A good time to do another 30,000 ft view post again
The entire Admin ran an illegal scheme to withhold military aid from Ukraine. Literally all of them were involved, & thus when the scandal broke, they all lied at multiple points (except Mulvaney) & thus obstructed justice.
The entire Admin ran an illegal scheme to withhold military aid from Ukraine. Literally all of them were involved, & thus when the scandal broke, they all lied at multiple points (except Mulvaney) & thus obstructed justice.
In a practical sense, this means the country's Sec of State oversaw the investigation into a scandal he was personally involved in. The Rep Party's minority party chair @DevinNunes oversaw the House impeachment hearing into a scandal he was personally involved in. The Atty Gen
Bill Barr used his position as Atty Gen of the United States to try to squash the "whistleblower complaint" bc it brought to light a scandal he was personally involved in. Once that failed, he used his position as Atty Gen to hamper the investigation. Through it all, they told
the American public that the event never happened, not only knowing it did, but after having been personally involved in it. They all still sit in positions in which they can and ARE using the powers of their offices to thwart investigations into their own activities. This is
also the case for the Vice President, Mike Pence. Via control by their party of the Senate, these individuals are planning on using the rules of the Senate's impeachment power to avoid having to answer questions under oath about their involvement in what now has been declared a
crime by the GAO. The GOP is using the powers of majority status of the Senate, and control of what is supposed to be an impartial Justice department, to obstruct justice, by refusing to have evidence or call these Admin officials as witnesses, at least thus far. I remind you of
all of that bc although the level of malfeasance in the Admin may be similar to Watergate in that the scandal involved multiple players in the Admin, we are in totally new territory in that these revelations about Barr and Nunes have not forced these men out of their positions
Most esp Barr, who as AG has MASSIVE influence over the federal law enforcement apparatus. The fact that our system, in addition to all of the other issues (a likely acquittal despite inarguable violations of the office) perhaps the MOST serious is that our system is functioning
is this completely unprecedented place where there appears to be no accountability in the Cabinet. Keep in mind. At the beginning of this administration we saw cabinet members forced out due to excessive travel expenses and outlandish furniture purchases. BC that's how the OLD
system was. It had tightly constrained rules of acceptable conduct and norms. And now look where we are in terms of both Pompeo and Barr and utter lack of even a conversation about the fact that they should still be in their jobs. Its very telling as to how much destruction has
already been wrought on our political culture, our norms, and this democracy. We have lost a great deal of our 240 year institutional integrity and it seems to be that few are really focusing on this "big picture" problem.
