House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has held the majority of her caucus at bay for months as well as several Democratic candidates for President on their desire to impeach Trump. She knew her base would just have to suck it up if she didn’t. Her central concern was that those Republicans and Independents that gave the Democrats an over forty seat gain in the House of Representatives in 2018 were not ready to vote for impeachment. In addition she had no desire to initiate termination proceedings when she was on track to lead the Democratic Party to win both Legislative bodies as well as the Presidency. The whole impeachment project was just not worth the risk.
Two factors changed her mind - the Whistleblower complaint of the treasonous behavior of Trump and his syndicate in the WhiteHouse in using the Presidency for personal gain and the fact that the courageous freshmen from marginal constituencies publicly announced that in order to uphold their oaths to the constitution, regardless of the fact that they could lose their seats in Congress, they had to support an enquiry. They argued what were their oaths about if they allowed this rape of America’s value system to go unchallenged?
The context of the screws el Presidente put on Ukraine was as follows: The latter had been invaded by Russia, which maybe the The Don’s greatest ally but is Congress’s number one enemy. Congress in bipartisan moves had voted a total of two hundred and fifty million dollars of tax payer money to aid the beleaguered Ukraine in their struggle to maintain their democracy against the Russian aggression. Trump’s chief lackey Mick Malvone was instructed to withhold these moneys so that when the Trump phone call went through to the President of Ukraine he would be desperate for the promised moneys and receptive to Trumpian demands. President Zelensky is a quick learner knowing full well that the way to what passes for Trump’s mind is heavy flattery.
It will be noted that the WhistleBlower report about the illegal actions of the President and several of his Administration also detailed the lengthy and devious cover up by the WhiteHouse to hide the transcripts between Trump and the Ukrainian President Zelensky in a top secret computer designed for national security. The same gang then sought to suppress the WhistleBlower complaint itself. Subsequently it has been leaked that the Putin and Saudi conversations were secreted there as well.
TRUMPIONE MAKES UKRAINE AN OFFER THEY COULDN’T REFUSE.
Trump’s alleged criminal behavior in pressuring the Ukrainian President has been likened to a mob operation.
The following,( except the first sentence which is in italics and is Jay H. Ell’s overall assessment of Trump’s extortion), is directly from the transcript provided by the WhiteHouse of the July 25 conversation between the two leaders. Had anyone scripted the interaction as fiction it would have been criticized as being over the top and a smear of the forty -fifth President.
Trumpione. “Nice country you got President Zelensky. It would be a pity if something happened to it”.
Trumpione. “My people have been very good to your people, lots of favors.”
Zelensky. “Agreed. We all so admire your leadership and I stayed in a Trump Hotel when I visited America. I would like to confess that I had an opportunity to learn from you. We used quite a few of your skills and knowledge…..the first time you called me when I won the Presidential elections, the second time when my party won the elections. I should run more often so you could call me more often….. you are great teacher for us…Trumpione interrupts
Trumpione. We do a lot for Ukraine, we spend a lot of effort and time …we have been very very good for Ukraine…….I wouldn’t say that it is reciprocal……
.....the other thing. There is a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about so that whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great… Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution……Zelensky follows up with a non sequitur…
Zelensky. “…Thank you for your support in the area of defense. Ukraine is ready to cooperate in the next steps by buying American missiles”....Trumpione not to be deterred...
Trumpione. “I want you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot… I want you to go into the whole situation of ‘Crowdstrike’. The server they say Ukraine has it. (In brief. Trump’s obsession with ‘Crowdstrike’ is to prove that it wasn’t the Russians that hacked the 2016 election)…..
…..I would like to have the Attorney General call you .. and I would like you get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday the whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance but they say a lot of it started in Ukraine. Whatever you can do. It is very important. …..Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man…. Rudy very much knows what is happening… if you could speak to him that would be great….”
Trumpione in the thirty minute conversation never reassured Zelensky that he would forward the moneys that Congress had voted for his country’s defense.
(Jay H. Ell presents this with an apology to the Cosa Nostra who were far more subtle).
THE DOCUMENTATION PROVIDED TO CONGRESS AND WHAT FOLLOWED
Trump when confronted with the daily drip drip about the WhistleBlower’s report, the fact that the Director General of Intelligence, (DGI). had labelled his/her complaint credible, urgent and serious and because the Senate Republicans had unanimously called for the declassification of all the reports, released everything. The documentation included the DGI’S reasons for wanting to refer the allegations to the Intelligence Committees of Congress immediately. It is fair comment that the majority of legislators either publicly or privately were aghast at the content of the complaint and the content of the conversation.
After the publication of the WhiteHouse’s edited report on the telephone conversation between Trump and Zelensky, Pelosi was forced to announce the formal Impeachment enquiry.
Matters have moved really quickly. The Democrats in the House have had their first hearing on the matter while the Republican controlled Senate Intelligence Committee held theirs, in camera, on the same day.
Trump believing he could do what he has done before argued that the transcript of his discussion and the circumstances surrounding didn’t say what they said. He attacked Biden and blamed the media, Democrats and the Deep State that are out to get him, in an attempt to brazen this out. He hoped to mobilize his base, but more importantly, win back those who voted Democrat in 2018 as they, one week ago, were against impeachment. He was also banking on the fact that after his 12,000 documented lies truth does not appear to matter.
There are many of the Trump camp that are in the crosshairs of the probes that will follow - Attorney General Barr, Trump’s new personal lawyer Rudi Giuliani and his Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney in addition to the lawyers that allegedly helped the cover up.
The Democrats are wisely dropping every other Trump scandal in favor of concentrating on this event. Obviously the courageous WhistleBlower will provide them with a slew of witnesses that were his informants.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
Like most of Trump’s wounds this one is self inflicted. The day after Robert Mueller presented his findings that Russia had intervened in his favor in 2016 he sought help from the Ukrainians to get dirt on the Democratic front runner Joe Biden. The central allegation is that he withheld tax payer money voted by Congress to an American ally against America’s sanctioned enemy Russia in order to fulfill his own personal agenda.
Initial polling indicates an increase in public support for impeachment. The tide for Nixon’s ouster really began when the public hearings educated the electorate. The courts are not likely to support Trump’s failure to produce documents and not allowing witnesses to appear in a constitutionally established impeachment enquiry.
Fox News is being told by its new Board Member former House Speaker Paul Ryan to dump Trump. There is already public dissent within Fox to being Trump’s echo chamber. The Fox chief legal analyst has opined that the President’s actions are criminal.
Every fact needs to be checked. Every allegation corroborated. If that is done and thirty Republican don’t join the Democrats to fire Trump, after the House has impeached him, the Republican Party is truly finished. If you don’t believe Jay H. Ell ask Paul Ryan and Mitch Romney who has finally emerged as a potential leader of a Republican faction to dump Trump.
The WhistleBlower has to be a very big deal to have gained the cooperation of so many in the Trump orbit. He solicited information that even Mueller was not privy too. Everything he has stated has been confirmed by the subsequent leaks.
AT THE VERY END OF THE DAY - TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE
At the United Nations Trump advised President Zelensky to patch up with Putin who had annexed a chunk of his country and was invading East Ukraine. As Jonathon Alter stated this request was akin to Belgium, after being devastated by the Nazis, being instructed to patch it up with Hitler. It is obvious that that outcome is Trump’s endgame as then he could withdraw the sanctions against Russia. Accommodating Russia has been what it has been about from the beginning and still is what it is about now. As has now been leaked the Putin conversations are also safely locked up together with the American nuclear secrets and the transcripts of Trump’s discussion with President Zelensky.
At the very end of the day this outcome was inevitable. In many ways it is a miracle or a blot on the American judicial system that Trump survived his decades long unsavory chaotic business career. He always operates near the edge and a feature of his psychological pathology is that he does not learn from experience. Only he, at this time, is fantasizing a triumphant second term, a legacy as the greatest American President ever, a Trump dynasty with Donald Junior in the WhiteHouse and a flourishing Trump Business Empire. So hold onto your seats as Trump goes even more ballistic. America is in for a bumpy ride.
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