awesomeness: Japanese First Lady Edition

by Chris Dierkes · September 29, 2009

Chris Dierkes

Chris Dierkes (aka CJ Smith). 29 years old, happily married, adroit purveyor and voracious student of all kinds of information, theories, methods of inquiry, and forms of practice. Studying to be a priest in the Anglican Church in Canada. Main interests: military theory, diplomacy, foreign affairs, medieval history, religion & politics (esp. Islam and Christianity), and political grand bargains of all shapes and sizes.

Ten Second News

In Shift, U.S. Says Israeli Settlements in West Bank Do Not Violate International Law

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In Shift, U.S. Says Israeli Settlements in West Bank Do Not Violate International Law

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[caption id="attachment_122971" align="aligncenter" width="593"] Jersusalem Embassy[/caption]

From the New York TimesFrom the New York TimesFrom the New York Times:

The Trump administration declared on Monday that the United States does not consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank a violation of international law, reversing four decades of American policy and removing what has been an important barrier to annexation of Palestinian territory.

Breaking News: The Trump administration will stop treating Israel’s West Bank settlements as a violation of international law, a step that may doom peace efforts with Palestinians https://t.co/k3eUdMFXy3
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 18, 2019

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Roger Stone Found Guilty of All Charges

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Roger Stone Found Guilty of All Charges

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[caption id="attachment_184912" align="aligncenter" width="512"] Roger Stone at book signing[/caption]

Roger Stone was found guilty on all 7 charges he faced in his Washington, DC trial.

Jurors have returned a guilty verdict on all of seven counts including five counts of lying to Congress, one count of witness tampering and one count of obstruction of a proceeding. Stone had pleaded not guilty and maintained his innocence throughout his trial in Washington, DC.
Prosecutors asked that Stone be remanded pending sentencing, citing his issues with abiding by court orders since his indictment. Stone's defense pushed back, arguing he has not broken the condition of his release.
Stone's sworn testimony in September 2017 before the House Intelligence Committee forms the basis for most of the charges in his seven-count indictment, which includes allegations he misled the committee on several key elements of their probe. Stone was also charged with witness tampering by urging his former associate, Randy Credico, to exercise his Fifth Amendment rights before the committee.
Roger Stone departs the courthouse for lunch during his trial, Nov. 13, 2019, in Washington, D.C.
With the closure of Stone's case, so ended another chapter in the special counsel's investigation. Robert Mueller and his team of prosecutors investigated Russian interference during the 2016 election and President Trump's efforts to undermine their probe for nearly two years.

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Impeachment Hearings Day 2

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Impeachment Hearings Day 2

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[caption id="attachment_322423" align="aligncenter" width="709"] Creator: Trikosko, Marion S., photographer; Related Name: O'Halloran, Thomas J. , photographer [Public domain][/caption]

The public impeachment hearings resume Friday morning, with former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch appearing before the House Intelligence Committee:

Yovanovitch was removed as ambassador in May after Giuliani and other Trump allies attacked her in television appearances and on Twitter, claiming she was disloyal to the Trump administration. In closed-door testimony in October, she told lawmakers that Giuliani worked in tandem with Yuriy Lutsenko, a former prosecutor in Ukraine, to allege she was standing in the way of investigations into supposed Ukrainian interference in the 2016 campaign and Burisma, the energy company that had employed Hunter Biden, the former vice president's son.
Although her Ukraine tour was supposed to end in 2020, in late April she was "abruptly told" to return to Washington "on the next plane." She did not know why she was being recalled and met with the deputy secretary of state, who told her Mr. Trump "had lost confidence" in her "and no longer wished me to serve as his ambassador." The secretary also told her there had been "a concerted campaign against" her, and there had been pressure to remove her since 2018.
Yovanovitch was also mentioned in Mr. Trump's July 25 call with the president of Ukraine. The president said she was "bad news" and "going to go through some things," according to the White House summary of the call.
Her removal and treatment by the administration rankled many officials in the State Department, one of whom resigned in September over the secretary of state's failure to publicly defend her.

The hearing can be viewed here and join the commentareum in discussing events as they unfold.

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Impeachment Gets Wall-to-Wall Coverage, So So Ratings

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Impeachment Gets Wall-to-Wall Coverage, So So Ratings

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[caption id="attachment_322423" align="aligncenter" width="709"] Creator: Trikosko, Marion S., photographer; Related Name: O'Halloran, Thomas J. , photographer [Public domain][/caption]

The ratings are in for the first public impeachment hearings in 20 years:

It was just by a hair, but the debut of the impeachment hearings against Donald Trump yesterday beat Robert Mueller’s testimony before Congress earlier this year …barely.
With a grand total of 13,098,000 Americans tuning in to watch the televised opening of the House Select Committee on Intelligence questioning on Wednesday, Ambassador William Taylor and Deputy Secretary of State George Kent topped the 12.9 million who saw the former FBI Director’s circumspect stint in the hot seat on July 25.
Having said that with Nielsen numbers from Fox News Channel. MSNBC, ABC, CNN, CBS and NBC now in, the 10 AM – 3:30 PM ET hearing stumbled against another big ticket testimony. The Wednesday event, that the former Celebrity Apprentice host insists he didn’t watch, was down a hard 32% from the audience that eyed pink slipped FBI Director James Comey’s appearance before our elected representatives in June 2017.

Of note, Fox News lead all networks with 2.9 Million viewers, followed by MSNBC (2.7 million), ABC (2 million), CBS (1.9 million), CNN (1.85 million), and NBC (1.7 million). The number was close the the viewship of the Mueller testimony, and nearly 32% less than the 2017 testimony of James Comey, the highest-rated congressional testimony of the Trump Administration.

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Public Impeachment Hearings Begin

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Public Impeachment Hearings Begin

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[caption id="attachment_322423" align="aligncenter" width="709"] Creator: Trikosko, Marion S., photographer; Related Name: O'Halloran, Thomas J. , photographer [Public domain][/caption]

The first public hearings in House Democrats' Impeachment inquiry are set to kick off today in the House Intelligence Committee.

The House impeachment inquiry is set to burst into public view on Wednesday, as two key witnesses who raised concerns about efforts to pressure Ukraine will testify in the first open hearings of the probe.
Bill Taylor, the top diplomat in the U.S. embassy in Ukraine, and George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, will appear before the House Intelligence Committee to face questions from lawmakers and committee staff.
Both have already testified behind closed doors, and told members about they became increasingly alarmed that a delay in military aid to Ukraine was tied to the country launching investigations that would benefit the president politically.
Who is Bill Taylor?
William Taylor is the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, the chargé d'affaires. A West Point graduate and former U.S. Army officer, he earned a Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam, and has been a public servant for more than 50 years.
He has served in a variety of diplomatic roles under presidents of both parties, including a stint as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009.
In his closed-door testimony in October, he said U.S. aid to Ukraine had been explicitly tied to Ukraine's willingness to investigate Mr. Trump's political rivals. He also spoke of an "irregular channel" of policymaking including Giuliani, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland and Kurt Volker, special envoy to Ukraine.
According to Taylor, there was a concerted effort by what he referred to as this "irregular, informal channel of U.S. policy-making" to pressure Ukraine to commit to opening investigations into unproven allegations of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, as well as into the gas company Burisma.
Who is George Kent?
George Kent is the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, overseeing State Department policy toward a number of countries, including Ukraine.
A longtime diplomat, Kent served as deputy chief of mission in the U.S. embassy in Kiev from 2015 to 2018, according to his State Department biography. He previously worked on anti-corruption State Department initiatives in Europe.
Kent provided closed-door testimony echoing Taylor's statements to Congress. He said three officials had declared themselves in charge of Ukraine policy in May: Gordon Sondland, Kurt Volker and Rick Perry.
Kent also said Giuliani had engaged in a "campaign of slander" with no basis in fact against U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

Live stream of the hearings is available here from CBSN.com

Discuss all the days events with the Commentareum here at Ordinary Times.

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