You're fucking dumb. I'm not a hypocrite. Do you know the details of withholding aid in Ukraine?

Do you remember when obama was president how the republican congress and senate was stonewalling everything he wanted? Do you remember complaints about executive orders?

The Ukraine Support Act proposed in 2014 did not make it out of committee in the house of representatives https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine_Support_Act

THEREFORE

Obama issued two executive orders as part of a national emergency

https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/03/17/executive-order-blocking-property-additional-persons-contributing-situat

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-presidents-continuation-national-emergency-respect-ukraine/

There was a separate bill that guaranteed loans that was later passed but distribution of funds was done mostly through executive order in accordance with The International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

THEREFORE

Obama actually had prerogative and liberty with which to distribute funds and Biden was acting as his surrogate at the time.

In other words, the law was not broken because there wasn't a law to break that existed.

----------------------------------------------------------


THIS IS DISTINCT AND DIFFERENT FROM WHAT DONALD TRUMP DID IN SEVERAL WAYS, BUT DISTINCTLY THAT HE SIGNED A LAW SAYING THAT HE HAD TO DISTRIBUTE THE MONEY

In 2019, the appropriations committee passed this and made it a part of an appropriations bill which the president (Trump) signed as part of a budget regulation

That is the difference

And it's why Biden can use those funds in a discretionary way and have it be legal, and Trump can use them in a discretionary way and have it be illegal (not just because he's investigating a political rival, because he fucking signed the law that said that he had to do it).

---------------------------------------------------


The retort is "what about Obama" but the circumstances are different and as much as, and as simple as, it was not against the law for him to do that because the house and the senate didn't pass a law saying he had to do anything with money for Ukraine, that was part of an executive order which gives him that discretion. Donald Trump could have issued an executive order rather than sign off on that budget And it would suddenly be legal.

^^^^^^^^ Don't misunderstand me. ^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^ Don't misunderstand me. ^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^ Don't misunderstand me. ^^^^^^^^^^^^

I'm not saying he's doing something illegal and jumping up and down and squealing and shitting myself like a housewife discovering daytime television.

I'm making an observation about how he doesn't care about what laws are passed or not in a more general way.

>>>>>>>>>>>>He just doesn't care about following the law.

Still, that's a separate issue from rooting out corruption overall versus bringing the entire weight of the federal government, not to mention the government in Ukraine, on Joe Biden.

Last I checked no executive order no bill no resolution said "Target Joe Biden specifically" And on the phone call released from Donald Trump in the White House there's only one name that's mentioned.

Oh Bobby

You don't see the hypocrisy of Trump's whining, constantly (and incorrectly) claiming the FBI engaged in a politically motivated investigation of him based on Russian lies while he was a candidate, while at the same time he's undeniably trying to force a politically motivated investigation of a rival candidate based purely on Russian lies?

You also don't want to admit Steele was a personal friend of the Trumps when he began his report....or that the evidence that the lied is lying Russians claiming he lied.

I wonder, how do you think stating "I was responsible." is distancing himself?

More lies from the Kremlin tied OAN, who hires current Kremlin propagandists to spout this kind of divisive lie/smear campaign that people like Bob then spread.

Biden has never been implicated in ANY actual wrongdoing associated with Burisma. Not one smear the Republicans come up with is supported by fact. Now they're trying to say he was paid with stolen money for his work....by saying all Burisma money is stolen money without any proof or convictions to back up that meaningless smear.

It's moronic anyway, Trump tarnished and sold out the presidency to dig up and create dirt on the son of a political rival, arguably committed treason to sully the family name of his political rival who was never going to be his opponent. Derp.

1) you're wrong. None have said they personally heard Trump explicitly tie the aid to his demands, but many have said he himself tied the white house meeting to his demand for a political gift, which is a crime, and just as many have said it was clear the funding was tied too, and never did anyone at the Whitehouse contradict that in any way, even when asked directly, until they knew they were under investigation.
2) trump himself released the summary transcript in which he ties the funding to the investigations of political rivals and nothing else. Even your stage 5 cranial rectosis can't shield you from that inconvenient truth.

A majority still say he should not only be impeached, but removed from office.

*facepalm. The lack of direct witnesses is because of Trump's obstruction, telling subordinates to ignore subpoenas. That alone is impeachable.
You probably mean they can call unrelated red herrings like Biden who has zero bearing on the charges.
1/2 the republican question time was wasted by them giving whining speeches about how they can't ask questions, and 1/4 spent whining that they can't use this time to investigate Biden....who has never been accused of anything illegal you might note. Edit: ....and the whistleblower, because clearly it's important to know who they are in order to destroy their lives, but not for any other possible reason.
Using impeachment to investigate political rivals and harass whistleblowers instead of investigating the president isn't going to help win independents, the only voters in play. Lose the Senate, which is likely, and Trump will be the first president to be impeached twice if he remains in office.

Oh Bobby, who cried the last two election nights? Not Democrats. I wasn't even surprised Trump won. I called that in spring 2016 when the DNC was caught helping Clinton and screwing Sanders.

You are right on one point, when the Turtle gets the case, he's going to tank it and Trump won't even get a slap on the wrist, but only because party loyalty is far more important to Republicans than national loyalty or rule of law, not because he didn't commit more crimes. In that sense, Democrats have lost. We all have.

But I don't write to you, it's for others who maybe wouldn't watch Trump rape and murder young boys then defend him. There is literally nothing he could do to make you stop riding his dick. Absolutely nothing. I'm not trying to convince you. You're a lost cause....and likely a Russian troll.

MAGA=Making Attorneys Get Attorneys

Lol. Oh Bob. I see you didn't get that help you are crying out for.

Schiff isn't the one saying it.
It's the over a dozen Trump administration officials, you know, like the people who gave him a million dollars towards his election campaign to then be installed in his cabinet with zero experience, people that he now calls never trumpers...them, and idiot Trump himself who released a heavily redacted call summary, called it a transcript, and inexplicably left in the parts where he insisted on investigations into political rivals (and no one else) in exchange for releasing congressionally approved aid.

If Trump drained the swamp, it was only to turn it into the world's largest and most ecologically disastrous sewage holding pond.

Great job? On what? Destroying our international standing and standards? There he IS simply the best. Sucking up and capitulating to our enemies while abandoning and distancing our allies? Yep, better than all the rest. Lying to the American people? Better than anyone else. Running a criminal administration for his personal enrichment? No one else could pass the test.

If you call his disastrous work a "great job", what will you call his removal? The best job ever? You are so delusional that just last week you claimed Republicans run the house and Democrats run the Senate so you could blame our badly flawed paperless voting system on those evil Senate Democrats. *facepalm

Wasted billions on 70 miles of new wall.....that's really replacement fence that can be cut through in under a minute with a reciprocating saw, and only where barriers existed. Great. Increased illegal immigration exponentially. Great. Tax cuts/government welfare for the rich but not the needy that exploded the deficit and debt. Great. Failed trade agreements that have cost tens-hundreds of billions only to put us in a far worse position than before he started. Great. Zero investment in infrastructure. Great. Total decimation of environmental laws.
Great. Abandoning our best allies against terrorism to cozy up to dictators. Great. Best of all, he's widened the divide in America more than all administrations in the last 150 years combined, and recently began calling for preparation for civil war if he's not re-elected. Great.

Um...if he's removing deep state operatives, why are they all his people being jailed? More than even any two term administration ever, beating Nixon's indictment and conviction rates in under two years, before the Mueller fallout. Indeed, in that time he has had more than twice the convictions of all Democratic administration officials since 1970....again, before most Mueller convictions. (It bears noting that Republican officials are convicted at a rate >91 times that of Democrats).

What you really meant to say.....No matter what Trump says it is guaranteed to be a lie.

Isn't that exactly what Trump said, that the investigation of him was illegal because Democrats were involved, making it partisan? That since what he claimed was the impetus (or as he says, the oranges) for the investigation was an imperfect dossier the whole thing was illegal?
The impetus for his Biden witch hunt is unambiguously a made up story by corrupt Ukrainians that doesn't fit the documented facts in the slightest, which every professional involved told him clearly, a fake story furthered directly by Trump in public.

In fact, it is hands off for the president. Using the power of the office to direct investigations of political rivals is impeachable.
Using the office to blackmail foreign powers to interfere in our election by starting false investigations for political reasons is a crime.
Taking foreign money in exchange for illegal and corrupt policies that are against the national interests but personally beneficial is treason. He has done exactly that.

But in YOUR mind, Treasonous Trump can do no wrong, and things that were treason when you baselessly claimed Democrats did them are patriotism when Trump brags about them. You can't even understand that Trump openly committed the very crime he was convinced by foreign criminals Biden committed...using the power of his office and public funds to pressure foreign investigations for personal gain...the difference being Trump did it secretly for personal political gains and was caught, Biden didn't do anything besides join international and bipartisan efforts to remove a corrupt prosecutor who wouldn't prosecute corruption. Trump removed a top notch anti corruption diplomat because she wouldn't push for a corrupt and baseless politically motivated investigation of his political rival, exactly what the corrupt Ukrainians had paid him to do.

Trump couldn't come up with any other corruption he wants investigated besides the Biden fantasy he was sold, and when asked exactly what he expected from Ukraine, he said he specifically expected them to investigate Biden, not fight corruption. Same for China, which was not a joke or trolling of the public, his trade advisor admitted he brought it up in official trade talks before he said it publicly.

You keep chanting 'he'll drain the swamp' ignoring he is the swamp thing, and the swampiest administration ever with more corruption convictions than any two administrations combined (an educated guess, might be >2) and more scandals than any 10 combined.

If I weren't sure you were a Russian troll only trying to sew division with ridiculous republican regurgitation of baseless claims based on delusion and corruption, I would be seriously worried about your mental state.

Edit: remember these days in 15 months. When Democrats control congress and the executive, the same "see no evil" tactics will be more than fair play. No matter how unconstitutional their actions might be, no matter how unacceptable, we will see no wrong....just cleaning up the Trump mess. Nothing to worry about.

Oops....Trump's trade advisor went on Fox and stupidly admitted that as part of his trade talks with China he asked the Chinese to investigate Biden....well before Trump said the same thing on international television. This tanks the moronic Republican lie that Trump was only trolling the press when he publicly said China needs to investigate his political rivals, it was also an official request tied to his trade wars.

Numerous other Republicans are getting caught in this Giuliani slime web, having accepted massive foreign donations from Giuliani's friends with strings attached to each one.

Now, after pulling our forces from Syria where they were stopping Turkey from invading by their presence....for their safety and to get the U.S. out of the middle east he said, but really it's to protect his interests in the Trump towers in Turkey from state seizure....Today he announced he's sending thousands of troops to Saudi Arabia for their protection. (I guess so they don't have to use those weapons he's so proud they bought?)
These moves not only make it likely ISIS will survive and embed themselves worldwide, but also makes enemies of the Kurds, our staunch allies. It is foreseeable that a new, anti American Kurdish terrorist group will be the result. Who could possibly blame them?

Also this morning Trump lost another appeal trying to hide his taxes.

Will the madness ever end?

Hilariously it's actually only the summary of the so far unreleased word for word transcript ....and still it totally shows the president in his official capacity asking for foreign political help in the form of a baseless investigation of his political rival by a foreign leader.
One wonders what's in the word for word transcript they continue to hide that would make releasing this damming summary seem smart by comparison.

Keep chanting that to yourself. Maybe you'll believe it, no one else does.

President's personal attorneys aren't involved in foreign affairs that are above board....ever.
Unclassified transcripts aren't hidden in servers intended for top secret CIA info if there's nothing to hide.
Trump admitted on TV that he asked a foreign president to investigate his political rival. Collusion.
Breaking the law to hide the whistleblower report doesn't happen if there's nothing to hide.

Trump's about to be a chicken dinner. Edit: Sounds like around 30 Republican senators think it's unacceptable. 8-10 more than needed if they vote for America and not Trump.

I hope you're ready for crazy Biden to loose his mind and break the law daily, and for Democrats to completely ignore it and laugh at you for being bothered because they run both houses. Trump may have just handed him the election, and the Senate seems poised to go down with him by turning a blind eye. The public is not on your side.

Here's Trump on TV today admitting to asking the president of the Ukraine to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden....you know...colluding with a foreign power, requesting that they interfere in our election, and reportedly using congressionally approved military aid as a bribe, withholding it unless they agree to reopen the closed investigation that found no crime.

https://youtu.be/K8Qfcl_hKEw

Neil Armstrong's last words on the moon. "Good luck Mr. Gorsky"


It seems when Apollo Mission Astronaut, Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, he not only gave his famous "One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind" statement, but followed it by several remarks - usual com traffic between him, the other astronauts and Mission Control.

Before he reentered the lander, he made the enigmatic remark, "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky." Many people at NASA thought it was a casual remark concerning some rival Soviet Cosmonaut, however, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Russian nor American space programs.

Over the years many people have questioned him as to what the "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky" statement meant. A few months ago, (July 5th, 1995, Tampa Bay FL) while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26 year old question to Armstrong. He finally responded. It seems that Mr. Gorsky had finally died and so Neil Armstrong felt he could answer the question.

When he was a kid, he was playing baseball with his brother in the backyard. His brother hit a fly ball which landed in front of his neighbors' bedroom window. His neighbors were Mr and Mrs. Gorksy. As he leaned down to pick it up, he heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky. "Oral sex, oral sex you want? You'll get oral sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!"

"The world would be a better place without religion..."

Maybe. Probably not. We just can't will it into non-existence regardless. My hypothetical concern is, say we do get rid of all religion (by what? Burn all the books? Put them all in an Island? Killing them all once and for all? I'd LOVE to know your methods... but hey, off topic), then what? Human by nature will believe and follow in something/someone... Chinese followed their religion-banning dear leader MZD to their deaths by the millions. Germans got played into Nazis by a charismatic madman that resulted in WWII... my point is, we can't let any harmful idealism fall into the hands of charismatic leaders that cause real harm and be silent. Star Wars (and its mortal religious rival Trekkies) is a registered, legit religion to some but mostly for fun and harmless. Trumpism is arguably a religion itself in America now, and alt-right ideals are spreading all over the world from its aftermath that's 100% harmful IMO.

Religion as a practice can do immense good & evil in equal measure. We should all do our part in not letting people in power weaponize religion.

"Its the biggest sham in human history. " IMO, it's people in (religious/political) power that twists religion into a sham. And continues to. I blame these people, not the religion. Don't let these douchebags have their way!

A lot of people (majority even) fails to put the words of these religious books into historical context. Civilizations and cultures
evolve. Societal practices and knowledge of the physical world too. Look into the intent and context, then it'll do good. Twist religion into self-serving gavel of judgement (to others, NEVER to oneself!) then nothing good will come of it.

"Just goes to show how stupid the sheeple are."

Thing is, people get into (and out of ) religion for all kinds of reasons. Calling them all sheeple and stupid isn't doing anyone good service, merely shows your narrow view of religion (and stereotyping people of faith) more than anything, no? It's as wrong as a priest calling atheists must be lacking of a moral compass.

I'm with you in your disdain for mindlessness.

Are there sheeple? OF COURSE. Are blind followers stupid? Yes to a degree. But IMO these sheeple are stupid not because they're into a faith, but follow the words and commands blindly of their faith leaders without thinking of the intentions and lacking a firm grasp of reality and consequences.

We need to eliminate sheeple mentality, religious absolutism and self-righteousness that disrespect others, that thinks one is better than others because of following a religion.

I'm fine calling out the ridiculous among them, I do so in my church. Just don't call and treat everyone a sheeple. Besides, sheeple is not exclusive to religion, there are Apple sheeple, celebrity sheeple, political sheeple. Do we treat all of these people as sheeple with disdain?

But man... it's extremely disheartening to see the state of religion in the USA. I can see why some people are so against it there. I seriously can't feel defensive about it if I'm a US citizen, because watching videos like these do make sensible people wanting to punch that guy. But how can people NOT see through the idiocy and out right ban/disown that shit? That's the most concerning to me of American Christianity.

Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon say the F-35’s superiority over its rivals lies in its ability to remain undetected, giving it “first look, first shot, first kill.”

Hugh Harkins, a highly respected author on military combat aircraft, called that claim “a marketing and publicity gimmick” in his book on Russia’s Sukhoi Su-35S, a potential opponent of the F-35. He also wrote, “In real terms an aircraft in the class of the F-35 cannot compete with the Su-35S for out and out performance such as speed, climb, altitude, and maneuverability.”

Other critics have been even harsher. Pierre Sprey, a cofounding member of the so-called “fighter mafia” at the Pentagon and a co-designer of the F-16, calls the F-35 an “inherently a terrible airplane” that is the product of “an exceptionally dumb piece of Air Force PR spin.” He has said the F-35 would likely lose a close-in combat encounter to a well-flown MiG-21, a 1950s Soviet fighter design.

Robert Dorr, an Air Force veteran, career diplomat and military air combat historian, wrote in his book “Air Power Abandoned,” “The F-35 demonstrates repeatedly that it can’t live up to promises made for it. … It’s that bad.”

The development of the F-35 has been a mess by any measurement. There are numerous reasons, but they all come back to what F-35 critics would call the jet's original sin: the Pentagon's attempt to make a one-size-fits-all warplane, a Joint Strike Fighter.

History is littered with illustrations of multi-mission aircraft that never quite measured up. Take Germany's WWII Junkers Ju-88, or the 1970s Panavia Tornado, or even the original F/A-18. Today the Hornet is a mainstay of the American military, but when it debuted it lacked the range and payload of the A-7 Corsair and acceleration and climb performance of the F-4 Phantom it was meant to replace.

Yeah, the F/A-18 was trash when it first came out and it took YEARS and multiple changes/fixes to allow it to fully outperform the decades old aircraft it was designed to beat when it was released.

The F35 is not the best at anything it does, it is designed to fully be mediocre at all roles in order to allow it to be a single solution aircraft. That may change with more money, time, and data retrieved from hours spent in actual combat, but as it stands it is what it was designed to be. A jack of all trades and master of none, not something I would want to be flying in a role where I could encounter a master of that role.

As @ChaosEngine says, it is far beyond time that we move to a design where the pilot is not in the plane. There is no reason at this time that we cannot field a plane that could successfully perform it's role with the pilot in a secure location nearby. Such planes could be built cheaper, could perform in g-forces that humans cannot withstand, and would be expendable in a way that current planes are not. However, this would mean that our corporate welfare system for huge defense contractors would take a massive hit. We can't have that, can we?

I have no passion for any hyper biased sources, which is only one reason I won't watch Fox, the other being every time I do it seems it takes less than one minute for them to stray from the truth and go off on some hypothetical pathway based on nonsense, and I just won't intentionally give professional liars and Trump cheerleaders any of my attention or views.
Fool me once, shame on..shame on you....Fool me....you can't get fooled again.

Also, I'm not looking for a debate about CNN's lawsuit over security clearances/press credentials being used as political cudgels by immature "leaders" with unstroked egos, I'm not a lawyer and even they likely don't have much more than opinion on this subject, it's so unique....but I do think it sets a dangerous precedent, one that would have sent the right into violent fits had Obama banned Fox hosts after directly calling them the enemy of America for years, and one that may come back to haunt them in 2 years. Please recall how Fox treated Obama who still gave them one on one interviews where they were even ruder to the delight of the right, before casting aspersions at a political rival's character. Those in glass houses....

It seems when Apollo Mission Astronaut, Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, he not only gave his famous "One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind" statement, but followed it by several remarks - usual com traffic between him, the other astronauts and Mission Control.

Before he reentered the lander, he made the enigmatic remark, "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky." Many people at NASA thought it was a casual remark concerning some rival Soviet Cosmonaut, however, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Russian nor American space programs.

Over the years many people have questioned him as to what the "Good luck, Mr. Gorsky" statement meant.

A few months ago, (July 5th, 1995, Tampa Bay FL) while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26 year old question to Armstrong. He finally responded. It seems that Mr. Gorsky had finally died and so Neil Armstrong felt he could answer the question.

When he was a kid, he was playing baseball with his brother in the backyard. His brother hit a fly ball which landed in front of his neighbors' bedroom window. His neighbors were Mr and Mrs. Gorksy. As he leaned down to pick it up, he heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky. "Oral sex, oral sex you want? You'll get oral sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!"

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if you snope, you a dope. it a joke.