LogFAQs > #931652788

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

is ignoring a shady company within their country

An independent British investigation confirmed there was no grounds for charges against Burisma.

And I would bet my house that you couldn't tell me a thing about why Burisma is "shady" without looking up the allegations against them (which, to be precise, have more to do with the oligarch in charge of the company than the company itself).

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

and has corrupt prosecutors in their legal system is a bad thing

First you say that Shokin was trying to fight corruption, now you're agreeing with me that he's corrupt?

Ukraine has made significant steps in cleaning up its internal corruption since the Yanukovich and Poroshenko regimes, BTW.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

I think Trump did right in trying to determine if the US was helping the bad guys before approving the aid.

Trump cannot "approve" aid! He is literally not allowed to do that! That's part of the reason *why* he's in so much trouble.

It is congress's job to approve aid and determine how much is spent and in what way. Not the president's. The president cannot override the will of congress when it comes to spending or not spending money, for the same reason he can't create his own court system and unilaterally declare people guilty: that's not a function of his branch of government. That's why Trump always throws a big tantrum at budget time, because he demands a bunch of money for his wall and congress keeps telling him to go piss up a rope.

BTW, the congressional majority that approved aid to Ukraine was overwhelming and bipartisan. Those people had all already looked at Ukraine, confirmed that it was probably a good idea to help them fight off Russian insurrectionists waging war in their eastern territories, and sent them the money. If Trump had shut the fuck up and allowed congress to do its job, he wouldn't be in this mess.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

Where's the lie? There was a bureaucratic hold-up.

The White House initially claimed that the Office of Management and Budget was behind the freeze, because they needed to review it, but those reviews were completed long before the aid was frozen in June. In reality, the OMB had nothing to do with it - Trump ordered the funds frozen, but told his aids not to inform congress (a violation of appropriations law) and to lie and blame the OMB if they were asked about it.

Here's a little thought exercise for you - if Trump really was concerned that Ukraine was corrupt and was acting within his authority to freeze the funds until he was satisfied that they weren't going to fuel corruption, why did he release them as soon as the whistleblower complaint was filed? Why did he try to blame another part of the government? Why didn't he just stand up and say, "I ordered the funds frozen, because I am concerned about corruption in Ukraine?"

Answer: because that's a bullshit excuse and Trump could not give less of a shit about foreign corruption, save how he could use it to further his own ambitions. He was trying to deflect because he knew what he was doing was illegal and when the whistleblower complaint went out, he realized he'd been caught, so he released it to try and stave off the damage.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

We don't know when Trump learned of the situation in Ukraine

First off, I have to say that your argument that Trump was too stupid to realize something that was literally part of his job to be refreshingly honest about his capabilities as president.

That being said, we do know when Trump knew of the situation in Ukraine, because various people have testified about it. Trump disliked Ukraine, because he latched onto conspiracy theories that it was actually them that hacked the election and they did so as a false-flag on behalf of the Democrats (reminder: 100% of all US security agencies have confirmed that it was Russia, not Ukraine, that conducted the hack and they did so to get Trump elected because Putin hated Clinton and feared her as president due to actions she took against Russia as Obama's Secretary of State) and also apparently saw them as useful for smearing his leading Democrat rival.

Again, Trump personally intervened to freeze the aid in June. He was well aware of what was going on long before that phone call occurred.

SKARDAVNELNATE posted...

Further Trump's approval rating is good

Fact check: Mostly false.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/?ex_cid=rrpromo

Trump's aggregate approval rating is currently 42.7% and even Ramussen - which notably skews in his favour - doesn't put him over 50%.

Trump is the only president to never have an approval rating above 50%. He is less popular than every president at this point in their careers since they started recording the numbers.

Most people understand that Trump is an incompetent, yammering boob, he just has this weird cult of personality that apparently thinks that an overweight balding guy with a fake tan and a comb-over is the height of alpha-male status and refuses to understand that he was a criminal and a crook before entering into politics and absolutely nothing has changed since he got elected.

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