Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, International, Politics

Report: Trump Froze Military Aid Shortly Before Ukrainian Phone Call Asking For An Investigation Of Joe Biden And His Son

Calls for impeachment are rising on Capitol Hill as more details emerge from a call by President Donald Trump to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he repeatedly asked for the investigation of Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Now, reports indicate that Trump froze roughly $400 million in military aid shortly before the call. The timing could reinforce arguments of an implied or express quid pro quo arrangement. Update: Trump confirmed that he ordered the withholding of funds.

According to various news outlets, Trump ordered his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold back that money. Officials at the Office of Management and Budget surprised many in the Administration that the money would be held back. The Ukrainians are facing Russian insurgents and the aid is desperately needed. In addition, both Democrats and Republicans supported the aid.

Notably, former National Security Adviser John Bolton reportedly pushed Trump to release the badly needed military aid. Trump later fired him.

The call was made just after Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified in Congress. Trump may have gotten free of an impeachment for the Mueller issues only to trip a new wire with new impeachment allegations. As I have written, the allegation of self-dealing would be a viable impeachable allegation and Trump may have succeeded in forcing the hand of Nancy Pelosi who has worked hard to shutdown impeachment efforts. Even Pelosi may be unable to stop a real impeachment over this allegation of self-dealing.

300 thoughts on “Report: Trump Froze Military Aid Shortly Before Ukrainian Phone Call Asking For An Investigation Of Joe Biden And His Son”

  1. TRUMP PREMATURE ON BIDEN

    FIRED TOO EARLY

    Hunter Biden’s role in the affairs of Ukraine is certainly a poor reflection on his father Joe. But this scandal would have been far more damaging to Democrats had Biden already gotten the party’s nomination.

    So I’m surprised that Trump didn’t have the patience to save the Hunter scandal for next year at this time. By putting the scandal out months before the primaries, Trump tipped his hand way too soon. Democrats now have plenty of time to factor Biden out.

    It goes to show that Trump ‘is’ the ham-fisted buffoon we always suspected.

    1. Hill – Hillary was the first to go after Hunter when she thought Biden was going to be a challenger. Now, think who has kissed Hillary’s ring? It wasn’t Joe. There are pundits that think that the Biden can be sacrificed to get Trump, that would leave Warren. The Dem leadership knows that no Dem front runner can beat Trump.

        1. Anon1 – so, that means you have no answer to what I have said or information to overcome the argument,

          1. “Anon1 – so, that means you have no answer to what I have said or information to overcome the argument,”
            ********
            That’s always Anon1’s position.

            1. Yeah, OK.

              Read a newspaper sometime. I know it’s hard for you to understand, but this inbred corner of the internet does not represent what most Americans think. Most Americans hate your leader’s guts – 69% don’t like him – and he loses in polling to even a 37 year gay mayor who is about 5′-8″ and looks like Alfred E Nueman and Howdy Doody’s love child. Your confident prediction is like mespl’s reporting , except in your case, you probably really believe the nonsense.

              1. “I know it’s hard for you to understand, but this inbred corner of the internet does not represent what most Americans think.”
                *********************

                Funny, two branches of government think the way we do. So does half of the other one. Most folks aren’t for impeachment, giving illegals free stuff or letting little girls go to bathrooms with mental cases. i think we’re dead mainstream.

              2. Most polls this far out from an election are garbage. Toss them in the trash. Trump is more popular than you think. Garbage in, garbage out. That’s for you sweetheart.

      2. Paul, Fox News presented a poll last week showing at least 3 Democrats beating Trump. In fact, Trump has had the Republican Party withhold polls from Congressional Republicans that show Trump quite vulnerable.

        1. Peter – Tim Pool is positing that Trump trapped the Dems into impeaching him because it would knock out Biden, who is in the middle and could beat him. The others are not a problem and it will solidify his base.

          1. Paul, we don’t care if Biden get’s knocked out. He would be a poor nominee. And once impeachment begins, other shoes could fall. With Trump there will invariably be more revelations.

            1. start polishing Liz Warren’s apple Democrat guys, she’s got the nod with this one. biden’s being thrown under the bus with this impeachment stunt. Pelosi knows that. So much for him being the “inside favorite.” Pelosi cracked under the pressure brought by the freshman “Squad” of juvenile women Dem Reps, and their lackeys, that’s the clear message from her lame turnabout. I feel bad for Nancy, sad day for her, I rather liked her until this collapse of will and leadership on her part. Oh well!

              Men sail with the argonauts! Hail Hercules Trump!

              https://sites.google.com/site/basicgreekmythology/hero-s/hercules/obtaining-the-girdle-of-hippolyta

    2. It seems that to Peter running the government comes in second to politics. That actually is the Democratic position. Peter thinks that Trump should first help himself win and then run the nation. That is backwards. Trump is running the nation not a political party. These investigations should have occurred during the Obama Administration but Obama was running a political party rather than the nation.

      We can see that to Peter America’s well being is secondary to everything else. That is shameful but to be expected from a person who has demonstrated nothing but disregard for the people of our country.

      1. Alan, Trump’s only concern at any moment of the day is getting revenge on perceived ‘enemies’. In that regard Trump makes Nixon look magnanimous by comparison.

        1. Peter, Trump wants to run and do good for the country. You have proven yourself to not care about the American people and America by putting politics in front of both. We have elections and then we are all supposed to work towards a better America but all we hear from you is hate of most segments of the population, tribalism and a form of racism that shouldn’t exist.

        2. Nixon was too timid. he backed off going after voter fraud that benefited JFK in his lost election contest against him. He did it for the good of the country. His enemies were tougher than Nixon was. Don’t think the lessons were lost on the Republican party.

          It’s a different ballgame now

    1. Mespo, that is an excellent video. Thank you. For those that didn’t listen, something I didn’t know, one of the investigators of Ukraine from the FBI was later hired by George Soros. this is another excellent video that our Democratic friends should listen to and dispute if they think they are able. They won’t because what occurred is devastating to their viewpoint along with being a criminal sell out of America. The press is only selectively reporting details that are known and leaving out proven details.

  5. For good of the order:

    Here are the facts as I understand them: In July of this year, Trump calls the Ukrainian head of state and they discuss inter alia (fancy Latin phrase for “among other things”) the Ukrainian meeting with Mayor Rudy to re-initiate a stalled investigation into the dealings of Hunter Biden. Biff … er … Hunter Biden, a guy with no energy experience or even knowledge of the Russian language he couldn’t glean from Babble but who is Joe Biden’s son, was appointed to a the board of directors of a Ukrainian energy holding company (Burisma Holdings) in 2014 and was paid a cool $600,000 per year for his “expertise.” Meanwhile in the same year, a career Ukrainian prosecutor begins investigating the same holding company for corruption. He is dumped by the Ukrainians in 2016. Gaffy Joe Biden, then Obama’s “point man” in the Ukraine, later brags to the Council on Foreign Relations in 2016 that he threatened to withhold a billion or so in loan guarantees unless the Ukrainians fired the “SOB” prosecutor who Biden says is slow walking on corruption cases but maybe too fast walking on one corruption probe in particular (Hunter’s holding company).

    Back to the present day, it’s reported that a “whistleblower” who never participated on the call to the Ukrainian head of state nor who read the transcript gets his britches in a knot claiming he heard someone say that Trump “pressured” the Ukrainian head of state to investigate Biden’s kid 8 times. The Homeland Security Department reviews the complaint, deems it silly and won’t send it to the howling wolves of Congress. Ukraine denies any pressure from Trump in the call and re-institutes the probe. Trump agrees to release the transcript to the public and the whistleblower complaint to Congress. The press blows up upon learning that more than a week before the call, Trump has held up $400 Million in aid citing rampant corruption in Ukraine that everybody acknowledges but relents when he figures out if he doesn’t release the funds by the end of the fiscal year, he’s violated the law. The Press says “un – uh” and that it’s clearly extortion and wings their way back to their vampire masters castle at the DNC proclaiming that their protest signs saying “RUSSIA, RUSSIA!!” now have to be repainted to read “UKRAINE, UKRAINE!!!”

    Test:
    Per the Dims, Trump’s high crime or misdemeanor resulting in inevitable impeachment is:

    a. Asking a foreign government to investigate corrupt activities of a company where an American citizen who is the son of a politician running for office works;

    b. Talking to a head of state and mentioning anything that might bear on any relative of a politician running for office (third cousins twice removed must be protected!!);

    c. Talking to a head of state while not wearing a pastel, ill-fitting pant suit and swooning for mysterious reasons;

    d. Tweeting hilarious stuff the powers that be don’t like because they hit too close to home;

    e. Running too well against a Democratic field that once boasted a Walter Mitty-esque Roman slave/gladiator who claimed po’ black man status though his family were IBM execs, a fake American Indian, a fake Hispanic who skateboards while grabbing your gun, a part-time mayor of NYC; a guy whose claim to fame is fixing parking tickets in South Bend, Indiana when not otherwise bending; a prosecutor who bragged about using weed and at the same time jailing people for using weed; a socialist who is always in character as Seinfeld’s Larry David and who wants us to stop using fossil fuels even as he jets around in private planes to climate change conferences; and a host of Lilliputians too numerous and boring to mention.

    I’m going with “e”! Though “all of the above” makes me smile, too.

      1. David, that is because it is true. If this were a phony sitcom comedy you would be on the floor laughing.

    2. The Democrats (including several who post here) think we should impeach Trump over a Biden family scandal. I can never figure out if they’re stupid or shameless.

        1. mespo – the one does not preclude the other, however I am beginning to think it is something in their DNA.

          1. Paul:

            Likely but you didn’t take my test. You took goofy FPR’s “poly sci for idiots” test but not mine. Color me disappointed prof. You can make it an essay ? If you like.

            1. mespo – you didn’t see my answers for fpr’s “test”. I actually ripped the way the test questions were written and asked for clarification. I can do the same to your test if you like. 😉

                1. mespo – I only did fpr’s questions because he was so annoying. One of the things they make you do in teacher school is take a course in how to write test questions. I got pretty good at it and started tutoring my fellow students. It is an art, not a science. His questions were poorly written.

      3. TIA, your problem is with the Trump appointed IC IG and now the GOP Senate which passed a resolution 100-0 to have him testify.

      4. “the people are nothing but a great beast…
        I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.”

        – Alexander Hamilton

        1. Mespo, wasn’t it Willy Loman? The only character I can immediately think of that was called Biff was from the movie Back to the Future and that fit in well as would Willy. Thanks the excellent piece.

            1. BIFF to Happy (the younger son): The man don’t know who we are! The man is gonna know! We never told the truth for ten minutes in this house!

              HAPPY: We always told the truth!

              BIFF, turning on him: You big blow, are you the assistant buyer? You’re one of the two assistants to the assistant, aren’t you?

              HAPPY: Well, I’m practically–

              BIFF: You’re practically full of it! We all are! And I’m through with it.

              1. Thanks PR for the exact quote. Here’s another one that I thought was spot on:

                WILLY: That is a one million dollar idea.

                LINDA: Marvelous!

                BIFF: I’m in great shape as far as that’s concerned!

                HAPPY: And the beauty of it is, Biff, it wouldn’t be like a business. We’d be out playin’ ball again…

                BIFF [enthused]: Yeah, that’s…

                WILLY: Million-dollar!

                1. Mespo,
                  “Thanks PR for the exact quote.”

                  Wow! As luck should have it… Glad to help.

                  Enjoyed your additional quote, too!

            2. Ah, thank you, Prairie. The name Biff brought me to Willy Loman but I didn’t remember the eldest son so I thought only of Back to the future. I remember Brian Dennehy as Willy Loman on Broadway whose performance was extraordinary but I don’t remember much about the rest of the characters. I should have known I was missing something because Mespo doesn’t generally make mistakes.

    4. Mespo, who GAF what you think happened? There is plenty of reporting on the fired Ukrainian prosecutor which predates Trump’s folly and refutes your bedtime story, including by the WSJ. No doubt your fellow campers will appreciate your efforts,, but they’ll believe a hurricane is going to do a 90 and go backwards if Trump says it will.

      You’ve got the perfect audience.

        1. my only surprise in this thing, is that Nancy knuckled under

          but, who knows, maybe they have “leverage” on her too

          or maybe she’s just not strong enough to be the leader because she is a _ _ _ _ _ fill in the blanks there guys

          I cant imagine Tip O Neill switching course like this but hey “times they are a changin”

          1. the normal guy would say to himself
            ” I will look like an inconsistent fool if I now reverse myself”

            the normal lady says
            “a woman’s prerogative is to change her mind”

            1. No, kurtz, wrong calculus. The correct formula was “This Mfer is off the reservation and won’t stop. We have to stand up now or never.”

              There was no choice left and it’s absolutely the right thing to do.

              1. OK I can understand why you feel that way, taken from your perspective.

                But there are always choices. Watch for Nancy to let it roll a little and then kill it off before it sucks up too much energy.

                It’s a guaranteed fail in the Senate.

                1. We’ll see. Depends on what comes out, but based on the so far selective leaking, he pulled a mafia shakedown and should go.

                  “Sure is a nice little store you here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.”

                  It was a clear QPQ

          2. https://www.nature.com/articles/nn0605-697

            Hormonal changes during the estrous cycle have profound effects on synaptic transmission, from altering the density of synapses to changing receptor composition. A new paper shows that neurons express different subsets of GABAA receptor subunits during different phases of the estrous cycle, and that this alters tonic inhibition, seizure susceptibility and anxiety in female mice.

            1. IRRITABLE MALE SYNDROME (IMS)

              https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11999307#targetText=The%20irritable%20male%20syndrome%20(IMS,withdrawal%20of%20testosterone%20(T).

              Emotional changes. Low testosterone might contribute to a decrease in motivation or self-confidence. You might feel sad or depressed, or have trouble concentrating or remembering things.

              You forced my hand here, since you wanted to bring gender and science into this one, Mr. Kurtz.

              I have known an IMS-er before, not a fun experience. That, or a cluster B issue, who knows!

              But I have known a few moody *ss men, just saying…

        1. Mespo, i’m amused that an intelligent adult will work so hard to avoid reality that he actively constructs his own.

          1. Anin1:
            I’m open to any cogent refutation of the facts I cited or the conclusions I draw. Other than my imagery of the press as winged monkeys, that is. Proceed but leave Dorothy and Toto alone.

            1. I have posted numerous article of reporting from only reputable sources, including the WSJ. Bloomberg, and the WaPo which clearly, specifically, and unarguably refute your wishful thinking on VP Biden’s activities in the Ukraine. I have also pointed out the absurdity of thinking that he would openly brag to an organization which has “Foreign Relations” in it’s name if his actions were corrupt. He would not bring it up if they were. If you still can’t find the truth, you don’t want to, and that is obvious.

              1. Anon1 – I posted the video of Biden outing himself. And yes, Biden was bragging about what a tough guy he was, just like the Corn Pop situation. The problem here is that the prosecutor he had fired was investigating Biden’s son. A lot of money went into Hunter hands from the Ukraine and China from an firm set up by Hunter and the step-son of John Kerry. They were being paid for things they had no experience or expertise in. The article first came out in The New Yorker in 2014 and is thought to have been leaked by the Clinton people to get rid of Joe off the campaign trail.

                1. I have previously pointed out the absurdity of thinking that VP Biden would openly brag to an organization which has “Foreign Relations” in it’s name if his actions were corrupt. He would not bring it up if that were true. You have no evidence it was and there is plenty showing his motive – and the entire western world’s governments at that time – were trying to end corruption in the Ukraine, not extend it.

                  I’m not going to keep repeating the same thing over and over because you won’t read reputable sources reporting truths you find unpleasant.

                  1. Anon1 – and the minor fact that the prosecutor being fired wanted to question Hunter the following week doesn’t add into the equation?

                    3. Paul, if your Putin TV has a segment on Shokin being about to interview Hunter a week after he was fired, where on the tape – put up or shut up. I don’t choose to spend much of my time watching Russian propaganda, especially concerning the Ukraine where Trump continues to function as their agent.

                  2. “I have previously pointed out the absurdity of thinking that VP Biden would openly brag to an organization which has “Foreign Relations” in it’s name if his actions were corrupt.”
                    ***********************
                    Nobody ever accused Gaffy Joe of being anything other than dumb.

                    3. Mespo, no one rises to BIden’s level of success being dumb. His father was a used car salesman. He didn’t get the $400 million gift some people got.

                  3. I have previously pointed out the absurdity of thinking that VP Biden would openly brag to an organization which has “Foreign Relations” in it’s name if his actions were corrupt

                    The same Joe Biden who passed off to an audience Neil Kinnock’s biography and family history as his own? (Which we learned because the Dukakis campaign had a videotape of the speech Kinnock had given from which Joe Biden appropriated passages almost verbatim). The same Joe Biden who once turned into a law professor a paper that was plagiarized word-for-word, something she could tell right away because she’d written the law review article he copied (under her maiden name)?

                    1. Maybe Joe had a couple of “Senior Moments” ……in 1988…..and he wasn’t actually lying.

                    2. The same Joe Biden who once turned into a law professor a paper that was plagiarized word-for-word, something she could tell right away because she’d written the law review article he copied (under her maiden name)?
                      ****************************

                      Actually that’s my favorite dumb crook story.

                  4. What Anon forgets is that Joe Biden was never a terribly smart guy and it is absurd to believe that his video didn’t represent the truth about him. This has been his problem for decades even though some refuse to recognize it. Now he is older so I presume the problem has worsened.

                  5. there’s two simple answers for that speculative remarks of “why would he” etc etc

                    1– because he made a mistake

                    2- because “corruption” is a matter of perspective. not just sometimes, but usually
                    what is corrupt to one person is often not to another. it’s an inherently vague subject

                    which is why this “abuse of office” notion circulating on NPR against trump will go nowhere

                    1. There is no evidence of corruption. You’re making that up, and there is plenty of evidence – see the WSJ, Bloomberg, and WaPo to start – that BIden was the West’s point man on cleaning up Ukrainian corruption.

                      I know you can’t afford to believe the facts on this, but they are there and you’ll have to step over them every time.

                  6. Biden did not want this impeachment. This will drag his dirty laundry into light.

                    The Democrat leadership has thrown Joe under the bus with this.

                    The Screeching harridans run amuck.

                    Liz Warren has the nod.

                    Straight white men in Democratic leadership positions will increasingly become “tokens” as the disfavor habitually and ritualistically laid upon the heterosexual white male in academia over the decades, now takes effect, working its insane logic on that party. What has been coming for many decades latently, now becomes overt.

                    Men of color will not fail to notice that the AA coalition may just get around to throwing them aside, as well. The battle of the sexes will have a group forming effect that transcends race. Republicans should consider the opportunities at hand.

                    This marks a transitional phase in politics when men began to desert the Democratic party. Four years out you will see a discernible trend that had a big bump near this time.

                    Oh wait the trend is already certain. this allows it to grow, however

                    https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/07/21/male-voters-are-sticking-with-the-republican-party

      3. “There is plenty of reporting on the fired Ukrainian prosecutor which predates Trump’s folly”

        Anon forgets what else predates the fired Ukranian prosecutor, crinimal attempts by the Obama Administration to involve a foreign nation digging up and creating dirt on an opponent who happened to be running for President on the Republican ticket. Selling America out to the Chinese and the Ukranians for person profit permitted by the Obama administration along with claims that the Clintons enriched themselves while Hillary was Secretary of State in the Obama administration. Who cares about a couple of billion dollars, the real problem was the corruption of the Obama Administration and the weaponizing of the bureaucracy by that same administration.

      4. The campers are arrayed for battle. The hearts and minds of the undecideds are what you should be worrying about anon

        Good luck trying to sell this theory that Trump asking a foreign official to look into Hunter Biden’s scandalous apointment to a yes man job at a foreign energy company when his dad was VP, in that guy’s lawful jurisdiction, was somehow an abuse of office. Good luck. Good luck telling john q public that $600,000 for four telephonic meetings is a trifle. this should be fun!

        You guys may not get how much transnational investigation of corruption is actually happening already purely as SOP

        the general trend is not AWAY from transnational cooperation in investigation, but towards it!

        https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=2093451c-6b45-4619-868a-152291fee623

        “Corruption and tax crime are closely linked. Conduct that violates anti-corruption laws, such as embezzlement or bribery, also violates tax laws when the income is not reported to revenue authorities or bribe payments are deducted as business expenses. Similarly, tax evasion may be enabled through the bribery of tax officials.

        A recent joint report issued by the OECD and The World Bank highlights some of the key findings relating to the links between tax crime and corruption.

        One major focus of the report is the need for effective cooperation between tax and corruption authorities in effectively combating these offences. The benefits of inter-agency cooperation include better intelligence and lead generation, a broader set of investigative powers, and the ability to leverage other agencies’ investigative work, potentially resulting in greater efficiency and better results.

        How do authorities work together?

        Tax and anti-corruption authorities can further each other’s work by helping to detect potential threats, referring matters to the relevant authority for investigation, sharing information and collaborating to strengthen investigations and enforcement outcomes, as well as assisting in policy development and ensuring institutional integrity.

        Threat assessment

        A joint assessment of threats can help focus enforcement resources. Threat assessments can demonstrate links between apparently separate cases, inform law enforcement and regulatory strategy, enhance detection, and help to set priorities.

        Example: a tax authority may identify trends or large groups of individuals within an organisation that are red-flag indicators for corruption.

        Detection

        With proper training, tax examiners and auditors may detect indicators of possible corruption, whilst corruption investigators and prosecutors may detect tax crime.

        Example: an anti-corruption authority may detect indicators of tax crime such as assets or income that an individual or company has attempted to conceal or a corruption scheme involving officials of a customs or tax authority.

        Referral

        Either authority may refer suspicions of either tax crime or corruption to the appropriate investigative authorities or public prosecutor.

        Additionally, an authority may refer suspicions that the proceeds of corruption or tax crime have been laundered to the national Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) or appropriate law enforcement authority.

        Information sharing

        Tax authorities often hold information that may assist a corruption investigation and vice versa.

        Information held by tax authorities may include: personal and company information such as income, assets, financial transactions and banking information.

        Information held by anti-corruption authorities may include: suspicions of tax crime or other intelligence or evidence gleaned from investigations, including from suspect interviews, witnesses, surveillance, searches and subpoenas.

        Prosecution, police, and anti-corruption authorities may also be able to leverage mutual legal assistance agreements to obtain information or other assistance from foreign countries in multi-jurisdictional cases.

        Joint investigations and sharing capability

        Tax authorities can bolster a corruption investigation by applying specialised tools and skills common to tax examiners and auditors, such as undertaking net worth analyses of suspects or conducting analysis to make sense of complex financial transactions.

        Anti-corruption authorities may have special enforcement powers not available to the tax authorities, such as powers of arrest and the power to lay more serious criminal charges.

        Institutional integrity

        Tax and customs officials are sometimes bribed to facilitate tax evasion. By enforcing anti-corruption laws strictly and working with tax authorities to strengthen internal integrity measures, anti-corruption authorities help to deter corruption and promote a culture of integrity within the tax authority.

        Policy development

        Both authorities may be involved in developing or shaping economic crime policy, relating to matters such as sentencing reform, case settlement procedures or setting priorities for regulatory or law enforcement activities.

        Overcoming challenges to effective cooperation

        What are the challenges?

        The report discusses common challenges that can hinder effective collaboration between tax authorities and anti-corruption authorities. These are classified into three broad groups: legal (the lack of a legal basis for co-operation), operational (the absence of an effective operational framework for co-operation), and cultural/political (the lack of culture that supports co-operation and inadequate high-level encouragement for co-operation)…….”

        1. Kurtz/Karen – I’m not reading all that. You’re not that interesting.

          Bring it on Independents. You lost them.

          1. the bottom line is, there is transnational cooperation all the time, as a matter of due course, which involves LE executives calling on their counterparts to investigate citizen activities in foreign jurisdictions.

            i remember a fun movie with arnold as a soviet cop working with jim belushi, forget the name, that kind of stuff for dramatics.

            but it’s even more extensive where AML compliance (anti money .laundering) and enforcement is concerned. anti money laundering. this usually targets the big five crime areas of drugs, terror, corruption, tax evasion, and fraud/ embezzlement.

            this is a big topic in finance and accounting operations across borders. it’s a huge topic. there’s a lot of treaties and international investigation efforts and stuff. you’re not interested. but it exists. and it’s not out of presidential purview to make a special request. i suspect it may happen quite a bit when there is a regime change. for example. when Mugabe got ousted from Zimbabwe and took off for Singapore, one imagines that the new Jefe in Zimby prolly called Singapore and wanted to know where he had his money stashed. You get the idea.

    5. “and the whistleblower complaint to Congress.”

      Mespo, I don’t have the slightest idea of the law on this subject but it sounds to me there was no whistleblower. How can there be a whistleblower if the person reporting the incident was uninvolved? I am not even sure where the “whistleblower” works. How does one interview a person that is providing second hand information if that person was totally uninvolved with the incident?

        1. The timing of the “whistleblowers” actions (TIME again) was poorly thought out. These things apparently are too COMPLEX for some people to understand so in the end they look like Wile E, Coyote cartoons that always blow up in the perpetrator’s face. Some people need to review their thinking processes and give up on looking smart.

  7. Trump is the New England Patriots to the Dims Washington Redskins. Every season we hear how the Pats are doomed and the Redskins will rise again. And every season the Pats win it all and the Redskins squawk, spin and nose-dive into the ground. This season is shaping up to be like any other.

  11. Dims: Your guilty! I know because you won’t release the transcript

    Trump: I will release the transcript, tomorrow.

    Dims: You’re guilty because you won’t release the complaint from the spy who wasn’t there nor read the transcript!

    Trump: I’ll release the complaint.

    Dim: You’re guilty because we hate you.

    Trump: There, that’s the truth.

    PS Oh and Estovir, I’ll see your “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and raise you what oughta be our national anthem sung by the one and only:

    3. so it was a memo and the bigmouths on NPR say it’s all the proof they need for impeachment for “abuse of office”

      which I didn’t understand, but I guess I am not smart like they are

      If words and concepts and law have no meaning, however, then it’s strategically in the best interests of the Republican base, not to dither too long, but rather transition to the next phase as soon as possible.

      i’m of the opinion that if they think they can overwhelm us with numbers, then the time has come for them to try

      oh and they are putting their hopes on “Romney”

      i got news for the NPR crowd: the average Republican HATES Romney. Few care and fewer still like him but a bunch of the same lame insiders propping up the insiders on the Dem side…. HIllary…. now Biden, surprise surprise

      I think a lot of the Dem base thinks the Dem leadership is out of touch, too. At least the Republicans were smart enough to let the primary process run its own course, in which the rank and file elected a leader we actually like.

      However much you hate his guts. The funny thing, is the more you hate on him, the more we like him.

      Cue “HAIL TO THE CHIEF”

  14. Julia Ward Howe’s famous “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, articulated during the Civil War the sentiment that a belief in God would save the country. Yet here we are at that very juncture. History, like the Jews of the Old Testament, repeats itself.

    The Left ejected God under Earl Warren’s SCOTUS so effectively that so called conservatives today also trample upon God. Some like Paul and Mespo proudly pound their chests crowing how enlightened they are for being agnostics and irreverent towards God. Small wonder that a house divided is here again

    His Truth is marching on?

    In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
    With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.
    As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
    While God is marching on.

    1. Estovir, if ‘you’ are representative of Christian America, it’s no wonder church membership is melting like Greenland. You’re just a little punk, smearing people with homosexual taunts, then expecting to be taken seriously when commenting on religion. What a joke!

  15. They are so predictable. As if they couldn’t have found a conservative, a Republican, an ex-Trump employee from a hotel he owns who had an axe to grind against Trump. The Whistleblower, like all “anonymous sources”, is yet another lefty mole.

    The Dems are going to lose bigly in the next election. This will mark the end of the DNC just like the Whigs. hilarious way to go out…on a whimper

    =====

    Attorney For Anti-Trump ‘Whistleblower’ Worked For Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer

    The anonymous person who filed a formal, uncorroborated complaint against President Donald Trump for allegedly asking a foreign leader to investigate corruption related to Joe Biden now has a legal team that includes a Democratic operative who worked for Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.).

    Andrew Bakaj, now a managing partner at the Compass Rose Legal Group, interned for Schumer in the spring of 2001 and for Clinton in the fall of the same year, according to Bakaj’s LinkedIn page. More recently, Bakaj has worked as an official in the CIA and Pentagon and specializes in whistleblower and security clearances in his legal practice.

    https://thefederalist.com/2019/09/24/attorney-for-anti-trump-whistleblower-worked-for-hillary-clinton-chuck-schumer/

  16. Desperate Democrats Launch Impeachment Because They Know They Can’t Beat Trump

    Sep 24, 2019

    RUSH: The Democrats, they know there’s no way they’re gonna – Trump, the Rasmussen tracking poll, he’s up to 53 today in the midst of all this. And the people taking that poll, they know full well what’s going on. You can’t miss it if you pay any attention to media. We’ve even got — I don’t know who, may have been Mazie Hirono, that man hater senator from Hawaii — it might have been her, or somebody else, they’re out saying, “This is worse than the Russian collusion. This is worse than stealing the election. What Trump did with Ukraine –”

    Worse? There was no Russian collusion! There wasn’t any Russian collusion! There hasn’t been anything proven about it. There was no obstruction. Yet this is worse? And here’s Carl Bernstein on CNN predicting, “This is worse than Watergate.” Well, Byron York had a very penetrating tweet earlier. Nobody has seen the transcript of the phone call between Trump and Zelensky, the Ukrainian leader, nobody’s seen it! Just like nobody could find collusion between Trump and Putin. No one has seen the whistleblower complaint!

    And yet you turn on the Drive-By Media and everybody reporting on it acts like we know exactly what happened. That Trump bribed them. That Trump intimidated them. That Trump told them that we’re gonna withhold American military aid until they investigated Biden’s son. Nobody’s seen the whistleblower complaint. Nobody knows. All we have is anonymous leaks to the Washington Post, fake news, unsubstantiated, no evidence provided of what somebody thinks Trump said. Nobody has seen the transcript of the call.

    Trump said today, “You’ll see it at some point. I’m pretty confident you’ll see, you’ll see this is all wrong. You got this all wrong again. You guys are off on another witch hunt yet again.” And they are. No one knows what was said between Trump and Zelensky. Don’t doubt me, folks. I don’t care what you’ve heard on the news. Nobody has seen a transcript of Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian leader.

    Nobody has seen the actual complaint that this so-called whistleblower filed. Nobody knows what was said by Trump or the Ukrainian leader in any circumstance, and yet The Politico actually wrote, quote, “At this point the facts are pretty much in the open and agreed to.” No, they’re not. There aren’t any yet! And welcome to journalism 2019.

    Journalism 2019, there aren’t any facts here, but yet we’ve got an entire narrative now that Trump committed treason, and he needs to be impeached. And the impeachment meetings are at 4 o’clock this afternoon, and Trump might be gone by 8 o’clock tonight. That’s the news of the day, and yet nobody knows, other than Trump is telling them it’s not what you think it is. And I didn’t do this, and I didn’t do that. But of course they think Trump is lying.

    https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2019/09/24/impeachment-desperate-democrats-know-they-cant-beat-trump/

    1. Good title for your autobiography, Benson.
      Did you self-publish, or did you get a major publisher to sign on with that catchy title?

  18. AMID UKRAINE ALLEGATIONS..

    TRUMP THREATENS CALIFORNIA.. AGAIN..!!

    The Trump administration is ratcheting up its threats against California with a letter warning the state faces sanctions – including cuts in federal highway funding – over its “failure” to submit complete reports on its implementation of the Clean Air Act.

    In the letter to the California Air Resources Board, Andrew Wheeler, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, wrote that the state had the “worst air quality in the United States” and had “failed to carry out its most basic tasks” under the federal law.

    That law requires states to submit implementation plans to the EPA outlining their efforts to cut emissions of six types of pollutants. When President Donald Trump entered office, the administration faced a backlog of over 700 reports, and roughly 140 of those that remain are from California, Wheeler said in an interview.

    The administration will give California until October 10 to rescind their “incomplete” plans and resubmit new reports addressing 82 municipalities facing noncompliance.

    Its failure to do so will result in “disapproval,” another EPA official said, triggering “sanctions clocks” under the law that would penalize the state with cuts to highway funding – and allow the federal government to impose an implementation plan of its own.

    That could amount to a substantial penalty for a state that receives more highway funds than any other state in the country. According to the Department of Transportation California is projected to receive more than $19 billion from the Federal Highway Administration between fiscal years 2016 and 2020.

    Wheeler’s warning to California is the Trump administration’s latest front in a protracted battle with the state over climate change and, in particular, the state’s unique authority to set its own standards for carbon dioxide emissions – a potent greenhouse gas. The EPA moved last week to rescind the federal waiver allowing California to do so, granted by the Clean Air Act of 1970, prompting a lawsuit from California joined within hours by 22 other states.

    The administration is moving separately to write new auto emissions standards that would apply to the entire country, rolling back stricter requirements that were set by the Obama administration in agreement with California in 2012.

    California leaders, however, have attempted to go around the administration, negotiating their own agreement with automakers to voluntarily lower emissions on new cars built through 2026. Thus far, four leading manufacturers have joined the agreement: Ford, Honda, BMW and Volkswagen.

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted Trump during remarks at a climate conference in New York on Monday, accusing the Republican president of infringing on states’ rights by undermining California’s ability to set its own standards. Newsom also criticized Trump for threatening car companies that negotiate with California.

    Edited from: “Trump’s EPA Threatens California With Highway Funding Cuts Over Worst Air Quality”

    The Sacramento Bee, 9/23/19
    ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

    Should anyone wonder if Donald Trump would be vindictive enough to shut military aid to Ukraine over personal politics, this matter should put those questions to rest.

    ‘Yes’, Donald Trump would most certainly threaten other countries over matters of personal politics. He is currently threatening America’s largest state and the stakes are considerably higher than the Ukraine issue.

    Insanely this threat comes right on top of last week’s threat to California regarding Auto Emissions Standards. On that issue Trump was peeved because California has ignored the administration’s rollback of Obama standards.

    But with this issue, Trump comes back to say California’s standards aren’t ‘high enough’!

    The name ‘Andrew Wheeler’ figures in both stories. Wheeler is Trump’s Acting Head of The EPA, an agency Trump has weaponized against ‘enemy states’.

    Interestingly Wheeler spent 14 years as an aid to Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe, an outspoken denier of Climate Change. Wheeler then served 9 years as a lobbyist for Murray Energy, a leading coal producer. These two jobs were perfect credentials to head the EPA under Donald Trump.

  19. so you guys weren’t impressed with greta thunberg whining? i thought that would be all the rage here. scolding teenage harridan in training

    here’s a thought, however. physicist says “Renewable energy” increases energy capacity…. which increases the heat engine of civilization…. which increases demand for fossil fuels…. which increases CO2 emissions.

    https://youtu.be/ekuRvsoZyNI

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

    LOL, read it and weep. This is a climate DOOMER. There are more than a couple out there. I have discovered that, not only are those scientists who dispute the causes of climate warming, there are those on the other side of the spectrum, who think it’s already on the road to ruin no matter what, who think that the IPCC report is a joke, erring too far on the conservative side.

    Gee– I hope he’s wrong.

    This is why i say just focus on adaptation. there is actually no realistic way to achieve control of carbon emissions without a global reduction in population on a horrific scale. so unless you are willing to buy into that, might as well get used to climate change..

    But now back to the more important issue, “impeach trump” etc

    1. here’s a real doomer. says we are in for a 90% dieoff. says the sustainable population level is about 600 million. worldwide

      https://kunstler.com/clusterf__k-nation/9192/ [edited- fill in the blanks for the proper link]

      “I had a fellow on my latest podcast, released Sunday, who insists that the world population will crash 90-plus percent from the current 7.6 billion to 600 million by the end of this century. Jack Alpert heads an outfit called the Stanford Knowledge Integration Lab (SKIL) which he started at Stanford University in 1978 and now runs as a private research foundation. Alpert is primarily an engineer.

      At 600 million, the living standard in the USA would be on a level with the post-Roman peasantry of Fifth century Europe, but without the charm, since many of the planet’s linked systems — soils, oceans, climate, mineral resources — will be in much greater disarray than was the case 1,500 years ago. Anyway, that state-of-life may be a way-station to something more dire. Alpert’s optimal case would be a world human population of 50 million, deployed in three “city-states,” in the Pacific Northwest, the Uruguay / Paraguay border region, and China, that could support something close to today’s living standards for a tiny population, along with science and advanced technology, run on hydropower. The rest of world, he says, would just go back to nature, or what’s left of it. Alpert’s project aims to engineer a path to that optimal outcome.

      I hadn’t encountered quite such an extreme view of the future before, except for some fictional exercises like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. (Alpert, too, sees cannibalism as one likely byproduct of the journey ahead.) Obviously, my own venture into the fictionalized future of the World Made by Hand books depicted a much kinder and gentler re-set to life at the circa-1800 level of living, at least in the USA. Apparently, I’m a sentimental softie.

      Both of us are at odds with the more generic techno-optimists who are waiting patiently for miracle rescue remedies like cold fusion while enjoying re-runs of The Big Bang Theory. (Alpert doesn’t completely rule out as-yet-undeveloped energy sources, though he acknowledges that they’re a low-percentage prospect.) We do agree with basic premise that the energy supply is mainly what supports the way we live now, and that it shows every evidence of entering a deep and destabilizing decline that will halt the activities necessary to keep our networks of dynamic systems running.”

      SO, YEAH, BASICALLY WHAT SOME CLIMATE CHANGE PESSIMISTS REALLY WOULD LIKE TO SEE A 90% REDUCTION IN GLOBAL POPULATION. EXACTLY HOW WOULD THAT BE ACCOMPLISHED? use your imaginations…

      GONNA BE UGLY FOLKS. GRETA’S GONNA CRY A LOT MORE AS SHE AGES, THAT MUCH WE CAN BE SURE

  20. Reportedly and Allegedly add up to unproven. So much for this nonsense. Come back when you have something or at least maybe a bimbo brigade centerfold.

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