71 thoughts on “Quid-Pro-Quo”

  2. above and below from cartoonist darcy’s column in cleaveland plain dealer:

    […]

    In arguing his desire to host the G7 at Doral wasn’t self-serving, Trump boasted of being the only U.S. President besides Washington, to not take a salary.

    “I gave away my presidential salary. They say no other president has done it. I’m surprised, to be honest with you. They say George Washington may have been the only other president to do that. See whether or not Obama gave up his salary. See whether or not all of the other of your favorites gave up their salary. The answer is no.”

    Actually, the answer is yes. Presidents Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy did not take their presidential salaries either.

    Trump also tried to defend his Doral choice by pointing to Washington having a “presidential desk and a business desk” and Obama getting a Netflix and books deal. The Obama deals Trump referenced were made after Obama’s presidency.

    The president said he would be surprised to learn he’s not the first since Washington to give up his salary. It’s apparent he’d also be surprised the Emoluments Clause is not phony and is not only in the U.S. Constitution, it’s in Article 1. Because the Constitution doesn’t feature photos of the Centerfold Trump had one of his affairs with, he’s likely never read any of it.

    [continues]

  5. The Chris Hayes demonstration of media coverage of Hillary Clinton’s emails and the recent clearance.  Nice mea culpa without the decency of putting some mea in the culpa by saying “I’m sorry”.

     

  6. Well now.  Judicial Watch has determined that I am a principled common sense conservative. Who knew?  Certainly none of my friends who are Republicans ever accused me of that. 

  8. This is one of the days that I feel the tone is changing in America.  No longer is the first report of the day is what SFB tweeted at four am, the front page is about the Latin phrase “quid pro quo”.  The second report is what stupid thing SFB tweeted.

  9. One of the gems from the old AOL chat room days:
    Quick pro crow…….
    went with escape goat, fuking imbasols, and a few others.

  10. Did they ever get the Pro? Did Ukraine announce an investigation? I lost track. That’ll be the new goal post position from GOP: acknowledge it was quid-quo-pro but nothing of value actually obtained. 

  18. here’s Uncle Joe spewing it back in 1998. Warning, this is on a Trump campaign site. My hunch is they found this, then provoked outrage with the Trump tweet so they could fire this back at the Dems, running constantly on FOX now. Just the sort of tricks they’re good at:

    https://t.co/FN30yhDQKt

  19. Poobah, as of 9/24 – from the Daily Beast.
    And again from the Daily Beast yesterday – following Taylor’s testimony before eh committee.  The plans were for Zelensky to make the announcement of the investigation into Burisky on CNN – apparently that never happened.  I guess what we’re seeing is what happens when a clown tries to strike a deal with a comedian.  What could possibly go wrong?

  21. So true Pogo. And in the end the comedian outmaneuvered the clown, got what he wanted without giving up anything. Again, too bad incompetence is not an impeachable offense.

  22. they did make an announcement which sounds like a quo for that quid of WH mtg and aid to me

    from slate 10/4/19

    It’s actually happening. After all this, including a whistleblower blowing the top off what stacks up to be a coordinated quid-pro-quo, Ukraine’s actually tinkering with doing President Trump’s bidding and reopening an “investigation” into the gas company Burisma that Joe Biden’s son Hunter sat on the board of for five years. That news came Friday when the country’s top prosecutor announced his office would review all of the cases handled by his predecessors at the Prosecutor General’s Office.

     

    “The prosecutor general, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, said he intended to review 15 cases in all, and mentioned several high-profile investigations of wealthy Ukrainians, including the owner of the natural gas company, Burisma Holdings, where Mr. Biden’s son Hunter served on the board until earlier this year,” the New York Times reports. “He said no foreign or domestic officials tried to influence his decisions on specific criminal proceedings, or in regards to the Bidens or the Burisma case.”

     

    “Not a single foreign or Ukrainian official or politician has called me or tried to influence my decisions regarding specific criminal cases,” Ryaboshapka said. Uh-huh. Just a coincidence then.

    During the July 25 phone call where Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to reopen the closed investigation into Burisma during Biden’s tenure at the company, an investigation that found no evidence of any wrongdoing, Zelensky said he would do so. The Ukrainian president told Trump that Ryaboshapka, the new prosecutor, was “100 percent my person” and would “look into the situation.”

  24. Everyone knows lynching is a racially charged term, and everyone knows SFB is a racist, but in my opinion it was not a great or smart move to try and “hang” it around SFB’s neck. Using the word to try and prove a racist is a racist is not IMHO a bright idea because the term gets used more broadly than its racist underpinnings might suggest.  I vividly remember the “political lynching” use during the Clinton impeachment and don’t recall any uproar over its use then, but then again it was white guys trying to impeach the first black president of the US, so in a sense it was justified…??? Snark aside the fact that it is used more widely in the vernacular than in its racist context doesn’t make it any less offensive to folks whose heritage includes victims of the practice, but IMHO it’s not the BFD that is being made of it.  I’d say move on.

  25. Poobah, intelligence is essential in comedy, not so much for clowning.
    Sturg, you’re right – the agreement freed the funds & the comedian welched on the deal after he got the military aid.  The great negotiator is a chump.

  26. here’s zelensky following thru IMO with the quo  (but not in the exact words they dictated according to taylor for him to say “in a public box”)

    from foxnews  10/10/19

    […]

    In his comments Thursday, Zelensky also told reporters his country will “happily” investigate whether Ukrainians interfered in the United States’ 2016 elections – a topic Trump also broached with him during his July phone call with the leader.

    [continues]

  27. Ummmmm, SFB, lie much? From Wapo today:
     

    The Trump administration has sought repeatedly to cut foreign aid programs tasked with combating corruption in Ukraine and elsewhere overseas, White House budget documents show, despite recent claims from President Trump and his administration that they have been singularly concerned with fighting corruption in Ukraine.

    Those claims have come as the president and his administration sought to explain away a July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump pressured his counterpart to open investigations into Joe Biden and his son Hunter, and into a debunked conspiracy theory involving a hacked Democratic National Committee computer server.

    “I don’t care about politics, but I do care about corruption. And this whole thing is about corruption,” Trump told reporters earlier this month when discussing the Ukraine issue. “This whole thing — this whole thing is about corruption.”
    ****

    The Trump White House has routinely pursued deep cuts to foreign aid in its budget proposals, only to be rebuffed by Congress. The proposed cuts to anti-corruption programs were a byproduct of the administration’s larger goals of cutting the budgets of the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development and were not specifically targeted, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget.

    “The president has consistently sought across-the-board cuts to foreign aid, and has proposed more cuts in his budgets than any other president in history,” said Rachel Semmel, spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget. “He has also strongly encouraged other countries to contribute their own efforts and resources to their defense and reform efforts.”
    Nonetheless, the cuts to anti-corruption aid stand in contrast to recent claims from administration officials and the president himself about being focused on corruption in Ukraine, raising the question of why the White House has not sought a larger budgetary commitment to addressing the issue. Democrats have largely dismissed the White House’s insistence that Trump was focused on corruption, but White House officials continue to say it was a primary reason the military aid was held up.
     

    “This is about corruption, and this is not about politics,” Trump said. “This is about corruption. And if you look and you read our Constitution and many other things, we — I have an obligation to look at corruption. I have an actual obligation and a duty.”

    Seems a little unpacking is in order – cut aid meant to fight corruption but claim corruption is your concern?  And where’d you get that idea that the Constitution (and many other – unnamed of course – things) imposes an obligation to look at corruption in the Ukraine?  Which Article and section is that embodied in?

  29. Gee whiz  a little late to figuring out the media sucks — especially among the media

  30. I have spent my entire life as a witness to bad journalism.   The paper in Canton Ohio in my time there spent its efforts on sucking up to the Timken Roller Bearing Company
    The SF Chronicle thinks it  is a society paper.
    The Santa Rosa Press Democrat started out as a paper supporting the confederacy and now is owned by a rich political lobbyist with no moral center….well except for $$$$$
     
     
     
     

  31. remember his immortal words just last year:

    “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening”

  34. Craig

    “lynching” was tossed around by Democrats in 1998.  If my math is right, that is 21 years ago.  One would hope that some advance has been made in empathy.  If not, there is still two wrongs don’t make a right.  

  35. KGC, for decades I’ve subscribed to two papers, our local wherever we might be and the Journal. In the case of the Journal, the superior news pages are clearly independent of the editorial opinion writers. It is a fine newspaper with excellent arts coverage in the weekend (Saturday) edition as well as stuff for the cooks, travelers, students, and mechanics as well. It ain’t cheap. So what, I don’t go to movies.

  36. thanks Flatus
    I read the NY Times as my go to for news etc
    There are some good local papers  I haven’tbeen lucky enough to live in those communities

  37. trump was right. The ‘whole thing’ was about corruption : his, his appointees, and the republican party. And, let’s not forget putin’s corruption. 
     
     
     

  38. This is what trump accomplished. 
    1. Russia can now attack Turkey on two fronts.
    2. Turkey and the US and NATO are all estranged from each other. This gives putin a free hand wherever he wishes to conquer, from Afghanistan and Central Asia to the Caucasus to the Balkans, to the Baltic States.
    This is where things are headed :

    1. We are witnessing the beginning of the reassembly of the soviet union, under a fascist autocrat, who rules through military and police force for the benefit of an elite of murderous gangsters, who are analogous to the old commissars of industries. It’s Plato’s version of Shangri-La in Cyrillic script.
    2. When the soviet union is re-assembled, putin’s work will turn to pulling the old Warsaw Pact satellites back into russian orbit. After that, who knows ?

  41. Democrats could do themselves some good by running ads of SFB’s current statements and fact checking them or running the fact checks already done

  42. I have to say the Russians and friends did Tulsi Gabbard no favors by using the exact same wording talking about regime change wars.  

  45. He had his reasons. Follow the speech, which is, admittedly, the dramatization of a much larger guess.
    putin speaks : Russia is the largest country on earth. It is also fabulously endowed with mineral resources. That the Mongols, the Teutonic Knights, Charles XII, Napoleon, the Kaiser, Hitler and the US all tried to conquer Russia should demonstrate the desirability of owning it. That Russia has beaten back all enemies should demonstrate the wealth and power of Russia. I am rebuilding Russia after the disastrous failures of the Marxist rulers. I am rebuilding on a firmer foundation than the mere daydreams of a 19th century German romantic.
    Russia will be great again, as it was in the days of Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Alexander the First, and Stalin. A greatest empire deserves the greatest services and accommodations.  In russia’s capital we will need the world’s largest and most luxurious hotel. In the other great cities, we will need similar, but not quite so spectacular, hotels plus golf courses, spas, and polo grounds. Kiev, St Petersburg, Ekatrinaburg, Yalta, and Gagra.

  48. Cleansing of the palate, so pure brainless fun.  The movie CATS of the broadway play will be coming out soon.  In the meantime, look up your zodiac sign.  Go to You Tube and type in Cats and the name of your character.  Mine is Pisces, so here is Skimbleshanks

     

  50. I’m actually looking forward to seeing a different cat.  Daniel Striped Tiger in the new Tom Hank’s movie about Mr. Rogers coming out next month.     

  51. Mr Taylor’s wife reportedly strenuously objected to his taking Ambassador gig.  But his mentor says something that moved him and so he took da gig. But the same thing the old mentor told him which caused him to take da gig is also responsible for his appearing in Congress to testify.   His wife was right, but his country and people in Ukraine needed him.
    It’s a kind of “High Noon” thing.

  54. Firecreek, Stewart’s a simple but honest storekeeper whose wife is in the process of a difficult birth and he needs to be there, helping the midwife, boiling water and shit, but he’s been forced into being sheriff for a few days when wouldn’t ya know it, Henry Fonda, Jack Elam, and 3 other hardcases hold up in town, 3 or 4 days ahead of a posse while on the lam, having taken a powder after the bank heist. They gotta hole up a bit while Fonda recuperates from a flesh wound, and they take over the town.
    Then it just turns nasty.

  56. Should you be in California, you can visit the train from High Noon.  It’s a wonderful touristy part of the state.  Ride the train and pretend you are Katy Jurado.  Since it is off of Highway 49, you might even include a stop to do some frog jumping enroute.

    Railtown 1897 State Historical Park 

     

  57. TX tornadoes did an estimated 2 billion in damage cuz the F3 had a 15-mile path and went through a ritzy neighborhood.   

  58. Old Jack got turned around in a few later movies and “F Troop”, and became funny…..it’s nice when that happens to one of those old movie bad guys. 

  60. Quinnipiac Poll on whether Congress should impeach/remove Trump
    blacks 82% yes, 14% no
    Hispanics 53% yes, 39% no
    white men non-college 24% yes, 71% no
    white men college grads 39% yes, 56% no
    white women non-college 49% yes, 43% no
    white women college grads 54% yes, 41% no

  61. “GOP committee crashers just auditioning to be FOX contributors.” YEP!  Yep!  Just imagine if Dems would have ever done this.  OMG!  The repubes would be howling at the moon.
     
    On the other hand,   make it public!  Yes!

  62. Jamie44 – What is missing from all dialogs about anything to do with politics is that what happened forty or fifty years ago is not the same as if it happened today.  This applies to everyone and each party.  Biden of 1994 is not the Bidden of 2019.  SFB of 1980 is not the . . . skip this one.  The GOP of 1984 is not the same as the greedy old perverts of 2019.  The Dems and repubs of today are not the same as the parties of 2015. 
      We talk about changes.  We talk about political people and parties as yesteryear as if they are the same as today.  They are not.  The Dems are more of how America is today.  The greedy old perverts are even worse than those of the reagan version. 
     
         Time has moved on.  So have the people.  Many have died,  Many have replaced them.  Today means that trying to apply standards of 1960 to 2019 is not going to work.  Many of the people of America are younger than we are (by a lot).

  63.  
    The rule of the ThirtyEdit

    With Spartan support, the Thirty established an interim government in Athens. The Thirty were concerned with the revision if not erasure of democratic laws inscribed on the wall next to the Stoa Basileios. Consequently, the Thirty reduced the rights of Athenian citizens in order to institute an oligarchical regime. The Thirty appointed a council of 500 to serve the judicial functions formerly belonging to all the citizens.[4]However, not all Athenian men had their rights removed. In fact, the Thirty chose 3,000 Athenian men “to share in the government”.[5] These hand-selected individuals had the right to carry weapons, to have a jury trial, and to reside within city limits.[6] The list of the selected 3,000 was consistently revised.[6] Although little is known about these 3,000 men ‒ for a complete record was never documented ‒ it is hypothesised[by whom?] that the Thirty appointed these select few as the only men the Thirty could find who were devotedly loyal to their regime.[7] The majority of Athenian citizens did not support the rule of the Thirty.[citation needed]
    Led by Critias, the Thirty Tyrants presided over a reign of terror in which they executed, murdered, and exiled hundreds of Athenians, seizing their possessions afterward. Both Isocrates and Aristotle (the latter in the Athenian Constitution) have reported that the Thirty executed 1500 people without trial.[8][4] Critias, a former pupil of Socrates, has been described as “the first Robespierre“[9] because of his cruelty and inhumanity; he evidently aimed to end democracy, regardless of the human cost

  64. The “funny” is SFB talked about building a wall around Colorado.  People from New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah and Arizona would be very shocked.  They could not bring their giant recreation vehicles in.  Colorado would be very happy, no tourists

  65. When I was there the joke was, “Denver’s getting a new zoo.  They’re building a wall around Boulder”.  

  66. Apparently we have given New Mexico back to Old Mexico since Trump is building a border across Colorado

     

    Will passports be needed to enter from Arizona and Texas or will he just wipe out the Treaty of Hidalgo?

  68. BB

    Exactly.  One of the nails on the blackboard is some Gooper talking about Democrats who were racists.  They know better and do it on purpose to sway the uneducated that Trump loves so much.  Judging by some of his tweets even Trump is so ignorant that he doesn’t know Republicans were the most LIBERAL party of their time and replaced the moderate Whigs.  

     

  70. Colbert – described the Republican interlopers as the Fraternal Order of Asshats. Colbert shoots, Colbert SCORES!!!!

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