Listening to some of the interviews today with Republican Senators it was obvious to me they don't know the facts or simply don't care about them.
The simply don't care about them crowd is using rhetoric and not facts. In not caring about them crowd needs a strong Democrat to run against them when their term is due to expire. They don't care about the USA Constitution if they don't care about the wrongdoings of the president, either.
But, for the folks laughing this off as "Trump loves baiting the press," they don't know all the facts either. The facts will be in the "Articles of Impeachment."
Some people are calling Trump's extortion of Ukraine a complete government shakedown and some are calling it a scandal while yet others are calling it a misunderstanding.
This is not a scandal or a misunderstanding, the president broke the law. Just that simple.
The "Articles of Impeachment" are argued by a group of US House members called "Managers." The Democrats need to include in the impeachment document a reply to Trump's lies because they will come up in the US Senate trial. A good example of a lie are his claims no other country contributes to the efforts in Ukraine. That is a blatant lie and the proof of so will no doubt be demanded by the US Senate in the trial. I would expect every one of Trump's lies to be brought up in defense of him in the trial.
Before the trial starts the entire US Senate has affirmed or taken an oath at the opening of the proceedings. Basically, they are sworn in to be engaged in a way that honors the truth. Let's hope each Senator will conduct themselves with all due diligence and honesty. The USA Supreme Court Chief Justice presides over the trial. The process of the trial is frequently equated to that of a Grand Jury.
I do not accept the idea this is nothing but 100% politics. This is a serious investigation for fact finding to bring about the removal of a president. Facts are not political, they are the basis of a trial. Political issues sometimes don't have facts but simply ideology. This process is not about ideology either. It is not a scandal, a misunderstanding or ideological politics; this is a serious process to remove the president from office, because he broke the law.
The president or the US Senate may have not worked to release the entire amount of military spending to Ukraine which may be the reason investigations are being conducted yet again regarding the USA elections and The Bidens.
This is from Defense News:
September 12, 2019
By Joe Gould
Washington - The White House (click here) has relinquished its hold on $250 million in military aid to Ukraine after weeks of bipartisan pressure from lawmakers who said the funding was needed to deter Russia.
Republicans and Democratic members of the Senate Appropriations Committee said Thursday the administration had relented late Wednesday. The news emerged in a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on fiscal 2020 defense spending.
President Donald Trump’s initial hold angered some lawmakers who are typically his allies, including South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who chairs the Senate subcommittee that covers State Department spending.
“I will be the strongest voice here if they don’t timely release the [2020 military aid],” Graham said....
September 25, 2019
By Joe Gould and Howard Altman
Washington ― At the center of the latest scandal (click here) threatening to take down President Donald Trump is $391 million in military aid that the U.S. leader reportedly asked his staff to freeze for two months before dropping the hold a week ago, under pressure from lawmakers....
...In June, the Pentagon announced plans to provide $250 million to Ukraine in security cooperation funds for additional training, equipment and advisory efforts to build the capacity of Ukraine’s armed forces. The U.S. State Department separately planned to provide $141 million in aid....
...The U.S. has committed more than $1.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since 2014, when Russian-backed separatists began driving tanks through eastern Ukraine. The latest equipment was largely more of the same aid the U.S. previously supplied, aimed at helping Ukraine monitor and secure its borders, deploy its forces more safely and effectively, and make progress toward NATO interoperability....
What was that number? $1.5 billion since 2014. I guess President Obama did his part, too.
...The Defense Department’s tranche was set to include sniper rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, counter-artillery radars, electronic warfare detection and secure communications, night vision equipment, and military medical supplies and treatment. The department previously included counter-sniper equipment, Humvees and tactical drones as well.
The State Department funding included $115 million for a broad array of purposes, to buy American-produced weapons through the Foreign Military Financing program, but also to provide advisers and training to boost Ukraine’s NATO interoperability: English language labs, medical equipment and improvised bomb simulators. The funds could also pay for spare parts, sustainment and training for previously purchased U.S. gear....
Below, the "Military Times" discusses impeachment. It draws attention to five freshmen US House Representatives whom all have military experience. No one, not even Trump, can say the Democrats are playing to their extreme left.
September 25, 2019
By Leo Shane III and Joe Gould
A coalition of national security Democrats, (click here) including five freshmen with military experience, on Tuesday blasted President Donald Trump’s alleged political dealings with Ukraine as a potential “impeachable offense” and joined their House colleagues in demanding the White House provide public answers on the scandal.
In a Washington Post opinion piece Monday night, the group — all of whom represent districts Democrats flipped in the last mid-term election — called the latest accusations stunning and a significant national security threat.
Trump on Sunday seemed to acknowledged that, during a recent phone conversation, he urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to look into links between corruption in that country and Hunter Biden, the son of former vice president and current Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden....
The White House never discussed the delay in aid to Ukraine and were diligently trying to find out what the problem could be. Why would anyone from the White House discuss the hold on Ukraine's aid, it was illegal.
September 30, 2019
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill (click here) couldn't figure out over this past summer why nearly $400 million in aid they'd voted to go to Ukraine still wasn't in the country's coffers.
There was growing speculation by the end of August. Congressional leaders, their aides and members of key committees -- including the Appropriations, Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees -- were scrambling to figure out why money that had been appropriated by Congress months before still hadn't been disbursed. Outreach by lawmakers to key agencies left few clues other than the delay was coming from the White House and no one could pinpoint exactly what the reason was....
Corruption was never a deterrent to Ukrainian aid before.
October 5, 2019
By Kathy Gilsinan
...After Barack Obama left, (click here) Trump announced, and Congress approved, a plan to provide anti-tank missiles as well, something both military and diplomatic officials had recommended. Joseph Dunford, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in congressional testimony in the fall of 2017 that “Ukraine needed additional capabilities to protect their sovereignty” from Russia, which was supporting an insurgency in the eastern half of the country and had already seized the Crimean Peninsula. To the extent corruption was a concern at the time, it did not take precedence over the determination to try to stop Russian tanks....
I found the article cited by "The Atlantic" (click here) more than interesting. This is from that same story.
“The U.S. rarely gives [security assistance] to Switzerland or Canada because they don’t need it; the states that need it are rarely governed as effectively as Switzerland or Canada.”
I am ending it here tonight because I am traveling tomorrow and need sleep beforehand.
Until later.
Sunday, October 06, 2019
The USA is not exempt from it's own homegrown corruption infused by Russia.
"Moscow Mitch" is at it again. He has no loyalty to the USA Constitution and is in violation of his oath of office. Trump and his loyalists, including Secretary Munchkin, hack away at the Russian sanctions in every way possible.
Putin's money clad corruption is still alive and well in the USA and it includes the US Senate Majority Leader.
October 5, 2019
By Billy Kobin
Earlier this week, (click here) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said his chamber would have "no choice" but to hold a trial on whether to remove President Donald Trump from office if the House votes to impeach.
But in a new campaign ad on Facebook, the Kentucky Republican claims that any impeachment attempt will fail as long as he remains in charge of the Senate.
"Nancy Pelosi's in the clutches of a left-wing mob. They finally convinced her to impeach the president," McConnell says directly to the camera in a 17-second video. "All of you know your Constitution. The way that impeachment stops is a Senate majority with me as majority leader.
"But I need your help," he adds, standing in front of a picture of an elephant. "Please contribute before the deadline."
The McConnell campaign, according to Facebook's "Ad Library," started running the digital ad last week, a few days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry over whether Trump improperly pressured Ukraine's president to investigate political rival and possible 2020 opponent Joe Biden....
Putin's money clad corruption is still alive and well in the USA and it includes the US Senate Majority Leader.
October 5, 2019
By Billy Kobin
Earlier this week, (click here) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said his chamber would have "no choice" but to hold a trial on whether to remove President Donald Trump from office if the House votes to impeach.
But in a new campaign ad on Facebook, the Kentucky Republican claims that any impeachment attempt will fail as long as he remains in charge of the Senate.
"Nancy Pelosi's in the clutches of a left-wing mob. They finally convinced her to impeach the president," McConnell says directly to the camera in a 17-second video. "All of you know your Constitution. The way that impeachment stops is a Senate majority with me as majority leader.
"But I need your help," he adds, standing in front of a picture of an elephant. "Please contribute before the deadline."
The McConnell campaign, according to Facebook's "Ad Library," started running the digital ad last week, a few days after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry over whether Trump improperly pressured Ukraine's president to investigate political rival and possible 2020 opponent Joe Biden....
Shokin
There were a number of reasons the people of Ukraine, the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the USA were against the work of Viktor Shokin and why he was replaced.
Besides the war at the eastern border of Ukraine, the primary problem President Poroshenko faced was eradicating corruption within it's sovereign borders. All one has to do is realize that the previous president, Yanukovych, and his activities were to know the corruption was rampant. The national military was disarmed and the Oligarchies throughout the country were provided weapons and uniforms to form their own militias. The Oligarchs under Yanukovych were the organizers of the economy, so everything went through them. Replacing that organization and rearming of the national military while disarming the militias didn't happen overnight.
While seeking to strengthen the domestic economy and government infrastructure the IMF lead the charge against corruption in Ukraine. When it was obvious that wasn't going to occur, Shokin was viewed as the cause.
13 February 2015
“The nomination of Shokin is a shock” (click here) – shouted the participants of the manifestation in front of the Ukrainian Embassy in Warsaw. Ukrainians, Kazakhs and Warsaw residents gathered in front of the building and protested against the most recent changes in the Prosecutor General’s Office in Ukraine and the nomination of Victor Shokin to head the prosecutor’s office.
Representatives of the Open Dialog Foundation, which organised the protest, were drawing the attention of passers-by and the media present on location, to the attempts by the Prosecutor’s Office to protect and cover for the people responsible for the massacre on Maidan. An appeal was also filed with the Ambassador and addressed to the Ukrainian President, the Prime Minister and MPs, in which Shokin’s nomination was heavily criticised.
From the Irish Times
March 29, 2016
By Daniel McLaughlin
The European Union (click here) has welcomed the dismissal of Ukraine’s scandal-ridden prosecutor general and called for a crackdown on corruption, even as the country’s political crisis deepened over efforts to form a new ruling coalition and appoint a new prime minister.
Ukraine’s parliament voted overwhelmingly to fire Viktor Shokin, ridding the beleaguered prosecutor’s office of a figure who is accused of blocking major cases against allies and influential figures and stymying moves to root out graft.
“This decision creates an opportunity to make a fresh start in the prosecutor general’s office. I hope that the new prosecutor general will ensure that [his] office . . . becomes independent from political influence and pressure and enjoys public trust,” said Jan Tombinski, the EU’s envoy to Ukraine.
“There is still a lack of tangible results of investigations into serious cases . . . as well as investigations of high-level officials within the prosecutor general’s office,” he added....
An investigation into The Bidens doesn't even enter the picture. Shokin was a died in the wool Russian sympathizer. He won't bring charges against those that murdered all those people in the Maidan and he was not seriously pursuing the corruption left behind by Yanukovych. He was hostile to the priorities of President Poroshenko. I think the war on the eastern border was more the focus of the president and it wasn't until the EU, the IMF and the USA started to insist Ukraine deal with corruption did Shokin finally come into view as a problem.
It is sometimes difficult to understand how such corruption could still exist after a revolution that lead to changes in the constitution, but, these people existed under Russia oppression for years under Yanukovych. They were used to coping with the existing corruption and to some extent corruption has its own economy. So, a new democracy was moving forward albeit slowly and with enormous problems, including the pressures from Putin; the political infrastructure was still very fluid and allies were not necessarily easy to identify.
President Poroshenko was a businessman when he took leadership. His focus was moving Ukraine forward to encourage growth and inclusion into a European market. One of the reasons Ukraine wasn't involved in European markets before the revolution was because Russia backed Yanukovych and Yanukovych was corrupt to the core. His palace alone and all it's opulence came as gratitude by Russia.
Poroshenko had to change all that and he never focused on the fact his Prosecutor General was part of the problem. Part of that was political and appearing competent, but, his new allies insisted he move forward before sincere relief and the European markets could be open to Ukraine. That is the reason Shokin was removed from his position. It had nothing to do with Biden, except, the Vice President put an ultimatum to Poroshenko. That was the only involvement VP Biden had in removing Shokin and it had nothing to do with his son. It was about moving Ukraine out of it's vast corrupted Oligarch networks.
I might add at the time all this was going on the war in the east, vanquishing corruption, encouraging economic growth, President Poroshenko was involved with Germany, Russia and the rebels in the east in writing two treaties. First was Minske I that was violated by the eastern rebels and Minske II had the same fate. Putin's promises of ending the war didn't even come close. Instead, Russia armed the eastern rebels.
Besides the war at the eastern border of Ukraine, the primary problem President Poroshenko faced was eradicating corruption within it's sovereign borders. All one has to do is realize that the previous president, Yanukovych, and his activities were to know the corruption was rampant. The national military was disarmed and the Oligarchies throughout the country were provided weapons and uniforms to form their own militias. The Oligarchs under Yanukovych were the organizers of the economy, so everything went through them. Replacing that organization and rearming of the national military while disarming the militias didn't happen overnight.
While seeking to strengthen the domestic economy and government infrastructure the IMF lead the charge against corruption in Ukraine. When it was obvious that wasn't going to occur, Shokin was viewed as the cause.
13 February 2015
“The nomination of Shokin is a shock” (click here) – shouted the participants of the manifestation in front of the Ukrainian Embassy in Warsaw. Ukrainians, Kazakhs and Warsaw residents gathered in front of the building and protested against the most recent changes in the Prosecutor General’s Office in Ukraine and the nomination of Victor Shokin to head the prosecutor’s office.
Representatives of the Open Dialog Foundation, which organised the protest, were drawing the attention of passers-by and the media present on location, to the attempts by the Prosecutor’s Office to protect and cover for the people responsible for the massacre on Maidan. An appeal was also filed with the Ambassador and addressed to the Ukrainian President, the Prime Minister and MPs, in which Shokin’s nomination was heavily criticised.
From the Irish Times
March 29, 2016
By Daniel McLaughlin
The European Union (click here) has welcomed the dismissal of Ukraine’s scandal-ridden prosecutor general and called for a crackdown on corruption, even as the country’s political crisis deepened over efforts to form a new ruling coalition and appoint a new prime minister.
Ukraine’s parliament voted overwhelmingly to fire Viktor Shokin, ridding the beleaguered prosecutor’s office of a figure who is accused of blocking major cases against allies and influential figures and stymying moves to root out graft.
“This decision creates an opportunity to make a fresh start in the prosecutor general’s office. I hope that the new prosecutor general will ensure that [his] office . . . becomes independent from political influence and pressure and enjoys public trust,” said Jan Tombinski, the EU’s envoy to Ukraine.
“There is still a lack of tangible results of investigations into serious cases . . . as well as investigations of high-level officials within the prosecutor general’s office,” he added....
An investigation into The Bidens doesn't even enter the picture. Shokin was a died in the wool Russian sympathizer. He won't bring charges against those that murdered all those people in the Maidan and he was not seriously pursuing the corruption left behind by Yanukovych. He was hostile to the priorities of President Poroshenko. I think the war on the eastern border was more the focus of the president and it wasn't until the EU, the IMF and the USA started to insist Ukraine deal with corruption did Shokin finally come into view as a problem.
It is sometimes difficult to understand how such corruption could still exist after a revolution that lead to changes in the constitution, but, these people existed under Russia oppression for years under Yanukovych. They were used to coping with the existing corruption and to some extent corruption has its own economy. So, a new democracy was moving forward albeit slowly and with enormous problems, including the pressures from Putin; the political infrastructure was still very fluid and allies were not necessarily easy to identify.
President Poroshenko was a businessman when he took leadership. His focus was moving Ukraine forward to encourage growth and inclusion into a European market. One of the reasons Ukraine wasn't involved in European markets before the revolution was because Russia backed Yanukovych and Yanukovych was corrupt to the core. His palace alone and all it's opulence came as gratitude by Russia.
Poroshenko had to change all that and he never focused on the fact his Prosecutor General was part of the problem. Part of that was political and appearing competent, but, his new allies insisted he move forward before sincere relief and the European markets could be open to Ukraine. That is the reason Shokin was removed from his position. It had nothing to do with Biden, except, the Vice President put an ultimatum to Poroshenko. That was the only involvement VP Biden had in removing Shokin and it had nothing to do with his son. It was about moving Ukraine out of it's vast corrupted Oligarch networks.
I might add at the time all this was going on the war in the east, vanquishing corruption, encouraging economic growth, President Poroshenko was involved with Germany, Russia and the rebels in the east in writing two treaties. First was Minske I that was violated by the eastern rebels and Minske II had the same fate. Putin's promises of ending the war didn't even come close. Instead, Russia armed the eastern rebels.
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