When we get down to the essence of the problem . . .
Citizenschallenge, why are you an Earth Centrists? What does that mean?
Thursday, December 12, 2019
Tuesday, December 3, 2019
House Intelligence Committee, December 3, 2019, Impeachment Draft Report
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif.,
holds a news conference after his committee released their impeachment report.
holds a news conference after his committee released their impeachment report.
Streamed live December 3, 2019 | NBC News
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
House Intelligence Committee Releases Draft Report As Part of Impeachment Inquiry
The Rachel Maddow Show 12/03/19
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~House Intelligence Committee Releases Draft Report As Part of Impeachment Inquiry
Report To Be Voted on This Evening
Washington, December 3, 2019
Washington, DC – Today, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released the draft report – “The Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report” – to all Members and the public.
Monday, December 2, 2019
C-SPAN's Trump Impeachment Inquiry Collection - days 1,2,3,4,5
Here's a collection of C-SPAN videos covering November's House Impeachment Inquiry Hearings. I'm also including the time signature notes Make-Make has been posting as comments. I think Make-Make has done a wonderful service worth sharing. These notes can be helpful when trying to navigate the hours worth of questions, answers and GOP's rhetorical fancy dancing and diversions, (not to mention their god-awful normalization of out and out criminality and even treasonous behavior). But I digress, this is about creating my own record of what was actually said. As a personal bonus, it would be cool if some others can find it helpful. Feel free to copy and share.
https://www.rev.com/blog/category/political-transcripts
For Impeachment Hearing Transcripts link to:
November 13: Bill Taylor, George Kent Testimony Transcript
November 15: Marie Yovanovitch Testimony Transcript
November 19 AM: Alexander Vindman, Jennifer Williams Testimony Transcript
November 19 PM: Kurt Volker, Tim Morrison Testimony Transcript
November 20: Gordon Sondland Testimony Trancript
November 21: Fiona Hill, David Holmes Testimony Transcript
===================================================
Streamed live on Nov 13, 2019, by C-SPAN
House Impeachment Inquiry, Hearing Day 1 - Taylor & Kent Testimony
Ambassador William Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent testify on Impeach Inquiry before House Intelligence Committee. Go to 34:02 for gavel start of hearing.
Sunday, December 1, 2019
Matt Kiser - Impeachment Watch - WhatTheFuckJustHappenedToday.com
I'm always amazed at how the days and weeks speed by, between having to spend time getting caught up on pre-winter and now early-winter chores (we do live in the country and our little cabin is heated by wood) so there's work that needs to be done. Plus the 500 mile trip down to spend a week with family and our young grandson. Too much going on. Enough time to get caught up on news, vent by starting yet more potential projects, while not enough to concentrate on getting any of them finished. Now it's time to get back to it.
The following is a collection of links to resources provided by Matt and friends over at the blog, What The Fuck Just Happened Today, which has been tracking and compiling Trump news since day one, so that We The People have a record to learn from, to use and retain for future reference. And me?, it simply seems like a patriotic duty to share and hopefully help spread this information.
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Impeachment Watch: Day 4.0 (and Day 3.0)
WTF Community Leader
1/ The U.S. ambassador to the European Union testified that he and senior administration officials “followed the president’s orders” to work with Rudy Giuliani to pressure Ukraine into announcing investigations into Joe Biden and the discredited conspiracy theory that the country helped Democrats in the 2016 election. Gordon Sondland testified that he, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and special envoy Kurt Volker coordinated with Giuliani at the “at the express direction of the president of the United States” to pressure Ukraine into launching investigations.
Sondland said he directly communicated the “quid pro quo” arrangement to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Sondland also provided House impeachment investigators with emails and texts showing that acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Perry, and others were all aware that Trump conditioned a White House meeting for Zelensky on his willingness to launch investigations. “They knew what we were doing and why,” Sondland said. “Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret.”
- Quotables: Gordon Sondland.
- “Again, everyone was in the loop.”
- “Was there a quid pro quo? … YES.”
- “… we knew these investigations were important to the president.”
- “… we followed the president’s orders.”
- “I followed the directions of the president.”
- ANALYSIS: 4 things we learned from Gordon Sondland
- ANALYSIS: 5 takeaways from Gordon Sondland’s testimony
- READ: Gordon Sondland’s opening statement
- Live blogs: New York Times / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / NBC News / CNN
2/ Sondland testified that he told Pence before his Sept. 1 meeting with Zelensky that he “had concerns that the delay in aid had become tied to the issue of investigations.”
(CNN / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal)
Friday, November 22, 2019
How Trump 'Hijacked' American Politics With Delusions (and plain nastiness).
They meme’d Trump into the White House. How was that possible? How did We The People of the United States allow such a recognized lowlife self-serving deadbeat and showman to be handed the Presidency of this nation?
Well, it started with allowing the US House of Representative to be packed with a bunch of angry scared Tea-partiers with their open contempt for our American government. They have had one thing in mind, that is to weaken our government to the point that it's easy pickings for the oligarch wannabes such as the Kochs and Murdochs and Ailes (who masterminded the past decades of descent into an alternate reality that dismisses physical reality with a self-certain arrogant contempt that beats all.)
A healthy democracy depends on an informed and engaged citizenry. Here I share a series of stories that look at one of the reasons we got here. This threat needs to be recognized and understood - if we are to try and seriously confront it. Confront it with what? With a renewed demand that honesty, truth, ethics do matter to a civil society and our future. I include excerpts from:
Greg Epstein, TechCrunch.com
Interview with Terry Gross, Fresh Air
Kara Swisher Book Review, New York Times
Brian Feldman, New York Magazine
Kathrine Schwab, FastCompany
Strand Book Store | YouTube Video
The Book:
~~~~~~~~
Annie Karni, Kevin Roose and Katie Rogers, New York Times
Drew Harwell, Tony Romm, Washington Post
Yuliya Talmazan and Monica Alba, NBC News
Charlie Warzel, New York Times
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Friday, November 15, 2019
Trump Impeachment Hearings (Day2) - Marie Yovanovitch
During today's Impeachment Hearing, Day Two, it was nuts listening to Jordan and Stefanik's dialogue, what's with all that melodramatic dripping contempt for our democratic government and it's rules?
So now the GOP tells us it's a "performance" to expect the rule of law to be respected and obeyed? It's "performance" that we're appalled at witnessing our President playing political extortion with an ally's self-defense needs. What is going on here? Actually, I do know, the GOP questioners are playing to their bubble and steadfastly ignoring the reality of the facts.
What about simple FAIR PLAY. What about Honest Constructive Debate? Where both sides are bound by an expectation to be truthful?
Doesn't a sane government require a standard of honesty that applies to all sides? But all I hear from the GOP is malicious slanderous innuendo, fabricated conspiracy theories, misdirection, and wasting time with ridiculous side stories, oh an the bullying - all justified because of their most grotesque partisan blindspots.
I wish someone would ask the GOP what they think of the other half of this country who believe in science and constructive debates, debates where honesty is expected from all sides? Where learning and improving is the goal. What about us? Where do we go from here?
So now the GOP tells us it's a "performance" to expect the rule of law to be respected and obeyed? It's "performance" that we're appalled at witnessing our President playing political extortion with an ally's self-defense needs. What is going on here? Actually, I do know, the GOP questioners are playing to their bubble and steadfastly ignoring the reality of the facts.
What about simple FAIR PLAY. What about Honest Constructive Debate? Where both sides are bound by an expectation to be truthful?
Doesn't a sane government require a standard of honesty that applies to all sides? But all I hear from the GOP is malicious slanderous innuendo, fabricated conspiracy theories, misdirection, and wasting time with ridiculous side stories, oh an the bullying - all justified because of their most grotesque partisan blindspots.
I wish someone would ask the GOP what they think of the other half of this country who believe in science and constructive debates, debates where honesty is expected from all sides? Where learning and improving is the goal. What about us? Where do we go from here?
The Roger Stone Collection - November 15, 2019
I’ve been watching that amoral Roger Stone damage American politics all my life. With his love of dirty tricks and hurting people, his prideful contempt for humanity and civility, ethics, dignity, honor, respect, empathy and then the self-worship and his own gluttony - he epitomizes the "Ugly American" as much as Trump does. Winning is all that mattered.
Future of humanity?
Stone's response, Who the fuk cares!? I got mine and fuk you and yours! Too much is never going to be enough for me and it doesn't matter how much carnage I leave in my wake.
He had a hell of run. Roger Stone was tough enough, bullying enough, that Democrats wilted time after time, time after time, and today in many ways our political mess is Roger Stone's legacy as much as anyone’s.
The Republican’s selective acceptance and their normalization of such criminality makes me more fearful for our short term future than ever before. I think Democrats in general simply have no conception of the 'war footing' going on in their god-fearing minds. But, I digress, here I wanted to share a selection of articles to introduce the uninitiated to why Roger Stone is a big deal.
Roger Stone found guilty on all 7 counts | ABC News
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Roger Stone’s New York intrigues
By Zach Williams November 15, 2019
The ‘malevolent Forrest Gump’ has never strayed far from his home state.
1960 – Fake news in school …
1972 – Nixon’s reelection campaign …
1980 – John Anderson campaign …
1999 – Trump’s aborted Reform Party campaign …
2000 – The Florida Recount …
2002 – Billionaire Tom Golisano gubernatorial run …
2004 – Al Sharpton campaign …
2007 – The New York state Senate …
2010 – The Kristin Davis for governor campaign …
2015 – Trump campaign …
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Trump Impeachment Hearings (Day1) Bill Taylor, George Kent
Full video of Trump Impeachment Hearings (Day 1) | NBC News
The House Intelligence Committee holds its first public hearing in President Trump's impeachment inquiry. Witnesses include Bill Taylor, Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, and George Kent, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.
I graduated high school in 1973. By then I’d already had enough science classes to understand the fundamental facts of Anthropogenic Global Warming. Not that it’s tough to do, since though the details get impossibly complex, the fundamentals are quite straightforward and accessible to any intelligent person engaged in a good-faith learning effort.
In the decades since observed changes on Earth have proven the scientists correct in their concerns and their science. (I’m happy to debate that point, if anyone wants to question it.)
In these decades I have watched Republican leaders get ever more unhinged from physical realities, facts and well understood scientific truths - as they strayed further and further into self-certain self-delusion. Today we see where that has lead our GOP leaders.
Monday, September 23, 2019
Greta Thunberg Transcript of her sept.23.18
Speaking truth to power.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16, addressed the U.N.’s Climate Action Summit in New York City on Monday. Here’s the full transcript of Thunberg’s speech, beginning with her response to a question about the message she has for world leaders.
“My message is that we’ll be watching you.
“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!
“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!
“For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you’re doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.
Thursday, May 9, 2019
Why do Liberals Despise Trump? Seriously?
I was reading our local weekly, the Durango Telegraph, and came across a letter from an old letter-to-the-editor sparing mate. His words hit me at the right moment. (They were obviously tongue in cheek, yuck yuck fun'n stuff, as they say. So what?) Since I've been wondering about how that ~35% of Trump believers can justify their steadfast faith in that transparent con-artist. I decided to spent today's free time trying to enunciate why many of us find Trump so unpalatable. Then I couldn't resist weaving nearly seventy links into the lines. Stories and resources for the curious - explore those hot links.
Normally I’d cover the name, but in this case I think he’d feel insulted were I to do that, since he is a local letter writing legend and proud of his wordsmithing.
If you want to fact check that estimate,
see for yourself:
Shan Wells - Editorial Cartoonist
Dear Editor of the Durango Telegraph,
Dennis' bit of petty ridicule aimed at your excellent political cartoonist Shan Wells (5/2/19) reflects a sad reality I’ve noticed amongst Trump lovers. All their talking points are built up upon fabricating ridicule and dismissal by reframing their self-made enemies into straw men for easy burning.
He believes liberals are just over the top with their “hatred" for Trump. Don’t suppose he’d ever let himself imagine it’s what Trump stands for, that’s our problem? Not that there isn’t plenty about the person himself to turn the stomach of any freedom loving rationalist.
Lets consider the pre-election decades, we saw a shameless lying self-promoting narcissist. A man-child who’s self-esteem was so rotten he needed a gold plated apartment and toilet to salve his ego, but it wasn’t enough. He needs everyone to know about it.
Me First and he couldn’t care less about anyone but himself. Trump’s promises and contracts were made to be broken, he ran businesses into the ground, and he turned bankruptcy into a braggadocious filled profit driver. Never showing scruples nor empathy towards the honest workers he was robbing out of their fair pay - all the while obsessing over getting his face into the papers.
Then the election years. Trump builds his political base upon hatred and an obvious lie - one that’s about as dirty, underhanded, racist and ruthlessly malicious as it gets - denying President Obama’s citizenship, though the physical proof of Obama’s birth in Hawaii is overwhelming to all who’ve investigated. Add to that he knows little to nothing about our government, except that he despises it.
Then listening to Trump talk, it’s nothing but rambling lines of nonsense. Telling his audience what they want to hear, regardless of the actual reality surrounding the issues. Turns out he lies incessantly, even about stuff he doesn’t need to lie about. But Trumpsters love him and that he’s a lie factory matters not a wit. Why? They like what they hear? Me First, then fear and hatred towards all others. Is that it?
Look at the way he pretends to be Christian, why isn’t that phoniness recognizable by the faithful? Why don’t they care? Me thinks because ethics, morality, honesty actually doesn’t mean squat to them! Dreams of personal prosperity, that’s the key to their Evangelical faith! Now, Trump’s Me First has them cheering on the transformation of Our America into Their Theocracy.
Then the money and the Russians. Turns out Trump lost a billion dollars during the rah rah 80s, 90s when everyone else with money was making more of it. Still his line of credit seems endless. Where did that come from? Especially after he became persona non-gratis at all the New York banks? Yeah, we know, it came from DeutscheBank. The same DeutscheBank that got busted for that huge Russian money laundering scheme. Look it up.
From all Trump says and does it’s obvious he despises American principles of pluralism, democracy, fair play, three branch balance of power, honesty, and constructive debate. Me First seems as far as his vision goes.
A budding totalitarian who makes mortal enemies out of anyone who disagrees with him. He is absolutely self-certain, but educationally, historically about as stupid as they come. A text book example of Dunning-Kruger if there ever was. It’s all about facade.
Well okay that’s going too far, there is substance to Trump - his predatory skills and his passion for no-holds barred dirty fighting. Is that why the Christian right worships the Trump?
Oh and that little matter of trusting and believing in Russia’s Putin more than USA’s national security apparatus. Doesn’t bother them in the least? Why? There’s more, but do you care?’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unpaid Bills Pile Up In The Wake Of President
Donald Trump Rallies | All In | MSNBC
The Trump campaign is refusing to pay bills owed to cities all across the country. Aired on 10/25/19.
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