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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49800181
(Note: emphasis in original.)
Why is this important?
Mr Trump's most ardent critics accuse him of using the powers of the presidency to bully Ukraine into digging up damaging information on a political rival, Democrat Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump and his supporters the former vice-president abused his power to pressure Ukraine to back away from a criminal investigation that could implicate his son, Hunter.
Mr Biden is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination to take on Mr Trump next year.
In other words, it is nothing less than the White House at stake.
[...] What happened to the whistleblower's complaint?
After receiving the [whistleblower] complaint, the inspector general informed Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, and said the matter was "urgent". The intelligence community whistleblower law says the director has seven days to pass the complaint along to congressional intelligence committees.
That didn't happen.
Instead, Mr Maguire spoke to a lawyer who told him the issue was not "urgent", at least according to legal standards, according to [T]he New York Times.
As a result, Mr Maguire decided that the members of the congressional oversight committees did not need to see it.
On 9 September, the inspector general informed Congress about the complaint's existence, but not the details. Democrats in Congress have since clamoured for more information - including a transcript of Mr Trump's call - but the administration has refused to co-operate.
And that's where things currently stand.
[...] Did Mr Trump commit an impeachable offence?
The constitutional process for handling a president who committed illegal and-or unethical acts is impeachment by a majority of the House of Representatives and conviction and removal by a two-thirds majority of the US Senate.
The US constitution outlines the grounds for impeachment as "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors". When it comes down to it, an "impeachable offense" is whatever a majority of the House says it is.
Inspector General of the Intelligence Community Letters to Congressional Intelligence Committees
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @02:11AM (34 children)
It would be nice if this little brouhaha derails both Biden and Trump. Warren will win and maybe a Yang, Sanders, or Booker can eke out the Vice Presidency, leading to free money, tuition, or weed respectively.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday September 24 2019, @02:16AM (3 children)
It will be burnt down at some point, when the American people decide they've had enough of their ruling class.
In the meantime, certain people are above the law, and the President is one of those people, so nothing will happen again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @02:38AM
Gimme a brick. Gimme a brick. Give me a brick of that government weed.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @01:36PM (1 child)
Okay, then what have you done to bring about this change you'd like? Have you called your US Representative and Senator and told them you want Trump impeached and convicted, or even just for electoral reform? Have you donated to the political candidate's campaign of your choice, and knocked and doors to tell your neighbors to vote for that person? Have you tossed your proverbial hat in the ring and run for office yourself?
Or have you just vented online in the hopes that somebody else will do something so you don't need to get up off your couch?
"It's rigged!" Yes, if you do nothing (for whatever reason), then it will be rigged against you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @02:14PM
PTZ is a foreigner trying to shake our confidence in America. USA! USA! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by deimtee on Tuesday September 24 2019, @02:39AM (10 children)
It should derail both.
Electing a leader is not like prosecuting a criminal case where you get to throw out evidence for technical reasons to avoid punishing someone. Disqualifying someone from a political job is not a punishment, it is simply failing to give them massive privileges.
If the Ukraine has evidence that BIden is unfit for the job then that should be the end of his political career.
If Trump - or anyone else - used illegal methods to expose that evidence than that should be the end of their political career too.
It might be annoying to lose a candidate but they 'took one for the team' to expose someone else as unfit.
There are 330 million people in the USA, surely you can find one competent person who hasn't had illegal dealings with a foreign state.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @03:38AM (6 children)
Being competent is not sufficient...
Heck, it's not even required and/or desired. Not even by the majority of voters (wanna proof, you say? Trump)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @03:46AM (2 children)
Competency is not a good thing anymore. Can you imagine how many rights would disappear if Congress could actually get together and pass laws?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday September 24 2019, @03:49AM
You mean how many loopholes could vanish?
Yeah, one can still dream... but realize that's not gonna happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @06:45AM
That depends on what you consider it to mean. Integrity can be part of your definition of competence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @12:49PM (2 children)
How many votes did Trump win the popular vote by?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @01:30PM (1 child)
I would love to answer your question but the Trump administration has outlawed the use of negative numbers relating to government.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @07:29PM
Except when it comes to the deficit?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @01:28PM
Hmm, interesting premise. Here, hold 330 million beers ...
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday September 24 2019, @06:51PM (1 child)
They don't. [factcheck.org]
(Score: 2) by Nobuddy on Wednesday September 25 2019, @01:46PM
I find it amusing that Trump is accusing Biden of time travel. Since the corruption in question happened before Biden Jr joined the company.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Tuesday September 24 2019, @03:18AM (9 children)
It would be nice if this little brouhaha derails both Biden and Trump.
It would be far better and meaningful if this little brouhaha derails both republicans and democrats. We are doomed to indefinite hell while they remain in power.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @06:12AM (8 children)
With Sanders and maybe Warren we could get real election reform. We have identified the weaknesses, we know the various next steps to fix things at least a bit better.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday September 24 2019, @02:29PM (6 children)
Because? The big reform is first-past-the-post.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @05:36PM (5 children)
Because they give a shit and are not corporate whores that we know of. Their voting records mean more than the empty words of other politicians. Khallow if you want to fix your country then support them, they are some of the very few that back up their platitudes with action. Which makes them not platitudes at all.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @07:28PM (4 children)
Sanders was incredibly quick to toss everything aside and endorse Hillary, even after the shenanigans in the primaries. I suspect if he were to get into office, he'd quickly become just another establishment tool.
Warren is the wildcard but the NYTimes, which tends to be extremely pro-establishment, has started pulling for her after it's become clear that their initial pick of Kamala Harris isn't going anywhere. That leaves me somewhat uncomfortable with her.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @10:10PM (3 children)
Lol what nonsense. He backed Clinton because he is a decent human being and realized continuing to run would basically gurantee a win for Trump. Spread your mud somewhere else, nice to see this is the level of desperate character assassination your left with.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @10:17PM (2 children)
Yeah, his sacrifice was real successful. Hillary was the second best choice. Not.
He should have taken the offered nomination of the Green party, he had a good chance to win vs Hillary and Trump.
(Score: 2) by Nobuddy on Wednesday September 25 2019, @01:53PM
you clearly have no grasp of how first past the post works. Nor the die-hard (D) and (R) voting blocks that are part of the equation.
Since the Republicans formed, it has been impossible for a third party to win the Presidency. It has always been impossible. A party has to die off before a third party can take its place- and that becomes the second party for a while. The last time this happened was Lincoln and his brand new liberal Republican party. Nixon nearly killed the Republican party. Some quick thinking in recruiting evangelicals and hard core racists helped the Republicans put a B movie actor in office and recover a lot of lost seats around the nation. Now Trump is taking a swing at killing the party, and it is looking like he will succeed. But it will not be the Greens that take over. Most likely the Democrats will take the right wing slot- being a bit right of center in general, and some new group will take the left wing slot. Maybe Democratic Socialists. The concept is pretty popular these days.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 25 2019, @07:28PM
What Nobuddy said. I would have loved that green party option, but you think Trump was a better choice than Clinton so you're beyond help. She's a shitty corporate politician but Trump is a full blown criminal AND traitor. You are forgiven for voting for him, but not for still supporting him when all our suspicions have been proven right.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday September 24 2019, @04:08PM
If your favorite candidate wins, why do you need "reform"? Reform starts in the voting booth. That's where the power comes from.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0, Troll) by hemocyanin on Tuesday September 24 2019, @05:16AM (7 children)
A Warren, the former republican who switched because she loved NAFTA and GATT, and also Harvard's first woman of color professor. *eyeroll*
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by hemocyanin on Tuesday September 24 2019, @07:29PM (6 children)
I guess I'm a troll for quoting the Fordham Law Review: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dpkpp9SUUAAKF-k.jpg [twimg.com]
"Harvard Law School hired its first woman of color, Elizabeth Warren, in 1995."
Let's be honest about Warren -- she got a big boost to her career through ethnicity fraud. I don't know how that is not going to be an issue in the general, no matter how much Democrats ignore it now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @09:07PM (4 children)
You're 100% right. You're only being off topic in a distracting manner.
And wrong [politifact.com], unless you want to suggest how much Native American DNA it would take to satisfy you. Exaggerated? Yes. Fraud? No.
Then again, she hasn't gotten her million dollars from Trump yet [realclearpolitics.com], either.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Tuesday September 24 2019, @09:22PM (2 children)
Citing politifact is like citing Rush.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @10:45PM
I did not intend to offend your delicate sensibilities. You have some DNA evidence proof you'd like to enter in return, or just criticize the source reporting the facts?
She had reasons to believe what she said, not like making something up out of whole cloth, and found some degree of proof to substantiate her claim. Trump's "I dare you" backfired on him when she took him up on it, and that's entirely aside from his using a racial insult to characterize her. So I'll stick by the thought that it wasn't fraud.
But aside from that, she did the one thing that intelligent people do that Trump will never, ever do even when it is his hand in the cookie jar: Apologize.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @11:46PM
One likes to believe in the Spirit of Music.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday September 25 2019, @03:41AM
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 24 2019, @09:54PM
Nice find there. I had initial doubts whether that was real, but I found the article through our university's Lexis account. Here's the citation: Laura M. Padilla * (December, 1997). ARTICLE: INTERSECTIONALITY AND POSITIONALITY:SITUATING WOMEN OF COLOR IN THE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION DIALOGUE. Fordham Law Review, 66, 843.
I'm thinking whether to put that on the office door, or only show it to "trusted" friends if the former will get me carried out on a rail.
She's what, 5 years younger than Bernie Sanders? And while he risked his life to fight for civil rights, she used affirmative action for an easier ride into a career. As a Republican!
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday September 24 2019, @06:49PM
Well I wouldn't mind Biden getting knocked around a bit but it shouldn't be a result of Trump's blatant lies about him. [factcheck.org]