Impeachment Hearings..
Nov. 21st, 2019 10:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatImpeachment hearings...are going in the direction I've been thinking for some time.
I can't watch the damn things -- mainly because I'm at work during them, and I am furious at the Republicans who insist on making this political and divisive, when they should be acting as fact-finders and following a moral code.
All of this is incredibly ironic considering what happened with Clinton and the email scandal in 2016. I have to appreciate the irony - it demonstrates the Universe's wicked sense of humor.
Video Highlights of Fiona Hill and Holms testimony
Fiona Hill, the White House’s former top Europe and Russia expert, who had testified previously about her efforts to oppose the pressure campaign on Ukraine; and David Holmes, an official in the United States Embassy in Ukraine, who was a witness to a key phone call between President Trump and Gordon Sondland, his ambassador to the European Union.
What were the highlights?
*Dr. Hill criticized Republicans for promoting what she called a “fictional narrative” embraced by Mr. Trump: that Ukraine, not Russia, meddled in the 2016 elections. “I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interest,” she said. “These fictions are harmful even if they are deployed for purely domestic political purposes.”
*Dr. Hill called Mr. Trump’s demands for Ukraine to announce investigations into Joe Biden and the 2016 elections a “domestic political errand” that diverged from American foreign policy goals. “This is all going to blow up,” she recalled telling Mr. Sondland.
*Dr. Hill was asked about a now-famous line from her deposition, in which she quoted John Bolton, the national security adviser at the time, as saying, “I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up.” She said she took “drug deal” to mean the scheme of exchanging a White House meeting for the investigations Mr. Trump sought.
*Both Dr. Hill and Mr. Holmes said that the use of the name “Burisma” — a Ukrainian energy company — was code for investigating the Bidens. Asked whether “anyone involved in Ukraine matters in the spring and summer would understand that as well,” Mr. Holmes had a one-word answer: “Yes.”
*Mr. Holmes said he had a “clear impression” that the hold on nearly $400 million in military aid for Ukraine was “likely intended by the president either as an expression of dissatisfaction with the Ukrainians who had not yet agreed to the Burisma/Biden investigation, or as an effort to increase the pressure on them to do so.”
I have a digital subscription to the NY Times, and get their daily news briefings in my email, and an impeachment briefing newsletter that gives me the gist of what happened and why. It's clear, straight-forward reporting, without all the emotional crap that you see on the broadcast channels. In short it is journalists reporting the news not marketing people.
I can't watch the damn things -- mainly because I'm at work during them, and I am furious at the Republicans who insist on making this political and divisive, when they should be acting as fact-finders and following a moral code.
All of this is incredibly ironic considering what happened with Clinton and the email scandal in 2016. I have to appreciate the irony - it demonstrates the Universe's wicked sense of humor.
Video Highlights of Fiona Hill and Holms testimony
Fiona Hill, the White House’s former top Europe and Russia expert, who had testified previously about her efforts to oppose the pressure campaign on Ukraine; and David Holmes, an official in the United States Embassy in Ukraine, who was a witness to a key phone call between President Trump and Gordon Sondland, his ambassador to the European Union.
What were the highlights?
*Dr. Hill criticized Republicans for promoting what she called a “fictional narrative” embraced by Mr. Trump: that Ukraine, not Russia, meddled in the 2016 elections. “I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interest,” she said. “These fictions are harmful even if they are deployed for purely domestic political purposes.”
*Dr. Hill called Mr. Trump’s demands for Ukraine to announce investigations into Joe Biden and the 2016 elections a “domestic political errand” that diverged from American foreign policy goals. “This is all going to blow up,” she recalled telling Mr. Sondland.
*Dr. Hill was asked about a now-famous line from her deposition, in which she quoted John Bolton, the national security adviser at the time, as saying, “I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up.” She said she took “drug deal” to mean the scheme of exchanging a White House meeting for the investigations Mr. Trump sought.
*Both Dr. Hill and Mr. Holmes said that the use of the name “Burisma” — a Ukrainian energy company — was code for investigating the Bidens. Asked whether “anyone involved in Ukraine matters in the spring and summer would understand that as well,” Mr. Holmes had a one-word answer: “Yes.”
*Mr. Holmes said he had a “clear impression” that the hold on nearly $400 million in military aid for Ukraine was “likely intended by the president either as an expression of dissatisfaction with the Ukrainians who had not yet agreed to the Burisma/Biden investigation, or as an effort to increase the pressure on them to do so.”
I have a digital subscription to the NY Times, and get their daily news briefings in my email, and an impeachment briefing newsletter that gives me the gist of what happened and why. It's clear, straight-forward reporting, without all the emotional crap that you see on the broadcast channels. In short it is journalists reporting the news not marketing people.
no subject
Date: 2019-11-22 12:20 pm (UTC)Honestly, if Nunes and Jordan is the best that the Republicans can come up with, they're a sorry bunch.
no subject
Date: 2019-11-22 01:28 pm (UTC)Yep. And Nuns is California's fault. They need to get rid of him. Jordan is Ohio's, apparently.
Meanwhile, Israel is having some of the same problems with it's Prime Minister who is currently under indictment. (Coincidentally a crony of Trump's.)
no subject
Date: 2019-11-22 02:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-22 05:52 pm (UTC)Yes, you can. You aren't trying hard enough. My sister-in-law flipped a red county in upstate NY by registering the weekenders, who lived part time in NYC. They switched their residency to her county and as a result it turned blue for the first time in years. Same with Staten Island.
no subject
Date: 2019-11-22 06:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-22 08:19 pm (UTC)All you can do. I couldn't do it -- but my sister-in-law is very charming and came up with the idea. Researched it and everything.
They've been flipping districts because a lot of liberal millennials are moving into suburban areas and rural areas now. That's partly how Virigina turned blue.