More than 300 ex-officials say Trump’s Ukraine actions are ‘profound national security concern’
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What goes through my my mind when I read the news with my morning coffee. …Or for the Simon's Rockers in the group, this is my response journal.
Live updates: Ex-cop Amber Guyger found guilty in murder of Botham Jean – CNN
A jury gets it right. When a police officer kills someone without cause it is called murder.
Kamala dear… Why did you answer this question? Are you under the Trumpian impression that the President has the power to to the Vice-President’s grown children where they may and may not e employed???
One of the Clark family’s lawyers, Dale Galipo, said he was “disappointed but not surprised because I think with few exceptions in the last 10,000 police officer shootings there’s been no criminal prosecutions.”
Galipo, who three weeks ago finalized a $2.4 million settlement with the city for Clark’s two sons, still represents Clark’s parents and grandparents in a pending federal civil rights lawsuit and said the city’s decision to retain the officers could be problematic if they are involved in another shooting down the road.
…“It’s negligent not to be able to recognize the difference between a handgun and a white cell phone.”
…“Sacramento police should know the difference between a gun and a cell phone and my brother should be with us today.”
…“I think people are in shock in this moment that there has been no accountability when it comes to Stephon Clark,” he said. “Today just continually opens up that wound without any healing. … It’s a repeated pattern of no accountability.”
“What does this tell us as community that two killer police will now be on full active duty on our streets?” said Berry Accius, founder of Voice of the Youth and community activist. “What is the message that is being sent to us? … The message to me is, basically, saying it doesn’t matter how much we infiltrate the system; it doesn’t matter how many trainings they create.”
Sacramento officers who killed Stephon Clark to return to duty | The Sacramento Bee
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Feinstein, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said the whistleblower complaint tied to Trump “suggests that an ‘official word-for-word transcript of the call’ was produced.”
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Leaked audio of a private event that Trump attended at the UN catches the president calling reporters animals and scum while threatening the Ukraine whistleblower with death.
Leaked Audio Catches Trump Threatening Ukraine Whistleblower With Death And Calling Reporters Scum
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Part of the $250 million assistance package that the Trump administration announced (then froze and later unfroze) included many of the same items that were provided under Obama, including medical equipment, night vision gear and counter-artillery radar.
Fact-checking Trump’s claim that Obama gave Ukraine “pillows and sheets” – CNNPolitics
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Trump’s obsession with the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike …references a right-wing conspiracy that theorizes the claim that Russia hacked Democratic National Committee’s servers in 2016 are part of an elaborate ruse, devised to discredit Trump’s victory.
…The supposed evidence of Russia’s innocence relies on the belief that a DNC server has been hidden in Ukraine, possibly by CrowdStrike’s cofounder Dmitri Alperovitch.
…That belief may stem from a statement by ….[Trump] in which he questioned why the FBI didn’t look at the DNC server, that CrowdStrike is owned by “a very rich Ukrainian.” Alperovitch is actually a Russian-born American citizen.
…Turning over the physical server isn’t necessary (or the usual procedure) for forensic analyses, and it isn’t as useful as a copy of what was on the server at the time, which CrowdStrike provided to the FBI. And independent security experts and U.S. intelligence agencies confirmed that Russia was behind the hack, using Crowdstrike’s evidence and more than what was found on one server.
The CrowdStrike Conspiracy: Here’s Why Trump Keeps Referencing The Cybersecurity Firm
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Hunter Biden cannot be responsible for violations of the management of Burisma that took place two years before his arrival,” Lutsenko told the Post.
Burisma was under scrutiny for possible abuse of power and unlawful enrichment before Hunter Biden was involved in the company, and he has never been accused of any wrongdoing in the investigation.
Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General: Hunter Biden ‘Did Not Violate Anything’
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Briahna Joy Gray, Sanders’s national press secretary, tweeted [shade] about the Warren campaign’s unionizing effort, which is still under contract negotiation.
…In another tweet, Gray criticized Warren for not supporting a national rent control initiative.
…The campaign’s official position is that their primary focus is going after Joe Biden, as Sanders’s pollster Ben Tulchin told Huffpost, sharing a text message script aimed at persuading Biden voters. But several members of Sanders’s team haven’t been sticking to that same script.
Sanders campaign: Top staffers make a case against Elizabeth Warren – Vox
This is just of the reasons that many Democrats, from rank-and-file to insiders, do not trust the Sander’s organization: his inability to stick to and control the message of his staff and supporters. They go negative and adversarial and he does not reign them in.
Guyger was “an intruder” in Botham Jean’s apartment when she fatally shot him in September of 2018.
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And this is the caliber of people that law enforcement hires and protects above the citizens they are sworn to serve.
“We saw the knives were out for Masha but it was still shocking that she was forced to depart her post just weeks before she was going to go anyway,” retired US Ambassador James Melville told CNN Wednesday. “That’s just such a sign of disrespect, and almost contempt for career officers and diplomacy.”
…”It suggests actions outside of and contrary to the procedures and standards of a professional service whose officers, like their military counterparts, take an oath to uphold the Constitution,” they said in a statement. “Whatever views the Administration has of Ambassador Yovanovitch’s performance, we call on the Administration to make clear that retaliation for political reasons will not be tolerated.
In a statement Thursday, the American Foreign Service Association called “on all Americans to honor and respect the non-partisan, non-political work of the dedicated public servants of the U.S. Foreign Service.”
“Our country needs a professional, non-partisan Foreign Service,” the statement said. “Our members pledge their lives to service to their country and its interests. Any attack on their integrity and commitment to non-partisan service does a great disservice to them, to their families and to our country.”
…Yovanovitch, a career member of the foreign service and who has served in ambassadorships under three presidents, was sworn in as ambassador to Ukraine in August 2016.
In May 2019, Yovanovitch was recalled to Washington, months earlier than expected. The State Department said at the time that Yovanovitch was “concluding her 3-year diplomatic assignment as planned” and that her departure aligned with the presidential transition in Ukraine.
…”It’s injurious to morale and you can imagine how career people feel when they see one of the best people that we have, Masha Yovanovitch, treated like this,” he said.
He called for “the higher levels of the State Department” to “come out and defend her.”
“They should say she was a good ambassador, she did what was asked. She did what her constitutional duty asked her to do, represent the United States ably and honorably,” Burns said. “She deserves an apology, a public apology.”
Diplomats express alarm over Trump’s treatment of former Ukraine ambassador – CNNPolitics
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Trump made the comments to …in the same May 2017 meeting where he came under fire for revealing highly classified information that exposed an intelligence source on the Islamic State.
…[Trump] told Lavrov and Kislyak he was unfazed by Moscow’s election interference because America has done the same thing in other countries. He also reportedly said the firing of ex-FBI Director James Comey got rid of “great pressure” on him.
The remarks prompted officials to restrict access to a memo about the meeting to only a “few officials with the highest security clearances” to keep his comments from the public
Trump Told Russian Officials He Was Unconcerned by Moscow’s Election Interference: Report
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The complaint alleges that Volker went to Kiev in late July and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian political figures and “reportedly provided advice to the Ukrainian leadership about how to ‘navigate’ the demands that the President had made of Mr. Zelenskyy.”
…[Trump] asked Zelensky to “investigate” former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company.
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