riversedge
riversedge's JournalWOW Californian mayor on #CaliforniaFires " This is climate change but it is more than climate chang
I can't imagine living under this stress.--never knowing when your home could go up in flames, evacuating and not know what is happening. 
https://twitter.com/Bur01210878/status/1187505918822551558?s=20
https://twitter.com/BViddyCent/status/1187546186204336128?s=20
WOW Californian mayor on #CaliforniaFires " This is climate change but it is more than climate change , it is corporate greed feeding climate change , it is federal gov greed feeding climate change , it is our ignorance feeding climate change #auspol
https://twitter.com/ricklevy67/status/1187511689765216257?s=20
https://twitter.com/DemsMoving/status/1187517232533786625?s=20
https://twitter.com/Rynhedrick/status/1187565710727356417?s=20
https://twitter.com/kishineff/status/1187589574714744832?s=20
https://twitter.com/afangirlsslife/status/1187565998028668928?s=20
https://twitter.com/sunrisemvmt/status/1187516858657902592?s=20
https://twitter.com/mrscall911/status/1187545779965030402?s=20
Amy Klobuchar on Maddow now.....
Pompeo Gets Drawn Deeper--Way Deeper--Into the Ukraine Scandal
Source: DAILY BEAST
Ambassador Taylor’s deposition moved the secretary of state to the center of the impeachment probe. House Democrats are redoubling efforts to get him to answer their questions.
Updated 10.24.19 10:46AM ET / Published 10.23.19 7:28PM ET
Whatever hope Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had of staying in the background of the House Democratic impeachment inquiry evaporated under the heat of Ambassador William Taylor’s damning deposition. House Democrats are now redoubling their efforts at pulling Pompeo deeper into an impeachment inquiry the secretary has met with defiance.
Taylor, the acting ambassador to Ukraine, told legislators on Tuesday that Pompeo loomed large in what Taylor described as an “irregular” effort to make assistance to Ukraine contingent on the young Volodomyr Zelensky government’s willingness to investigate Trump’s domestic political rivals.
In a letter to Congress earlier this month, Pompeo said he would hold on to relevant communications and materials in order to protect career diplomats and officials in his department. Now, though, congressional staffers tell The Daily Beast they are again attempting to gain access to key evidence and say Pompeo’s reasoning for withholding is shallow. Those staffers pointed to the State Department’s history of mistreating officials for their perceived disloyalty to the Trump administration.
“Pompeo is not just a yes man to the president, he is a hell-yes man,” said Thomas Countryman, who retired from State in January 2017 after a three-decade diplomatic career. “It’s been especially disappointing that as he is asked hard questions, he adopts the Trumpian style of refusing to engage in substance and going into ad hominem attacks. It reminds me of the old RCA ads: ‘His Master’s Voice.’”
Pressure is mounting against Pompeo following Taylor’s testimony Tuesday and in anticipation of Saturday’s appearance by the department’s acting assistant secretary at the Bureau for European and Eurasian Affairs, Phil Reeker. Two sources close to the impeachment inquiry said they expect Reeker to supply additional information about Pompeo’s role in Rudy Giuliani's shadow diplomatic effort to convince Ukraine to dig up dirt on 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden.
"Obviously, [Pompeo] is central to this series of events. I think it would be very useful to hear from him to establish all the necessary facts in the case,” Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) told The Daily Beast. “It's hard to imagine he would be completely candid, since he's smack in the middle of this in a very, very serious way.”
Even before Taylor’s deposition, Pompeo’s involvement in the scandal was known. Pompeo was on the July 25 call between Trump and Zelensky, the one where Trump asked for a “favor” – enabling investigations of his political rivals – after Zelensky mentioned his desire for more American anti-tank missiles for use against Russian-sponsored separatists. That call enabled an effort quarterbacked by Rudy Giuliani and aided by State appointees—something Pompeo suggested to ABC’s Martha Raddatz in September was unfamiliar to him. ................................................
Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/pompeo-gets-drawn-deeperway-deeperinto-the-ukraine-scandal?ref=home&via=twitter_page
Would be icing on the cake to see Pompous Pampeo go down!!
“Pompeo is not just a yes man to the president, he is a hell-yes man.”
— Former State Department official Tom Countryman
[Trump] Self-Dealing in Ukraine: The Core of the Impeachment Inquiry..
Another very good article.
Self-Dealing in Ukraine: The Core of the Impeachment Inquiry
https://www.lawfareblog.com/self-dealing-ukraine-core-impeachment-inquiry
By Philip Zelikow
Monday, October 21, 2019, 4:11 PM
As the Ukraine story develops, the public focus has remained largely on wrongdoing by the president outside the realm of criminal law, focusing instead on President Trump’s apparent use of his office for personal gain. On one level, this makes sense: Impeachment is only about removal of the president from office, not about criminal prosecution and imprisonment. So the standards and processes for impeachment are different.
But it would be a mistake to ignore the criminal law entirely. Evidence of criminal misconduct, specifically, the federal bribery statute, should influence political judgments about impeachment. After all, “Bribery” is one of the grounds for impeachment specifically enumerated in the Constitution.
Before getting involved in foreign policy work, most of my professional work was in criminal justice. The emerging case should be understood from both of these perspectives. Here, I offer a view of how a public corruption prosecutor might regard the way the case is taking shape. In addition to the role that possible criminal wrongdoing by the president could play in the ongoing impeachment inquiry, evidence about criminal misconduct might also apply, more directly, to the possible investigations of others beyond the president—including Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.
The core of the impeachment inquiry is about whether Trump engaged in self-dealing, where he used his power in a publicly held enterprise (that is, the government of the United States) for personal gain. Most executives in the private sector know what self-dealing is, and recent headlines about Renault-Nissan or WeWork have reminded them. They also know how most corporate boards would handle a case of self-dealing that involved important programs and sums of money, and in which the CEO had fired executives who interfered with the self-dealing.
When Mulvaney was asked about a quid pro quo, he said, on Oct. 17, “We do that all the time with foreign policy.” That is correct. But there is a profound difference between using governmental power in a quid pro quo as part of a public (or fiduciary) duty to advance the public interests of the United States versus using governmental power as a quid pro quo to advance the private interests of Donald Trump or Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani, a private citizen, said in May that he was working to advance the interests of “my client.” There are many jail inmates and former executives who could not distinguish between public (or fiduciary) interests and their private interests...................................
Elijah Cummings arrived for the last time in the U.S. Capitol to lie in state--and Lovely toon......
I watch a bit of the memorial--Pelosi gave a short but sweet sending off.
I had a lump in my throat watching. All were so respectful.
Sabrina McDaniel
@Sabrina_McDa
·
7h
Elijah Cummings arrived for the last time in the U.S. Capitol to lie in state
https://twitter.com/Sabrina_McDa/status/1187385832325316608?s=20
Trump's RNC is now feuding with the right-wing newspaper that exposed Kellyanne Conway
oh boy. but I love it.
https://twitter.com/montanajackass/status/1187483766341558272?s=20
Trump’s RNC is now feuding with the right-wing newspaper that exposed Kellyanne Conway
Published 1 min ago
on October 24, 2019
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On Thursday, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway came under scrutiny following a Washington Examiner article that she lost her temper at a journalist who asked about her Trump-skeptic husband and threatened to investigate the reporter’s family.
RNC rapid response director Steve Guest immediately came out attacking the conservative newspaper, claiming that they had had an “agreement” the tirade was off the record:
https://twitter.com/GoodGlassWorks/status/1187483701464178688?s=20
https://twitter.com/Oskaer__13/status/1187483482198462465?s=20
Revealing stuff from Lindsey Graham, recounting what President Trump told senators over lunch.
Trumpy is having a bad feel sorry for himself sad. But he is cornered and dangerous at this point IMHO.
Lindsey feels sorry for him no doubt.
https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1187448379825180676?s=20
(Clears throat) Ahem...
Fuck the president’s feelings.
Quote Tweet
Sahil Kapur @sahilkapur
· 1h
Revealing stuff from Lindsey Graham, recounting what President Trump told senators over lunch.
“He keeps telling us he did nothing wrong... He feels like he doesn’t have a real fair chance of being president of the United States. He thought it would be over with Mueller.”
https://twitter.com/AdamParkhomenko/status/1187459717288923143?s=20
"and the secret service is stealing my pens"
shauna
@goldengateblond
·
1h
Replying to
@sahilkapur
Trump also thought the press would start being nicer to him once he was elected, a childlike assumption that ignores the reality of politics
#Impeach
@ebishop1966
·
56m
And Trump thought the press would hide.all of his secrets...after he called them "the enemy of the people"
James Marchand
@MarchandMusic
·
1h
Replying to
@sahilkapur
and
@highbrow_nobrow
Yeah, it's tough fitting in being POTUS between all those golf games.
Deb
@DebandKhola
·
1h
Replying to
@sahilkapur
and
@OverUnderClover
Maybe if he stops committing crimes and abusing the power of the office for personal gain.....Oh and stops starting fires and then patting himself on the back when he is forced to put them out all to the detriment of this country.
Karen Myatt
@karenamyatt
·
24m
Replying to
@sahilkapur
The first thing addressed is Trump’s mood. Says it all. Mad king scares GOP w fear of Mean Tweet. Trump thought press would submit to him like GOP toadies. It’s why he ratchets up the media hate. Instead they’ve become feistier. He bought Barr perverted vision of Mueller. Oops.
Outfoxed and Outgunned: How China Routed the U.S. [State Department] in a U.N. Agency
Several stories over the last few years have been posted here about the gutting of the State Department.
This story below is the sad outcome of that problem.
Outfoxed and Outgunned: How China Routed the U.S. in a U.N. Agency
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/23/china-united-states-fao-kevin-moley/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/23/china-united-states-fao-kevin-moley/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
The race for the top job at an obscure U.N. agency tested great-power influence on the world stage—and Beijing coasted into a victory over Washington.
By Colum Lynch, Robbie Gramer
In mid-January, Kevin Moley, the senior State Department official responsible for overseeing U.S. relations with the United Nations and other international organizations, issued a stern command to a gathering of visiting U.S. diplomats in Washington: China was on the rise, and America’s diplomatic corps needed to do everything in its power to thwart Beijing’s ambitions.
China’s bid to place one of its own top officials at the head of the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which helps direct agricultural and food security policies worldwide, offered an early test, Moley noted. The election was still some five months away. But Moley, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs, made clear that defeating China would become a key U.S. foreign-policy goal.
“It was all China, China, China,” recalled a source familiar with the exchange. “‘We have to do anything to beat the Chinese,’” the source recalled Moley as saying.
Five months later, the race ended in a stinging defeat for the United States. Beijing’s candidate, Qu Dongyu, the vice minister of agriculture and rural affairs, overwhelmingly won the June 23 election with 108 out of 191 votes from the organization’s 194 member countries. U.S. diplomats initially anticipated their favored candidate, a former Georgian agriculture minister, receiving at least 60 votes. He ended up getting 12.
The win marked an international triumph for China, showcasing its growing political and economic might and its newfound ability to seed top jobs at international institutions with hand-picked candidates. But the race also fueled allegations that it forgave tens of millions of dollars of debt to an African state in exchange for withdrawing its candidate from the race and threatened economic retaliation against smaller and more developing countries if they opposed China’s plan.
The story, drawing on interviews from nearly two dozen officials and experts, also exposed the confused and clumsy state of diplomacy in the Trump administration. Critics charge that the president and his top diplomats are ceding influence in international organizations while at the same time trying to keep China from assuming greater control of them.
Throughout the process of the FAO election, Washington ignored repeated warning signs about its own strategy, clashed with some of its closest allies, and ultimately paved the way for China to coast into a diplomatic win that could elevate its signature foreign-policy ambitions in the developing world...............................
Trump's lies--during his Wednesday Press Conference-- on Syria were jaw-dropping
Trump's lies on Syria were jaw-dropping
https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/23/opinions/trumps-lies-on-syria-were-jaw-dropping-ghitis/index.html
Opinion by Frida Ghitis Updated 9:16 PM ET, Wed October 23, 2019
(CNN)President Donald Trump stood in front of the microphone in the White House Diplomatic Reception Room and strafed the world with a barrage of lies and nonsensical, self-serving claims. We've seen it before, but the spectacle Trump served on Wednesday when he bragged and boasted about his great achievement in Syria was even more grotesque than usual, because he sought to paint what has been a calamity for America's Kurdish friends -- and for US standing in the world -- as a great personal triumph.
The "Alice in Wonderland" factor may have been lost on Trump's most devout followers, probably the intended audience for this spectacle of deceit, but the fact is that much of what Trump said wasn't just incorrect, it was the exact opposite of the truth -- contradicted even by the administration's own experts in remarks made recently and months earlier.
In announcing that Turkey has agreed to a "permanent" ceasefire and taking credit for the possible end to the carnage he helped spark, Trump claimed, "We have done (Turkey and the Kurds) a great service," by removing US forces. Trump repeatedly lied about the American mission, .................................................
Turkey has paid no price. The Kurds have lost the security and self-rule they enjoyed, and America has lost its credibility and influence in the Middle East, a vital region. Observers are openly asking who will trust America after this debacle..............................................
...........................................................
The President's version of events was so divorced from reality that, only moments before he praised Erdogan, his own envoy to Syria, Amb. Jim Jeffrey, told Congress that the US has seen evidence of war crimes in a Turkish invasion he called "a tragic disaster."
Trump lifted all the sanctions the US imposed on Turkey after it launched an invasion of Syrian territory that had been under control of the Kurds with US support --.................................
Trump lied about the fate of ISIS, saying prisoners who were being guarded by the Kurds, are "under very, very strict lock and key," adding that a few who escaped had been "largely recaptured." Secretary of Defense Mark Esper just told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that more than 100 escaped, and Jeffrey told Congress, "We do not know where they are."
Trump sought to throw sand in the eyes of his audience, pretending the past couple of weeks have been a triumph of US foreign policy. The precise opposite is true..............................
It is, indeed, a great outcome for Vladimir Putin, who now becomes the dominant power broker in the area; for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, whose rule over all the Syrian territory has now become the official plan in a new Turkey-Russia agreement; for Iran, whose Syrian ally now gets to stay in power; for Turkey, who got to crush Syrian Kurds; and for Hezbollah, whose patrons now have the upper hand.
His predecessor's Syria policy was disastrous, as many of us noted. It took Trump to unravel the one element that worked, and ..................................
.......................
In a moment of phony modesty, Trump said "It's too early for me to be congratulated," and proceeded to praise himself. It's not too early to note, as the Kurds and many others have, that Trump just authored a shameful, disastrous chapter in US foreign policy. No amount of lies and bluster can hide that fact.
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