01-19-2020, 11:51 AM
(01-19-2020, 03:49 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: Personally, I think Gulianni's attempts to make energy deals while he was in Ukraine was part of the 'drug deal'. It was one way to make money change hands. Can't prove it though.
In view of the contempt that Americans across the spectra of ethnicity, social class, and political orientation have for drug trafficking, I can hardly imagine a more unfortunate metaphor than "drug deal".
Quote:It is curious that the 'drug deal' was for an announcement of an investigation into the Bidens, not for an actual investigation with hints passed on as to what they might expect to find. If there were anything real to find, if Trump had anything or believed there was corruption to find, however vague, on the Bidens, it should have shown up in the impeachment investigation that followed. Nothing.
Some insider disliked it. Thus the comparison to a crime that any idiot could do -- really, the strongest correlations to drug dealers are to low intelligence and low attainment in education.
Quote:Also, the Ukrainian president was an anti corruption figure. He was the last person who would go along with anything as corrupt as what Trump was asking. He dragged his feet at a request that would cost him nothing, resulting finally in much trouble for Trump. Obviously, Trump had not done his homework, had not correctly figured out how the Ukrainian administration would respond to a corrupt request. The idea of honesty was just incomprehensible to Trump. If anyone deserves a medal for doing the right thing in spite of obvious pressure to do otherwise, it is the Ukrainian president.
Considering that Ukraine has had problems with both image and reality since the country seceded from the Soviet Union, such might be shocking to someone who expects corrupt dealings as a norm. This is a profile in courage by the President of Ukraine, who is in perhaps the worst geopolitical situation that a country of such population could be in. Zelensky knows exactly what Trump, who would sell out any ally to Putin, could do.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.