Roland99
Roland99's JournalPaul Krugman lays it out. Blue states provide massive outlays to Red states
https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1180449814032596999https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1180450709906640896
Paul Krugman
@paulkrugman
This aid creates jobs too! KY has <6K coal miners, around 250K jobs in health and social assistance. Who do you think pays for that? 3/
Defraudian Slip
https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1180354427967832064MSNBC
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@MSNBC
"Together, we will express the corruption, we will defeat the socialists, we will defraud...we will stop defrauding all of the people in our country, because they've defrauded the people in our country," President Trump says at Young Black Leadership Summit.
And the guy behind him... hehe
OMG! Trump Orders Cut to National Security Staff After Whistle-Blower
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2019-10-05/trump-orders-cut-to-national-security-staff-after-whistle-blowerSome of the people described the staff cuts as part of a White House effort to make its foreign policy arm leaner under new National Security Adviser Robert OBrien.
The request to limit the size of the NSC staff was conveyed to senior agency officials by acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and OBrien this week. The whistle-blower complaint, focused on Trumps conduct in a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has been followed by damaging reports on the presidents private conversations with other world leaders.
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Two of the people familiar with the decision to shrink the NSC insisted it was largely rooted in both the transition to OBriens leadership as well as Trumps desire to increase efficiency at the agency, which grew under former President Barack Obama. About 310 people currently work at the NSC.
Volker testimony...more devastating for the White House than even the reporting suggests.
Volker testimony and, on a close read, they are more devastating for the White House than even the reporting suggests.
Twitter thread...
https://twitter.com/HeathMayo/status/1180271979397558272
Full thread with images:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1180271979397558272.html
Lets walk through both Volkers testimony & then the corroborating texts...
First: who is Volker? Hes the former US Rep for Ukraine Negotiations & he resigned a week ago after news of the July 25 call btw Trump & Zelenskyy broke.
These are his wordsand he immediately rebukes the whole Deep State nonsense right out of the gate. No spies or treason.
He then frames the entire affair as his dogged effort to fix a problem as best he could. He also goes out of his way to highlight that *he* was focused on US national security interests. Its almost like he thinks the evidence might lead us to question that fact.
So what problem was Volker fixing? A negative narrative about Ukraine, fueled by assertions made by Lutsenko, that reached the President and impeded our ability to support Ukraine.
This is an admission that Trumps belief in conspiracies & Biden charges influenced US policy.
Then, Volker moves into CYA mode. He disavows knowledge of anything related to Bidenbut the revealed text messages suggest otherwise. Indeed, Burisma which was clearly code for Biden appears routinely throughout, as well see.
Read this! Volker clearly knows this smelled.
FinallyVolker goes to great pains to make it clear that he actively opposed withholding aid to Ukraine, along with the rest of practically the entire US national security and foreign policy apparatus.
Trump injured American interests to pressure Ukraine into doing his bidding.
The entire Giuliani section makes it clear that he & Trump were undermining the judgment of State officials on Ukraine. And Biden was all over this thing. Burisma clearly equaled investigating Biden throughout.
Oh, alsoVolker says claims against Biden are bogus.
Listen to Volkers own assessment of Trumps inability to even grasp the impact of changing circumstances in Ukraine after the election.
This is scary, folks. The President is just dense. He doesnt understand things and thinks other countries are trying to take him down.
Then, in the section of testimony about the Rudy/Yermak tango, Volker discusses negotiations over an official statement that Trump/Rudy wanted Zelenskyy to deliver re: investigating Burisma & 2016, presumably to create bad press for Biden. Rudy made repeated demands. Shameful.
Now lets move to the smoking guns: the text messages between various players in this shakedown.
These are really the nail in the coffinVolkers testimony just reinforces how bad this thing was for US interests in Ukraine & his damning feelings & guilt over what occurred.
Thankfullysome of these are so bad, we can cut right to the chase: Heres Volker advising Yermak about the quid pro quo. Zelenskyy had to convince Trump he would investigate in order to secure a meeting with Trump. This was BEFORE the call.
Quid. Quo. Its all there.
Need more evidence? Try this from Ambassador Bill Taylor who made clear thats exactly what he was gathering from the situation. Sondland who plays the role of yes-man in all thiswont put things in text.
He knows he cant memorialize the truth.
Bill Taylor doesnt give in. Hes pissed. Why? Because withholding the aid is playing right into the Russians hands.
The move was un-Americanand they knew it.
Finallythis kicker closes things out. Bill Taylor is furious that aid was withheld and progress in Ukraine stalled for help with a political campaign. Sondland unmoved. Notice, after Taylor speaks truth, Sondland takes 5 hrs to compile a legal treatise denying the suggestion.
This was just the *first* witness. This new evidence, combined w/ the July 25 call summary & the WB complaint, makes it abundantly clear that it was common knowledge for officials that a quid pro quo existed whereby Z would agree to investigate Biden for US aid & access. Period.
Fox's Chris Wallace: Kurt Volker's testimony is 'quite devastating to the president'
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/foxs-chris-wallace-kurt-volkers-testimony-is-quite-devastating-to-the-president/amp/The breaking news to me, today, is Fox has gotten ahold of the 11-page statement, opening statement by Kurt Volker yesterday in a closed session. He of course was the special envoy from the administration to Ukraine. He was very involved in all of this. This 11-page opening statement is quite devastating to the president and Rudy Giulianis case.
It basically says that Volker, who all sides agree was an honest broker in this whole thing, was very disturbed by the information he thought disinformation that various Ukrainian officials were sending to Rudy Giuliani, the presidents private lawyer, and that Rudy Giuliani was then spreading that information in Washington.
That might be a reason why the president was so reluctant to meet with [Ukrainian president] Zelensky and also to, of course, push Zelensky to investigate in that July 25th phone call both potential involvement in the 2016 election by the Ukrainians and also Joe Biden and his role.
Wallace noted that Volker also told members of Congress that he does not believe that Biden had done anything wrong.
Pompeo fails to meet subpoena deadline
https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1180296266196099074Inherent contempt! Now! Esp since Pompeo had the balls to do this today:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212547344
NYT: 2nd Official Is Weighing Whether to Blow the Whistle on Trump's Ukraine Dealings
2nd Official Is Weighing Whether to Blow the Whistle on Trumps Ukraine Dealings
The official, a member of the intelligence community, was interviewed by the inspector general to corroborate the original whistle-blowers account.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/us/politics/second-trump-whistleblower.html
The official has more direct information about the events than the first whistle-blower, whose complaint that Mr. Trump was using his power to get Ukraine to investigate his political rivals touched off an impeachment inquiry. The second official is among those interviewed by the intelligence community inspector general to corroborate the allegations of the original whistle-blower, one of the people said.
The inspector general, Michael Atkinson, briefed lawmakers privately on Friday about how he substantiated the whistle-blowers account. It was not clear whether he told lawmakers that the second official is considering filing a complaint.
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Because the second official has met with Mr. Atkinsons office, it was unclear whether he needs to file a complaint to gain the legal protections offered to intelligence community whistle-blowers. Witnesses who speak with inspectors general are protected by federal law that outlaws reprisals against officials who cooperate with an inspector general.
Irony just shot itself
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1180275155760627713The Hill
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@thehill
Sec. Mike Pompeo: "A strong democracy must also be responsive to public concern and take firm measures to resist and defend against malign influences."
Florida woman 'consumed' by Columbine and Oklahoma City arrested with two dozen pipe bombs
Florida woman 'consumed' by Columbine and Oklahoma City arrested with two dozen pipe bombs
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-woman-consumed-columbine-oklahoma-city-arrested-two-dozen-pipe-n1062491
The parents of Michelle Kolts, 27, called 911 early Thursday night and deputies found two dozen nail and pellet bombs that just needed gun powder to be detonated, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said.
"These bombs could have caused catastrophic damage and harm to hundreds, even thousands of people," the sheriff said.
The deputies also found pistol powder, "fuse material," 23 knives, two hatchets, nunchucks, two BB rifles, six BB handguns and dozens of books on terrorism and bomb-making at the family's home on Jagged Cloud Drive in Wimauma, about 30 miles south of downtown Tampa.
FWIW, I checked FL voter registration. Shes registered republican
Some feedback from the Finnish president on his visit to the United States
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/03/some-feedback-finnish-president-his-visit-united-states/#click=https://t.co/Zzb1wmnGKrWell, I have to say, I would perhaps have done certain things slightly differently. For instance, it was clear that President Trump had many things he wanted to get off his chest, primarily about someone named Adam Schiff, but also about the governor of California? I found this unseemly emotional outburst off-putting. I would not have asked him to stand there while I had an emotional outburst. To me, a more seemly way of showing disapproval would be to purchase and then quietly hand them a Marimekko design that is in an unpleasing color although, such a Marimekko design does not exist?
I do not understand why it was necessary for me to sit there silently like an Artek daybed (although even when they are silent, Artek daybeds make statements). He kept yelling about a perfect conversation, but if it was anything like the conversation we had, I would say it was not perfect. A perfect conversation, to us in Finland, is one in which the freedom of the press is respected and people do not shout, say inaccurate things about the European Union and give the press mean nicknames. We reserve this kind of saltiness for our licorice.
Also, I would say, it is embarrassing for a leader to hector his press and call them fake. It makes him look bad, and it is uncomfortable. It seemed as though this was the kind of thing you would want to save for later, when you were alone, after you were not trying to impress people anymore. Indeed, I started to wonder: Does he know that I am here? I am just sitting here like the "J" in fjord or the many treasures of Helsinki: I am there, but nobody thinks about me. I began to feel that I had blended into the chair, but then he placed his hand on my knee, so I knew I had not been forgotten.
In Finland, we are proud of our free press. The United States, too, should be proud. They should not let this man insult one of the things that should be a source of national pride. Does he do this to Tiffany lamps and the Grand Canyon?
I kept thinking, should I say something? Then the president yelled at a reporter for not directing his question to me, but when he did direct the question to me, the president interrupted and made it difficult for me to answer. On the whole, it was confusing.
Much more hilarity at the link!!
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Gender: MaleHometown: Louisville, KY
Current location: Central FL
Member since: Thu Sep 16, 2004, 02:03 PM
Number of posts: 53,342