Are we really supposed to be OK with removing a President from office based on anonymous allegations that seem to be in disagreement with the physical evidence?
It's starting to look like there is no whistle blower. It's a fabricated entity that nobody is going to be able to see or hear in person. When they said they would have them testify by disguising their face and voice it really made me leery.
I have to agree with Trump on that one. This is a continued fishing expedition, not an impeachment proceeding. If they like, they can draw up articles of impeachment and put it to a vote in the House. If they pass that, they can have their impeachment proceeding. No doubt you will hear them cry about a constitutional crisis, but it's not. It can be played out in the courts, hopefully according to the laws of the land.
But they won't, and you know it. If they did, then they'd have to give the GOP their own fair shake - evidence, exploration, questioning, disclosure, cross-examination...it would give the GOP a silver platter FULL of ability to fry the Democrats.
In court.
On TV.
For everyone to see.
So...they won't do it. They won't play by the rules - why would they start now?
The fake & probably illegal impeachment inquiry is based on the premise that it is illegal to investigate crimes allegedly committed by politicians.
While the author of the article picks on Democrats, who are currently committing this criminal conspiracy against the American Citizens and the "not my President", the elitist, aristocratic, violation of equality under the law can also be used by Republicans, or anyone else in politics.
After all, the upcoming primaries and Convention will have people running against the current President, and by the twisted legal logic of the moment, be un-investigateable as any investigation is a campaign contribution by the agency involved.
Thus anyone who runs for office has a get out of jail card that blocks even looking at their crimes.
Was the decision to pull some U.S. troops out of part of Syria a good one? Or a big mistake?
I don't know. But if not now, when?
Our involvement in the Syrian civil war was entirely the decision of one man. He chose to be a "cowboy" about it, personally choosing to send our troops in harm's way. There were certainly advisors and special interest groups involved, but it was one man's choice. There were no formal conferences to form an alliance, Congress wasn't asked to vote on going to "armed conflict", and the American people were just told "Assad sucks", and there we were, in another war.
I'm not saying Assad is a good guy, he's darn evil. Congress hasn't voted to go to war, formally, since 1941. So that's kind of a useless complaint.
But we have troops in harm's way, and although I hope their ROEs are more rational under Trump, they started under insanely restrictive orders and weren't given overwhelming fire power to go win a war. They were sent to advise, and try to manage, a disparate not collection of freedom fighters that included outright terrorists by every nation's declaration, even ours.
If you wanted to fail, and give evil men a chance to take power & murder thousands of innocents, you couldn't do it better. And that's exactly what happened.
Since the man responsible for this mess retired to become a partner to this universe's version of The Red Skull, and has a track record of supporting Islamist terrorist groups, I can only speculate on his reasons for screwing so many people in Syria and across the region.
And at this point, his reasons don't matter. We got his war, it's our problem. We know HOW we got here, and who to blame, although that last doesn't matter either.
So. Do we go to war with a NATO member? Bad idea. Do we leave our fellow citizens to die at the hands of the brutal dictator of that NATO member? Bad idea.
We could fight Turkey ( a NATO member ) and Iran and cut a deal with Putin to carve out a Kurdish homeland. But Congress would never approve funding for it, it would take hundreds of U.S. lives, and thousands of civilians would be killed. ( never mind the Iranian leaders and minions, the world would be better off without them ) Bad idea.
When do we pull our troops out?
I very much dislike using my fellow Americans for a tripwire. Tripwires get broken, and set off large explosions. Don't want either.
There are times and places for them, sure. I was signing up to be one in the mid 1970s, in Germany, to discourage the Red Army from conquering Europe. But I would have had a tank. Different times. Different people.
As fate had it I didn't go, they didn't invade, and here I am to complain about that insanity happening to others.
Opinions?
Nuke them all is a Bad idea. Fracking tempting, sure, but I'd like better options.
“Congress hasn't voted to go to war, formally, since 1941”
I disagree. When they authorize (vote for) funding for military operations overseas, they are formally declaring war. The constitution does not require congress to use the words “We declare war on you” to satisfy the rule that only congress shall have the power to declare war.
But the VA and other government entities may differ. Don't ask me how you can get a Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart in combat and not be a legal war veteran, but that has happened.
My point was that Obama went to war with Assad without any authorization, an "illegal" interference in a domestic revolution and a secret, unauthorized, ( leaked by the New York Times, no less ) gun running operation from his ( he blames Hillary and Susan ) also unauthorized coup in Syria, through the Islamist Erdogan's Turkey, into Syrian AQ hands, then went troops in. Unauthorized.
Then he initially refused to attack ISIS, an AQ spin off created by the power vacuum he left in Iraq. Basically ISIS was created by Obama. How directly I'm not sure.
We got into Vietnam, originally, to bail out the French, and to protect oil pipelines and exploration in the area. ( they don't teach that part )
We got into Korea because we had forces in country as part of the post WW2 occupation, the Mao conquest of China, and the United Nations peacekeeping force.
We got into Afghanistan to kick out the terrorist/criminal gang Taliban, with allies and Congressional approval.
Ditto Iraq, except it was to get rid of Saddam. Authorized by Congress & Hillary Clinton! International allies gathered to fight. And many, England & Poland among them, fought bravely and effectively.
You can argue till you are blue that we should not have been involved in any of the above undeclared wars. But that's not the point. We were, we had authorization from Congress, and an international coalition on our side. ( with varying names and members )
Syria, at least as far as I can tell, and PLEASE CORRECT ME! Was completely part of Obama's Wars, his unauthorized effort to destroy secular governments from West Africa on the Atlantic through the middle East on the Indian ocean. ( counting Iran & his personal deal with the Mullahs )
If Donald Trump invaded Ceylon next month to interfere with their ongoing conflict, without authorization from Congress, I'd have similar questions about keeping our troops there.
You have to give a President power in foreign policy and use of force. Congress is incompetent and unable to respond fast enough to do any good. We might still be listening to arguments about fighting Mexico from 1864 today, otherwise. German would be the official language in London, Paris, & Moscow. ( and probably New York and Denver, while it was Japanese in LA & Portland )
But Obama's Wars? By any objective measure, like rapes in Sweden & acid attacks in England, they're a planetary disaster.
You'd think Putin planned the whole thing to screw Western Civilization.
I blame Lawrence of Arabia. If he hadn't gone in and gotten the tribes to work together they would still be killing each other and not messing with anybody else!
The chairman of a committee cannot issue a subpoena. That requires a vote of the committee, which didn't happen. What the chairmen sent was a letter threatening a subpoena.
This is like a cop telling you be wants to search your house, and he has a warrant. But it's a crayon drawing saying "warrant to search you stuff, beotch!" on a Taco Bell napkin, & signed " the boss of you".
That's not what the Media will tell you including these guys. Therefore, idiots.
Loving listning to the Democrats debate. . .President Trump OWNS the stage . . every word, question and response has been Trump this ,Trump that . . . . he has mindfucked them
Stage. Trump should be on one;The next one out of town! morally enfeebled enablers of the idiot need to back off until He makes a deal not to run for president in 2020 in exchange for Impeachment charges to stop.