Trump's Russian Collusion

[dislaxxic]

Nancy Pelosi Announces Formal Impeachment Inquiry Into President Donald Trump

Formal inquiry brings Grand Jury-like powers of subpoena and testimony under oath.

Good luck with that, Donald.

..

[dislaxxic]

The Trump Whistleblower Scandal Is Proving Edward Snowden Right

"Snowden should’ve gone through “official channels,” his critics yelped. Here’s what happens when you do."

..

[LandM]

Dude,
You do not have the votes in the Senate - might want to read the rules - some of you are like a jack russell - all over the map. I do not like the guy but I hate seeing my tax dollars wasted because people like you have a pup tent in the front of you your pants - grow the fu$k up.
Thank you

[Typical Lax Dad]

Dude,
You do not have the votes in the Senate - might want to read the rules - some of you are like a jack russell - all over the map. I do not like the guy but I hate seeing my tax dollars wasted because people like you have a pup tent in the front of you your pants - grow the fu$k up.
Thank you

Impeaching does not mean removed from office. Clinton was impeached. Really Congress has no choice but to do its job. Otherwise we are no longer a functioning democracy.

[RedFromMI]

Dude,
You do not have the votes in the Senate - might want to read the rules - some of you are like a jack russell - all over the map. I do not like the guy but I hate seeing my tax dollars wasted because people like you have a pup tent in the front of you your pants - grow the fu$k up.
Thank you

When Nixon was being investigated for impeachment, there were nowhere near the votes until after the Supreme Court ordered the release of the White House tapes, and just some of the contents were revealed. He resigned before any votes were taken when informed by the Senate Republicans that he would in fact be impeached. But until the tapes were released he was safe.

Trump is actively using foreign policy to force a government to make up stuff about one of his political opponents in an upcoming election. That is impeachable conduct, and it deserves an impeachment inquiry. Not a waste of taxpayer money given the issue. Betrayal of the American people and the rule of law should not be in question, but with this Administration, it is.

[Typical Lax Dad]

A B J in office is worse.

[DocBarrister]

The United States Senate UNANIMOUSLY voted to demand that the whistleblower complaint be turned over to the Congress.

The Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a non-binding resolution calling on the Trump administration to release a complaint by a whistleblower from the intelligence community concerning President Donald Trump’s conduct with a foreign leader.

The measure, introduced by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), expresses the sense of the Senate that the complaint, which the intelligence community’s inspector general deemed of “urgent concern,” ought to be provided to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5d8a ... 694655692d

This was an implicit rebuke of the president’s attempted coverup of the whistleblower complaint. If Republicans wanted to block this resolution, they could have ... easily.

Republicans in Congress generally don’t like or respect this president ... they fear him. If they sense some real vulnerability, they may take a shot at replacing him with Pence.

DocBarrister

[dislaxxic]

Huckleberry Graham lays out why Don the Con should be impeached.

What a dweeb he is.

..

[a fan]

That unanimous Senate vote is NOT a good thing if you're Trump. Sounds like they didn't buy the DNI's BS, either.

And now the whistleblower law is broken. Nice job. Get ready for nonstop leaking, folks. Can't say I didn't tell ya.....

[dislaxxic]

Not Surprisingly, #ImpeachTheMF Is Trending On Twitter Today

He'll be impeached and then removed by the voters. History will likely be very unkind.

..

[a fan]

The spin from Trumpland is going to be something to behold. Grab yer popcorn.

Meanwhile, FoxNews explains that Rudy and Trump already admitted to a crime that's listed in the Constitution as an impeachable offense.

Nice lawyerin', Rudy. Done in by your own lawyer. "Only the best people: will be the most ironic comment of all time if the Senate agrees with this FoxNewsJudgeGuy.


https://www.foxnews.com/media/judge-nap ... tted-crime

[RedFromMI]

How about this deep dive into the Giuliani involvement and the attempts at State to keep some things from happening (like a meeting between Trump and the newly elected president of Ukraine) to avoid some of this mess:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... ssion=true

Some highlights:

1. Over several months national security officials were sidelined and political loyalists (like Giuliani) empowered to exploit the US relationship with Kiev.

2. Ambassador to Ukraine, a career State Department employee, was abruptly removed (early May, even though she was scheduled to rotate out in July), helped out by Giuliani, who accused her of helping to expose Manafort and of being in a conspiracy with Soros.

3. Defense and State aid was delayed.

4. National security staff kept in dark, and had to figure out what Giuliani was doing from press reporting. Some officials worried Trump would press Kiev for damaging information in advance of the now famous phone call this past summer.

5. Officials worked behind the scene to keep Trump from meeting new president Zelensky to keep further pressure regarding Biden from happening.

6. Giuliani had helpers meeting with Zelensky officials as well.

This is a mess that just keeps on getting bigger...

Tweet from David Brooks at the NYT in reference to this article:

Giuliani destroyed Trump. It’s the gerontocracy version of “Dumb and Dumber”

[holmes435]

President Trump: *breaks a bunch of laws

Justice department: "we don't indict the current sitting president"

Democrats: "we're thinking about impeachment"

Conservatives and LandM: "You don't have the votes in the senate, grow the F up"

The rest of us: ...



It's amazing that simply because there may not be votes in the Senate that we should throw out the rule of law. When did Republicans go soft on crime????

Imagine if Hilary ( or any other Democrat) did 1% of what Trump has done. Heads around here would have exploded and impeachment proceedings would have been immediate. And rightfully so.

May you live in interesting times indeed.




Republicans - you have my vote in theory on many of your stances, but not in practice based on your actions.

[a fan]

Dude,
You do not have the votes in the Senate - might want to read the rules - some of you are like a jack russell - all over the map. I do not like the guy but I hate seeing my tax dollars wasted because people like you have a pup tent in the front of you your pants - grow the fu$k up.
Thank you

So who cares about laws so long as the Senate plays politics?

That's your stance?

Hard pass, thank you very much.

[tech37]

Meanwhile, FoxNews explains that Rudy and Trump already admitted to a crime that's listed in the Constitution as an impeachable offense.

"Explains"? That's pretty definitive. Opines is perhaps more accurate? Speculates maybe?

Did Judge Nap jump the gun? I don't know, just asking... I can't share in your usual jumps to conclusions ways. IMO, seems too early to be making such definitive pronouncements don't you think a fan?. I do agree this must be shaking FoxNews to it's core.

[youthathletics]

President Trump: *breaks a bunch of laws

Please define the broken laws. Those words are being thrown around like confetti, yet no one has actually defined them.

[youthathletics]

To set the mood for the day: https://twitter.com/TrollasaurusRx/stat ... 02304?s=20

[seacoaster]

To get back on point (sorry, no cartoons; you have to read stuff!!):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... ine-polls/

“As far as withholding funds, those funds were paid, they were fully paid. But my complaint has always been — and I’d withhold again, and I’ll continue to withhold until such time as Europe and other nations contribute to Ukraine. Because they’re not doing it; it’s the United States. We’re putting up the bulk of the money. … Europe has to put up money for Ukraine also. Why is it only the United States putting up the money? … Germany, France, other countries should put up money, and that’s been my complaint from the beginning.”

In the space of 24 hours, Trump changed the rationale for withholding the funds, from corruption to the claim that the United States was carrying the burden of funding Ukraine — “the bulk of the money,” as Trump put it.

But that’s not correct. Europe has been a major funder to Ukraine since Russia annexed its Crimean Peninsula in 2014, often providing more aid than the United States. The European Union has provided more than 15 billion euros ($16.5 billion) in grants and loans to Ukraine, according to an E.U. fact sheet on relations with Ukraine. Meanwhile, NATO has its own military cooperation program with Ukraine, establishing six trust funds to assist the country in improving its military readiness.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the top 10 donors in gross overseas development assistance for Ukraine in 2016-2017 are: European Institutions ($425.2 million), United States ($204.4 million), Germany ($189.8 million), Japan ($180.8 million), Global Fund to fight diseases ($44.8 million), Canada ($44.5 million), Poland ($42.5 million), Sweden ($34.6 million), Britain ($31.6 million) and Switzerland ($29.6 million).

Trump would be on more solid ground if he had kept his complaint strictly to military aid. “The United States is the largest provider of military aid to Ukraine,” said John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine now at the Atlantic Council. He said there was “skittishness” among many European countries that “don’t want to provoke Russia,” with mainly Britain, Poland, Baltic nations and Canada joining the United States in contributing military aid. But this is how the aid burden is usually divided between the United States and the Europeans, with the United States providing the muscle and Europe providing the “soft power” to stabilize troubled nations.

“This is Trump’s third rationale” for delaying the aid, Herbst noted. “If it’s Tuesday, it must be because of the Europeans.”

At the very least, Trump’s constantly changing explanations for why he delayed the aid suggest he’s not being forthright about the real reason.

“I’m leading in the polls; they have no idea how they stop me.”

Just about every poll has Trump trailing many of his Democratic rivals, in particular Biden. Biden led Trump by 15 percentage points in a Fox News poll, 8 points in a SurveyUSA poll, and 15 points in a Post-ABC News poll. (Caveat: Polls at this point in the election cycle are not especially informative.)

“The only way they can try is through impeachment. This has never happened to a president before.”

One president, Bill Clinton, was impeached by the House during Trump’s lifetime; he was acquitted by the Senate. Another, Richard Nixon, resigned in 1974 after articles of impeachment were approved by the House Judiciary Committee. A third president, Andrew Johnson, was impeached in 1868; he was also acquitted by the Senate.

“That call was perfect. It couldn’t have been nicer. And even the Ukrainian government put out a statement that that was a perfect call.”

Trump appears to be referring to an interview by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko with Hromadske, a Ukrainian Internet television station. In the interview, he struck a careful balance, trying not to take sides between the administration and Congress.

“American investigators have the full right to turn to the U.S. and to get this information,” Prystaiko said. “If they think that our president has been pressured, they can establish this. I know what they spoke about, and I don’t think there was any coercion. There was a talk, talks can be on different topics, leaders have the right to talk about any problems they wish. This conversation was long, it was friendly, and it touched on a lot of questions, some of which required rather serious answers.”

Prystaiko obviously is trying to be diplomatic. He did not describe the call as “perfect.”

Zelensky appears to have had a different impression. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who spoke with Zelensky during an early September visit to Ukraine, said the Ukrainian president “directly” expressed concerns at their meeting that “the aid that was being cut off to Ukraine by the president was a consequence” of his unwillingness to launch an investigation into the Bidens, The Post reported.

The official Ukrainian readout of the call, issued July 25, had this interesting line: “Donald Trump is convinced that the new Ukrainian government will be able to quickly improve image of Ukraine, complete investigation of corruption cases, which inhibited the interaction between Ukraine and the USA.”

“There was no pressure put on them whatsoever. But there was pressure put on with respect to Joe Biden. What Joe Biden did for his son, that’s something they should be looking at.”

Here, Trump continues his misleading effort to suggest that Biden somehow was involved in corruption. But we fact-checked these allegations in May and found they did not add up. In fact, Biden’s case has gotten stronger with time.

Trump repeatedly has falsely claimed that Biden in 2015 pressured the Ukrainian government to fire Viktor Shokin, the top Ukrainian prosecutor, because he was investigating Ukraine’s largest private gas company, Burisma, which had added Biden’s son, Hunter, to its board.

But it turns out that the investigation had already been shelved when Biden acted and may have even involved a side company, not Burisma. Hunter Biden, who served on the board for five years, was not accused of any wrongdoing in the investigation. The Ukrainian prosecutor was regarded as a failure, and “Joe Biden’s efforts to oust Shokin were universally praised,” said Anders Aslund, a Swedish economist heavily involved in Eastern European market reforms.

Shokin was ousted three months after Biden’s visit. “Bowing to pressure from international donors, the Ukrainian Parliament voted on Tuesday to remove a prosecutor general who had clung to power for months despite visible signs of corruption,” the New York Times reported at the time. “The United States and other Western nations had for months called for the ousting of Mr. Shokin, who was widely criticized for turning a blind eye to corrupt practices and for defending the interests of a venal and entrenched elite.”

Moreover, Yuri Lutsenko, a former Ukrainian prosecutor general who succeeded the fired prosecutor, told Bloomberg News that there was no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe or Hunter Biden.

By continuing to claim that Biden “did” something for his son, Trump persists in spreading a false narrative about a diplomatic maneuver hailed at the time as a step toward reducing corruption in Ukraine.

The Pinocchio Test

In the space of minutes, the president told falsehoods about aid to Ukraine, his standing in the polls, the history of impeachment, impressions of his phone call and of course the role that Biden played in trying to root out corruption in Ukraine.

It adds up to Four Pinocchios."

[lagerhead]

Serious question seacoaster:

Why is it alright for a Senator, who has everything to gain politically by undermining the administration, to have private talks with a state leader but not the Administration. Did Murphy go around the State Department, will we know how this conversation was framed?

Zelensky appears to have had a different impression. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who spoke with Zelensky during an early September visit to Ukraine, said the Ukrainian president “directly” expressed concerns at their meeting that “the aid that was being cut off to Ukraine by the president was a consequence” of his unwillingness to launch an investigation into the Bidens, The Post reported.

[youthathletics]

That is the problem with the 'journalists' today...the article reads as if the person writing it is a prosecutor, or some type of 'leading the witness' conversation.