Wednesday, October 23, 2019
'Ultimately Alarming Circumstances.' Read Acting Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor's Full Opening Statement to Congressional Investigators
https://time.com/5707686/bill-taylor-testimony-donald-trump/
Lawmakers coming out of the almost ten-hour hearing said that Taylor filled in the picture drawn by other career officials, including former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker, former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, and Trump’s former top White House Russia adviser Fiona Hill. Taken together, the bureaucrats have provided damning context to what Trump meant when he told Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25, “I would like you to do us a favor.”
It's Not The Deep State That Threatens Trump. It's The State
https://time.com/5707686/bill-taylor-testimony-donald-trump/
Lawmakers coming out of the almost ten-hour hearing said that Taylor filled in the picture drawn by other career officials, including former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker, former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, and Trump’s former top White House Russia adviser Fiona Hill. Taken together, the bureaucrats have provided damning context to what Trump meant when he told Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25, “I would like you to do us a favor.”
Are We Now Well Into Impeachable Territory? | Morning Joe | MSNBC
The WH reacted to acting ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor's testimony on Tuesday, saying it was a smear campaign from 'far-left lawmakers and radical unelected bureaucrats'. The panel discusses Taylor's career and the White House response. Aired on 10/23/19.
Dramatic deposition rocks Trump's impeachment defense
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/23/politics/donald-trump-impeachment-ukraine-testimony/index.html
The top US diplomat in Ukraine notified House investigators that he was told that the release of military aid to Kiev would depend on a pledge to probe the 2016 election and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
The deposition by Bill Taylor on Tuesday appears to directly refute the President's claim that there was no quid pro quo in his dealings with the former Soviet state.
Top US diplomat to Ukraine testifies there was a quid pro quo
https://www.vox.com/2019/10/22/20927322/taylor-impeachment-testimony-ukraine-quid-trump\
The top US diplomat in Ukraine just told lawmakers that President Donald Trump wanted hundreds of millions in military aid to the Eastern European country held up until it agreed to investigate Joe Biden’s family and another conspiracy theory related to Democrats.
In other words, there was a quid pro quo — one that could eventually lead to Trump’s impeachment in the House and even more trouble with the Senate.
William Taylor, the acting US ambassador to Ukraine, testified in front of three House committees on Tuesday as part of the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry. He’s the latest in a parade of current and former US officials who’ve testified in the past few weeks about whether or not Trump withheld around $400 million in military aid to Ukraine for his own political and personal gain.
According to Taylor, that’s exactly what the president did. This is by far the most damning account of Trump’s conduct yet in the impeachment inquiry.
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Monday, October 21, 2019
Mick Mulvaney Melts Down Under Brutal Grilling By Fox’s Chris Wallace
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-acting-chief-of-staff-mick-mulvaney-melts-down-under-brutal-grilling-by-foxs-chris-wallace
The two would go back and forth over this issue for a few more minutes, with Wallace repeatedly cornering Mulvaney over his previous comments and the chief of staff flailing away and struggling to present even a laughable defense.
At one point, Wallace asked Mulvaney whether he had offered his resignation to Trump in the wake of the blowback and criticism he received over the press briefing. Mulvaney said the topic was “absolutely not” discussed with the president, adding that he is “very happy working there.”
CNN, meanwhile, reported Sunday that prior to the impeachment crisis that Trump finds himself currently embroiled in, there were internal efforts to push Mulvaney out as acting chief of staff. Those efforts subsided, however, when the push for impeachment heated up in the wake of the Ukraine scandal late last month.
Besides the issues surrounding the Ukraine scandal and impeachment, Wallace also grilled Mulvaney on the president’s sudden reversal on next year’s G7 summit, which Mulvaney announced last week would be held at Trump’s personal property.
Asked by Wallace why the president “caved” to the bipartisan backlash, Mulvaney said Trump was “honestly surprised at the level of pushback,” adding that the president “still considers himself to be in the hospitality business.”
Wallace seized on the “hospitality business” comment and pressed Mulvaney if the president understood why it “looked lousy.” The acting chief of staff's retort: “I think he thinks people think it looks lousy.”
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Pressure Builds on President Trump As New Revelations Emerge About His Dealings with Ukraine
https://time.com/5704385/donald-trump-ukraine-impeachment-mulvaney/
Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, undercut the President’s denial of a quid pro quo when he told reporters that Trump withheld military aid as leverage to push Ukraine to investigate Democrats’ activity during the 2016 election—and then reversed himself hours later. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said he contacted Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani at the president’s behest to talk about Ukraine—and then resigned. And European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland told House investigators that Trump had delegated power over U.S. foreign policy in Ukraine to Giuliani, and added that it was “wrong” to link political requests to actions on Ukraine.
Friday, October 18, 2019
Mark Lawson explores how the story of Rudolf Kastner, one of the most controversial figures to emerge from the Holocaust, has been retold outside Israel.Part I, Mark Lawson explores the retellings of one of the most controversial stories to emerge from the Holocaust
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0739pgh
If You Didn’t Already Think Trump Was Unfit for Office, Syria and Ukraine Should Change Your Mind
https://time.com/5704178/trump-character-unfit-office/
Throughout the 2016 presidential primaries and through the presidential campaign, those of us who were classified as “Never Trump” or “anti-Trump” conservatives repeated the same mantra, time and time again: Character is destiny. A man’s temperament, knowledge, and integrity inevitably shape his conduct. As much as voters may hope that the weight of the office or the influence of advisers can shape or influence a flawed president, those flaws will still burst forth — especially when a man is as headstrong as Donald Trump.
So now Trump’s character has free reign. Just this week we learned that he tried to engineer a jolting surprise meeting (with photographers present to document the moment) between grieving British parents and the American diplomat who killed their son and then fled the country under diplomatic immunity. It’s hard to conceive of a more insensitive idea. And then today we learned that Trump intends to host the 2020 G7 summit at his company’s own property, the Trump Doral resort near Miami. Only a man who cares nothing for reasonable advice (or negative public perception) could engage in such brazen self-dealing.
As US withdraws, Jerusalem spooked by Moscow’s growing control over Middle East
https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-us-withdraws-jerusalem-spooked-by-moscows-growing-control-over-middle-east/
On the other hand, Israel must come to terms with the fact that the balance of power in the Middle East has fundamentally changed, and it no longer has an ally with boots on the ground in the vicinity, warned Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the US.
“I’m concerned. We have relied for the last 45 years on a Pax Americana that no longer exists. I am not saying that the US won’t come to our assistance [in case of war] but we can’t be certain of it anymore,” he told The Times of Israel. “We have to internalize that that’s the situation.”
The United States is an ally; Russia is not, Oren stressed. “It’s useless for us to pretend that Russia is going to be an ally, but we don’t have to make them enemies either. We can reach a modus vivendi with them.”
Trump's Doral Resort Will Host the G7. That Will Only Raise More Ethical Questions - draining the swamp trump style!
Mulvaney cited the physical layout of the resort, with separate buildings that could hold each country’s delegation, as a major factor in the White House deciding to host the event there. He said that the White House didn’t pick the resort because it may lead to future business that could enrich Trump. “Consider the possibility that Donald Trump’s brand is strong enough as it is,” Mulvaney said. “It is the most recognizable name in the English language and probably in the world.”
'Get Over It.' Trump Tied Ukraine Funding to an Investigation of the DNC, Says Mick Mulvaney
https://time.com/5703826/trump-ukraine-dnc-investigation-mulvaney/
“The look back to what happened in 2016 certainly was part of the things he was worried about in corruption with that nation. And that is absolutely appropriate,” Mulvaney told reporters in the White House briefing room. In response to a question about whether the White House told Ukraine that funding will not flow to the unless the investigation into the Democratic server happened as well, Mulvaney said: “We do that all the time with foreign policy.”
Mulvaney confirmed that Trump had also brought up the debunked conspiracy that Ukrainian individuals were involved in the investigation into the Russian hacking of the DNC server in 2016. There was no such involvement. “Did he also mention to me in [the] past the corruption related to the DNC server? Absolutely,” Mulvaney said of a conversation he had with Trump. “No question about that. But that’s it, and that’s why we held up the money.”
Political influence in foreign policy is “going to happen,” Mulvaney said. “I have news for everybody: Get over it. There’s going to be political influence in foreign policy,” said Mulvaney. “That is going to happen. Elections have consequences, and foreign policy is going to change from the Obama administration to the Trump administration.” One consequence — domestic politics bleeding into Trump’s foreign policy — has now spilled into the open.
The US and Turkey reached a Syrian ceasefire. But what does that mean?
https://www.vox.com/2019/10/17/20919566/turkey-syria-us-ceasefire-erdogan-pence-kurds
According to Pence, Turkey has agreed to a 120-hour (five-day) ceasefire, during which time fighters in the YPG — the main Syrian Kurdish fighting force in the region that has helped the US fight ISIS for several years now — would withdraw from a 20-mile “safe zone” near the border with Turkey. The agreement also requires the YPG to turn over its heavy weaponry and dismantle its fortifications.
In exchange, the United States will not place any more sanctions on Turkey, and if a permanent ceasefire goes into effect, then the US will remove the sanctions and penalties already placed on Turkey for its invasion.
”We got what we wanted. This is not a ceasefire. We [will] only halt our operations,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said.
The guardrails are off the Trump presidency
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/18/politics/donald-trump-impeachment-turkey-kurds-g7-mulvaney/index.html
That apt mission doctrine for a presidency blazing with abuses of power, conflicts of interest and unhinged behavior is the work of White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, whose barn burner of a briefing on a day of political train wrecks, staggering misdirection and reality bending sent a clear message.
Democrats can impeach President Donald Trump, Republicans can bemoan his betrayal of the Kurds and the media can fact-check him till the cows come home -- but nothing is going to restrain or moderate him. In fact, he's becoming ever more incorrigible.
The President's brazen willingness to do exactly what he wants -- key to his appeal to voters angry with the political establishment in 2016 -- shone through a wild few hours that briefly stole the spotlight from the Democratic impeachment inquiry.
Trump unhappy with Mulvaney's press briefing in which he acknowledged quid pro quo, source says
President Donald Trump is not pleased with acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney's press briefing and his acknowledgment on Thursday of a quid pro quo, according to a source close to the President.
"He was not happy," the source said.
Mulvaney shocked reporters when he admitted the Trump administration had held up military funding to Ukraine to press the country to investigate the handling of a Democratic National Committee server hacked in the 2016 election. When told that he had described a quid pro quo arrangement for the military funding, Mulvaney said, "We do that all the time with foreign policy" and later added, "Get over it. There's going to be political influence in foreign policy."
Thursday, October 17, 2019
How Amazon Has Transformed the Hasidic Economy
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/16/nyregion/hasidic-jews-amazon.html
Amazon has become a lucrative place to do business for many Hasidic Jews, offering anonymity to a largely insular community and allowing women to work from home.
Donald Trump and Bill Barr Are Setting a Religious War Trap
Paul Krugman was not wrong to observe that there was a reason these three people, all at the epicenter of a sprawling national scandal over a shadowy foreign policy dedicated to boosting Trump’s 2020 electoral fortunes, might choose this as their path of deflection:
This outburst of God-talk is surely a response to the way the walls are closing in on Trump, the high likelihood that he will be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. Trump’s response to his predicament has been to ramp up the ugliness in an effort to rally his base. The racism has gotten even more explicit, the paranoia about the deep state more extreme. But who makes up Trump’s base? The usual answer is working-class whites, but a deeper dive into the data suggests that it’s more specific: It’s really evangelical working-class whites who are staying with Trump despite growing evidence of his malfeasance and unsuitability for high office.
In Krugman’s view, this comes down to the “the efforts of Trump’s henchmen to use the specter of secularism to distract people from their boss’s sins.”
William Barr’s Wild Misreading of the First Amendment
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/william-barrs-wild-misreading-of-the-first-amendmentLitany of Defeat: Trump Defends Rising Costs of "Strategically Brilliant" Mideast Retreat
https://time.com/5702769/litany-of-defeat-trump-defends-rising-costs-of-strategically-brilliant-mideast-retreat/
Trump said it was “a good thing” that Russian forces had begun supporting the Kurds. On Tuesday, Russians were already sleeping in bunks at bases that American troops had spent years building and provisioning only to abandon them in haste just hours earlier. Trump’s former counter-ISIS envoy Brett McGurk wrote on Twitter that U.S. forces were “executing [an] emergency ‘break glass’ evacuation procedure reserved for an extreme worst-case scenario.” The result, says Hagel is a big win for Russian president Vladimir Putin. “Russia comes out the big winner in the Middle East,” Hagel said. “Putin n
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