Impeachment hearings

[_MissTish]

Pentagon official Laura Cooper has now testified Ukrainian officials knew as early as July 25 - the day of the Trump/Zelinsky call- there was an issue with US aid. In their defense of Trump, some Republicans have alleged no bribery could exist if the Ukrainians weren't aware aid was being withheld.

https://Twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1 ... 8830533632

[_ajax18]

If a president loses control of the house, he will be impeached. If he loses control of the Senate, he will be removed. There's just too many career people in the opposition party that will be close enough to leak to friendly media and strike at an enemy president. McConnel, in spite of being a lousy RINO, has been putting through enough Trump nominations that Republicans will have the power to play this game for quite some time regardless of the demographic shifts within the country.

Gridlock has progressed into a cold civil war. Both sides hate each other just as much or more than yankees hated confederates. There's no room for compromise, no deals cut on welfare or immigration, just fighting and obstruction.

[_Dr. Shades]

Nobody else reported, even they all knew what was going on. Anyone not receiving favorable treatment was incensed by it. It was a frequent topic of conversation at work. Numerous people quit the organization in disgust over it. But they did not blow the whistle.

'Cause if they did, they'd be labeled a conspiracy theorist, right?

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

If a president loses control of the house, he will be impeached. If he loses control of the Senate, he will be removed. There's just too many career people in the opposition party that will be close enough to leak to friendly media and strike at an enemy president. McConnel, in spite of being a lousy RINO, has been putting through enough Trump nominations that Republicans will have the power to play this game for quite some time regardless of the demographic shifts within the country.

Gridlock has progressed into a cold civil war. Both sides hate each other just as much or more than yankees hated confederates. There's no room for compromise, no deals cut on welfare or immigration, just fighting and obstruction.

The facts are clear:

Trump only wanted Ukraine to announce an investigation in order to impugn Biden's character to gain an electoral advantage.

Trump conditioned congressional mandated military aid to Ukraine, during wartime, on the investigation announcement.

This conditioned request was a contradiction of official U.S. - Ukrainian foreign policy.

In order to carry out this counter-policy, Trump ran a back-channel through Giuliani, a private citizen with criminal ties to corrupt Ukrainians.

Trump used the power of the Office of the President of the U.S. to conspire with criminal elements to compel the Ukrainian government to manufacture an announcement about a non-warranted investigation into his political rival in order to gain an electoral advantage.

The president has subsequently obstructed investigation into his quid pro quo extortion.

This is not the first time that Trump has conspired with criminal foreign actors for electoral advantage.

Ignore the facts at your own peril.

[_EAllusion]

Nobody else reported, even they all knew what was going on. Anyone not receiving favorable treatment was incensed by it. It was a frequent topic of conversation at work. Numerous people quit the organization in disgust over it. But they did not blow the whistle.

'Cause if they did, they'd be labeled a conspiracy theorist, right?

No, they'd be labeled that if they went around saying 9/11 was an inside job.

[_ajax18]

This is not the first time that Trump has conspired with criminal foreign actors for electoral advantage.

Whatever happened to your Russian collusion thing?

[_EAllusion]

A personal story:

I worked in an organization that had a serious problem with favoritism from the regional head. She overtly treated her friends much better than other employees. Those in her inner circle could do pretty much whatever they wanted. And her "friends" including those people underneath her she slept with. This favoritism resulted in a particularly incompetent and unethical person she was sleeping with receiving a promotion. I regard that person as a true psychopath. Trump-esque, if you will. Both prior to and after that promotion, this person engaged in some very serious misconduct, including unlawful behavior, that the regional head helped cover up.

Everyone at my level knew about this. We all had different pieces of the picture. Some of us knew of some things first hand, other things second hand, and some things not at all, while others knew different parts of the puzzle. But everyone knew about serious misconduct. Everyone. To my knowledge, only two people acted as whistle blowers. Myself and one other person. People who remember our chatroom may remember me discussing this. The person besides myself was passed up for a promotion by this person and was very hurt by it. My personality happens to combine strong scruples with a complete disregard for authority qua authority in a way that probably made it easier for me to report. And when I did, my heart was beating like a hummingbird. Our reports went nowhere, though they may have contributed to the regional head being forced to resign a few years later. The coverups worked.

Nobody else reported, even they all knew what was going on. Anyone not receiving favorable treatment was incensed by it. It was a frequent topic of conversation at work. Numerous people quit the organization in disgust over it. But they did not blow the whistle.

I think this experience is fairly normal. I know whenever I hear reports about whistleblowers, a common theme is that they were one reporter in a group of people who knew about the problem, but didn't act on it. Seems to be human nature. That nature can be abused by people with the will to do it.

On a tangent from this, the person in question was a serial sexual harasser. He was essentially a sexual predator.

One day, a person I supervised came to me with Facebook messages she received from this person. He had aggressively propositioned her, and when she rebuffed him, he started threatening her. She was looking for help. I advised going to the police, but she refused as this person was a former police officer. Understanding that I couldn't go through the normal chain of command because he received favorable treatment there, I took it to the highest person I knew who existed apart from the line the regional head controlled. I brought the evidence with me. Nothing happened to him as a result of it and nothing was ever said to me about it again, but several days later, a person with oversight over a quarter of the country developed a specific interest in the performance issues of the harassed person I supervised. My supervisor said she was instructed to instruct me to write her up for her supposed performance issues until she is termed or quits.

I refused to do so and she worked there for another year. In a generally positive performance review, my refusal to follow this order was obliquely referred to as a negative.

I imagine working in the Trump admin is kinda like this, but with bigger stakes.

[_EAllusion]

This is not the first time that Trump has conspired with criminal foreign actors for electoral advantage.

Whatever happened to your Russian collusion thing?

He mostly got away with it while some lower level people went to jail.

[_Res Ipsa]

Pentagon official Laura Cooper has now testified Ukrainian officials knew as early as July 25 - the day of the Trump/Zelinsky call- there was an issue with US aid. In their defense of Trump, some Republicans have alleged no bribery could exist if the Ukrainians weren't aware aid was being withheld.

https://Twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1 ... 8830533632

That's just smoke and mirrors. Zelensky desperately wanted a meeting with Trump to show Russia that the USA had Ukraine's back. He knew that he wouldn't get the meeting unless he announced the investigations. That's plenty.

And, regardless, just the attempt is an abuse of presidential power for personal gain. That's also plenty.

[_Res Ipsa]

Nobody else reported, even they all knew what was going on. Anyone not receiving favorable treatment was incensed by it. It was a frequent topic of conversation at work. Numerous people quit the organization in disgust over it. But they did not blow the whistle.

'Cause if they did, they'd be labeled a conspiracy theorist, right?

Only by people who didn't understand what a conspiracy theorist is.