Sound The TRUMPets! A Thread for Presidential Pondering 2016-2020(?)

[BasilValentine]

Now that Devin Nunes has been implicated in the scandal through his collusion with Victor Shokin (former state prosecutor of Ukraine) in digging dirt on the Biden's and promulgating conspiracy theories, the impeachment hearings must continue. Entertainment demands it! Just imagine: Lev Parnas sworn in and implicating ranking member Nunes, his co-conspirator, live before the whole nation. Oh what fun! (Does anyone else think Nunes looks like a depressive marmot?)

[Todd]

[obligatory response]. Tag, you're it.

The lack of an edit to clean up a hasty, emotional knee-jerk response is refreshing. 

Entertainment demands it!

QFT.

[dissily Mordentroge]

Now that Devin Nunes has been implicated in the scandal through his collusion with Victor Shokin (former state prosecutor of Ukraine) in digging dirt on the Biden's and promulgating conspiracy theories, the impeachment hearings must continue. Entertainment demands it! Just imagine: Lev Parnas sworn in and implicating ranking member Nunes, his co-conspirator, live before the whole nation. Oh what fun! (Does anyone else think Nunes looks like a depressive marmot?)

This would all be no more than an entertaining farce but sadly somebody has got to repair the unprecedented damage done to America's reputation abroad and deal with the deficit. My sympathy goes out to the next president, unless they belong to the same totally unprincipled tribe as the present gang.

[JBS]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/24/politics/pentagon-mark-esper-richard-spencer/index.html

[SimonNZ]

Nunes threatens to take CNN, Daily Beast to court over story about meeting with Ukrainian prosecutor

"Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) is threatening to take CNN and The Daily Beast to court after the outlets published a story saying a former Rudy Giuliani associate was willing to tell Congress that Nunes met with an ousted Ukrainian prosecutor.

The ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" that he plans to take both news organizations to federal court "right after Thanksgiving" and that he hopes they will cooperate.

He criticized the outlets' "fake news" reports that said an attorney for indicted Giuliani associate Lev Parnas said Parnas had knowledge about a meeting between Nunes and ousted Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin last year. The representative slammed the media for using "indicted criminals" as sources.

"It is not OK to work with someone who has been indicted on serious federal crimes to build a media narrative and dirty up a member of Congress," Nunes said.

Bartiromo asked Nunes whether he met with Shokin, and the California representative replied that he wants "to answer all of these questions" but "can't compete by trying to debate this out with the public media when 90 percent of the media are totally corrupt."

"I'm not going to sit here and try to compete against the media that I have no chance of winning this," he said. "I will win in court, and they'll have a chance to cooperate, and they'll have to show how they work with somebody who has been indicted, which is likely conspiring to obstruct justice."

A spokesperson from The Daily Beast declined to comment on threats of litigation Sunday but said they "stand by our reporting and are happy to defend it."[...]

[JBS]

I'd hate to be Nunes's lawyer, being ordered to figure out a legal theory for whatever suit Nunes is planning to file. (He might have grounds for a suit against Parnas if Parnas is lying, but not the news outlets. There's also the special facet of US libel law relating to public figures that would put an extra burden on Nunes.)

Of course, he couldn't manage a simple "the story is false", so I am presuming at least part of the story is true.

[drogulus]

     We should try to get the story concerning Shokin and Joe Biden straight. The Wikipedia entry on Shokin includes this:

The Obama administration and other governments and non-governmental organizations soon became concerned that Shokin was not adequately pursuing corruption in Ukraine, was protecting the political elite, and was regarded as "an obstacle to anti-corruption efforts". Among other issues, he was slow-walking the investigation into Zlochevsky and Burisma – to the extent that Obama officials were considering launching their own criminal investigation into the company for possible money laundering.

While visiting Kiev in December 2015, Joe Biden threatened Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that if he did not fire Shokin, that the US would hold back its $1 billion in loan guarantees. In a later recollection, Biden said, "I looked at them and said, 'I'm leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money.' [...] He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time."Shokin was dismissed by Parliament in late March 2016.

     This is what I commented on earlier in this thread, that Biden got a do nothing prosecutor fired. Shokin had allowed the Burisma investigation to lapse. If the Burisma investigation was activated it could put Hunter Biden in jeopardy if he actually did something wrong. Maybe Nunes can explain how Joe Biden could shield his son from an investigation into Burisma that he was seeking.

[drogulus]

     Hunter Biden, the black sheep who might accidentally bring down Trump, explained

     

[SimonNZ]

If Lev Parnas is going to testify that Devin Nunes met with Shokin in Vienna last December to dig up/fabricate dirt on Biden...will he still be cross-examined by Devin Nunes?

[Karl Henning]

groan...you, however, do disappoint.

At least he's consistent....

[SimonNZ]

Self-confessed liar Sarah Sanders says: 'I don't like being called a liar'

"Sarah Sanders, the former White House press secretary who admitted to Robert Mueller that she lied to reporters, told the New York Times: "I don't like being called a liar."

At a White House briefing on 10 May 2017, Sanders told reporters "countless members of the FBI" had told her they had lost confidence in James Comey, the FBI director fired by Trump shortly before.

Mueller, the special counsel, was appointed in the aftermath of Comey's firing to investigate Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow.

In the words of his report, released in April 2019: "Sanders told this office that her reference to hearing from 'countless members of the FBI' was a 'slip of the tongue'.

"She also recalled that her statement in a separate press interview that rank-and-file FBI agents had lost confidence in Comey was a comment she made 'in the heat of the moment' that was not founded on anything."

Sanders, Trump's second press secretary, presided over the apparent death of the press briefing and left the White House in June this year. She is now home in Arkansas, where her father Mike Huckabee was governor, a post from which he mounted two runs for the Republican presidential nomination.

She told the Times: "There are two types of people who run for office. People that are called and people that just want to be a senator or governor. I feel like I've been called."

Sanders seems to be targeting the governorship in 2022, when Asa Hutchinson's time is up.

"It's the role I've been pushed into," Sanders said. "I wouldn't want to do that if I wasn't the right person to fit what the state needed at that time."

Sanders also told the Times that at local events, she was "just excited to have people clap when I come up to a podium. It's very different from what I'm used to."

One voter in Hot Springs, Arkansas, told the Times: "The main thing I like about her is her honesty. She got a bad rap because people are offended that she does tell the truth. I'm 100% behind her."[...]


(I don't know why they're focusing on the Comey thing like that was her main offence - she had to match Trump lie for lie every time she answered reporters)

[SimonNZ]

Don McGahn must testify about time as White House lawyer, judge rules
The decision is expected to put pressure on other reluctant witnesses to also appear before Congress to discuss President Donald Trump's behavior.


Adam Schiff: Trump's 'Death Penalty' Threat Was One Reason We Didn't Have Whistleblower Testify
"The president said the whistleblower and others should be treated as a traitor and a spy and we ought to use the penalty and that's the death penalty," the lawmaker said.

[dissily Mordentroge]

Don McGahn must testify about time as White House lawyer, judge rules
The decision is expected to put pressure on other reluctant witnesses to also appear before Congress to discuss President Donald Trump's behavior.


Adam Schiff: Trump's 'Death Penalty' Threat Was One Reason We Didn't Have Whistleblower Testify
"The president said the whistleblower and others should be treated as a traitor and a spy and we ought to use the penalty and that's the death penalty," the lawmaker said.

A true reflection of the man's character, however, the gutless little bastard whouldn't have the courage to wrap his nasty little fingers around the executioners axe.
Besides, if anyone in the US is guilty of treason it's Trump himself.

[drogulus]

If Lev Parnas is going to testify that Devin Nunes met with Shokin in Vienna last December to dig up/fabricate dirt on Biden...will he still be cross-examined by Devin Nunes?

    They can recuse each other.

[dissily Mordentroge]

    They can recuse each other.

Sounds kinky to me but then again Mr T does have a reputation.

[SimonNZ]

Jared Kushner's new assignment: Overseeing the construction of Trump's border wall

"President Trump has made his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the de facto project manager for constructing his border wall, frustrated with a lack of progress over one of his top priorities as he heads into a tough reelection campaign, according to current and former administration officials.

Kushner convenes biweekly meetings in the West Wing, where he questions an array of government officials about progress on the wall, including updates on contractor data, precisely where it will be built and how funding is being spent. He also shares and explains the president's wishes with the group, according to the officials familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations.

The president's son-in-law and senior adviser is pressing U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expedite the process of taking over private land needed for the project as the government seeks to meet Trump's goal of erecting 450 miles of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border by the end of 2020. More than 800 filings to seize private property will need to be made in the coming months if the government is going to succeed, officials aid."[...]

[dissily Mordentroge]

This may be considered an irrelevant point but just as I find Trumps appearance and demeanour seriously disturbing Kushner's is frightening enough to induce nightmares. But hey, even Zuckerberg to me looks like an evil robot.

[SimonNZ]

Oh yeah. Every photo of Kushner looks like a still from an Omen movie.

[SimonNZ]

Trump of course immediately calls to mind Baron Harkonnen. In both looks and personality. Imo naming his son Baron is just another way of saying Don Jr. Without upsetting gelboy

[dissily Mordentroge]

Trump of course immediately calls to mind Baron Harkonnen. In both looks and personality. Imo naming his son Baron is just another way of saying Don Jr. Without upsetting gelboy

https://medium.com/@meghantrainor/trump-as-baron-harkonnen-75f07f1e88cf