D
deleted171991
He can do a lot of damage to our democracy, even if he leaves. He already has.
Will Trump win again???
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deleted171991
He's right, but most Americans got used to our politics having become banana country-level under Trump, so you won't see a reaction.
That's the damage to our democracy (and political traditions) I spoke about before. It started before him, it accelerated under him, it will last decades after him. The increase in hate crimes should be the canary in the mine.
Just showing how liberals think of white people, and echoing what Mikkel said. If white conservatives were on video saying the things about say, Mexicans that the dude in the video said about white people, the outrage would ensue, top story on CNN, blowing up Twitter going viral. Since it’s someone talking about white people, there’s no outrage.
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Dude, I could post within 15 minutes, dozens and dozens of some of the most racist things said by conservatives, but what is the point of that exercise? No one and no party has a monopoly of stupid....
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We Are Republicans, and We Want Trump Defeated
The president and his enablers have replaced conservatism with an empty faith led by a bogus prophet.
By George T. Conway III, Steve Schmidt, John Weaver and Rick Wilson
The authors have worked for and supported Republican campaigns.
Patriotism and the survival of our nation in the face of the crimes, corruption and corrosive nature of Donald Trump are a higher calling than mere politics. As Americans, we must stem the damage he and his followers are doing to the rule of law, the Constitution and the American character.
That’s why we are announcing the Lincoln Project, an effort to highlight our country’s story and values, and its people’s sacrifices and obligations. This effort transcends partisanship and is dedicated to nothing less than preservation of the principles that so many have fought for, on battlefields far from home and within their own communities.
This effort asks all Americans of all places, creeds and ways of life to join in the seminal task of our generation: restoring to this nation leadership and governance that respects the rule of law, recognizes the dignity of all people and defends the Constitution and American values at home and abroad.
Over these next 11 months, our efforts will be dedicated to defeating President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box and to elect those patriots who will hold the line. We do not undertake this task lightly, nor from ideological preference. We have been, and remain, broadly conservative (or classically liberal) in our politics and outlooks. Our many policy differences with national Democrats remain, but our shared fidelity to the Constitution dictates a common effort.
The 2020 general election, by every indication, will be about persuasion, with turnout expected to be at record highs. Our efforts are aimed at persuading enough disaffected conservatives, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in swing states and districts to help ensure a victory in the Electoral College, and congressional majorities that don’t enable or abet Mr. Trump’s violations of the Constitution, even if that means Democratic control of the Senate and an expanded Democratic majority in the House.
The American presidency transcends the individuals who occupy the Oval Office. Their personality becomes part of our national character. Their actions become our actions, for which we all share responsibility. Their willingness to act in accordance with the law and our tradition dictate how current and future leaders will act. Their commitment to order, civility and decency are reflected in American society.
Mr. Trump fails to meet the bar for this commitment. He has neither the moral compass nor the temperament to serve. His vision is limited to what immediately faces him — the problems and risks he chronically brings upon himself and for which others, from countless contractors and companies to the American people, ultimately bear the heaviest burden.
But this president’s actions are possible only with the craven acquiescence of congressional Republicans. They have done no less than abdicate their Article I responsibilities.
Indeed, national Republicans have done far worse than simply march along to Mr. Trump’s beat. Their defense of him is imbued with an ugliness, a meanness and a willingness to attack and slander those who have shed blood for our country, who have dedicated their lives and careers to its defense and its security, and whose job is to preserve the nation’s status as a beacon of hope.
Congressional Republicans have embraced and copied Mr. Trump’s cruelty and defended and even adopted his corruption. Mr. Trump and his enablers have abandoned conservatism and longstanding Republican principles and replaced it with Trumpism, an empty faith led by a bogus prophet. In a recent survey, a majority of Republican voters reported that they consider Mr. Trump a better president than Lincoln.
Mr. Trump and his fellow travelers daily undermine the proposition we as a people have a responsibility and an obligation to continually bend the arc of history toward justice. They mock our belief in America as something more meaningful than lines on a map.
Our peril far outstrips any past differences: It has arrived at our collective doorstep, and we believe there is no other choice. We sincerely hope, but are not optimistic, that some of those Republicans charged with sitting as jurors in a likely Senate impeachment trial will do likewise.
American men and women stand ready around the globe to defend us and our way of life. We must do right by them and ensure that the country for which they daily don their uniform deserves their protection and their sacrifice.
We are reminded of Dan Sickles, an incompetent 19th-century New York politician. On July 2, 1863, his blundering nearly ended the United States.
(Sickles’s greatest previous achievement had been fatally shooting his wife’s lover across the street from the White House and getting himself elected to Congress. Even his most fervent admirers could not have imagined that one day, far in the future, another incompetent New York politician, a president, would lay claim to that legacy by saying he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.)
On that day in Pennsylvania, Sickles was a major general commanding the Union Army’s III Corps at the Battle of Gettysburg, and his incompetence wrought chaos and danger. The Confederate Army took advantage, and turned the Union line. Had the rebel soldiers broken through, the continent might have been divided: free and slave, democratic and authoritarian.
Another Union general, Winfield Scott Hancock, had only minutes to reinforce the line. America, the nation, the ideal, hung in the balance. Amid the fury of battle, he found the First Minnesota Volunteers.
They charged, and many of them fell, suffering a staggeringly high casualty rate. They held the line. They saved the Union. Four months later, Lincoln stood on that field of slaughter and said, “It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”
We look to Lincoln as our guide and inspiration. He understood the necessity of not just saving the Union, but also of knitting the nation back together spiritually as well as politically. But those wounds can be bound up only once the threat has been defeated. So, too, will our country have to knit itself back together after the scourge of Trumpism has been overcome.
George T. Conway III is an attorney in New York. Steve Schmidt is a political strategist who worked for President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. John Weaver is a Republican strategist who worked for President George H.W. Bush, Senator John McCain and Gov. John Kasich. Rick Wilson is a Republican media consultant and author of “Everything Trump Touches Dies” and the forthcoming “Running Against the Devil: A Plot to Save America From Trump and Democrats From Themselves.”
www.nytimes.com
The president and his enablers have replaced conservatism with an empty faith led by a bogus prophet.
By George T. Conway III, Steve Schmidt, John Weaver and Rick Wilson
The authors have worked for and supported Republican campaigns.
Patriotism and the survival of our nation in the face of the crimes, corruption and corrosive nature of Donald Trump are a higher calling than mere politics. As Americans, we must stem the damage he and his followers are doing to the rule of law, the Constitution and the American character.
That’s why we are announcing the Lincoln Project, an effort to highlight our country’s story and values, and its people’s sacrifices and obligations. This effort transcends partisanship and is dedicated to nothing less than preservation of the principles that so many have fought for, on battlefields far from home and within their own communities.
This effort asks all Americans of all places, creeds and ways of life to join in the seminal task of our generation: restoring to this nation leadership and governance that respects the rule of law, recognizes the dignity of all people and defends the Constitution and American values at home and abroad.
Over these next 11 months, our efforts will be dedicated to defeating President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box and to elect those patriots who will hold the line. We do not undertake this task lightly, nor from ideological preference. We have been, and remain, broadly conservative (or classically liberal) in our politics and outlooks. Our many policy differences with national Democrats remain, but our shared fidelity to the Constitution dictates a common effort.
The 2020 general election, by every indication, will be about persuasion, with turnout expected to be at record highs. Our efforts are aimed at persuading enough disaffected conservatives, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in swing states and districts to help ensure a victory in the Electoral College, and congressional majorities that don’t enable or abet Mr. Trump’s violations of the Constitution, even if that means Democratic control of the Senate and an expanded Democratic majority in the House.
The American presidency transcends the individuals who occupy the Oval Office. Their personality becomes part of our national character. Their actions become our actions, for which we all share responsibility. Their willingness to act in accordance with the law and our tradition dictate how current and future leaders will act. Their commitment to order, civility and decency are reflected in American society.
Mr. Trump fails to meet the bar for this commitment. He has neither the moral compass nor the temperament to serve. His vision is limited to what immediately faces him — the problems and risks he chronically brings upon himself and for which others, from countless contractors and companies to the American people, ultimately bear the heaviest burden.
But this president’s actions are possible only with the craven acquiescence of congressional Republicans. They have done no less than abdicate their Article I responsibilities.
Indeed, national Republicans have done far worse than simply march along to Mr. Trump’s beat. Their defense of him is imbued with an ugliness, a meanness and a willingness to attack and slander those who have shed blood for our country, who have dedicated their lives and careers to its defense and its security, and whose job is to preserve the nation’s status as a beacon of hope.
Congressional Republicans have embraced and copied Mr. Trump’s cruelty and defended and even adopted his corruption. Mr. Trump and his enablers have abandoned conservatism and longstanding Republican principles and replaced it with Trumpism, an empty faith led by a bogus prophet. In a recent survey, a majority of Republican voters reported that they consider Mr. Trump a better president than Lincoln.
Mr. Trump and his fellow travelers daily undermine the proposition we as a people have a responsibility and an obligation to continually bend the arc of history toward justice. They mock our belief in America as something more meaningful than lines on a map.
Our peril far outstrips any past differences: It has arrived at our collective doorstep, and we believe there is no other choice. We sincerely hope, but are not optimistic, that some of those Republicans charged with sitting as jurors in a likely Senate impeachment trial will do likewise.
American men and women stand ready around the globe to defend us and our way of life. We must do right by them and ensure that the country for which they daily don their uniform deserves their protection and their sacrifice.
We are reminded of Dan Sickles, an incompetent 19th-century New York politician. On July 2, 1863, his blundering nearly ended the United States.
(Sickles’s greatest previous achievement had been fatally shooting his wife’s lover across the street from the White House and getting himself elected to Congress. Even his most fervent admirers could not have imagined that one day, far in the future, another incompetent New York politician, a president, would lay claim to that legacy by saying he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.)
On that day in Pennsylvania, Sickles was a major general commanding the Union Army’s III Corps at the Battle of Gettysburg, and his incompetence wrought chaos and danger. The Confederate Army took advantage, and turned the Union line. Had the rebel soldiers broken through, the continent might have been divided: free and slave, democratic and authoritarian.
Another Union general, Winfield Scott Hancock, had only minutes to reinforce the line. America, the nation, the ideal, hung in the balance. Amid the fury of battle, he found the First Minnesota Volunteers.
They charged, and many of them fell, suffering a staggeringly high casualty rate. They held the line. They saved the Union. Four months later, Lincoln stood on that field of slaughter and said, “It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”
We look to Lincoln as our guide and inspiration. He understood the necessity of not just saving the Union, but also of knitting the nation back together spiritually as well as politically. But those wounds can be bound up only once the threat has been defeated. So, too, will our country have to knit itself back together after the scourge of Trumpism has been overcome.
George T. Conway III is an attorney in New York. Steve Schmidt is a political strategist who worked for President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. John Weaver is a Republican strategist who worked for President George H.W. Bush, Senator John McCain and Gov. John Kasich. Rick Wilson is a Republican media consultant and author of “Everything Trump Touches Dies” and the forthcoming “Running Against the Devil: A Plot to Save America From Trump and Democrats From Themselves.”
Opinion | We Are Republicans, and We Want Trump Defeated (Published 2019)
The president and his enablers have replaced conservatism with an empty faith led by a bogus prophet.
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House Votes to Impeach President Trump
The House impeached President Trump in a momentous set of votes, making him the third president since America’s founding to face a Senate trial, and laying bare the deep partisan divisions in Washington and across the country.
www.wsj.com
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Donald Trump is impeached and faces trial in the US Senate
The president becomes only the third in US history to be impeached and now faces a Senate trial.
www.bbc.com
Take a look at this analysis:
And so it is done. Donald Trump now becomes the third member of the exclusive club that no-one wants to be a member of.
But the framers of the constitution with its impeachment provision could never have imagined the hyper-partisanship - on both sides - that has been witnessed during today's sterile House proceedings. Each side with its own narrative, neither side listening to the other. And one can say with some certainty - I would bet all my yet-to-be-gifted Christmas presents - that it will be much the same once this becomes a trial in the Senate in the New Year.
Donald Trump will be acquitted. He won't be forced from office. So what changes? Well, Donald Trump will have a place in the history books - and for a man with such a huge sense of self that will hurt. Acutely. But 2020? Far from this being a killer blow against President Trump, it might turbo charge his bid for a second term. The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was always wary about going down the impeachment route. We'll discover next November whether that concern was well founded.
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I remember when people cheered over Boris Johnson's suspension of Parliament getting rejected by the UK Supreme Court. They and their favorite MPs then stalled Brexit process with many arguing for him to step down for misleading the Queen. He held his ground, called for a snap election (with Parliamentary approval), and then proceeded to completely annihilate the opposition and end the Remain movement.
Hmmm Mikkel why don’t you go to Pittsburg to their largest synagogue or to El Paso and let them know how you think it’s all a farce...
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Actually the Framers did worry and warn about partisan impeachment. Democrats and their surrogates wanted impeachment shortly after the inauguration . To say this is about the constitution and some kind of crime is folly. If there was a crime, why wasnt it in the articles of impeachment? If getting the truth and facts was so important, why didnt Deomocrats go to the courts for relief like every other congress has done when the Pres invoked executive privilege? A total partisan **** show.Donald Trump is impeached and faces trial in the US Senate
The president becomes only the third in US history to be impeached and now faces a Senate trial.
Take a look at this analysis:
And so it is done. Donald Trump now becomes the third member of the exclusive club that no-one wants to be a member of.
But the framers of the constitution with its impeachment provision could never have imagined the hyper-partisanship - on both sides - that has been witnessed during today's sterile House proceedings. Each side with its own narrative, neither side listening to the other. And one can say with some certainty - I would bet all my yet-to-be-gifted Christmas presents - that it will be much the same once this becomes a trial in the Senate in the New Year.
Donald Trump will be acquitted. He won't be forced from office. So what changes? Well, Donald Trump will have a place in the history books - and for a man with such a huge sense of self that will hurt. Acutely. But 2020? Far from this being a killer blow against President Trump, it might turbo charge his bid for a second term. The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was always wary about going down the impeachment route. We'll discover next November whether that concern was well founded.
-----
I remember when people cheered over Boris Johnson's suspension of Parliament getting rejected by the UK Supreme Court. They and their favorite MPs then stalled Brexit process with many arguing for him to step down for misleading the Queen. He held his ground, called for a snap election (with Parliamentary approval), and then proceeded to completely annihilate the opposition and end the Remain movement.
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I think the closest thing we got to a nonpartisan impeachment was Nixon but he resigned before the vote since he knew he'd be removed from office.
I wanted Andrew Johnson to be removed from office since he's a horrible president who worsened the situation after Civil War. But he was narrowly saved because of politics
First, if you know your civics then you would know that a crime need NOT be presented. Further, the House is the exclusive body, per the direct instruction of the constitution, that can outline a process for impeachment. Towards that end, obstruction of justice is certainly a failure of office...
D
deleted171991
If things don't go well, it will be a long 5 years for ALL of us.
It's not like only some of us would suffer if he drags us into a war. It's not like only some of us will have our savings in a weak dollar. It's not like only some of us will be lied to again and again and again about everything. The list is long.
He'll do these to ALL of us. The only thing only some of us will do is realize what's actually going on.
What point is that - never mind - not interested.
The obvious one that Mikkel already stated and to which my post was a response to....oh, but nvmd, you don’t care....
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Trump is a jerk and narcissist but honestly, 5 more years of him is better than whatever Democrats are proposing (depending on when they make up their minds to be moderate vs far left).
Then again, i view Brexit to be a far better option (even in no deal scenario and risking independent Scotland) than Labour Marxist policies, inconsistent anti-Brexit policies and whatever the other opposition parties were proposing. So who knows
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It’s telling that after hours of testimony from both sides, the Republicans, not once, mentioned the president's character, temperament, ethical judgement, or really anything which would lend itself to anyone believing that trump wasn’t capable of the things he did. Guess that would be pretty difficult since he’s on tape saying “Russia / China if you’re listening..”
I mean, Biden did confess to bribery:
I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. (Laughter.) He got fired.
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SDN in-house Propaganda Minister back in full form. Let’s correct him (again)
——
But the U.S. was not alone in pressuring Ukraine to fire Shokin.
In February 2016, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde threatened to withhold $40 billion unless Ukraine undertook “a substantial new effort” to fight corruption after the country’s economic minister and his team resigned to protest government corruption. That same month, a “reform-minded deputy prosecutor resigned, complaining that his efforts to address government corruption had been consistently stymied by his own prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin,” according to a Jan. 3, 2017, Congressional Research Services report.
Shokin served as prosecutor general under Viktor Yanukovych, the former president of Ukraine who fled to Russia after he was removed from power in 2014 and was later found guilty of treason. Shokin remained in power after Yanukovych’s ouster, but he failed “to indict any major figures from the Yanukovych administration for corruption,” according to testimony John E. Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine under President George W. Bush, gave in March 2016 to a subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“By late fall of 2015, the EU and the United States joined the chorus of those seeking Mr. Shokin’s removal as the start of an overall reform of the Procurator General’s Office,” Herbst testified. “U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke publicly about this before and during his December visit to Kyiv; but Mr. Shokin remained in place.”
In early 2016, Deputy General Prosecutor Vitaliy Kasko resigned in protest of corruption within Shokin’s office. In a televised statement, Kasko said: “Today, the General Prosecutor’s office is a brake on the reform of criminal justice, a hotbed of corruption, an instrument of political pressure, one of the key obstacles to the arrival of foreign investment in Ukraine.”
In reporting on Kasko’s resignation, Reuters noted that Ukraine’s “failure to tackle endemic corruption” threatened the IMF’s $40 billion aid program for Ukraine. At the time, the IMF put a hold on $1.7 billion in aid that had been due to be released to Ukraine four months earlier.
“After President Poroshenko complained that Shokin was taking too long to clean up corruption even within the PGO itself, he asked for Shokin’s resignation,” the CRS report said. Shokin submitted his resignation in February 2016 and was removed a month later.
Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama, on Sept. 20 tweeted that the “Obama administration policy (not just ‘Biden policy’) to push for this Ukrainian general prosecutor to go” was “a shared view in many capitals, multilateral lending institutions, and pro-democratic Ukrainian civil society
www.factcheck.org
—-
——
But the U.S. was not alone in pressuring Ukraine to fire Shokin.
In February 2016, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde threatened to withhold $40 billion unless Ukraine undertook “a substantial new effort” to fight corruption after the country’s economic minister and his team resigned to protest government corruption. That same month, a “reform-minded deputy prosecutor resigned, complaining that his efforts to address government corruption had been consistently stymied by his own prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin,” according to a Jan. 3, 2017, Congressional Research Services report.
Shokin served as prosecutor general under Viktor Yanukovych, the former president of Ukraine who fled to Russia after he was removed from power in 2014 and was later found guilty of treason. Shokin remained in power after Yanukovych’s ouster, but he failed “to indict any major figures from the Yanukovych administration for corruption,” according to testimony John E. Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine under President George W. Bush, gave in March 2016 to a subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“By late fall of 2015, the EU and the United States joined the chorus of those seeking Mr. Shokin’s removal as the start of an overall reform of the Procurator General’s Office,” Herbst testified. “U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke publicly about this before and during his December visit to Kyiv; but Mr. Shokin remained in place.”
In early 2016, Deputy General Prosecutor Vitaliy Kasko resigned in protest of corruption within Shokin’s office. In a televised statement, Kasko said: “Today, the General Prosecutor’s office is a brake on the reform of criminal justice, a hotbed of corruption, an instrument of political pressure, one of the key obstacles to the arrival of foreign investment in Ukraine.”
In reporting on Kasko’s resignation, Reuters noted that Ukraine’s “failure to tackle endemic corruption” threatened the IMF’s $40 billion aid program for Ukraine. At the time, the IMF put a hold on $1.7 billion in aid that had been due to be released to Ukraine four months earlier.
“After President Poroshenko complained that Shokin was taking too long to clean up corruption even within the PGO itself, he asked for Shokin’s resignation,” the CRS report said. Shokin submitted his resignation in February 2016 and was removed a month later.
Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama, on Sept. 20 tweeted that the “Obama administration policy (not just ‘Biden policy’) to push for this Ukrainian general prosecutor to go” was “a shared view in many capitals, multilateral lending institutions, and pro-democratic Ukrainian civil society
Trump Twists Facts on Biden and Ukraine - FactCheck.org
President Donald Trump once again twisted the facts to claim that Joe Biden, as vice president, threatened to withhold "billions of dollars to Ukraine" unless it removed the prosecutor general who "was prosecuting" Biden's son, Hunter.
—-
Define well...
Here’s how I define well:
“7 million new jobs; the lowest-ever unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans; a rebuilt military; a completely reformed VA with Choice and Accountability for our great veterans; more than 170 new federal judges and two Supreme Court Justices; historic tax and regulation cuts; the elimination of the individual mandate; the first decline in prescription drug prices in half a century; the first new branch of the United States Military since 1947, the Space Force; strong protection of the Second Amendment; criminal justice reform; a defeated ISIS caliphate and the killing of the world’s number one terrorist leader, al-Baghdadi; the replacement of the disastrous NAFTA trade deal with the wonderful USMCA (Mexico and Canada); a breakthrough Phase One trade deal with China; massive new trade deals with Japan and South Korea; withdrawal from the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal; cancellation of the unfair and costly Paris Climate Accord; becoming the world’s top energy producer; recognition of Israel’s capital, opening the American Embassy in Jerusalem, and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights; a colossal reduction in illegal border crossings, the ending of Catch-and-Release, and the building of the Southern Border Wall.”
This is what you’re gonna here ad nauseum from conservatives over the next year, and the argument to vote for the other side will be...
Trump is awful.
We hate billionaires.
Here’s a bunch of free stuff we are offering.
Trump is awful.
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Trump didn't obstruct Congress.
And the impeachment part of the US Constitution specifically mentions crimes committed as a prerequisite.
And the Federalist papers specifically said impeachment can't be used for misadministration.
SDN in-house Propaganda Minister back in full form. Let’s correct him (again)
But the U.S. was not alone in pressuring Ukraine to fire Shokin.
In February 2016, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde threatened to withhold $40 billion unless Ukraine undertook “a substantial new effort” to fight corruption after the country’s economic minister and his team resigned to protest government corruption. That same month, a “reform-minded deputy prosecutor resigned, complaining that his efforts to address government corruption had been consistently stymied by his own prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin,” according to a Jan. 3, 2017, Congressional Research Services report.
Shokin served as prosecutor general under Viktor Yanukovych, the former president of Ukraine who fled to Russia after he was removed from power in 2014 and was later found guilty of treason. Shokin remained in power after Yanukovych’s ouster, but he failed “to indict any major figures from the Yanukovych administration for corruption,” according to testimony John E. Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine under President George W. Bush, gave in March 2016 to a subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“By late fall of 2015, the EU and the United States joined the chorus of those seeking Mr. Shokin’s removal as the start of an overall reform of the Procurator General’s Office,” Herbst testified. “U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke publicly about this before and during his December visit to Kyiv; but Mr. Shokin remained in place.”
In early 2016, Deputy General Prosecutor Vitaliy Kasko resigned in protest of corruption within Shokin’s office. In a televised statement, Kasko said: “Today, the General Prosecutor’s office is a brake on the reform of criminal justice, a hotbed of corruption, an instrument of political pressure, one of the key obstacles to the arrival of foreign investment in Ukraine.”
In reporting on Kasko’s resignation, Reuters noted that Ukraine’s “failure to tackle endemic corruption” threatened the IMF’s $40 billion aid program for Ukraine. At the time, the IMF put a hold on $1.7 billion in aid that had been due to be released to Ukraine four months earlier.
“After President Poroshenko complained that Shokin was taking too long to clean up corruption even within the PGO itself, he asked for Shokin’s resignation,” the CRS report said. Shokin submitted his resignation in February 2016 and was removed a month later.
Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama, on Sept. 20 tweeted that the “Obama administration policy (not just ‘Biden policy’) to push for this Ukrainian general prosecutor to go” was “a shared view in many capitals, multilateral lending institutions, and pro-democratic Ukrainian civil society
Trump Twists Facts on Biden and Ukraine - FactCheck.org
President Donald Trump once again twisted the facts to claim that Joe Biden, as vice president, threatened to withhold "billions of dollars to Ukraine" unless it removed the prosecutor general who "was prosecuting" Biden's son, Hunter.
Dude, link an article. Don’t post the entire thing. Cmon man.
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I recognize that impeachment is a political tool and a crime need not be committed. Just because it is not required doesnt meant one should not be present. Clearly the Ds have not made their case as the vote had no bipartisan support, except to oppose impeachment. I have yet to hear a cogent response as to why no remedy was sought from the courts when every other congress has done this when the executive branch has invoked executive privelege. If there was a rush to do this, which there apparently was, how was the constitution served? It appears the only ones served by a rush to impeachment were the Ds. A disgusting farce.
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So now you're admitting that Biden pressured Ukraine for a quid pro quo.
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Trump, through Rudy, is still soliciting foreign interference in an election. Sadly, even Lindsey might be reaching his max BS tolerance, and that says a lot given how cowardly and politically expedient he’s become recently
thehill.com
Graham warns Giuliani: ‘I hope you know what you’re talking about’
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned on Wednesday that if Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, is going to publicly suggest a “cover-up” involving the Bidens and Ukrai…
thehill.com
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I'm curious how the Senate trial will affect the Democratic nomination. Because if Warren and Sanders are forced to sit in trial, that could give an opportunity for Biden and Buttigieg to storm through the primaries.
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Also i'm now sad the election will likely entirely focus on the Ukraine stuff, especially if Biden wins the nomination
Also i'm now sad the election will likely entirely focus on the Ukraine stuff, especially if Biden wins the nomination
Well you know the democrat nominee is just gonna talk impeachment and Russia all year long anyways. They can’t bash his accomplishments, and have no real electable platform to run on. It’s gonna be bash Trump 24/7 and hope people have had enough to just elect anybody else.
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Well, the optics aren't good for him or his son. We'll have to wait for some facts to come out.Also i'm now sad the election will likely entirely focus on the Ukraine stuff, especially if Biden wins the nomination
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I'm worried because I don't want Russia to use it as an excuse to blame Ukraine for impeachment/election mess and then destabilize the region. But it's probably already happening.
Ugh yes. So hurtful what was said above by Mikkel. It really makes me uncomfortable that physician colleagues have those thoughts. Hate crimes are real, unfortunately to this day.
I was just listening to a story about how they think they found the mass grave site from the Tulsa Race Massacre, which didn’t even happen that long ago.
Just recently my grandfather was telling me about how clear his memory is of seeing black boys lynched in his neighborhood.
And today people continue to be injured and murdered due to their religion, race, sexual orientation, etc.
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I dont think Putin needs a political excuse
He kinda does what he wants.
I don’t believe Mikkel said hate crimes don’t exist....
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First, go to law school if you want to argue a legal point, any lawyer will tell you a crime is not essential for impeachment.
The conditions for impeaching a president are set out in a passage of the Constitution that is short enough to be a tweet and puzzling enough to be argued over more than two centuries later.
“The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
Impeachment cases turn on abuse of power, which is a political judgment. It is why both sixth amendment and the rules of evidence do NOT apply.
The White House refused to cooperate in the inquiry, blocking witness testimony and document turnover. Key individuals who refused to comply with the inquiry include Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought, and Rudy Giuliani. Other White House officials who have also refused to testify include National Security Council lawyers John Eisenberg and Michael Ellis; Mulvaney adviser Robert Blair; and Brian McCormack, the associate director for natural resources, energy, and science at the Office of Management and Budget. Additionally, as specified in the report, the White House, the Office of the Vice President, the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of State, the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy failed to produce any documents in response to “71 specific, individualized requests or demands for records in their possession, custody, or control.”
The refusal to cooperate is a matter of stated policy. On Oct. 8, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone wrote a letter in response to a House subpoenainforming the leaders of the inquiry that President Trump and members of his administration would not participate in the inquiry “under any circumstances.” Cipollone argued that the inquiry is unconstitutional and violates due process, and that it is seeking to invalidate the 2016 election and influence the 2020 election.
But witnesses can refuse to comply with a congressional subpoena only if they have a valid privilege protecting their testimony. Cipollone’s letter did not assert any privilege. And without one, the refusal to engage the committee has a small problem: two federal obstruction of justice statutes.
First, 18 U.S.C. § 1505, provides that “[w]hoever corruptly, or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication influences, obstructs, or impedes or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede ... the due and proper exercise of the power of inquiry under which any inquiry or investigation is being had by either House, or any committee of either House or any joint committee of the Congress” shall face criminal consequences.
Second, 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2) broadly prohibits corruptly obstructing, influencing or impeding any “official proceeding”—defined to include a proceeding before Congress.
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*Trump's been the most anti-war president we've had in decades. Though Kushner & Co. have exerted enormous pressure on him to engage. Of course, when Trump delivers on promises, Conservative Inc. and the Left pile on (see: Syria pullout).
**Trumpism has bolstered optimism in the dollar market and US economy. Hence the "inexplicable" success of the stock market, the best efforts of Democrats notwithstanding.
***Which of his "lies" have been consequential? As far as I can tell, the most important lies that have been unearthed over the past three years have been from Comey, Brennan, etc.
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Redirect Notice
www.google.com
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Opinion | Hate Crime Hoaxes Are More Common Than You Think
A political scientist found that fewer than 1 in 3 of 346 such allegations was genuine.
www.wsj.com
The farce of equal proportion is that both the White House and R members in congress attacked the initially impeachment investigation on the grounds of hearsay or second hand information (although many prosec and convictions are made by circumstantial evidence) but then refused to let folks like Pompeo, Mulvaney, Rudy and Bolton to provide direct and first hand testimony, but do you know why?? A real and present danger of perjury, they could have defeated the Ds argument in a very straight-forward manner but by strategic legal conscription, avoided them lying to Congress...
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deleted171991
I am sure all the people I read about almost every week commit suicide, or just bump into the door, so that they can blame the white supremacists.
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Opinion | Hate Crime Hoaxes Are More Common Than You Think
A political scientist found that fewer than 1 in 3 of 346 such allegations was genuine.
Unsurprisingly, the author the oped cites hasn't actually published his findings in a sociology, criminal justice or poli sci journal, nor has he released any of the data he used to come up with the 400 hoaxes in his book.
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Trump Hate Map
This map shows documented instances where Donald Trump, his supporters, or his staff harassed or attacked Latinos and immigrants.
americasvoice.org
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deleted171991
President not cooperating with an impeachment inquiry and Congress? That's the textbook definition of a president the founders would have impeached. Let's not mention the obstruction part.
This is the most important public servant in the country. He is not "innocent until proven guilty". He should be above any suspicion of a crime, especially one like corruption. Especially since this is not the first time there was suspicion of "quid pro quo" with a foreign power. We have impeached Clinton for much-much less.
This is exactly the kind of president the founders were afraid of, the kind that puts himself ahead of the country, and tries to makes deals with foreign powers for his own benefit (too). This was not the only time, I bet, just the only time he was actually caught. Goes perfectly with his personal business history and character.
If he really wants to fight corruption, he can start in the Oval Office, by asking the president of the United States to release his tax returns. Like Obama, who released his birth certificate even when he didn't have to. That's what true leaders (not demagogues) do. The President of the United States should be above any suspicion. If s/he isn't, what can people expect from the average public servant?
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S/p Covington, Smollett, and Amari Allen, I don't believe any claims of "hate crimes" without proof.
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