Trump said "United States has been very very good to Ukraine. I wouldn't say that it's reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine."
Zelenskyy replied "Yes you are absolutely right .... I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes."
Trump immediately replied "I would like you to do us a favor ..." and asked for Ukraine to look into CrowdStrike.
Zelenskyy's next words were "Yes it is very important for me and everything that you just mentioned earlier. For me as a President, it is very important and we are open for any future cooperation." He then said he's looking forward to seeing Rudy Giuliani.
Trump rambles for a sentence or two and then says "The other thing, There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me."
Zelenskyy responds that "the next prosecutor general will be 100% my person, my candidate, who will be approved, by the parliament and will start as a new prosecutor in September. He or she will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue."
Trump replies "I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it. I'm sure you will figure it out."
Zelenskyy notes that he stayed in the Trump Tower the last time he visited New York City and adds that he "would like to thank you very much for your support."
Satisfied, Trump wraps things up with "Good. Well, thank you very much and I appreciate that. I will tell Rudy and Attorney General Barr to call. Thank you."
These guys just did a deal, right? In a nutshell, the first guy told the second guy that the second guy takes but doesn't give; the second guy offered to make it up to the first guy by "coooperating" to buy some stuff from him; the first guy asked for a favor; the second guy said yes and noted that he's open to "future cooperation"; the first guy asked for another favor; the second guy said he'd put someone on it right away; the first guy said his boys Rudy and Bob would be in touch to discuss next steps; they both thanked each other.
How is this not a quid pro quo exchange? More importantly, WHO THE FUCK CARES IF THIS IS A QUID PRO QUO EXCHANGE!?!?!? THIS IS FUCKING COLLUSION OR CONSPIRACY OR COOPERATION OR WHATEVER ELSE YOU WANT TO CALL IT!!!
Robert Mueller and his team spend close to two years investigating Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. He was not looking for "quid pro quo," he was looking for "coordination" between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. I know this because page 2 of the Mueller Report says "we addressed the factual question whether members of the Trump Campaign 'coordinat[ed]'—a term that appears in the appointment order—with Russian election interference activities." Page 2 of the Mueller Report notes that "[l]ike collusion, 'coordination' does not have a settled definition in federal criminal law. We understood coordination to require an agreement—tacit or express—between the Trump Campaign and the Russian government on election interference."
Isn't that exactly what Trump and Zelenskyy did? They tacitly agreed to interfere with the upcoming 2020 Presidential election, right? Why isn't anyone saying this? Why is everyone debating "quid pro quo"? You mean to tell me that if Mueller found a tape recording of a phone call between Trump and Putin saying what I outlined above, Mueller still would have concluded that there was no "cooperation" between Trump and Russia? If you're telling me that, please pass me whatever you're drinking.
The Mueller Report also analyzed the facts under the rubric of conspiracy, applying 18 U.S.C. § 371 and statutes with similar standards. Mueller Report at 181. The elements of conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 371 are:
(1) Two or more persons
(2) conspire (i.e., intentionally agree--you can't have a conspiracy between a criminal and an undercover cop because the cop doesn't really intend to commit the crime)
(3) to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and
(4) one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy
Trump's call with Zelenskyy had two people. Element 1, check. They intentionally agreed to do something, namely to investigate CrowdStrike and Biden. Element 2, check. Trump hopes that investigating Biden will result in information adverse to his political rival, so he's asking a foreign government to provide information that will influence the next election. Element 3, check (see 52 U.S.C. § 30121(a)(1)(C); United States v. Renzi, 769 F.3d 731, 744 (9th Cir. 2014)). So long as Zelenskyy took a single step towards investigating Biden, we have element 4 and thus a conspiracy.
I just explained this in under 1000 words (987 to be exact) and I could definitely pare it down if I wasn't lazy. Why doesn't anyone else with a bigger platform point this out? Probably because DJ Trump Jedi mind tricked everyone again, and has us all talking about quids and pros. To paraphrase KRS-ONE, I encourage you to wake up, take the pillow from your head and put a book in it. Or at least a few statutes.
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23 comments:
i appreciate that z has channeled his righteous outrage productively, and i assume that the professional staff in the house of representatives that read g:tb on a daily basis have been appropriately armed.
also, everyone's up watching usa/england, right?
team america took one on the chin this morning, falling 45-7 to england. onward and upward.
Glad we got that garbage time try to get off the schneid. I saw we also took a red card. Not a great start, but it was England.
Last fall, the TR family went to a Red Bulls-DC United. We had gotten our pup Rooney a couple months before, and my oldest son yelled to Wayne Rooney about 20 times from up close during warm-up that “we named our dog after you!”
Fast forward to now. DC United comes back to play the Red Bulls this Sunday. My younger guy’s soccer coach informs the team this week that they have the opportunity to be honorary ball boys and walk out with the team on Sunday. There will be two different teams participating, and 12+ kids per team, but how funny would it be to see my kid and Wazza together? It’s a 1-in-24 chance, which I think works out to a 6.9% probability.
I hope it all works out. Will be appointment viewing for all NYC and DC-area folks! Or not.
on the plus side, got to hear hightower's voice before 7:00 am. maybe not the plus side, so much, actually.
I just got quoted a mortgage refi rate of 3.375% for a 30-yr fixed rate mortgage w/ zero points. Get on it, kids. Rates are “muy atractivo,” as they say in old San Juan.
The whistleblower complaint adds a spoliation charge to this mess--the White House hid the transcript on a top secret computer system so no one could find it.
ghitsa just retweeted me, so i'm kind of a big deal.
In happier news:
https://wellmonttheater.com/shows/the-cult-a-sonic-temple/
Dude.
The Cult
Wellmont Theatre
Montclair, NJ
where the mini-summit happened with Drive-By Truckers, Old 97's, gheorghies, Dave, mustard, and Tonka trucks several years ago
Dec 6
It's a Friday
Dave used to have The Cult tattooed on his body
They are highlighting Sonic Temple
I went with Dave to the record store 30 years ago this year to buy Sonic Temple on the day it came out
We saw them at Hampton Coliseum next year and had to take Lecky to the ER after for a tambourine-related injury
I have seen them a number of times since then
Dave has since given up but it's time to dust off the pleather pants, my friend
Get Mose, the Leckys, Neil, even Rob
Get some
Zman is running point
Fiiiiiiiiiiiire
smoke she is a risin
that is all
for now
We have five (5) tickets, general admission, through presale. Anyone with a Citi card or Live Nation, Bandsintown or Music Geeks account can buy them today. They go on sale to the rest of the great unwashed tomorrow.
Greg’s wedding is so fancy that I’m having to pack both a suit (cocktail attire rehearsal dinner) and tux (wedding/reception). I loathe checking bags. I may loathe having to carry on a suit bag even more. On top of all that, Massachusetts banned vapes this week. My trip to the dispensary in brookline just got more complicated.
Did I mention the wedding reception directly conflicts with Auburn at Florida?
I feel like the good dispensaries should be near Northeastern, not in Brookline.
Mark - the dispensaries in Mass are a bit of a mess. They often have cray lines. Be prepared for a 1-hr wait and a limited selection. But with that all said, it’s legal weed, even if it’s only edibles and flowers.
This is all second-hand news of course. Not remotely related to three round-trip visits to that state for kids’ sleepaway camp this summer.
I’ve heard similar things, TR. Apparently you can put in a preorder and skip the line at the one in Brookline.
There’s only one dispensary in the Boston area. Odd since it’s decriminalized. In Florida it’s strictly medicinal and I’ve got 5 dispensaries in a 60 mile radius.
This is the rare well played and relevant Thursday night game.
You beat me to the punch, Mark. Eagles money line was a tasty bet. Of course, I didn’t bet it. Doug Peterson is a good coach.
I know Mark is probably already in VT by now. But Leafly lets you order ahead in many states including MA. The state completely botched the roll out of adult use dispensaries. Instead of approving a large number of licenses all at once, it approved them one at a time, often with months in between some openings. This did cause huge lines initially and still in some dense population areas. But there dispensaries out in metro west that you can walk in and out within 10 minutes.
Still nowhere near the availability like CO.
Squeak, wedding is next weekend, so you likely just made Mark's day
25 days until NBA starts...
I've heard that vapes w/ batteries are fine in your carry on, just not in checked baggage.
#blessed
"Trump is always trying to get over, to win and keep winning, but also he doesn’t know what the rules are, or what the game even is, and also someone—it’s not important who, it would be unfair to point fingers—has eaten the racecar, the thimble, all of the little plastic hotels, and a third of the cards in Community Chest."
Here
This also amused me:
"Rudy Giuliani, the increasingly deranged reactionary icon whom some insider types blame for winding Trump up on this matter and who was supposed to make this investigation-of-whatever happen, makes a perfect advocate for Trump in this case not just because the two share the same strengths—getting divorced and getting white people in Staten Island excited, not necessarily in that order—but because both seem somehow to have synchronized their respective mental decay."
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