4:07 pm
I love the expression on Chairman Nadler's face while Gohmert was talking.
Donald John Trump broke the law and sought to intimidate a head of state which CAUSED a delay in military assistance to Ukraine. Donald John Trump caused hardship in Ukraine. What is there to know beyond that?
Obtuse, there is a news article I posted here that unemployment claims were filed at an all time high in the past two years. Republicans do not know what they are doing but they talk about it like they do.
It doesn't matter if President Zelenskyy or any other leader of Ukraine states "There is no pressure," because they have been compromised by Donald John Trump in power in the Oval Office of the USA. That is an amazing realization. A president of the USA compromised a world leader and in doing so, if there was no Whistleblower, would have handed Russia a victory over the people of Ukraine.
The Trump administration has been deregulating anything they could get their hands on and it is nothing but corruption. Trump has yet to end corruption in his own administration.
SHAPIRO: So you've talked to experts who work on fighting corruption. (click here) What do they have to say about the Trump administration's anti-corruption efforts
RASCOE: So they point to two decisions made early on after Trump took office that they say really set the tone. The Securities and Exchange Commission had issued a rule that would've required oil and gas companies to disclose any payments they made to governments around the world. The rule was really aimed at preventing bribery, which is an issue for oil and gas companies who may be working in countries where oversight isn't that tight. But big oil companies were not a fan of this regulation, and Trump signed a law rescinding the rule. He argued that these rules were burdensome and might hurt businesses.
I spoke with Alexandra Wrage, who is president of TRACE, an anti-bribery business organization, and she said that decision was highly symbolic.
ALEXANDRA WRAGE: It's consistent with his pro-business, anti-regulation position, but it is incredibly unfortunate because the U.S. had been perceived as a leader in this field. And now when I travel, people comment on how quickly we've ceded that leadership role....
Hello? Trump's anti-corruption record is abysmal.
December 12, 2019
By Yusuf Kahn
Saudi Aramco stock surged on the second day of trading (click here) after its record IPO. The company's market cap hit the $2 trillion mark.
At 12:00 p.m. in Riyadh (4:00 a.m. ET), Aramco's stock rose 8.2%, after pushing up 10% on its first day of trading on Wednesday.
Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had been seeking a valuation of $2 trillion prior to the state-owned company's IPO in order to fuel his Vision 2030 plans to try and diversify the Saudi economy away from oil....
And what and with whom is Saudi Arabia spending their money? It is a darn shame the Trump Moscow Tower wasn't built.
By Oliver Carroll
The Saudi King met with Russia’s President in the Kremlin (This isn't Saudi Junior, either.)
A faulty golden aircraft escalator (click here) and anger from Moscow’s elite about a 200-strong Saudi retinue taking over all the city’s 5-star hotels failed to dampen the fanfare accompanying King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on his first state visit to Russia. Met with an honour guard of dignitaries and the Preobrazhensky military orchestra, the Saudi king was sped along on a highway specially lined with billboards advertising the visit and a week-long festival of Saudi culture.
This was a big deal for Russia – with multi-billion energy and defence contracts in the balance – and it wanted King Salman to know.
Ahead of the visit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the event as “an historical moment”. At the summit in the Kremlin on Thursday, Vladimir Putin agreed: This was a “landmark event” that would provide a “boost” to relations. And King Salman returned the compliments. Russia was “a friendly country,” he said.
According to the Kommersant newspaper, agreement has already been reached on a $3bn (£2.2bn) deal to supply the Saudis with Russia’s most advanced air defence missile system, the S400 Triumph. According to the publication, the deal will be signed off at a WTO meeting at the end of October. There may be other deals forthcoming on aircraft and helicopters – that depending on the success of talks....
The Republicans are completely wrong about Trump's anti-corruption policies on a global basis.
The sale of Javelins were already canceled when the phone call was made to the president of Ukraine to demand an investigation on other Americans. Don't try to say Trump is the anti-corruption angel to lead the world out of it's hell. Trump is lighting hell's fire in leading corruption in his policies and pen.
...RASCOE: After that rule was rescinded, the Trump administration followed that up by pulling the U.S. out of this international effort to set a global standard for transparency in oil and gas resource management. This is known as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. But somewhat ironically, Ukraine is actually still a part of this initiative, even though the U.S. is not.
SHAPIRO: So in both of those instances, the Trump administration countered efforts to boost transparency. And presumably, transparency helps eliminate corruption. So has the administration taken any proactive steps to fight international corruption?...
The Javelins were already canceled by Trump when he made that phone call to President Zelenskyy and when the sale of those Javelins was raised by President Zelenskyy TRUMP NEVER SAID A WORD ABOUT THE WITHHOLDING OF THE JAVELINS OR HOW UKRAINE COULD REDEEM ITSELF. TRUMP WAS WAITING FOR THE SALE TO EXPIRE.
NOT A SINGLE WORD WAS MADE BY TRUMP TO PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY WHEN ASKED ABOUT THE SALE OF THE JAVELINS.
NOT A WORD WAS SPOKEN BY TRUMP WHO WAS WAITING FOR THE EXPIRATION OF THE ABILITY OF UKRAINE TO PURCHASE THEM.
NOT A WORD!
Trump was not fighting corruption, he was handing Russia an advantage at the very least.
Trump was selling the USA's national security down the drain to satisfy Russia.
That cannot be contested. Trump is more than impeachable and quite frankly, the current Articles of Impeachment should go further!
December 12, 2019
By Dominique Mosbergen
Former Attorney General Eric Holder (click here) was unequivocal in his criticism of William Barr, the current attorney general of the United States, in a searing op-ed published in The Washington Post on Wednesday.
Holder, who served as the country’s top law enforcement officer from 2009 to 2015 and as deputy attorney general from 1997 to 2001, accused Barr of shameless partisanship and of having behaved in a way that’s “fundamentally inconsistent with his duty to the Constitution.”
Barr is “incapable” of serving effectively as attorney general, Holder said.
“As a former U.S. attorney general, I am reluctant to publicly criticize my successors. I respect the office and understand just how tough the job can be,” Holder began his op-ed. “But recently, Attorney General William P. Barr has made a series of public statements and taken actions that are so plainly ideological, so nakedly partisan and so deeply inappropriate for America’s chief law enforcement official that they demand a response from someone who held the same office.”...
The day before Trump was pressuring Ukraine for an investigation of other Americans, Russia was breaking a ceasefire.
25.07.2019 (July 25, 2019)
On Wednesday, July 24, (click here) the armed formations of the Russian Federation adhered to the so-called “harvest ceasefire” in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) area in eastern Ukraine. Today, the invaders launched one attack on Ukrainian positions.
“On July 24, the armed formations of the Russian Federation and its mercenaries adhered to the sustained ceasefire regime,” the press center of the Joint Forces Operation Headquarters reports.
No casualties among Ukrainian troops were reported over the past day.
Today, the Armed Forces of Ukraine adhere to the sustainable ceasefire, while the armed formations of the Russian Federation and its mercenaries have already violated ceasefire once.
In the zone of action of tactical force “North”, Russian-led troops launched one attack from hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher and heavy machine gun on Ukrainian positions near Prychepylivka (50km north-west of Luhansk).
As a result of shelling, one Ukrainian serviceman was wounded.
Got that? Hand held anti tank grenade launcher is used against Ukraine soldiers. What did President Zelenskyy ask Trump about which he received no answer?
From the July 25th phone call: President is Trump.
Timeline - EU restrictive measures in response to the crisis in Ukraine (click here)
Regardless of the truth by the EU in leveraging sanctions and renewing those sanctions, this is what President Zelenskyy stated. There is every indication that President Zelenskyy already felt compromised and praised him and honored him in order to have the last statement in this paragraph addressed.
The two last statements are:
"I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins fro the United States for defense purposes."There is normally considerable preparation by the staff and president before these calls occur. Did Trump immediately know the status of the Javelins? Yes, he did. He knew he canceled the delivery. And, does Trump answer President Zelenskyy's statement about purchasing the canceled Javalins? No. This is what he said.
"I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike..."
Trump goes on to say:
"As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it's very important you do it fi that's possible."
Why would Trump bring up the very competent Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III and paint him as an incompetent? This was brought up the day after the Special Counsel made testimony to the US House. Trump was thinking about Mueller in his conversation with Zelenskyy. Why? How does that tie into Javelin missiles?
Trump was intimidating Zelenskyy and was illustrating even the powerful US Congress could not help him.
The US House Republicans and Senators who have spoken out so far without a trial being conducted are grabbing at extraneous facts to the corruption of the Trump White House. Every time Trump has withheld monies from countries acting in support of the USA national interests, such as the Northern Triad, it has turned into a nightmare.
Donald John Trump is incompetent and needs to be removed from office. He is only interested in his own priorities and not that of the American people.
Off topic:
The US Federal Communications Commission (click here), or FCC, just officially proposed a new 3-digit, toll-free "988" code for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.
The hotline's current number is 1-800-273-8255.
Can we please expedite this?
Rep. Jordan has changed his statements in changing the "idea" President Zelenskyy had no pressure during this conversation with Trump on July 25, 2019. Before this hour, 1917, Jordan and his colleagues stated clearly there was no pressure on President Zelenskyy when the phone call was made because the Ukraine president knew nothing of the cancelation of the Javelin's missiles. Now, Jordan states President Zelenskyy knew about the cancelation of the Javelin's before the July 25, 2019 telephone call. I wish Mr. Jordan would make up his mind about which lie he wants to continue, the one that President Zelenskyy had no pressure during the phone call because no one knew about the cancelation of the Javelins or the lie that President Zelenskyy did feel pressure at the time of the phone call because he did know the Javelins were canceled.
Lies. The obtuse Republicans only have lies to make amendments and rants about the activity of Donald John Trump.
How did Radcliffe get a soliloquy? He is more of a Bubba than Collins. No one is calling the President of Ukraine a pathological liar. Radcliffe is not capable of doing anything coherent for more than 5 minutes and without a script. The Republicans are showing their fatigue at this long hour and it is time for them to go to bed.
Speaking of judges:
This is the caliber of the people being placed in judgeships.
December 11, 2019
By Mark Joseph Stein
The Senate confirmed Lawrence VanDyke (click here) to a lifetime appointment on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday by a vote of 51–44. Every Republican present except Sen. Susan Collins voted for the nomination; every Democrat present opposed it. Like Sarah Pitlyk, a judicial nominee confirmed just last week, VanDyke received a rare “Not Qualified” rating from the American Bar Association. After conducting 60 interviews, the ABA found that VanDyke has a reputation as “arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-to-day practice including procedural rules.” Video of VanDyke lecturing, scolding, and interrupting judges during oral argument while serving as Nevada solicitor general lends credence to that assessment....
continued in next entry
