The Impeachment Process Has Officially Begun (2 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

 

[Dragon]

1 billion dollars. I wonder if we followed that money, how many people in Washington would be getting a cut. 1 billion dollars.

Which is about $4/voter - not a lot when you think about what is at stake. And they also blocked legislation with no money attached like "ensuring foreign entities are not buying political ads. It also would require public disclosure of who paid for the ad."

^ That was one of the major ways that the Russian influenzed the last election and the republicans BLOCKED legislation to put an end to that....

 

[Lazybones]

Which is about $4/voter - not a lot when you think about what is at stake. And they also blocked legislation with no money attached like "ensuring foreign entities are not buying political ads. It also would require public disclosure of who paid for the ad."

^ That was one of the major ways that the Russian influenzed the last election and the republicans BLOCKED legislation to put an end to that....

No offense, but you (who don’t live and pay taxes here) are spending more of my tax dollars. Every pet project cost ME more money. And unfortunately government is not very dutiful with our money. Democrats and Republicans use our hard earned money for the power to line their own pockets.

As far as a foreign entity not buying ads. I’m not sure how that is any different than lobbyist or group. I don’t know the legalities and really don’t think it’s that big of a deal with our global economy.

 

[JimEverett]

Which is about $4/voter - not a lot when you think about what is at stake. And they also blocked legislation with no money attached like "ensuring foreign entities are not buying political ads. It also would require public disclosure of who paid for the ad."

^ That was one of the major ways that the Russian influenzed the last election and the republicans BLOCKED legislation to put an end to that....

$1 biliion for what though? Its sort of like the idea of voter fraud - where is the evidence the this is really a problem?
I am speaking about the voting machines thing.

As far as the other stufff - y main problem with this foreign influence thing is how big we have blown it up. I am not discounting it as a problem - but it is far from a big problem.

 

[Dragon]

No offense, but you (who don’t live and pay taxes here) are spending more of my tax dollars. Every pet project cost ME more money. And unfortunately government is not very dutiful with our money. Democrats and Republicans use our hard earned money for the power to line their own pockets.

It was a reply to this

focus on how you're going to prevent interference (more accurately minimize the effect of) in the next election because I can assure you it's coming.

I'm not spending any of your money although I think $4/voter is cheap to ensure that your elections are fair and free from foreign influenze.

You did not comment on the second proposal which was blocked and which had no money attached (and btw - IMHO were far the most important of all of them)

 

[Dragon]

$1 biliion for what though? Its sort of like the idea of voter fraud - where is the evidence the this is really a problem?

That is a fair question and would warrent a closer look at the bills, but notice not all the blocked legislations had money attached.

 

[Lazybones]

That is a fair question and would warrent a closer look at the bills, but notice not all the blocked legislations had money attached.

I responded and edited sorry.

I have not read up on the other bill and Will shortly. But I don’t see a problem on the surface allowing a company from Canada buying an add in Minnesota.

 

[Lazybones]

That is a fair question and would warrent a closer look at the bills, but notice not all the blocked legislations had money attached.

I’m not seeing a bill that has no money tied to it, can you give me a reference. I also see where 380 million was appropriated to the states and seemed to be effective in the last election cycle.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

You just proved the point I've made in my previous posts. It wasn't a question of "if" Russia interfered with the election; we already knew that. Mueller's job was to investigate "how" Russia interfered and if Russia colluded with the Trump campaign. He should've also investigated how the Clinton campaign and the DNC colluded with Russia and other foreign governments during the election but of course we know he never did that.

So, you're not interested in how they interfered? It seems all you cared about was clearing trump and the Mueller investigation was bigger than just trump. I think "the how" is very important and was worthy of an investigation so that we can, at the very least, take some preventive measures to prevent a repeat of the mistakes that were made. But again, you seem content with the thought that everyone does it and it is ok if it happens to us.

 

[JimEverett]

So, you're not interested in how they interfered? It seems all you cared about was clearing trump and the Mueller investigation was bigger than just trump. I think "the how" is very important and was worthy of an investigation so that we can, at the very least, take some preventive measures to prevent a repeat of the mistakes that were made. But again, you seem content with the thought that everyone does it and it is ok if it happens to us.

No doubt there could have been a more "bipartisan" approach taken to it but from day 1 it was framed as Russia put Trump into office and he was an illegitimate President. You really are not going to get much accomplished in way of solving an actual problem going at it that way.

 

[N.O.Bronco]

No doubt there could have been a more "bipartisan" approach taken to it but from day 1 it was framed as Russia put Trump into office and he was an illegitimate President. You really are not going to get much accomplished in way of solving an actual problem going at it that way.

I challenged someone before with no avail, but show me the quotes of a significant number of sitting politicians that corroborate that allegation?

But even if we took that premise at face value, that doesn’t exonerate complacency, let alone justify abdication that comes at the expense of securing our electoral processes. In fact if the justification for not doing something that is morally correct is to get back at the Dems, that only makes it worse.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

No doubt there could have been a more "bipartisan" approach taken to it but from day 1 it was framed as Russia put Trump into office and he was an illegitimate President. You really are not going to get much accomplished in way of solving an actual problem going at it that way.

That may be how the politicians framed it, but the investigators in the intelligence community were interested in the facts of the matter. And before we get into all the side show stuff concerning the inappropriate relationship between the FBI agents, it was still possible for them to do their job without allowing their personal biases getting in the way. I know this might be hard to believe, but politics is not everyone's main drive and that is especially true for those Federal workers who have sworn to uphold something more precious than political affiliation.

 

[Beach Friends]

I challenged someone before with no avail, but show me the quotes of a significant number of sitting politicians that corroborate that allegation?

But even if we took that premise at face value, that doesn’t exonerate complacency, let alone justify abdication that comes at the expense of securing our electoral processes. In fact if the justification for not doing something that is morally correct is to get back at the Dems, that only makes it worse.

"Not within my purview."

Wasn't that Mueller's response to the types of questions you all are saying we need answers to?

You can dismiss the IC's role if you like, but I think very shortly we are all going to see that some very key players in the IC are responsible for getting the entire nation sidetracked for the last 3 years.

 

[V Chip]

What matters about the Mueller investigation is that it could find no conclusive evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to tamper with the election.

It also didn't find any evidence that Aliens are living in Area 51.

Which is because the Mueller investigation was not tasked with investigating "Collusion" just as it was not tasked with investigating Aliens at Area 51. "Collusion" is not a legal term, so it could not be investigated.

This is like the 4th time I have explained this here, yet all the Trump defenders keep trotting out that same tired lie -- almost Trumpian in the repetition of lies.

 

[Dragon]

You can dismiss the IC's role if you like, but I think very shortly we are all going to see that some very key players in the IC are responsible for getting the entire nation sidetracked for the last 3 years.

You do know that people have been convicted and served time for crimes committed right?

You do know the Trump Jr thought the meeting with the russians was to get "dirt" on Clinton right? ? but did not report it to the authorities as he should have - And even wrote "he loved it" - Yes Mueller declined to procecute him due to ignorance of the laws (would definitely NOT have worked here)

U.S. campaign finance law bars foreigners from making contributions or donations to candidates "and prohibits anyone from soliciting, accepting, or receiving such contributions or donations," the special counsel said. While the law is broad, he said, cases are difficult to prove for a variety of reasons.

Mueller concluded that his team didn’t have admissible evidence that was likely to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the meeting’s participants knew they were breaking the law and that they "knowingly and willfully" intended to do so.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-18/donald-trump-jr-mueller-report

 

[Lazybones]

That may be how the politicians framed it, but the investigators in the intelligence community were interested in the facts of the matter. And before we get into all the side show stuff concerning the inappropriate relationship between the FBI agents, it was still possible for them to do their job without allowing their personal biases getting in the way. I know this might be hard to believe, but politics is not everyone's main drive and that is especially true for those Federal workers who have sworn to uphold something more precious than political affiliation.

Unfortunately this was a political set up from jump street. all the way up to paying for the Steele dossier.

 

[superchuck500]

The Democrats just rejected an amendment which would require that any exculpatory evidence be turned over to the judiciary committee.

This type of rejection of fundamental due process and fairness is only going to create further tribalism. I don't want to hear crap when the Republicans act accordingly when the reaches the Senate.

I'm curious about this - do you have a link? I'll go looking but if you have one handy. Thx

 

[Lazybones]

It also didn't find any evidence that Aliens are living in Area 51.

Which is because the Mueller investigation was not tasked with investigating "Collusion" just as it was not tasked with investigating Aliens at Area 51. "Collusion" is not a legal term, so it could not be investigated.

This is like the 4th time I have explained this here, yet all the Trump defenders keep trotting out that same tired lie -- almost Trumpian in the repetition of lies.

You keep explaining, but we have the ruling on our side. Nothing came of the mueller investigation. Just like I think Benghazi was a fraud and people should have been convicted, you feel the same about the mueller stuff. The difference is that people died in Benghazi.

The media and politicians have moved on to stage 533, Impeachment. Before long the only thing they will have left is the election in 2020.

 

[Dragon]

You keep explaining, but we have the ruling on our side. Nothing came of the mueller investigation. Just like I think Benghazi was a fraud and people should have been convicted, you feel the same about the mueller stuff. The difference is that people died in Benghazi.

The media and politicians have moved on to stage 533, Impeachment. Before long the only thing they will have left is the election in 2020.

See 3 posts above

There has been multiple convictions and people have gone to jail and the only thing that saved Trump jr. was ignorance of the law...