All Purpose News and Politics Thread Part IV: The Center Cannot Hold

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Had anyone heard about this? It happened a few hours ago:

Senate votes to kill national emergency declaration along southern border

[Gray Lensman]

Had anyone heard about this? It happened a few hours ago:

Senate votes to kill national emergency declaration along southern border

Not by enough to override the veto though. And they can't try again for 6 months per law.

[Tendrin]

...it's getting worse...
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ukra...ry?id=65863043

"It was clear that [President Donald] Trump will only have communications if they will discuss the Biden case," said Serhiy Leshchenko, an anti-corruption advocate and former member of Ukraine's Parliament, who now acts as an adviser to Zelenskiy. "This issue was raised many times. I know that Ukrainian officials understood."
The Trump administration’s alleged insistence that the two leaders discuss a prospective investigation into Biden, one of the president’s political opponents, casts his July 25 conversation with Zelenskiy in a new light.

[Tami]

Ahhhh....interesting

White House Sends Impeachment Talking Points to Democrats, Then Tries to Recall Them

A White House official on Wednesday accidentally sent talking points for allies defending the president to Democratic officials, then tried to “recall” the memo.

In the email, the White House laid out guidance for how supporters should publicly discuss President Trump’s July phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine. An allegation that Mr. Trump tried to use that conversation for political gain contributed to the decision by House Democrats to announce a formal impeachment inquiry on Tuesday.

But the White House list of concise points and counterpoints was also sent to the offices of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic lawmakers.

“They’re complete Orwellian lies and toxic trash, but maybe you’d like to read them to appreciate their corruption!” Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, said on Twitter, alongside screenshots of the email.

Representative Brendan F. Boyle, Democrat of Pennsylvania, said that his office had also received the email. “I will not be using their spin and will instead stick with the truth,” he said on Twitter. “But thanks though.”

The email, sent by Tori Q. Symonds, a White House communications staff member, argued that there were “myths” being spread by Democrats about the phone call, which had “triggered a media frenzy of false accusations.”

It portrays the conversation between the two leaders as “entirely proper” and the handling of a related whistle-blower complaint about the call as being “absolutely by the book.” The email also made reference to the “Deep State,” a phrase that has fueled conspiracy theories of government bureaucrats working to undermine President Trump. Sharing such messaging guidance with allies is common among both parties in Washington.

Shortly after the memo went out, a follow-up message from Ms. Symonds’s account stated that she would “like to recall” the previous email. Such messages are often sent by Microsoft Outlook when an individual who uses the program seeks to revoke an email from a recipient who is not an Outlook user.

[Celgress]

....You mean the GOP’s Borg-like, hive mind mentality where dissent or differing opinions are not allowed and Faux News brainwashed lemmings pull any lever with an ‘R’ next to the candidate’s name? Nope, I’ll pass on that.

You can morally object all you want I'm talking about political party effectiveness when it comes to matters like votes and circling the wagons. I'm not saying I approve either simply that it more often than not works.

Edit - But I digress. I do understand your stance.

[Tendrin]

New information in this story suggests that these two, seemingly unrelated scandals, in which the House will judge whether the president’s conduct in each case constituted extra-legal and extra-constitutional abuses of presidential power, are in fact inextricably linked: the Ukrainian initiative appears to have begun in service of formulating a rationale by which the president could pardon Manafort, as part of an effort to undermine the special counsel’s investigation.
From 2004 to 2014, Manafort had advised President Viktor Yanukovych, who advocated that his country sever ties with the United States and other Western nations, and align itself more closely with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. After Yanukovych fled the country in disgrace in 2014, a ledger was recovered from the burned-out ruins of his Party of Regions. Its records showed that Yanukovych and his political allies had made some $12.7 million in secret cash payments to Manafort. The disclosure led directly to Manafort’s resignation in August 2016 as chairman of the Trump presidential campaign.

...and worse...
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/0...kraine-scheme/

[numberthirty]

While there was obviously some other stuff going down...

- https://www.thedenverchannel.com/new...y-passes-house

Perlmutter's SAFE Banking Act to protect banks that work with marijuana industry passes House

[numberthirty]

Not sure how far it will go past there.

Worth noting that some Republicans were on board. While that may very well have been because there could be something in it for them, at least they weren't getting in the way of a pretty common sense improvement.

[Tendrin]

Of course they were. Weed is makin' white people like them a lot of money now.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

In today's episode of "Insane in the Ukraine":

Trump First Pressured Ukrainian President To Work With Giuliani In April Call: Report

White House Releases Whistleblower Complaint Linked To Trump’s Call With Ukrainian President

MSNBC Cuts Into Trump’s Press Conference To Call Him Out On Lying About The Bidens

Trump Baselessly Claims Obama Asked Foreign Leaders For Intel On Him

Trump Threatened An American Serving Her Country As He Pressured Ukraine

Trump Just Threw Pence Under The Bus And Now ‘President Pelosi’ Is Trending

Republicans On Trump-Ukraine Call: This Is Fine

GOP Exiles Wonder What Happened To Their Party As Republicans Rally Around Trump

**********

How to Make Friends With And Influence Donald Trump

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky deployed a tested mix of praising Trump, referring to his businesses and echoing his rhetoric to try to win over the U.S. president. Just flatter the Donald and he's all yours.

**********

Julián Castro To Trump: Don’t Treat Homeless People ‘Like They’re Cattle’

The presidential candidate talked about the housing crisis while visiting a homeless encampment in Oakland, California. I'm surprised Trump treats the homeless that well.

**********

The End Of The Line For Incompetent Men

Trump facing impeachment, Boris Johnson on the ropes, WeWork’s CEO ousted ― is time finally up for bumbling leaders? Oh, I sure hope so! These fools seriously need to exit stage right!

**********

Juul CEO Steps Down Amid Growing Concerns Over E-Cigarette Use

K.C. Crosthwaite, who previously served as chief growth officer for tobacco company Altria, will replace Kevin Burns. Almost overnight, thanks to vaping related illnesses and deaths, Juul went from trendy product to pariah product.

[Tami]

Intelligence chief to testify as whistleblower complaint is released

Intelligence chief Maguire will testify to Congress about whistleblower complaint


Read the whistleblower complaint regarding President Trump's communications with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

Whistleblower complaint is out: Officials alleged Trump used power to influence 2020 election


Pentagon Letter Undercuts Trump Assertion On Delaying Aid To Ukraine Over Corruption

[Tami]

Watching MSNBC. The discussion over the Complaint and the Transcript indicated that they were originally hidden away under the label of Classified.

The next president after Trump should tag people with high security clearances to review all of these documents that Trump and hie people hid away, many of them were hidden away illegally. Many of them may have been politically damaging to Trump personally, not national Security issues. Some of them may include the phone conversations between Trump and Putin, for example.

Update: DNI says he consulted WH because the complaint contained information that would be subject to 'Executive Privilege', that is why he deferred to them.

Update: Oh jeeze, the DNI is twisting in his chair, a literal pretzel, trying to justify going to the WH and DOJ with a complaint that involves Trump and Barr. Schiff going after him with logic and precision.

Update: Nunez up, can't watch. We all know Nunez is a Trump toady.

[Tendrin]

...so yeah this is pretty bad.

[jetengine]

...so yeah this is pretty bad.

As in bad for trump or bad for the usa ?

[Theleviathan]

As in bad for trump or bad for the usa ?

I don't know if we can say yet. The complaint has credibility, enough to be very carefully examined....but it is second-hand. The fact that it isn't from a source with direct knowledge is problematic.

There are dots needing connecting, starting with the full transcript of the phone call. Put people under oath, executive privilege cannot be accepted as an excuse.