Tell me what my $400 million is going to buy me and I'll get back to you.
"Back after 5 years. I thought you had died.
don"
Splitting my time between the montane and the mesas
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
I don't much care about the rest of the world that expects us to be their sugar daddy and protectors. They need to step up and take responsibility for their own problems. If they want to be allys they need to pay their share of the costs of the partnership. Don't expect us to shoulder the price of their independence.
So yeah. With the exception of being the meanest SOBs in the valley, I think you pretty much have it figured out. We are and must always be the meanest and baddest bunch the rest of the world has ever seen so that we can sleep at night knowing that only total idiots would even think about attacking us.
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke
Well said, Mike......Ben
The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible - Arthur C. Clarke
Extract from this afternoon's NYT:
Sondland Updates Impeachment Testimony, Describing Ukraine Quid Pro Quo
WASHINGTON — A critical witness in the impeachment inquiry offered Congress substantial new testimony this week, revealing that he told a top Ukrainian official that the country likely would not receive American military aid unless it publicly committed to investigations President Trump wanted.
The disclosure from Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, in four new pages of sworn testimony released on Tuesday, confirmed his involvement in laying out a quid pro quo to Ukraine that he had previously not acknowledged. The issue is at the heart of the impeachment investigation into Mr. Trump, which turns on the allegation the president abused his power to extract political favors from a foreign power.
Mr. Trump has consistently maintained that he did nothing wrong and that there was no quid pro quo with Ukraine.
Mr. Sondland’s testimony offered several major new details beyond the account he gave the inquiry in a 10-hour interview last month. He provided a more robust description of his own role in alerting the Ukrainians that they needed to go along with investigative requests being demanded by the president’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani. By early September, Mr. Sondland said, he had become convinced that military aid and a White House meeting were conditioned on Ukraine committing to those investigations.
The additions Mr. Sondland made to his testimony were significant because they were the first admission by a senior figure who had direct contact with Mr. Trump that the military aid for Ukraine was being held hostage to the president’s demands for investigations into his political rivals. A wealthy Oregon hotelier who donated to the president’s campaign and was rewarded with the plum diplomatic post, Mr. Sondland can hardly be dismissed as a “Never Trumper,” a charge that Mr. Trump has leveled against many other officials who have offered damaging testimony about his conduct with regard to Ukraine.
Are any of you trump fans getting tired of being lied to? (consider that rhetorical)
Read the entire article here.
Mr. Sondland has demonstrated courage and honesty---kudos to him.
You will find VP Pence mentioned in this article as well---and just for giggles, I regard him as an absolute spineless wimp.
Last edited by Dave Grubb; 11-05-2019 at 05:47 PM.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
The NYTs account of the change in Sondland’s new testimony is significantly inaccurate. Sondland’s exact words now are that he “presumes” there was quid pro quo. What is exactly a “presumption” other than his supposition or guess. It is definitely not the same as testimony that there was quid pro quo...if that matters.
...............
“You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution
And exactly what makes your version correct?
Oh, I know, trump's current press bimbo said it wasn't so.
Last edited by Dave Grubb; 11-05-2019 at 08:25 PM.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
The only quid pro quo that has been established is the one Joe Biden confessed.
...............
“You can vote your way into socialism, but you have to shoot your way out.” — Too fundamental to have an attribution
Excerpted from The HillSondland says "I now recall" a Sept. 1 meeting with top U.S. and Ukrainian officials in Warsaw, where he told an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that nearly $400 million in U.S. financial aid was contingent on Zelensky committing to investigations into the 2016 election and Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company that employed the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading 2020 presidential contender.
"After a large meeting, I now recall speaking individually with Mr. Yermak, where I said that resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks," Sondland said, referring to the aide, Andriy Yermak.