Last Call For It's All About Revenge Now, Con't

It's incredible to note that while the focus in the Ukraine impeachment case has been on Trump, Giuliani, and Mike Pompeo, the real enabler here is Attorney General Bill Barr, who is continuing to take a personal hand in punishing those responsible for the Mueller investigation.

Attorney General William P. Barr has taken an interest in a mysterious European professor whose conversation with an adviser to President Trump’s 2016 campaign helped launch the FBI investigation into possible coordination with Russia — and who has since become the focal point of an unproven conservative theory that the entire inquiry was a setup, people familiar with the matter said.

Those involved in the FBI investigation said they are mystified by the attorney general’s activities and interest in the professor, Joseph Mifsud, and they suspect that Barr might be using Justice Department resources to validate conjecture that Mifsud was deployed against a Trump adviser by Western intelligence to manufacture a basis to investigate the campaign.

“It just seems like they’re doing everything they can to delegitimize the origins of that investigation,” said one person involved the Russia probe, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the politically sensitive matter that is still being reviewed. “I just don’t think there’s any real basis to disparage it.”

But Barr’s inquiry has heartened Trump and his conservative allies. Trump, who at times has inquired about the origins of the Russia investigation and the professor in particular, has bragged that Barr will get to the bottom of the case and is doing a good job as the country’s top law enforcement official, a White House official said.

Barr’s defenders assert that he is exploring what he views as possible problems.

“He’s not a conspiracy theorist. He’s a realist,” said George Terwilliger, a former deputy attorney general and longtime friend of Barr’s. “And I’m confident that if he has a concern that justifies his personal involvement, it’s based on fact, not conjecture.”

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

Sure he is.  He's not chasing down right-wing conspiracy theories like a nutjob in order to justify coming legal action against the intelligence community.

Unproven or vague allegations about impropriety in the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe have long been passed between Trump, his conservative allies on Capitol Hill and the conservative media ecosystem — with the country’s top law enforcement official and conservative lawmakers sometimes helping to fuel them.

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) wrote in recent days to Australian, Italian and British officials, asking them to cooperate in Barr’s review of the Russia investigation and asserting that the attorney general was “simply doing his job.” Graham said in an interview that he expected Mifsud to be a significant part of the investigation.

“He’s a curious character in this whole deal, and we need to know more about him,” Graham said, adding that he had not talked to Barr about the matter.

Graham is helping Barr get his pound of flesh as chair of the Senate Judiciary.  But Barr is doing all this to defend Trump, not to pursue justice.  Remember, Barr has two investigations going, one from IG Michael Horowitz, the other from Connecticut US Attorney John Durham.  They've been on the back burner until the last month.

The Horowitz IG investigation is said to be completed.  The Durham investigation has been going on nearly as long as the Mueller probe at this point.  The closer we get to a scenario where Trump is in real trouble -- and we're rapidly approaching that point now -- the more I fear that Barr will radically change the game and start prosecuting Mueller investigators and FBI, CIA, and NSA personnel.

We'll see.

The Whistle Sounds A Second Time

As expected over the weekend, the rumored second Ukraine whistleblower has now come forward to corroborate the first whistleblower's claims.

Mark Zaid, the attorney representing the whistleblower who sounded the alarm on President Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine and triggered an impeachment inquiry, tells ABC News that he is now representing a second whistleblower who has spoken with the inspector general.

Zaid tells ABC News' Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos that the second person -- also described as an intelligence official -- has first-hand knowledge of some of the allegations outlined in the original complaint and has been interviewed by the head of the intelligence community's internal watchdog office, Michael Atkinson.

The existence of a second whistleblower -- particularly one who can speak directly about events involving the president related to conversations involving Ukraine -- could undercut Trump's repeated insistence that the original complaint, released on Sept. 26, was "totally inaccurate."

That original seven-page complaint alleged that Trump pushed a foreign power to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden, and Biden's son, Hunter, and that unnamed senior White House officials then tried to "lock down" all records of the phone call.

"This set of actions underscored to me that White House officials understood the gravity of what had transpired in the call," the first whistleblower stated, in a complaint filed Aug. 12.

Zaid says both officials have full protection of the law intended to protect whistleblowers from being fired in retaliation. While this second official has spoken with the IG -- the internal watchdog office created to handle complaints -- this person has not communicated yet with the congressional committees conducting the investigation.

The New York Times on Friday cited anonymous sources in reporting that a second intelligence official was weighing whether to file his own formal complaint and testify to Congress. Zaid says he does not know if the second whistleblower he represents is the person identified in the Times report.

Zaid’s co-counsel, Andrew Bakaj, confirmed in a tweet Sunday that the firm is representing "multiple whistleblowers." Zaid later confirmed in a tweet that two are being represented by their legal team.

According to the first whistleblower, more than a half a dozen U.S. officials have information relevant to the investigation -- suggesting the probe could widen even further.

From a legal standpoint this is devastating to Trump, but I'm not sure politically how much of a difference a second whistleblower will make at this point.  Trump partisans aren't going to believe a word of the second individual's complaint against their Orange Emperor, and let's remember, the impeachment and trial process will be 100% political.  But for 99% of Republicans, their mind is made up, and we get ridiculous conversations like this one between Chuck Todd and Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson.



Still, this puts additional political pressure on Trump's partisans and the ridiculous "it's hearsay!" defense, now that we have a second source with first-hand evidence.  How much pressure, we'll see in the days and weeks ahead.  And as Chuck Todd shows above, the media is actually fighting back because of how ridiculous defending Trump looks.

Understand though the base accusations are still the same: Trump used foreign aid and pressured foreign leaders into fabricating intelligence on his political allies to help him in 2020.
 

Sunday Long Read: Dorian's Devastation

The destruction from Hurricane Dorian is still very much evident on the Grand Abaco island of the Bahamas, and in this Sunday postcard from the Miami New Times, the island and the nation may never recover.

Five days after Hurricane Dorian stalled over the Abacos and nearby Grand Bahama, pummeling the islands for 24 hours with its 185 mph winds, the runway of the Leonard M. Thompson International Airport had been cleared. But the buildings that ringed the landing strip had been ripped open like Christmas presents. The control tower remained upright, but the attached office building was stripped to its skeleton. Once our twin-prop six-seater touched down, I realized the airstrip was being operated by U.S. Navy personnel who were orchestrating the traffic from the tarmac via radios.
The strangest sight: Blackhawk helicopters, C-130 Hercules transport planes, and untold millions' worth of gleaming Gulfstream jets parked scant steps from hundreds of people who, having made it this far, had no idea when — or whether — they'd be able to get out.

"I don't know where I'm going to go — no idea. Maybe somewhere where I can have a job, but who knows," said Benghy Delotte, a 35-year-old carpenter who'd been waiting outside the airport for four days with scarcely any food or water. "We've had to survive on our own. Whatever we find on the ground is what we eat."

Delotte and several dozen other men were clustered outside the airport's powder-blue-trimmed main terminal. Women and children had been allowed inside, where they'd transformed the space into a musty shelter ripe with the stink of dirty diapers. The security checkpoint had all but lost its former identity: A conveyor belt that once scanned the luggage of moneyed tourists had become a triage station littered with discarded medical supplies; the cafeteria was the domain of a burgeoning swarm of flies.

In stark contrast to Delotte, my three fellow travelers and I were well equipped. We had clean clothes. Our employer, Reuters news service, had outfitted us with plenty of water, ready-to-eat meals, mountains of batteries, portable solar panels, powdered electrolytes, and fruit juice. We had cigarettes, mesh bug nets, camera equipment, functioning smartphones, and portable satellite dishes to beam back images and interviews from the aftermath.

For the next three days, it would be our discomfiting task to point our recording equipment at piles of rubble that days earlier had been houses, and to extract stories from the occupants who'd abandoned them to the hurricane, who now were reduced to convulsive sobs at the sight of what had become of their homes and their lives.

When I deplaned in the tourist-thronged capital of Nassau late the previous afternoon, September 5, the Holiday Inn Express on Bay Street across from Junkanoo Beach was already one of the de facto headquarters for personnel arriving on behalf of relief agencies and news organizations. The lobby bustled with blue-vested United Nations workers; the thumping of Dutch, Canadian, and U.S. military boots; and the chatter of Japanese, French, Italian, and Mexican journalists.

The 700 islands that compose the Bahamas archipelago dot a swath the size of Texas in the western Atlantic Ocean. (Bimini is closest to the U.S. mainland, about 70 miles southeast of Miami.) Dorian had spared all but two of the former British colony's 16 major islands: Grand Bahama, where the city of Freeport is located, was hit hard, while Great Abaco was nearly obliterated — the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) estimated 90 percent of that island's structures were destroyed. According to the WFP, 70,000 people were in need of housing and shelter on the two islands, respectively the second- and third-most-popular tourist destinations in the Bahamas. Nassau, meanwhile, remained a veritable Disneyland, with cruise ships arriving and departing regularly.

My plan was to board a charter to Great Abaco the next morning. But the promised plane didn't materialize. Nor did a helicopter service that had accepted a $5,000 wire transfer for two rides.

Marooned in Nassau, I walked to Princess Margaret Hospital, a pastel-yellow complex styled in the imposing manner of the country's onetime British colonial overlords and the only large medical facility in the Bahamas that was fully functioning after the storm. Victims had begun arriving the day before, yet the lobby was eerily calm. I found Leon Lazard, a 42-year-old contractor from Abaco who'd been airlifted in after he was injured while rescuing his mentally handicapped brother Lawrence. Lazard and about 30 others had been caught for hours in a horrifying relay race, running from one flooded house to another, fleeing each as the winds ripped off roof after roof.

"Every time we tried to go outside, the weather would show its might," Lazard said, speaking quietly while staring off into the distance. "It would pick up something and throw it at us — like it was saying, 'If you come out here, all of you are dead.'"

Trump may be the biggest hurricane in the news right now, but he's far from the only one.  We can't forget that.

Last Call For Not-So-Slick Rick

Trump Energy Secretary Rick Perry is resigning by the end of next month and naturally, people are asking what role he played in the Ukraine/Biden mess, considering Hunter Biden was on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.  While the focus has rightfully been on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Perry played a role in Trump's efforts to fabricate evidence against the Bidens to use in 2020 too, and that certainly explains his sudden exit.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry urged Ukraine's president to root out corruption and pushed the new government for changes at its state-run oil and gas company, people familiar with his work said Friday — indications that he was more deeply involved than previously known in President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure officials in Kiev.

The people said they have no indication that Perry explicitly called on Ukrainian officials to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, the issue that has spawned a House impeachment inquiry into Trump. But at the very least, they said, Perry played an active role in the Trump administration's efforts to shape decisions by the newly elected government of President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Among other changes, Perry pushed for Ukraine’s state-owned natural gas company Naftogaz to expand its board to include Americans, two people familiar with the matter said. Two long-time energy executives based in Perry’s home state of Texas were among those under consideration for that role, one source familiar with the administration’s dealings with the company said.

Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said Perry had advised that the board be expanded. She was not immediately able to comment on whether Perry had suggested names to fill new seats.

A White House spokesman referred questions to DOE.

So just to be clear, Perry's job was to use his influence to get Americans on to a board of an Ukrainian energy company, exactly what Trump is accusing Joe Biden of doing, only this was Perry's stated goal as Energy Secretary.

It gets worse, of course.

Trump has defended his calls for Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, maintaining he has an “obligation to look at corruption.” Text messages released on Thursday showed U.S. diplomats discussing how a potential summit between Zelensky and Trump would depend on Ukraine “getting to the bottom of what happened” in the 2016 U.S. election, which Trump maintains was marred by an unproven conspiracy against him by Democrats and foreign allies.

Perry, who POLITICO reported is expected to resign next month, attended Zelensky's May inauguration in Kiev in place of Vice President Mike Pence. In addition, he was one of the administration’s "three amigos" on Ukrainian policy, along with Kurt Volker, the U.S. special representative for the Ukraine conflict, and Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, as Sondland described their relationship in a July broadcast interview.

And keep in mind Volker has already talked, his damning text messages showing a delightful little quid pro quo game in the works, implicating Sondland, who is expected to talk Tuesday.

Now do you see why the "third amigo" is planning his resignation?  He's up to his neck in this, and he wants out.

Democrats need to get him in front of a committee under oath.

Now.

The Reach To Impeach, Con't

It seems House Democratic legal deadlines still mean nothing to the Trump regime, and they mean nothing to House Democrats, either.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday failed to meet a subpoena deadline from the House to produce Ukraine-related documents. 

A House Foreign Affairs Committee aide told CNN that "Secretary Pompeo has failed to meet the deadline to produce documents required by the subpoena. However, the State Department has contacted the Committees on this matter and we hope the Department will cooperate in full promptly. Apart from the outstanding subpoena, we look forward to hearing from Ambassadors Sondland and Yovanovitch next week." 

CNN has reached out to the State Department for comment. 

On Saturday, Pompeo told reporters that the US State Department had sent a letter to Congress Friday night with its "initial response" to the document request. 

"We'll obviously do all the things we are required to do by law," Pompeo said, during a press conference in Athens, without elaborating on what the department's response said. 

The lapse comes after the chairmen of three House committees subpoenaed Pompeo last week over his failure to produce documents related to Ukraine, and following his admission on Wednesday that he had been on the controversial July call when Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden -- Trump's potential Democratic rival -- and Biden's son Hunter. There is no evidence of wrongdoing in Ukraine by Joe or Hunter Biden. 

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel of New York said Friday that despite no indication that the State Department would meet the deadline, the committee is "hopeful that we will get things that we need." 

"Maybe not in the next two hours, but we're hoping we're going to get some answers," Engel told CNN's Chris Cuomo just before the deadline.

Or maybe...nothing.  Pompeo's initial response, as we well know, is that he's already refused depositions, but then again people have come forward anyway, namely Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker this week and EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland is scheduled to testify on Tuesday.

But the documents are a different story.  It's already been a month-long fight to get those, and Pompeo has ignored a subpoena already.  Unless the Dems are willing to put some muscle behind the threat on Monday, Pompeo will continue to refuse, and Trump will laugh at them.

The Coup-Coup Birds

FOX News State TV is doing everything it can to rile up real and lasting violence in the United States by constantly referring to the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump as a "coup" and quite often "illegal", and nobody is doing more to create a climate rife with stochastic terrorism than Trump himself.

Considering removing a president from office via procedures outlined in the Constitution is not the same as a coup, defined as a violent overthrow of the government. That hasn’t stopped at least 15 Fox News personalities and guests from calling the House impeachment inquiry a coup since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that an impeachment inquiry would move forward.

President Trump himself has been known to engage in rhetoric about uprisings before. As The Fix’s Eugene Scott wrote, Trump’s Sunday tweet quoting a Fox guest who said impeachment would create a “Civil War like fracture” in the country was a significant escalation of that tendency. By Tuesday, Trump had called the inquiry a “coup” on Twitter.

On his favorite network, the term “coup” has been used with increased frequency. An analysis by the Fix found that Fox News has aired segments of hosts and guests calling the impeachment inquiry of Trump an attempted “coup” each of the 11 days since Pelosi’s announcement.

Watch:



The goal here is to make impeachment so bloody that it's never attempted. This is Trump's defense to remain in office: the very real threat of retaliatory violence against Democrats and their voters.

Kentucky Cookin'

It's official now: Kentucky, like much of the Southeastern US, is in an unprecedented drought.

The first half of 2019 saw remarkably wet conditions that put Kentucky on track to have a record year for rainfall. But now, the state is facing one of the worst droughts since records began in 1895.

All 120 counties in Kentucky have issued drought declarations as unprecedented hot and dry conditions pummel the state and much of the Southeast. Persistent drought conditions are already affecting this year’s farmers and cattle producers and could impact the state’s drinking water if they last much longer.

Last month will likely go down as the driest September on record with an average of 0.28 inches of rainfall across the state. At the same time, it’s likely to be among the hottest ever Septembers on record, State Climatologist Stuart Foster.

“In a very real sense what we are seeing now has never happened before in our recorded record,” Foster said. “Almost any way you look at it this is an unprecedented situation for us here in Kentucky.”

While every drought is unique, this year’s weather pattern is consistent with climate change models in national and regional climate assessments, Foster said. Climate scientists say the frequency of extreme weather including heavy downpours, droughts and heatwaves will become more common as average temperatures rise.

Across the Commonwealth, the drought is having cascading impacts. Low-flow conditions on the Ohio River are encouraging the growth of toxic blue-green algae. Meanwhile, the dry weather has sapped forests of their moisture, just as leaves begin to fall and fire season starts.

The state’s Energy and Environment Cabinet says if the drought gets much worse, it could start to affect local drinking water systems.

“If conditions persist some water utilities could have difficulty treating water and may begin issuing conservation advisories,” said spokesman John Mura.

We saw four straight days of record high temps this week by the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport.  It only gets worse from here, folks.

Last Call For Biden Derangement Syndrome

And in less than 24 hours after Donald Trump stands on the south lawn of the White House and demands Ukraine investigate Joe Biden, the former Soviet republic moves to make Trump happy.

Ukraine’s new chief prosecutor said Friday his office will conduct an “audit” of an investigation into Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company that had recruited Hunter Biden for its board.

A criminal probe of the company was closed in 2016, and President Trump has alleged it was because of pressure by Hunter Biden’s father, then-Vice President Joe Biden. Trump has insisted that Ukraine open a new investigation.

Ukrainian officials said previously that the probe was focused on the years 2010 to 2012, before the younger Biden joined the board. They also have said that there is no evidence of any wrongdoing on his part.

Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka reiterated at a news conference Friday that he knows of no evidence of criminal activity by Biden.

He said that he is aware of at least 15 investigations that may have touched on Burisma, its owner Nikolai Zlochevsky, an associate named Serhiy Zerchenko, and Biden, and that all will be reviewed. He said no foreign or Ukrainian official has been in touch with him to request this audit.

The audit does not mark a reopening of the investigation, but it could buy Ukraine some time in dealing with the White House, analysts said.

But it should get Trump off their backs.  Meanwhile, we've absolutely discovered the quid pro quo in a series of devastating text messages involving US special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, who has come forward with the goods.

House investigators released numerous text messages late Thursday night illustrating how senior State Department officials coordinated with the Ukrainian president’s top aide and President Trump’s personal lawyer to leverage a potential summit between the heads of state on a promise from the Ukrainians to investigate the 2016 U.S. election and an energy company that employed the son of 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

The texts, which former special U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker provided investigators during a nearly 10-hour deposition Thursday, reveal that officials felt Trump would not agree to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky unless Zelensky promised to launch the investigations — and did so publicly. 

Although the texts do not mention Biden by name, congressional Democrats leading an impeachment inquiry are pointing to them as clear evidence that Trump conditioned normal bilateral relations with Ukraine on that country first agreeing “to launch politically motivated investigations,” top Democrats said in statement Thursday night.

“heard from White House — assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / ‘get to the bottom of what happened’ in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington,” Volker texted Zelensky’s aide, Andrey Yermak, on July 25, hours before Trump and the Ukrainian president spoke via phone. The rough transcript of that conversation was released by the White House last week.

Yet two weeks after that call, the president still had not agreed to meet with Zelensky — and administration officials sought to convince the Ukrainians that Trump would need a public pledge before agreeing to the meeting, according to the text messages.

“I think potus really wants the deliverable,” U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland texted to Volker on Aug. 9, noting that Zelensky might give a news conference announcing his intent to investigate. “To avoid misunderstandings, might be helpful to ask Andrey for a draft statement (embargoed) so that we can see exactly what they propose to cover.”
By the next day, the Ukrainians had agreed to announce their plans to carry out Trump’s investigations alongside the date for a meeting between the two heads of state, the messages indicate.

“Once we have a date, will call for a press briefing, announcing upcoming visit and outlining vision for the reboot of US-UKRAINE relationship, including among other things Burisma and election meddling in investigations,” Yermak texted Volker on Aug. 10. Hunter Biden, the former vice president’s son, sat on the board of Burisma for five years.

But Trump never committed to a meeting. And as the United States resisted giving Zelensky an audience with Trump, administration officials’ discussions suggest the White House was issuing an escalating series of demands.

“Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations?” U.S. Charges D’affaires in Ukraine William B. “Bill” Taylor texted to Sondland on Sept. 1, after Trump skipped a trip to Poland where he was meant to visit with Zelensky. Sondland swiftly moved the conversation from text messages to a phone call.

And that's exactly what happened.  The deal to push Ukrainian President Zelensky for dirt on Biden in exchange for a face-to-face meeting with Trump in Washington was in the works before the July 25th call and the texts make that painfully clear.

The story isn't about Biden.

It's about Trump selling out the country to win an election.

Mitch McConnell Has To Go

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may be telling reporters that there will be Senate trial if Trump is impeached, but in ads running here to Kentuckians online, he's telling everyone that'll never happen.

In a new campaign video on Facebook, Senate Majority Mitch McConnell pitches himself as the man who can end the House's impeachment inquiry, a sign of how the chief Republican in the chamber might handle an impeachment trial should the House pass articles charging President Donald Trump with crimes. 

"Nancy Pelosi is in the clutches of a left-wing mob," McConnell says directly to a camera. "They've finally convinced her to impeach the President. All of you know your Constitution. The way that impeachment stops is a Senate majority, with me as majority leader." 

"But I need your help," he adds. "Please contribute before the deadline." 

Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her support for an impeachment inquiry into Trump, asserting that Trump used his office for personal political gain in July when he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading Democratic presidential candidate, and his son Hunter. 

On September 25, a day after Pelosi's announcement, McConnell said Senate Republicans "support the established proper procedures" for considering a whistleblower's complaint at the center of the House's investigation. McConnell told Politico that the Democrats had "already overplayed their hand" and there was "no quid pro quo" between Trump and Zelensky, according to a White House's summary of the call. Democrats countered that Trump had held up nearly $400 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine not long before asking the Ukrainian leader to work with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on the probe into the Bidens, even though he did not explicitly mention the aid on the call. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either Joe or Hunter Biden. 

That same day, the McConnell campaign account unveiled Facebook ads on the topic that consumed Washington, according to Facebook's ad library. "Pelosi is obsessed with impeaching President Trump," said one ad. "And your conservative Senate Majority is the ONLY THING standing in her way." A couple days later, McConnell's video was attached to the ads. 

And yes, those ads are running here in Kentucky.  Kinda awful really.

Also, there's no way McConnell will let a true Senate trial proceed.  You can take that to the bank.

Time for us to elect Amy McGrath.

Beijing In The Membrane

With Donald Trump casually mentioning on the White House south lawn yesterday that China should investigate Joe Biden because hey, trade talks are coming up guys, the crew at CNN decided to follow up on Trump's most recent call with President Xi Jinping and wouldn't you know it, of course he brought up Biden, the quid pro quo this time being Trump remaining silent on Hong Kong protests.

When President Donald Trump suggested — without prompting — that China should investigate Joe Biden and his son, he thrust another political grudge into what was already the world's most complicated and consequential relationship. 

The move startled Chinese officials, who say they have little interest in becoming embroiled in a US political controversy. And it amounted to the latest extraordinary effort by Trump to openly request political assistance from foreign governments. 

Thursday's comments weren't the first time Trump has injected Biden into his relationship with China, though he said Thursday he has never pushed Xi to investigate the former vice president. Nor is it the first time he has sought to trade favors with Xi, who this week celebrated the 70th birthday of his ruling communist party with a note of congratulations from Trump. 

During a phone call with Xi on June 18, Trump raised Biden's political prospects as well as those of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who by then had started rising in the polls, according to two people familiar with the discussion. In that call, Trump also told Xi he would remain quiet on Hong Kong protests as trade talks progressed. 

The White House record of that call was later stored in the highly secured electronic system used to house a now-infamous phone call with Ukraine's President and which helped spark a whistleblower complaint that's led Democrats to open an impeachment inquiry into Trump. 

On Thursday, Trump told reporters at the White House he'd consider asking his counterpart in Beijing to investigate the Bidens, adding to a growing list of foreign leaders he's tried to enlist in his attempts to bring down a potential Democratic challenger. 

"It's certainly something we can start thinking about," Trump said when questioned whether he would seek the help of Xi in investigating Biden. "Because I'm sure that President Xi does not like being under that kind of scrutiny."

The impeachable offenses keep adding up, Trump admits more seemingly daily at this point.

Dems can impeach, but there's no guarantee it will matter.

StupidiNews!

• The FBI and Homeland Security have issued law enforcement briefs involving security for the movie weekend premiere of Joker, federal officials say several mass shooting threats have been made.
• A 2009 Banksy painting depicting British Parliament as chimpanzees sold for a record 9.9 million pounds at a Sotheby's auction on Thursday, a record for the British street artist.
• Hong Kong's government is expected to approve sweeping new emergency laws to deal with months of protests, including a ban on face masks and what protesters fear could become martial law.
• Campaign officials say Bernie Sanders will appear in next week's Democratic primary debate after the senator was treated for heart issue in Las Vegas this week.
• Attorney General William Barr is once again renewing a Trump regime Justice Department call to tech giants for full back door access to encryption and user data when a warrant is issued. 

Last Call For The Reach To Impeach, Con't

Smoking guns, get your smoking guns here, we've got a great stock and the best selection!

In newly disclosed text messages shared with Congress, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine at the time writes to a group of other American diplomats that "I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”

The exchange, provided by former U.S Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker as part of his closed-door deposition before multiple House committees Thursday, shows what appears to be encrypted text messages he exchanged with two other American diplomats in September regarding aid money President Donald Trump ordered to be held back from Ukraine.

In the exchange, obtained by ABC News, the concerns are expressed by Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine. Gordon Sondland, the United States Ambassador to the European Union, responds to Taylor, saying that charge is "incorrect," insisting the president has been “crystal clear no quid pro quo of any kind”.

Sondland then suggests to the group take the conversations off line, typing “I suggest we stop the back and forth by text.” It’s unclear if the conversation continues, based on the material obtained by ABC News.

Sondland, a hotelier and Republican megadonor, contributed over $1 million to the president’s inaugural committee before eventually being nominated and confirmed to the top role as the United States representative to the European Union. .

Taylor is a career foreign service officer who has served as the top diplomat in Kyiv since May, when Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was recalled by the administration. Yovanovitch had been smeared by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani for months as blocking Ukrainian investigations into corruption -- an allegation the State Department at the time called an "outright fabrication" that "does not correspond to reality."

But Trump referred to Yovanovitch as "bad news" in his controversial July 25 call with Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy.

The texts came just days before the White House released the military assistance to Ukraine -- almost $400 million from the State Department and Pentagon meant to boost the U.S. partner against Russian aggression.

The US diplomat to Ukraine certainly thought there was quid pro quo going on.  The guy who donated a million bucks to Trump to buy himself the ambassadorship to the European Union said "No it's not, also let's stop texting about this."

These idiots are so bad at this it's funny.

Orange Implosion, Con't

So we've reached the point in the Ukraine/Biden cycle in Trump's behavior where he simply does whatever Democrats are accusing him of doing in order to 1) normalize it for future repetition and the "so what if he does it?" defense from the GOP and 2) dare Democrats to actually do anything about it, which so far they have done absolutely nothing that seems to be discouraging him.

President Donald Trump urged another foreign government to probe Joe Biden and his son Thursday, saying the Chinese government should investigate the former vice president and son Hunter Biden over the latter's involvement with an investment fund that raised money in the country.

"China should start an investigation into the Bidens because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine," Trump told reporters outside the White House.

While Trump said he hasn't requested Chinese President Xi Jinping investigate the Bidens, the public call mirrors the private behavior on which Democrats are partially basing their impeachment inquiry — using the office of the presidency to press a foreign leader to investigate a political rival.

It is "certainly something we can start thinking about, because I’m sure that President Xi does not like being on that kind of scrutiny, where billions of dollars is taken out of his country by a guy that just got kicked out of the Navy," Trump said Thursday of asking China to probe the Bidens. "He got kicked out of the Navy, all of the sudden he’s getting billions of dollars. You know what they call that? They call that a payoff."

The remarks come amid a tense trade war with China. The president, discussing progress on negotiations with Beijing on a possible trade agreement just moments prior to his remarks about the Bidens, told reporters that "if they don't do what we want, we have tremendous power.”

Chinese officials will be in Washington next week in another attempt to revive talks, Trump said.

So for almost two weeks now Trump defenders have been able to say "You can't prove he actually requested Biden be investigated, it's hearsay, it's not admissible in a court of law, Trump deserves full due process" even though all of that is 100% garbage.

And here Trump is on an idle Thursday not only saying Ukraine should investigate Joe Biden, but that China should too and hey, trade talks are coming up, that would definitely help.

No wonder then the call for impeachment is growing.  The best Democratic inquiry is to shut up and let Trump impeach himself on national TV.

Americans by a 45%-38% plurality now support a vote by the House of Representatives to impeach President Donald Trump, a USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds, as allegations continue to swirl around an embattled White House.

By a similar margin, 44%-35%, those surveyed say the Senate, which would then be charged with holding a trial of the president, should convict Trump and remove him from office.

The survey of 1,006 adults, taken Tuesday and Wednesday, underscores the perilous situation the president finds himself in as House committees subpoena documents and prepare to hear testimony into accusations that he pressured the leader of Ukraine to investigate a political rival, then tried to hide the account of their phone conversation.

This was before today's massive public admission of a criminal act by Trump.

He's this close to the dam breaking and the impeachment and removal happening, and it's about to catch Mitch McConnell in a vise if he tries to ignore the impeachment vote and refuses to hold a Senate trial.

It won't work.

Trump is damning himself.

The Orange Implosion continues.

Ukraine In The Membrane, Con't

It seems every day there's new damning information coming out about the Trump regime, Ukraine, and the effort to create dirt on Joe Biden out of shadows and tweets, plus the effort to discredit and even prosecute the Mueller probe investigators.  

Former Trump campaign chairman and now convicted fraudster felon Paul Manafort represents the perfect merging of the Ukraine storyline and the Mueller probe, as Manafort was campaign runner for pro-Russian Ukrainian presidential candidate (and Putin stooge) Viktor Yanukovich. Wouldn't you know it, Trump "legal eagle" Rudy Giuliani apparently thought it would be a good idea to tap Manafort's "expertise" on Ukraine while he was behind bars.

In his quest to rewrite the history of the 2016 election, President Trump’s personal attorney has turned to an unusual source of information: Trump’s imprisoned former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Rudolph W. Giuliani in recent months has consulted several times with Manafort through the federal prisoner’s lawyer in pursuit of information about a disputed ledger that would bolster his theory that the real story of 2016 is not Russian interference to elect Trump, but Ukrainian efforts to support Hillary Clinton.

The alliance, which Giuliani acknowledged in an interview this week with The Washington Post, stems from a shared interest in a narrative that undermines the rationale for the special counsel investigation. That inquiry led to Manafort’s imprisonment on tax and financial fraud allegations related to his work in Kiev for the political party of former president Viktor Yanukovych.

Giuliani’s effort is gaining traction on Capitol Hill. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, have announced their renewal of an inquiry into any coordination between Ukraine and Democratic Party officials.

Manafort, who is serving a 7½ -year term in a federal prison in Pennsylvania, has continued to express support for Trump, and Trump has never ruled out giving him a pardon.

Trump’s push on a July 25 call to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the matter, and also probe former vice president Joe Biden, triggered an impeachment inquiry in the House. Many of the accusations Giuliani has been making about Ukraine recycle those that Manafort’s team first promulgated.
Giuliani joined Trump’s legal team in April 2018 to help defend the president against special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe, and the former mayor said he launched his own investigation into Ukraine late last year, which led him to consult with Manafort. He said he has not spoken directly to Manafort in two years.

“It was that I believed there was a lot of evidence that the [Democratic National Committee] and the Clinton campaign had a close connection to Ukrainian officials,” Giuliani said, noting that he was never advocating for a pardon of Manafort. “It was all about Trump. I don’t think I could exonerate Manafort.”

Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing, did not respond to a request for comment.

This is the grand 2020 plan, to exonerate Trump now by blaming all the Ukraine stuff on Hillary, and to try to destroy Joe Biden so he can't win in 2020 and Trump gets a second term.

It won't work unless we let it.

StupidiNews!

• The former Dallas police officer who was convicted of the murder of Botham Jean, an unarmed black man in his own apartment, was sentenced to ten years for the murder, eligible for parole in five.
• The World Trade Organization has ruled $7.5 billion in new Trump tariffs on EU imports, including on Irish whiskey, over the EU's illegal support of Airbus.
• A vintage WW II B-17 bomber crashed at a Connecticut airport killing seven and closing Bradley International Airport for several hours as fire crews responded to the resulting blaze.
• Indonesian President Jokowi says nationwide protest will "not deter" his reform agenda as students clashed with police armed with teargas in Jakarta.
• Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Mark Warner are behind a bipartisan effort to warn tech giants they need to stop "deepfake" videos spread on social media ahead of the 2020 elections.