- 527
- Posts
- 6
- Years
- Age 34
- Texas
- Seen May 13, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRTq2E8hXug
https://www.wweek.com/news/2019/10/13/provenance-hotels-files-ethics-complaint-against-rep-earl-blumenauer-over-his-call-for-boycott/
https://www.wweek.com/news/2019/11/20/congressman-earl-blumenauer-tweets-gordon-sondland-welcome-to-the-resistance/
I won't go into many details as the above links should suffice. The reason we are hearing about someone named Gordon Sondland is because he serves as the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union (as in, he personally interacts US's interests and concerns with the EU), appointed by President Trump in 2018, and yesterday testified in the impeachment hearings about the actions Trump made with Ukraine. Many news outlets are saying that Sondland provided "explosive" testimony about the event. After the hearings, Sondland has also testified that he has received threats against his businesses and family, and talks about even now, "demonstrations" taking place in front of his businesses.
I am not going to talk about his testimony, as I will let people draw their own conclusions on it, but instead want to focus on an event that led to Sondland testifying, and said event being why I have a sharp negative view on the left. According to some articles I read, which I linked some of them at the top of the post, Sondland was apparently "bullied" to testify on impeachment hearings in October by someone named Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat representative from Oregon. The person called for a boycott of Sondland's Provenance Hotels until Sondland testified. The issue is that this call was made at a time when Sondland was not actually working at his chain of hotels, but instead working for Trump. One of the arguments made against Blumenauer is that this is seeking retaliation against a government official, which is argued that this is a violation of the ethics set by the House.
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My take on these events is that, I have not read up to see what happened with the ethics report, but I do not really need to know since this is not the only thing going on with Sondland. According to Sondland's own testimony, people have threatened Sondland and his family in regards to the knowledge he may have regarding the Ukraine controversy (I use the words may have since this has been going on prior to his testimony, so I am simply using proper English in regards to time). I have been reading on past "threats" to many political and governmental individuals for a few years now, and I personally have not heard of any such things from people on the right (maybe except the bomb situation from a while ago around Dallas, but that is the only one I can recall). Any protests and demonstrations I have heard about have always come from the left, and Sondland's situation is no exception. It just seems to me that people on the left will resort to any method, even underhanded or possibly illegal methods, in order to force someone to do what they want. I find this to be repulsive, and I have not been able to keep an open mind on Democrats and their followers since hearing about many of the tactics they have used to bully supporters of Trump. Heck, something that happened in Texas really infuriated me.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/06/politics/joaquin-castro-trump-donor-names/index.html
The fact you can look up donors yourself is not the point. Castro had the audacity to publicly name organizations that donated to Trump's campaign and to do so in a way to attempt to call them out in order to try to paint them as "Hispanic haters".
I find it very hard to try to keep a neutral mindset on news because of the stuff outlined above, so if it seems like I'm not really agreeing with a lot of people, these recent events are the reason. I support people for speaking their own opinions, and that will not stop, but I encourage others to do the same when people from the "right" speak as well. If people were more willing to listen to the other side (and I am not referring to you guys, I mean the public in general), then I would have no problems considering what the other side has to say. I used to hold that view, and I wish I could bring that view back. Nowdays, I feel I am in the minority and sometimes hold off on commenting on things here on PC just because I feel I will get challenged just because I disagree with what other people are saying.
For the above reasons, I will probably refrain from posting on Off-Topic again while the impeachment hearings continue, but I felt I needed to say why I have the viewpoints I have. Asking for proof is fine, but I feel like the attempts to "shut off" any comments or concerns from some groups also affect my willingness to post here on PC. I am even a little hesitant on posting this thread for these reasons, but I felt I needed to see where people stand on the idea of being open to other people's opinions, which most of this post was. I am not trying to get people to change their viewpoint, but rather address why I have the viewpoint I have.
Even if you did not read most of this thread, I thank you for your time. I would be fine if you wanted to comment on anything I said, or even post about your own viewpoint. We are to have an open mind when having a serious discussion, after all.
https://www.wweek.com/news/2019/10/13/provenance-hotels-files-ethics-complaint-against-rep-earl-blumenauer-over-his-call-for-boycott/
https://www.wweek.com/news/2019/11/20/congressman-earl-blumenauer-tweets-gordon-sondland-welcome-to-the-resistance/
I won't go into many details as the above links should suffice. The reason we are hearing about someone named Gordon Sondland is because he serves as the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union (as in, he personally interacts US's interests and concerns with the EU), appointed by President Trump in 2018, and yesterday testified in the impeachment hearings about the actions Trump made with Ukraine. Many news outlets are saying that Sondland provided "explosive" testimony about the event. After the hearings, Sondland has also testified that he has received threats against his businesses and family, and talks about even now, "demonstrations" taking place in front of his businesses.
I am not going to talk about his testimony, as I will let people draw their own conclusions on it, but instead want to focus on an event that led to Sondland testifying, and said event being why I have a sharp negative view on the left. According to some articles I read, which I linked some of them at the top of the post, Sondland was apparently "bullied" to testify on impeachment hearings in October by someone named Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat representative from Oregon. The person called for a boycott of Sondland's Provenance Hotels until Sondland testified. The issue is that this call was made at a time when Sondland was not actually working at his chain of hotels, but instead working for Trump. One of the arguments made against Blumenauer is that this is seeking retaliation against a government official, which is argued that this is a violation of the ethics set by the House.
-----------------------------------------------------
My take on these events is that, I have not read up to see what happened with the ethics report, but I do not really need to know since this is not the only thing going on with Sondland. According to Sondland's own testimony, people have threatened Sondland and his family in regards to the knowledge he may have regarding the Ukraine controversy (I use the words may have since this has been going on prior to his testimony, so I am simply using proper English in regards to time). I have been reading on past "threats" to many political and governmental individuals for a few years now, and I personally have not heard of any such things from people on the right (maybe except the bomb situation from a while ago around Dallas, but that is the only one I can recall). Any protests and demonstrations I have heard about have always come from the left, and Sondland's situation is no exception. It just seems to me that people on the left will resort to any method, even underhanded or possibly illegal methods, in order to force someone to do what they want. I find this to be repulsive, and I have not been able to keep an open mind on Democrats and their followers since hearing about many of the tactics they have used to bully supporters of Trump. Heck, something that happened in Texas really infuriated me.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/06/politics/joaquin-castro-trump-donor-names/index.html
The fact you can look up donors yourself is not the point. Castro had the audacity to publicly name organizations that donated to Trump's campaign and to do so in a way to attempt to call them out in order to try to paint them as "Hispanic haters".
I find it very hard to try to keep a neutral mindset on news because of the stuff outlined above, so if it seems like I'm not really agreeing with a lot of people, these recent events are the reason. I support people for speaking their own opinions, and that will not stop, but I encourage others to do the same when people from the "right" speak as well. If people were more willing to listen to the other side (and I am not referring to you guys, I mean the public in general), then I would have no problems considering what the other side has to say. I used to hold that view, and I wish I could bring that view back. Nowdays, I feel I am in the minority and sometimes hold off on commenting on things here on PC just because I feel I will get challenged just because I disagree with what other people are saying.
For the above reasons, I will probably refrain from posting on Off-Topic again while the impeachment hearings continue, but I felt I needed to say why I have the viewpoints I have. Asking for proof is fine, but I feel like the attempts to "shut off" any comments or concerns from some groups also affect my willingness to post here on PC. I am even a little hesitant on posting this thread for these reasons, but I felt I needed to see where people stand on the idea of being open to other people's opinions, which most of this post was. I am not trying to get people to change their viewpoint, but rather address why I have the viewpoint I have.
Even if you did not read most of this thread, I thank you for your time. I would be fine if you wanted to comment on anything I said, or even post about your own viewpoint. We are to have an open mind when having a serious discussion, after all.
