Political Roundtable Part XXVI

[Wizardspride]

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[queridiculo]

All of these exchanges, like whoa.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/10/04/read-text-message-excerpts-between-us-diplomats-giuliani-ukrainian-aide/




Sondland like

Did Bill Taylor sneakily go on the record with the gist of their phone conversation after Sondland made it abundantly clear earlier that he didn't want the discussion to generate a record?

Sen. Johnson (R) is on record with the Wall Street Journal about having learned about a possible "quid pro quo" from none other than Sondland.

Coupled with the texts, how much more evidence do you need?

[Ruzious]

Gentlemen and ladies, it is on. https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/_cache/files/a/4/a4a91fab-99cd-4eb9-9c6c-ec1c586494b9/621801458E982E9903839ABC7404A917.chairmen-letter-on-state-departmnent-texts-10-03-19.pdf

...though there does seem to be a formatting issue after page 9.

[Wizardspride]

,

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[pancakes3]

This is some big picture thinking, summarizing the pro-Trump side of the Ukrainian situation. It reads like an SD post, but spaced better.

https://thebulwark.com/this-is-what-reality-looks-like-from-inside-trump-world/

[verbal8]

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And that alone is yet another impeachable offense.

What the Dems should do is base the impeachment on the pattern of corruption - not just the Ukraine idiocy (not to mention his calls to Australia and the UK). The pattern is overwhelming. Part of it's already written in the Mueller report, and part of it's already written by Trump on his Twitter account.

I think Trump's focus on discrediting the Mueller report makes him more vulnerable to the charges/articles that are derived from behavior since then. I think the main use of the Mueller Report in impeachment is treating it as a warning to Trump. Since he has generally denied the behavior(or at least responsibility) for the actions in the report, the Dems can take the position that he was warned, yet continued and escalated the behavior.

[Wizardspride]

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[Pointgod]

This is some big picture thinking, summarizing the pro-Trump side of the Ukrainian situation. It reads like an SD post, but spaced better.

https://thebulwark.com/this-is-what-reality-looks-like-from-inside-trump-world/

STD was right!! After reading this is all makes sense. I’ve also suffered severe brain damage recently but that’s completely unrelated.

[montestewart]

:lol:

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I stamp out all corruption, wherever it exists. That's my job, that's what I do. It is just a coincidence that in my only response to corruption to date, I have marshalled all the force and resources of the US government to focus on a single instance of corruption wherein a potential opponent of mine in the upcoming election worked to have someone removed from office over alleged corruption.

There is no one more anti-corruption than me, and there is no worse corruption that anti-corruption corruption.

[G R E Y]

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And that alone is yet another impeachable offense.

What the Dems should do is base the impeachment on the pattern of corruption - not just the Ukraine idiocy (not to mention his calls to Australia and the UK). The pattern is overwhelming. Part of it's already written in the Mueller report, and part of it's already written by Trump on his Twitter account.

I think Trump's focus on discrediting the Mueller report makes him more vulnerable to the charges/articles that are derived from behavior since then. I think the main use of the Mueller Report in impeachment is treating it as a warning to Trump. Since he has generally denied the behavior(or at least responsibility) for the actions in the report, the Dems can take the position that he was warned, yet continued and escalated the behavior.

From initial reactions it didn't sound as if this was the core of the meeting after all, but to add to your point, the focus is also weirdly about removing implications of Russia's part in it. The attempt isn't surprising, but with the stacks of evidence from US intelligence agencies, the attempt is weird.

[Ruzious]

:lol:

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The same guy who doesn't give a f...lip about Russia interfering with our elections, the same guy who defended his bud in Saudi Arabia after he had a journalist horribly murdered, the same guy who accepts emoluments on a regular basis from officials from foreign governments (not to mention from US officials - but at least that's not specifically against the Constitution), the same guy who's organization has an Indonesian real estate project that reportedly received in May a $500 million loan from a company owned by the Chinese government - and 2 days later tweeted that he was working to lift sanctions on a Chinese telecommunications firm with close ties to the government - over the objections of both Republicans and Dems in Congress - he did lift the sanctions, the same guy who's business organization has moved to expand to India, the DR, and Indonesia using deals directly with foreign governments, the same guy who has a son-in-law working in the WH on foreign policy while wooing influential Chinese investors to his family's investments and has successfully lobbied the Qatari government to invest in his 666 Fifth Avenue financially troubled luxury building, the same guy who has taken tons of branding opportunites like his Mar-a-Lago resort as the Winter White House and then charging 800 guests there at New Years tickets beginning at $500, the same guy who had the Secret Service spend more than $137,000 on golf carts at Trump's clubs, and we can go on and on and on and on and on and on.

[Wizardspride]

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[Kanyewest]

Not sure where to put this but Morey is in trouble for tweeting about Hong Kong.
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/10/6/20901828/daryl-morey-hong-kong-china-houston-rockets-tweet-controversy


Maybe the Wizards should make a push for him.

[Jamaaliver]

'Get a grip': Colin Powell scolds Republicans for enabling Trump



Former Secretary of State Colin Powell unleashed on the Republican Party and White House officials for enabling President Trump and allowing United States foreign policy to devolve into "shambles." He then laid into Republicans currently serving in office for failing to speak out against the president's controversial actions.

Powell concluded, “The media has a role to play, we all have a role to play, you’ve got to remember that all these pieces are a part of our government. Executive branch, Congress, Supreme Court, and of the Fourth Estate, and we’ve got to remember that the Constitution started with, ‘We the People,’ not ‘Me the President.'”

Washington Examiner

[I_Like_Dirt]

Not sure where to put this but Morey is in trouble for tweeting about Hong Kong.
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/10/6/20901828/daryl-morey-hong-kong-china-houston-rockets-tweet-controversy


Maybe the Wizards should make a push for him.

The Wizards totally should, though I've been alright with what Sheppard is doing.

The NBA... has a problem.

https://www.facebook.com/joe.tsai.3781/posts/2653378931391524

A separatist issue not to violate their own international agreements with respect to Hong Kong? Of course, the NBA is going to try to smooth things over so they can take the money and run. I wonder what the players will think of all of this. There are a load of smart players who will probably be pretty conflicted on the issue, recognizing where their money is coming from. The league needs Etan Thomas back. I tend to think Morey can be an asshat quite often but he's totally in the right here, just not on the employment side of the equation. Nobody cares about the Uighurs. Trump is already trying to sell out Hong Kong as a part of negotiations. Winning a short term battle at the cost of losing a long term war.

Tsai is a particularly telling example here. He was born in Taiwan, worked in Hong Kong and made his fortune there... in Alibaba. He's not going to risk his money to say anything against the CCP. He has an awful lot to lose here so it's impossible to tell what he actually believes because he'd be saying the same thing either way. The NBA doesn't have nearly the same degree of reliance that Tsai does but they're going to take the money anyway.

[dckingsfan]

Wednesday, October 2nd Polls (Monmouth & Economist) and Monday October 7, IBD/TIPP, Tuesday, October 8 Politico & Quinnipiac

Code: Select all

               Monmouth   Economist    IBD/TIPP     Politico     Quinnipiac
Warren                 28        28          27           21             29       
Biden                  25        22          26           33             26
Sanders                15        13          10           19             16
Buttigieg               5         7           7            5              4
Harris                  5         5           3            6              3
Yang                    2         3           3            3              3
O'Rourke                1         3           2            3              1
Booker                  1         2           0            2              2
Kobuchar                1         1           1            1              2
Castro                  1         1           1            1              1
Gabbard                 0         2           1            1              0
Bennet                  0         2           0            1              1
Styeyer                 1         1           0            1              0

[I_Like_Dirt]

And in other news... Wednesday, October 2nd Polls (Monmouth & Economist) and today's IBD/TIPP poll... guessing Ukraine is weighing on Biden and the heart attack is weighing on Sanders.

Code: Select all

               Monmouth   Economist    IBD/TIPP
Warren                 28        28          27
Biden                  25        22          26
Sanders                15        13          10
Buttigieg               5         7          7
Harris                  5         5          3
Yang                    2         3          3
O'Rourke                1         3          2
Booker                  1         2          0
Kobuchar                1         1          1
Castro                  1         1          1
Gabbard                 0         2          1
Bennet                  0         2          0
Styeyer                 1         1          0

It's likely entirely irrelevant but I'm fascinated by how Buttigieg has basically crushed Harris by simply being reasonable while she has been a bit all over the place rather than focusing on simply being the better Biden and so has dropped back towards Yang and Beto. Biden and Sanders still confuse me that they have so much support between them. Do the Democrats really care about electing the oldest president ever? Even Warren is on the older side of things but at least she's younger than those guys (and Trump) and seems to have more wits about her and a better ability to adapt at this point.