Oct 27, 2019

October 26, 2019: The Impeachment Train, 21st century shakedown, Peace With Putin



The impeachment train has left the station.  The case for impeachment and removal from office have been the focus of these columns for nearly a quarter of a decade and, after nearly a quarter of a decade, the locomotive has finally departed for certain destination.  Our Caesar Disgustus, it has been long observed, must go. 

What finally spurred the Democratic leadership to action was the attempt by our intrepid Caesar to violate all norms of international conduct by conducting what can only be described as the 21st century shakedown. 

What brought the whole sordid affair to light was the leak by an anonymous whistleblower revealing that Disgustus had withheld 381 million in aid to Ukraine unless and until the government of that country signed on to and publicly announced that it would begin investigations into former Vice President Biden and his son Hunter, as well as the origins of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.  In other words, military support to a nation currently under attack by Russian backed forces were made conditional on Ukrainian endorsement of tin-hat wrong-wing conspiracy theories currently circulating, like a bad case of indigestion, in the bowels of hate radio and crypto-fascist publications. 

Of course, at first the White House denied everything contending, with a straight face, that no such conversations took place.  The president* contending that his phone conversation with Ukrainian President Zelensky was ‘perfect’; “A perfect 10”, according to Disgustus, as if reporting the results of a tits and ass contest.  But then, our ‘stable genius’, uses only the best words, the choicest adjectives to explain himself—or, more correctly, obfuscate, confuse and mislead—that is, lie.

To underscore his version of the ‘truth’, he released a summary of the phone conversation in question in which, in black and white, the President of Ukraine is reminding Disgustus that his government is in desperate need of weapons—called Javelins—with which to ward off Russian built tanks.  “But I need a favor from you, though” replies Disgustus laying bare the “quid pro quo”. 

It is, of course, illegal for the president* to withhold appropriated funds.  A law was passed in 1974—in the wake of Watergate and Richard Nixon’s sequestering of Congressional appropriations—that explicitly forbids any president so to do. 

So here we have Disgustus violating federal law while extorting a foreign government in an effort to fabricate a false narrative not only on his political opponents but upon the origins of the investigations that have called into question the legitimacy of this regime. 

Now I’ll be the first to admit that it is a mistake to name one’s son Hunter.  It is further a colossal lapse in judgement for this son to take a position with a Ukrainian gas company for which he has been paid handsomely.  But the screed coming from the White House and its supporters that somehow Biden is corrupt and has moved to stymie crackdowns on Ukrainian corruption simply don’t pass the smell test. 

Yes, Hunter Biden had no business in Ukraine.  But the efforts by Biden and the Obama administration to remove prosecutors in Ukraine were designed to get people into these positions in order to crack down on corruption in the country and were supported by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, among others. 

But, following the Karl Rove playbook, up becomes down, and white becomes black as the need to smear, in the face of one’s own transgressions, becomes imperative.

It is rich, for instance, for Disgustus and his minions to howl about Hunter Biden getting favorable treatment because his father was Vice President of the United States given the chicanery involving Jarvanka and their dealings in China, Saudi Arabia, Israel and elsewhere.  But this is what Disgustus does. 

But, it transpires, this is not a singular incident.  Rachel Maddow reported last week that a year ago the administration was withholding aid to Ukraine unless the government there cooperated and that the President Zelensky held several meetings with his staff about how to deal with the pressure coming from Washington before taking office.  Further, Disgustus, in order to drive home the point, kept Vice President* Pence from attending the inauguration of Zelensky, simply sending the Ambassador and lower level diplomats to the event as a way of underscoring the tenuous nature of administration support in the absence of real zeal in the perpetration of fraud. 

Disgustus did release the aid three weeks before it was due to expire, but only because the whistleblower’s memo had surfaced and the resulting howl it created in Washington sent the rats scurrying as they moved swiftly to backtrack. 

So while Disgustus went in early September to make his annual address to the United Nations, Washington released the military aid to Ukraine but, as Zelensky finally got his meeting in the White House, he was not so subtly instructed by Disgustus—as if once again to remind the Ukrainians, and all of our allies of the capricious and tenuous nature of our commitments—to make his peace with Putin. 

An Br’er Putin, he jus’ laugh and laugh

Impeach and Imprison.
_______________

Note: The * is used  here, once again, to underscore the illegitimacy of Disgustus and his regime.






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