riled up and gropy with the females on his staff:
Vice President Joe Biden had some surprisingly pointed comments for Ukrainians yesterday.
Speaking in front of 400 Ukrainians in a speech that was billed as an address to the nation’s citizens, Biden chastised Ukrainian officials for, among other things, their immaturity in dealing with inter-party conflicts. Evoking poet Taras Shevchenko, a national icon, Biden said Shevchenko would likely “be wondering why the government is not exhibiting the same political maturity as the people.”
Reforms have stalled and political bickering has become widespread after Ukraine‘s 2004 Orange Revolution. Coupled with neighboring Georgia‘s Rose Revolution a year earlier, the Orange Revolution was a source of hope for Western countries that democracy could take hold in states of the former Soviet Union.
Frustrated by the stalemate and lack of progress, Ukrainians have showed signs of throwing their support to opposition leader Viktor F. Yanukovich, a move that would more closely align the country with Russia and, according to some, could tip the country back toward authoritarian rule.
Biden’s remarks seem to indicate that Ukrainians aren’t the only ones who are frustrated. The vice president was expected to address Washington’s concerns only behind closed doors, according to the Wall Street Journal, and the weight of his public remarks were unexpected.
“Centuries from now, what will Ukrainians say of this time?” he said. “What will they say of their leaders? Will they say they returned to the past, or will they say the beginning of the 21st century launched a period of prosperity, freedom and independence?”
But lest the news out of Ukraine been seen as all harsh, Biden was also overheard praising the country’s women. “It’s certain you have so many beautiful women,” Biden is reported to have told President Viktor Yushchenko at an unscheduled visit to a Kiev pub.
What a charmer. Note that bit about the “color revolutions” in Ukraine and Georgia. At the time I thought all that shit was organic and awesome. I also thought Gene Sharp was the greatest man since Gandhi.
I’d love to get a poll of Ukrainians today on whether they think following the US and NATO down the garden path to war with Russia was “the beginning of…a period of prosperity, freedom and independence?”
But let’s keep moving.
How’d That Russian Fleet Get In Crimea? Oh Yea, Legally
Turns out the Ukrainians did, in fact, democratically elect the pro-Russian President Yanukovych. Biden’s visits to the country cease for the full duration of Yanukovych’s term.
Yanukovych signed something called the Kharkiv Pact, which extended the Russian Navy’s lease on Sevastopol for 25 years to 2042 in return for a major discount on natural gas. The Accord easily survived an opposition attempt to renounce it in 2013, losing in the Rada.
The Yanukovych administration also oversaw the passage of a law that forbade Ukraine from entering into military alliances with anyone. Neutrality is always the first step to fascism, war, and disaster, as all Swiss people know.
2013: Ukraine Caught Between the EU and Russia in Trade Tug of War
Shit hit the fan in November 2013 when Yanukovych backed out of the EU Association Agreement, suggesting instead the “creation of a tripartite commission of Ukraine, the EU and Russia, which would work to remove barriers in mutual economic cooperation and trade liberalisation.”
Yanukovych’s reasons couldn’t have been more sinister and inexplicable, per the OSW:
In the context of the upcoming presidential elections in early 2015, where victory is a priority for Ukraine’s ruling elite, President Viktor Yanukovych’s most important task is to stabilise the increasingly difficult economic situation. To this end, it is necessary to ensure Ukrainian goods’ continued access to the Russian market, and to guarantee external financial support. The Ukrainian government is hoping that, in exchange for the postponement of its rapprochement with the EU, it will manage to come to an agreement with Russia on the issue of a stabilising loan and renegotiating the gas contract.
The crazy cat also blamed the IMF for the collapse of the deal with the EU — and certainly everyone knows that the economic hitmen at the IMF and their ilk only bring prosperity in their wake — per the NYT:
Prime Minister Mykola Azarov of Ukraine told enraged opposition lawmakers on Friday that his government’s decision to walk away from far-reaching political and trade agreements with the European Union was based on fiscal imperatives, and ultimately prompted by the International Monetary Fund’s overly harsh terms for an aid package.
…Protests against the government’s decision were held in several Ukrainian cities, including Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine and a hotbed of anti-Yanukovich sentiment, where more than 5,000 people joined a rally in the main square, led by Mayor Andriy Sadovy. Kiev, the capital, was pulsing with emotion that officials and commentators said they had not seen since the Orange Revolution of 2004.
On Friday evening, about 1,000 people protested in the rain in Independence Square, the revolution’s central gathering point, waving European Union flags and chanting, “Ukraine is Europe!” A bigger rally was set for Sunday. The jailed former prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, issued a statement urging people “to react to this as they would to a coup d’état” and take to the streets.
Note that it was western Ukraine that was the hotbed of protest. Good old Western Ukraine, home of legendary freedom-lovers.
Maidan Protests, Entirely Organic, Break Out
I’ll use the definitely not edited by the CIA Wikipedia entry on the Maidan Protests to tell the next part of the story:
The scope of the protests widened, with calls for the resignation of Yanukovych and the Azarov government.[90] Protesters opposed what they saw as widespread government corruption, abuse of power, human rights violations,[91] and the influence of oligarchs.[92] Transparency International named Yanukovych as the top example of corruption in the world.[93] The violent dispersal of protesters on 30 November caused further anger.[5] Euromaidan was the largest democratic mass movement in Europe since 1989[94] and led to the 2014 Revolution of Dignity.
During the uprising, Independence Square (Maidan) in Kyiv was a huge protest camp occupied by thousands of protesters and protected by makeshift barricades. It had kitchens, first aid posts and broadcasting facilities, as well as stages for speeches, lectures, debates and performances.[95][96] It was guarded by ‘Maidan Self-Defense’ units made up of volunteers in improvised uniform and helmets, carrying shields and armed with sticks, stones and petrol bombs. Protests were also held in many other parts of Ukraine. In Kyiv, there were clashes with police on 1 December; and police assaulted the camp on 11 December. Protests increased from mid-January, in response to the government introducing draconian anti-protest laws. There were deadly clashes on Hrushevsky Street on 19–22 January. Protesters then occupied government buildings in many regions of Ukraine. The uprising climaxed on 18–20 February, when fierce fighting in Kyiv between Maidan activists and police resulted in the deaths of almost 100 protesters and 13 police.[71]
And about those protests, much like the 2004 Orange Revolution, I’d love to see the US State Department’s books on how much of the $5 billion Obama (and Bush and Clinton and later Biden) State Department official Victoria Nuland bragged about investing in Ukraine between 1991 and 2013 went to that kind of crap. I think there are some words for when one country spends immense fortunes to cause civil unrest in other countries; oh yea, it’s called subversion. Unless the US is doing it, then it’s just spreading freedom and democracy to a grateful world.
Crazy that some Ukrainians still wanted to be neutral and do business with Russia, who offered $15 billion in cash and a massive reduction in what Ukraine paid for natural gas. Evil Rooskies. Always up to something sneaky like that.
America’s investments in peace and democracy were bearing their fruits in the Maidan Protests in Kyiv, but a bipartisan pair of peace-loving US Senators went to the Ukrainian capital to help those fruits ripen even faster.
John McCain (R-Hell) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) addressed a crowd estimated at ~200,000 people saying, “We are here to support your just cause… And the destiny you seek lies in Europe.”
McCain shared these noble sentiments while standing shoulder to shoulder with one of Western Ukraine’s most notorious freedom lovers:
Those Putin-puppets at FAIR were still bitching about it in 2018, when then-Washington Post columnist (and current never-Trump freedom lover and Substacker) Jennifer Rubin got to singing McCain’s praises for his sterling human rights record, under an unfortunately chosen photo:
The Washington Post (8/27/18) published an op-ed by conservative staff opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin praising the late Sen. John McCain for his supposed commitment to “human rights.”
Rubin waxed poetic on the ostensible “lost champion” of human rights, who “model[ed] for others the behavior of a free society.” She declared, quite paradoxically, “With the possible exception of the US military…no group was more indebted to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) than the human rights community.”
There was an, er, optical problem, however: For the header image on this column, the Washington Post used a photo of McCain speaking next to the notorious Ukrainian neo-Nazi leader Oleh Tyahnybok.
Tyahnybok, a longtime fascist, has called for a war on the so-called “Muscovite-Jewish mafia” (BBC, 12/26/12). The far-right leader has attacked the role of “Jews-Bolsheviks” in his country’s history, and claims that there is still today a cabal of “Jewish oligarchs who control Ukraine” (JTA, 3/25/09).
John McCain met with Tyahnybok and stood next to him as the senator gave a speech in Ukraine in late 2013, as Business Insider (12/16/13) reported at the time. The Washington Post indicated in the caption on its header image that McCain was “wav[ing] to protesters during a mass rally of the opposition in Kiev, Ukraine, on December 15, 2013.” But it failed to identify the man standing next to the Arizona senator—or his extremist politics, which are the antithesis of human rights.
Biden Makes Calls During the Crisis
Trying to pour oil on the roiled waters, good old Joe reached out and was on the phone with Yanukovych four times in early 2014.
In the first one on Jan. 27, 2014, Biden called “to express U.S. support for on-going negotiations between the government and the opposition to end the current standoff and bring about a peaceful, political solution to the crisis” and (somewhat amusingly to black-hearted cynics like myself) “reaffirmed the unwavering support of the United States for a Ukraine that rejects violence and that respects the human rights and dignity of its citizens in accordance with their European aspirations and their desire to restore their country back to economic health.”
I guess there’s no need to mention Biden’s United States had no respect for the human rights and dignity of Ukraine’s Russian-speaking population who viewed Europe with suspicion for some crazy reason maybe having to do with the 27 million Soviet citizens killed in WW2 and of course the bit about the United States supporting “a Ukraine that rejects violence” is pure comedy now that we’re funding Zelensky to threaten attacks against civilian flights in Russian airspace. The democracy loving Zelensky who’s still in office two years past the end of his term (elections during war time are for crazy fools like Abraham Lincoln and FDR) after havingbanned opposition parties, shut down most media outlets, and imprisoned most of his political rivals.
When you love someone as hard as Zelensky loves freedom, there are often criminal charges filed.
But let’s get to the next call between Biden and Yanukovych, on January 28, 2014:
President Yanukovych of Ukraine called Vice President Biden today to update him on the current crisis in Ukraine. The Vice President welcomed the progress made today and urged President Yanukovych to sign the parliament’s repeal of several of the January 16 laws without delay. He strongly encouraged President Yanukovych to continue to work with the opposition to find compromises critical to a peaceful solution. These include an amnesty law and a new government that can bring political unity, win the confidence of the Ukrainian people, and take Ukraine in the direction of Europe by strengthening democratic institutions and making the reforms necessary to achieve economic prosperity.
Also note that Biden’s concepts for Ukrainian peace all depend on them moving in one direction — towards Europe and NATO.
‘Fuck the EU’ ‘Yats Is the Guy’
A few days later a much more famous call was placed by Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland to Geoffrey Pyatt, U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and almost immediately a recording of it was leaked.
Read the transcript via the BBC:
Voice thought to be Nuland’s: What do you think?
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 response.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Interestingly, the Washington Post’s February 6 article on the call (headlined “Blunt talk on Ukraine”) said:
The top U.S. diplomat for Europe apologized Thursday for comments about the European Union that were — to put it lightly — undiplomatic.
…
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki acknowledged that the recording was authentic and said Nuland had apologized to E.U. officials. But U.S. officials were also quick to point the finger at Russia, which has bristled at U.S. involvement in Ukraine.The recording “was first noted and tweeted out by the Russian government. I think it says something about Russia’s role,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters.
As one does, Nuland dusted herself off and got back on the horse in Kiev Kyiv, to deny some crazy Russian allegations about the Maidan protests:
Nuland said she also attempted to help “bring to a moderate center” the opposition and the government, and said the U.S. is promoting the idea of a “national technical government that many in Ukraine have called for.”
“We believe that it’s still possible, we believe it’s urgently necessary,” she said. She reiterated that U.S. government was prepared to support such a government, including financially, provided it showed commitment to economic reform and was prepared to cooperate with the International Monetary Fund and improve Ukraine’s track record on human rights.
She said the U.S. government also continues “frank and comradely conversations with Russia” about Ukraine, whose prosperity, she said, was in both nations’ common interests.
But Sergei Glazyev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adviser, said in an interview with Kommersant newspaper on Feb. 6 that federalization of Ukraine was in Russia’s interests. Some in Ukraine believe that it’s a code word for the breakup of the country.
Glazyev also said Ukraine’s government should use force to disperse protesters on EuroMaidan, because they are attempting a coup, and accused the U.S. government of interfering in Ukraine’s affairs by arming demonstrators and funding them to the tune of $20 million a week.
He said that Yanukovych and Ukrainian oligarchs are not taking strong action because they are cowed by Western threats “to add them into the blacklist with the seizure of all assets, accounts and confiscation of property.”
Nuland called Glazyev’s accusations “a complete fantasy.”
“He could be a science fiction writer, but it’s quite inventive,” she said.
But let’s get back to our hero.
Biden Makes More Calls
On February 20, 2014, with the Maidan Protests increasingly turning violent, Biden and Yanukovych had another call, this time Biden threatened to sanction individual Ukrainian leaders:
The Vice President and President Yanukovych spoke by telephone this afternoon. The Vice President strongly condemned the violence against civilians in Kyiv. He called upon President Yanukovych to immediately pull back all security forces – police, snipers, military and paramilitary units, and irregular forces. The Vice President made clear that the United States is prepared to sanction those officials responsible for the violence.
Note the bit about snipers.
Despite Biden’s best efforts, Yanukovych almost stayed on the tightrope.
Peace Almost Breaks Out
Few remember now, but on Feb. 21, 2014, Yanukovych agreed to a deal brokered by the German, Polish and French foreign ministers with a Russian envoy present that promised early elections, the 2004 constitution restored, a national unity government.
NBC’s headline read “Ukraine President Backs Down, Signs Peace Pact with Protesters”.
Fortunately for freedom lovers, the deal collapsed the very next day.
We’ll let the absolutely unbiased Wikipedia tell the next part of the story:
Police abandoned central Kyiv that afternoon. Yanukovych secretly fled the city that evening.[36] On 22 February, the Ukrainian parliament unanimously voted to remove Yanukovych from office. About 73% of the parliament and members of all parties voted to remove him.[37][38][39][40] Yanukovych claimed this vote was illegal and asked Russia for help.[41] Russian propaganda described the events as a “coup“.[42][43][44]
Oddly, ten years later a Ukrainian court ruled that at least 10 of those killed and 115 wounded were shot from protestor-controlled buildings, and at least six from the Hotel Ukraina, which the court ruled was “controlled by the activists,” and found no Russian involvement and no massacre order from Yanukovych. That case covered only a minority of the casualties above, not the full Maidan toll. A second court reached a compatible finding in March 2025.
I’m going to have to stop here. Next time I’ll get into what Joe and Hunter and friends got up to in Ukraine during the rest of Obama’s term, how Trump made things even worse (or better from Biden’s perspective), and we’ll set the stage for Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in 2022.