Pop! Goes the weasel

The other thing that smells is that the investigation is being undertaken by the intelligence committee. Up to now every impeachment proceeding of any federal official has been conducted by the judiciary committee which proceedings are held in open chambers. The intelligence committee has held close door sessions which shields the public from knowing how lacking in evidence the Dems really have in prosecuting a successful impeachment.
Only one investigation ?
 
Lawrence O'Donnell
@Lawrence

When you think of all the people Trump has betrayed
in his presidency and his life including all of his wives,
it’s all the more impressive that he has never betrayed Putin.

6:13 PM · Oct 11, 2019
 
Lawrence O'Donnell
@Lawrence

When you think of all the people Trump has betrayed
in his presidency and his life including all of his wives,
it’s all the more impressive that he has never betrayed Putin.

6:13 PM · Oct 11, 2019

Quite a fatuous insinuation. Brings to find a famous quote attributed to Pres Lincoln: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt”
 
Nixon lied, Ronald Reagan lied, and Presiderp Trumpypants Dunce-Cap has lied.


The lying is not limited to the leaders at the top but pervades the entire
Republican Party. This is necessary to sustain the party. The lying is
constantly on display from members of Congress to state officials to
spokespeople in the media. They are always deceiving, misleading,
changing the subject, clouding the issues, presenting a diametrically
opposite view from the truth, blaming the Democrats for being the
true liars, and forever waging malicious personal attacks against their
opponents instead of debating issues on the merits.

To be sure, politicians as a group tend to bend the truth, and Democrats
are no exception. But nothing compares to the sheer magnitude and
volume of lies that emanate from the Republican Party. The lies are
carefully designed to destroy truth by manipulating or confusing the
public, and are deployed in massive coordinated campaigns that constitute
“systemic lies” with blatantly false labels: “Junk science” to describe actual
climate science, “right to work” to describe eliminating workers' right to
organize, “religious liberty” to describe privileging Christians over all others,
“death panels,” “death tax” and “fake news.”

The enormity of the lying is simply stunning, and it is carried forth by
an army of loyal Republican soldiers at every level. But the Republican
Party seems to do the best when it has a highly charismatic personality
at the top. A perfect puppet of perfidy.

https://www.salon.com/2019/10/12/republicans-must-lie-to-survive-they-have-no-other-choice/
 
Ridiculous and horrifying

Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas living large in Florida, funneling money to Trump

Rudy Giuliani lunched with two associates at the Trump International Hotel
just hours before the duo was arrested at a Washington-area airport.
Both carrying one-way tickets out of the country when federal agents arrested
them.

How two Soviet-born emigres made it into elite Trump circles —
and the center of the impeachment storm

October 12, 2019

The contribution helped propel Parnas and his business partner,
Belarus-born Igor Fruman, on an extraordinarily rapid rise into
the upper echelon of Trump allies — before they became central
figures in the presidential impeachment inquiry.

When they were arrested Wednesday on allegations of campaign
finance violations, prosecutors alleged that Parnas and Fruman
were backed in part by an unnamed Russian national who used
them to funnel donations to state and federal candidates.

In 2018, they hired the president’s personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani,
to serve as a consultant as they launched a security business —
and then helped Giuliani, in turn, reach Ukrainian officials in his quest
to find information damaging to Democrats.

The campaign against ousted ambassador Marie Yovanovitch
was embraced by Giuliani as part of his broader effort to pressure
Ukraine to launch investigations into Trump’s political rivals.
Parnas and Fruman assisted him in that project.

“They were helping me a lot in Ukraine,” Giuliani said Friday.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...3c03be-ec53-11e9-85c0-85a098e47b37_story.html


U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, who quit his post hours
after he was requested to appear for a deposition. At his session this
month, Volker turned over a series of text messages he exchanged
with Giuliani, a top aide to Zelensky and senior U.S. diplomats
including Sondland.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...71830e-eba0-11e9-85c0-85a098e47b37_story.html



Rudy Giuliani’s Ukraine Goons, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman,
Arrested Trying to Flee the U.S.

Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, both Soviet-born, naturalized American citizens,
had been asked to testify to Congress.

It was not enough for Trump, to collect free cash. Trump wanted
the government of Ukraine to invent propaganda against Joe Biden and his
son, Hunter. Trump wanted it for free, and wanted someone else to
spread it, for free. Guess who paid for it ? The taxpayer, as usual.
Trump used taxpayer money to extort the agreement.

A popular prank is for American Trumpites, is to scream
"Where is Hunter ?" at press/media cameras.

Democrats subpoena Perry, Giuliani associates; Trump to hold first campaign
rally since impeachment inquiry launch

October 10, 2019

House investigators issued subpoenas Thursday to Energy Secretary
Rick Perry and two associates of President Trump’s personal lawyer
Rudolph W. Giuliani, seeking “key documents” that have not been
produced as part of the impeachment inquiry.

Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman arrested on campaign finance charges Wednesday night

(bodysong comment- Am I the only one that imagines that Giuliani
told the pair to get arrested, so that they could not be questioned by
Congress ?)

Trump insisted that he did not know the two men, who are charged with
scheming to funnel foreign money to U.S. politicians in a bid to affect
U.S.-Ukraine relations. Both Parnas and Fruman have helped Giuliani
investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son, though the
indictment does not mention Giuliani or suggest that he was part of
the alleged crimes.

The developments played out as Trump prepared to head to Minneapolis
for his first campaign rally since House Democrats launched the
impeachment inquiry.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...6ddd94-eace-11e9-9c6d-436a0df4f31d_story.html
 
Ridiculous and horrifying

Trump betrays an important alliance with Syrian Kurds
and enjoys himself at his two Hate rallies. Plays golf
on Saturday. and Trump meets with Giuliani over lunchon
his private property in Sterling, Va

Trump ranted at the Values Voter Summit at the Omni Shoreham Hotel
in Washington, D.C. Trump was initially slated to speak Saturday
morning, but instead spoke at the gala dinner.

In the meantime, Turkey is slaughtering unarmed civians.

Trump does not have a conscience.

October 04, 2019

"The forces keeping this chaotic, renegade organism in place
are oblivious to the harm they are doing to themselves and
indifferent to the harm being claimed by others."

"Conscience means a moment of apology is required.
This is not forthcoming from the current criminal at the dock.
A verdict of guilty as charged is the remedy. Whether he apologizes
or is ushered out of the territory where he is little more than a
squatter matters not. The national and international bodies need
to know that we are on the mend."

-Bill C. Davis

"I emancipate man from the humiliating chimera which is called conscience.
Conscience, like education, mutilates man. I have the advantage of not being
restrained by any considerations of a theoretical or moral nature." This from
a speech in 1941 where the Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin ostensibly quoted
Adolf Hitler to exhort those gathered to take the same advice.

"The humiliating chimera of conscience."

Whether Trump has emancipated himself from conscience or it was never
a struggle to begin with is a brief discussion.

Money is the only force that will guarantee loyalty.
There is no love or moral order. The only verb is grab.
Whether money or land or pussy—grab.

The humiliating chimera of conscience is either a speed bump
or a fatal folly.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/...gop-complicity-and-hitlers-chimera-conscience

bodysong comment- I watch the faces of the people that support Trump.
They wear the expression, of people that are doing something that is
wrong. Fuck knows why they are doing it. Money ? Protection from harm
(of Trump's policies) Money ? Luxury ? A job with the Trump machine ?
A dream of killing Democracy, and replacing it with their very own Fascist
White Supremacist Evangelist nation ? Wounded egos need a nasty revenge ?

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/12/trump-values-voter-summit-2020-045162

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...d-by-pro-turkey-forces-in-syria-observers-say
 
Fiona Hill gave up almost all of the spoilers.

OK! All we need is the episode with Putin talking to Trumpypants.

guest stars

John Bolton -

"“I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up.”

Mick Mulvaney, serving in the dual role of OMB chief and Chief of Staff

John A. Eisenberg

Pat Cipollone

Gordon Sondland

Kurt D. Volker

Senate Republicans might not ever convict Trump for demanding foreign
countries invent propaganda on his political allies. They might feel differently
once it becomes clear that the crime involves refusing to do what Congress,
with its power of the purse, told him to,
without even telling Congress he was doing so (or why).
They may not care about Trump pressing for any political advantage
for their party, but they may care about Trump neutering their most
important authority.

https://www.emptywheel.net/2019/10/...ug-deal-sondland-and-mulvaney-are-cooking-up/

They are cowards, but they are greedy little cowards.
 
The full House of Representatives will get its first vote
on the impeachment inquiry. On Thursday there will be
procedural vote on the next steps in the process.

It’s not required but Democrats see it as a good counter
to Republican attempts to tear down the process as
illegitimate.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...08d669cdaae85f#block-5db740408f08d669cdaae85f

House to vote on resolution on next steps in impeachment

Nancy Pelosi’s office is releasing a “Dear Colleague” letter
today outlining House Democrats’ next steps in the
impeachment inquiry, including public hearings.

Sam Stein (@samstein)

NEW — Here is Pelosi’s Dear Colleague letter announcing vote
on continuing impeachment proceedings and moving them to the
public phase

October 28, 2019

Pelosi Just Announced a Full House Vote on Impeachment

https://www.motherjones.com/impeachment/2019/10/pelosi-vote-impeachment-proceedings/

House will vote on impeachment procedures Thursday to ‘ensure transparency,’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...316e64-f96a-11e9-8190-6be4deb56e01_story.html
 
Moments after President Trump ended his phone call with
Ukraine’s president on July 25, an unsettled national security
aide rushed to the office of White House lawyer .

Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine adviser
at the White House, had been listening to the call and was
disturbed by the pressure Trump had applied to Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political
rivals, according to people familiar with Vindman’s
testimony to lawmakers this week.

Vindman told Eisenberg, the White House’s legal adviser on
national security issues, that what the president did was wrong,
said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because
of the ongoing investigation.

Scribbling notes on a yellow legal pad, Eisenberg proposed a step
that other officials have said is at odds with long-standing White
House protocol: moving a transcript of the call to a highly classified
server and restricting access to it, according to two people familiar
with Vindman’s account.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/art...ohn_Eisenberg_Tried_to_Cover_Up_Trumps_Crimes
 
Breaking: House of Representatives has passed the Democratic resolution
establishing procedures for the next phase of their impeachment inquiry.
Vote was 232-196 with no republicans supporting.

—@jimsciutto
 
The House just passed a resolution formalizing its impeachment
inquiry into Presiderp

Republicans are hopping and jumping for election cash.

Why would Democrats choose to oppose their own party ?

Rep. Van Drew (D) of New Jersey

Rep. Collin C. Peterson (D) Minnesota

Two Democrats — Reps. Jeff Van Drew (N.J.) and Collin C. Peterson (Minn.) —
voted against the measure, which defines the parameters of the next phase of
the impeachment inquiry.

The vote was nearly identical to the procedural vote beforehand.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did not vote on the procedural
measure.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...b87544-fb56-11e9-8906-ab6b60de9124_story.html

Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.)

Lesko, who had joined the group of GOP lawmakers who stormed
impeachment proceedings last week, used her time to allege, without
evidence, that Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)
leaked depositions — and to engage the committee in a sandbox-level
lecture on fairness:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...chment-process-is-totally-infair-rupublicans/

Lesko has a keen sense of propriety for a lawmaker who just tweeted a
GIF of a man throwing spaghetti marinara at a map of North America,
with the description: “A live look at House Democrats trying to impeach
President @realDonaldTrump.” Trump retweeted it.

This is about as much “substance” as we’re likely to see.


- Dana Milbank

October 30, 2019

Dana Milbank ✓
Twitter › Milbank

Mere seconds after McCarthy asks about bipartisanship
Republicans are now jeering Democrat McGovern as he
speaks on House floor.

3 hours ago
 
CNN’s Daniel Dale Brutally Fact-Checks ‘Spaghetti Strategy’
of Trump’s Ukraine Defense:

He’s ‘Making It Up As He Goes Along’

(spaghetti strategy–throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.)

November 4, 2019

“We’ve gone from ‘nobody had a problem with this’
to ‘very few people had a problem with this
and they were prodded to come forward’
to ‘oh, by the way, the people who did come forward have animosity towards me,
they were Never Trumpers’” Dale said.

“Trump changes his mind quickly, he changes his defenses quickly.
It rarely happens in 74 words, though.”

(CNN reporter and President Donald Trump fact-checker Daniel Dale
appeared on CNN Newsroom Monday to pick apart an ever-changing
defense from Trump about his call with Ukraine.

Anchor Brooke Baldwin noted Trump made four separate arguments
defending his call with Ukraine in the span of a 74-word answer to
reporters on the White House lawn.)

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnns-da...ne-defense-hes-making-it-up-as-he-goes-along/
 
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