"Let's impeach the president"

The per diems they'll get make it worthwhile for the ones getting them.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/pelosi-announ...

Hard for Trump to keep his lies straight, 3 versions thus far

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-changes-story-key-scandal-...

Oh Yeah

‘Witch Hunt Garbage’

a perfect band name

He has pressured a foreign leader to interfere in the 2020 American presidential election.

He urged a foreign country to intervene in the 2016 presidential election.

He divulged classified information to foreign officials.

He publicly undermined American intelligence agents while standing next to a hostile foreign autocrat.

He hired a national security adviser who he knew had secretly worked as a foreign lobbyist.

He encourages foreign leaders to enrich him and his family by staying at his hotels.

He genuflects to murderous dictators.

He has alienated America’s closest allies.

He lied to the American people about his company’s business dealings in Russia.

He tells new lies virtually every week — about the economy, voter fraud, even the weather.

He spends hours on end watching television and days on end staying at resorts.

He often declines to read briefing books or perform other basic functions of a president’s job.

He has aides, as well as members of his own party in Congress, who mock him behind his back as unfit for office.

He has repeatedly denigrated a deceased United States senator who was a war hero.

He insulted a Gold Star family — the survivors of American troops killed in action.

He described a former first lady, not long after she died, as “nasty.”

He described white supremacists as “some very fine people.”

He told four women of color, all citizens and members of Congress, to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”

He made a joke about Pocahontas during a ceremony honoring Native American World War II veterans.

He launched his political career by falsely claiming that the first black president was not really American.

He launched his presidential campaign by describing Mexicans as “rapists.”

He has described women, variously, as “a dog,” “a pig” and “horseface,” as well as “bleeding badly from a facelift” and having “blood coming out of her wherever.”

He has been accused of sexual assault or misconduct by multiple women.

He enthusiastically campaigned for a Senate candidate who was accused of molesting multiple teenage girls.

He waved around his arms, while giving a speech, to ridicule a physically disabled person.

He has encouraged his supporters to commit violence against his political opponents.

He has called for his opponents and critics to be investigated and jailed.

He uses a phrase popular with dictators — “the enemy of the people” — to describe journalists.

He attempts to undermine any independent source of information that he does not like, including judges, scientists, journalists, election officials, the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the Congressional Budget Office and the National Weather Service.

He has tried to harass the chairman of the Federal Reserve into lowering interest rates.

He said that a judge could not be objective because of his Mexican heritage.

He obstructed justice by trying to influence an investigation into his presidential campaign.

He violated federal law by directing his lawyer to pay $280,000 in hush money to cover up two apparent extramarital affairs.

He made his fortune partly through wide-scale financial fraud.

He has refused to release his tax returns.

He falsely accused his predecessor of wiretapping him.

He claimed that federal law-enforcement agents and prosecutors regularly fabricated evidence, thereby damaging the credibility of criminal investigations across the country.

He has ordered children to be physically separated from their parents.

He has suggested that America is no different from or better than Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

He has called America a “hellhole.”

Trump called Pelosi on the phone today to see if they can “work something out” on the whistleblower issue.

In other news, Tulsi Gabbard triple downed on NOT voting for impeachment today.

Git-er-dun

Tulsi is the Dems Rand Paul. A good for nothing attention whore

I think that's a little off, Nancy.  Pretty sure Tulsi would deck her neighbor if they tried to attack her.  Rand Paul got punked.

Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call,

Don't stand in the doorway

Don't block up the hall.

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled.

The battle outside ragin'

Will soon shake your windows

And rattle your walls,

For the times they are a-changin'.

Impeach, hell. 

Treason = execution.

Might be time for The Art of the Deal.

But what about her EEEEEEEEEEEEE-MAILS?

Donnie was mumbling something about Mike today while being questioned about the Ukrainian scandal. Wouldn’t be surprised if Donnie takes the opportunity to throw his Veep under the bus, apparently he’s been wanting to replace him in 2020. With Ivanka? 

I'd prefer to see his head explode like a melon ala kennedy's on  the Zapruder tape but impeachment will do.

It's not like he got a bj in the oval office or anything. Sheesh.

Fare thee well

oops wrong thread...

History has been known to revolve at times. Voting him out would be easier in this most resilient nation.

“Crowd Strike”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/transcript-of-trumps-ca...

And a Barr summary declaring ‘no collusion’ included?

quidproquogate...

I so hope the whistle blower is Bolton

As though it was just some whimsical thing that blew into Pelosi's ear --what was that?  impeach?  ohhh yes sure... 'Lets impeach the president!'  

Hillary should be president. You were wrong.  Own it.  

Please note that this is not a joke. It sounds like it, but it’s a legitimate, honest-to-god abridgement:

TRUMP: Congratulations.

ZELENSKY: Thank you. You were a great example to us. We’re going to drain the swamp.

TRUMP: That’s very nice. You know, we do a lot for Ukraine. Way more than those yakky Europeans.

ZELENSKY: Yes indeed. I especially want to thank you for your support in the area of defense. We are ready to buy more weapons from you.

TRUMP: I would like you to do us a favor though. Please look into the DNC server hack. Our attorney general will be calling you about that.

ZELENSKY: Sure, sure, anything for you. I’m appointing a new ambassador so we can continue our strategic partnership.

TRUMP: That’s great. I’d also like you to investigate Joe Biden’s son. Rudy Giuliani and our attorney general will be calling you about that.

ZELENSKY: No problem. The next prosecutor general will be 100 percent my candidate. He or she will look into this.

TRUMP: Great. I’ll have Giuliani and Barr call you. Your economy is going to get better and better, I predict.

ZELENSKY: The last time I was in New York I stayed at the Trump Tower. We’ll be very serious about that investigation of Biden’s son.

TRUMP: Good. Giuliani and Barr will call you.

No quid pro quo? Please. Save that fairy tale for the children.

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/09/heres-an-abridged-version...

Why in the hell would Clinton's email server be in the Ukraine? Who in the absolute fuck is Trump listening to that whispered this batshit theory in his ear? I'm really hoping this whole mess is what gets him finally. I suspect once it gets bad enough the republicans will sacrifice him for a more viable candidate... hopefully not though and the whole party hits the shit.

>>>>But what about her EEEEEEEEEEEEE-MAILS?

https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1176940597447462912

>>> Who in the absolute fuck is Trump listening to that whispered this batshit theory in his ear?

maybe it was Bryen

Some fantasies never die.  

That's it?  One mention of Biden in the context of investigating Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election?  An investigation that the Ukrainians themselves want to perform?  If you really think that mentioning that "we do a lot for Ukraine" constitutes quid pro quo you are desperately trying to make something of nothing.  It's getting really old watching you folks build yourselves up for some huge event that's going to take Trump down and then make these pitiful excuses when the facts come out.  But hey, I'll take it. You've kept me entertained for the past three years and I expect to be entertained for another six.

Does anyone here realize that nothing Pelosi said yesterday has advanced impeachment an inch?  "Official impeachment investigation" sounds great to the uneducated but is meaningless as a legal term.  In order for anything "official" to begin there has to be a vote, and that's the one thing that she wants to avoid at all costs because it will put the moderates who won in 2018 and handed her the Speakership in danger of being defeated in 2020.  She's trying to have it both ways and is counting on your ignorance to do so.  Apparently its a good bet.

You folks are being played for saps and you don't even see it.  Which makes this more delicious than it already was.

And you're going to have to move the goal posts yet again, because this isn't going to get you where you want to go.

Nixon wasn’t half the crook that Donnie is. 

Impeachment is the only thing he’s ever really earned.

Pompeo, Rudy and Pence are all implicated in Ukraine gate.  

Trump said today that Nancy Pelosi is no longer Speaker of the House. Alright then. It’s President Pelosi! 

https://twitter.com/DavidAFrench/status/1176869198053724160   (National Review)

https://twitter.com/GeorgeTakei/status/1176944080863076358

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1176964604519469056

Only because Trump has been itching to replace Pence as Veep (and of course he's guilty as Donnie). But I'll take it. One step closer to President Pelosi 

Trumpranksters

you're either on the bus or under the bus...

thom you are fine with trump washing his anus with the constitution?

remember when conservatives liked the constitution?

Barak Obama taught Constitutional law. So helpful right now. 

Obama is behind all this.

Him and the deep state...they made Donald do all the treason stuff.

Thom

You completely blow my mind

I think you need to eat about 10 sheets of LSD and maybe you can imagine your head not being shoved up your ass hole

Loser

sinner

devoid of a moral compass 

https://apple.news/A8mFIU27-QbGbnhOkOpEw5Q

Have you ever looked in the mirror and  NOT considered yourself a traitor??

^. And please don’t read educated opinions of the legal scholars above

https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/1176988094098300928

Rudy knows what’s happening & he is a very capable guy.

Rudy?

If you want to see a U.S. politician working with the Ukrainian government to undermine a presidential election, look no further than Hillary Clinton....

Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found.

A Ukrainian-American operative who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.

The Ukrainian efforts had an impact in the race, helping to force Manafort’s resignation and advancing the narrative that Trump’s campaign was deeply connected to Ukraine’s foe to the east, Russia. But they were far less concerted or centrally directed than Russia’s alleged hacking and dissemination of Democratic emails.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ukraine-sabotage-trump-backfire-2...

From those notorious Trump supporters at Politico.  Of course this got little coverage at the time and is being relegated to the memory hole now.  Inconvenient facts for the left have a way of being airbrushed out of the picture.

When the left accuses someone of a crime, it's usually a safe bet that they're trying to cover up their own malfeasance.

Oh, and that Ukrainian official that says  “It was clear that Trump will only have communications if they will discuss the Biden case,” (that's Serhiy Leshchenko, a  former member of Ukraine’s parliament and member of Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau). 

Well.......

He was involved in Democratic opposition research efforts into former Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort in 2016, and is widely credited with publicizing the so-called “black ledger” that implicated Manafort in a $12.7 million cash kickback scheme.

He also served as a source for journalist Michael Isikoff, DNC Ukrainian operative Alexandra Chalupa, and Fusion GPS.

Leshchenko, who was elected in 2014, held a press conference in the summer of 2016 to highlight the ledger, and to urge Ukrainian and American law enforcement to aggressively investigate Manafort.

https://amgreatness.com/2019/09/26/ukrainian-accusing-trump-of-corruptio...

What a coincidence! 

But wait, there's more!

Leshchenko freely admitted at the time that he was attempting to undermine then-candidate Trump because he saw him as a “pro-Russian candidate.”

“For me, it was important to show not only the corruption aspect, but that he is [a] pro-Russian candidate who can break the geopolitical balance in the world,” Leshchenko told the Financial Times a couple of weeks after his news conference.

The newspaper noted that Trump’s candidacy had spurred “Kiev’s wider political leadership to do something they would never have attempted before: intervene, however indirectly, in a U.S. election,” and the story quoted Leshchenko asserting that the majority of Ukraine’s politicians are “on Hillary Clinton’s side.”

Two years later, the Ukrainian government ruled that Leshchenko had illegally interfered in the 2016 election.

On Dec. 11, 2018, a court in Kyiv found that Leshchenko’s release of the black ledger had “led to interference in the electoral processes of the United States in 2016 and harmed the interests of Ukraine as a state.”

Classic Shakedown - Extortion fucking 101

Hey Ukraine, you got a wolf at your door. Putins already got his brute squads in eastern Ukraine, I know you need our $400 million in aid. Tell us something good and you get it.

And I don't know for sure, but I'd bet my life, clump is putting that type of squeeze on many other countries as well, especially our allies.

I hope to fuck this is finally what takes him down, but with satan's little helper, moscow bitch mitch, I'm not holding my breath.

Thom you really are a hybrid Tommy - deaf dumber and blind 

Rivals the Godfather, with moscow bitch mitch, as chumps own(ed) senate strongman Luca Brasi

Fuck these shit ass horrible people

Maguire couldn’t answer (yes or no) whether he discussed the whistleblower complaint with Trump.

Not what they might’ve talked about, because that would fall under executive privilege, but a simple 

yes or no question whether he talked to Trump about the complaint.

Seems simple enough, why can’t he answer that?

BUT WHAT ABOUT HER EEEEEEEEmail?

‘Man Blowing Whistle Attacked By Men Blowing Trump’

“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.”

is that bad?

Thom it doesn't matter what some guy in Ukraine said. We have a transcript of what the President said. Maybe you should listen to some of your conservative commentators.

There is, of course, not an explicit request. There never is. But it’s pretty obvious anyway to anyone who’s not desperately trying to pretend things away. Here is conservative David French:

I haven’t been a litigator since 2015. I haven’t conducted a proper cross-examination since 2014. But if I couldn’t walk a witness, judge, and jury through the transcript of Donald Trump’s call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and demonstrate that a quid pro quo was more likely than not, then I should just hang up my suit and retire in disgrace.

Nunes wants nude pictures of Trump?

Maguire had the whistleblower complaint since August 26th, definitely not enough time to prepare a spin campaign

such as they’re trying to do today.

https://twitter.com/JerryDunleavy/status/1177168320212213761

The IG had the whistleblower complaint on Aug. 12th.

Maguire becomes acting DNI on Aug. 16th,

This was only after the natural line of succession of Dan Coates and Susan Gordon we’re pushed out so Trump can then appoint one of his loyalists Joseph Maguire.

(R) from Texas John Ratcliffe was Trumps first pick who was used because they new he wouldn’t pass the background check to legitimize acting DNI Joseph Maguire.

Nothing nefarious here, right?

>>>DNC Ukrainian operative Alexandra Chalupa

Did someone say Chalupa?

Thom

words fail me

as they fail you

Thommoht , Your “vision” reminds me of one time long ago driving to see The Dead in Davis and my whacked out friend who probably was high on massive LSD thought that would be fun to drive with the lights off in pitch blackness for several minutes 

except that you are so twisted that you have a lifetime commitment to blindness...

Once drove to next town over to get a pizza, about 8 miles, with lights off, peaking the light fandango. Got to the pizza place and a car pulls in behind us to tell us our lights were off. Neither me or my buddy noticed. Leaping knomes slipped by the cops again. 

I still can't believe how the great state of California could produce something as flagrantly foul as Dee'vonne nunes. 

"If you really think that mentioning that "we do a lot for Ukraine" constitutes quid pro quo you are desperately trying to make something of nothing.  It's getting really old watching you folks build yourselves up for some huge event that's going to take Trump down and then make these pitiful excuses when the facts come out.  But hey, I'll take it. You've kept me entertained for the past three years and I expect to be entertained for another six."

- Thom, 9/25

“It is impossible that the whistle-blower is a hero and I’m not.

And I will be the hero!

These morons—when this is over, I will be the hero.”

 - Rudy, 9/26

p.s. 

Q:   When do Comey and McCabe and Peter Strzok and Bruce Ohr and Obama and Hillary get arrested?

(asking for my buddy Bryen)

Vice President Nikki Haley 

As Rockefeller was to Ford.

T***p will resign before being fired.

https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/statements/byrulin...

Would pay money to see Thom and LLTD in a ring with boxing gloves. 

-snicker-

It all started with Reagan taking his jacket off but the real precursor to all this was definitely Obama 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=8YFej3mjsis

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1177539052683309056

Hyphen?

In other news, Trump threatens those who reported his abuse of power....

"Basically, that person never saw the report, never saw the call, he never saw the call — heard something and decided that he or she, or whoever the hell they saw — they’re almost a spy,” Trump said.

“I want to know who’s the person, who’s the person who gave the whistleblower the information? Because that’s close to a spy,” he continued. “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-09-26/trump-at-private-break...

Or is he just complaining that he cannot execute those who reported his abuse of power?

^^I wonder how many Americans take pride in that Presidential tweet...

Here’s an argument in favor of impeachment: Since day one, progressive Democrats have believed that President Trump deserved to be impeached, and that an overwhelming majority of the American people agree with them, and that they would not suffer any backlash at the ballot box for attempting to remove the president from office. No amount of polling or expressions of nervousness and hesitation from freshman Democrats in swing districts can persuade them. The only way to prove to them that this is a bad idea is to let them go through with it and live with the consequences. Political parties crave power and have a difficult time prioritizing anything above the accumulation and preservation of power. The only thing that will prevent the increasingly common weaponization of impeachment against future presidents is the lesson that this approach costs the impeaching party power.

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/the-argument-against-imp...

Please.  Pull the trigger.

Thom,

Given the current information available, the Dems are in a "Damned if you do, Damned if you don't" situation.

Trump's actions, which have recently been exposed, have forced any reasonable person to conclude that this must be investigated.

Some Dems have gone on record to say that this allegation must be addressed, regardless of potential negative political consequences.

I'm not sure if they truly mean what they say, but I agree with the sentiment.  And every patriot from either side of the aisle should care enough about our country to find and review the facts.  I hope that the White House will cooperate.

<And every patriot from either side of the aisle>

Is Patriot a euphemism for whore? Not sure there's many Patriots in D.C. anymore..

is that Bill Barr hanging onto the Bronco undercarriage?...

^ I dunno, but Bill Burr is hilarious. You like him?

Ukraine’s president is being dubbed “Monica Zelensky” at home

And for all the people that are saying but Biden needs to be investigated please remind them that the Ukrainian prosecutor he insisted be fired was not investigating the company that his son was working for. Once they fired the prosecutor the new prosecutor started an investigation into the company that Biden's son was working for. That some six dimensional chess on the part of Biden

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/09/the-hunter-biden-timeline/

Thom

do you consider yourself a white evangelical?

Pompeo is in the Bronco too:

https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/documents/2019-09-27.EEC%20Engel%20Schiff%20%20to%20Pompeo-%20State%20re%20Document%20Subpoena.pdf

https://www.kqed.org/news/11776832/speaker-nancy-pelosi-was-made-for-thi...

another one bites the dust:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/27/us/politics/volker-ukraine-resigns.html

Sept. 27, 2019, 7:04 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — Kurt D. Volker, the State Department’s special envoy for Ukraine, who got caught in the middle of the pressure campaign by President Trump and his lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to find damaging information about Democrats, resigned his post on Friday.

Mike Pence is up to his albino eyebrows in this.

~Sean Kaminsky~

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/27/us/politics/trump-lapierre-nra-impeachment.html

Sept. 27, 2019 Updated 7:55 p.m. ET

President Trump met in the White House on Friday with Wayne LaPierre, the chief executive of the National Rifle Association, and discussed prospective gun legislation and whether the N.R.A. could provide support for the president as he faces impeachment and a more difficult re-election campaign, according to two people familiar with the meeting.

During the meeting, Mr. LaPierre asked that the White House “stop the games” over gun control legislation, people familiar with the meeting said. It was not clear whether Mr. Trump asked Mr. LaPierre for his support, or what that support would look like.

In a statement Friday evening, an N.R.A. spokesman confirmed the meeting took place but insisted The Times’s account of the meeting was “inaccurate.”

...

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/201

18 U.S. Code § 201. Bribery of public officials and witnesses

Pretty sure most of the NRA's Russian money is tied up in lawyers these days.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/27/politics/white-house-restricted-trump-cal...?

White House restricted access to Trump's calls with Putin and Saudi crown prince

By Pamela Brown, Jim Sciutto and Kevin Liptak, CNN

Updated 7:50 PM ET, Fri September 27, 2019

Washington (CNN)White House efforts to limit access to President Donald Trump's conversations with foreign leaders extended to phone calls with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian

leader Vladimir Putin, according to people familiar with the matter.

Those calls -- both with leaders who maintain controversial relationships with Trump -- were among the presidential conversations that aides took remarkable steps to keep from becoming public.

In the case of Trump's call with Prince Mohammed, officials who ordinarily would have been given access to a rough transcript of the conversation never saw one, according to one of the sources. Instead, a transcript was never circulated at all, which the source said was highly unusual, particularly after a high-profile conversation.

The call - which the person said contained no especially sensitive national security secrets -- came as the White House was confronting the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which US intelligence assessments said came at the hand of the Saudi government.

With Putin, access to the transcript of at least one of Trump's conversations was also tightly restricted, according to a former Trump administration official.

...

https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/1177771143287230464

boy....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIAtE6ywgwA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ECJcu3mjnE

Thommy

Thommy

Thommy

Thommy

Either we are being trolled by an 11th dimensional embodiment of Picasso’s famous axiom “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist,” or the president of the United States is just extremely, painfully, distressingly stupid and unraveling fast.

I leave it to you, reader THOM , to decide for yourself.

bout’ GUN CONTROL?

https://www.lawfareblog.com/collusion-after-fact

The Washington Post reported last night:

President Trump told two senior Russian officials in a 2017 Oval Office meeting that he was unconcerned about Moscow’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election because the United States did the same in other countries, an assertion that prompted alarmed White House officials to limit access to the remarks to an unusually small number of people, according to three former officials with knowledge of the matter.

The comments, which have not been previously reported, were part of a now-infamous meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, in which Trump revealed highly classified information that exposed a source of intelligence on the Islamic State. He also said during the meeting that firing FBI Director James B. Comey the previous day had relieved “great pressure” on him.

A memorandum summarizing the meeting was limited to a few officials with the highest security clearances in an attempt to keep the president’s comments from being disclosed publicly, according to the former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Shortly after the story broke, I received a message from a person directly involved with the FBI’s decision to open a counterintelligence and obstruction investigation of President Trump in the immediate aftermath of the firing of FBI Director James Comey. To say this person, who had clearly learned about the matter for the first time from the Post, was angered by the story would be to understate the matter.

The message read in relevant part: “None of us had any idea. Multiple people had opportunity and patriotic reason to tell us. Instead, silence.”

Support Lawfare

It is a big deal that the FBI did not know when it opened its investigation that the president—in addition to boasting about relieving pressure on himself by firing Comey—had specifically disclaimed concern over Russian electoral interference to senior Russian officials.

The public already knew that the FBI was concerned about the national security implications of Comey’s dismissal when it opened its investigation in the chaotic days after the firing. We’ve known this since January 2019, when the New York Times reported that the bureau had opened both a counterintelligence and an obstruction probe of the president’s conduct. Central to the Times story were transcripts of former FBI General Counsel James Baker’s closed testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, which have now been publicly released. As Baker put it in that interview, “[N]ot only would it be an issue about obstructing an investigation, but the obstruction itself would hurt our ability to figure out what the Russians had done, and that ... would be the threat to the national security.”

In other words, the bureau was concerned, as the Times put it, about “whether [Trump] had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests.” The bureau’s “counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the president’s own actions constituted a possible threat to national security. Agents also sought to determine whether Mr. Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence.”

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe—who was serving as the bureau’s acting director during the period when the FBI opened the counterintelligence and obstruction probes into the president—has stated publicly that the Oval Office meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak played a role in his decisionmaking:

There were a number of things that caused us to believe that we had adequate predication or adequate reason and facts, to open the investigation. The president had been speaking in a derogatory way about our investigative efforts for weeks, describing it as a witch hunt … publicly undermining the effort of the investigation. The president had gone to Jim Comey and specifically asked him to discontinue the investigation of Mike Flynn which was a part of our Russia case. The president, then, fired the director. In the firing of the director, the president specifically asked Rod Rosenstein to write the memo justifying the firing and told Rod to include Russia in the memo. Rod, of course, did not do that. That was on the president's mind. Then, the president made those public comments that you've referenced both on NBC and to the Russians which was captured in the Oval Office. Put together, these circumstances were articulable facts that indicated that a crime may have been committed. The president may have been engaged in obstruction of justice in the firing of Jim Comey.

…  It's many of those same concerns that cause us to be concerned about a national security threat. And the idea is, if the president committed obstruction of justice, fired the director of the FBI to negatively impact or to shut down our investigation of Russia's malign activity and possibly in support of his campaign, as a counterintelligence investigator you have to ask yourself, “Why would a president of the United States do that?” So all those same sorts of facts cause us to wonder, is there an inappropriate relationship, a connection between this president and our most fearsome enemy, the government of Russia?

It seems obvious, in the context of these concerns, that information that the president informed Russian officials that he did not care about Russian election interference would have been key to this analysis on the FBI’s part—and, later, on the part of Robert Mueller.

But it seems preponderantly likely that Mueller never learned of this information. His report includes plenty of material on Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak the day after Comey’s firing, including Trump’s comments that, “I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” And it includes detail about Trump’s exchange with an apparently concerned White House Counsel Don McGahn following the meeting. But there is nothing in the report about any comment by Trump informing the Russian delegation that he did not care about election interference. And there are no redactions in this section whatsoever where such information might be hiding.

In the wake of the Post’s reporting, there has been a great deal of speculation among journalists and commentators as to whether Mueller was aware of this information, and if so, why it didn’t make it into the report. “[A]pparently the ‘Lavrov memo’ never reached Robert Mueller,” tweeted New York Times political reporter Trip Gabriel. My colleague Susan Hennessey wondered “whether one motivation for putting things like the Lavrov meeting memo and the Putin call transcripts in the codeword system was to hide them from Mueller.”

I don’t know for sure that Mueller never learned of this information, but I know his investigation began without it, and I know what is obvious to everyone who has read his report: that it plays no role in his analysis of collusion. This raises a significant question to me about the completeness of the Mueller’s collusion analysis.

Consider what happened in that meeting—assuming for a moment that the Post’s report is accurate. The president of the United States, acting in his capacity as president in a meeting with two senior officials of an adversary state that had just interfered in an American election on his behalf, retroactively declared that this wasn’t a significant source of bilateral problem between that adversary country and the one he leads. Here’s the Post’s account of the meeting:

White House officials were particularly distressed by Trump’s election remarks because it appeared the president was forgiving Russia for an attack that had been designed to help elect him, the three former officials said. Trump also seemed to invite Russia to interfere in other countries’ elections, they said.

...

According to the fourth former official, Trump lamented to Lavrov that “all this Russia stuff” was detrimental to good relations. Trump also complained, “I could have a great relationship with you guys, but you know, our press,” this former official said, characterizing the president’s remarks.

...

On some areas, Trump conveyed U.S. policy in a constructive way, such as telling the Russians that their aggression in Ukraine was not good, one of those former officials said.

“What was difficult to understand was how they got a free pass on a lot of things — election security and so forth,” this former official said. “He was just very accommodating to them.”

Such actions by the president would surely have raised the question for the bureau, and likely for Mueller, about whether the president was retroactively absolving the Russians of electoral interference. It also would have raised the question of whether he was in some sense greenlighting future electoral intervention, at least tacitly. Both possibilities would have obviously heightened concerns that he was in some sense working with or for the Russians, knowingly or unknowingly, in a fashion that threatened American national security.

I actually doubt that this fact would have fundamentally changed the criminal analysis in the Mueller report on “collusion.” The fundamental finding that there, after all, was that there was no evidence of any agreement between the Trump campaign, or Trump himself, and the Russians to violate U.S. law. I’m not sure I see how this would have changed that, it not being evidence of an agreement, just a kind of mutual aid without one. It also takes place after the fact, which would complicate things. 

But it rather dramatically affects the “no collusion” narrative. And had Mueller been aware of it, I feel certain that it would have warranted investigation and discussion. The fact that nobody privy to the fact of its having happened came forward even though Comey had publicly announced that the bureau was investigating possible collusion represents—as my correspondent indicated—a triumph of omertà over patriotism.

ya, fuck you, HR McMaster.

Schiff: We have an agreement with whistleblower to testify very soon.

If the phone call with Ukraine president was bad, imagine what other phone calls were about?

Maybe a call to the Saudi crown prince MBS “bone saw”?

Repubs

Adrift

no rudder

https://apple.news/A_jbv531tRTucyAldXpsXZQ

^They certainly have a rudder, but they have no moral compass 

Impeach me, please

https://apple.news/Al1tSIljoQDaMzeHErpnJvg

I implore you 

WTF does Barr think he is doing?

4:17pm NYT: Trump Pressed Australian Leader to Help Barr Investigate Mueller Inquiry’s Origins

4:19pm WSJ: Pompeo Took Part in Trump-Zelensky Phone Call, Official Says

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/attorney-general-barr-p...

September 30 at 6:07 PM

The attorney general’s active role also underscores the degree to which a nearly three-year old election still consumes significant resources and attention inside the federal government. Current and former intelligence and law enforcement officials expressed frustration and alarm Monday that the head of the Justice Department was taking such a direct role in re-examining what they view as conspiracy theories and baseless allegations of misconduct.

Barr has already made overtures to British intelligence officials, and last week the attorney general traveled to Italy, where he and Durham met senior Italian government officials and Barr asked the Italians to assist Durham, according to one person familiar with the matter. It was not Barr’s first trip to Italy to meet intelligence officials, the person said. The Trump administration has made similar requests of Australia, these people said.

In a recent phone call, Trump urged Australia’s prime minister to provide assistance to the ongoing Justice Department inquiry, according to a person familiar with the matter. Trump made the request at Barr’s urging, people familiar with the matter said. The Trump phone call was first reported by the New York Times.

Barr is in Italy, trying to....

...discredit the [redacted] Mueller report?

sounds legit.

https://twitter.com/arlenparsa/status/1178771483688079365

https://twitter.com/GlennKesslerWP/status/1178782349288525825

If a rat was cornered and it could Tweet, would it Tweet 45 times in 15 hours?

~Kurt, via the Internet~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EA2cK8yqZA

Trump Ukrainian Dumbshit Blues

Let’s impeach them all

’The office of the president*, the Department of State, and the Department of Justice are now all involved.’

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a29310410/william-barr-an...

 . . . and your rapey drunkard Justice, too!

Hideous rhetoric

https://apple.news/A4Nr3A4VFQcGHWLMWyGkFiA

How hard Republicans have to work to fabricate or defend Trump?

https://apple.news/AtbtgOs9uSEiFHw4_IoUdFw

Lies

only lies

i love you

https://apple.news/A1_vrLaMzTXyHih7ACASJhg

It's October, so this is back in season:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wuO_GigDPY

https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1179175833526779904

https://twitter.com/Walldo/status/1179154071476830208

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/us/politics/trump-border-wars.html

...

Privately, the president had often talked about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators, prompting aides to seek a cost estimate.

He wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh.

After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was illegal.

But later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down.

That’s not allowed either, they told him.

...

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1179179573541511176

In the Oval Office that March afternoon, a 30-minute meeting extended to more than two hours as Mr. Trump’s team tried desperately to placate him.

“You are making me look like an idiot!” Mr. Trump shouted, adding in a profanity, as multiple officials in the room described it. “I ran on this. It’s my issue.”

Among those in the room were Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary at the time; Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state; Kevin K. McAleenan, the Customs and Border Protection chief at the time; and Stephen Miller, the White House aide who, more than anyone, had orchestrated Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda. Mick Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff was also there, along with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and other senior staff.

Ms. Nielsen, a former aide to George W. Bush brought into the department by John F. Kelly, the president’s former chief of staff, was in a perilous position. She had always been viewed with suspicion by the president, who told aides she was “a Bushie,” and part of the “deep state” who once contributed to a group that supported Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign.

Mr. Trump had routinely berated Ms. Nielsen as ineffective and, worse — at least in his mind — not tough-looking enough. “Lou Dobbs hates you, Ann Coulter hates you, you’re making me look bad,” Mr. Trump would tell her, referring to the Fox Business Network host and the conservative commentator.

The happiest he had been with Ms. Nielsen was a few months earlier, when American border agents had fired tear gas into Mexico to try to stop migrants from crossing into the United States. Human rights organizations condemned the move, but Mr. Trump loved it. More often, though, she drew the president’s scorn.

That March day, he was furious at Mr. Pompeo, too, for having cut a deal with Mexico to allow the United States to reject some asylum seekers — a plan Mr. Trump said was clearly failing.

A complete shutdown of the border, Mr. Trump said, was the only way.

Ms. Nielsen had tried reasoning with the president on many occasions. When she stood up to him during a cabinet meeting the previous spring, he excoriated her and she almost resigned.

Now, she tried again to reason with him.

We can close the border, she told the president, but it’s not going to fix anything. People will still be permitted to claim asylum.

But Mr. Trump was unmoved. Even Mr. Kushner, who had developed relationships with Mexican officials and now sided with Ms. Nielsen, could not get through to him.

“All you care about is your friends in Mexico,” the president snapped, according to people in the room. “I’ve had it. I want it done at noon tomorrow.”

The Start of an Overhaul

The president’s advisers left the meeting in a near panic.

Every year more than $200 billion worth of American exports flow across the Mexican border. Closing it would wreak havoc on American farmers and automakers, among many others. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said in an interview at the time that a border shutdown would have “a potentially catastrophic economic impact on our country.”

Mr. Miller, meanwhile, saw an opportunity.

It was his view that the president needed to completely overhaul the Homeland Security Department and get rid of senior officials who he believed were thwarting efforts to block immigrants. Although many were the president’s handpicked aides, Mr. Miller told him they had become part of the problem by constantly citing legal hurdles.

Ms. Nielsen, who regularly found herself telling Mr. Trump why he couldn’t have what he wanted, was an obvious target. When the president demanded “flat black” paint on his border wall, she said it would cost an additional $1 million per mile. When he ordered wall construction sped up, she said they needed permission from property owners. Take the land, Mr. Trump would say, and let them sue us.

When Ms. Nielsen tried to get him to focus on something other than the border, the president grew impatient. During a briefing on the need for new legal authority to take down drones, Mr. Trump cut her off midsentence.

“Kirstjen, you didn’t hear me the first time, honey,” Mr. Trump said, according to two people familiar with the conversation. “Shoot ’em down. Sweetheart, just shoot ’em out of the sky, O.K.?”

As she and her staff flew back to Washington that Friday evening, Ms. Nielsen called the president. She knew he was angry with her.

“Sir, I know you’re really frustrated,” she told him. The president invited her to meet with him on Sunday in the White House residence.

Ms. Nielsen knew that Miller wanted her out, so she spent the flight huddled with aides on a strategy for getting control of the border, a Hail Mary pass. She called it the “Six C’s” — Congress, Courts, Communications, Countries, Criminals, Cartels.

Unbeknown to her, Ms. Nielsen’s staff started work on her letter of resignation.

When Ms. Nielsen presented her plan to Mr. Trump at the White House, he dismissed it and told her what he really needed was a cement wall.

“Sir,” she said, “I literally don’t think that’s even possible.” They couldn’t build that now even if it would work, which it wouldn’t, Ms. Nielsen told him. The designs for steel barriers had long since been finalized, the contracts bid and signed.

https://twitter.com/realGollumTrump/status/1179186612997099520

https://twitter.com/NYinLA2121/status/1179205750217854976

original font:

Lost his shit?

https://apple.news/APt4ie386QRigWZOa-5nakg

Let’s impeach the Vice President! 

Any day now. 

https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1179901643367862274

Time to make shit up against Warren, looks like.

Thom?

Death

Mike Pence is up to is albino eyebrows in this.

~Sean Kaminsky~

https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/_cache/files/5/0/50759349-fe81-4444-a990-65c92528de82/50EE8A2F1CFC493A98876200762152FC.chairmen-letter-on-state-departmnent-texts-10-03-19.pdf

https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/status/1179959901478633472

https://twitter.com/postroz/status/1179957121074552832

https://twitter.com/KatyTurNBC/status/1179962543080722432

https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger

https://twitter.com/realGollumTrump/status/1179941215220961280

Just use the Guillotine for this treasonous lawless bastard

  Violence is just around the corner

https://apple.news/AXHSnG4MFS6Kn6C9Iy_k_OQ

In point of fact, the House has no impeachment inquiry; congressional Democrats have an impeachment political campaign.

Under federal law, the offense of obstructing Congress applies when “any inquiry or investigation is being had by either House, or any committee of either House.” Again, neither the House nor any of its committees has voted to conduct an impeachment inquiry. There is no formal impeachment proceeding to obstruct. Furthermore, the letters in question are not actually demands carrying the compulsory force of law; technically, they are just informal requests. No one is required to comply with a mere request, and refusing to do so is not evidence of anything, let alone obstruction.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/impeachment-inquiry-house-must-vo...

Cowards.

^supports white nationalism. 

psycho. 

But the question is: Do the Democrats have a good-faith belief that President Trump has engaged in high crimes and misdemeanors, or are they engaged in a political stunt, the objectives of which are to appease irrational elements of their base and to batter Trump for 2020 election purposes?

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/impeachment-inquiry-house-must-vo...

"irrational elements of their base"  Go look in the mirror.

You folks should be pissed off that you're being played like this, but you hate Trump so much that you're willing to take it and ask for more.

And don't think Pelosi doesn't know it.

You are right thom, but the funny thing is, you’re being played too

In other news, North Korea now launching SLBM’s.

^^ No worries, Rodman’s got this

I actually think the senate might bite, ken. Its not like he’s going to chill out and start being cool with them, stop arm twisting, and stop attacking. He’s just getting warm. He’s going to be such a wreck by the time removal comes to a vote, a dozen or more of the R’s in the senate will require detachment from him just to stay alive, politically. 

It would be their chance to dump Donny cold. Totally self-serving, of course. Clean break. Out of the presidency, out of the party, out of politics. Next.

Just my observation as an unaffiliated voter. Democrats aren’t shrewd enough to do this. I think Republicans could, they would still maintain the majority in the white house and the senate, and a lot of those pigs would still come out smelling like roses when they would otherwise be totally fucked.

We are fucked, we are not fucked.

The resilient test is constant any more.  (Oxymoron)

If I was not lazy(sitting in a Cantina)I'd post  an image of scale.

Fucked......or.....not.

so the current state of us media...

cnn/msnbc and the like are now called the left media elite...fake news....when in all actuality are predominantly status quo wall st. pandering subservient corporate approved donkeys....

fox and alt-conservative media are the other majority. and good god.

scary how many i people  i kow and have seen have seriously flawed grasp of the constitution and what we as a nation are purported to stand for.

save for pacifica and "some" pbs/npr based stuff, we are completely corporate controlled in what we see daily. shit, we fucking have to look to england for 1/2 way decent journalism.

If the Dems play their cards right, they can damage Trump in the minds of the electorate with a formal impeachment inquiry (guy is already losing his shit over it) but stop short of sending the articles of impeachment to the GOP Senate, to avoid giving Trump the satisfaction of gloating over an inevitable acquittal in that forum<<<

Laurence Tribe has been advocating this for a while & believe there's some merit to this approach; however, if by some miracle some R's defect and McConnell is forced (in writing) to go on the record of holding an actual trial, it might make sense to force all GOP'rs to go on record with their vote.

>>>   Do the Democrats have a good-faith belief that President Trump has engaged in high crimes and misdemeanors

poor Thom

Imprison (not impeach) the animal

and Thom!!!

Me daughter took me to see this yesterday at an IMAX. Just incredible. Shines a whole new light on the music we know by heart. We took turns drying each others tears throughout the entire thing.  Audio and video mind fuck. Think you've heard great female vocals ? I thought so too, but the 2 women who sing in his band will have you re-evaluating.
Greatest female voices I've ever heard. Their harmonys will stunn ya, as will the entire thing. Heavy heavy message stuff. If you've ever loved Floyd's music but are still a trump supporter, this vid will prove yer either brainless, heartless, or just fucking retarded.  You'd really enjoy this folks. 2 thumbs up.

Roger Waters: ‘Us + Them’

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/roger-waters-us-them-f...

Roger's planning a summer tour next year to coincide with our elections. Can't fucking wait 

I predict Trump will resign at some point.  "You can't fire me because I quit" kind of thing.

Thomolites:

Which of the seven crimes are you pushing for

https://apple.news/ApUQk4xldTDapjGCNrHdhFw

>>> I predict Trump will resign at some point.  "You can't fire me because I quit" kind of thing. <<<

I don’t, that would leave him too exposed.

Too many Republican kneepadders love that liddle’ cheeto 

He’d have to cut a deal for immunity, then resign.

I sense a body  double murder is probably in the works.  He will live out the rest of his life in a luxury home in North Korea...

'...in my great and unmatched wisdom..'   

^^^

https://twitter.com/BrendanNyhan/status/1181235066317541377

by "before" does he mean what he did to Atlantic City?

<< can't impeach a senator  >>   < sure ya can>

Yeah I cut that thought a bit short.

You can't impeach a us senator for publicly disagreeing with a president.

You can of course permanently remove someone from existence for publicly disagreeing with a King, which is what clump thinks he is, having no clue about how our gov't works. Or is supposed to work. Now if we could just get rid of the nutless repub monkeys in the senate this country may still have time to rebound from the current disaster.

Which hairstyle is the impeachment look?

Dems are not gonna hold a vote and give Republicans subpoena power, that’s why the Republicans are screaming “take a vote”.

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/10/768894793/2-giuliani-associates-arrested-...

How you get so a-rude and a-reckless?

Don't you be so crude and a-feckless..

https://twitter.com/BarbMcQuade/status/1182318613296009217

^  Dude on the right has the Limbaugh look nailed.

Tales Of Brave Igor & Lev

from Trump Lawyer John Dowd

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1182308329286184960

So what's the deal with them being arrested at Dulles?  Were they leaving the country?

Yes, they we’re supposed to appear before congress this morning for depositions in the impeachment inquiry 

Shitshowcomedycontinues

https://apple.news/A51UWhpOoSLSKXEvtMNcNxwm

Wow! This guy sounds pretty gosh darned innocent! This is like one of those videos where a dog owner comes home to some disaster in the kitchen and questions the dog on-camera about who did it. "I never discussed, uh, the issue of, uh, the issue of the Bidens with President Zelensky, and, uh..." This comes off a lot like that interview Paul Manafort did during the campaign, another bit of telegraphed corruption that seems to have vanished down the memory hole, buried by 10,000 subsequent scandals.

This is starting to resemble an opera.  Something Wagnerian, like Die Scheistkopf

https://twitter.com/MaxBoot/status/1182012208684978176

https://twitter.com/politico/status/1182277862491066369

https://twitter.com/thomaswright08/status/1182295396854448128

>>>So what's the deal with them being arrested at Dulles?  Were they leaving the country?

yes, they were trying 

>>> This is starting to resemble an opera.  Something Wagnerian, like Die Scheistkopf <<<

When the Republicans and Fox News shout “hold the vote” even when they know dems have it, that seems odd to throw 

Duh-Führer under the bus doesn’t it?

Imagine if the Dems held the “vote”? That would give the Republicans subpoena power so the can bring forward to testify every

right-wing nut job to spin the whole narrative leaving the public with their thumbs up their asses.

But Nancy Is covering for red state dems?

smh

Dumpster Fire stump is all but flushed to the sewer. Walls are closing in fast.

The work is well underway by our american patriots, the dems, to have pence meet his similarly unpleasant fate.

Say hello to madam speaker president.

Word of the day --  Vicissitude