The Impeachment Process Has Officially Begun (4 Viewers)

[Andrus]

By Laura Bassett

After months of internal arguing among Democrats over whether to impeach President Donald Trump, the dam is finally breaking in favor of trying to remove him from office. The Washington Post reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would announce a formal impeachment inquiry on Tuesday, following a bombshell report that Trump illegally asked Ukraine’s government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, one of his political opponents. (He essentially admitted to having done so over the weekend.)

“Now that we have the facts, we’re ready,” Pelosi said Tuesday morning at a forum hosted by The Atlantic. At 5 p.m. the same day, she was back with more. "The actions taken to date by the president have seriously violated the constitution, especially when the president says Article Two says I can do whatever I want," referring to the segment of the Constitution that defines the power of the executive branch of the government. Pelosi's message was that checks and balances of those branches are just as central to the Constitution. And one more thing: "Today, I am announcing the House of Representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry," she said at a conference broadcast on Twitter by the Huffington Post. ...

Read the Full Story - InStyle

 

[Saintamaniac]

That says tyranny, not tranny.

He saw what he wanted to see.

 

[samiam5211]

I had to do a google search to see what you referenced and I'm glad I did because otherwise, I would not have known about Mayor Pete using the term "Heartland Values" as opposed to what you quoted him as saying the word "Heartland" by itself. The context in which Mayor Pete used "Heartland Values" pretty much invalidates the values of every where else in the country as if heartland values are the only set of values that matter. So in this case, while the term Heartland Values is in and of itself inherently not offensive, the IDEA that the values of one particular place in the country is better than all the other values is myopic and demonstrates a candidates ability to pander to the area of the country that they are campaigning. The offense was taken to the IDEA and not the term.

You can use heartland values all you want and no one will care. When you try to pass off heartland values as the only set of values that matter then yeah, people are going to take exception to that. There's no capitulation needed. IMO, heartland values don't mean shirt to me. Heartland values put an amoral, bigoted, philandering, heathen criminal in the white house.

Is southern hospitality offensive to other regions?

I don’t think Pete was intending to exclude other regions, and I’m sure he is going to have to explain that so often now that it will start to seem rehearsed.

 

[Lazybones]

Is southern hospitality offensive to other regions?

I don’t think Pete was intending to exclude other regions, and I’m sure he is going to have to explain that so often now that it will start to seem rehearsed.

I can’t believe Pete was unaware that next month is black history month. He could have said this in April and it would have been ok.

 

[samiam5211]

I can’t believe Pete was unaware that next month is black history month. He could have said this in April and it would have been ok.

There are better ways to express your point than a diarrhea of sarcasm.

 

[GMRfellowtraveller]

There are better ways to express your point than a diarrhea of sarcasm.

Are there?

 

[Beach Friends]

I had to do a google search to see what you referenced and I'm glad I did because otherwise, I would not have known about Mayor Pete using the term "Heartland Values" as opposed to what you quoted him as saying the word "Heartland" by itself. The context in which Mayor Pete used "Heartland Values" pretty much invalidates the values of every where else in the country as if heartland values are the only set of values that matter. So in this case, while the term Heartland Values is in and of itself inherently not offensive, the IDEA that the values of one particular place in the country is better than all the other values is myopic and demonstrates a candidates ability to pander to the area of the country that they are campaigning. The offense was taken to the IDEA and not the term.

You can use heartland values all you want and no one will care. When you try to pass off heartland values as the only set of values that matter then yeah, people are going to take exception to that. There's no capitulation needed. IMO, heartland values don't mean shirt to me. Heartland values put an amoral, bigoted, philandering, heathen criminal in the white house.

The issue was not pandering to a region. Mayor Pete was accused of using a racist dog whistle when he said "American Heartand."

 

[SaintForLife]

Matt making some good points as usual

 

[Beach Friends]

Matt making some good points as usual

Matt fixin' to get canceled. He probably once offered a chicken wing to a vegan.

 

[SFIDC3]

Obviously there are a lot of dense Republicans that need to see more evidence to be convinced, because a majority are still not convinced.

They aren't dense, its worse than that, they don't want to see the evidence. They don't dare go against "dear leader" for fear of not being re-elected. The Republican party has become a total joke....

 

[Optimus Prime]

Washington (CNN)The Department of Justice revealed in a court filing late Friday that it has two dozen emails related to the President Donald Trump's involvement in the withholding of millions in security assistance to Ukraine -- a disclosure that came just hours after the Senate voted against subpoenaing additional documents and witnesses in Trump's impeachment trial, paving the way for his acquittal.

The filing, released near midnight Friday, marks the first official acknowledgment from the Trump administration that emails about the President's thinking related to the aid exist, and that he was directly involved in asking about and deciding on the aid as early as June. The administration is still blocking those emails from the public and has successfully kept them from Congress..........

Trump administration reveals it’s blocking dozens of emails about Ukraine aid freeze, including President’s role | CNN Politics

The Department of Justice revealed in a court filing late Friday that it has two dozen emails related to President Donald Trump’s involvement in the withholding of millions in security assistance to Ukraine – a disclosure that came just hours after the Senate voted against subpoenaing additional...

www.cnn.com

 

[FullMonte]

The good news is there are rumblings that the Ukraine is going to investigate the Bidens after all. I know a lot of people here, on both sides, said they would welcome this.

Are there? I've seen articles out there that Shokin has stated that it was Biden, and not Trump who abused his power...but you can understand why that doesn't come off as exactly credible.

As far as the Ukraine, the last thing I've seen regarding them doing investigations was when their prosecutor general (Yuri Lutsenko) stated in multiple interviews that he told GIuliani repeatedly that they would not open an investigation because there was no evidence of wrongdoing, but he also said that if the US DOJ/FBI opened an investigaiton, the Ukraine would help however they could.

 

[Beach Friends]

Regardless of whether you were for or against impeachment, it's good to see the POTUS getting some fresh air and exercise. His mental health is important and he appears to be in good spirits.

 

[TaylorB]

Matt making some good points as usual

I'm sure our Ukrainian allies would find the word "fleeting" to be offensive, considering how many long days and nights they spent on the front lines of a hot war against our global superpower enemy not knowing if, much less when, security assistance was ever coming:

The Cost of Trump’s Aid Freeze in the Trenches of Ukraine’s War (Published 2019)

As President Trump froze military aid to Ukraine and urged it to investigate his rivals, the country was struggling in a bare-bones fight against Russian-backed separatists.

www.nytimes.com

I don't remember Obama's decisions about lethal aid being directly contrary to a bipartisan congressional appropriation bill explicitly enacted "to protect the national security of the United States," nor do I remember there being any component of secrecy or personal gain attached to the decisions, which were publicly discussed and which were responsive to the exigencies of the Ukraine-Russia situation as they existed at that time.

It's impossible to quantify the impact of government decisions on our national security. Presidents are entitled to make strategic mistakes when making those decisions and shouldn't be impeached every time a decision is made that turns out to harm national security more than it helps it. But minimizing the potential impact of the decision to our national security and ignoring the illegitimate motivation behind the decision misses the entire point.

Trump may have exceeded his constitutional authority by ordering the strike on Soleimani, and it could ultimately have a negative impact on national security, possibly even more than withholding Ukraine aid. If it turned out that the strike was motivated by, say, Trump wanting to distract from the impeachment trial, then to me that would be impeachable, whether or not it had a net positive / negative impact on national security, and whether or not it violated the AUMF or some other specific law. Without significant evidence of that sort of motive, impeachment would be highly inappropriate.

It's exceedingly hard to prove someone's primary motivations, but in the case of Ukraine, it was clear to everyone that the withholding was motivated by personal political gain. It's fundamentally anti-democratic behavior for which there's a Constitutional remedy; but at a minimum, even the minority of legal minds who disagree with the legality of impeachment in this case seem to acknowledge it's something over which reasonable minds can differ. In that sense we've come a long, long way from all the "witch hunt" nonsense we've been hearing for four months. This is a moral victory that certainly won't change the Senate removal vote, but the polls don't show impeachment to have been the political blunder we were told it would be, and I'm still hopeful the 2020 elections will bear that out for both the presidency and the Senate.

 

[MT15]

That photo of the president golfing appears “off” to me.

 

[Archies Ghost]

That says tyranny, not tranny.

I assume you meant transgender and not transmission. I, personally, have only used that particular slang to refer to automotive gear boxes and not actual human beings.

So lets observe a little tyranny and transgender interaction.

Two transgender Pakistanis 'tortured to death' by police in Saudi Arabia

Pakistan human rights activists demand information from Saudi Arabia over 11 transgender people still in custody

www.independent.co.uk

 

[RegularChuck]

That photo of the president golfing appears “off” to me.

What photo?

 

[dtc]

Regardless of whether you were for or against impeachment, it's good to see the POTUS getting some fresh air and exercise. His mental health is important and he appears to be in good spirits.

I bet the big slice he hit after the sliding scoop move made him curse. Ain't no way that man is a scratch player.

 

[MT15]

Look at the hem of his pants against the grass. And the curve of the right pants leg. Doesn’t look right. Oh and the left arm looks deformed. just weird.