The Arc of Conflict, Fragment s15,1: Two Outlaws Waiting for a Train

Katya Volskaya's government in Russia has destroyed the omnium Koschei, and held their own against the Gods of Oasis. With no point to additional fighting, the overt war has paused. But covertly, the conflict carries on. The gods, after all, still have a plan, and will do what is needed - one way, or another.

Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflict
Fragment s15,1: Two Outlaws Waiting for a Train
solarbird and bzarcher

Jesse McCree walked out on Ashe's Deadlock Gang years ago. If he wants to come back - even for a single job, an important job, a necessary job - he's got to a lot of lost trust to rebuild.

Of Gods and Monsters: The Arc of Conflict is a continuance of The Arc of Ascension, The Arc of Creation, and The Armourer and the Living Weapon. It will be told in a series of eddas, sagas, interludes, fragments, texts, and cantos, all of which serve their individual purposes. To follow the story as it appears, please subscribe to the series.

Today's News (2020/1/26): Bolton Says it's All Real

The New York Times

Breaking News: President Trump said he wanted to keep aid to Ukraine frozen until its officials helped him with investigations into Democrats, John Bolton wrote in an unpublished manuscript of a new book

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1221571042159878146

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5 Takeaways on Trump and Ukraine From John Bolton’s Book

New revelations from the former White House national security adviser could complicate President Trump’s impeachment trial.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/us/politics/john-bolton-trump-book-takeaways.html

WASHINGTON - President Trump directly tied the withholding of almost $400 million in American security aid to investigations that he sought from Ukrainian officials, according to an unpublished manuscript of a book that John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump's former national security advisor, wrote about his time in the White House.

The firsthand account of the link between the aid and investigations, which is based on meetings and conversations Mr. Bolton had with Mr. Trump, undercuts a key component of the president's impeachment defense: that the decision to freeze the aid was independent from his requests that Ukraine announce politically motivated investigations into former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter.

In their opening arguments on Saturday in Mr. Trump's trial, the president's lawyers asserted that Mr. Trump had legitimate concerns about corruption in Ukraine and whether other countries were offering enough help for its war against Russian-backed separatists, which his lawyers said explained his reluctance to release the aid. They also said that Democrats had no direct evidence of the quit pro quo the allege at the heart of their impeachment case.

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Republican impeachment lies are protecting Trump, but they could destroy America
Republicans appear intent on extinguishing the most fundamental ingredient of a self-governing republic, the concept of truth. That's deeply sinister.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/12/18/republican-impeachment-lies-protect-trump-threaten-america-column/2665876001/

Republicans in Congress are avidly denying the obvious truths about President Donald Trump’s serial criminality. Though they lack the votes to stop impeachment in the House of Representatives, they are poised to acquit Trump in the Senate, where they easily can block the necessary supermajority of 67 votes required to evict a president from the White House.

The facts of the case are damning. Not only is Trump on record, in a document released by the White House itself, of engaging in extortion and bribery, but his conversation with Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky was the culmination of a plot months in the making. Yet no matter the facts of the imbroglio, the Republican legislators either baldly deny them or interpret them in phantasmagorical ways.

“Ukraine blatantly interfered in our election,” says Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, repeating a baseless Russian propaganda line. Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, meanwhile, says flatly that the Democrats “are willing to block witnesses from coming in here and testifying before Congress.”

...

Yet there is nonetheless something deeply sinister about the Republicans' behavior. They appear intent on extinguishing perhaps the most fundamental ingredient of a self-governing republic, namely, the concept of truth.

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The New York Times

Breaking News: President Trump said he wanted to keep aid to Ukraine frozen until its officials helped him with investigations into Democrats, John Bolton wrote in an unpublished manuscript of a new book

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1221571042159878146

-----

5 Takeaways on Trump and Ukraine From John Bolton’s Book

New revelations from the former White House national security adviser could complicate President Trump’s impeachment trial.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/us/politics/john-bolton-trump-book-takeaways.html

WASHINGTON - President Trump directly tied the withholding of almost $400 million in American security aid to investigations that he sought from Ukrainian officials, according to an unpublished manuscript of a book that John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump's former national security advisor, wrote about his time in the White House.

The firsthand account of the link between the aid and investigations, which is based on meetings and conversations Mr. Bolton had with Mr. Trump, undercuts a key component of the president's impeachment defense: that the decision to freeze the aid was independent from his requests that Ukraine announce politically motivated investigations into former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter.

In their opening arguments on Saturday in Mr. Trump's trial, the president's lawyers asserted that Mr. Trump had legitimate concerns about corruption in Ukraine and whether other countries were offering enough help for its war against Russian-backed separatists, which his lawyers said explained his reluctance to release the aid. They also said that Democrats had no direct evidence of the quit pro quo the allege at the heart of their impeachment case.