Impeachment? YES. But I'm still pissed off.

Nancy Pelosi, thank God, has finally come around on the issue of opening an impeachment inquiry. But she blew it. In her announcement, she seemed to restrict the inquiry to the Ukraine question.

NO NO NO NO NO!

We need to include everything. We need to embrace the Mueller report -- and not just the section on obstruction. We need to talk about collusion. We need to combat the perception that Trump was exonerated. To cite but one example: There's no innocent explanation for the fact that Manafort shared polling data with a Russian intelligence officer. Most Americans still don't know about that -- and as a result of this seemingly-invincible ignorance, Trump's "witch hunt" narrative has taken hold with far too many people.

And obviously, we need to explore Trump's numerous violations of the emoluments clause. We need to explore whether those violations amount to bribery. We need to expose the way his inauguration committee turned into a racket. I would go so far to say that the incessant lies told by this antipresident should be classified as "high crimes and misdemeanors" -- a term which encompasses far more than statutory crimes. We need to talk about the character assassination of the women who accused him of sexual misdeeds. We need to talk about the payoffs to Stormy Daniels and Karen MacDougal -- and we need to look at any and all other possible violations of campaign laws.

Right now, the talking heads on TV are asking why Nancy Pelosi made this decision before we see the transcript of Trump's chat with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. She blew an important opportunity to inform the nation that any such transcript will almost certainly be doctored.

Michael McFaul has it precisely right:

Members of the press, stop asking for the release of this (meaningless) transcript of a call ! Complete distraction. KEEP asking for the release of the whistleblower's complaint to the U.S. Congress.

I am positive that this transcript will be good for Trump. Any such text cannot be trusted. We need the actual recording, and we need the finest experts to examine the recording for signs of editing.

You know what sickens me? Right now, the Trumpers are arguing against the veracity of the ledger proving Manafort's guilt in Ukraine. That piece of documentary evidence is now considered dubious, even though it was examined by experts during the course of a legal proceeding -- a proceeding in which Paul Manafort had access to the best representation money can buy. Yet if someone like me says that the Trump/Zelensky transcript could be edited or modified, most people would snicker at me and call me a conspiracy theorist.

It does not matter if Zelensky "verifies" the fake transcript which Trump will soon release. Zelensky is corrupt as hell. Trump controls Zelensky because Trump (and perhaps Putin?) has established control over Ihor Kolomoisky.

I beg you to read the piece I wrote yesterday on the Ihor Kolomoisky, the oligarch who put Zelensky into office. Kolomoisky has been likened to a James Bond supervillain. He's utterly ruthless: If Zelensky does not do precisely as instructed by his boss, he could end up dead.

That's not hyperbole. Consider the assassination attempt on Valeria Gontareva, who was, in essence, the Ukrainian equivalent of our Federal Reserve Chair. She had exposed a massive financial crime committed by Kolomoisky. As a result, she was threatened, run out of the country, nearly killed, and her house was burned down.

And Zelensky did nothing about any of that. Kolomoisky could not have gotten away with it if he did not have Zelensky under his thumb.

Zelensky is the puppet. Kolomoisky is the puppeteer.

Suppose we were to get the real words exchanged between Trump and Zelensky, and suppose those words tend to exonerate Trump. What of it? Zelensky does not matter. Again: He is a puppet. The real power lies with Kolomoisky. We need to find out which Trump associate has been in contact with Ihor Kolomoisky.

As noted in the previous post, the FBI has been after Kolomoisky for money laundering and other possible crimes. I'm pretty damned sure that they found something. The FBI does not go on fishing expeditions -- not with a guy like that. But I'm also pretty damned sure that Bill Barr won't mount a prosecution if Kolomoisky helps Trump.

This administration can thus exercise some measure of control over Kolomoisky. The FBI investigation provides the stick -- and I suspect that Putin may be providing a few carrots. Control of Kolomoisky translates to control over Zelensky, and thus control over the entire national security apparatus of Ukraine.

Keep that fact in mind when Zelensky's government produces "evidence" against Biden. Keep that fact in mind when Zelensky's government tries to exonerate Paul Manafort.

This situation is so damned frustrating. Ihor Kolomoisky is the key to this whole scandal and nobody is talking about him!