Impeaching Trump: Make America Sane Again

[Jeff Lebowski]

The fact that the whistleblower produced a fairly comprehensive and detailed complaint to the Intelligence IG shouldn’t alarm anyone with experience in the intelligence community. In fact, it speaks to the credibility of the whistleblower and authenticity of his/her claim. Producing understandable and actionable intelligence for policymakers is his/her job (I assume since reports are that he/she is from the CIA and worked at the White House on the National Security Council). The goal of an intelligence analyst is to provide as thorough of an assessment as possible of a situation from the information available (all of it second hand). He/she must cross check reporting with that coming from other sources. U.S. policy and credibility depends on this level of thoroughness and scrutiny. It is then no surprise that he/she would use that same tradecraft and approach when drafting a whistleblower complaint. Indeed, it would be suspicious and damage his/her credibility if he/she didn’t do that.

And WTH? In the end, the whistleblower's complaint was confirmed.

This whole disinformation effort to attack the credibility of the whistleblower is organized and run out of Trump’s re-election campaign “Death Star” operation located in Rosslyn, Virginia. These people loyally follow the lead of their boss and lie with abandon.

Yeah but LAU hasn’t seen that before!

[myboynoah]

Yeah but LAU hasn’t seen that before!

A mind ripe for the messages the Trump machine is feeding him.

[frank ryan]

Whistleblowers are a big part of my professional life. I’ve never seen any whistleblower submit the equivalent of a carefully-drafted and reasoned legal brief supporting his or her claims about a second-hand account of wrongdoing. Whether one likes Trump or not (and I don’t), that part of this saga is just odd.

That’s one of the least odd parts of this mess.

[LA Ute]

That’s one of the least odd parts of this mess.

I agree. But whistleblowers don’t usually file what amounts to a fairly lengthy legal brief, clearly written by a lawyer, with careful reasoning and detailed citations to legal authority, about a conversation they did not personally witness. That is odd. One doesn’t have to be a Trump fan (I am not, didn’t vote for him and never will) to think so. His conversation with the Ukrainian was at the very least stupid and ill-advised.

That’s all, fellas. Try to calm down.

[Bo Diddley]

I agree. But whistleblowers don’t usually file what amounts to a fairly lengthy legal brief, clearly written by a lawyer, with careful reasoning and detailed citations to legal authority, about a conversation they did not personally witness. That is odd. One doesn’t have to be a Trump fan (I am not, didn’t vote for him and never will) to think so. His conversation with the Ukrainian was at the very least stupid and ill-advised.

That’s all, fellas. Try to calm down.

I think mbn pretty clearly addressed any peculiarity in the whistleblower claim.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I agree. But whistleblowers don’t usually file what amounts to a fairly lengthy legal brief, clearly written by a lawyer, with careful reasoning and detailed citations to legal authority, about a conversation they did not personally witness. That is odd. One doesn’t have to be a Trump fan (I am not, didn’t vote for him and never will) to think so. His conversation with the Ukrainian was at the very least stupid and ill-advised.

That’s all, fellas. Try to calm down.

You can come up with a more thoughtful response than that.

[Pelado]

You can come up with a more thoughtful response than that.

What makes you think that?

[myboynoah]

I can think of no more honorable soldier than Alexander Vindman

This is the professional ethic that is now derided as evidence of the “deep state,” a term originally applied to corrupt elements in the Turkish government in the 1990s and later expropriated by the far right in this country. It is a vile term that denigrates and insults the many thousands of military and civilian officials who serve this nation around the world, day and night. All are sworn officers of the republic. At every promotion, Army officers repeat the oath to support and defend the Constitution. It is much more than what we do — it is who we are.

And yet here we all are. If the president’s partisans are to be believed, Alex Vindman is a traitor, a treasonous officer whose origins are suspect and whose past service and sterling record mean nothing — just like Alfred Dreyfus. What exactly is he accused of having done? In the course of his duties, Alex became aware of actions he concluded might be illegal but were almost certainly unethical. He was not alone in those judgments. His response was to alert his superiors and report his observations to the National Security Council legal office. Later, he complied with a legal subpoena, was questioned by members of Congress and truthfully answered every question. He did not leak to the media, shop for an inspector general or reach out to Democratic Party officials. In short, he did exactly what he had been taught and trained to do throughout his professional life. His reward has been vilification in the right-wing media, professional humiliation, scorn and abuse by senior government officials, and death threats.

Surely, his service deserves better than that. Surely, this country is better than that.

[Bo Diddley]

I can think of no more honorable soldier than Alexander ]Vindman

At every promotion, Army officers repeat the oath to support and defend the Constitution.

I've actually never seen this.

[Goatnapper'96]

I've actually never seen this.

I was promoted twice as an officer. I remember a ceremony for my promotion from 2LT to 1LT and there was no oath. For my promotion to CPT the date fell while I was on a trip to Idaho so I just showed up back at work after my leave saying out loud that the troop commanders were a bunch of dumbshits sporting the ever coveted railroad tracks! I swore an oath to support and defend the constitution when I was commissioned, but never for any promotions thereafter.

BEAT NAVY!

[Copelius]

I was promoted twice as an officer. I remember a ceremony for my promotion from 2LT to 1LT and there was no oath. For my promotion to CPT the date fell while I was on a trip to Idaho so I just showed up back at work after my leave saying out loud that the troop commanders were a bunch of dumbshits sporting the ever coveted railroad tracks! I swore an oath to support and defend the constitution when I was commissioned, but never for any promotions thereafter.

BEAT NAVY!

Similar, but not as colorful experiences in my two promotions.

[frank ryan]

typical Trump:

After President Donald Trump was accused on Wednesday of using former GOP Congressman Dana Rohrbacher to offer a pardon to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the White House said Trump "barely knows" Rohrbacher⁠—a claim quickly disproved by past documents showing the two have met.

At an extradition hearing in London Thursday, a lawyer for Assange told the court that in 2017, former GOP Congressman Dana Rohrabacher visited Assange at London’s Ecuadorian embassy carrying a message directly from Trump: if Assange were to publicly announce Russia had nothing to do with the release of Democratic National Committee’s emails, Trump would offer him a pardon.

Other people Trump has claimed not either not know or barely know: indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, former U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, Prince Andrew, Jeffrey Epstein, convicted former associate George Papadopoulos, convicted former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, adult film star Stormy Daniels and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, among others.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisette.../#53aa9a2569fc

[myboynoah]

typical Trump:





https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisette.../#53aa9a2569fc

Who cares. No doubt Hunter Biden was there at the Ecuadorian Embassy with hookers and cocaine and a goat. What about that, huh? Huh? Huh?

[Uncle Ted]

typical Trump:





https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisette.../#53aa9a2569fc

Sorry Frank... This is yet another nothing burger:

My Meeting with Julian Assange

There is a lot of misinformation floating out there regarding my meeting with Julian Assange so let me provide some clarity on the matter:


At no time did I talk to President Trump about Julian Assange. Likewise, I was not directed by Trump or anyone else connected with him to meet with Julian Assange. I was on my own fact finding mission at personal expense to find out information I thought was important to our country. I was shocked to find out that no other member of Congress had taken the time in their official or unofficial capacity to interview Julian Assange. At no time did I offer Julian Assange anything from the President because I had not spoken with the President about this issue at all. However, when speaking with Julian Assange, I told him that if he could provide me information and evidence about who actually gave him the DNC emails, I would then call on President Trump to pardon him. At no time did I offer a deal made by the President, nor did I say I was representing the President. Upon my return, I spoke briefly with Gen. Kelly. I told him that Julian Assange would provide information about the purloined DNC emails in exchange for a pardon. No one followed up with me including Gen. Kelly and that was the last discussion I had on this subject with anyone representing Trump or in his Administration.
[...]

https://www.rohrabacher.com/news/my-...julian-assange

So rather than asking the direct source the press published bullish*t... I guess they know that hearsay is good enough for the Dems:






So let's start another round of impeachment hearings!

[Walter Sobchak]

We cannot bring troops home because that would not be in {insert any country not named America here}'s best interest... instead it would be playing right into the hands of {insert one of Russia, Iran, or North Korea}.

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It is long past time to empty Japan and Germany of US military forces. Both countries are now economic giants and have been for several decades.

#MAGA

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Looks like BD is going to have to learn to code.