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The Impeachment of President Donald J. Trump

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#2426

Schumer asks inspectors general to investigate whistleblower retaliation after Vindman firing

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is asking that every agency inspector general investigate retaliation against whistleblowers who report presidential misconduct, after the firing of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council.

Schumer’s letters to 74 inspectors general, which will be sent Monday, comes after Vindman, a star witness in the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, was removed from his position at the White House on Friday, along with his twin, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, an ethics lawyer at the NSC. Both brothers are active-duty Army officers and were reassigned to the Pentagon.

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#2427

Something that was missed in the story on Trump’s budget cuts:

Trump also proposes a 21% cut in U.S. foreign aid.

Not affected in that cut? Aid to Ukraine.

Have to keep the bribes flowing, right?

Also, Vox has a story up about the hypocrisy of the whole thing:

Trump vowed to not cut Social Security and Medicare — hours before proposing just that

The president is either brazenly lying about his 2021 budget or doesn’t know what’s in it.

Trump just saddled himself with a major campaign liability

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/10/trump-just-saddled-himself-with-major-campaign-liability/

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#2428

A new whistleblower has come forward in yet another case, this one concerning Trump regime fast-tracking of efforts to exploit public hands while blatantly ignoring environmental regulations.

This time the whistleblower has come forward publicly. His name is Dan Patterson and he’s one of the limited environmental protection specialists who works in the Western region. His complaint details a BLM rife with abusive and profit-oriented practices which, he claims, also happen to run afoul of internal agency rules and federal law.

Per the Patterson complaint:

This…is more than disagreement with the decisions of his superiors, but stems from a sincere belief that the laws of the United States are being disregarded for the professional expediency of his superiors and the benefit of private parties, and that a culture of lawlessness has been engendered.

Specifically, Patterson alleges that numerous BLM functionaries and officials operating under the authority and direction of infamous BLM Director and documented anti-environmental protection zealot William Perry Pendley have ignored their basic obligations under the landmark National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) which was signed into law in 1970 by Richard Nixon .

NEPA is the statutory backbone of all U.S. environmental protection laws and has been credited with several improvements in environmental protection, preservation, restoration and cleanup in the decades since its passage by the liberal Congress and strong support for its implementation by the environmentally-aware Nixon administration.

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#2429

FFS



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#2430

:eyes:

Watch:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?469289-1/moments-ago-president-trump-speaks-reporters-oval-office&live

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#2431

Cross-posting :raised_hands:

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#2432

:eyes:

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#2433

Repercussions of T’s ire on those who were against him in his impeachment…

Here’s a nugget

We also learned on Tuesday that a Defense Department official who had been nominated to serve as the Pentagon’s chief financial officer would reportedly have that nomination withdrawn. Elaine McCusker was one of a number of officials who raised objections to Trump’s decision to hold aid to Ukraine last year as his team was pushing for the investigations Trump sought.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/11/acquittal-week-one-targeting-witnesses-upheaval-justice-department/

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#2434

Wow. More revenge. And here’s another nomination he withdrew out of spite.

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#2435

Trump’s War Against [Imaginary] ‘Deep State’ Enters a New Stage

I fixed this headline, the deep state isn’t real.

As far as President Trump is concerned, banishing Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman from the White House and exiling him back to the Pentagon was not enough. If he had his way, the commander in chief made clear on Tuesday, the Defense Department would now take action against the colonel, too.

“That’s going to be up to the military,” Mr. Trump told reporters who asked whether Colonel Vindman should face disciplinary action after testifying in the House hearings that led to the president’s impeachment. “But if you look at what happened,” Mr. Trump added in threatening terms, “I mean they’re going to, certainly, I would imagine, take a look at that.”

This is an unsettled time in Mr. Trump’s Washington. In the days since he was acquitted in a Senate trial, an aggrieved and unbound president has sought to even the scales as he sees it. Colonel Vindman was abruptly marched by security out of the White House, an ambassador who also testified in the House hearings was summarily dismissed, and senior Justice Department officials on Tuesday intervened on behalf of Mr. Trump’s convicted friend, Roger J. Stone Jr., leading four career prosecutors to quit the case.

More axes are sure to fall. A senior Pentagon official appears in danger of losing her nomination to a top Defense Department post after questioning the president’s suspension of aid to Ukraine. Likewise, a prosecutor involved in Mr. Stone’s case has lost a nomination to a senior Treasury Department position. A key National Security Council official is said by colleagues to face dismissal. And the last of dozens of career officials being transferred out of the White House may be gone by the end of the week.

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#2436

:eyes:

Press Release: House Judiciary Democrats Announce AG Barr to Testify Before Committee

Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) sent a letter signed by 23 Judiciary Committee Democratic Members confirming Attorney General William Barr will testify before the Committee on March 31st to address numerous concerns regarding his leadership of the Department of Justice and the President’s improper influence over the Department and our criminal justice system.

Full text of the letter confirming Attorney General Barr’s testimony can be found below and here:

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#2437

Thanks for fixing that headline. NYT should bring you in as a fact checker. :heavy_check_mark:

Here’s another term being tossed around in recent headlines about Trump’s mob-style behavior that’s really bugging me: “unleashed.” As in “Trump Unleashed” – that in no way conveys the heinous nature of what he’s actually doing – it’s just red meat for his base. It makes it sound like he has been liberated – as if all those pesky constitutional checks and balances were just getting in his way. What a crock.

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#2438

Cross-posting :pray:

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#2439

Exactly

The deep state is straight up Russian propaganda at this point, do they not read their own paper? FFS

Mr. Putin did not criticize President Trump, instead suggesting, as he has in the past, that a secretive “deep state” hobbled the American president.

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#2440




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#2441

Cross-posting :pray:

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#2442

Anyone surprised…? Nope, we knew it all along. Emboldened T.

From fact checker Daniel Dale - CNN

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#2443

So here we are at the end of the Trump impeachment saga that went on for almost a year and Trump just admits to the whole Ukraine Scheme with Rudy Giuliani.

Why isn’t this bigger news? I don’t fucking get it. :pleading_face:

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#2444

He’s rope-a-doped the Nation…seized on his impeachment get-out-of-jail card, secured his loyalists, and now spouts off his direct role in the Ukraine scandal.

He never ceases to test the limits…and all the obvious part- that he was guilty of extorting Ukraine for Biden dirt has always been the agreed upon pledge of allegiance from his spineless base.

Those in power grant him that.

He just dances around having to reveal the truth…no subpoenas or witnesses honored…just sheer autocracy.

Can the country survive another impeachment trial now? No…we wait until the election.

He is just plain emboldened…and he has gamed the system.

Nancy Pelosi pummeled back on the R’s today…with ‘What say you?’ And the result was crickets.

Yeah…the writing was on the wall…:exploding_head:

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#2445

The buck did stop there…with Congress. And flagrant misuse of power by T.

Former U.S. attorney Chuck Rosenberg, who has served in both Democratic and Republican administrations, said, “This president is not going to change. We need adults to step up and check his behavior. There was a demonstrated lack of spine recently in the United States Senate. Maybe they have a breaking point and maybe they don’t. One of the things that people said about this Congress is that they’ve lost their authority. That’s not true. They’ve just chosen not to exercise it.”

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