The Ledes

Thursday, September 19, 2024

New York Times: “A body believed to be of the suspect in a Kentucky highway shooting that left five people seriously injured this month was found on Wednesday, the authorities said, ending a manhunt that stretched into a second week and set the local community on edge. The Kentucky State Police commissioner, Phillip Burnett Jr., said in a Wednesday night news conference that at approximately 3:30 p.m., two troopers and two civilians found an unidentified body in the brush behind the highway exit where the shooting occurred.... The police have identified the suspect of the shooting as Joseph A. Couch, 32. They said that on Sept. 7, Mr. Couch perched on a cliff overlooking Interstate 75 about eight miles north of London, Ky., and opened fire. One of the wounded was shot in the face, and another was shot in the chest. A dozen vehicles were riddled with gunfire.”

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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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The Commentariat -- October 22, 2019

Afternoon Update:

In today's comments, RAS is wondering if the Electoral College is a phony part of the Constitution.

** Andrew Desiderio & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "... Donald Trump's top envoy to Ukraine told House impeachment investigators on Tuesday of intense efforts by administration officials to secure investigations of Trump's political rivals in exchange for a White House meeting with Ukraine's president and critical military aid, according to sources in the room for the testimony. William Taylor prompted sighs and gasps when he read a lengthy 15-page opening statement, two of the sources said. Another person in the room said Taylor's statement described 'how pervasive the efforts were' among Trump's allies to convince Ukrainian officials to launch an investigation targeting former Vice President Joe Biden and another probe centering on a debunked conspiracy theory regarding the 2016 election. Taylor also described the extent to which military assistance to Ukraine and a potential White House meeting with Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart were tied to those investigations, the source added. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), a senior member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, characterized the testimony as a 'sea change' that 'could accelerate' the impeachment inquiry. Another lawmaker, Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, said it was 'the most thorough accounting we've had of the timeline.'" The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ ** Update. Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "The senior U.S. diplomat in Ukraine said Tuesday he was told release of military aid was contingent on public declarations from Ukraine that it would investigate the Bidens and the 2016 election, contradicting President Trump's denial that he used the money as leverage for political gain. Acting ambassador William B. Taylor Jr. testified behind closed doors in the House impeachment probe of Trump that he stands by his characterization that it was 'crazy' to make the assistance contingent on investigations he found troubling. Upon arriving in Kyiv last spring he became alarmed by secondary diplomatic channels involving U.S. officials that he called 'weird,' Taylor said, according to a copy of his lengthy opening statement obtained by The Washington Post." Mrs. McC: The statement clearly is a leaked doc. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a copy of Taylor's opening statement, via the WashPo. Update: Here's the statement via TPM. Mrs. McC: Taylor's statement is devastating. While Trump claimed he was not asking for a quid pro quo, in the same breath he said that both a White House meeting for Zelensky & millions of dollars in aid to Ukraine was contingent upon Zelensky's publicly announcing he would investigate Burisma (Hunter Biden) & 2016 U.S. presidential election interference. That is, while Trump was denying that his ask was a quid pro quo, he was demanding a quo for the quids. See, especially, page 12.

~~~ Knowing Taylor's testimony was coming, Trump decided this morning to deflect its impact by issuing a racist tweet: ~~~

~~~ Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday referred to the impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives as a 'lynching,' deploying perhaps his most incendiary rhetoric yet to describe the Democratic-led probe into his conduct. 'So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights,' he wrote on Twitter. 'All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here - a lynching. But we will WIN!' That morning post by the president tore open a fresh cycle of outrage on Capitol Hill -- infuriating African-American legislators and further inflaming tensions in a Congress already deeply divided along party lines amid the Ukraine-focused investigation.... The invocation of 'lynching' to characterize a process explicitly sanctioned by the Constitution marked a new, racially insensitive show of malice by the president toward lawmakers seeking to remove him from office."

Matt Apuzzo & Benjamin Novak of the New York Times: "Since becoming [U.S.] ambassador [to Hungary] in June 2018, [David] Cornstein has assiduously courted [President Viktor] Orban, giving the Hungarian leader unexpected influence in the Trump administration. Mr. Cornstein used his decades-long friendship with President Trump to help broker a coveted Oval Office meeting for Mr. Orban last May -- a meeting now under scrutiny by impeachment investigators in Washington. At the time, some White House officials tried to stop the meeting, citing Mr. Orban's anti-democratic record in Hungary and his growing closeness to Russia. The meeting went ahead, and Mr. Orban is said to have used it to fuel the president's suspicions about Ukraine.... Mr. Cornstein's ... freewheeling diplomacy and courtship of Mr. Orban have alarmed career civil servants and contributed to broader criticism, even among Republicans, that some members of the president's foreign policy team are dangerously unprepared for the job.... He has undermined efforts by career diplomats to deliver messages to Washington about corruption and democratic backsliding in Hungary. And he has privately acted as a broker for Mr. Orban's point of view, taking positions contrary to United States policy...."

of the New York Times: "... on Tuesday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia played host to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, for more than six hours of talks on how they and other regional players will divide control of Syria, a land devastated by eight years of civil war. The negotiations ended with a victory for Mr. Putin: Russian and Turkish troops will take joint control over a vast swath of formerly Kurdish-held territory in northern Syria, in a move that cements the rapid expansion of Russian influence in Syria at the expense of the United States and its Kurdish former allies. Under the terms of the agreement, Syrian Kurdish forces must now retreat more than 20 miles from the border, abandoning land that they had controlled uncontested until earlier this month -- when their protectors, the American military, suddenly began to withdraw from the region."

Teevee Show-and-Tell. Courtney Kube & Carol Lee of NBC News: Lindsey Graham brought a Fox "News" general to the White House with a map to talk Trump into leaving some troops in Syria to "secure the oil."

McConnell Contradicts Trump's Claim about "Perfect" Phone Call. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he hasn't discussed the Ukraine phone call at the center of the House impeachment inquiry with President Trump. 'We have not had any conversations on this subject,' McConnell said Tuesday during a weekly press conference. McConnell's comments appear to contradict Trump, who earlier this month said that the GOP leader had told him the phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was 'innocent' and 'perfect.' When asked if the president was lying, McConnell demurred and directed reporters to speak with the president."

Marianne Levine of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he will introduce his own resolution urging ... Donald Trump to end the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. The resolution comes days after the House overwhelmingly passed its own resolution condemning Trump's decision to withdraw. Senate Republicans last week rejected an attempt to condemn Trump's move, saying they should do something more substantial. 'I am introducing a stronger resolution that acknowledges hard truths and focuses on our strategic interests in the Middle East,' McConnell said. 'It recognizes the grave consequences of U.S. withdrawal. ... We specifically urge the president to end the drawdown.' McConnell's resolution comes as a five-day cease-fire between Turkish and Kurdish forces winds down. The resolution recognizes the role Kurdish allies have played in the fight against the Islamic State, condemns the Turkish incursion into Syria and asks Trump to reconsider his invitation to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to visit the White House."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The anonymous author of a bombshell New York Times op-ed piece that ran a year ago describing resistance efforts within the Trump administration is now publishing a tell-all book. 'A Warning' is described as an "unprecedented behind-the-scenes portrait of the Trump presidency' and is scheduled to be released next month. The author is listed only as 'anonymous.' The book is being published by D.C.-based agency Javelin. Matt Latimer, one of the literary agents representing the author, said Javelin was able to confirm that the author is the same individual who wrote the op-ed in The New York Times. He declined to elaborate on how. The New York Times published the op-ed in early September 2018 in which an anonymous author identified only as a senior administration official described coordinated efforts from staff to 'thwart' President Trump's worst instincts. The identity of the author has remained unknown since their op-ed was first published...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Anonymous is likely someone who is independently wealthy, as Jake Tapper of CNN reported that s/he was giving away [] the proceeds of sales to the White House Correspondents' Association. Update: Here's a print version of CNN's story: "The Author of A WARNING refused the chance at a seven figure advance and intends to donate a substantial amount of any royalties to the White House Correspondents Association and other organizations that fight for a free press that seeks the truth,; Latimer said, adding that the book 'was not written by the author lightly, or for the purpose of financial enrichment. It has been written as an act of conscience and of duty.'" The author's reported generosity probably rules out Rex Tillerson, as he was press-o-phobic. So maybe Gary Cohn. More likely, someone less "senior" in the administration. Tapper said the book was an attempt to convince people not to vote for Trump.

Colin Moynihan of the New York Times: "On Tuesday, two members of the Proud Boys, Maxwell Hare and John Kinsman, were each sentenced to four years in prison by a State Supreme Court judge in Manhattan, who criticized their participation in a 'political street fight.' Justice Mark Dwyer said the punishment was meant in part to deter others who seek to resolve political differences through partisan violence. 'I know enough about history to know what happened in Europe in the 30s when political street brawls were allowed to go ahead without any type of check from the criminal justice system,' he said." The BuzzFeed News story is here.

Janelle Griffith of NBC News: "Actress Lori Loughlin and 10 other parents in a massive college admissions scandal are facing additional charges, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. A grand jury in the District of Massachusetts brought new charges against 11 of the 15 parents charged in the college admissions case, including Loughlin. All of the 11 parents facing new charges have pleaded not guilty to the previous charges in the alleged admissions scheme."

Heather Stewart of the Guardian: "Boris Johnson's plan to fast-track his Brexit deal through parliament in time for next week'31 October deadline has been rejected by MPs, even after he threatened to pull his deal and press for a general election. After a day of cajoling and inducements from the prime minister and the Conservative whips, the government lost a crunch vote by 322 to 308 -- a majority of 14.... The legislation was only published late on Monday, and the chancellor, Sajid Javid, declined to publish an economic analysis of the deal. Even some MPs minded to back Johnson's deal said they could not accept such a truncated debate."

~~~~~~~~~~

Trump, the Dictators' Dupe. Greg Miller, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump's effort to pressure Ukraine for information he could use against political rivals came as he was being urged to adopt a hostile view of that country by its regional adversaries, including Russian President Vladmir Putin, current and former U.S. officials said. Trump's conversations with Putin, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and others reinforced his perception of Ukraine as a hopelessly corrupt country -- one that Trump now also appears to believe sought to undermine him in the 2016 U.S. election, the officials said.... Their disparaging depictions of Ukraine reinforced Trump's perceptions of the country and fed a dysfunctional dynamic in which White House officials struggled to persuade Trump to support the fledgling government in Kyiv instead of exploiting it for political purposes, officials said. The role played by Putin and Orban, a hard-right leader who has often allied himself with the Kremlin's positions, was described in closed-door testimony last week by George Kent, a deputy assistant secretary of state, before House impeachment investigators, U.S. officials said.... U.S. officials emphasized that while Putin and Orban denigrated Ukraine, Trump's decision to seek damaging material on Biden was more directly driven by Trump's own impulses and Kyiv conspiracy theories promoted by his attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani." CNN summarizes the WashPo report. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: That is, instead of heeding the guidance of U.S. intelligence agencies & the State Department, Trump takes his foreign policy cues from the strongmen leading Russia & Ukraine Hungary, as well as from the comic characters Rudy, Lev & Igor, all of whom appear to have taken huge sums of money from shady Russian oligarchs. As far as Putin & Orban are concerned, Trump is the definition of a "useful idiot." ~~~

~~~ Peter Baker & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Just 10 days before a key meeting on Ukraine, President Trump met, over the objections of his national security adviser [John Bolton & top NSC aide Fiona Hill], with one of the former Soviet republic's most virulent critics, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, and heard a sharp assessment that bolstered his hostility toward the country.... Mr. Trump's conversation with Mr. Orban on May 13 exposed him to a harsh indictment of Ukraine at a time when his personal lawyer was pressing the new government in Kiev to provide damaging information about Democrats.... Bolton ... and ... Hill ... opposed a White House invitation for the Hungarian leader.... But they were outmaneuvered by Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, who supported such a meeting .... [because] Mr. Orban has positioned himself as a champion of Christians in the Middle East.... Another official pushing for the Orban visit was David B. Cornstein, the United States ambassador to Hungary..., an 81-year-old jewelry magnate and longtime friend of Mr. Trump's..., who sidestepped the State Department to help set up a White House meeting...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I never thought I'd feel sorry for John Bolton, but poor ole Mr. Mustache was up against a radical religionist (Mulvaney) & a doddering know-nothing jeweler whose "business background is in running gambling operations, high-end used jewelry and telemarketing..., [who] vocally defended the Orbán government" and didn't seem to know WTF was going on. So there was Bolton, ideologue v. ideologue + idiot, vying to command the attention of the Idiot-in-Chief. And we wonder why the Trump presidency* isn't going well.

~~~ Lisa Mascaro & Mary Jalonick of the AP: "Behind closed doors..., Donald Trump has made his views on Ukraine clear: 'They tried to take me down.' The president, according to people familiar with testimony in the House impeachment investigation, sees the Eastern European ally, not Russia, as responsible for the interference in the 2016 election that was investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller. It's a view denied by the intelligence community, at odds with U.S. foreign policy and dismissed by many of Trump's fellow Republicans, but part of a broader skepticism of Ukraine being shared with Trump by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his key regional ally Viktor Orban of Hungary.... Even the president's Republican allies have tried to dissuade Trump from [the Ukraine-DNC server conspiracy theory]. 'I've never been a CrowdStrike fan; I mean this whole thing of a server,' said Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina last week. Meadows, a confidant of Trump..., views the search for the email server as farfetched. 'I would not, on my dime, send a private attorney looking for some server in a foreign country,' Meadows told reporters."

Do we have to protect a whistleblower who gives a false account? I don't know. You tell me. -- Donald Trump, to reporters, Monday ~~~

~~~ Burgess Everett of Politico: "As ... Donald Trump continued his attacks on the Ukraine whistleblower on Monday, Chuck Schumer is asking the intelligence community what is being done to protect the source from harm. The Senate Minority leader asked both the acting director of national intelligence and the inspector general on Monday afternoon to outline what 'specific steps' they are taking to protect the whistleblower. Schumer said his understanding is the unidentified individual is receiving some security but said that he fears 'safety risks may intensify in the event that the whistleblower's identity is disclosed.'" ~~~

So was there actually an informant? Maybe the informant was Schiff. It could be shifty Schiff. -- Donald Trump, during his press availability Monday ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump said more about the whistleblower Monday, claiming his complaint was completely at odds with Trump's "perfect" phone call to President Zelensky. Trump suggested that the whistleblower's source was Rep. Adam Schiff, not someone -- or some people -- in the White House. CNN put up several fact-checking chyrons to counter Trump's false charges.

"You Know How to Whistle, Don't You?" Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "I would like to file a whistleblower complaint.... My complaint isn't based on 'hearsay.' I have witnessed these actions firsthand.... Because I, uh, own a TV. Repeatedly..., Trump has told me -- as well as any other members of the public who happened to have left the television on ... that he's been pushing foreign leaders to take actions for his own private benefit.... The president's senior staffers have also confirmed -- again, live, in my living room -- that they're helping Trump rig policy for his private gain."

Abigail Weinberg of Mother Jones: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) released a 'fact sheet' Monday detailing ... Donald Trump's 'shakedown' of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as a 'pressure campaign' to get Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and a subsequent 'cover up.'... 'President Trump has betrayed his oath of office, betrayed our national security and betrayed the integrity of our elections for his own personal political gain,' Pelosi's document states." The article includes a reproduction of Pelosi's fact sheet, which is kinda handy. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Heidi Przybyla of NBC News: "House Democrats are zeroing in on a framework for their impeachment case against ... Donald Trump that will center on a simple 'abuse of power' narrative involving the president's actions regarding Ukraine, according to multiple people familiar with the deliberations.... Democratic House committee chairs and leaders are still debating the need for additional articles or charges that extend beyond the president's dealings with Ukraine, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been adamant that the case against Trump must be targeted and easy to communicate in order to build public support, according to those familiar with discussions. Thats especially true since Democrats are hoping to win the votes of at least some moderate House Republicans...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait: "In all likelihood, the Senate will come nowhere close to mustering the 67 votes needed to [convict Trump]. But over the past few weeks, the outline of a removal scenario has begun to take shape. The prospect is no longer a fantasy.... Senate Republicans may both fear Trump and use him for their own ends, but they have very little love for him.... [Trump's] power lies only in the ability to pick off heretics one by one. The Senate Republicans can band together to vote him out, and Trump would have little recourse.... The Syria debacle is genuinely alarming to the party, because it shows Trump unleashing a strategic catastrophe, leading to thousands of escaped terrorists, through a simple phone call the implications of which he seems not to have understood. The up-front costs of ripping off the Band-Aid and removing Trump might seem less risky than allowing another year of a completely unconstrained toddler president."

Juliegrace Brufke of the Hill: "Democrats in the House turned aside a GOP-led privileged resolution to censure House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Monday in a straight party-line 218-185 vote. Republicans and President Trump have increasingly targeted Schiff, a public face of the impeachment effort. They have taken issue with Schiff's exaggerated account of the details of President Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a hearing in September. Schiff has defended his remarks as being an intentional parody of Trump's comments. Republicans also said Schiff should be rebuked for saying his committee did not have any contact with a whistleblower making allegations against Trump prior to the whistleblower's submission of a complaint. It later emerged that the whistleblower had contacted the Intelligence panel and had spoken to a staffer for Schiff."

Stonewall, Ctd. Caitlin Emma of Politico: "... Donald Trump's acting budget chief won't testify for House impeachment investigators this week. Russ Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, tweeted this morning that he will refuse House Democrats' deposition request. Vought also said that Michael Duffey, the OMB political appointee tasked with managing a freeze on $400 million in foreign assistance to Ukraine last summer, won't show up for interviews, either." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Betsy Swan of the Daily Beast: "In his eye-popping press conference last week, White House Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said that the Trump administration withheld military aide from Ukraine in part to secure cooperation with a Justice Department investigation into the origins of Robert Mueller]s Russia probe. But ... during his congressional deposition earlier this month, former U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker said that the Trump administration's Department of Justice never officially asked Ukrainian law enforcement for help probing 2016 election interference or the company where Hunter Biden was a board member...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Something else that's "eye-popping": it's clear from Swan's report that top DOJ officials knew Rudy was poking around Ukraine in search of fake dirt, and it appears none of these top DOJ guys did anything to nip Rudy's little project in the bud. Then again, who would an official complain to? Bill Barr? Mike Pompeo? Trump? Right. I suspect there are federal officials who know there are a helluva lot more instances of Trump's doing or okaying illegal and unethical acts. The whistleblower's complaint, damning as it is, is probably only the tip of the iceberg. ~~~

     ~~~ Michelle Cottle of the New York Times: "It's easy to mock Mr. Mulvaney's missteps. He has emerged as one of Mr. Trump's top go-to guys for carrying out questionable orders, such as taking the practical steps necessary to withhold Ukraine's aid money or shove aside career diplomats in favor of political lackeys. But, in Mr. Mulvaney's defense, he should never have been put in this position. The guy who's doing the dirty work should not also be the guy expected to go out and defend it to a roomful of journalists. That's what a press secretary is for.... Here we see a concrete downside to the White House's slapdash approach to staffing, its disdain for professionalism and this president's conviction that, because he's such a communications whiz, he doesn' need a message team backing him up." Mrs. McC: Professionalism is a concept Newt Gingrich does not embrace: ~~~

     ~~~ Justin Wise of The Hill: "Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) on Monday renewed his call for eliminating the White House press corps, saying that the reporters are all 'enemies' of President Trump. Gingrich ... made the statements on CBS News's streaming service after being asked about remarks White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney made regarding Trump's interactions with Ukraine during a press briefing last week." --s

I don't know those gentlemen. -- Donald Trump, October 11 ~~~

~~~ Matt Shuham of TPM: "The private Instagram page of a Rudy Giuliani associate accused of a conspiracy to funnel foreign money into elections show that he also had regular access to the President and his inner circle. The Wall Street Journal sifted through the contents of Lev Parnas' instagram page, which is not viewable to the general public, on Monday. Parnas poses with ... Donald Trump in multiple pictures on the account. One photo shows a thank you [note] signed by the President and first lady Melania Trump." Includes WSJ video report. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marcy Wheeler has been developing a conspiracy theory about the Trumpian Ukrainian conspiracy theory, which she thinks may be a continuation of Paul Manafort's efforts in Ukraine. One of the pictures in Parnas' Instagram feed supports her theory. Wheeler's conspiracy theories sometimes pan out. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

More Musings of a President*

Alex Johnson, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump suggested Monday that he would leave some U.S. troops in Syria to protect oil resources, but said he saw no need for U.S. forces to defend America's Kurdish partners. 'We never agreed to protect the Kurds for the rest of their lives,' Trump told reporters at a Cabinet meeting at the White House.... He said the U.S. would work out a deal where some oil revenue would go to the Kurds, and suggested a large oil company could be involved. He also said the U.S. would leave a small number of troops near Jordan at the request of Israel. 'Keep the oil, we want to keep the oil and we will work something out with the Kurds so they have some money, they have some cash flow,' Trump said. Should Trump ultimately decide to leave some forces within Syria, it would be the second time he has reversed course on pulling all U.S. troops out of the region in less than a year." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Notice how Trump moves the goalposts to "justify" his betraying the Kurds. "Protecting the Kurds for the rest of their lives" is not the opposite of "abandoning them without reason or warning & leaving them to be slaughtered by Turks & Arab militant forces." "Protecting the Kurds forever" is a straw man. So I guess, "securing the oil" means securing some oil fields within Northern Syria. ~~~

     ~~~ Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post has "a quick round-up of some of the more notable [false] claims the president made to reporters" in yesterday's press availability. On U.S. promises to the Kurds: "To prevent a Turkish invasion, the United States persuaded the SDF to pull back up to nine miles from the Turkish border. In August, the SDF destroyed its own military posts after assurances the United States would not let thousands of Turkish troops invade. But then Trump tossed that aside.... Secretary of State Mike Pompeo [said] in 2018, '... Syrian Kurds have been great partners. We are now driving to make sure that they have a seat at the table....'" ~~~

~~~ Update. Kareem Fahim, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Monday that a limited number of U.S. troops will remain in Syria to man a garrison on the southern border with Jordan and 'to secure the oil' elsewhere in the country. 'I don't think it's necessary, other than we secure the oil,' Trump said of the U.S. military presence. 'We need to secure the oil.' A 'small number of troops' would also remain in southern Syria at the request of Israel and Jordan, he added in remarks to reporters at a meeting of his Cabinet in Washington. The decision to leave more than 20 percent of the U.S. force in Syria behind was the second time this year that Trump announced a complete withdrawal, only to walk it back under heavy bipartisan criticism from lawmakers and disquiet within his own administration." ~~~

~~~ Lefteris Pitarakis & Lolita Baldor of the AP: "Angry over the U.S. withdrawal, residents of a Kurdish-dominated Syrian city hurled potatoes at departing American military vehicles as they drove by on Monday. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said U.S. troops will stay in eastern Syria to protect Kurdish-held oil fields for at least the coming weeks and he was discussing options to keep them there. 'Like rats, America is running away,' one man shouted in Arabic at a convoy of armored vehicles flying American flags passing down an avenue in the northeastern city of Qamishli, according to video by the Kurdish news agency.... At another location, near the town of Tal Tamr, a group of protesters raised banners to departing U.S. troops late Sunday, according to an Associated Press video. One man blocked the way of a U.S. van with a poster reading: 'Thanks for US people, but Trump betrayed us.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ David Kirkpatrick & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "... analysts say that Mr. Trump's pullout has handed the Islamic State its biggest win in more than four years and greatly improved its prospects. With American forces rushing for the exits, in fact, American officials said last week that they were already losing their ability to collect critical intelligence about the group's operations on the ground.... Cutting support for the Syrian Democratic Forces has crippled the ability of the United States and its former partners to hunt down the group's remnants. News of the American withdrawal set off jubilation among Islamic State supporters on social media and encrypted chat networks.... Although Mr. Trump has repeatedly declared victory over the Islamic State -- even boasting to congressional leaders last week that he had personally 'captured ISIS' -- it remains a threat." ~~~

~~~ David Sanger & William Broad of the New York Times: "Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wants more than control over a wide swath of Syria along his country's border. He says he wants the Bomb. In the weeks leading up to his order to launch the military across the border to clear Kurdish areas, Mr. Erdogan made no secret of his larger ambition. 'Some countries have missiles with nuclear warheads,' he told a meeting of his governing party in September. But the West insists 'we can't have them,' he said. 'This, I cannot accept.' With Turkey now in open confrontation with its NATO allies, having gambled and won a bet that it could conduct a military incursion into Syria and get away with it, Mr. Erdogan's threat takes on new meaning. If the United States could not prevent the Turkish leader from routing its Kurdish allies, how can it stop him from building a nuclear weapon or following Iran in gathering the technology to do so?'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"Prudent Planning." Carol Lee & Courtney Kube of NBC News: "The Pentagon recently began drawing up plans for an abrupt withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan in case ... Donald Trump surprises military leaders by ordering an immediate drawdown as he did in Syria, three current and former defense officials said. The contingency planning is ongoing, the officials said, and includes the possibility that Trump orders all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan within weeks. Officials cautioned, however, that the planning is a precaution and there is currently no directive from the White House to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. One of the officials called it 'prudent planning.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Got that? No doubt the Pentagon has a boatload of contingency plans at the ready to respond timely to possible hostile actions by foreign entities. But now military planners must plan for possible hostile actions by our own president*. That's pretty astounding.

Doral Infomercial, Ctd. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday dismissed criticism that his since-reversed plan to host the Group of Seven (G-7) summit at his Doral property would have led to an ethics violation. 'I don't think you people, with this phony Emoluments Clause -- and by the way, I would say that it's cost anywhere from $2 billion to $5 billion to be president,' Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. The Emoluments Clause prohibits elected federal officials from receiving gifts or contributions from foreign governments. Trump has repeatedly claimed the presidency has cost him billions of dollars. Trump offered a lengthy defense of using his Doral resort near Miami to host next year's G-7 summit, and lashed out amid questions about the backlash to his earlier decision.... 'It would have been the best G-7 ever,' Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting, adding that he felt the eventual location would not be as good. 'The Democrats went crazy, even though I would have done it free, saved the country a lot of money,' he added. Then they say, "Oh, but you'll get promotion." Who cares? You don't think I get enough promotion? I get more promotion than any human being that's ever lived.' Trump ... again criticized former President Obama for his book deal and contract with Netflix, both of which were agreed to after Obama left the White House." Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: There are parts of the Constitution that are phony. The emoluments provisions are definitely phony. As far as I can tell, impeachment provisions are also phony, so Article II people can & do ignore them. In fact, most of Article I is phony, so any so-called Congressional powers can & will be overridden by executive orders. Few would disagree with the premise that the U.S. Constitution is a flawed document. Luckily, we have Donald Trump to point out where it's not even real. ~~~

~~~ Annie Karni of the New York Times: "'Doral was a very simple situation,' the president told reporters at the White House. 'I own a property in Florida. I was going to do it at no cost or give it free if I got a ruling, because there is a question as to whether or not you're allowed to give it, because it's like a contribution to a country.' Mr. Trump said Democrats had gone 'crazy' over the prospect of hosting an international summit at a Trump property, when in fact it was private criticism from Republicans that ultimately forced his rare reversal. And he continued to talk up the resort, with its 'massive meeting rooms' and 'best location.'... Mr. Trump then toggled to what he believes inoculates him against charges of trying to profit from his presidency: that he doesn't take a salary. 'They actually say that George Washington may have been the only other president to do' that, he said. In fact both Herbert Hoover and John F. Kennedy also donated their salaries while they were president. Mr. Trump claimed that when he was elected, he put 'all the stuff in trusts.'... In fact, Mr. Trump remains closely tied to his real estate empire...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Where the hell did Trump get the idea that "you're not allowed to give ... a contribution to a country"? He is "allowed to give a contribution to this country." This page provides the Treasury Department address where he can send his contribution. "Citizens who wish to make a general donation to the U.S. government may send contributions to a specific account called 'Gifts to the United States.' This account was established in 1843 to accept gifts, such as bequests, from individuals wishing to express their patriotism to the United States. Money deposited into this account is for general use by the federal government.... These contributions are considered an unconditional gift to the government. Financial gifts can be ... mailed to the address [specified]." If Trump would rather give a gift to reduce the federal debt, he can send it to the [mailing] address here. ~~~

~~~ CREW has created an interactive infographic where you can follow Donald's 2,500+ conflicts of interests, growing each day in office. --s

Trump repeated his lie that Kim Jong Un wouldn’t take Obama phone calls, saying he asked Obama if he tried to call, and Obama said no, but:' Actually, he tried, 11 times. But the man on the other side, the gentleman on the other side, did not take his call. Lack of respect.' -- Daniel Dale of CNN, in a tweet, citing Trump's remarks in Monday's press availability

~~~ Alex Henderson of AlterNet: "On July 1, CNN's Daniel Dale devoted an entire article to fact-checking ... Donald Trump's bogus claim that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un would not take President Barack Obama's calls. Regardless, Trump has continued to make that claim, and Dale is still fact-checking him -- along with Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security adviser to Obama.... Rhodes ... [tweeted], 'Obama never called Kim Jong Un. Obama never tried to meet Kim Jong Un. Trump is a serial liar and not well.'"

Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast writes a post titled "With Impeachment Looming, Trump Is Threatening to Sue ‘Everybody Who Pisses Him Off.’" Mrs. McC: This is fairly funny now that the people & entities he is threatening to sue (Nancy Pelosi, in her professional capacity, CNN, etc.) can afford to pay lawyers to brush him off, but it wasn't funny when Trump was bringing costly, frivolous suits against small businessmen, contractors & other individuals who could not afford the legal costs of defending themselves.


Jeremy Diamond, et al., of CNN: "The White House's personnel director has told ... Donald Trump that neither immigration hardliner Ken Cuccinelli nor Customs and Border Protection chief Mark Morgan are [is!] eligible to succeed Kevin McAleenan as acting Homeland Security secretary, a senior administration official confirmed to CNN. The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that neither of the two men, who were said to be Trump's favorites to succeed McAleenan and filling acting posts at the Department of Homeland Security, are eligible to succeed McAleenan because they had not served at least 90 days under the last Senate-confirmed Homeland Security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen." ~~~

~~~ Anita Kumar & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "... Sean Doocey, the White House director of presidential personnel, in recent days gave Trump a list of other officials to consider as acting secretary, including top DHS official Chad Wolf and Transportation Security Administration chief David Pekoske, according to three people familiar with the conversation. The news has infuriated immigration hawks inside and outside the administration who had been lobbying for Cuccinelli to fill the role and now fear Trump will tap Wolf, a former chief of staff to ousted DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen who once worked as a lobbyist on employment visas.... Next in line to become acting secretary is Pekoske, who has also been serving as acting deputy secretary at DHS, but he has reportedly taken himself out of the running."

Treating Victims of Crimes Like Criminals. Colleen Long of the AP: "The Trump administration is planning to collect DNA samples from asylum-seekers and other migrants detained by immigration officials and will add the information to a massive FBI database used by law enforcement hunting for criminals, a Justice Department official said. The Justice Department on Monday issued amended regulations that would mandate DNA collection for almost all migrants who cross between official entry points and are held even temporarily. The official said the rules would not apply to legal permanent residents or anyone entering the U.S. legally, and children under 14 are exempt, but it's unclear whether asylum-seekers who come through official crossings will be exempt."

Leah Litman of Slate: "The Trump administration is once again testing the limits of truth in government. In September..., Donald Trump unleashed a barrage of environmental policies and sanctions to punish California for pollution (or for attempting to regulate pollution). He claimed the actions were necessary either because California wasn't doing enough to regulate pollution or because there was too much regulation of pollution. The attacks on California present the same legal issue that has arisen time and again since Trump became president: Can the administration lie about its reasons for pursuing a given policy? The answer to that question will determine whether this presidency ushers in government by lies -- whether administrations can brazenly misrepresent its reasons for pursuing particular policies.... [W]e may be closer to government by lies than we would like to think." --s

Presidential Race 2020

Jason Abbruzzese of NBC News: "Facebook unveiled new plans Monday to fight 2020 election interference. It will clearly label news that comes from state-owned media, and will give greater transparency for the origins of Facebook pages. And it has already found interference coming from authoritarian regimes overseas. In an interview with NBC News, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company has thwarted new interference campaigns from Russia and Iran that it regards as the groundwork for future manipulation efforts." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Donie O'Sullivan of CNN: "People linked to the Internet Research Agency, the Kremlin-backed troll group indicted by the United States for its alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, are laying the groundwork to do the same in 2020, new information released by Facebook on Monday suggests. Profiles originating in Russia had since the beginning of this year been building a network of accounts on Instagram designed to look like groups in swing states, the company said. Instagram is owned by Facebook.... Although the accounts posed as Americans from all sides of the political spectrum, many were united in their opposition to the candidacy of former Vice President Joe Biden, according to Graphika, a social media investigations company that Facebook asked to analyze the accounts."

We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Zuckerberg. Theodore Schleifer of Vox: Mark "Zuckerberg has emerged as the [Democrats'] new political boogeyman in a way that would be unthinkable just a few years ago. And while it is not breaking news that Facebook is more toxic than ever, that toxicity now goes well beyond Facebook as a corporation and has infected Zuckerberg's brand as a human being.... The person most responsible for Zuckerberg's new status as a punchline: Elizabeth Warren.... In the wake of a leaked recording that revealed Zuckerberg on a war footing as he prepared for a possible Warren presidency, the Democratic frontrunner has brought up Facebook's indiscretions seemingly every day.... In the wake of Zuckerberg's attempt last week to defend his position on allowing politicians to lie in Facebook ads, Biden's campaign said Zuckerberg 'attempted to use the Constitution as a shield for his company's bottom line.'... On Monday, after Bloomberg reported that Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, had referred people who worked for them to the Buttigieg campaign for jobs, [Pete] Buttigieg’s campaign raced to draw distance between the two men."


The Supremes Favor GOP Gerrymandering. Harper Neidig of the Hill: "The Supreme Court in another defeat for gerrymandering reformers overturned a lower court's ruling that Michigan's electoral districts are overly partisan and need to be withdrawn. Monday's order follows a June decision from the nation's top court that questions over partisan gerrymandering are not under the jurisdiction of federal courts. The new order returns the case to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. A three-judge panel in that court had ruled that 34 state legislature and congressional districts needed to be redrawn because they were designed to favor Republicans. The League of Women Voters and a group of Michigan voters had argued that GOP officials in the state had 'engaged in a concerted effort to redraw district lines to benefit Republican candidates while disadvantaging their opponents.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

Canada. The Guardian has live updates of election results. The headline is that Justin Trudeau will be able to hold onto power (with a little help from his friends). at 23:04 (ET, I guess) Monday, "... Trudeau will have to reach out to other parties in order to prop up his Liberal party -- and how they will cobble together the 170 votes needed. Rather than create a formal coalition, the prime minister will likely use a process known as confidence and supply, in which the Liberals reach out to different parties in order to secure votes for legislation." ~~~

~~~ Ian Austen & Dan Bilefsky of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada was projected to win a second term on Monday, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, after an often ugly campaign that became a referendum on his character and on his authenticity as an earnest standard-bearer for liberalism. With votes still being counted, the CBC projected that Mr. Trudeau's Liberal Party will not retain its majority in Canada's House of Commons. But it would have enough seats to allow Mr. Trudeau to form a government, with support from two left-leaning parties."

Israel. David Halbfinger & Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel gave up on his latest attempt to form a government on Monday, clearing the way for Benny Gantz, the former army chief who narrowly defeated him in last month's election, to try to become the country's next leader.... President Reuven Rivlin ... said he would give Mr. Gantz, 60, leader of the centrist Blue and White party, the mandate to form a government 'as soon as possible.' Under the law, Mr. Gantz will have 28 days to do so.... It is unclear, however, whether Mr. Gantz will have any greater chance of succeeding. Mr. Netanyahu, who remains prime minister until a new government is formed, is counting on Mr. Gantz to fail." The NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Juan Cole: "[F]ormer general Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White party, will now get a chance [to form a government].... To put together 61 votes that could survive a vote of no confidence, Gantz needs the support of 28 members of parliament beyond his own party. The problem is that while those 28 votes are out there and might join Gantz, they for the most part refuse to sit together on the same side.... The problem is that Israeli society and politics are so racist that Gantz cannot formally ally with Israeli Arabs. It is like the Jim Crow era in the United States.... In the September 17 election, Netanyahu ... warned that if Gantz got in there would be *gasp* Arab Israeli cabinet members. Gantz immediately denied he would do any such thing, revealing himself to be not much different from Netanyahu." --s

U.K. Heather Stewart of the Guardian: "Boris Johnson has been denied the opportunity to hold a second vote on his Brexit deal in the House of Commons after the Speaker, John Bercow, ruled that it would be 'repetitive and disorderly'. Bercow said it would break longstanding conventions for MPs to debate and vote on the agreement struck in Brussels last week, little more than two days after Saturday's historic sitting." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

NBC News: "Former President Jimmy Carter is recovering from a fractured pelvis after falling at his Georgia home, The Carter Center announced Tuesday."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (11)

@Bea, at risk of me being nit-picky, shouldn't your comment to the Miller entry above, where it's written "...Trump is taking his foreign policy cues from the strongmen leading Russia & Ukraine...", instead say "...Russia & Hungary..."? Or am I just confused?

October 22, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

@unwashed: Yep. Thanks for the correction.

October 22, 2019 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

I thought that the way immigrants have been treated by the toxic trumpies was as bad as it can get but, as usual, the trumpies can get even lower. DNA collection against their wishes is reprehensible-- how long until everyone is strip-searched and chipped? Kremlin, here we come. Nothing is beneath the a**holes trump and miller and the cooch...

October 22, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

Newt Gingrich wants to eliminate the White House press corps? Hell, why not get rid of the press altogether. That way the only "news" available to the American public would be Trump TV and the Gingrich Newsletter. I'm sure they'd be excruciatingly accurate and truthful. It's what the GOP has always wanted anyway.

October 22, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

".... Rhodes ... [tweeted], 'Obama never called Kim Jong Un. Obama never tried to meet Kim Jong Un. Trump is a serial liar and not well.'”

So once again we have a whopper that was brought out as such back in July and yet–––he continues to repeat it. Someone surely has told him that it isn't cricket to spread this falsehood. Yet he carries on seemingly oblivious to the consequences ( there are consequences?) which appear to roll off his duck's back like slippery slime. Let's ask Pompeo who will NOT answer what he calls hypotheticals. And oh, how I wish Obama himself would give Fatty a ring-a-ding and give him a "what for. " Sadly we continue to put up with this serial liar and his people go yea! Make America Great Again"–-big smiles, lots of clapping while Kurds are dying, refugees are dying, the environment is being destroyed, lead is still in the water, and the henchmen in this government are still floating along in leaky boats albeit without oars at this point.
So when I listened to Trump deliver his crazy quilt yesterday I despaired–––how we allow this kind of asininity to continue just blows my mind.

George Washington, Fatty's latest buddy from the past, while sitting at one of this two desks up in heaven, upon hearing the now president make up shit about him, asked one of his slave angels to shoot down a bolt of lightening on the White House ––a subtle message meant to "shut the fuck up about me." Fatty won't notice but Mulvaney will and sends up a "Duly Noted"

And the world turns/////////

October 22, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

AK: It does blow the working mind that this crap just goes on and on. Because this guy is completely around the bend, you'd think that his henchpeople would eventually come to the realization that they are going down with the ship, rats that they are (sorry, rats...), and at least be the patriots they pretend to be. I can give a pass to the dirty throng at trump tv, but not government employees, like the desperate repugnant senators. The tv blockheads are not getting my tax dollars-- Moscow Mitch and the other assorted meanies are, and I resent it. I say put them all to sea in a leaky rowboat.

October 22, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

Is the electoral college real or phony? Have we been giving Republicans the White House over a phony part of the Constitution? I do not remember my civics teacher telling me which parts of the Constitution are real and which parts are just a joke by our hilarious prankster founders. This must be why private school educations are so prized.

October 22, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterRAS

Wow. Just finished reading the opening statement by Bill Taylor today. It looks like someone from the deposition did a snatch-and-dash straight to a location to take photos of the document. Click, flip, click, flip... The pages aren't flat, there are markings in the margin, and every page has on it a shadow of the phone taking the photos caused by the background (overhead?) lighting. Is this person a whistle-blower, a witch, a snitch? Or, just your run-of-the-mill leaker?

October 22, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

@unwashed: Most likely a Democratic Congressional staffer; IOW, as you surmise, "your run-of-the-mill leaker."

October 22, 2019 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

RC readers may find this Philip Zelikow piece (from Lawfare) of interest. It concerns the application of the bribery statute to DiJiT's actions. It's detailed and thorough. https://www.lawfareblog.com/self-dealing-ukraine-core-impeachment-inquiry

October 22, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterKeith Howard

Re: “You Know How to Whistle, Don't You?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MheNUWyROv8

Thank you Mrs. Bea McCrabbie for ALL that you do.

October 22, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterHattie
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