Tweets to tickle your innards! #CiaramellaWTF?

RT.com, Jan. 30, 2020 has the back story:
“Ciaramella, a CIA analyst, is widely believed to be the ‘whistleblower’ who kickstarted the impeachment inquiry by alleging that Trump tried to strong-arm Zelensky into reopening a corruption investigation into Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, and his business activities in Ukraine.” [snip]

Schiff, the lead prosecutor in the impeachment trial, has both denied knowing the identity of the whistleblower and called the report of Ciaramella’s plot a “conspiracy theory.” Schiff has also repeatedly warned Republicans against naming the whistleblower, citing a need to protect his or her identity – though no statutory requirement for that actually exists.

However, Roberts’ refusal to read Ciaramella’s name and the media furor that followed Paul’s question – with mostly liberal pundits hounding the senator for “naming the whistleblower” – all but confirms that he is indeed Schiff’s source. Paul never mentioned the term “whistleblower” in his written question, yet Roberts still refused to read Ciaramella’s name. Earlier, Roberts had vowed not to read any question that might “out” the whistleblower.”

RT had also linked to this Jan. 22 2020 piece at realcrealinvestigations.com:

“Barely two weeks after Donald Trump took office, Eric Ciaramella – the CIA analyst whose name was recently linked in a tweet by the president and mentioned by lawmakers as the anonymous “whistleblower" who touched off Trump's impeachment – was overheard in the White House discussing with another staffer how to remove the newly elected president from office, according to former colleagues.

Sources told RealClearInvestigations the staffer with whom Ciaramella was speaking was Sean Misko. Both were Obama administration holdovers working in the Trump White House on foreign policy and national security issues. And both expressed anger over Trump’s new “America First” foreign policy, a sea change from President Obama’s approach to international affairs.
“Just days after he was sworn in they were already talking about trying to get rid of him,” said a White House colleague who overheard their conversation.

“They weren’t just bent on subverting his agenda,” the former official added. “They were plotting to actually have him removed from office.”

Misko left the White House last summer to join House impeachment manager Adam Schiff’s committee, where sources say he offered “guidance” to the whistleblower, who has been officially identified only as an intelligence officer in a complaint against Trump filed under whistleblower laws. Misko then helped run the impeachment inquiry based on that complaint as a top investigator for congressional Democrats.” [snip]

“The coordination between the official believed to be the whistleblower and a key Democratic staffer, details of which are disclosed here for the first time, undercuts the narrative that impeachment developed spontaneously out of what Trump's Democratic antagonists call the “patriotism" of an “apolitical civil servant."

Today's the day ♫the Teddy Bears have their picnic♪♫ Senate will decide if any more witnesses will be permitted to testify/testilie...or not.

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“They weren’t just bent on subverting his agenda,” the former official added. “They were plotting to actually have him removed from office.”

And Pelosi and Schiff are co-conspirators.
They should be arrested by the FBI for conspiring to overthrow the elected government.

Democrats may feel that anything goes to get rid of Trump, but forget that they could be next. No Democrat would be safe from Deep state machinations.

It's time to purge the intelligence agencies of anyone doing anything but actual data gathering and analysis.

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21 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@The Voice In the Wilderness well aware of Deep State machinations should they dare to wander off the reservation. Dallas lesson has been learned -- maybe a little too well.

Dems also are aware their D president could be next -- in fact, one was already next, not too long after Nixon, when the R Congress decided to seek revenge and impeach B Clinton over a trivial personal dalliance. At least U=gate involves actual conduct by the president acting in his official not personal capacity, so at least is sufficient enough for an argument on impeachment grounds. Unfortunately for the Trump team, Alan Dershowitz' bizarre Louis XIV defense makes for an embarrassing attempt at rebutting the charges.

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@wokkamile
The Washington "royal court" has degenerated so far that impeachment over trivialities (and comparing them to his real crimes only proves the pettiness) has been established as the norm. It is the Democrats who have crossed the line that should never be crossed. (actually it was the Republicans who did with Clinton, but that was quickly forgotten.(but not punished) This will not) America is now officially a failed state, a chaotic oligarchy where debauchery and intrigue rules.

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On to Biden since 1973

wendy davis's picture

@doh1304

and this can't be said often enough:

"...impeachment over trivialities (and comparing them to his real crimes only proves the pettiness) has been established as the norm.

he belongs in the hague, with at least the last four presidents before him. but compared to what biden actually did in ukraine..

i'll just add this groaner, but big $$$ feature big time: ‘Pompeo in Kiev: Ukrainians want to be more than friends but Trump's team ain't interested’, jan. 31, bryan macDonald

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On to Biden since 1973

wendy davis's picture

@wokkamile

that's the same excuse obomabots used to give: "he had to do it to or they'd JFK him! (bail out the banks to the tune of $1,7 trillion, drone murder hundreds in afghanistan, (sorry for the Bug Splat), and on down the list.

Hint to Presidential Hopefuls: if ya think ya might not be able to handle the heat: stay out of the kitchen! and again, i can't imagine anyone believing they should be president, let alone imaging they'd be 'good' at it, whatever that low bar means by now.

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@wokkamile @wokkamile

for how you characterize Clinton's issues as a "trivial dalliance"

Fact is the charges were limited to the most trivial that they could because neither the Democrats nor the Republicans wanted to venture into the dark miasma of the Clintons' true criminality.

The lead investigator on Starr's team, David Schippers knows more about the contents of what the investigators turned up than anyone alive, but he is still constrained from talking about specifics because the records are still sealed and in custody of the House of Representatives.

What he can and has talked and written about is how there was bi-partisan agreement in the senate and house leadership to prevent major criminality by the Clinton's from being introduced in a senate trial.

Joe Biden was there to help, naturally:

Schippers described the situation in the Senate of the fix being in long before the impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice went to the upper chamber from the House.

During a meeting with the leadership from both parties in the Senate, Schippers remembered Joe Biden, then a senator from Delaware, blocking him from giving his case to the members as well as a powerful Republican senator who told him that there would not be enough votes to remove Clinton from office.

We were in there with three Democrats and three Republicans. One Republican was very vociferous. And the first thing Henry Hyde said was, ‘Well we are asking Mr. Schippers to be our attorney and that he put the witnesses on.’ And Senator Biden, who is now the Vice President, said, ‘No way that guy is going to open his mouth in the Senate.’

Schippers asked Hyde later what Biden had against him and Hyde replied, “He said he heard what you said in the House and he wasn’t going to have that happen in the Senate.”

Among other things, really looking into Bill's past would likely have bumped into areas like the drug and weapon running out of Arkansas that was going on while Bill was governor there - not someplace Republicans really wanted to go.

Knowing what he knows about the Clintons and having experienced what it means to get on the wrong side of them and the Deep State, Schippers was no doubt (despite being a lifelong Democrat) to see Trump in the White House rather than Hillary.

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wendy davis's picture

@Blue Republic

to me! seems like the clintons had their own watergate burglars.

thank you, blue republic.

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@wendy davis

Thanks for the original posting, Wendy - sorry I've missed
responding to your comments on a few occasions lately. Hope things are good in your corner of the planet..

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wendy davis's picture

@Blue Republic

mon ami. here in the 4-corners things are pretty good; at least the long drought's broken; mr. wd and i are just old 'n in the way, broken down like the roof, the wood stove, the coffee maker, the shredding sheets, and all that 'new normal' for the lower classes jazz. but at least we have each other, which is a blessing x 3.

here's hoping all is well with you and yours, though.

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Roy Blakeley's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness are inextricably linked to the deep state. They sold their souls long ago. If it ever comes to be a choice between a Democratic President and the deep state, Pelosi and Schiff will do the bidding of the deep state.

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@Roy Blakeley
Their puppeteering strings reach into the White House, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court.
Our elections are designed to manufacture consent and prevent change. The last President to take steps to rein in the overreach of the CIA component of the deep state is probably going to be the only one to challenge on our permanent government in a serious manner.

God help Bernie, if he should manage to get through the DNC gauntlet to occupy the White House!

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

Anja Geitz's picture

this piece of information did catch my attention. Regardless of which "side" wins, plotting to "remove them" from the moment they do take office is a horrendous precedent to set.

Get out the popcorn because this development is worth watching.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

wendy davis's picture

@Anja Geitz

and i'm pretty sure that it was the NY/CIA times that brought the 'whistleblower story'. t'was that stellar paper of record that also brought the 'trump means to leave NATO anonymous military insiders report' which immediately spawned 'the NATO defense' bill, unanimous 'aye' vote in the senate.

but no new witnesses permitted, dagnabbit, we won't hear from CIA ciarmarella. so here's whassup according to CNN (they have mcConnell's resolution):

closing arguments will be heard on feb. 3 for four hours, and the court will reconvene on feb. 5 for a vote.

lol; on the left sidebar is:

About the final vote: A tentative agreement has been made for the acquittal vote to be held next week. Closing arguments for both sides would occur Monday through Wednesday. The vote would occur Wednesday afternoon.

save your popcorn for wednesday?

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a real whistleblower because he is not in federal prison and Rachael Madcow is not calling for him to be executed. He's a tool in a beltway pissing match.

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snoopydawg's picture

said Waters right after Trump was elected so they went looking for a reason to do just that.

“They weren’t just bent on subverting his agenda,” the former official added. “They were plotting to actually have him removed from office.”

Sure lots of the witnessed said that Trump did the deed and withheld aid to Ukraine when the dems were questioning them. But on cross exam from the republicans they all admitted that they did not have first hand knowledge of Trump saying that. Why the GOP isn't hammering on this is beyond me. They could run ad after ad of Sondland saying that it was hs 'presumption' that Trump wanted that done.

They should be arrested by the FBI for conspiring to overthrow the elected government.

So far the justice department has held no one accountable for abusing the FISA court. Page should never have had a warrant taken out on his because he was working with the CIA at the time it was. Comey leaked his conversation with Trump because he wanted Rosenstein to appoint a special prosecutor. Comey committed a few other crimes and yet the justice department said that he will go scott free.

Horowitz basically said that what happened was beyond the pale, but then he walked most of it back and said let's just let bygones be bygones.

SO it now comes down to Durham and Barr to give the country some justice. But does anyone actually believe that Barr will be allowed to trash the reputation of the FBI or the CIA? Of course not.

Then there's Trump who has continued to play along with this farce and farce it has been. WHy hasn't he fired all of the Obama holdovers that have been working to take him down as Ron Paul alluded to? Why is his personal mouthpiece, Rudy allowed to go on Fox Snooze and lay out the case instead of working with prosecutors to bring it to the American people?

I am saying this has been a farce committed on the American people by both parties who agree that Russia did interfere with the election although no one has shown just how the did that. Facebook ads and Wikileaks emails? Puleese! The new Cold War with Russia has always been the goal and the consequences of it have been very damaging to our first amendment rights and to people's liberties. I am so disgusted that too many people can't see through what is happening. Not here. Kudos again to the site for seeing it for what it was. Now how to wake up the ones who think Putin is actually running the president and his party.

Examples:

We'll be fighting against everything an emboldened Trump—and Putin—throw at us. It means we unify behind the Democratic candidate for president except Tulsi Gabbard

People also believe that Vlad got Britains to vote for Brexit. Nothing like telling people that they are too stupid to know what they are voting for.

Now Nancy should rescind the invitation to the State of the Union?

The GOP under orders from tRump/Putin are destroying everything in their path that holds America together.

SMDH!! Seriously how can grown adults believe that?

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wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

that was epic! i will say i still have a smidgen of hope for durham, but hardly mueller, in investigating the FBI. hope springs infernal, i reckon.

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snoopydawg's picture

Bolton is saying that Trump told him to get info on democrats though everyone involved in the meeting deny it happened. Here's the part:

Over several pages, Mr. Bolton laid out Mr. Trump’s fixation on Ukraine and the president’s belief, based on a mix of scattershot events, assertions and outright conspiracy theories, that Ukraine tried to undermine his chances of winning the presidency in 2016.

In 2014, Hunter joined the board of Burisma, which was then mired in a corruption scandal. Authorities in Ukraine, Britain and the United States had opened investigations into the company’s operations. Mr. Zlochevsky had also been accused of marshaling government contracts to companies he owned and embezzling public money.

At the time of his board appointment, the younger Mr. Biden had just been discharged from the Navy Reserve for drug use. He had no apparent experience in Ukraine or natural gas. And while accepting the board position was legal, it reportedly raised some eyebrows in the Obama administration. The Burisma board position was lucrative: Mr. Biden received payments that reached up to $50,000 per month.

(hmm no CT there)

“The server, they say Ukraine has it,” Mr. Trump said, according to notes describing the call.

There is no evidence to support Mr. Trump’s assertions, which have spread widely online.

Okay this part is not true. However there were numerous articles written in 2015 about how people with ties to Hillary did try to derail Trump's election and they wrote how Ukraine now having mud on their faces were worried about how Trump would work with them. As for the 'hit job' on the US ambassador to Ukraine and getting her fired, that apparently happened a year before Trump actually fired after word of her bad mouthing Trump got back to him. Don't people serve at the pleasure of the president? And can't he have someone that works with him in place instead of working against him? Yep.

Back to the book:

Mr. Trump also repeatedly made national security decisions contrary to American interests,

Ahh yes back to Trump not sending weapons to Ukraine that can not be used on the front line and are now still sitting in a warehouse in Kiev. But who decides US policy? And how did not sending them weapons hurt national security? Oh yeah according to Schiff we have to fight the Russian over there instead of fighting them here even though there hasn't been a lot of fighting since 2014 or 15. But whatever. Now just imagine Russia overthrowing the president of Mexico and installing a Russian friendly president and then tried to get him into whatever the Russian federation is. Countries want Ukraine to become part of NATO. Yeah great idea. On Russia's border. R2P in case Russia did something and wham we are off to WWIII.

The New York Times reported this week on another revelation from Mr. Bolton’s book draft: that Mr. Trump told him in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter.

Lots of reports that democrats were skimming tax paid funds meant for Ukraine into their pockets including Biden taking $900,000 for his lobbying group. Pelosi's son was involved as were some member of the GOP. If corruption happened I'd like the pres to look into it and especially because of how bad the Ukraine economy is after Obama's brutal coup and the millions there that are suffering. Maybe that's just me.

But how is this being interpreted?

That information includes how Donald Trump ordered Bolton to squeeze Ukrainian officials for damaging slander of political opponents two months earlier than was known. T

Just making shitte up.

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@snoopydawg
IOW it's not slander if it's true.

And I'd like to send Bolton to Gitmo so he can review again his position that waterboarding isn't torture. After about a dozen sessions he can tell us.

Trump has a lot of problems. One is trusting those neocon scum.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

wendy davis's picture

i've gotten my tit into a time wringer, as they say around here (and if you've ever had that happen while using an electric wringer washer, you'll know what i mean). the stack of mending near the sewing machine had reached critical mass, then mr. wd had come home for lunch with nuttin' scavenged from the fridge and so on.

by now, having been awake again since 3:30, i need some rest. back later.

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WaterLily's picture

@wendy davis Isn't that called "a mammogram?" Lol

(Signed, the former bald avian, now flying under the radar).

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wendy davis's picture

@WaterLily

not that painful as a mammy-gram, or so i'm told. just a temporal thing. but i did have it happen to me once, and it ain't no walk in the park, i'll say that. but that may be how a mammy-gram might feel, but then again. i had to yell to someone to unplug the fooking washin' machine!

water lily under the radar; kewl.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

Or do they not know how exposed they are?

Back in November 2019, the whistleblower's handlers were trying to hide hisidentity so people wouldn't realize Eric Ciaramella, National Security Council member, had an office in the Obama White House during the final year of Obama's presidency. While there, Ciaramella was involved in Ukraine's meddling in the US Presidential Election, on behalf of Hillary Clinton.

This past December, 2019, the Democrats were puffing up with the urgency of finding the right impeachment charge to wage against President Trump — one that sounded like a real crime people can envision.

Just a few blocks away, Judicial Watch was pouring over FOIA docs and analyzing the 2016 Obama White House visitor logs that had just arrived. The visitor logs revealed frequent meetings between CIA operative Eric Ciaramella and a parade of State Department spooks who were operating in Ukraine. Other frequent visitors included the Soros-funded social engineers and marginal Ukrainian officials who were running their various cons and payoffs in both countries.

Ciaramella began operating out of the White House in 2015 — and continued through 2016, when he Russia Hoax was hatched. He returned to the CIA when the Trump administration arrived in 2017. There, we loose track of him until summer of 2019, when he would turn up transformed into a whistleblower of hearsay, frightened for his life because he had overheard someone talking about a banal conversation that President Trump had with another President on the telephone. I don't think anyone felt very threatened.

The 2016 White House logs reveal a much clearer picture of the political shenanigans Ciaramella was engaged in. The logs reveal frequent meetings with Alexandra Chalupa, a contractor hired by the DNC during the 2016 election. Chalupa would later coordinated with corrupt Ukrainian officials to smuggle evidence to the US that could be used against President Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort. It was going to be a very important election year, filled with spying and lying and geopolitical chaos. Chalupa would visit the White House 27 times that year.

The White House visitor logs revealed the following individuals met with Eric Ciaramella while he was detailed to the Obama White House:

Daria Kaleniuk: Co-founder and executive director of the Soros-funded Anticorruption Action Center (AntAC) in Ukraine. She visited on December 9, 2015. (The Hill reported that in April 2016, during the U.S. presidential race, the U.S. Embassy under Obama in Kiev, “took the rare step of trying to press the Ukrainian government to back off its investigation of both the U.S. aid and (AntAC).”)

Gina Lentine: Now a senior program officer at Freedom House, she was formerly the Eurasia program coordinator at Soros funded Open Society Foundations. She visited on March 16, 2016.

Rachel Goldbrenner: Now an NYU law professor, she was at that time an advisor to then-Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power. She visited on both January 15, 2016 and August 8, 2016.

Orly Keiner: A foreign affairs officer at the State Department who is a Russia specialist. She is also the wife of State Department Legal Advisor James P. Bair. She visited on both March 4, 2016 and June 20, 2015.

Nazar Kholodnitzky: The lead anti-corruption prosecutor in Ukraine. He visited on January 19, 2016.On March 7, 2019, The Associated Press reported that the then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch called for him to be fired.

Michael Kimmage: Professor of History at Catholic University of America, at the time was with the State Department’s policy planning staff where specialized in Russia and Ukraine issues. He is a fellow at the German Marshall Fund. He was also one of the signatories to the Transatlantic Democracy Working Group Statement of Principles. He visited on October 26, 2015.

Victoria Nuland: who at the time was assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs met with Ciaramella on June 17, 2016.

(Judicial Watch has previously uncovered documents revealing Nuland had an extensive involvement with Clinton-funded dossier. Judicial Watch also released documents revealing that Nuland was involved in the Obama State Department’s “urgent” gathering of classified Russia investigation information and disseminating it to members of Congress within hours of Trump taking office.)

Artem Sytnyk: the Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Bureau director visited on January 19, 2016.
On October 7, 2019, the Daily Wire reported leaked tapes show Sytnyk confirming that the Ukrainians helped the Clinton campaign.

.

By the middle of the 2016, according to the White House visitor logs, Alexandra Chalupa, then a DNC contractor, was setting up her own meetings in the White House. On May 4, 2016, Chalupa emailed DNC official Luis Miranda to inform him that she had spoken to investigative journalists about Paul Manafort in Ukraine. The Trump campaign was being spied on by then, and in a few months the scheme to cast suspicion on Trump because Manafort had consulted years earlier with Ukraine's 'ethnic-Russian' President, snapped into place. The unholy ghost of faux Russian collusion was born in the summer of 2016, and it would haunt America, and cripple it intellectually, for many long years to come.

The timing was such that this evidence of election sabotage in 2016 happened to surfaced in the midst of the impeachment hearings in December 2019. In announcing the evidence, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement:

Judicial Watch’s analysis of Obama White House visitor logs raises additional questions about the Obama administration, Ukraine and the related impeachment scheme targeting President Trump. Both Mr. Ciaramella and Ms. Chalupa should be questioned about the meetings documented in these visitor logs.

.

These are not the impeachment witnesses that the Democrats had in mind.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
snoopydawg's picture

@Pluto's Republic

"We don't look at sites that debunk what we believe to be the truth." Kinda like consortium news, Aaron Mate, Glenn Greenwald and every one else who has debunked every damn thing about Russia Gate.

Careful there, Pluto, any criticism of Soros is anti Semitic. So what if he has been behind all the violent color revolutions he's off limits for criticism. Yup....

Also that little black book that Alexandra found that was tied to Paul Manafort was never verified that it did. No matter...he did bad things. Like tried to get the Ukraine president to accept the EU deal instead of the Russia was offering.

Marie Yovanovitch called for him to be fired.

Karma baby!

These are not the impeachment witnesses that the Democrats had in mind.

Would the republicans have called for those witnesses if it had ever gotten that far? I'm sure that if we know what we do then the republicans know it too. Lindsay was going to have Biden testify, but then he changed his mind and wanted him protected.

In addition to the brutal coup it was a crime spree where lots of people had their sticky fingers in the money pie. Lots of money laundering happened with that money meant for the Ukraine people who are suffering with economy problems since it happened. I was hoping that this information would come out, but now I wonder if it would have even mattered to the people who have had their minds made up since they first heard about this?

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@snoopydawg

But, I follow evidence. And they document the evidence.

How they interpret it is a problem. They have no 'First Principle' to guide them. @snoopydawg

As for witnesses, there is so much askew here that I am beginning to think the DC people are hopeless.

Like, do the Republicans know that Eric Ciaramella is dating Adam Schiff's daughter?

Do they know that Members of Parliament have been trying to confess in detail to what they did to rig the 2016 US elections? They did a lot of stuff. It's crazy,

https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/interview/618506.html

Do they know the Ukraine is on the brink of filing criminal charges against Joe Biden? The Ukrainian people are demanding it.

https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/general/638150.html

They don't act like they know what is going on.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
snoopydawg's picture

@Pluto's Republic

But, I follow evidence. And they document the evidence.

Is Adam's daughter really dating Eric? Literally LMAO.

But I did know that Ukraine has opened an investigation into Biden and son. Hopefully they will get to exposing all of the people involved in the corruption from both parties.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@snoopydawg

They're not calling for an 'investigation'. They are long past investigation. Remember the prosecutor that Biden had fired, Shokin? Well, he's back and leading the charge. And he's leading with Obstruction of Justice. This just happened yesterday.

Ukrainian ex-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin has demanded that the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) open criminal proceedings against former U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden for illegal influence on him as the prosecutor general of Ukraine.

"I ask you to register a criminal offense against me in the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations by a U.S. citizen, Joseph Biden, which happened on the territory of Ukraine and abroad, namely, interference with the activities of a law enforcement officer, the responsibility for which is provided for in Part 2 of Article 343 of Ukraine's Criminal Code. Immediately start a pretrial investigation and give written instructions to SBI investigators," Shokin said in a statement to the acting SBI director delivered by Shokin's lawyers.

It's comical, actually.

Yes, about the lovebirds. I've seen half a dozen mentions of that today. That must explain Schiff's insistence on anonymity for the snowflake whistleblower. I wonder if Roberts really thinks he's protecting the constitution. Anyway, it's very inappropriate, the nitwit should have recused himself. Ugh. That's what I meant by 'askew.' The blurred boundaries and clueless hypocrisy of these people demonstrates that they are too degenerate to be trusted with the welfare of the people and wellbeing of our society and civilization. We formed a government for that one essential purpose and they are too unethical and self-absorbed to do it.

A pox on politics.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
wendy davis's picture

@Pluto's Republic

‘Ukraine’s ex-prosecutor who led Burisma investigation demands criminal probe of Biden
’,29 Jan, 2020, RT.com

"In the complaint [,a pdf link]Shokin sent to the Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) on Tuesday, the former prosecutor requests that Biden be charged with “interference with the activities of a law enforcement officer.” The document was obtained by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Shokin urged the SBI to kick-start a pre-trial investigation into the alleged crime committed by Biden, who he claims was illegally pressuring Ukrainian officials into ousting him from office while using a $1 billion loan guarantee as leverage.

Noting that Biden, in his official capacity as the second-in-command in the US political hierarchy, repeatedly visited Ukraine in late 2015 and early 2016 to persuade high-ranking officials to remove him, Shokin argued that “as a result, he curtailed an objective investigation criminal proceedings on the facts of unlawful activities of persons associated with the company Burisma Holdings Limited (Cyprus), including the son of the specified high-ranking official [Biden’s son Hunter, who sat on the company’s board from 2014 till 2019].”

Shokin specifically refers to the recently released documentary series ‘UkraineGate: Inconvenient facts’ by French investigative journalist Olivier Berruyer, which challenges the Western media claims that the corruption investigation into Burisma was “dormant” at the time Biden was lobbying for Shokin’s dismissal.

Berruyer, founder of the popular anti-corruption blog Les Crises, said that he collected documents that show that the investigation into the gas company was in full swing at the time.

[and remember watching this in the documentaty (Pt 2, iirc)]

Shokin’s own words to that effect have received only a passing mention, or no mention at all, in mainstream US media outlets, however. In a recent interview with ABC News, Shokin said that his office was handling six investigation into Burisma at the time of his resignation. However, ABC kept that part of the interview under wraps – leaving the American public essentially in the dark about the status of the probe."

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump was impeached in the House of Representatives and is on trial in the Senate on charges of “abuse of power,” after Democrats accused him of pressuring Kiev into reviving the Burisma probe last summer by withholding US military aid."

fancy that the kyiv post hasn't mentioned it./s

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wendy davis's picture

@Pluto's Republic

you must mean 'how much You know' (and snoopy, too). i dinnae about any of that, or at least remember it if you've brought it before.

i kneel before you and snoop, and doff my bonnet.

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snoopydawg's picture

The holes in the Democrats’ impeachment case were apparent from the start, and the House proceedings and Senate trial brought them to the fore. The lone witness who communicated with Trump about the frozen military funding to Ukraine—and, even more crucially, the only Trump official thought to have relayed a quid pro quo to the Ukrainian side—is EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland. But Sondland testified that the link between aid and the opening of investigations was only his “presumption” and that he had communicated this presumption only in passing. Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko, and Zelensky aide Andriy Yermak, have all said that they saw no ties between the frozen funding and pressure to open investigations.

In the face of rejections by top Ukrainian officials of his core allegation, Schiff has LIED mischaracterized the available evidence and engaged in supposition. Sondland, according to Schiff’s account, told Yermak, “You ain’t getting the money until you do the investigations.” But both Sondland and Yermak offer a radically different account. According to Sondland, he told Yermak in “a very, very brief pull-aside conversation,” that he “didn’t know exactly why” the military funding was held up, and that its linkage to opening an investigation was only his “personal presumption” in the absence of an explanation from Trump. Yermak does not even recall the issue of the frozen aid being mentioned.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

wendy davis's picture

and now all you brainiacs with huge memory head spaces are giving us homework? can i rent some of yours?

way-ull. there seems to be some disagreement as to the additional witnesses. ooopsie: update: roll call's impeachment news roundup says: Senate votes against motion to call witnesses

Updated 5:43 p.m.

The Senate is in recess after a motion to call witnesses at the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump was unsuccessful Friday evening, on a 49-51 vote.

murkowski and collins wanted to hear from john bolton, but now the arguments slide into if, and how much time, to allot for closing arguments. so who knows how long it will drag on? didn't see anything about #ciarmarella, sadly. guess that un's a Dead Duck?

but wasn't it great that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court let it slip that EC IS the CIA whistleblower? file under: Ooopsie.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@wendy davis

Chief Justice Roberts said he wouldn't read any questions that outed the whistleblower - and his very refusal outed the whistleblower.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

wendy davis's picture

@TheOtherMaven

although i hadn't thunk of Catch-22, lol. now i'm picturing (bob newhart's) major major: "no dammit! only tell them i'm IN when i'm NOT, and if they have appointments...i'll crawl out the window. can ya handle that?"

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@wendy davis
vindictiveness will lead to a purge at the CIA. They seem way more involved in domestic politics than foreign intelligence gathering.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

wendy davis's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

whether trump pays enough attention to the CIA v. trump, nor what might inspire a new Church Committee, but goddam it could help, including televised hearings. O, those were the days my friend, the televised Pecora commission, vastly different than obomba's three day Angelides commission. but we can dream, can't we?

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wendy davis's picture

thank you all for such an illuminating comment thread. i'm a gonna go watch a bit of 'defiance', a Syfy series in which beings all over a newly terraformed US are vying and jousting to see who can be most bad ass bad guys, racketeers, and profiteers.

what else for a closing song: wierd al! (a miley cyrus parody)

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVGXgjAUG14]

g' night.

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