To be fair, even NASA copies logos. :D

So the defense is wrapping with the Moscow Mitch theory of you can’t do this in an election year. :rolleyes:

Being reported that 3 rockets hit the U.S. embassy in Iraq.

Anyone else seeing reports of 3 rockets hitting the US embassy in Baghdad?

You don't carry a map around to randomly challenge people with geography questions?

You're slacking.

I'd give Trump a 50/50 chance of finding Ukraine on the map simply because I'm sure he's been in enough briefings that it's stuck by now.

Outside of that I'd put the over/under on number of countries he can point out on a map at 15.

I could maybe see him staring at the real-time flight map on his private planes (if those exist on private planes), and sending up instructions to the pilot on the direction they should go. Maybe he could pick up a few country names that way.

It's part of how the administration operates. Trump handed out copies of his electoral map victory to people all the time the first year or two

According to the NY Times, in John Bolton's unpublished book, he says Trump told him in August that he wanted to continue freezing Ukraine's assets until they helped with investigations into Biden and other Democrats

Don’t worry. It’s a nothing burger. Everything is. The R’s in Congress are too far up Trump’s ass to see common sense if it smacked them in face.

You know, the funny thing is, that spattered across my FB feed in NKY, it is 100% the opposite. Not a shocker, but it's certainly indicative of the current state of affairs.

Dems should be careful about Bolton. I get that the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that, but he's still a don't-trust-him-as-far-as-you-can-throw-him kind of guy.

Yep, he's nothing that should be celebrated. It should be one piece, not some sort of of shocking revelation that the world hinges on. How many other people do we deserve to hear from, who was barred from testifying? They get tunnel vision, lose focus, and can't keep their expectations straight.

While Dems see the Bolton confirmation of a quid pro quo as a smoking gun, recall that one (among the many) lines of defense that Cult 45 has tossed out there is that of course they held up the aid, get over it, but it's not for personal politics, it's just that there's a national interest in Ukriane being rid of internal corruption.

And while that's pretty preposterous on its face to me/us, surely there are 50 or so GOP Senators who will find that perfectly adequate to hang their hats (and place in history) upon.

I think it's as simple as, the trial will be over before the State of the Union. That's always been the plan so that he can take a victory lap. There isn't time to call witnesses and meet that deadline, so there won't be any witnesses regardless of what news breaks.

The "will he?" angle is a fascinating twist...

Hoping for Roberts to do that is a sign of how screwed this country has been for 3+ years

John Bolton - Hardcore leftist

I didn't see that coming a few years ago.

We've seen it with Flake, Bob Mueller, and others but the line for what's considered a leftist by most Trump supporters just moved several miles to the right. We're a couple more scandals away from Steven King being a moderate.

With credit going to Pink Floyd ... "Another brick in the wall".

I assume a Democratic administration can reverse this relatively easily.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/27/polit...rge/index.html

McConnell says he currently does not have enough Republican votes to block witnesses

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mcc...es-bolton-book

When your strategy is this "GOP doesn't have votes yet to block impeachment witnesses"...I just don't know what to say when it is written in black and white.

We all knew it would happen, but it's still gob smacking to see the GOP jump to a defense of, sure he did it, who cares?

The plan is public now and as expected Israelis like it and the Palestinians say its DOA.

IMHO the Palestinians just need to negotiate the best deal possible for them now and move on with their lives/country (e.g. bet the Clinton sponsored plan looks pretty good right 15+ years later). Won't be perfect especially since everyone knows who has most/all leverage and the other Arab countries are too busy dealing with other things e.g. the Palestinian problem is now Page 5.

$50B over 10 years doesn't seem to be enough. It should be increased to really sweeten (e.g. bribe) the deal.

My guess is there is "some" give in all except for #2.

Trump’s Israel-Palestine peace plan, explained - Vox

Saw this elsewhere, and it caused a chuckled.

ALL THE WITNESSES: Ok we all agree. This is what happened.

REPUBLICANS: None of you were in the room!

BOLTON: *raises hand* Well I was in the...

REPUBLICANS: Who asked you?! Shut up! You’re a liberal pawn!

BOLTON: Um... I’m actually I’m a lifelong Republican and I was literally Trump’s national security advi...

REPUBLICANS: Shut your mustache! Somebody bring back the first national security advisor.

FLYNN: *in orange jumpsuit* Hey sorry guys I’m in jail lol.

REPUBLICANS: What? Why?

FLYNN: For lying to the FBI about the Russia investigation.

REPUBLICANS: Well what idiot told you to do that?!

FLYNN: The Pres...

REPUBLICANS: Shut up! No one believes either of you!

KELLY: *raises hand* I believe them. And I was Trump’s Chief of sta...

REPUBLICANS: Shut up! Let’s talk to the real chief of staff. Who is he?

MULVANEY: *raises hand* It’s me.

REPUBLICANS: Shit. Never mind.

PARNAS: *raises hand* I was also in the room. In fact, here’s a cell phone video of the President saying that...

REPUBLICANS: Wait what?! How in hell did you sneak a cell phone into a meeting with the President?

PARNAS: It was easy I just walked right in and...

REPUBLICANS: Shut up! You’re a criminal!

PARNAS: Correct. And I just walked right into...

TRUMP: I don’t know him.

PARNAS: And here’s 500 pictures of me with the President because we’re besties.

REPUBLICANS: Wait... What idiot introduced you to the President??

PARNAS: His personal lawyer.

REPUBLICANS: Cohen??

COHEN: *also in orange jumpsuit* Hey no sorry guys I’m in jail too.

REPUBLICANS: Why?

COHEN: For campaign finance violations.

REPUBLICANS: Who’s campaign?

COHEN: The Pres...

REPUBLICANS: Shut up!

PARNAS: It was Giuliani.

YOVANOVITCH: Giuliani! That’s the guy who had me fired from my job!

REPUBLICANS: Who are you??

YOVANOVITCH: I was the ambassador to Ukraine.

REPUBLICANS: Wait, you had her fired? Do you work for the government??

GIULIANI: Nope.

REPUBLICANS: Well who is the ambassador to the European Union??

SONDLAND: *raises hand* Me. I was also in the roo...

REPUBLICANS: F@$&!!!

PUTIN: *rubs his bare chest*

I’m not a fan of Trump’s tweets, but I’ll give credit where it’s due. His point that if he’d listened to John Bolton “we’d be in World War Six by now” is pretty funny.

trump repeating opposition (to Bolton's nomination) talking points and calling them his own, IS funny.

Well it makes sense that Bolton was a deep liberal plant all these years, unleashed just now to damage the President's impeachment defense. That mustache (there's no way it's real, right?) should've been a dead giveaway a long time ago.

It's total bullshit. It's an annexation plan disguised as a peace plan. Not only were the Palestinians ignored in creating this, they are only given sovereignty at a later date if the Israelis choose to do so. There are no dates or enforcement mechanisms that guarantee a future Palestinian state. It's a plan fr a permanent apartheid state.

I don't disagree, its heavily tilted towards the Israelis. All I am saying is the Palestinians should negotiate knowing they won't get all they want and will very likely have to "give/compromise" more than the Israelis.

Their peak leverage is in the past ... the Palestians have fractured between West Bank & Gaza. ISIL and like, Iran and Iraq are in the headlines, not the Palestinians. The Israeli "wall" has worked to significantly reduced terrorist attacks. US has made inroads in allying with Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia ... who can the Palestians look to as a champion or benefactor? Zippo, nada

With that said, its best for them to wait until after the US elections and for the Israeli elections to be settled (with Netanyahu hopefully gone). A Democrat President & House will be "better" for them but they still won't get near/everything they want.

You know Alex Jones is going to pick this up and run with it right? :D

Is there any sort of article that using hindsight suggests what should have been done post WWI and WWII to minimize the issues in the middle east?

Agreeing to this is worse than doing nothing. What do they get from the deal?

I'm not saying agree to this plan. I am saying start to negotiate with reality of their situation (and lack of leverage) in mind.

One can write literal books about this subject or simply put in one line:

White people, stop interfering in regions you don't know anything about and don't try to know anything about.

Not very helpful but thanks

This sounds nearly like the american south, post civil war. They should just take what we give them. They're going to be permanent second class citizens as far as our country goes.

Considering the relatively constant chaos in the middle east, negotiating when your leverage is at its lowest seems like a horrible strategy, regardless of who you are.

Unfortunately, I would go further. The balance of power and how Palestinians are treated are like US Government and American Indians back in the 19th century (well, maybe not quite that bad). They don't have to take 100% of what is asked but to expect 100% of their demands is not real.

I agree assuming you believe your situation/leverage will improve anytime soon. I think there is a good chance it won't markedly improve anytime soon with all the other distractions and higher priorities the Arab countries have.

How things might have been different if Ariel Sharon hadn't had a stroke...

I looked but wasn't able to find an easy comparison on all the recent ME peace proposals. I think the Clinton deal was probably the best the Palestinians could have hoped for and that was 20+ years ago.

White House has issued a legal threat to try to stop Bolton's book from being published. Good luck with that

Sharon pulled out of Gaza and was expected to pull out of the West Bank. He seemed to understand that Israel could survive as a democracy only if the occupation ended.

That peace plan was already in shambles before Sharon had a stroke. So many missed opportunities for the Palestinian people.

Road map for peace - Wikipedia

Yeah, and he was expected to go further. He decided not to wait on the Palestinians and to save a democratic Israel on his own. Who knows how far he would have gone after the West Bank, but his intentions were pretty clear.

dola

lol Dershowitz

As long as a president believes his actions are in the national interest it's impossible for them to be corrupt.

The Nixon argument.