Cont: House Impeachment Inquiry - part 2

[Venom]

I miss the days when Bob was the only once spouting off his sea-lioning insanity and it wasn't the official policy of the 85% of the government of the United States and their supporters.

It's like internet arguing leaked into the real world in the life few years. People are making trolling and gish galloping and endless pedantics work in real life in a way they never did before.

[Trumpedant] Are you sure about the highlighted? I'm not sure there hasn't been a case before in history where trolling and Gish galloping have been used to stall the discussion.[/Trumpedant]

 

[Stacyhs]

[Trumpedant] Are you sure about the highlighted? I'm not sure there hasn't been a case before in history where trolling and Gish galloping have been used to stall the discussion.[/Trumpedant]

We just have a few forum members who have perfected it into a fine art.

 

[acbytesla]

A good attorney would fight an unconstitutional subpoena, also.

And there is a reason the video is called, "don't talk to the police" and not, "unless you can help your case".

Congress has a right to subpoena witnesses for an impeachment trial. This is pro forma. Congressional oversight of the government is a constitutional duty. As a government employee, one has a responsibility to be transparent to Congress. The idea of just saying no to this is not really an option. The ONLY reason I can imagine that one would not be willing is the fear that they may have committed a crime.

 

[BobTheCoward]

Congress has a right to subpoena witnesses for an impeachment trial. This is pro forma. Congressional oversight of the government is a constitutional duty. As a government employee, one has a responsibility to be transparent to Congress. The idea of just saying no to this is not really an option. The ONLY reason I can imagine that one would not be willing is the fear that they may have committed a crime.

Trying to drain them of a fight by stringing out appeals is a strategy, too.

 

[smartcooky]

I wonder why Brooklyn thinks Trump has fought tooth and toenail to prevent his tax records and the documents Congress has subpoenaed from being released? Is it because the tax records will prove he's an upstanding, honest and successful businessman and the subpoenaed documents will vindicate his actions toward Ukraine showing it was only a 'perfect' phone call? I wonder why Brooklyn thinks Trump has ordered everyone not to cooperate with the hearings? Is it because Pompeo, Mulvaney, Giuliani, McGahn, etc will be able to prove there was no quid pro quo? Yeah...that's it! That's what they're going to show!

This!

Trump has ...

Blocked all efforts from authorised committees see his tax records
Blocked all efforts to access his financial records
Blocked all efforts to access to all documents
Hidden phone call records in the top level secure server
Blocked witnesses from testifying
Intimidated witnesses

... and what do all these actions have in common? They all show a consciousness of guilt.

These are the actions of a guilty man.

 

[BobTheCoward]

This!

Trump has ...

Blocked all efforts from authorised committees see his tax records
Blocked all efforts to access his financial records
Blocked all efforts to access to all documents
Hidden phone call records in the top level secure server
Blocked witnesses from testifying
Intimidated witnesses

... and what do all these actions have in common? They all show a consciousness of guilt.

These are the actions of a guilty man.

It's pretty messed up to describe a vigorous defense as actions of the guilty.

I would exercise every appeal I could if Congress came after my documents.

 

[shemp]

Pastor Rick Wiles calls impeachment a "Jew coup".

Isn't that an Israeli two-door sports car?

 

[The Great Zaganza]

It has been the tradition for a long time in this country that you can either cheat on your taxes or run for High Office - but not both.
The trouble Trump's finances are causing the IRS to a degree that requires witness intimidation shows why that was a good tradition.

 

[PhantomWolf]

I have to admit that the more I watch Republicans being interviewed, the more depressed I get about this. They seem to have gelled onto a defense that is made from a mix of vague truth, twisted semantics, calling anything that would damage them hearsay, then happily using hearsay themselves, all mixed together with a lot of minor lies and a few really big whoppers, but stated with confidence and enough plausibility for those that haven't been paying attention that they could get them passed.

It has made their claims that "The President was only asking for the sake of the country (he said us) and that none of the witnesses have said that he committed a crime, and none of the witnesses have a first hand account other then Soundland who stated that the President said that there was no Quid Pro Quo. And it was totally fair that Trump asked for an investigation into Biden and his son because his son was being paid over $50K a month and Biden got the Prosecutor looking into his son and the company he worked for fired, threatening to hold up funding if he wasn't fired. Besides, Trump didn't hold up the funding for anything other than wanting to be sure that those he was giving it to weren't corrupt, and they got the money without announcing any investigation, so that clearly proves it was all good. Besides, President Zelensky has said that there was no pressure, so who do you believe, a whistleblower with second and third hand information, or President Zelensky?" almost impossible to take apart in the same time that it takes to spout it all, making it look solid to anyone not paying enough attention.

And that's what worries me, I'm not sure that the Democrats have the skills required to deal with this ball of garbage before it sinks them.

 

[Stacyhs]

The thing about lies and nonsense such as the Republicans/Trump are pushing is that it takes very little time to spout them and much longer to refute them. And most people have the attention span of gnats. It really is true that a lie will go around the world before truth can even get its pants on.

 

[Craig4]

Nonsense. This impeachment fiasco has nothing to do with the law. They don't have a crime, and that is completely obvious to anyone who has been paying attention. It's one of the greatest political blunders in American history, if not the biggest. Right now, I would be surprised if the House even votes. All it will do is lock in their losing of the House in November. The voters in those 31 districts that Dems won but Trump carried did not send them to D.C. to impeach the guy they voted for. This is a no-brainer. All but two of them did vote for the impeachment inquiry disaster, and that may be enough to defeat them anyway. We'll have to see how things play out here, then wait until November to find out.

With half of Americans being in favor of Trump's removal, it would seem that the voters in those 31 districts may actually have wanted their representative to impeach Trump. The 2018 results in the House would clearly indicate that the voters think the Trump experiment has failed. Why else would the Democrats have such a mandate to check Trump?

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I'm putting this here because this is the real threat involving Ukraine and Russia that Trump is stupidly ignoring while he strokes his disturbed ego and we need to get this out there to wake a couple of those Republicans up as to what they are doing.

Wired 2017: How an Entire Nation Became Russia's Test Lab for Cyberwar Blackouts in Ukraine were just a trial run. Russian hackers are learning to sabotage infrastructure and the US could be next. - Russia's Cyberwar on Ukraine Is a Blueprint for What's to Come

Now, in Ukraine, the quintessential cyberwar scenario has come to life. Twice. On separate occasions, invisible saboteurs have turned off the electricity to hundreds of thousands of people. Each blackout lasted a matter of hours, only as long as it took for scrambling engineers to manually switch the power on again. But as proofs of concept, the attacks set a new precedent: In Russia’s shadow, the decades-old nightmare of hackers stopping the gears of modern society has become a reality.

And the blackouts weren’t just isolated attacks. They were part of a digital blitzkrieg that has pummeled Ukraine for the past three years—a sustained cyber* assault unlike any the world has ever seen. A hacker army has systematically undermined practically every sector of Ukraine: media, finance, transportation, military, politics, energy. Wave after wave of intrusions have deleted data, destroyed computers, and in some cases paralyzed organizations’ most basic functions. “You can’t really find a space in Ukraine where there hasn’t been an attack,” says Kenneth Geers, a NATO ambassador who focuses on cyber security.

CSPAN Book TV: Sandworm
Wired magazine’s Andy Greenberg talked about Sandworm, a group of hackers working for Russia’s military intelligence agency that was responsible for the world’s largest cyberattack.

This is so worth the hour (free-streaming) if you care at all about the consequences we can expect as Trump fiddles.

 

[a_unique_person]

Not sure if that's his own spelling or the text of the original quote as it is attributed to someone else (but not as an actual reTweet).



But Jeebuzz... He must have done 40 reTweets in the last day or so.

Being President is hard work.

 

[Squeegee Beckenheim]

One of my brothers named his first-born son after himself. So we have Steve and Steve. My brother is "proper Steve," while his son is "other Steve." Either one could be "our Steve" if other Steves were somehow within context. I guess you're correct that using "proper" this way isn't the same as using "our," but its similar enough that I brought it up.

It seems like that's from Doctor Who, which had "Proper Dave" and "Other Dave". "Proper" would be more analogous to "original" in that context.

 

[smartcooky]

It seems like that's from Doctor Who, which had "Proper Dave" and "Other Dave". "Proper" would be more analogous to "original" in that context.

[off topic]

My partner has a brother called Pete, as well as two sisters and and another brother. A couple of years ago, they found they had another half-brother that they never knew about; he is older than any other them, and strangely, his name is also Pete.

The younger Pete now calls himself "Repete"!

 

[smartcooky]

It's pretty messed up to describe a vigorous defense as actions of the guilty.

I would exercise every appeal I could if Congress came after my documents.

You think intimidating witnesses and blocking them from testifying is a legal defence?

 

[a_unique_person]

Hear that rumbling sound Rudy? that is the sound of a bus heading your way.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/08/politics/giuliani-trump-administration-foreign-clients/index.html

Attorney General William Barr counseled President Donald Trump that his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has become a liability for his administration,*The Washington Post reported Sunday, citing people familiar with the conversations.

In one instance, the Post said, Barr warned Trump that Giuliani was not serving him well as his lawyer, according to one person with knowledge of the situation.

Giuliani has long stirred alarm among the President's advisers who worry his foreign business dealings often make it unclear who he is representing,*people familiar with the situation*told the Post. The concerns, the newspaper said, have escalated since Giuliani emerged as a key player in the House impeachment inquiry into Trump's dealings with Ukraine.

 

[BobTheCoward]

You think intimidating witnesses and blocking them from testifying is a legal defence?

A) I don't think what he did amounts to witness intimidation.

B) I was just saying I was a unitary executive position-holder. Obviously we are not going to see eye to eye on interpreting executive power.

 

[Fast Eddie B]

Isn't that an Israeli two-door sports car?

Good catch! I clearly remember listening to “Little Jew Coupe” by The Beach Boys while growing up.

 

[Belz...]

Reps must be spending almost half their time campaigning!

They are.