straightUp Loc: California

Yeah... I'm currently between projects, so I have a little more free time but somehow my "honey do" list got a lot bigger. LOL

jimpack123 Loc: wisconsin

Amen I do believe that at least 4GOP senators will v**e for witnesses anyone that is in up for ree******n will think long and hard about it

Weewillynobeerspilly Loc: North central Texas

I hear ya brother......honey do will always be there, so be safe in the knowledge of that. ....and it doubles in short order from my experience

straightUp Loc: California

Before I go down this rabbit hole, let me just point out that NO conspiracy or distraction can excuse the Senate's refusal to weigh the "evidence". It's very simple. The fact of the matter is, Senate Republicans are refusing to do their job. Even if the House were making all this stuff up... it is STILL the Constitutional duty for Senate to weigh the evidence. Even if Trump were saving the world from "bad people"... it is STILL the Constitutional duty for Senate to weigh the evidence. So if you're trying to excuse Senate Republicans for violating the Constitution, you're wasting your time.

That being said... let's see what you got.


1. Your sarcastic "dangerous Russian encroachment upon its borders" is a poor description of the fact that Russia has actually invaded their country and taken control of significant parts of it including Crimea. The fact that you can present such details about Privatbank without even knowing that Russia has invaded tells me that you just found an article that you THINK provides an excuse for what Trump did.

2. It's not Trump's place to decide if they should get the funding. Congress approved the funding and Trump's job was to deliver it. If Trump had any issues with the corruption in the Ukraine, he should have made that case to Congress but he didn't.

3. After Trump's quid-pro-quo was leaked, he sent the money anyway. Which means your argument against sending money to corrupt Ukraine really isn't helping his case.


Yeah, so? The entire former Soviet Union is drowning in corruption, that includes both Russia and the Ukraine. We can talk about corruption in the former Soviet republics all day but in the end NONE of it matters to the impeachment case here in America. Bottom line... Trump tried to secretly bribe a foreign president for personal gain and that's a violation of our constitution and the fact that you are trying to make excuses for that violation is an acknowledgment that he is guilty (with an explanation) so again, you're not helping him.


That's an obvious sign that the U.S. under Trump is losing control of the situation. The EU is just getting tired of Trump's i***t games. They may come back to the fold when we get a decent president again but the world may never regain the confidence it once had in American long-term commitment. Trump is losing everywhere actually, North Korea made a joke out of him, even Iraq is demanding that we leave now since Trump pulled that bonehead move on Soleimani who was an invited guest in their country.

BTW, I know it's important for your BS rhetoric to keep referring to Iran as a the world's biggest sponsor of terrorism but statistically speaking, the world's biggest sponsor of terrorism is the United States of America.


So? Are American private citizens not allowed to sit on boards of foreign companies?


LOL - "a flare for lavishness" and "running a super-exclusive fashion boutique named after himself" Gee, who does THAT sound like? LOL



Again, it's not Trump's place to overrule Congress. The IMF and the World Bank have rules about what a country can do with the money they get. If we don't have the confidence in those rules, then our elected legislators should not have approved the aid. If Trump had information about the corruption in the Ukraine that would be cause for concern, he should have addressed Congress about it. But he didn't. Chances are he DID know about all this, or certainly, Pompeo should have... It's not like everything you just described happened inside a week. So, why didn't Trump follow normal protocol and express his concern to Congress?

I'm betting it's because if Congress decided NOT to appropriate the funds, Trump would not have had that same leverage to bribe Zelensky with.

Anyway - thank you for giving me so much ammunition. I really enjoy shooting holes in your lame-ass excuses with your own bullets.

straightUp Loc: California

Yeah, I'm experiencing that now...

CounterRevolutionary

Straigntup, you are highly confused about the separation of powers in our Constitution designed by our founding Fathers. The Executive Branch sets foreign policy, not Congress, who can only appropriate money for the President's foreign policy.

Now, let's talk about Putin seizing the Crimea. Why did he do it? (my answer does not mean I support Putin's foreign policy). When the Soviet Union broke up and the Iron Curtain countries were freed, including the Ukraine, One third of Russia's military-industrial complex went with it. The collapse of c*******m in Russia made the American Democrat Party and European Union cling to the next c*******t dictatorship China and its proxy, Iran, to promote the New World Order. Iran is oil, and the socialist EU would rather support c*******t Iran than the capitalists in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Emirates, or even Iraq who have much more oil to sell.

Below is an old 2014 article from the Washington Times regarding the Ukraine's military aid shipments to Red China. Keep in mind, that China's biggest oil supplier is Iran and Trump has placed an international trade embargo on its phony fundamentalist centralized planning dictatorship of mullahs of which Barisma and the EU wants to do business with big-time. This is destabilizing peace in the Middle East and Russia and Latin America.

This is a very lengthy article from the Washington Times, and I certainly cannot copy it all, but I suggest you pull it up and read the entire text to get better educated on how Trump's economic warfare operates; better this than a full scale invasion of troops into Iran:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/13/inside-china-why-putins-intervention-in-ukraine-is/
"Inside China: Why Putin’s intervention in Ukraine is bad news for China
The Washington Times ... By Miles Yu - - Thursday, March 13, 2014 ...
The vessel is the world's largest hovercraft, and is essential for amphibious assault landings along beaches and coastlines. ... In a deal with Ukraine, China obtained its navy's largest ocean-going ship ...

"On March 1, two tugboats hurriedly towed a nearly completed behemoth out of Ukraine’s Feodosiya shipyard on the Crimean Peninsula. It was loaded quickly onto a huge cargo ship that set sail to China....

"Ukraine is ranked as the world’s sixth-largest arms exporter. The former Soviet republic inherited a substantial portion of Moscow’s weapons expertise and military industry: About 30 percent of all Soviet defense industries are located inside Ukraine.

"The Ukrainian PA Yuzhmash weapons plant alone produced two-thirds of the Soviet Union’s surface-to-air missiles, nearly half of all Soviet ballistic missiles, and almost all of the Soviets’ space launch vehicles. Three of the Soviet Union’s six surface warship shipyards were located in Ukraine and made all classes of vessels from frigates and destroyers to nuclear-powered cruisers and aircraft carriers.
After Ukraine gained independence in 1991, many of the Soviet-era military design and manufacturing capabilities remained in Ukraine, creating a dilemma for Kiev: Its big-ticket weapons systems, defense technologies, military production capabilities and weapons experts left over from the Soviet era far exceeded the needs of independent Ukraine’s defenses.

"As a result, over the past two decades, Ukraine has binged on arms sales, exporting advanced Soviet weapons surpluses. And Kiev’s biggest customer has been China, under an international arms embargo since 1989 following the People’s Liberation Army’s slaughter of pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square.

"Over the past two decades, Ukraine has been instrumental in helping the Chinese navy become a blue-water force with global reach. The crown jewel of China’s nationalism is the Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier Liaoning. The half-finished Soviet vessel, then-known as the Varyag, was purchased for $20 million by the Chinese military from the Ukrainian government in 1998...."

Straigntup, you need to also understand that Iran's terrorist network, not only sends Spanish speaking trained Hezbollah and HAMAS agents to Latin America to partner with Venezuelan and Columbian c*******t - f*****t FARC drug cartels, and Mexican gangs crossing our southern border, but Iran also subsidizes the c*******t terrorists Chechen rebels inside Russia to destroy this fledgling Russian Federation democracy. Recall that Putin also invaded Iran to impede Iran's terrorist aggressions against Russia.

It is former President Obama's foreign policy of ending sanctions on Iran and entering in this disastrous nuclear deal, subsidizing Iran's international terrorism, while bailing out the European Union, Iran's biggest trading partner, that represents a world international security threat.

Even the AFL-CIO Trumpkin backs President Trump's economic warfare against China and Iran. See this labor union's support in the video "Death By China".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMlmjXtnIXI
Death By China: How America Lost Its Manufacturing Base (Official Version)

CounterRevolutionary

Don, you write that "BTW, the GAO reported that Obama withheld funds to other countries something like 19 times. No big deal. And Obama gave very little to the Ukraine because he was afraid of upsetting Putin.[/quote]

I'm not sure Obama was afraid of Putin, but certainly disliked him, since Obama supported Iran through subsidizing the European Union, Iran's biggest trading partner, which was subsidizing the Chechen Rebels to destroy the Russian Federation. Obama also engaged in economic warfare against Russia by financing the Ukrainian civil war, sending our CIA, Biden, Kerry. George Soros, partnered with Russian c*******t Mafia Mikhail Khodorkovsky, (YUKOS Oli oligarch) with the neo-N**i Sefano Bandera gang to take over the media and arm the rebels. 400 Ukrainians were buried alive in this r*******n, just to oust Yukanovich and install president Poroshenko, who joined the socialist European Union of which our Federal Reserve Bank bailed out to the tune of $16 TRILLION dollars printed out of this air after the international housing market collapsed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkoOGQnj_aE
Ukraine on Fire The Real Story Full Documentary by Oliver Stone Original English version