crickets
crickets's JournalI am so proud of Marie Yovanovitch
I don't cry easily, but a few times I have teared up and once outright bawled watching the standing ovation she received. It was a spontaneous outburst letting Congress and the world know that most of us in the US are still sane. Most of us have had more than enough of this nightmare and are relieved that the people are finally being given a platform to stand up to the criminal bully calling himself president. Our proxies: Taylor, Kent, Yovanovitch, and all of the other witnesses to come, are literally pulling our country back from the brink.
There is no way to thank someone enough for Masha's level of patriotism, but Denny Heck's passionate thank-you speech did a darn good job coming close:
https://twitter.com/CNNnewsroom/status/1195428186307190784
You are correct, but not just in Florida
https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2019/10/23/how-2-giuliani-associates-failed-to-break-into-floridas-pot-industry-1225864Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman spent months trying to invest millions of dollars in a cannabis venture seeking to buy a Florida license, only to raise red flags among industry executives who said it became clear they didn’t know what they were doing.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/marijuana-plot-parnas-fruman-giuliania-indictment-nevada
The gang allegedly planned to implement their scheme in both New York and Nevada and Correia drew up a table in September or October 2018 to estimate the amount of money they’d need to make inroads with the various state and federal political candidates. They calculated that to execute a “multi-state license strategy,” they would need between $1 and $2 million. The foreign funder wired two $500,000 deposits to a U.S. bank account controlled by Fruman and another unnamed individual, one on September 18 and one on October 16.
However, according to the indictment, the crew overlooked one small detail in their pot plot: the licensing application deadline in Nevada was back in September. By the point they started to put their plan into action, they were two months too late. The indictment alleges that they “did not timely apply for a recreational marijuana license in September 2018, the then-deadline for such applications in Nevada.”
Boy, they were busy, busy little bees. Too bad for them to be so incompetent. It might be comical if they weren't so up to their necks in making a mess in Ukraine with Rudy.
I also wonder if Bolton knew. Interesting. Too bad Bolton won't come forward to testify on his own.
His concluding questions regarding the hallmarks of authoritarisms were damning.
Is it a feature of authoritarianism:
- to allow corrupt interests to hijack foreign policy?
- to have the rulers there claim absolute rights?
- for those rulers to smear their opponents?
His point, of course, is that Trump has done all of these things. Ouch.
That was difficult to watch
going back through the acid attack, the smear campaign, and her firing. It underscored how Pompeo and the State Department failed her.
Supposedly, the record of the entire conversation has been moved
to a secure server. Whether it is still there and untampered with is a question. I don't understand why no one is hammering away at getting the entire transcript rather than the incomplete memorandum the WH released.
He made a good point about victim blaming.
She was only able to ask for support from State - and she didn't get it. She should have, but didn't. Pompeo is directly responsible for that.
Speier asks about the president having a back channel
that he is promoting that is diametrically opposed to our stated foreign policy.
Y. points out rightly that this can undercut diplomats. Important that everyone be able to speak with one voice, without involvement with financial or commercial gain. Underscores national security again. I am so glad she keeps bringing that up every chance she gets.
What a slap in the face to pretend it was a favor in the end to torpedo her ambassadorial career.
Nothing at all against a professorship at Georgetown, but honestly.
He's trying to make Obama look bad in comparison to Trump
At that time, the leadership in Ukraine was not trusted and sending them was a bad idea. We sent aid, but not javelins.
Bringing it up wasn't a great idea though, because initially Trump held them back as well, to please Putin.
Discussion here:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212675657
There's another thread about Obama and blankets comments from yesterday, but I can't find it right now.
Ken Vogel [Politico] and Alexandra Chalupa.
Here we go.
eta - none of the black ledger stuff had anything to do with her directly. He is reaching so hard to connect her to this or to make it sound like she should be in the loop in some way - good for her for pointing out that, while she'd heard of this, it's not her purview.
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