As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.
Leonard Pitts, Jr., discusses the impeachment inquiry testimony of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, specifically his belief that speaking the truth because "right matters" is an American virtue:
... His words were a veritable balm in Gilead for a nation sickened to its soul by the orgy of lies and alibis that now passes for leadership. And it hardly seemed worth it (indeed, would have been beside the point) to bring up all the times right has not mattered in America, to subpoena the ghosts of genocide, enslavement, exploitation and imprisonment haunting our history and ask them to testify against Vindman’s evocation of national virtue.
Because what he invoked was not America the actual, but America the aspiration — the more perfect union. And give us credit. If it’s true this is a country that has frequently betrayed its noblest ideals, it’s also true this is a country that had noble ideals to betray in the first place. It was to that America, that dream of America, that Vindman referred.(We quoted Paul Krugman at length yesterday on the utter corruption of the Republican Party, and would suggest reading his full op/ ed again as a companion to Pitts's op/ ed.)
But even it has seen better days. Even the dream of who we are has been ransacked by the president and his defenders, men and women who would rather walk through fire in gasoline-soaked underwear than admit the truth of his malfeasance.
To no one's surprise, the servile rats in the regime of nitwit crime family boss Donald "Donnie Little Hands" Trump were working overtime to concoct a reason for the withholding of military aid to Ukraine (other than the true reason, that it was extortion/ bribery for Ukraine manufacturing dirt on the Bidens):
The research by the White House Counsel’s Office, which was triggered by a congressional impeachment inquiry announced in September, includes early August email exchanges between acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House budget officials seeking to provide an explanation for withholding the funds after the president had already ordered a hold in mid-July on the nearly $400 million in security assistance, according to the three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations. [snip]
In the early August email exchanges, Mulvaney asked acting OMB director Russell Vought for an update on the legal rationale for withholding the aid and how much longer it could be delayed. Trump had made the decision the prior month without an assessment of the reasoning or legal justification, according to two White House officials. Emails show Vought and OMB staffers arguing that withholding aid was legal, while officials at the National Security Council and State Department protested. OMB lawyers said that it was legal to withhold the aid, as long as they deemed it a “temporary” hold, according to people familiar with the review.Is Chief of Rats Mick Mulvaney lawyered up? You better believe he is (he's got Russian spy Maria Butina's lawyer representing him -- you can't make this stuff up)! And, it doesn't help that Mulvaney works in a back- stabbing, CYA snakepit:
Cipollone, who wants Mulvaney’s job, launches review that finds Mulvaney up to his neck in Ukraine scandal, and the results leak. The WH is not a fun place to work right now. https://t.co/xlufItHBRe— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) November 24, 2019
Adam Serwer writes about Trump's (and his rotted out party's) conspiracy against democracy, and how the Ukraine scandal fits a pattern:
The Republican Party has responded to the increasing diversity of the electorate with an accelerating intolerance for ethnic and religious minorities, and with elaborate schemes to disenfranchise rival constituencies and rig election rules to its advantage. Crucial to this effort is its conviction that the Republican electorate is the only one that can confer legitimacy on elected officials, and that the party’s political opponents are no longer wrong but fundamentally illegitimate, faithless usurpers with no right to determine the direction of the country. This has manifested in the quasi-religious dogma that Trump represents the will of Real America, and therefore defiance of his will is itself a form of treason.
Believing that Republican officials will be convinced by the evidence proffered by Trump’s own staff and political appointees is a mistake, because the underlying facts are not genuinely in dispute. Trumpists are not operating from an ethical framework that even allows acknowledgment that the president is capable of being guilty. Trump is the nation, and the nation cannot commit treason against itself. On the contrary, it is Joe Biden who is guilty of betrayal, defying the tribune of the people by seeking to run against him, and it is Trump’s treacherous staff who convict themselves of treason with every statement that implicates the president. The more evidence of Trump’s misdeeds the Democrats uncover, the more they reveal themselves as traitors. For Trumpists, there is no higher patriotism than bending to Trump’s will, and no more base corruption than defying it.The most recent example of the latter being the sacking of Navy Secretary Spencer.
As always, we close by highly recommending you check out Infidel 753's link round-up (and bookmark his blog, by the way), for the most comprehensive array of "various interesting stuff" that he's found searching the Internet.
