Open Thread |Latest Happenings With the Impeachment Inquiry

What has been revealed…….

Imagine where we would be right now if Democrats hadn’t taken back the House in 2018.
If you’re eligible to vote, register and do it. Every election. Every time.
— JackiSchechner (@JackiSchechner) September 30, 2019

Yes, imagine.
You don’t have to imagine. You know what happened in Congress from 2016-2018. Everything that was ignored.
Since last we posted, we have found out the following:
That Australia was contacted by this Administration for help with the ‘Russia didn’t actually interfere with the 2016 Election’ conspiracy theory.

We also found out that the Secretary of State , Mike Pompeo, was actually listening in on the phone call with the President of Ukraine.

And, thanks to poster eliihass, we know that Pompeo’s also been traveling around with Sebastian Gorka.

Gorka, who had to leave the Administration, because he never could get a Security Clearance, is flying around with the Secretary of State.

And, then, there’s the corrupt Attorney General William Barr, who was out of the country. Protocol says that whenever the AG leaves the country, a report is sent out informing the public of his whereabouts. No such report this time, because the weasel was meeting in secret:
Barr personally asked foreign officials to aid inquiry into CIA, FBI activities in 2016

Attorney General William P. Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Trump hopes will discredit U.S. intelligence agencies’ examination of possible connections between Russia and members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the matter. […]
The attorney general’s active role also underscores the degree to which a nearly three-year-old election still consumes significant resources and attention inside the federal government. Current and former intelligence and law enforcement officials expressed frustration and alarm Monday that the head of the Justice Department was taking such a direct role in reexamining what they view as conspiracy theories and baseless allegations of misconduct.

The ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES is going around the world, asking FOREIGN COUNTRIES TO UNDERMINE OUR INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES.

 

 

 

 

These are good segments by Maddow:

Trump fixation on exonerating Russia entangles Barr, Pompeo

Rachel Maddow reports on Donald Trump’s unusual fixation with finding reasons to undo sanctions on Russia for the annexation of Crimea and interference in the 2016 election, to the point where he is now reportedly sending Attorney General William Barr overseas to seek help in discrediting the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusions about Russia’s role in 2016.

Secretary of State Pompeo took part in Trump-Ukraine phone call at center of impeachment inquiry

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on the July 25 phone call where President Donald Trump asked Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, a senior State Department official told NBC News. The phone call and a related whistleblower complaint are now at the center of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

Trump surprises with outreach abroad to subvert US intelligence

Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, talks with Rachel Maddow about how important it is to Vladimir Putin and affected Russian oligarchs that U.S. sanctions be lifted, and how Donald Trump seems to be serving that end.

https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1178998698484912129

Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) Tweeted:
New Quinnipiac poll
IMPEACH TRUMP?
47% of Americans say YES
47% of Americans say NO
That’s a net 20-point swing in one week
Last week: 37% impeach, 57% don’t

https://t.co/UpfqM8pTYo https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1178747066056679424?s=17

David Frum @ davidfrum
If they wanted to understand origins of Trump-Russia, DOJ would review Trump’s business records 2006-2016
Instead Wm Barr is pressuring allies to agree that Russia was innocent and Trump was a victim.
Barr is not “scrutinizing” anything, he’s fabricating a cover-up

David Jolly (@DavidJollyFL) Tweeted:
Revisiting this in light of Pompeo’s pushback.
The House has what it needs already. Set a hearing and impeachment vote schedule now. Invite witnesses to testify and defend themselves, but don’t negotiate.
Announce the impeachment vote proceeds with or without their testimony. https://twitter.com/DavidJollyFL/status/1179043875119407104?s=17

Mark Fryer (@Markfry809) Tweeted:
Have you ever tried removing a tree but discovered the root system had invaded every square inch of your lawn? That’s where we are with this Whistleblower report. The shovel has barely penetrated the ground. This will be big. And I mean fucking big.🤔 https://twitter.com/Markfry809/status/1178817368958521344?s=17

Great analogy.

So, to recap. We’ve added a couple of countries where Dolt45 is doing his mob tactics. The Secretary of State and The Attorney General are both obviously compromised. The Secretary of State and The Attorney General are clearly obstructing justice. They, too, should join their boss and have Articles of Impeachment drawn up on them.

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95 Responses to Open Thread |Latest Happenings With the Impeachment Inquiry

  1. rikyrah says:

    Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) Tweeted:
    From Pelosi response to Kevin McCarthy: “I received your letter this morning shortly after the world witnessed President Trump on national television asking yet another foreign power to interfere in the upcoming 2020 elections.” She really is in a whole different league. https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger/status/1179843039788961798?s=17

  2. rikyrah says:

    Happy Anniversary to one of my favorite couples :)

    ‘Thanks, babe, for 27 amazing years!’ Barack and Michelle Obama share touching anniversary messages on Twitter – as the former first lady says she’s ‘still feeling the magic’

    Former President Barack Obama, 58, and former first lady Michelle, 55, tied the knot on October 3, 1992
    Both wished the other a happy anniversary on Twitter and Instagram today
    Barack shared a photo of them looking at a sunset and quoted the Beatles
    Michelle said her husband promised a life full of adventure and ‘delivered,’ and now they’re embarking on their next chapter as empty nesters
    By CARLY STERN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

    PUBLISHED: 12:15 EDT, 3 October 2019 | UPDATED: 14:32 EDT, 3 October 2019

  3. rikyrah says:

    Uh huh
    Uh huh

    Silicon Valley billionaire Thiel invests in Kobach, Hawley and rise of nationalism

    Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, who believes Google should be investigated for treason and once wrote that American democracy has been in decline since women won the right to vote, is investing heavily in two of the Kansas City region’s most ambitious political startups.

    Thiel steered six figures into a dark money group that backed Republican Kris Kobach’s failed campaign for Kansas governor, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

    And now that Kobach is running for U.S. Senate, the PayPal co-founder is upfront about his financial support. Last week at his New York City apartment, Thiel and conservative pundit Ann Coulter co-hosted a fundraiser for the former Kansas secretary of state…

    One of Thiel’s companies, the data mining firm Palantir, has provided software supporting ICE’s case management system since 2014. The company has faced criticism from immigration activists because of the software’s reported use in deportations.

    Two sources familiar with the inner workings of Kobach’s 2018 campaign said Thiel gave a contribution worth six figures to Per Aspera Policy, a 501(c)4 organization that paid for digital and television ads.

    Both of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Thiel’s previously undisclosed contributions to the dark money group occurred after Kobach and Thiel discussed the race on the phone. One source said Kobach was giddy when Thiel agreed to spend money in the race.

    Kobach did not consent to an interview about his relationship with Thiel. His campaign declined to answer any questions, including about whether Thiel and Kobach had discussed the race for governor.

    Brendan Fischer, director of federal reform at the Washington-based Campaign Legal Center, said at a minimum the situation “sounds like an illustration of the problems with dark money. Dark money is often only dark when it comes to the public’s knowledge—the candidates who benefit often know where the money is coming from.”…

  4. Liza says:

    He’s so far off the rails, what is left to say?

    And we’re discussing his re-election.

    https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1179771371351678978

  5. Liza says:

    Ha ha ha…This is the UNDERSTATEMENT of the century.
    https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1179483520026198023

    • Liza says:

      “This is not how an American president should act.”

      Uh, yeah, and we’ll be lucky if the crazy, demented motherf***** doesn’t cause some global calamity before we are finally rid of him.

  6. rikyrah says:

    Clinton decries Trump admin ‘smear campaign’ against Yovanovitch

    Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talks with Rachel Maddow about Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and the dirty smear campaign the Trump administration has made her the target of in order to achieve its nefarious ends with Ukraine.

  7. rikyrah says:

    This segment has that famous Watergate Speech by Barbara Jordan.

    Clinton sees echoes of Nixon impeachment process in Trump’s

    Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talks with Rachel Maddow about similarities in the Richard Nixon impeachment process she worked on in 1974, and the Donald Trump impeachment inqu

  8. rikyrah says:

    Clinton: Trump impeachment inquiry should follow every thread

    Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talks with Rachel Maddow about how a phone call between the U.S. president and other world leaders is supposed to work, and why the Trump impeachment process should follow threads that might also find abuse of power by Trump aides who tried to help conceal records of Trump’s interactions with other leaders.

  9. rikyrah says:

    By a 52-21 margin, Americans think asking Ukraine to investigate Biden is an abuse of power, per USAToday poll.

    The gap among independents is huge: 45%-16%.

    It’s even close among Republicans: 30%-40%.

    Doubling down like this is … unbelievably risky. https://t.co/PDVrJrMxSB

    — Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) October 3, 201

  10. rikyrah says:

    Clinton: Ukraine ‘the canary in the coal mine’ on Trump schemes

    Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talks with Rachel Maddow about why it’s in the national interests of the United States to support Ukraine against Vladimir Putin’s aggression and why Trump’s Ukraine scandal is just one piece of a bigger picture of what Trump and his allies have been up to.

  11. rikyrah says:

    Conspiracy theory packet may have supplanted US foreign policy

    Rachel Maddow explains what is understood so far about an unusual meeting called by the State Department inspector general at which he delivered what is reported to be a collection of conspiracy theories that are apparently the basis of the State Department’s dismissal of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and the Trump administration’s manipulation of Ukraine.

  12. rikyrah says:

    Pence, at center of Trump Ukraine scheme, scrambles for cover

    Rachel Maddow shares reporting from the Washington Post that Donald Trump made Mike Pence the middle man in his scheme to manipulate the president of Ukraine, leaving Pence scrambling to explain how he wouldn’t have been aware of the role he was playing.

  13. rikyrah says:

    Trump grows emotional as impeachment takes aggressive steps ahead

    Rachel Maddow reports on Donald Trump’s awkward emotional outburst at a press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, and the aggressive, no-nonsense approach House committee chairs are taking to the Trump impeachment process, including in a letter to the deputy secretary of state that getting in the way of the inquiry could land him in prison.

  14. rikyrah says:

    Folks are having issues with people bringing up the flaws of Warren as a candidate. Trying to sound the alarm.
    When pointed out that she is not connecting with the base of the party…
    When pointing out that she has NONE of the relationships that Hillary had formed over the course of her lifetime…
    When pointing out that if Biden’s 40 year record is up for discussion, then so is her past, including being a Republican through BOTH terms of Ronald Wilson Reagan. And, WHY that might be a problem for a nice-sized portion of the Democratic Party base. I know if Mama was alive, it would be a problem for her. Reagan was a curseword in my house growing up. Mama, Daddy, all my Aunts and Uncles. It was visceral for all of them.
    Then, bringing up the REASON she became a Democrat, and how that reasoning might not move the base.
    Being scolded about ‘ I thought the objective was to get rid of Trump, so why are you attacking Democratic candidates?’

    Lips so pursed.

    But,what do I know….

  15. rikyrah says:

    Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) Tweeted:
    New USA Today poll:

    Americans support House *impeaching* Trump by 45-38

    They support *Senate conviction and removal* by 44-35 (!)

    Note: 30% of Republicans say pressure on Ukraine to smear Biden is an abuse of power.

    And it’s early. More will come out.

    https://t.co/nIaJRZgP7E https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1179700643252113408?s=17

  16. rikyrah says:

    Soooooo,

    Explain it to me like I am in Kindergarten. How does his NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR be in on the phone call….

    AND THE VICE-PRESIDENT NOT KNOW??😒😒🤨🤨🤔🤔

    Greg Miller (@gregpmiller) Tweeted:
    Important new detail: Pence’s own national security adviser was on the July 25 call. https://t.co/nyb3qbTY6j https://twitter.com/gregpmiller/status/1179516993579425797?s=17

  17. rikyrah says:

    😲😲😲😲

    NBC News (@NBCNews) Tweeted:
    A tectonic plate below the US seems to be dying.

    Scientists had already speculated that the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate had a tear in it, and a recent study has uncovered data that all but confirms it. https://t.co/pnBLp8T2qI – @NBCNewsMACH https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1179668181352361984?s=17

  18. rikyrah says:

    Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) Tweeted:
    Little backstory on the Legal Advisor at the center of the State IG briefing. He joined State in a non-legal position in 2017, 3.5 years after passing the bar. The he was promoted to acting chief lawyer for the entire state department. https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1179465658997858304?s=17

  19. rikyrah says:

    Martyn McLaughlin (@MartynMcL) Tweeted:
    EXC Trump Org’s plans for major expansion of Turnberry, its flagship overseas resort, have been rejected. @EricTrump hoped to build housing & luxury villas at lossmaking property, but failed trying to get land in Q rezoned. My @TheScotsman story. Thread 👇 https://t.co/PYAVBtmkYM https://twitter.com/MartynMcL/status/1179502608098238465?s=17

  20. rikyrah says:

    😒😒😒

    Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) Tweeted:
    Asked if POTUS should be banned from Twitter, as Sen. Kamala Harris has called for, Sen. Warren chuckles and says simply “no.” https://twitter.com/chelsea_janes/status/1179480201140391936?s=17

  21. rikyrah says:

    Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) Tweeted:
    This new whistleblower “scandal” that Trump is drumming up is complete nonsense.

    It is not “fodder” for any legitimate attack, and we are not required to pretend it is, simply because Trumpworld is making a lot of noise about it.

    I unraveled it here:

    https://t.co/K82vVqp9Ky https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1179510404483031042?s=17

  22. rikyrah says:

    When a whistleblower seeks guidance, staff advises them to get counsel and go to an IG.

    That’s what they’re supposed to do.

    Unlike a president pressing a foreign leader to dig up dirt on a political opponent.

    That’s not what a president is supposed to do.

    And we all know it. https://t.co/dzVAFGpMen

    — Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) October 2, 2019

  23. rikyrah says:

    The Dow is down 459 points.

    So much winning…I can hardly stand it.

  24. rikyrah says:

    Thought this was the reason:

    Yamiche Alcindor @ Yamiche
    Confirmed: A source familiar tells me the State Department IG briefing on the Hill is about retaliation against State Department officials who are trying to cooperate with House Democrats.

  25. rikyrah says:

    Truth 👏👏

    The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) Tweeted:
    The subtext of Trump raging about the characterization of his Ukraine call:

    *HE* was the person who pushed to release the memo.

    If it had been someone else’s idea, he would be insisting the characterization was wrong.

    He’s raging against the reaction to *HIS* mistake. https://twitter.com/HoarseWisperer/status/1179444932001566722?s=17

  26. rikyrah says:

    😂😂😂

    Adam Serwer🍝 (@AdamSerwer) Tweeted:
    Trump is “throw the controller across the room and scream that the game is cheating” mad https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer/status/1179445686275850240?s=17

  27. rikyrah says:

    Ok,
    This was 😂😂😂😂

    Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) Tweeted:
    If someone could harness the president’s self-pity as electricity, it could power the entire global economy carbon-free.

  28. rikyrah says:

    Latest poll from South Carolina, out 10/1/2019

    Black voters
    Biden: 46%
    Harris: 10%
    Warren: 9%

  29. rikyrah says:

    Report: Two Out of Every 5 White Harvard Students Got In Because of the White Privilege-Affirmative Action Loophole
    Michael Harriot
    Yesterday 5:25pm

    Merit.

    According to conservatives, affirmative action haters and the official position of the Trump administration, race-conscious college admission policies unfairly discriminate against more-qualified students (pronounced “hoo-wyatt pee-pole”). Even though college entrance exams have been shown to favor students from richer, better-educated families; in spite of the fact that the SAT was literally created to weed out non-white males and that white school districts are better-funded than non-white school districts, the advocates for the mythical standard of “merit-based” admissions policies insist that grades and standardized tests should be the only metrics used for college admission.

    Unless, of course, you are white.

    A recently-published working paper by economists at Duke University, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Georgia parsed through the admissions data at one of America’s leading universities and found that Harvard University’s affirmative action policies don’t have shit on the secret side-entrance the school built for athletes, children of wealthy donors and applicants whose parents attended the prestigious institution.

    ………………..

    The researchers used court depositions that describe Harvard’s admissions process, documents from the University’s admissions office and publicly-available data from the school. They focused ALDCs, or students who came from four groups.

    Athletes: Harvard doesn’t offer athletic scholarships but they do recruit athletes and most of Harvard’s athletes are white. And it’s not just the school’s rowboat team; even the football team is majority-white. (No, I’m not going to refer to rowboat pedaling as “crew.” Every crew I’ve ever seen could dance on-beat.)

    Legacies: Students whose parents or family members attended Harvard, an alumni base that is overwhelmingly white. (How do you think George W. Bush got in?)
    Deans’ Interest Lists: These are applicants are “of special importance to the dean of admissions,” particularly “applicants whose parents have donated to Harvard, and applicants whose relatives have donated to Harvard.”

    Children of Staff and Faculty: This needs no explanation except to say that the school proudly boasts that 40 percent of the school’s tenure track faculty and 60 percent of the tenured faculty are women or underrepresented minorities, which seems great…Until you take out white women and realize that tenured faculty is 81 percent white while the tenure-track faculty is 66 percent white. Oh, white women…You almost got me.

    …………………………….

    The discoveries were astonishing in the same way one is surprised to find out how hot fire really is. Researchers found that recruited athletes were 14 times more likely to be admitted than regular students, while legacy students were 5.7 times more likely to get into Harvard than the average applicant. Children of Harvard employees and people whose parents gave large sums to the institution got in at ten times the rate of most students.

    But there were some surprises, one of which is the way that whites benefit from athletic preferences. According to the data, more white people got into Harvard through athletics than all other races using all of the ALDC privileges of entry combined. The analysis also showed that 43 percent—two out of every five white people at Harvard—gained entry to Harvard through one of these special considerations. For comparison, 16 percent of Harvard’s non-white students were able to take advantage of these loopholes. According to the study, if Harvard removed these preferences, the student body would eventually become less white and there wouldn’t be as many high-income students on campus.

  30. rikyrah says:

    The Dow has now lost 900 points since 10AM yesterday.

    so much winning, people.
    so.much.winning.

  31. rikyrah says:

    I Just Binged Season 1 of Succession and It Feels Like I Was on a White People Safari

    Damon Young
    Yesterday 12:30pm

    I don’t remember exactly what Kotaku staff editor Natalie Degraffinried said a month ago when attempting to convince me to watch Succession. But knowing Natalie, I’m certain it involved some combination of “these white people” and “wild.” What I do remember was that she was the fourth or fifth black person in the last two months to implore me to watch this show, and each ask wasn’t “Hey, if you have the chance, you should check out this cool little show I’ve been watching” but “THESE WHITE PEOPLE ARE INSANE!”

    Now, were each of these people that excited about the show, or did they just know me well enough to know this was the best way to convince me to watch a thing? I don’t know. But I just completed season one last night, and this was the best decision I’ve made since that time six summers ago when I ran out of ketchup and started putting BBQ sauce on fried fish sandwiches. (I don’t make many great decisions.)

    The show is about the Roys, a Murdoch-ey family running a Fox News-ey media conglomerate; a universe where the poorest of the show’s regular characters are merely millionaires and not billionaires. And if watching the trials and tribulations of the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent sounds about as exciting as colonoscopy prep, I don’t blame you! I felt that way too! When the show premiered last year and I read some press about it, it felt like the screen equivalent of the meme where someone says or does a thing that literally no one asked for. Plus I’m a black American and a black Pittsburgher. I have three PhDs in whiteness studies and I’m doing coursework for a fourth. I know white people like beards know lint. How hoteps know ash. How Kappas know chapstick. Why would I need to know more?
    ………………..

    The petty is the most crucial element here because I think we sometimes categorize the actions of a Rubert Murdoch or a Donald Trump or the still-not-yet-dead Koch brother as a cavernous, amorphous, and conspiratorial evil. (I know I’ve been guilty of that.) But these men and these families are much more small-minded than that; the decisions much less worldly and much more centered in id. They just want to be in power, to stay in power, and to horde it like chipmunks stashing acorns. And while this sort of ruthlessness results, eventually, in evil, it stems from picayune personal shit.

  32. rikyrah says:

    Warren gets ‘dramatic shift’ in support from black voters
    After struggling to win over African-Americans in the early stages of the primary season, polls show the Massachusetts senator is gaining traction with a pivotal constituency.

    https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/02/elizabeth-warren-black-voters-support-2020-016649

    It’s at 19%
    19%

  33. rikyrah says:

    Lips pursed:

    Because, of course……

    Giuliani’s Ukraine Work Tied to Firm Whose Website Has Vanished
    By Stephanie Baker and Sara Khojoyan
    October 2, 2019, 4:38 AM CDT

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-02/giuliani-s-ukraine-work-tied-to-firm-whose-website-has-vanished

  34. rikyrah says:

    Bernie’s 3rd house 💄🥀 (@OjPats4) Tweeted:
    White women who criticize Hillary can’t stand to be criticized. https://twitter.com/OjPats4/status/1179232206092472326?s=17

  35. rikyrah says:

    Sean Eldridge (@SeanEldridge) Tweeted:
    One thing I’ve learned about Republicans over the past two years.

    They believe standing for the national anthem is patriotism, but not rising to protect our democracy when it faces an existential threat from the White House. https://twitter.com/SeanEldridge/status/1179132361658769409?s=17

  36. rikyrah says:

    She is NOT a Democrat. She is a Russian plant 😒😒😒

    https://twitter.com/neeratanden/status/1179361397907578880

  37. rikyrah says:

    Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) Tweeted:
    CNN: State Dept inspector general has requested an urgent Hill briefing with relevant committees tomorrow related to Ukraine. The email that went to staff suggested it was urgent. A Congressional aid described the State IG’s request as “highly unusual and cryptically worded.” https://twitter.com/ShimonPro/status/1179158728031035392?s=17

  38. rikyrah says:

    Scott Stedman (@ScottMStedman) Tweeted:
    BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: I’m told that Pompeo’s office in recent days asked State Department HR/IG if they could “discipline” officers for “failure to follow direction” if they cooperate with Congress. https://twitter.com/ScottMStedman/status/1179156540835500032?s=17

    • Liza says:

      This has been on the local news here in Tucson.

      More evidence (as if we need more) that the dangerous idiot in the Oval Office has gone off the rails a long time ago and now he is speaking as a sputtering, ridiculous, unhinged fool. It will get worse.

  39. rikyrah says:

    Good Morning, Everyone 😄😄😄

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