After reading President Trump’s tweet attacking Ambassador Maria Yovanovitch as she was testifying, House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff asked the diplomat whether she thought the tweet was meant to intimidate her.
Said Yovanovitch: “I can’t speak to what the president is trying to do, but I think the effect is intimidating.”
Schiff responded: “Some of us here take witness intimidation very seriously.” ============================================ Backdrop Josh Marshall
One of the subtexts or backdrops to this part of the impeachment drama is something that doesn’t get discussed much explicitly. President Trump would despise Taylor, Kent, Yovanovitch, et al. regardless simply because they are saying things that are damaging to him. Opponents are all bad people. But it goes beyond that. In Trump’s worldview these people are losers. They are reasonably compensated. But working in the Foreign Service you don’t amass any great wealth, even over a lifetime. You also, by design, don’t become famous, unless something goes terribly wrong. To the President, the idea you’d spend your life like that is totally bizarre. You can hear this in all his comments. ===========================================
I am back from the rally; conditions for photography were atrocious, but here is a short video from the local CBS affiliate. [Click] Overall a youngish crowd, but a fair proportion of middle-agers and some old folks. Bernie should have his stump speech down well by now, and he does. (This time DT is giving him a LOT of material to work with!). A responsive crowd, cool but not cold weather, no wind. I estimate only a few hundred people were in line when the gates opened at 4:30 PM (I was number ten in one of the two lines), but they just kept coming, and coming, and coming; based on my measurements of the area a couple of days ago, I estimate that there were at least five thousand attendees, and perhaps as many as six thousand. I fell to talking at length with a couple of other people—one while standing in line, another sitting on a bench off to one side of the seating area. All good fun.
Ousted Ambassador Describes ‘Crisis’ at State Department [Click]
ReplyDeleteTrump Smears Yovanovitch as She Testifies [Click]
After reading President Trump’s tweet attacking Ambassador Maria Yovanovitch as she was testifying, House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff asked the diplomat whether she thought the tweet was meant to intimidate her.
Said Yovanovitch: “I can’t speak to what the president is trying to do, but I think the effect is intimidating.”
Schiff responded: “Some of us here take witness intimidation very seriously.”
============================================
Backdrop
Josh Marshall
One of the subtexts or backdrops to this part of the impeachment drama is something that doesn’t get discussed much explicitly. President Trump would despise Taylor, Kent, Yovanovitch, et al. regardless simply because they are saying things that are damaging to him. Opponents are all bad people. But it goes beyond that. In Trump’s worldview these people are losers. They are reasonably compensated. But working in the Foreign Service you don’t amass any great wealth, even over a lifetime. You also, by design, don’t become famous, unless something goes terribly wrong. To the President, the idea you’d spend your life like that is totally bizarre. You can hear this in all his comments.
===========================================
Trump demands South Korea pay five times as much for US troops. [Click] "Nothing says I love you like a shakedown…”
Venice council flooded minutes after rejecting climate crisis plan [Click]
‘A little out of touch’: the quest to find Joe Biden's millennial supporters [Click]
Boris Johnson takes to the airwaves keen to avoid the truth at all costs [Click] “He was happily lying about getting Brexit done when presenter Rachel Burden slipped him the killer question”
The wheels on the Boris bus go round and round ... and then come off? [Click]
Roger Stone Found Guilty on All Counts [Click] Might be looking at a twenty-year vacation, all expenses paid.
ReplyDeleteThe Snowflake in Chief Doesn’t Like It. [Click]
3 Indiana Judges Suspended After Drunken White Castle Brawl That Left 2 Of Them Wounded [Click] The story doesn’t tell whether they were Republicans.
Even Fox Gnus recognize that Trump furnished another article of impeachment by attacking Yovanovitch. [Click] And completely undermined the GOP’s strategy for the impeachment hearings.
Transcript Shows White House Made Up Details of Earlier Call With Ukranian President. [Click] Oops!
Ocasio-Cortez: 'Trump himself is clearly not satisfied with only one article of impeachment' [Click]
Yovanovitch Pointedly Cites Benghazi In Robust Defense of Diplomats [Click]
Yovanovitch Was Honoring Acid-Murdered Anti-Corruption Activist When Recalled [Click]
Only one? What kind of loser has only one?
DeleteLOL
Yovanovitch Neatly Picks Apart GOP Talking Point That Ukraine Was Out To Get Trump [Click]
ReplyDeleteI must now proceed with preparations for the rally.
ReplyDeleteTTFN
I am back from the rally; conditions for photography were atrocious, but here is a short video from the local CBS affiliate. [Click] Overall a youngish crowd, but a fair proportion of middle-agers and some old folks. Bernie should have his stump speech down well by now, and he does. (This time DT is giving him a LOT of material to work with!). A responsive crowd, cool but not cold weather, no wind. I estimate only a few hundred people were in line when the gates opened at 4:30 PM (I was number ten in one of the two lines), but they just kept coming, and coming, and coming; based on my measurements of the area a couple of days ago, I estimate that there were at least five thousand attendees, and perhaps as many as six thousand. I fell to talking at length with a couple of other people—one while standing in line, another sitting on a bench off to one side of the seating area. All good fun.
ReplyDeleteSweet! It sounds like the perfect antidote to the earlier part of the day in America!!
DeleteI'm so glad you got to be there Alan!! Thanks for the link! 👍
AOC wasn't there, alas... can't have everything all at once, I suppose.
DeleteWays of measuring cognitive decline [Click]
ReplyDelete