Matt Kiser - Impeachment Watch - WhatTheFuckJustHappenedToday.com

I'm always amazed at how the days and weeks speed by, between having to spend time getting caught up on pre-winter and now early-winter chores (we do live in the country and our little cabin is heated by wood) so there's work that needs to be done.   Plus the 500 mile trip down to spend a week with family and our young grandson.  Too much going on.  Enough time to get caught up on news, vent by starting yet more potential projects, while not enough to concentrate on getting any of them finished.  Now it's time to get back to it.

The following is a collection of links to resources provided by Matt and friends over at the blog, What The Fuck Just Happened Today, which has been tracking and compiling Trump news since day one, so that We The People have a record to learn from, to use and retain for future reference.  And me?, it simply seems like a patriotic duty to share and hopefully help spread this information.

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Impeachment Watch: Day 4.0 (and Day 3.0)

https://talk.whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/t/impeachment-watch-day-4-0/5338

Matt Kiser

WTF Community Leader

1/ The U.S. ambassador to the European Union testified that he and senior administration officials “followed the president’s orders” to work with Rudy Giuliani to pressure Ukraine into announcing investigations into Joe Biden and the discredited conspiracy theory that the country helped Democrats in the 2016 election. Gordon Sondland testified that he, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and special envoy Kurt Volker coordinated with Giuliani at the “at the express direction of the president of the United States” to pressure Ukraine into launching investigations. 

Sondland said he directly communicated the “quid pro quo” arrangement to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Sondland also provided House impeachment investigators with emails and texts showing that acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Perry, and others were all aware that Trump conditioned a White House meeting for Zelensky on his willingness to launch investigations. “They knew what we were doing and why,” Sondland said. “Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret.” 

(New York Times / Washington Post / Politico 1 / Wall Street Journal / NBC News / Bloomberg / CNN

• Quotables: Gordon Sondland.
• “Again, everyone was in the loop.”
• “Was there a quid pro quo? … YES.”
• “… we knew these investigations were important to the president.”
• “… we followed the president’s orders.”
• “I followed the directions of the president.”
• ANALYSIS: 4 things we learned from Gordon Sondland
• ANALYSIS: 5 takeaways from Gordon Sondland’s testimony
• READ: Gordon Sondland’s opening statement
• Live blogs: New York Times / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / NBC News / CNN

2/ Sondland testified that he told Pence before his Sept. 1 meeting with Zelensky that he “had concerns that the delay in aid had become tied to the issue of investigations.”

(CNN / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal)

Trump Impeachment Hearings (Day2) - Marie Yovanovitch

During today's Impeachment Hearing, Day Two, it was nuts listening to Jordan and Stefanik's dialogue, what's with all that melodramatic dripping contempt for our democratic government and it's rules?   

So now the GOP tells us it's a "performance" to expect the rule of law to be respected and obeyed?  It's "performance" that we're appalled at witnessing our President playing political extortion with an ally's self-defense needs.  What is going on here?  Actually, I do know, the GOP questioners are playing to their bubble and steadfastly ignoring the reality of the facts. 

What about simple FAIR PLAY.  What about Honest Constructive Debate?  Where both sides are bound by an expectation to be truthful?

Doesn't a sane government require a standard of honesty that applies to all sides?  But all I hear from the GOP is malicious slanderous innuendo, fabricated conspiracy theories, misdirection, and wasting time with ridiculous side stories, oh an the bullying - all justified because of their most grotesque partisan blindspots.

I wish someone would ask the GOP what they think of the other half of this country who believe in science and constructive debates, debates where honesty is expected from all sides?  Where learning and improving is the goal.  What about us?  Where do we go from here?

Watch: Day 2 of public Trump impeachment hearings

Washington Post  |  November 15, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpSwXkPacMU

Trump Impeachment Hearings (Day1) Bill Taylor, George Kent

Full video of Trump Impeachment Hearings (Day 1) | NBC News

The House Intelligence Committee holds its first public hearing in President Trump's impeachment inquiry. Witnesses include Bill Taylor, Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, and George Kent, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.

I graduated high school in 1973.  By then I’d already had enough science classes to understand the fundamental facts of Anthropogenic Global Warming.  Not that it’s tough to do, since though the details get impossibly complex, the fundamentals are quite straightforward and accessible to any intelligent person engaged in a good-faith learning effort.  

In the decades since observed changes on Earth have proven the scientists correct in their concerns and their science.  (I’m happy to debate that point, if anyone wants to question it.)

In these decades I have watched Republican leaders get ever more unhinged from physical realities, facts and well understood scientific truths - as they strayed further and further into self-certain self-delusion.  Today we see where that has lead our GOP leaders.