The whistleblower / Ukraine-intrigue situation - initial thoughts

I'm writing this before I've checked out what is sure to be a barrage of observations and commentary out there.

But the basics are that

• Trump seems to have told Ukranian president Zelensky that he could count on $250 million in military aid to fight pro-Russia separatist rebels if Zelensky's government would look into the matter of Hunter Biden serving on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company.
•  At the time Hunter Biden was appointed to that board, then-vice president Joe Biden was, in his official capacity, trying to steer Ukraine away from dependence on Russian energy
• Hunter Biden's personal life is pretty messy. He's had a cocaine problem. He left his wife to dally with his late brother's widow. They split and now he's married again. He has been named as a customer of Ashley Madison, the cheating website.
• A member of the intelligence community has filed a complaint with the community's inspector general saying that Trump made some kind of promise to a foreign leader that was out of line. At this point, it looks like the promise may have been the assurance to Zelensky, but that's not been determined for certain.
• Adam Schiff says the acting director of national intelligence is keeping his committee, the House Intelligence Committee, from seeing the complaint.

As I say, I have only checked out two news stories and one opinion-site piece on all this so far. I just wanted to get the basics on the table before my mind got pulled every which way by the inevitable avalanche of hot takes and desperate attempts at turf protection.

Given Trump's style of dealing with foreign leaders - dangling the carrot of an economically robust North Korea in good international standing before Kim Jong-un, as if that were a high priority for Kim, and his back-and-forth way of dealing with Chinese president Xi, saying they have a good relationship and then turning around and saying he's really going to squeeze China with more tariffs - it seems quite feasible that he told Zelensky a better US-Ukraine relationship was possible if Zelensky would launch this investigation.

But the Leftists and the Trumpists are both going to be insufferable over this. The Leftists will be in full gotcha mode. The Trumpists will probably, after attempts to spin it start looking pretty feeble,  turn to an argument along the lines of "Do you really think any of these radical wackos is a viable alternative?", and on that they'll actually be on quite solid ground.

That's the snapshot of the present moment. LITD has no position, for two main reasons: there is much yet to learn, and everyone running for president in both major parties is unfit for the office anyway.