https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jeff-flake-fellow-republicans-theres-still-time-to-save-your-souls/2019/09/30/ade876f6-e2d3-11e9-b403-f738899982d2_story.html

By Jeff Flake
September 30, 2019 at 8:46 a.m. EDT

Jeff Flake, a Republican, represented Arizona in the U.S. Senate from 2013 to 2019. He is a resident fellow at Harvard University and a contributor to CBS News.

Two years ago I stood in the Senate chamber and said: “There are times when we must risk our careers in favor of our principles.”

In my case, I had not supported the president’s election. One year into his presidency, I knew that I could not support his reelection. While I had hoped that I could still run for reelection to the Senate in 2018 as someone who would help to provide a check on the president’s worst impulses, it soon became apparent that this was not what Republican primary voters in my state were looking for. Whatever reservations they might have had when they voted for Donald Trump, one year into his presidency they wanted a senator who was all in.

But I already had seen too much. Traveling overseas I witnessed the damage being done to our standing in the world as a result of President Trump’s fondness for authoritarians and his scorn for allies. His hostility toward security alliances and trade agreements had placed our long-term security and our economy at risk. His adoption of the tyrant’s phrase “enemy of the people” put journalists in even greater peril, all over the world. His resentment toward refugees and profane description of certain countries were destroying generations of goodwill.

At home, I was convinced that his repeated disparagement of the judiciary, antagonism toward Congress and casual disregard for the truth were damaging our democratic institutions, and his persistent crudeness to his political opponents and cruelty toward vanquished foes were degrading our political culture. I knew that to have a chance of winning reelection, I would need to support policies I could not support and condone behavior I could not condone.

Now, two years later, it is my former Republican Senate colleagues who have a decision to make. Or, as I see it, two decisions to make. The first is difficult; the second is easy.

</snip>

https://twitter.com/AshaRangappa_/status/1178648079450464256
Asha Rangappa ✔ @AshaRangappa_

Don’t forget that one of the talking points pushed by Russia’s troll farm was that there would be a civil war if Democrats tried to impeach Trump. An interesting coinkydink, right?

From the criminal complaint filed in federal court: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5009827/Khusyaynova-Complaint.pdf …

Orin Kerr @OrinKerr

Trump appears to be threatening civil war if Congress follows the U.S. Constitution's provision on removing a President from office.

Unreal.

8:29 AM - Sep 30, 2019

https://popular.info/p/huge-police-lives-matter-facebook

The "Police Lives Matter" Facebook page accumulated over 170,000 fans, with viral content that reached more Facebook users than some of the largest media outlets. The page purported to be run by U.S. police officers, with cops posting about the "first dayshift of my career with a K9" or being "brand new dad." Other posts contained more generic pro-police messaging.



What these posts did not mention is that the page was operated by three people from Kosovo. It was part of a complex network of pro-police pages based out of Kosovo. One such page run by Kosovars, Pro Police Officer, falsely listed a physical address in New York City.

These pages used blatant misinformation to provoke an emotional response from Facebook users. For example, on August 19, 2019, the Police Lives Matter page posted that "a little under three weeks ago" Deputy Farrah Turner had been shot and had just died of gunshot wounds. Turner was actually shot on October 3, 2018, and died on October 24, 2018.



This tactic of misrepresenting and exploiting a police officer's death for shares and likes was used repeatedly throughout the network.

The pages sought to exploit the right-wing backlash against the "Black Lives Matter" movement, which protests the killing of African-Americans by police officers. Pages in the network, all run by managers in Kosovo, included "All Lives Matter," "I Support The Police US not Criminals," and "Blue Lives Matter USA." This right-wing movement has been embraced by Trump, and the Police Lives Matter page included some explicitly pro-Trump messaging.



</snip>

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2019/09/30/what-pelosi-is-telling-vulnerable-dems-about-impeachment-483041?cid=su_tw_pb

By ANNA PALMER and JAKE SHERMAN 09/30/2019 05:57 AM EDT

It’s not about President DONALD TRUMP; it’s about the Constitution. That’s the message Speaker NANCY PELOSI wants House Democrats to remember as they gear up for what will be a key week in their march to impeachment. “We have to proceed with our hearts full of love for America and our hearts full of love for the Constitution. And not with negative attitudes towards him, but a positive attitude towards our responsibility,” she said on a conference call with House Democrats on Sunday.

“The polls have changed drastically about this,” Pelosi added, pointing to numbers showing that support for impeachment has surged since her announcement.

THE CALL underscored the tricky position Democrats, particularly those in districts that Trump won in 2016, are in as they move to sell the impeachment inquiry over the two-week recess. It also comes amid growing frustration among many Democrats over inconsistent messaging about how to talk about impeachment.

THE DEM STRATEGY … SARAH FERRIS and ANDREW DESIDERIO: “Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos, who leads House Democrats’ campaign arm, advised the caucus’s most vulnerable members to gauge support and test their message through the use of polling in their respective districts — surveys that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee would help fund, according to multiple people on the call. She also said the campaign arm could deploy digital ads in the future.

“Bustos also shared the results of the DCCC’s first poll focused on impeachment since Pelosi formalized an inquiry last week. The poll found that 54 percent of likely voters support the Democrats’ inquiry, according to a summary obtained by POLITICO.

“Top Democrats used Sunday’s conference call to formalize their caucus’s messaging operation on impeachment with more focused talking points. It came after leaders faced blowback from some lawmakers, particularly those from swing districts, over past messaging stumbles.

</snip>

https://twitter.com/itsJeffTiedrich/status/1178648581693202432
Jeff Tiedrich @ItsJeffTiedrich

they should get Trump to a doctor, but Jared's busy bringing peace to the Mid East, Don Jr.'s printing out emails and shredding them, Melania's showing her kidneys to Trudeau, Ivanka's doing whatever the fuck she does and Eric's accidentally locked himself inside the refrigerator

8:31 AM - Sep 30, 2019

https://www.axios.com/trump-tweet-ukraine-whistleblower-complaint-439e11a9-8f26-4bdb-95fe-c695a88b16e4.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic&utm_content=1100

President Trump tweeted Monday that the Ukraine whistleblower's complaint is "mostly" about his call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and that its account of the call is "a fraud" — 2 claims disproven by both the complaint itself and the memo of the call released by the White House.

"The Fake Whistleblower complaint is not holding up. It is mostly about the call to the Ukrainian President which, in the name of transparency, I immediately released to Congress & the public. The Whistleblower knew almost nothing, its 2ND HAND description of the call is a fraud!"

Reality check
The call only encompasses one of four sections of the whistleblower's complaint. The other sections allege that the Trump administration tried to hide Trump's call with Zelensky — and others like it — in a separate computer system for classified information and discuss the events leading up to the July 25 Zelensky call.

The complaint's section about the call is sourced to "multiple White House officials with direct knowledge of the call." It also includes 3 specific allegations about the call:

Trump asked Zelensky to investigate the business dealings of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in Ukraine.

Trump asked Zelensky for help locating servers that could indicate that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election actually originated Ukraine, an allegation that originated in far-right conspiracy theories.

Trump said that Zelensky should meet or speak with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General Bill Barr to discuss these matters further.

Despite not having firsthand knowledge of the call, these 3 claims in the whistleblower's complaint were verified by the White House's release of the memo summarizing the Trump-Zelensky call.

</snip>

https://twitter.com/TheOnlyEdAsner/status/1178648397424689152
Ed Asner ✔ @TheOnlyEdAsner

Wow @realDonaldTrump could actually have a giant party and call it an accusers party. That way he could meet all of his accusers. I don’t know how American that is. But we could sell tickets? That’s American.

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

Like every American, I deserve to meet my accuser, especially when this accuser, the so-called “Whistleblower,” represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a totally inaccurate and fraudulent way. Then Schiff made up what I actually said by lying to Congress......

8:30 AM - Sep 30, 2019

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Clemente



Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker (Spanish pronunciation: [roˈ?eɾto enˈrike kleˈmente (g)walˈkeɾ]; August 18, 1934 – December 31, 1972) was a Puerto Rican professional baseball right fielder who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, becoming both the first Latin American and Caribbean player to be enshrined. His untimely death established the precedent that, as an alternative to the five-year retirement period, a player who has been deceased for at least six months is eligible for entry into the Hall of Fame.

Clemente was an All-Star for 12 seasons, playing in 15 All-Star Games. He was the National League (NL) Most Valuable Player in 1966, the NL batting leader in 1961, 1964, 1965, and 1967, and a Gold Glove Award winner for 12 consecutive seasons from 1961 through 1972. His batting average was over .300 for 13 seasons and he had 3,000 hits during his major league career. He also played in two World Series championships. Clemente is the first Latin American and Caribbean player to help win a World Series as a starting position player (1960), to receive an NL MVP Award (1966), and to receive a World Series MVP Award (1971).

Clemente was involved in charity work in Latin American and Caribbean countries during the off-seasons, often delivering baseball equipment and food to those in need. On December 31, 1972, he died in a plane crash while en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. He was 38 years old. The following season, the Pirates retired his uniform number 21, and MLB renamed its annual Commissioner's Award in his honor; now known as the Roberto Clemente Award, it is given to the player who "best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's contribution to his team".

<snip>

Pittsburgh Pirates, 1970s
The 1970 season was the last one that the Pirates played at Forbes Field before moving to Three Rivers Stadium; for Clemente, abandoning this stadium was an emotional situation. The Pirates' final game at Forbes Field occurred on June 28, 1970. That day, Clemente noted that it was hard to play in a different field, saying, "I spent half my life there." The night of July 24, 1970, was declared "Roberto Clemente Night"; on this day, several Puerto Rican fans traveled to Three Rivers Stadium and cheered Clemente while wearing traditional Puerto Rican attire. A ceremony to honor Clemente took place, during which he received a scroll with 300,000 signatures compiled in Puerto Rico, and several thousands of dollars were donated to charity work following Clemente's request.

During the 1970 season, Clemente compiled a .352 batting average; the Pirates won the NL East pennant but were subsequently eliminated by the Cincinnati Reds. During the offseason, Roberto Clemente experienced some tense situations while he was working as manager of the Senadores and when his father, Melchor Clemente, experienced medical problems and underwent surgery.

In the 1971 season, the Pirates won the NL East, defeated the San Francisco Giants in four games to win the NL pennant, and faced the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. Baltimore had won 101 games (third season in row with 100+ wins) and swept the American League Championship Series, both for the third consecutive year, and were the defending World Series champions. The Orioles won the first two games in the series, but Pittsburgh won the championship in seven games. This marked the second occasion that Clemente helped win a World Series for the Pirates. Over the course of the series, Clemente had a .414 batting average (12 hits in 29 at-bats), performed well defensively, and hit a solo home run in the deciding 2–1 seventh game victory. Following the conclusion of the season, he received the World Series Most Valuable Player Award.

3000th hit
Although he was frustrated and struggling with injuries, Clemente played in 102 games and hit .312 during the 1972 season. He also made the annual NL All-Star roster for the 12th time (he played in 14/15 All-Star games) and won his 12th consecutive Gold Glove. On September 30, he hit a double in the 4th inning off Jon Matlack of the New York Mets at Three Rivers Stadium for his 3,000th hit. It was his last regular season at-bat of his career. By playing in right field in one more regular season game, on October 3, Clemente passed Honus Wagner's record for games played as a Pittsburgh Pirate, with 2,433 games played. In the NL playoffs that season, he batted .235 as he went 4 for 17. His last game was October 11, 1972 at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium in the fifth and final game of the 1972 NLCS. He and Bill Mazeroski were the last Pirate players remaining from the 1960 World Series championship team.

Personal life
Clemente was married on November 14, 1963 to Vera Zabala at San Fernando Church in Carolina. The couple had three children: Roberto, Jr., born in 1965, Luis Roberto, born in 1966, and Roberto Enrique, born in 1969.

Charity work and death
Clemente spent much of his time during the off-season involved in charity work. When Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua, was affected by a massive earthquake on December 23, 1972, Clemente (who visited Managua three weeks before the quake) immediately set to work arranging emergency relief flights. He soon learned, however, that the aid packages on the first three flights had been diverted by corrupt officials of the Somoza government, never reaching victims of the quake. He decided to accompany the fourth relief flight, hoping that his presence would ensure that the aid would be delivered to the survivors. The airplane he chartered for a New Year's Eve flight, a Douglas DC-7 cargo plane, had a history of mechanical problems and an insufficient number of flight personnel (missing both a flight engineer and copilot), and was overloaded by 4,200 pounds. It crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico immediately after takeoff on December 31, 1972 due to engine failure.

A few days after the crash, the body of the pilot and part of the fuselage of the plane were found. An empty flight case apparently belonging to Clemente was the only personal item recovered from the plane. Clemente's teammate and close friend Manny Sanguillén was the only member of the Pirates not to attend Roberto's memorial service. The Pirates catcher chose instead to dive into the waters where Clemente's plane had crashed in an effort to find his teammate. The bodies of Clemente and three others who were also on the four-engine plane were never recovered.

Montreal Expos pitcher Tom Walker, then playing winter league ball in Puerto Rico (in a league later named after Clemente), helped Clemente load the plane. Either because of the plane's weight load or because Clemente wanted Walker, who was single, to go enjoy New Year's, Clemente told him not to join him on the flight. Walker's son is current Miami Marlins infielder and former Met and Pirate Neil Walker.

In an interview for the ESPN documentary series SportsCentury in 2002, Clemente's widow Vera mentioned that Clemente had told her several times that he thought he was going to die young. Indeed, while being asked by broadcaster and future fellow Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn in July 1971 during the All-Star Game activities about when he would get his 3,000 career hit, Clemente's response was "Well, uh, you never know. I, I, uh, if I'm alive, like I said before, you never know because God tells you how long you're going to be here. So you never know what can happen tomorrow." Clemente's older stepbrother, Luis, died on December 31, 1954 and his stepsister a few years later.

At the time of his death, Clemente had established several records with the Pirates, including most triples in a game (three) and hits in two consecutive games (ten). He won 12 Gold Glove Awards and shares the record of most won among outfielders with Willie Mays. On July 25, 1956, in a 9–8 Pittsburgh win against the Chicago Cubs, Clemente hit the only walk-off inside-the-park grand slam in professional baseball history.

Hall of Fame
On March 20, 1973, the Baseball Writers' Association of America held a special election for the Baseball Hall of Fame. They voted to waive the waiting period for Clemente, due to the circumstances of his death, and posthumously elected him for induction into the Hall of Fame, giving him 393 out of 420 available votes, for 92.7% of the vote.

Clemente's Hall of Fame plaque originally had his name as "Roberto Walker Clemente" instead of the proper Spanish format "Roberto Clemente Walker"; the plaque was recast in 2000 to correct the error.

</snip>

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/29/donald-trump-impeachment-guide-228756

By JEFF GREENFIELD September 29, 2019

f you’re looking at history to provide a guide to the impending impeachment saga … don’t. With only three past examples, involving three very different controversies, there’s thin gruel that will provide little nourishment. So let’s turn to a different tool: the concept of an infinite number of universes, where events play out in different ways, depending on everything from consequential decisions to random chance. Modesty forbids asserting that any of the outcomes listed below will happen; only that they might.

Some of these universes may seem improbable or even fanciful, I know. But before you dismiss them all, ask yourself this question: Would the universe we are living in now have seemed any less fanciful three years ago?


IN UNIVERSE ONE

The House provides a forum for a deliberate look at a narrow set of facts. The template is the Senate Watergate Committee, which began poking into Watergate and other “presidential campaign activities” in the spring of 1973. It was a select committee of seven members, with nary an ideologue in sight. (Chairman Sam Ervin was a conservative Democrat; ranking member Howard Baker was a moderate Republican.) Over 319 hours, the nation learned of John Dean’s “cancer on the presidency” and the revelation that there was a taping system inside the White House. Notably, much of the questioning was done by staff counsel, which made for less political bloviation and more targeted inquiry.

So in this scenario, instead of having six committees channel their findings to the Judiciary Committee, Speaker Nancy Pelosi changes her mind and creates a similar select committee, whose staff lawyers do the lion’s share of the questioning, focused on the issue raised by the whistleblower: Did the president withhold desperately needed military aid to pressure Ukraine into damaging a potential political opponent.

In this universe, there is at least a chance of laying out the facts in a clear frame, enabling the public to grasp the essence of the case for impeachment. That in turn moves public opinion to the point where some congressional Republicans begin to recalculate the benefits and cost of a pro-impeachment vote.

</snip>

https://twitter.com/RepKinzinger/status/1178489464504619013?s=20
Adam Kinzinger ✔ @RepKinzinger

I have visited nations ravaged by civil war. @realDonaldTrump I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant.

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump

Replying to @realDonaldTrump
....If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.” Pastor Robert Jeffress, @FoxNews

9:59 PM - Sep 29, 2019