Senate Impeachment Trial Day 3, Opening Arguments from Representative Adam Schiff : January 22, 2019
C-SPAN
“In this first portion of day 3 of the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump, Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), the lead House impeachment manager, began opening arguments by explaining the history of why the framers included impeachment in the Constitution. He then laid out the specifics of the charges against President Trump. Throughout his presentation, Representative Schiff used digital slides, graphics, and videos, including footage from House impeachment inquiry hearings as well as clips of remarks by the president and from White House Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney during a news conference. ”
Let me know what clips you wish to see. C-SPAN
While I agree that the removal of Trump might be slightly beneficial (Pence-Pompeo duo initially will run scared), this Kabuki theater with Schiff in a major role is outright silly.
Adam Schiff physically resembles a typical prosperity theology preacher — a classic modern American snake oil salesman. And with his baseless accusations and the fear to touch real issues , he is even worse than that — he looks outright silly even for the most brainwashed part of the USA electorate 😉
As he supported the Iraq war, he has no right to occupy any elected office. He probably should be prosecuted as a war criminal.
Realistically Schiff should be viewed as yet another intelligence agency stooge, a neocon who is funded by military contractors such as Northrop Grumman, which sells missiles to Ukraine.
The claim that Trump is influenced by Russia is a lie. His actions indicate that he is an agent of influence for Israel, not so much for Russia. Several of his actions were more reckless and more hostile to Russia than the actions of the Obama administration. Anyway, his policies toward Russia are not that different from Hillary’s policies. Actually, Pompeo, in many ways, continues Hillary’s policies.
The claim that the withdrawal of military aid from Ukraine somehow influences the balance of power in the region was a State department concocted scam from the very beginning. How sniper rifles and anti-tank missiles change the balance of power on the border with the major nuclear power, who has probably second or third military in the world.? They do not.
They (especially sniper rifles) will definitely increase casualties of Ukrainian separatists (and will provoke Russian reaction to compensate for this change of balance and thus increase casualties of the Ukrainian army provoking the escalation spiral ), but that’s about it. So more people will die in the conflict while Northrop Grumman rakes the profits.
They also increase the danger of the larger-scale conflict in the region, which is what the USA neocons badly wants to impose really crushing sanctions on Russia. The danger of WWIII and the cost of support of the crumbling neoliberal empire with its outsize military expenditures (which now is more difficult to compensate with loot) somehow escapes the US neocon calculations. But they are completely detached from reality in any case.
I think Russia can cut Ukraine into Western and Eastern parts anytime with relative ease and not much resistance. Putin has an opportunity to do this in 2014 (risking larger sanctions) as he could establish government in exile out of Yanukovich officials and based on this restore the legitimate government in Eastern and southern region with the capital in Kharkiv, leaving Ukrainian Taliban to rot in their own brand of far-right nationalism where the Ukraine identity is defined negatively via rabid Russophobia.
His calculation probably was that sanctions would slow down the Russia recovery from Western plunder during Yeltsin years and, as such, it is not worth showing Western Ukrainian nationalists what level of support in Southern and Eastern regions that actually enjoy.
My impression is that they are passionately hated by over 50% of the population of this region. And viewed as an occupying force, which is trying to colonize the space (which is a completely true assessment). They are viewed as American stooges, who they are (the country is controlled from the USA embassy in any case).
And Putin’s assessment might be wrong, as sanctions were imposed anyways, and now Ukraine does represent a threat to Russia and, as such, is a huge source of instability in the region, which was the key idea of “Nulandgate” as the main task was weakening Russia. In this sense, Euromaidan coup d’état was the major success of the Obama administration, which was a neocon controlled administration from top to bottom.
Also unclear what Dems are trying to achieve. If Pelosi gambit, cynically speaking, was about releasing Mueller witch hunt success in the 2018 election, that is typical wishful thinking. Mobilization of the base works both ways.
So what is the game plan for DemoRats (aka “neoliberal democrats” or “corporate democrats” — the dominant Clinton faction of the Democratic Party) is completely unclear.
I doubt that they will gain anything from impeachment Kabuki theater, where both sides are afraid to discuss real issues like Douma false flag and other real Trump crimes.
Most Democratic candidates such as Warren, Biden, and Klobuchar will lose from this impeachment theater. Candidates who can gain, such as Major Pete and Bloomberg does not matter that much.
likbez:
Let me help you along with the rant . . . “so you are in trump’s camp.” That was not a question. Given anything the Dems may have, the Repubs have done it bigger. No where does Schiff compare to the evils and long lasting impact by that of trump, nunes, and mcconnell. Comment over.
Does not matter. Schiff is just a marionette preforming prescribed function. He is adamantly unapt is this function, but that happens with marionettes. Nothing to talk about or to compare with the major “evildoers” of Trump administration (although he, like Pompeo, is a neocon, so he belongs to the same crime family 🙂
Opening impeachment was worse then a crime, it was a blunder on the part of neoliberal Dems. Essentially they bet that it can serve as the “Muller investigation II” helping the neoliberal Dems to win 2020 like it helped them to win 2018 without reforming the Party. They forgot about their own crimes committed in the process (Ukraine, Strokgate, etc), which now come to light
Pelosi somehow opted for this “Hail Mary pass” and allowed Schiff to destroy the last remnants of the credibility of neoliberal Dems (none of House Republicans voted for impeachment, which dooms the idea converting it into vote of non-confidence of the majority party), creating the situation in which Dems, paradoxically, can lose some House seats they gained in 2018. Which would be a bad thing. Also due to backlash they now can well lose 2020 election while each of Dems candidates (with the possible exception of semi-senile neoliberal Biden) is a better option for the country then Trump.
Actually, as a side effect, they might well sink Warren (which is not such a good thing), as she was stupid enough to jump into impeachment bandwagon early on with great enthusiasm. Proving another time that she is an incompetent politician.
“Whom the gods would destroy…” (misattributed to Euripides)
likbez:
No it does not. He is inept at a function and does not follow the constitutional precepts put in place by the Founding Fathers. Schiff and all of us are on unchartered territory where a president deems he can do as he pleases, is above the law, and can not be reigned in by the law or the two legislative bodies of the nation. He is aided and abetted by illegal Congressional actions with the support of renegade Senators. No where in history has anything of this magnitude occurred. He has to be ousted.
I told you once before, knock that neoliberal shit off. You are just using this as a filter to avoid what most people see, Trump is a narcissistic megalomaniac. It matters that he is escaping impeachment. Of all the presidents impeached before him as #4, he is the most deserving. History will judge hi actions and crimes.
Mon sequitur to the rest of your commentary
I disagree. You have a tunnel vision (as in “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it “).
Anyway you might benefit from reading the book “The Great Democracy: How to Fix Our Politics, Unrig the Economy, and Unite America” by Ganesh Sitaraman. Basic Books (December 10, 2019), 272 pages
Extract from one chapter, which gives you the idea about the level of discourse, is available at https://newrepublic.com/article/155970/collapse-neoliberalism
This guy is a really brilliant writer. Please give the book a try.
likbez:
I will look at it.