U.S. Politics

[LondonLax]

[a m ole]

10 hours ago, Brumerican said:

That's just superb.

The Victoria Derbyshire Show (I’ve never seen it before either) just opened the program with a story revealing that this photo is a FAKE 

[bickster]

 

[sne]

If I've learnt anything from South Park the wall is probably to keep the Mongolians out

[villakram]

Leaker #1 who reported 2nd hand information has been outed as a 33yr old (name is all over web, I guess "mainstream" media are holding off for legal reasons) who has previous with a number of Dems including Mr. Biden. I fear Nancy may regret deciding to pull the trigger on this.

[Sam-AVFC]

16 minutes ago, villakram said:

Leaker #1 who reported 2nd hand information has been outed as a 33yr old (name is all over web, I guess "mainstream" media are holding off for legal reasons) who has previous with a number of Dems including Mr. Biden. I fear Nancy may regret deciding to pull the trigger on this.

But didn't Trump confirm what was reported by the whistleblower and then publicly called on China to investigate the Bidens in a press conference a day after this broke?

You can question their motive for leaking it, but I haven't seen anyone actually PROVE anything said was a lie. To quote Trump "READ THE TRANSCRIPT".

They're probably holding off printing the name due to all the dog whistling Trump has been doing about outing them publicly. Out of interest, do you generally support a whistleblower's right to anonymity?

Edited November 5, 2019 by Sam-AVFC

[villakram]

1 hour ago, Sam-AVFC said:

But didn't Trump confirm what was reported by the whistleblower and then publicly called on China to investigate the Bidens in a press conference a day after this broke?

You can question their motive for leaking it, but I haven't seen anyone actually PROVE anything said was a lie. To quote Trump "READ THE TRANSCRIPT".

They're probably holding off printing the name due to all the dog whistling Trump has been doing about outing them publicly. Out of interest, do you generally support a whistleblower's right to anonymity?

The Government of the United States has as a policy position, that leakers are traitors, or that is what the past 20yrs of usage of the espionage act implies. 

Given the clear political nature of this particular accusation, I don't see how anonymity is possible or desirable for a healthy political process. More so in this case, given this individual was not one of the many actually present for the particular call. 

Whistleblower protection is somewhat of a misnomer, as it is essentially the police policing the police, when the police itself commit a crime! I would personally make sure everyone (a) knew who I was and (b) that I was not in any way whatsoever suicidal. Either way, this individual better have someone else picking up his legal bills,  .gov has an infinite bank account.

[HanoiVillan]

1 hour ago, villakram said:

The Government of the United States has as a policy position, that leakers are traitors, or that is what the past 20yrs of usage of the espionage act implies. 

Given the clear political nature of this particular accusation, I don't see how anonymity is possible or desirable for a healthy political process. More so in this case, given this individual was not one of the many actually present for the particular call. 

Whistleblower protection is somewhat of a misnomer, as it is essentially the police policing the police, when the police itself commit a crime! I would personally make sure everyone (a) knew who I was and (b) that I was not in any way whatsoever suicidal. Either way, this individual better have someone else picking up his legal bills,  .gov has an infinite bank account.

Again, though, the content of the actual (still somewhat redacted) transcript validated the substance of the complaint, so what difference does being in the room or not make?

[il_serpente]

The purpose of the Whistleblower Act is to allow federal employees to feel empowered to report perceived wrongdoing without fear of retribution.  Protecting anonymity is critical to this.  The result of a whistleblower complaint is that it will be investigated by people, usually the Inspector General's office (who is purposely outside the chain of command), who can determine whether there is any validity to it.   If there is no substance to the complaint it goes no further.  If the motive for the complaint was personal, political, petty, etc. the filer has gained nothing because it won't see the light of day.   If the complaint is found to have substance, as this one was, the background and motive of the filer is irrelevant.   They've exposed possible (likely?) wrongdoing that merits investigation.   End of story.   There is no reason for the identity to be exposed other than for the accused to be able to smear them to try to win over public opinion, as the evidence uncovered by the investigation will stand on its own and is proving to do so in this case.

[StefanAVFC]

Ah yes it's all a conspiracy because the Whistleblower *checks notes* 'previous with a number of Dems'

Never mind the latest testimony from Sondland

Quote

I now do recall a conversation on September 1, 2019, in Warsaw with [Ukrainian official] Mr. Yermak. This brief pull-aside conversation followed the larger meeting involving Vice President Pence and President Zelensky, in which President Zelensky had raised the issue of the suspension of US aid to Ukraine directly with VP Pence. After that large meeting, I now recall speaking individually with Mr. Yermak, where I said that resumption of US aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks.

• August 30th: In revised testimony (see Page 10), Sondland now admits that he personally informed Ukraine that they were being extorted into announcing investigations:

Ambassador Sondland acknowledged telling one of President Zelensky’s advisors in Warsaw 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.”

LOOK OVER THERE.

[LondonLax]

Interesting that he suddenly remembered the most important bit of information that he had happened to ‘forgot’ when he testified. 

I wonder what spurred it on. 

[villakram]

likely...

[bannedfromHandV]

4 hours ago, LondonLax said:

Interesting that he suddenly remembered the most important bit of information that he had happened to ‘forgot’ when he testified. 

I wonder what spurred it on. 

The threat of jail time?

[StefanAVFC]

Even though

The transcript proves it

Multiple testimonies prove it

The whole thing is a sham because the Whistleblower has ties to Dems

Edited November 6, 2019 by StefanAVFC

[A'Villan]

Have we covered how Jeffrey Epstein managed to commit suicide in this thread?

That case just about sums up my thoughts on the whistleblower protection act.

[limpid]

24 minutes ago, A'Villan said:

Have we covered how Jeffrey Epstein managed to commit suicide in this thread?

That case just about sums up my thoughts on the whistleblower protection act.

Unless you can link it to US politics, it would be off topic in this thread.

[StefanAVFC]

I actually went looking based on villakram's post.

It's a Donald Trump Jr tweet based on a Breitbart article.

That's a fact, yet the transcript and the testimonies are false.

Hmm.

[A'Villan]

1 hour ago, limpid said:

Unless you can link it to US politics, it would be off topic in this thread.

I guess it's one for the conspiracy thread.

He undeniably had U.S political connections and made numerous donations.

There are documents containing flights records showing that President Donald Trump flew on Epstein’s private plane in 1997.

Another document in which former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and other prominent political figures are said to have had sex with a woman provided by Epstein.

[limpid]

3 minutes ago, A'Villan said:

I guess it's one for the conspiracy thread.

He undeniably had U.S political connections and made numerous donations.

There are documents containing flights records showing that President Donald Trump flew on Epstein’s private plane in 1997.

Another document in which former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and other prominent political figures are said to have had sex with a woman provided by Epstein.

So, nothing to do with politics, just random ad hominems against politicians?

[A'Villan]

15 minutes ago, limpid said:

So, nothing to do with politics, just random ad hominems against politicians?

I think you'll find I think it has everything to do with politics.

Whether that be the discussion of governance and which party is suitable.

Or the activities aimed at improving someone's status or increasing power within an organization.

Epstein case makes the facade that emanates transparency and integrity a little less credible.

But I'm not going to argue with a mod as to what he deems appropriate.