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1Limelite
Sorry, kids. Unable to live blog this week. Real Life has other plans.
I've read the transcripts of today's witnesses and find that, so far, the hearings usually amplify those and now and then produce a bombshell. Today's bombshell is that one of the witnesses IS a top aide to the VICE-President. Yet, Trump accuses her of being a "Never-Trumper." I think we see that if she wasn't before, she probably is now.
The other witness's family fled the Soviet Union and he hardly will be an unreliable credible witness considering his lifetime service to the country absent any Flynn like scandals and betrayals associated with his career.
Both witnesses will testify that the "transcript" of the infamous July 25th call FAILED to mention "Burisma," that both these witnesseswill attest to having personally heard. First-person accounts.
So, I'll leave everyone to do what Trump himself trumpets, "Read the (real) transcripts!" He could hardly do a better job of self-impeaching than he's done and continues to do.
Have an informed week, all.
I've read the transcripts of today's witnesses and find that, so far, the hearings usually amplify those and now and then produce a bombshell. Today's bombshell is that one of the witnesses IS a top aide to the VICE-President. Yet, Trump accuses her of being a "Never-Trumper." I think we see that if she wasn't before, she probably is now.
The other witness's family fled the Soviet Union and he hardly will be an unreliable credible witness considering his lifetime service to the country absent any Flynn like scandals and betrayals associated with his career.
Both witnesses will testify that the "transcript" of the infamous July 25th call FAILED to mention "Burisma," that both these witnesseswill attest to having personally heard. First-person accounts.
So, I'll leave everyone to do what Trump himself trumpets, "Read the (real) transcripts!" He could hardly do a better job of self-impeaching than he's done and continues to do.
Have an informed week, all.
2margd
We Read All 3,504 Pages of Ukraine Testimony So You Don’t Have To
Margaret Taylor | Monday, November 11, 2019
... Amb. Marie Yovanovitch
Michael McKinley
Amb. Kurt Volker
Amb. Gordon Sondland
George Kent
Amb. William Taylor
Fiona Hill
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman
Catherine Croft
Christopher Anderson
Laura Cooper
Tim Morrison
We will add more summaries as they are available....
https://www.lawfareblog.com/we-read-all-3504-pages-ukraine-testimony-so-you-dont...
_______________________________________________________
Attacking witnesses is Trump’s core defense strategy in fighting impeachment
Elise Viebeck and Isaac Stanley-Becker | November 18, 2019
Eight weeks into the House impeachment inquiry, President Trump and many of his allies have seized on a core defense strategy by attacking career public servants who are testifying as witnesses in the probe and spreading disinformation about their motives as “unelected bureaucrats.”
...Monday...Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) laid out criticisms against Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council official who is poised to give key public testimony Tuesday. Johnson wrote without evidence that Vindman may be a member of a rebellious “deep state” that “never accepted President Trump as legitimate” and is working in secret to end his presidency.
“I believe a significant number of bureaucrats . . . resent Trump’s unorthodox style and his intrusion on their ‘turf,’ ” Johnson wrote to the top Republicans on the House Oversight and Intelligence committees. “They react by leaking to the press and participating in the ongoing effort to sabotage his policies and, if possible, remove him from office. It is entirely possible that Vindman fits this profile.”...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/attacking-witnesses-is-trumps-core-defen...
_______________________________________________________
Ben Pershing @benpershing | 5:42 AM · Nov 19, 2019
The U.S. Army is monitoring Vindman’s security and is prepared to move him and his family
to a local military base if necessary following his impeachment testimony.
https://wsj.com/articles/impeachment-witnesses-set-to-testify-on-concerns-about-...
Image ( https://twitter.com/benpershing/status/1196740476352770049 )
Richard Engel @RichardEngel | 9:52 AM · Nov 19, 2019
Seems telling about the state of America now that LTC Vindman, a purple heart vet whose hands and papers were shaking nervously, wanted to reassure his father not to worry, that he'll be "fine for telling the truth."
David Axelrod @davidaxelrod | 10:07 AM · Nov 19, 2019
Again, one of the things that is so impressive about this process is the character of these career public servants, testifying earnestly, at risk to their own careers.
Laurence Tribe @tribelaw | 11:35 AM · Nov 19, 2019
GOP counsel Castor’s shameful hints that Lt. Col. Vinman might have dual loyalty (margd: he was offered defense portfolio by Ukraine? speaks the language? ) was, as @NicolleDWallace and @mayawiley said, reprehensible and craven. Just watch GOP members try to slime this patriotic military hero after the brief recess.
Joyce Alene @JoyceWhiteVance | 11:46 AM · Nov 19, 2019
Jim Jordan accuses Lt. Colonel Vindman of being a leaker. Vindman reads his last evaluation from Dr. Hill, who calls him a top 1% military officer. Vindman looks Jordan in the eye and says he never has & never would leak. Jordan seems to back off, at least for now.
Carol Leonnig @CarolLeonnig | 11:48 AM · Nov 19, 2019
@Jim_Jordan
Jordan just dropped his line of questioning about Fiona Hill having concerns about Lt. Col. Vindman's judgment -- when Vindman read aloud from his performance review from Fiona Hill saying he was best Army officer she worked with in 18 years and had stellar judgment.
Laurence Tribe @tribelaw | 11:55 AM · Nov 19, 2019
The blatant efforts by Nunes, Jordan, etc to out the whistleblower are disgraceful and dangerous as well as gratuitous: the whistleblower’s identity has ZERO relevance to the impeachment inquiry. Exposing that identity could be lethal to this whistleblower and could deter others
David Frum @davidfrum | 11:57 AM · Nov 19, 2019 (margd: re failure to use term "bribery", I think)
"You testified you saw the accused steal a car?"
"Yes."
"Yet you never used the word larceny in all your pages of sworn testimony!"
Scott Dworkin @funder 12:01 PM · Nov 19, 2019
Rep Himes: Are you a never-Trumper?
Lt Col Vindman: I’d call myself never partisan.
Margaret Taylor | Monday, November 11, 2019
... Amb. Marie Yovanovitch
Michael McKinley
Amb. Kurt Volker
Amb. Gordon Sondland
George Kent
Amb. William Taylor
Fiona Hill
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman
Catherine Croft
Christopher Anderson
Laura Cooper
Tim Morrison
We will add more summaries as they are available....
https://www.lawfareblog.com/we-read-all-3504-pages-ukraine-testimony-so-you-dont...
_______________________________________________________
Attacking witnesses is Trump’s core defense strategy in fighting impeachment
Elise Viebeck and Isaac Stanley-Becker | November 18, 2019
Eight weeks into the House impeachment inquiry, President Trump and many of his allies have seized on a core defense strategy by attacking career public servants who are testifying as witnesses in the probe and spreading disinformation about their motives as “unelected bureaucrats.”
...Monday...Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) laid out criticisms against Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council official who is poised to give key public testimony Tuesday. Johnson wrote without evidence that Vindman may be a member of a rebellious “deep state” that “never accepted President Trump as legitimate” and is working in secret to end his presidency.
“I believe a significant number of bureaucrats . . . resent Trump’s unorthodox style and his intrusion on their ‘turf,’ ” Johnson wrote to the top Republicans on the House Oversight and Intelligence committees. “They react by leaking to the press and participating in the ongoing effort to sabotage his policies and, if possible, remove him from office. It is entirely possible that Vindman fits this profile.”...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/attacking-witnesses-is-trumps-core-defen...
_______________________________________________________
Ben Pershing @benpershing | 5:42 AM · Nov 19, 2019
The U.S. Army is monitoring Vindman’s security and is prepared to move him and his family
to a local military base if necessary following his impeachment testimony.
https://wsj.com/articles/impeachment-witnesses-set-to-testify-on-concerns-about-...
Image ( https://twitter.com/benpershing/status/1196740476352770049 )
Richard Engel @RichardEngel | 9:52 AM · Nov 19, 2019
Seems telling about the state of America now that LTC Vindman, a purple heart vet whose hands and papers were shaking nervously, wanted to reassure his father not to worry, that he'll be "fine for telling the truth."
David Axelrod @davidaxelrod | 10:07 AM · Nov 19, 2019
Again, one of the things that is so impressive about this process is the character of these career public servants, testifying earnestly, at risk to their own careers.
Laurence Tribe @tribelaw | 11:35 AM · Nov 19, 2019
GOP counsel Castor’s shameful hints that Lt. Col. Vinman might have dual loyalty (margd: he was offered defense portfolio by Ukraine? speaks the language? ) was, as @NicolleDWallace and @mayawiley said, reprehensible and craven. Just watch GOP members try to slime this patriotic military hero after the brief recess.
Joyce Alene @JoyceWhiteVance | 11:46 AM · Nov 19, 2019
Jim Jordan accuses Lt. Colonel Vindman of being a leaker. Vindman reads his last evaluation from Dr. Hill, who calls him a top 1% military officer. Vindman looks Jordan in the eye and says he never has & never would leak. Jordan seems to back off, at least for now.
Carol Leonnig @CarolLeonnig | 11:48 AM · Nov 19, 2019
@Jim_Jordan
Jordan just dropped his line of questioning about Fiona Hill having concerns about Lt. Col. Vindman's judgment -- when Vindman read aloud from his performance review from Fiona Hill saying he was best Army officer she worked with in 18 years and had stellar judgment.
Laurence Tribe @tribelaw | 11:55 AM · Nov 19, 2019
The blatant efforts by Nunes, Jordan, etc to out the whistleblower are disgraceful and dangerous as well as gratuitous: the whistleblower’s identity has ZERO relevance to the impeachment inquiry. Exposing that identity could be lethal to this whistleblower and could deter others
David Frum @davidfrum | 11:57 AM · Nov 19, 2019 (margd: re failure to use term "bribery", I think)
"You testified you saw the accused steal a car?"
"Yes."
"Yet you never used the word larceny in all your pages of sworn testimony!"
Scott Dworkin @funder 12:01 PM · Nov 19, 2019
Rep Himes: Are you a never-Trumper?
Lt Col Vindman: I’d call myself never partisan.
3Limelite
Checking in briefly.
Thank-you >2 margd: for posting links to help keep us informed.
QUOTE OF THE DAY from https://www.rawstory.com/2019/11/audience-breaks-into-applause-as-vindman-explai...
After Rep. Maloney D-NY requested Lt. Col. re-read direct address to his father portion from his opening statement, the congressman asks,
Thank-you >2 margd: for posting links to help keep us informed.
QUOTE OF THE DAY from https://www.rawstory.com/2019/11/audience-breaks-into-applause-as-vindman-explai...
After Rep. Maloney D-NY requested Lt. Col. re-read direct address to his father portion from his opening statement, the congressman asks,
“I’m struck by the word, that phrase, ‘do not worry,’ you addressed to your dad,” the lawmaker said. “Was your dad a warrior?”
“He deeply worried about it,” Vindman said. “In his context, there was — there was the ultimate risk.”
Maloney asked why the lieutenant colonel felt confident enough to assure his father.
“Congressman, because this is America,” Vindman said. “This is the country I have served and defended, that all of my brothers have served and here, (beat) right (beat) matters.”
Maloney thanked him, and the crowd broke into about seven seconds of applause.
5Limelite
Time for another check-in.
So, OK, it hasn't occurred to me until today but ask yourself this. . .
Why would Republicans who have backed Trump to the point of becoming the Praetorian Guard of this president want to continue to support a leader who withheld lethal foreign aid to Ukraine because the country was, according to him, riddled with corruption but want that country to undertake investigations into so-called corruption of Joe and Hunter Biden?
How does that make sense to Trump and his cultists? Ukrainian government too corrupt to receive best weapons against Russian tanks but clean and straight enough government to investigate his personal political foes. Is that an arm of the philosophy of "set a thief to catch a thief," or is it the logical full stop I think it is?
So, OK, it hasn't occurred to me until today but ask yourself this. . .
Why would Republicans who have backed Trump to the point of becoming the Praetorian Guard of this president want to continue to support a leader who withheld lethal foreign aid to Ukraine because the country was, according to him, riddled with corruption but want that country to undertake investigations into so-called corruption of Joe and Hunter Biden?
How does that make sense to Trump and his cultists? Ukrainian government too corrupt to receive best weapons against Russian tanks but clean and straight enough government to investigate his personal political foes. Is that an arm of the philosophy of "set a thief to catch a thief," or is it the logical full stop I think it is?
6John5918
>5 Limelite:
I think this type of identity politics abandoned any semblance of critical thinking, rational analysis and even plain common sense long ago!
I think this type of identity politics abandoned any semblance of critical thinking, rational analysis and even plain common sense long ago!
7John5918
Whistleblower's lawyer calls out 'lying' Republican in Trump impeachment hearing: 'You ignore the facts' (Independent)
One of the lawyers for the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the impeachment process against Donald Trump has accused a leading Republican politician of lying during a hearing.
Andrew P Bakaj took exception to claims by GOP congressman Jim Jordan, one of the president's most loyal allies, for claiming the anonymous official had had inappropriate communications with Democrats...
One of the lawyers for the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the impeachment process against Donald Trump has accused a leading Republican politician of lying during a hearing.
Andrew P Bakaj took exception to claims by GOP congressman Jim Jordan, one of the president's most loyal allies, for claiming the anonymous official had had inappropriate communications with Democrats...
8margd
#2 contd. (witness intimidation...Vindman...)
Vindman’s Lawyer Asks Fox News to Retract Espionage Allegation
Danny Hakim | Nov. 20, 2019
...A lawyer for (Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman), the National Security Council’s Ukraine expert, sent a warning letter to Fox News on Wednesday seeking a retraction or correction of an October segment hosted by one of the network’s biggest personalities, Laura Ingraham, which baselessly suggested that the colonel, a decorated Iraq war veteran, might be guilty of espionage...
...an Oct. 28 segment of “The Ingraham Angle,” a show hosted by Ms. Ingraham, featuring an exchange between her and John Yoo, who was a top lawyer in the George W. Bush administration.
...Ms. Ingraham said, “Here we have a U.S. national security official who is advising Ukraine, while working inside the White House, apparently against the president’s interest, and usually, they spoke in English. Isn’t that kind of an interesting angle on this story?”
“I found that astounding,” Mr. Yoo replied. “Some people might call that espionage.”
Espionage is a felony punishable by death...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/us/alexander-vindman-fox-news-espionage.html#...
Vindman’s Lawyer Asks Fox News to Retract Espionage Allegation
Danny Hakim | Nov. 20, 2019
...A lawyer for (Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman), the National Security Council’s Ukraine expert, sent a warning letter to Fox News on Wednesday seeking a retraction or correction of an October segment hosted by one of the network’s biggest personalities, Laura Ingraham, which baselessly suggested that the colonel, a decorated Iraq war veteran, might be guilty of espionage...
...an Oct. 28 segment of “The Ingraham Angle,” a show hosted by Ms. Ingraham, featuring an exchange between her and John Yoo, who was a top lawyer in the George W. Bush administration.
...Ms. Ingraham said, “Here we have a U.S. national security official who is advising Ukraine, while working inside the White House, apparently against the president’s interest, and usually, they spoke in English. Isn’t that kind of an interesting angle on this story?”
“I found that astounding,” Mr. Yoo replied. “Some people might call that espionage.”
Espionage is a felony punishable by death...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/us/alexander-vindman-fox-news-espionage.html#...
9proximity1
>5 Limelite:
LOL! That's so logical!—antiseptically so.* And when they want to, pathetic "PC" liberals can also do "subtle"reasoning: as Felicity Huffman did when she made her twisty-turny way around the morally-thorny matter of paying off an insider for his help in getting one or more of her precious little darlings into a university through a SAT-score admissions-rigging deal which was uncovered through an F.B.I. investigation and "sting" operation, aided by the key insider suspect who'd turned this insider into an informer.
Politicians, regardless of party identification, can and do rationalize whatever they want to find a way to do. Arms sales to Israel? What? With a sixty+ year history of that country's brutalization of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank of the Jordan river? Yep. We (i.e. “people”) do what we really want to do and we make up weird shit in excuses for it as we go along.
Now, does that mean that I think doing this is "fine"? Of course not. But it's no more acceptable or defensible when the Democrats do it than when the Republicans do it.
However, your example-case is not at all correctly drawn from its actual facts. Trump's was the first administration to consider direct lethal (other than non-defensive only) military aid to Ukraine. There had been no such aid already in the U.S.-Ukraine relationship, and so none was "cut-off" or "denied." Rather, the same administration—Trump's--which first considered and put such aid on the planning board, merely postponed its execution, which, let us keep in mind, was completely discretionary, as all such aid is. Trump's administration was under no binding obligation not to postpone this aid—he had every right and authority to postpone it for any reason which he saw fit or even cancel it altogether, had he deemed that necessary & proper.
The Hunter Biden matter, on the other hand, is a right proper scandal. Did someone say bribery!? Fucking “please!”. $50 grand-a-month sinecure for this son of Vice-president Biden's professional consulting in a business about which he was a virtual know-nothing. That's a neon sign blinking “Scandal!”; and did anyone at the time in the Obama administration much care? Well, a few were “worried about it—as Felicity Huffman would have worried, “What if this gets out?”
There has been absolutely nothing about the U.S.-Ukraine political relationship during Trump's tenure which is in the slightest way different from the ordinary course of such relationships with any number of nation-states over the past fifty to one hundred years. Nothing. This whole affair is cooked up angst because people are determined to “get” Trump no matter the cost or consequences. That's why this is so insane and so utterly hypocritical. But it's fantastically lucrative for mass-news-media click-bait-driven earnings.
___________________________
* "antisceptically so"...
That is, it's a "sterile" logic, uncontaminated by what's known as "the real world". In the surgery's operating block, everything is supposed to be germ-free, as close to sterile as possible in order that the patient on the operating table not be tainted with these germs. But, outside such a special environment, we need a living-environment; that entails germs, bacteria, etc.
In a completely sterile environment, living things would die.
_______________________________________
Other related reading:
report: Hunter Biden's business pals get more than 100m USD in governent bail-put loans (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/hunter-biden-linked-company-received-130m-in-special-federal-loans-while-joe-biden-was-vp)
Popularity polls:
Trump's popularity (viewed "favorable" or "unfavorable") as measured in polling is better than that of Nancy Pelosi, Charles Schumer or Mitch McConnell. (https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/trump_favorableunfavorable-5493.html)
"Why would Republicans who have backed Trump to the point of becoming the Praetorian Guard of this president want to continue to support a leader who withheld lethal foreign aid to Ukraine because the country was, according to him, riddled with corruption but want that country to undertake investigations into so-called corruption of Joe and Hunter Biden? "
LOL! That's so logical!—antiseptically so.* And when they want to, pathetic "PC" liberals can also do "subtle"reasoning: as Felicity Huffman did when she made her twisty-turny way around the morally-thorny matter of paying off an insider for his help in getting one or more of her precious little darlings into a university through a SAT-score admissions-rigging deal which was uncovered through an F.B.I. investigation and "sting" operation, aided by the key insider suspect who'd turned this insider into an informer.
Politicians, regardless of party identification, can and do rationalize whatever they want to find a way to do. Arms sales to Israel? What? With a sixty+ year history of that country's brutalization of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank of the Jordan river? Yep. We (i.e. “people”) do what we really want to do and we make up weird shit in excuses for it as we go along.
Now, does that mean that I think doing this is "fine"? Of course not. But it's no more acceptable or defensible when the Democrats do it than when the Republicans do it.
However, your example-case is not at all correctly drawn from its actual facts. Trump's was the first administration to consider direct lethal (other than non-defensive only) military aid to Ukraine. There had been no such aid already in the U.S.-Ukraine relationship, and so none was "cut-off" or "denied." Rather, the same administration—Trump's--which first considered and put such aid on the planning board, merely postponed its execution, which, let us keep in mind, was completely discretionary, as all such aid is. Trump's administration was under no binding obligation not to postpone this aid—he had every right and authority to postpone it for any reason which he saw fit or even cancel it altogether, had he deemed that necessary & proper.
The Hunter Biden matter, on the other hand, is a right proper scandal. Did someone say bribery!? Fucking “please!”. $50 grand-a-month sinecure for this son of Vice-president Biden's professional consulting in a business about which he was a virtual know-nothing. That's a neon sign blinking “Scandal!”; and did anyone at the time in the Obama administration much care? Well, a few were “worried about it—as Felicity Huffman would have worried, “What if this gets out?”
There has been absolutely nothing about the U.S.-Ukraine political relationship during Trump's tenure which is in the slightest way different from the ordinary course of such relationships with any number of nation-states over the past fifty to one hundred years. Nothing. This whole affair is cooked up angst because people are determined to “get” Trump no matter the cost or consequences. That's why this is so insane and so utterly hypocritical. But it's fantastically lucrative for mass-news-media click-bait-driven earnings.
___________________________
* "antisceptically so"...
That is, it's a "sterile" logic, uncontaminated by what's known as "the real world". In the surgery's operating block, everything is supposed to be germ-free, as close to sterile as possible in order that the patient on the operating table not be tainted with these germs. But, outside such a special environment, we need a living-environment; that entails germs, bacteria, etc.
In a completely sterile environment, living things would die.
_______________________________________
Other related reading:
report: Hunter Biden's business pals get more than 100m USD in governent bail-put loans (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/hunter-biden-linked-company-received-130m-in-special-federal-loans-while-joe-biden-was-vp)
Popularity polls:
Trump's popularity (viewed "favorable" or "unfavorable") as measured in polling is better than that of Nancy Pelosi, Charles Schumer or Mitch McConnell. (https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/trump_favorableunfavorable-5493.html)
10Limelite
>9 proximity1:
So you're OK with a president who claims he's interested in fighting corruption, but his only act is to promulgate corruption in Ukraine.
Great! Now I am clear that you have no regard for substance and credibility in anyone's character, but have every enthusiasm for circuses, legerdemain, and deception. Only appearances -- Wizard of Oz like -- count with you. Just don't pull back the curtain and reveal the truth.
So you're OK with a president who claims he's interested in fighting corruption, but his only act is to promulgate corruption in Ukraine.
Great! Now I am clear that you have no regard for substance and credibility in anyone's character, but have every enthusiasm for circuses, legerdemain, and deception. Only appearances -- Wizard of Oz like -- count with you. Just don't pull back the curtain and reveal the truth.
