Letter: Do Senate Republicans really want to give presidents unlimited powers?
To the editor — Believe it or not, someday there will be a Democratic president again.
[Fuckface von Clownstick] claims Article II of the Constitution gives a president the power to do anything he or she wants to do. When Senate Republicans take up the charges against [Dear Leader], are they really willing to give a future Democrat unlimited power?
Using the powers of his high office, [Dear Leader] solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 United States Presidential election.
[He also] interposed the powers of the Presidency against the lawful subpoenas of the House of Representatives.There are plenty of other crimes not being held to account, and there are doubts this impeachment will make any difference at all, but there really was no choice. Representative Adam Schiff explained why it needs to be done now.
The argument, 'why don't you just wait' amounts to this: 'why don't you just let him cheat in one more election? Why not let him cheat just one more time?'Matthew Rozsa now thinks the Democrats have the correct approach. He cites several experts. Lawrence Tribe:
[T]he evidence supporting the two charges, which the Articles clearly and unambiguously summarize, is so overwhelming that only an unwillingness or inability to face the facts could lead anyone to conclude that [he] is innocent of the accusations soberly leveled in the Articles.Barbara McQuade:
Framing [his] misconduct in terms of abuse of power properly focuses on the threat that requires his removal — soliciting foreign influence, subverting an election and using his power to advance self interest. Impeachment is not about punishment. It is about protecting the country from harm.David Priess notes Democrats even left out obstruction of justice for now.
Today’s articles are more focused and are less easily dismissed as pure politics.Update (December 13): The Judiciary Committee passed the articles of impeachment on a purely partisan 23 to 17 vote.
[A]n exoneration, if that’s what emerges by a Senate that is essentially rigged and fixed so that it’s coordinated in this way with the defense, really doesn’t clear the name of the accused so that the president will go down in history as having been essentially found guilty by the House in a proceeding where he had a chance to defend himself but didn’t take advantage of it.Also, Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman think Republicans could pay a price over this.
Democrats can seize on McConnell’s sneering proclamation that he’ll turn the trial into a massive coverup (which he may not even be able to do) to press for a process that could do the opposite — allow for a full airing out of aspects of this scandal that the White House has tried to keep buried. And that might not be so easy for vulnerable GOP senators to resist.Update (December 15): Cody Fenwick refutes ten Republican beliefs about impeachment.
The shakedown that [Fuckface] clumsily attempted to orchestrate against the president of Ukraine in the hope of discrediting Joe Biden ... pales beside the shakedown orchestrated by the elites who rule over America’s working men and women. This shakedown took from those workers their hope and, more ominously, their hope for their children. ... This shakedown led to the end of the rule of law and the destruction of democratic institutions that, if they had continued to function, could have prevented the rise to power of a demagogue such as [Dear Leader].Update (December 16): The Judiciary Committee has released their report. And Wim Laven argues the evidence for conviction is there.
If Senate Republicans turn a blind eye to this blanket defiance and let [Fuckface] off the hook, they will be deciding that future presidents can defy Congress any time they wish. They would be destroying the fundamental Constitutional duty of Congress to oversee and investigate the conduct of the Executive branch.But Heather Digby Parton sees an ugly backlash.
It's clear that impeachment is just a bump in the road for [Dear Leader] and the Republicans. Once it's over, they plan to continue with the lies and smears and betrayals without even taking a breath. The main lesson they have learned from his leadership is that it's a waste of time to even pretend to care about the rule of law or the Constitution unless it serves their partisan political needs.Update (December 17): There's a strategy being proposed that the impeachment resolution could be withheld from transmission to the Senate until McConnell reaches an agreement with Democrats on the rules for the trial. Also, more than 750 historians signed a letter calling for impeachment.
They must do whatever they can to make clear to the American public and the world that the entire Republican Party is corrupt and that every single one of its elected representatives on Capitol Hill wants to take away our democracy.Ha! Here's an entire Huffington Post article by Nick Baumann, Amanda Terkel, Elise Foley, and Kate Sheppard:
Why The Democrats Impeached [Fuckface von Clownstick]
Democrats impeached [Fuckface von Clownstick] because he used the power of the U.S. presidency to pressure a foreign country to investigate a political opponent.Also, Manu Raju reports the Speaker isn't transmitting the articles right away.
I asked Pelosi point blank if she could wait "weeks" to send the articles to the Senate until [Democrats] get what they consider a "fair" trial. I also asked if she would "never" send over the articles.
She wouldn't rule out either possibility.I say let's have no trial at all. It's a foregone conclusion anyway. Just let the impeachment hang over him unresolved all the way through the election!
A trove of documents released late Friday evening show that the White House moved to halt nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine directly after [von Clownstick's] July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Congress was not to be told, according to the email from a top Office of Management and Budget official.And Paul Rosenberg discusses a list of twelve articles of impeachment developed by Ralph Nader, Louis Fisher and Bruce Fein.
[It] directly undermines the justification [administration] defenders have so often offered for holding up the aid: that it was not to coerce Ukraine into helping [Dear Leader's] reelection campaign but was merely a product of [his] passionate commitment to fighting corruption (please stop laughing).
If that were true, the White House would have wanted to make sure that every relevant official in the government was informed about the suspension of aid and why it was being undertaken. The White House might even have wanted to talk about it publicly. Instead, the White House treated the suspension of aid as a secret so dangerous that if if were discovered it would be a disaster.
And they were right. When it finally did become public, the result was the impeachment of the president.Also, as new information comes out, there are suggestions that the House should reopen hearings and possibly bring additional articles of impeachment.
It was more about nothing being true and truth being unknowable and the whole impeachment mess not being quite what it seemed.Democrats face a more challenging deception.
This express-lane impeachment was the result of a political compromise between progressives and centrists in the Democratic caucus — and in that sense Republicans are correct in describing it as partisan theater.
This impeachment feels so unsatisfying to so many Democrats because the Ukraine scandal makes a poor substitute for the grand narrative of ... corruption they were promised. The president was reportedly surprised to be impeached over a single failed act of extortion, which probably struck him as no big deal.
[W]e got a fast-track impeachment process that isn’t about Russia or the blatant obstruction of justice or the emoluments clause or the epic self-dealing or even paying off the porn star. Gazed at with a cold eye, it looks overtly cynical. If it wasn’t deliberately designed to fail, it was constructed with the full knowledge that no other outcome was even possible.It all seems intended to give the illusion that checks and balances are in place, and that the two parties could come together to find reasonable compromise.
It’s probably better for public morale if only one party at a time announces that the legislative process is a sham and the entire federal government is hopelessly corrupt. It has fallen to the Republicans, at this historical juncture, to speak those truths so thickly draped in lies as to render them unrecognizable.Update (December 29): The New York Times reports on conflict within the administration over aid to Ukraine.
The Times story brings together independent reporting ― including newly acquired emails ― and testimony from the House’s impeachment inquiry to depict a cleaved administration, in which some officials in various agencies helped [Dear Leader] withhold aid from an ally in need and others expressed worry about the legality, morality and potential fallout of the effort.This is exactly why the impeachment must hear from all relevant witnesses.
It may just be that the only way to keep impeachment from being thrust into a Senatorial black hole is to make a bold gamble. Either the Senate organizes a fair impeachment trial and allows for important relevant witnesses to be called, or the House Democrats will call those witnesses themselves, presenting the testimony that the Senate refuses to allow, and that the public deserves.Update (January 3, 2020): Previously redacted portions of emails between two administration officials most directly involved with the hold of aid have been leaked to the press.
Their correspondence makes clear the president was solely responsible for the hold and that the Pentagon had grave concerns about its legality.Update (January 6, 2020): Fuckface von Clownstick announces he is prepared to commit war crimes.
Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites … some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.Is John Bolton's sudden willingness to testify a signal that it's time to pull the plug? David Atkins:
All it would take is 20 Republican Senators to say no. To say that enough is enough. To put the interests of the United States ahead of their temporary partisan interests. It would only take well under half of the GOP Senate caucus to do the right thing.Update (January 14, 2020): More evidence has been released by the House Intelligence Committee.
[Fuckface von Clownstick] knew exactly what was going on. He was aware of all of my movements.Update (January 16, 2020): A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office finds that the Office of Management and Budget broke the law by withholding military aid to Ukraine under the direction of Dear Leader.
Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law. OMB withheld funds for a policy reason, which is not permitted under the Impoundment Control Act (ICA). The withholding was not a programmatic delay. Therefore, we conclude that OMB violated the ICA.And, think of all the pressure brought to bear to try to get Ukraine to announce a fake investigation of the Bidens.
The Ukrainian national police have launched a criminal investigation after the House Intelligence Committee released text messages suggesting that [Fuckface's] allies had had former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch under surveillance.Update (January 26, 2020): The threats are going to work and Heather Digby Parton agrees the Senate trial amounts to jury nullification--even "reality nullification" as some Senators deny basic facts of the case (asking a foreign leader to investigate a political rival and withhold foreign aid to coerce him into doing so).
[T]he president [is] modeling his defense on the O.J. Simpson trial ... . He's portraying himself as a victim of a rigged system and his "jurors" are prepared to acquit him on that basis.
[Fuckface] should consider, however, that while O.J. Simpson was acquitted he lost his reputation anyway.
The Senate can nullify the Constitution, at least for now. It can't nullify the truth.Amanda Marcotte also notes "an unvarnished contempt for reason and facts".
The reality is Republicans have disproportionate power, pretty much baked in. They will leverage that power to stop any and all Democratic agenda items, no matter how minor, because, under the leadership of [Dear Leader] and Senate boss Mitch McConnell, they have embraced a fascistic "will to power" philosophy. No argument will move them, since their goal is to crush their opponents and achieve total domination, not to engage in governance based on rational debate and discourse.
The only thing Republicans respond to is power. Even if some have pangs of conscience, and I have to imagine they do, they are stifling any remaining care for our democratic values and wholeheartedly running toward the siren call of authoritarianism. They are lost. They aren't coming back.Also, even more threats (or projection!) from Manbaby.
Shifty Adam Schiff is a CORRUPT POLITICIAN, and probably a very sick man. He has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!And I'm wondering how the Senate will manage to ignore this tidbit from an upcoming book from John Bolton:
Drafts of the book outline obtained by The New York Times describe [Fuckface] telling Bolton in August that he wanted to continue freezing nearly $400 million in congressionally approved military assistance to Ukraine until officials there agreed to help investigate his political rival.How could they possibly let that go without bringing Bolton in for testimony? Republican Senators have no courage, but it wouldn't be surprising to learn Dear Leader has some powerful enemies. The timing is perfect--right in the middle of his defense in the Senate.
We don't know whether any of this will make a difference. [Fuckface von Clownstick] has strong-armed senators into covering up for his crimes altogether, rather than allowing them to simply say that what he did was wrong, but he hadn't committed an impeachable offense. He won't stand for anyone saying he isn't perfect. So they must all agree to be his accomplices.
Those senators may have been tossing and turning on Sunday night, however. In just the last three days, recordings have come to light that show [Dear Leader] has been lying about knowing Parnas and Fruman, and now Bolton's book testifying to [Manbaby's] personal involvement has been leaked. Every day there's something new. They have to be wondering how much more they will be forced to answer for next November.Update (June 18, 2020): So John Bolton's book is finally coming out. Nancy LeTourneau isn't terribly impressed.
Bolton, Pompeo, and Esper all knew that [Fuckface] was attempting to extort the president of Ukraine for political purposes. And yet none of them spoke up.
On October 17, at a press briefing in the White House, Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney confirmed that [von Clownstick] withheld the essential military aid for Ukraine as leverage to pressure Ukraine to investigate the conspiracy theory that Ukraine had interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.Perhaps this excerpt gives the best summary:
The President engaged in this course of conduct for the benefit of his own presidential reelection, to harm the election prospects of a political rival, and to influence our nation’s upcoming presidential election to his advantage. In doing so, the President placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States, sought to undermine the integrity of the U.S. presidential election process, and endangered U.S. national security.Update (December 7): Rachel Maddow points out that the section headings of the Intelligence Committee Report basically summarizes the entire story.
[T]here is overwhelming evidence [he] betrayed his oath of office by seeking to use presidential power to pressure a foreign government to help him distort an American election, for his personal and political benefit, at the direct expense of national security interests as determined by Congress.
[E]vidence is mounting that [tipping points in the Earth system — such as the loss of the Amazon rainforest or the West Antarctic ice sheet —] could be more likely than was thought, have high impacts and are interconnected across different biophysical systems, potentially committing the world to long-term irreversible changes.
[T]he clearest emergency would be if we were approaching a global cascade of tipping points that led to a new, less habitable, ‘hothouse’ climate state.
[C]ascading effects might be common. Research last year analysed 30 types of regime shift spanning physical climate and ecological systems, from collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet to a switch from rainforest to savanna. This indicated that exceeding tipping points in one system can increase the risk of crossing them in others. Such links were found for 45% of possible interactions.Update (December 7): Although the phrasing is disputed by some scientists, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warns that "the point of no return is no longer over the horizon, it is in sight and hurtling toward us".
The past five years were the hottest ever recorded on the planetUpdate (January 5, 2020): David Roberts thinks we need to be honest with ourselves.
Four of the five largest wildfires in California history happened this decade
Six Category 5 hurricanes tore through the Atlantic region in the past four years
Arctic sea ice cover dropped about 13% this decade
Floods with a 0.1% chance of happening in any given year became a frequent occurrence
There were more than 100 “billion dollar” climate disasters, double from the decade before
Meanwhile, we pumped a record 40.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air in 2019
We’re ending this decade on track to warm a catastrophic 3.2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century
We’ve waited too long. Practically speaking, we are heading past 1.5˚C as we speak and probably past 2˚C as well. This is not a "fact" in the same way climate science deals in facts — collective human behavior is not nearly so easy to predict as biophysical cycles — but nothing we know about human history, sociology, or politics suggests that vast, screeching changes in collective direction are likely.
What bothers me about the forced optimism that has become de rigueur in climate circles is that it excludes the tragic dimension of climate change and thus robs it of some of the gravity it deserves.
That’s the thing: The story of climate change is already a tragedy. It’s sad. Really sad. People are suffering, species are dying off, entire ecosystems are being lost, and it’s inevitably going to get worse. We are in the midst of making the earth a simpler, cruder, less hospitable place, not only for ourselves but for all the kaleidoscopic varieties of life that evolved here in a relatively stable climate.
To really grapple with climate change, we have to understand it, and more than that, take it on board emotionally. That can be an uncomfortable, even brutal process, because the truth is that we have screwed around, and are screwing around, and with each passing day we lock in more irreversible changes and more suffering. The consequences are difficult to reckon with and the moral responsibility is terrible to bear, but we will never work through all those emotions and reactions if we can’t talk about it, if we’re only allowed chipper talk about what’s still possible in climate models.
Exceeding one [temperature threshold] does not in any way reduce the moral and political imperative to stay beneath the next. If anything, the need to mobilize against climate change only becomes greater with every new increment of heat, because the potential stakes grow larger.
[I]t should mean getting serious about adaptation, i.e., preparing communities for, and helping them through, the changes that are now inevitable.
[S]hrinking of empathy is arguably the greatest danger facing the human species, the biggest barrier to the collective action necessary to save ourselves. I can’t help but think that the first step in defending and expanding that empathy is reckoning squarely with how much damage we’ve already done and are likely to do, working through the guilt and grief, and resolving to minimize the suffering to come.
It is evident that incremental changes will not be enough and there is a need for rapid and transformational action.Update (November 29): Alexander Kaufman summarizes seven recent climate reports.
1. Global temperatures are on pace to rise as much as 3.2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century ― more than double what scientists project to be a safe range that remotely resembles our world today.
2. The top 10 fossil-fuel-producing countries are on track to extract 120% more oil, gas and coal than would be consistent with 1.5 degrees of warming.
3. The world’s biggest asset managers remain heavily invested in climate-polluting industries ― and do little if anything to convince those companies to change.
4. The insurance industry looks stunningly unprepared for the “extremely high” risks of climate change.
5. New investments in wind, solar and other renewable energy projects dropped sharply in the developing world last year. Coal, meanwhile, hit a record high.
6. China is building more new coal plants than exist in all of the European Union.
7. The vast majority of Americans want the federal government to do more to curb climate change and protect the environment.And Carl Boggs examines the modern "grand illusion".
Somehow, against all logic, we have adopted a collective faith in the willingness of ruling governments and corporations to do the right thing.Update (December 24): Kyla Mandel uses 28 numbers to summarize the state of the planet this year. Just two:
99%: The chance that 2019 winds up in the top five hottest years ever recorded. According to NOAA data, this year will be either the third or second hottest year in human history.
1.71 degrees Fahrenheit: How much warmer July was compared to the 20th-century average temperature for that month, making it the hottest July ever recorded in human history.
[T]his irregular channel of diplomacy, it’s not as outlandish as it could be.Update (November 14): Eric Boehlert says the media don't make it clear just how radical Republicans have become in their defense of Dear Leader.
Most casual news consumers don’t know that Republicans have become detached from reality as they watch the hearings unfold. (I mean, Republicans sound convincing when they spout convoluted claims about Ukraine working to elect Hillary Clinton.) And that’s why it’s important that journalists do their jobs and spell out what’s truly going on, and not depend on the lazy both-sides crutch in order to avoid necessary truth-telling about the state of today’s GOP.Update (November 15): Marie Yovanovitch gave her public testimony during which Chair Schiff allowed her to respond to a tweet Schiff called "witness intimidation in real time by the president of the United States".
It’s very intimidating. I can’t speak to what the president is trying to do, but the effect is to be intimidating.Add it the growing list of articles of impeachment. Amanda Marcotte notes that Dear Leader "hated her because he saw her as a woman who wanted to prevent crimes".
The issue here is that [Fuckface] is a corrupt criminal, not that he's an asshole. While he no doubt took pleasure in harming a woman, the bigger problem is why he was doing it, which was in service of a larger campaign to recruit corrupt Ukrainians to help him cheat in the 2020 election.Update (November 20): Lt. Col. Vindman says the investigations were to be regarded as an order, not just a request. And Gordon Sondland says members of the Administration knew about Fuckface's demands.
Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret.
We declare clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency. To secure a sustainable future, we must change how we live. [This] entails major transformations in the ways our global society functions and interacts with natural ecosystems.Recommendations include:
Use energy far more efficiently and apply strong carbon taxes to cut fossil fuel useUpdate (November 17): A report published in The Lancet describes the public health impacts of climate change.
Stabilize global population – currently growing by 200,000 people a day – using ethical approaches such as longer education for girls
End the destruction of nature and restore forests and mangroves to absorb carbon dioxide
Eat mostly plants and less meat, and reduce food waste
Shift economic goals away from GDP growth
If the market doesn't do a better job of accounting for climate, we could have a recession—the likes of which we've never seen before.
237 million people in [China, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Japan] occupy areas that are highly likely to experience coastal flooding once or multiple times per year by 2050.
[C]limate injustice is only one manifestation of the inequalities and injustices built into the capitalist powers' imperial exploitation of the "under-developed" world. In the late Immanuel Wallerstein's framework, the core capitalist powers compete with each other for dominance in exploiting the resources of the underdeveloped periphery nations.
Consequently, each of the capitalist powers is loathe to weaken its competitive position vis à vis the other capitalist economies. In a capitalist world, each economic unit must act to protect what it deems its own interests. The only counterweight comes from the public sector.
Yet in a capitalist world, each public authority — local, state or national government — is constrained by the fear that pushing public interests too far will cause capital flight, thereby undermining its viability. And, of course, corporations and the wealthy dominate the shaping of public policy — nowhere more than in the US.
This is the way capitalism works, which suggests how profound and systemic the changes will have to be if the world is to avoid catastrophe.Update (December 17): Capitalists are starting to feel the pinch.
Goldman Sachs has announced it will no longer be financing new oil drilling or exploration for oil in the Arctic. It has also pledged to stop investing in thermal coal mines or coal-fired projects anywhere in the world.
The automaker and union have agreed on most of the key issues, but two main sticking points remain. They are boosting employee pension plans and shortening the length of time required for entry-level workers to earn top hourly pay of $28.Update: Negotiations are described as taking a "turn for the worse".
GM made an offer to the union that basically repeated one the UAW had previously rejected.Update (October 9): Sam Pizzigati looks at the history behind the strike.
The Climate Action Summit will showcase new initiatives by government, business and civil society to increase their commitments achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and work toward reducing emissions to essentially zero by mid-century.Update (September 23): Climate activists blocked traffic in Washington, D.C.
Russian scientists in the Arctic Ocean said they have discovered the most powerful methane gas fountain ever recorded.
The concentration of methane in the air there was up to 16 parts per million, more than nine times higher than the atmospheric average.Update (October 15): Mike Miller considers what it takes to move from protest to power.
We don’t actually have to speculate much to see a plausible story. Rudy Giuliani, the president’s attorney, has been open about a campaign to pressure Ukraine to open investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and events related to [Dear Leader's] 2016 campaign manager Paul Manafort, who was accused by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of being an undisclosed agent of Ukraine. As part of his effort to influence Ukrainian policy in a way that could clearly influence the 2020 election, Giuliani even worked with the U.S. State Department, as he has admitted.
[T]his apparent effort to ratchet up pressure on Zelensky seemed to escalate over the summer when the White House tried to delay military aid to Ukraine. Last week, [Fuckface] finally dropped the delay and released the funds following blowback from Congress.
Did [Orangeman] promise to permit the aid to Ukraine in exchange for a probe of Biden? Could he have promised a visit to the White House instead? Or perhaps the "promise" involved "a separate aid package worth $140m" from the State Department, which the Independent reports is potentially still in the works?Fenwick points out that what we already know about the scheme is highly improper if not illegal, and notes:
The effort to block the complaint suggests it’s even more serious than we would otherwise suspect.Update (September 20): Matthew Miller sums up the reactions to the Ukraine revelation:
If he was promising U.S. government action in exchange for a foreign government targeting a political opponent, that is about as high a crime and misdemeanor as one can imagine.Heather Digby Parton would be "shocked if even one prominent Republican contradicts" "the inalienable right to use the full power of the U.S. government to ensure his re-election".
It appears highly probable that [this whistleblower's urgent report] regarded the alleged extortion of Zelensky's government in hopes of digging dirt on Joe Biden for [this con man's] electoral benefit. We don't know the details, but it seems pretty clear that Giuliani has been working this for some time and that [Fuckface] himself is personally involved.
If all this pans out as the major scandal it appears to be, in a sane world it would mean the end of [Dear Leader's] presidency.Update (September 23): As Fuckface seems to admit he did, in fact, discuss Biden with the president of Ukraine (withholding military aid one week before the call to Zelensky was , of course, out of "concern" for corruption not a pressure tactic!), Heather Digby Parton argues Democrats simply cannot avoid their responsibility to impeach.
The president and his enablers are now in open defiance of democratic norms to such an extent that the Democratic leadership's trust that the next election will sort all this out is seriously in doubt. There can be no faith in free and fair elections as long as [Fuckface] brazenly uses the power of the presidency to solicit foreign interference in our elections, apparently having been persuaded that because he was not held responsible for his previous collusion, he had a free hand to do it again.Amanda Marcotte agrees the risk is worth it.
Impeachment almost certainly won't result in removing [Dear Leader]. But it will create an opportunity for Democrats to make the case — witness by witness, hearing by hearing — for his corruption in a highly public way.
It might not work. [Fuckface], as ignorant as he is, is highly skilled at manipulating the media to advance his lies and falsify scandals against Democrats.
But impeachment is a big story, and most media will feel duty bound to cover it that way — hopefully, to the point where it drowns out [von Clownstick's] lies about his opponents. It's worth a shot, and it's unquestionably the right thing to do.Update (September 24): By unanimous consent, the Senate is asking for the whistleblower complaint to be turned over to the intelligence committees. And Speaker Pelosi announced the start of an official impeachment inquiry.
I would like you to do us a favor, though, because our country has been through a lot, and Ukraine knows a lot about it.Senator Chuck Schumer is laying the groundwork to put Dear Leader through the wringer.
Having read the documents in [the complaint] I’m even more worried about what happened than I was when I read the memorandum of the conversation. There are so many facts have to be examined.Cenk Uygur thinks it will only take one administration official to turn against him and the presidency will be over.
Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire threatened to resign if the Administration restricted what he could say in his upcoming congressional testimony, The Washington Post reported Wednesday citing current and former officials familiar with the matter.Update (September 26): The complaint has been publicly released.
In the course of my official duties, I have received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election. This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President’s main domestic political rivals.The whistleblower indicates there was a cover up.
In the days following the phone call, I learned from multiple U.S. officials that senior White House officials had intervened to “lock down” all records of the phone call, especially the official word-for-word transcript of the call that was produced-as is customary-by the White House Situation Room. This set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in the call.Withholding military aid had no known justification.
On 18 July, an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) official informed Departments and Agencies that the President "earlier that month" had issued instructions to sµspend all U.S. security assistance to Ukraine. Neither OMB nor the NSC staff knew why this instruction had been issued.Naturally, Fuckface lashes out with threats--presumably suggesting execution.
Who’s the person who gave the whistleblower the information? Because that’s close to a spy. You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart with spies and treason, right? We used to handle it a little differently than we do now.Update (September 30): The President of the United States endorses the thought that impeachment "will cause a civil war like fracture" in the country and wonders whether the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee should be arrested for treason.
As I learn more and more each day, I am coming to the conclusion that what is taking place is not an impeachment, it is a COUP, intended to take away the Power of the People, their VOTE, their Freedoms, their Second Amendment, Religion, Military, Border Wall, and their God-given rights as a Citizen of The United States of America!Update (October 3): Dear Leader isn't even hiding it anymore--he seems to think all nations should assist his re-election.
China should start an investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.Add one more count to the list of charges.
Speaking on trade with China moments before recommending that China investigate the Bidens, [Fuckface] said that 'I have a lot of options on China, but if they don’t do what we want, we have tremendous power'.The art of projection:
Biden and his son are stone-cold crooked.Update (October 5): Fuckface discussed Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren with the Chinese in a phone call. And a series of State Department text messages gives evidence of explicit quid pro quo.
Heard from the White House—assuming President Z convinces [Dear Leader] he will investigate / "get to the bottom of what happened" in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington.A career diplomat expressed some concern.
As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.All because an insecure Manbaby wants to believe that insane conspiracy theories will vindicate him.
[An] eight-page letter, signed Tuesday by White House counsel Pat Cipollone, accused Democratic lawmakers of using the investigation to overturn the 2016 election results and demanded they abandon all impeachment efforts.Erza Klein notes:
The administration’s flat refusal to cooperate with congressional oversight is, itself, impeachable.Update (October 9): Heather Digby Parton isn't sure Republicans think the constitution is still operative.
White House counsel has declared that [impeachment] is illegitimate because it is political and therefore the American people must make the final decision in the next election. Mind you, the president has specifically been accused of attempting to sabotage the next election. It's a truly awe-inspiring Catch-22.Update (October 10): Andrew O'Hehir and Andrew Bacevich leave me feeling less certain about the value of Democrats getting caught up in a situation that just couldn't be ignored. O'Hehir:
Don’t get me wrong: Impeachment is warranted for a long list of reasons, even if it’s best understood as an episode in the 2020 presidential campaign. But both sides are wandering through a hall of mirrors. Democrats sanctimoniously present themselves as the party of constitutional democracy — in support of the clandestine intelligence agencies and an arcane overseas proxy war no actual citizens understand, let alone voted for. Republicans are breaking new ground, meanwhile, as the only fascist party in history to position themselves as enemies (and victims) of the police state. I don’t know who ends up winning this confrontation, but both sides are playing to lose.Bacevich wonders how Dear Leader's actions compare to the consequences of events like the Iraq War or the Great Recession.
What are the real crimes? Who are the real criminals? No matter what happens in the coming months, don’t expect the impeachment proceedings to come within a country mile of addressing such questions.Update (October 12): Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, testified to Congress against orders from the administration.
The veteran foreign service officer, who reportedly delivered those remarks in a closed-door deposition, said she was "disappointed" and "incredulous that the U.S. government chose to remove an Ambassador based, as best as I can tell, on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives."
Yovanovitch was abruptly removed from her Ukraine post on May 6 after what appeared to be a months long campaign by [the president's] personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and others close to the president who complained she was undermining the administration’s efforts to pressure Ukrainian leaders to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
She told investigators on Friday that John Sullivan, the deputy secretary of state, had informed her of "a concerted campaign" against her and said [Dear Leader] had been pushing for her removal since the summer of 2018.Will Fuckface stand by his man?
Federal prosecutors are investigating ... Rudy Giuliani’s links to the sudden recall in May of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, The New York Times reported Friday. Manhattan investigators are looking into whether Giuliani violated lobbying laws that protect the U.S. government from covert foreign influence.
CNN and Bloomberg reported Thursday that federal prosecutors were also examining Giuliani's financial dealings with associates Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, who were arrested Thursday on charges that they secretly funneled Russian money to groups that support [Orangeman] and other GOP candidates.Update (October 15): Keep that testimony rolling.
Fiona Hill, a former top White House adviser on Russia, revealed to congressional investigators on Monday that [Fuckface von Clownstick] conducted policy toward Ukraine for his personal benefit.And Rebecca Gordon doesn't want us to forget Dear Leader's higher crimes.
He is, in other words, a threat not just to the American people, or to the rule of law, but to the whole human species.Update (October 17): Cody Fenwick describes the "avalanche of confessions" from Mick Mulvaney which, of course, he now blames the media for misconstruing.
"We do that all the time with foreign policy," Mulvaney said when ABC News reporter Jon Karl noted that it would constitute a quid pro quo if the U.S. was withholding funding from Ukraine unless it agreed to do an investigation into the Democrats' server.Update (October 19): Is it going to be Syria or Doral that will finally convince Republicans they've had enough of this guy?
The United States' top diplomat in Ukraine reportedly testified on Tuesday to House lawmakers that [Dear Leader] held up military aid to Ukraine until its president agreed to investigate Joe Biden ― effectively confirming a quid pro quo demand on the part of the White House.The testimony is being described as "incredibly damaging" and "very troubling".
[Taylor said] he was directly told that military aid to Ukraine was being delayed by [Fuckface] in order to pressure the country to open investigations into Democrats.Republicans might be getting worried. Meanwhile, Speaker Pelosi released a fact sheet on Orangeman's three stages of wrongdoing.
The fact sheet dubbed the three stages "the shakedown", "the pressure campaign" and "the cover-up".Update (October 26): Hard to keep up, but it is important to ask about every possible aspect of wrongdoing (was it two crimes or four crimes?) even if it doesn't pass as an article of impeachment. And the Department of Justice has been ordered to turn over grand jury testimony from the Mueller investigation to House committees.
[I]t's a mistake to assume that [von Clownstick] and the Republicans are flailing around without any purpose, and attacking the process for lack of any other options. They're doing this because it's worked before, and they figure they might just get away with it again.But the evidence is pouring in. National Security Council member Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who actually witnessed the famous Fuckface call to Ukraine, testified that he did raise concerns about how the requested investigations "had nothing to do with national security". Dan Froomkin:
[S]ustaining and strengthening a bulwark against Russian expansion apparently had no value to [Dear Leader], if he even understood what was going on there. His personal and political impulses overwhelmed any interest in national security. That's the story. That's what will get him impeached.Update (November 1): The House of Representatives has formalized the impeachment process by a vote of 232 to 196. And the testimony continues.
It started with a warning to watch her back, that people were "looking to hurt" her. From there, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch told House investigators, it escalated into a chilling campaign to fire her as [Dear Leader] and his allies angled in Eastern Europe for political advantage at home.Update (November 5): Looks like supporter Gordon Sondland is changing his tune now that transcripts are being released.
The [testimony] update marks the first admission by a senior official in direct contact with [Dear Leader] that military aid to Ukraine was tied to a demand for a probe of Biden.Update (November 8): Sondland's revised testimony makes it clear President Zelensky knew why aid was being withheld. Ukraine was prepared to do what Fuckface wanted until Congress intervened.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that Zelensky had planned to announce an investigation into [von Clownstick's] political rivals during a September interview on CNN, but those plans had been scrapped once [Dear Leader] released promised security aid.Update (November 9): Fuckface has argued that by releasing the funds before the investigation started, he did nothing wrong. But:
It wasn’t [Dear Leader] who released the first part of the Ukraine military aid, but the State Department after lawyers determined that the White House freeze on the funds was illegal, several sources have told Bloomberg.Update (November 11): An attorney for Giuliani's pal talked to the New York Times.
[Lev] Parnas allegedly traveled to Kyiv just before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was inaugurated in May and told the incoming government to announce an investigation into [von Clownstick's] political rival Joe Biden, otherwise the U.S. would freeze military aid to the country.Update (November 12): Amanda Terkel lists key facts in the Ukraine scandal.
[Fuckface] pressured a foreign country to investigate his political rival.Update (November 16): Tim Morrison recalls being told by Gordon Sondland that military aid to Ukraine depended on the public announcement of a Biden investigation.
[He] withheld U.S. military aid to Ukraine.
The White House tried to cover up [Dear Leader's] actions.
Rudy Giuliani had an outsized role in foreign policy, despite not being in government.
The whistleblower complaint remains correct ― and largely irrelevant.
In his private testimony to impeachment investigators made public Saturday, Morrison recounted that Sondland also told him he was discussing the Ukraine matters directly with [Dear Leader].Morrison was warned to stay away from these activities by John Bolton and noted that these investigations weren't part of "the proper policy process that I was involved in on Ukraine". Morrison indicated Sondland and Fuckface spoke five times over the summer before aid was forced to be released.
Tell Jennifer Williams, whoever that is, to read BOTH transcripts of the presidential calls, & see the just released ststement [sic] from Ukraine. Then she should meet with the other Never [Fuckfacers], who I don’t know & mostly never even heard of, & work out a better presidential attack!He always slams non-white or non-male hardest. More witness intimidation?
focused on the legal question of how to comply with the congressional Budget and Impoundment Act, which requires the executive branch to spend congressionally appropriated funds unless Congress agrees they can be rescinded.Update (November 27): So Giuliani may have had some side deal going on in Ukraine. Dear Leader claims not to know what his lawyer was doing in Ukraine since "Rudy has other clients other than me. I'm one person." But Giuliani says he only had one client.
I believed that I needed Yovanovitch out of the way. She was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody.
