President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

I wouldn't - and haven't - trusted Bolton under any circumstances. I don't like the guy. (I also don't like Trump.)

I'm writing objectively here. I don't think it'd help. I was objective about Mueller last winter - when I said he'd better be right, that the case seemed pretty muddled and unclear - and got shit all over for that. But I wasn't wrong, because my emotions aren't bound up in it.

Bolton is a net neutral at best, short of him having recordings. But most of them have been. Support for removal is below 50% - so more or less where the election was - because none of these witnesses move the needle. The topic itself doesn't move the needle. The people who want to remove Trump largely wanted to remove him 19 days after he was in office, for anything and everything. I know all the talking points about why freezing Ukranian aid is awful, just awful, totally the worst, but they are not convincing to Independents. They don't see it as that big of a deal.

 

!!!

 

Oh, I think he was generally up to what he's been alleged to have been generally up to.

But the evidence is shoddy and people just don't care that much about what he seemed to do. Indeed, we live in a culture now where the rich white sons of privilege seem to get jobs on third base, and Hunter Biden fits that bill, and even if Trump does, too, well, people don't like rich screw-ups getting cush jobs. Hunter Biden got one.

 

How exactly is the "evidence shoddy"?

The Ukrainian aid was held up, for no reason, and despite the DoD and the OMB telling political appointees, "Hey - we have a legal duty to spend these funds or justify the hold."

People not caring or people being willing to dismiss the legal execution of programmed moneys != "the evidence is shoddy."

 

Or release the emails.

 

Because it's what a bunch of people say was said vs. a guy who didn't say he said that, plus a transcript that agrees with the guy, but isn't everything that was said, either.

The Sondland says he was never told "quid pro quo," he just inferred that it was.

C'mon. I think he did it. But it's not the best evidence. Plus, it's not the best evidence for a thing very few people really care about. Ukranian aid? The good name of Hunter Biden? These are not essentials. They're the things we care about because they're related to Trump. If Trump went out and shot, hell, I don't know...an elephant...I'd be more offended. Wouldn't you?

 

I mean - ANYTHING.

This should be really, really, really easy for the administration. If the aid was being held up for legitimate reasons, someone should have been working the problem (i.e. studying corruption in the Ukraine, and trying to figure out what to do about it).

That sort of work creates artifacts and government records. There were meetings. Emails. Meeting minutes. Phone calls. Power points. Briefings. It should be very, very simple for the Administration to show how focused they were on corruption in the Ukraine.

 

Again. We know Ukraine funds were not expended on time. We know that. It's a matter of fact at this point. What the Administration refuses to say is, "WHY" the funds were held up. They wouldn't tell the DoD or OMB at the time. And they're refusing to tell you now.

Every hour I work, I bill to the Federal Government, and an executive-branch official is in charge of executing appropriated funds - reimbursing my employer for the time I spend. My sponsor is held accountable for the proper and ethical execution of those funds. We have work products and schedules to meet.

If a Congressman showed up tomorrow at my office and said, "What have you been spending our money on," it would be a matter of minutes to demonstrate.

All I'm asking from the White House is the same level of accountability for the proper handling of appropriated monies.

 

Iraqi parliament: Get out.
Trump: "We are not leaving unless they pay us back."
US Military ...

 

The evidence is shoddy because Trump has blocked the release of public documents and testimony by the first hand witnesses who were in the room for these events.

No one blocks a witness who can clear them of charges from testifying.

 

Shit’s going to get real. I’m stocking up on Cipro and Iodine and ammo.

 

Do you live in a Trump building? Because an Iranian official posted a list of them on Twitter for some reason.