Impeachment?
I see no reason for impeachment. That is a view that is shared by many. From INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE:
The White House published a memorandum of the phone call. The call was made on July 25 2019, a day after the final Robert Mueller testimony in Congress. There are two passages which the Democrats will claim are damaging:
President Zelenskyy: [...] I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes. The President: I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike ... I guess you have one of your wealthy people... The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation.. I think you're surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it's very important that you do it if that's possible.Trump wanted Zelensky to look into the Ukrainian influence on the whole Russiagate campaign. There certainly was a lot of it. The three Ukrainian-American Chalupa sisters, Alexandra, Irena and Andrea, worked with the DNC and Ukrainian officials in Washington and Kiev to sabotage the Trump campaign. They are, together with other Ukraine affiliated persons like the Dimitry Alperovich, the CEO of the hacks at Crowd Strike, at the core of Russiagate.
President Zelenskyy: Yes it is very important for me and everything that you just mentioned earlier. For me as a President, it is very important and we are open for any future cooperation. We are ready to open a new page of cooperation in relations between the United States and Ukraine. [...]
The Mueller investigation closed a day before the phone call. It found that Trump had not colluded with Russia or the alleged Russian influence on the 2016 election. That Trump wants the new Ukrainian leader to investigate what Ukrainian officials did in support of a debunked campaign against him may be a wrong thing to do but it is certainly not criminal.
In another passage Zelensky says that he will soon meet Trump's lawyer Rudi Giuliani who wanted to revive an investigation into the Ukrainian company that hired Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden while vice-president Biden himself was running U.S. foreign policy with regards to Ukraine. Trump then asks for support for Giuliani:
President Zelenskyy: [...] I will personally tell you that one of my assistants spoke with Mr.Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Guliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine. [...] We are great friends and you Mr. President have friends in our country so we can continue our strategic partnership. I also plan to surround myself with great people and in addition to that investigation, I guarantee as the President of Ukraine that all the investigations will be done openly and candidly. That I can assure you. The President: Good because I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that's really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what's happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know that The other thing, There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it ... It sounds horrible to me.Zelensky then again assures Trump that the incoming prosecutor general will look into the issue.
Trump asks for investigations and Zelensky assures him that those will happen. Trump applied no open pressure. There is of course always implicit pressure any time a U.S. president utters a wish to the president of a country that needs U.S. good will and money to survive.
As for the Biden case it was Joe's Biden big mouth that brought the issues back into light. In January 2018 he gave a talk at the Council of Foreign Relations and explained how he directly threatened
And I went over, I guess, the 12th, 13th time to Kiev. And I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor. And they didn’t. So they said they had—they were walking out to a press conference. I said, nah, I’m not going to—or, we’re not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You’re not the president. The president said—I said, call him. (Laughter.) I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. (Laughter.) He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.Biden did that at a time when his son lobbied for the Ukrainian company Burisma who the prosecutor he wanted fired investigated (or maybe blackmailed):
U.S. banking records show Hunter Biden’s American-based firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners LLC, received regular transfers into one of its accounts — usually more than $166,000 a month — from Burisma from spring 2014 through fall 2015, during a period when Vice President Biden was the main U.S. official dealing with Ukraine and its tense relations with Russia. The general prosecutor’s official file for the Burisma probe — shared with me by senior Ukrainian officials — shows prosecutors identified Hunter Biden, business partner Devon Archer and their firm, Rosemont Seneca, as potential recipients of money.There is no direct evidence that Joe Biden told the Ukrainians to stop the investigation into Burisma. But it was not difficult for the Ukrainians to figure out that ending the investigation into the company that Joe Biden's son worked for would help them with further requests to him.
How the Democrats want to construct an impeachment out of this is beyond me.
Trump is the president. Foreign policy is his constitutional prerogative. He used his power to ask the Ukraine to open investigations into two issues. He withheld money but not to achieve that. The Ukrainians did not even know at that time that the money was blocked.
Biden used his power as vice-president to ask the Ukraine to fire a prosecutor he didn't like and who (by chance?) was going after the company which enriched his son. He openly withheld money to achieve his aim.
How will the Democrats explain that what Trump did was wrong or even criminal while insisting that what Joe Biden did was normal business?
They can't.
The Congress needs to start focusing on the business of the people and stop this nonsense.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:
Monday, September 30, 2019. Unethical behavior doesn't isolate itself, it breeds and reproduces.
Starting in the US where the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination continues. And where the media continues to lie. Yesterday, on CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX, Cindy spoke with Danny Haiphong about the new book he has written with Roberto Sirvent entitled AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM AND AMERICAN INNOCENCE: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF FAKE NEWS FROM THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR TO THE WAR ON TERROR.
But you don't have to go historical. Look at this:
That is a distraction. It is a willful 'reporting' to mislead.
Who the hell has ever accused Hunter Biden of doing any work at all -- good or bad?
He doesn't do work. He's a grifter, a con artist, making money off Daddy's name.
He joined the company in May of 2014, approximately two years later, Joe Biden's getting the man investigating the company fired.
That's why the company hired Joe's son, for that kind of corrupt influence. Consider Hunter's $50,000 a month protection money. It's a racket and THE LOS ANGELES TIMES is playing the idiot to distract you from reality.
Bill Maher, of all people, is bothered by the corruption.
Hunter has no experience but is hired for $50,000. What were they buying? Daddy's influence.
That's corruption.
No one in their right mind believes Hunter was hammering out details or working in a plant. They know he was hired solely because his father was the Vice President and because they could use that if they needed to.
When the company was under investigation, they used Hunter's daddy to get the prosecutor removed.
Influence peddling, corruption, call it whatever you want but it's unethical and it's not supposed to take place in the US -- not from our public servants.
Donald Trump does it!
If he does it from the White House -- meaning since he was sworn in -- call him out. Let him have it. We're not THE TRUMPIAN covering all things Donald. I do not like him and I have not spent the last years obsessing over him -- I question the mental health of those who have. But if he's done it, you're not going to find me defending him.
Joe Biden is someone I have known for years and I know Joe Biden knows better. So, yes, I will call him out. He now wants to be president of the United States, so, yes, I will call him out. The way his son and his brother James have profited is disgusting and unethical.
These little scams had real world consequences. For example, corruption got even worse in Iraq after 2009. Who was tasked with oversight? Joe Biden. And how can Joe, with all of his unethical issues, call out corruption in Iraq, let alone address it, when he's the poster boy for corruption?
He's the poster boy especially in Iraq where his brother James was awarded a $1.5 billion contract for reconstruction. James has no construction experience. No real experience at all other than cashing in on whatever office his brother Joe has held.
This is disgusting and it is unethical. From Sarah Chayes' "Hunter Biden’s Perfectly Legal, Socially Acceptable Corruption" (THE ATLANTIC):.
Let’s start with Hunter Biden. In April 2014, he became a director of Burisma, the largest natural-gas producer in Ukraine. He had no prior experience in the gas industry, nor with Ukrainian regulatory affairs, his ostensible purview at Burisma. He did have one priceless qualification: his unique position as the son of the vice president of the United States, newborn Ukraine’s most crucial ally. Weeks before Biden came on, Ukraine’s government had collapsed amid a popular revolution, giving its gas a newly strategic importance as an alternative to Russia’s, housed in a potentially democratic country. Hunter’s father was comfortably into his second term as vice president—and was a prospective future president himself.
There was already a template, in those days, for how insiders in a gas-rich kleptocracy could exploit such a crisis using Western “advisers” to facilitate and legitimize their plunder—and how those Westerners could profit handsomely from it.
Not only is it unethical, it should be unacceptable.
'Donald Trump is a crook!'
Do you need a cookie? A pat on the back? You just figured that out, did you?
I don't really give a damn what Donald Trump is. I didn't vote for him. I do not like him. There is nothing he can do that would surprise me.
I've known and avoided him for years.
The fact that you're only now realizing what was obvious so long ago, decades, goes to your stupidity and maybe it's that stupidity that allows you to play, "DONALD TRUMP IS WORSE!"
So is polio. So are many other things.
And none of that changes the unethical behavior that Joe Biden has engaged in. He has allowed his family to rake in large amounts of money by selling his potential influence. That is conduct unbecoming. He's not fit to run for president.
If you can't stand up for yourself, don't look to some politician to play superhero and rescue you. Joe's behavior is unacceptable. And you can pretend otherwise, but you're cheating yourself. You're cheating yourself out of an ethical future, you're cheating yourself out of a system with accountability.
The desperation to look the other way is ridiculous. You're harming yourself, you're harming future generations. Unethical behavior does not need to be excused, it needs to be called out. And if you don't call it out, you are part of the corruption.
"Joe Wilson has passed away." As noted at THIRD, Joe Biden's not said a word. Not even a Tweet. Along with calling out Bully Boy Bush's lie about Saddam Hussein seeking yellowcake uranium from Africa, Joe's career includes service in the State Dept:
Having become fluent in French as a teenager, Wilson entered the US Foreign Service in 1976, where he would be employed until 1998.[4]
From January 1976 through 1998, he was posted in five African nations; as a general services officer in Niamey, Niger, (his first assignment) he was "responsible for keeping the power on and the cars running, among other duties".[3] From 1988 to 1991, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission (to US Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie) at the US Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. In the wake of Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, he became the last American diplomat to meet with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, sternly telling him in very clear terms to leave Kuwait (Wilson, The Politics of Truth 107–27). When Hussein sent a note to Wilson (along with other embassy heads in Baghdad) threatening to execute anyone sheltering foreigners in Iraq as a deterrent, Wilson publicly repudiated the President by appearing at a press conference wearing a homemade noose around his neck and declaring, "If the choice is to allow American citizens to be taken hostage or to be executed, I will bring my own fucking rope." [5] Despite Hussein's warnings, Wilson sheltered more than 100 Americans at the embassy and successfully evacuated several thousand people (Americans and other nationals) from Iraq. For his actions, he was called "a true American hero" by President George H. W. Bush.[6] From 1992 to 1995, he served as US ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe.[4]
From 1995 to 1997, Wilson served as Political Advisor (POLAD) to the Commander in Chief of US Armed Forces, Europe (EUCOM), in Stuttgart, Germany. From 1997 until 1998, when he retired, he helped direct Africa policy as Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton and as National Security Council Senior Director for African Affairs.[7]
Some how, Joe Biden misses all of that -- intentionally.
That period of time, when Joe Wilson stood up to Bully Boy Bush, isn't a time Joe Biden wants to remember because he comes off craven and cowardly at best. While Joe Wilson called out the lies leading to the Iraq War, Joe Biden embraced those lies.
Meanwhile in Iraq?
Starting in the US where the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination continues. And where the media continues to lie. Yesterday, on CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX, Cindy spoke with Danny Haiphong about the new book he has written with Roberto Sirvent entitled AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM AND AMERICAN INNOCENCE: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF FAKE NEWS FROM THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR TO THE WAR ON TERROR.
But you don't have to go historical. Look at this:
That is a distraction. It is a willful 'reporting' to mislead.
Who the hell has ever accused Hunter Biden of doing any work at all -- good or bad?
He doesn't do work. He's a grifter, a con artist, making money off Daddy's name.
He joined the company in May of 2014, approximately two years later, Joe Biden's getting the man investigating the company fired.
That's why the company hired Joe's son, for that kind of corrupt influence. Consider Hunter's $50,000 a month protection money. It's a racket and THE LOS ANGELES TIMES is playing the idiot to distract you from reality.
Bill Maher, of all people, is bothered by the corruption.
Hunter has no experience but is hired for $50,000. What were they buying? Daddy's influence.
That's corruption.
No one in their right mind believes Hunter was hammering out details or working in a plant. They know he was hired solely because his father was the Vice President and because they could use that if they needed to.
When the company was under investigation, they used Hunter's daddy to get the prosecutor removed.
Influence peddling, corruption, call it whatever you want but it's unethical and it's not supposed to take place in the US -- not from our public servants.
Donald Trump does it!
If he does it from the White House -- meaning since he was sworn in -- call him out. Let him have it. We're not THE TRUMPIAN covering all things Donald. I do not like him and I have not spent the last years obsessing over him -- I question the mental health of those who have. But if he's done it, you're not going to find me defending him.
Joe Biden is someone I have known for years and I know Joe Biden knows better. So, yes, I will call him out. He now wants to be president of the United States, so, yes, I will call him out. The way his son and his brother James have profited is disgusting and unethical.
These little scams had real world consequences. For example, corruption got even worse in Iraq after 2009. Who was tasked with oversight? Joe Biden. And how can Joe, with all of his unethical issues, call out corruption in Iraq, let alone address it, when he's the poster boy for corruption?
He's the poster boy especially in Iraq where his brother James was awarded a $1.5 billion contract for reconstruction. James has no construction experience. No real experience at all other than cashing in on whatever office his brother Joe has held.
This is disgusting and it is unethical. From Sarah Chayes' "Hunter Biden’s Perfectly Legal, Socially Acceptable Corruption" (THE ATLANTIC):.
Let’s start with Hunter Biden. In April 2014, he became a director of Burisma, the largest natural-gas producer in Ukraine. He had no prior experience in the gas industry, nor with Ukrainian regulatory affairs, his ostensible purview at Burisma. He did have one priceless qualification: his unique position as the son of the vice president of the United States, newborn Ukraine’s most crucial ally. Weeks before Biden came on, Ukraine’s government had collapsed amid a popular revolution, giving its gas a newly strategic importance as an alternative to Russia’s, housed in a potentially democratic country. Hunter’s father was comfortably into his second term as vice president—and was a prospective future president himself.
There was already a template, in those days, for how insiders in a gas-rich kleptocracy could exploit such a crisis using Western “advisers” to facilitate and legitimize their plunder—and how those Westerners could profit handsomely from it.
Not only is it unethical, it should be unacceptable.
'Donald Trump is a crook!'
Do you need a cookie? A pat on the back? You just figured that out, did you?
I don't really give a damn what Donald Trump is. I didn't vote for him. I do not like him. There is nothing he can do that would surprise me.
I've known and avoided him for years.
The fact that you're only now realizing what was obvious so long ago, decades, goes to your stupidity and maybe it's that stupidity that allows you to play, "DONALD TRUMP IS WORSE!"
So is polio. So are many other things.
And none of that changes the unethical behavior that Joe Biden has engaged in. He has allowed his family to rake in large amounts of money by selling his potential influence. That is conduct unbecoming. He's not fit to run for president.
If you can't stand up for yourself, don't look to some politician to play superhero and rescue you. Joe's behavior is unacceptable. And you can pretend otherwise, but you're cheating yourself. You're cheating yourself out of an ethical future, you're cheating yourself out of a system with accountability.
The desperation to look the other way is ridiculous. You're harming yourself, you're harming future generations. Unethical behavior does not need to be excused, it needs to be called out. And if you don't call it out, you are part of the corruption.
"Joe Wilson has passed away." As noted at THIRD, Joe Biden's not said a word. Not even a Tweet. Along with calling out Bully Boy Bush's lie about Saddam Hussein seeking yellowcake uranium from Africa, Joe's career includes service in the State Dept:
Having become fluent in French as a teenager, Wilson entered the US Foreign Service in 1976, where he would be employed until 1998.[4]
From January 1976 through 1998, he was posted in five African nations; as a general services officer in Niamey, Niger, (his first assignment) he was "responsible for keeping the power on and the cars running, among other duties".[3] From 1988 to 1991, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission (to US Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie) at the US Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. In the wake of Saddam's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, he became the last American diplomat to meet with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, sternly telling him in very clear terms to leave Kuwait (Wilson, The Politics of Truth 107–27). When Hussein sent a note to Wilson (along with other embassy heads in Baghdad) threatening to execute anyone sheltering foreigners in Iraq as a deterrent, Wilson publicly repudiated the President by appearing at a press conference wearing a homemade noose around his neck and declaring, "If the choice is to allow American citizens to be taken hostage or to be executed, I will bring my own fucking rope." [5] Despite Hussein's warnings, Wilson sheltered more than 100 Americans at the embassy and successfully evacuated several thousand people (Americans and other nationals) from Iraq. For his actions, he was called "a true American hero" by President George H. W. Bush.[6] From 1992 to 1995, he served as US ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe.[4]
From 1995 to 1997, Wilson served as Political Advisor (POLAD) to the Commander in Chief of US Armed Forces, Europe (EUCOM), in Stuttgart, Germany. From 1997 until 1998, when he retired, he helped direct Africa policy as Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton and as National Security Council Senior Director for African Affairs.[7]
Some how, Joe Biden misses all of that -- intentionally.
That period of time, when Joe Wilson stood up to Bully Boy Bush, isn't a time Joe Biden wants to remember because he comes off craven and cowardly at best. While Joe Wilson called out the lies leading to the Iraq War, Joe Biden embraced those lies.
Meanwhile in Iraq?
What's going on? Lawk Ghafuri (RUDAW) reported Saturday:
After he liberated Mosul and defeated the Islamic State (ISIS) on the ground in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Abdul Wahab al-Saadi was removed from his position as commander of Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces (ICTS) on Friday by order of Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi who transferred Saadi to the Defense Ministry.
The decision shocked Saadi and angered Iraqis, who rallied to support him on social media.
Being relegated to the sidelines is a “humiliation to my military history,” Saadi said in an interview with Iraqi TV channel iNews.
AFP offered:
The decision has sparked
allegations of a purge of officials seen as unfavourable to Iraq's
Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force, which includes factions close to
Tehran.
An Iraqi government official who
requested anonymity said pro-Iran factions within the Hashed had
"personally" lobbied for Saadi's removal.
"These groups were operating outside the state and the only barrier was the CTS," the official told AFP.
"The idea is to sideline him to bring somebody close to Iran and no longer have the CTS as a check."
Political commentator Ghaleb
al-Shabandar said the move was "the beginning of the Iraqi army's
dismantling and handover to the Hashed and other armed groups"
Journalist Mustafa Habib walks us through in this thread:
Important thing is happening in #Iraq:
In an unexpected move, PM Adil Abd Al-Mahdi today issued an order to take off all field military roles of General Abdul Wahab al-Saadi the most famous officer in the Iraqi security forces, who is popular & respected by the Iraqi people. (1)
In unusual response, al-Saadi told local channel: "I told the PM that it an insult to me & to my military history, I will not implement it, I prefer to retire, the Parliament Speaker offered me a few months ago post of defense minister, but I refused because Im field soldier" (2)
1:04
1:04
Now, Iraqis have launched one of the biggest campaign on Twitter to rejected the Prime Minister's decision, support for Saadi, they put Hashtag:
#كلنا_عبد_الوهاب_الساعدي
(We are all Abdul Wahab Saadi)
became the Trend in Iraq by tens of thousands of tweets just in few hours.(3)
"Abu Fadl al-Abbas" faction leader Aws al-Khafaji who was pro-Iran but turned against them months ago then was arrested by PMF, also announces his support to Saadi, he says in tweet "there are more such decisions in the future" (4)
But former PM al-Abadi decided to continue the battle without PMF, he support Saadi's plan to ask help of the "Global Coalition" Air strikes, the battle ended with the army's victory in just 3 weeks, then the PMF enter the city & all we know the story: (6)
After that, the PMF felt its reputation become bad and the army's popularity has risen for the first time since its collapse in #Mosul in 2014.
Since the battle of Tikrit, the dispute began, some factions close to Iran have accused Saadi of being an American agent! (7)
After the battles of Tikrit, Fallujah & Ramadi, Saadi's popularity rose, when the battle of #Mosul began, Mosul residents knew him well & felt comfortable with his participation
This is popular footage among Iraqis during Mosul battle, a little girl looking for Saadi to hug him:
1:33
Saadi on his Facebook page, post this within a few hours ago:
"Tell those who are waiting for our fall that our stand in battlefields under enemy fire longer than their age"
"I am proud of your stand with me. I promise I won't let you down"
Breaking: PM Abd Al-Mahdi in the first public comment on the removal of Saadi: "The decision is irreversible, use the media & social M by Saadi in his objection is big mistake and unacceptable", also the PM hints to accusation that Saadi visiting foreign embassies.
New content at THIRD:
- Truest statement of the week
- Truest statement of the week II
- A note to our readers
- Editorial: The unethical War Hawk Joe
- TV: Few survive THE POLITICIAN
- From The TESR Test Kitchen
- In Iraq
- Jim's World
- When women write memoirs (Ava and C.I.)
- Music video
- This edition's playlist
- Women veterans deserve better; change the culture ...
- UNAMI Welcomes the Government of Iraq’s Efforts to...
- Rep. Susan Davis Votes to Restore Consumer and Wor...
- Some Tweets from the Green Party
- Inside the New Issue of Ms.
- Some Tweets from Howie Hawkins
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- Highlights
