crickets
crickets's JournalWho are these toddlers who can't deal with a few reasonable rules?
People, no one is taking your guns away. Well, unless you're an assault weapons fan, in which case you get no sympathy: there's a real "get over it" moment. Can't pass a background check? Too bad. Even Trump advocated for red flag laws (shocking, I know) until the NRA bullied him into dropping the issue.
Frankly, most gun regulations don't go far enough. It wouldn't be a bad idea to make gun licenses similar to a driver's license. At the very least, everyone should have to pass a vision test and a written test on gun safety before being able to own one.
The overreaction to any sort of adult supervision regarding gun ownership is so tiresome. To have law enforcement joining in with this nonsense is just unreal.
The dam of obfuscation has sprung a leak, finally.
This may be the beginning of the flood exposing that the Republicans have been bought by Russian rubles. Just in time. Fingers crossed.
It's a deliberate conflation of loyalty to country and respect for the office of the Presidency
with loyalty to party and affinity for the specific person holding the office.
Career public servants are nonpartisan and not appointed. They serve through successive presidential terms without regard to party. It is part of their strength in serving the country overall, as has been shown in the impeachment hearings. This sounds like it was a direct attack on that.
It's disgusting and Lindsey Graham knows better.
One thing he did get right, and it's interesting he did this:
Lindsey pointed out that it was Russia and not Ukraine who interfered with the 2016 elections, Russia and not Ukraine who hacked the DNC emails. I wonder why he would make a point of saying that.
Of course, he failed to mention the RNC emails were hacked at the same time.
Escobar calls out authoritarian behavior in BIG way.
"The continuing pattern of behavior we have seen from this president should be a warning to the American people. It is a beginning of a dictatorship, which I have seen in Latin America. I have witnessed men in office abuse the power, inviting foreign interference and also obstructing any checks on their power. :gavel in bg: The Constitution :holds up copy: has no partisan allegiance. We cannot allow this behavior from this president :gavel continues: or any future president. :more gavel: Our democracy depends on it."
Wow. That was powerful. If you didn't see or hear it in real time, find a video clip. 
Stanton pushing back against all of the process complaints Minority has made
- the rules have been around for prior hearings (e.g. Benghazi) and are not new
- equal time given to both Minority and Majority for all procedures
- good reasons for closed sessions before the open hearings (keeping witnesses from coordinating their stories)
- president has not been shut out of participation - he's refused to participate or provide any documents
- witnesses have been blocked from testifying and/or been refused documents needed for testimony = attempted coverup to keep the people from learning the truth.
Good job!
The fact that he had to is disgraceful.
But I love how Neguse asks each one the same question in turn and makes Castro agree each time - Castro's only alternative being to lie outright. Fantastic work.
"I recognize myself for five minutes."
Glorious! Nadler has been so-so in disciplining the Repubs. Scanlon is just not even having it, just moving right on without even entertaining the BS. I love it!
That was the best quiet bomblet of the day. 
You got it. Only the bottom of the barrel for our man Rudy!
The media should be pointing this out every. single. time. the name Biden comes up in this context.
There is no bar too low for Rudy G.
There is no bottom of the barrel. Read the Wapo article if you can get past the paywall. It's a goodie.
Unlike a lot of the other articles found when searching on 'Rudy Giuliani Andriy Derkach,' WaPo isn't glibly labeling Derkach as a 'Ukraine lawmaker' while soft pedaling his KGB connections and making his claims and Giuliani's activities sound normal.
For instance, if this is what most people are reading, they are definitely missing the real story:
Ukrainian tells of Giuliani meeting in Kyiv 
Reuters does better than a regurgitation of mushy talking points, and adds some additional interesting tidbits:
Ukraine lawmaker met Giuliani to discuss misuse of U.S. taxpayer money in Ukraine
In the same Facebook post, Derkach also said that he and a lawmaker from Zelenskiy’s party had invited several senior figures in Washington to help form the interparliamentary group on corruption.
These included Republican Representative Devin Nunes, White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
The U.S. embassy was not immediately available for comment.
Giuliani’s trip coincided with an apparently unconnected visit to Kiev by Philip Reeker, the acting U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.
Crooks and Liars gets right to the point:
Whose Payroll Is Rudy Giuliani On In Ukraine?
"Nominally he's representing the President of the United States, and he's going there to collect reporting for this counter narrative that they've tried to spread about Joe Biden, about Ukrainian influence in the election," Foer said.
"But the people that he's meeting with in Ukraine on the ground are representatives of oligarchs," he told Lawrence. "They're some of the more shady politicians in the country."
The Independent mostly agrees with C&L and gives yet more context to how idiotic this junket is:
Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani continues mysterious Ukraine adventures
On Monday, Paris will play host to what many bill as an historical four-way summit between Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany.
Five years into a bloody war that has killed over 13,000, Mr Zelensky is desperate to talk up peace. But it will be his first face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin and not everyone is convinced he can achieve a breakthrough.
Given the delicate circumstances, it is unclear why Mr Trump sent such an odd message four days before the meeting.
“No one was expecting his messenger here,” the independent expert Volodymyr Fesenko said.
“But it likely won’t make much of a difference. Zelensky is too busy with other things right now than to deal with Trump and Giuiliani's games.”
Sorry to go on and on, but I am furious that Rudy is free to blunder overseas with no regard to how his actions affect Ukraine or US-Ukraine relations (FARA, anyone?) much less how obvious it is that he is fabricating a tissue of lies to interfere in yet another election. With few exceptions, US media is doing a piss poor job of actually covering this story. Wapo is one of the news outlets at least bothering to try, so thanks for posting this, mia.
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