Extreme Red Flags

Little Odessan: Lt Col Alexander Vindman, the Harvard Educated Ukraine expert on the White House National Security council, who earned the Purple Heart, a Ranger tab and the Combat Infantryman Badge while serving in Iraq showed up for his testimony before Congress looking quite dapper in his full military dress uniform. Still an active member of the military, he began his ten hours on the stand by providing details of his family history, talking about how after his mother died, his father brought him, his twin brother, his older brother and his maternal grandmother to the US from the Ukraine, then part of the USSR.  They settled in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn’s Little Odessa, where at ten years old, Vindman and his identical twin brother Yevgeny (who had twins on their Bingo card?) together with their grandmother were featured in a Ken Burns Statue of Liberty documentary. All three of the Vindman brothers went on to join the military; Vindman’s twin is also on the National Security Council where he serves as an ethics lawyer. Vindman detailed how the now infamous call with Ukraine President Zelensky as well as other conversations that he witnessed and/or heard first hand alarmed him because he didn’t believe that withholding aid from Ukraine in order to obtain dirt on Joe Biden and help finding the DNC server had anything to do with national security and because he thought that involving Ukraine in US domestic disputes would, if anything, put the country at risk by jeopardizing their usual bipartisan support.  He discussed his concerns with his brother before taking them to the NSC’s legal advisor John Eisenberg, whose name has come up before since he was alerted by others concerned about what was happening. Eisenberg is the one who had the “transcript,” really just meeting notes since the meeting was not recorded, of Trump’s call with Zelensky hidden away in that super-secret White House server.  Last night, the NY Times revealed that Vindman also tried to make changes to that transcript, adding back in missing references to Joe Biden and Burisma Holdings but that his comments were not incorporated raising the possibility that those missing references account for the “ellipses” included in the version of the "perfect" transcript that Trump released to the public.  Vindman’s testimony confirmed much of what Russia expert Fiona Hall and acting Ambassador Bill Taylor told the committees during their earlier testimony but differed from some of the key things that Trump donor/EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland said during his testimony.  Sondland who probably wishes he had never joined the Trump train now has some serious ‘splaining to do.

Patriot Bashing:  Following Trump’s lead, during the day a number of Republicans, including Rudy Giuliani and members of the Trump echo chamber on Fox and CNN slammed Vindman, suggesting that because he’d been born in Kiev and spoke Russian and Ukrainian that his loyalties and therefore his testimony was suspect.  Those statements were so offensive that by the end of the day, a number of members of Republican leadership, including Congresswoman Liz Cheney walked them back saying that it was “shameful’ to attack a patriot like Vindman, of course she did that while still slamming the Democrats and the impeachment inquiry.  A number of CNN talking heads, including Jake Tapper, slammed their newbie colleague former Republican Congressman Sean Duffy, for participating in the attack on Vindman, but sadly CNN head Jeff Zucker defended Duffy, who earlier endorsed the need to find that DNC server to prove that the Ukrainians rather than the Russians had hacked the DNC emails, saying that it was important to hear voices from both sides of the aisle even if those voices are full of sh-t. Charming to say the least. For her part, MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace, one of those never Trump Republicans, the people that Trump calls scum, was so angry that, sticking with the day’s theme, she lost it, calling Vindman critics Laura Ingraham, Sean Duffy and John Yoo, the former DOJ official who approved Bush’s torture program, “chicken sh-t” for their Vindman slams, pointing out that Vindman, unlike Ivanka and Jared, had a top security clearance, one that he’d earned.  She got mostly positive feedback for that as did acting Ambassador Bill Taylor, who was cheered by crowds during an event back in Ukraine. Wonder if Trump knows that Taylor is still on the payroll.

Though the Republicans like to complain about not being allowed to participate in any of the impeachment inquiry hearings, members of the relevant committees are welcome.  Yesterday, a few of them including no one’s favorite wrestling coach Jim “Gym” Jordan tried very hard to get Vindman to identify the Whistleblower whose letter triggered the investigation into all things Ukraine.  Vindman testified that he doesn’t know the identity of the Whistleblower, but Jordan and his cronies persisted, trying to get him to detail the names of everyone he had spoken with about his concerns, hoping to suss out the Whistleblower’s identity by process of elimination. Intel Committee Chair Adam Schiff cut them off, causing a bit of a dust up within the SCIF chambers, one that continued to rear its ugly head after both sides complained to the press.  The Daily Beast reports that one of Intel Ranking Member Devon Nunes’s aides has also been working to out the Whistleblower.

Next Steps:  Speaker Pelosi released the proposed rules for the next part of the impeachment process. The inquiry will remain in the hands of the Intelligence Committee for now but will be passed over to the Judiciary Committee at some future date where the final grounds for impeachment will be written.  The rules authorize the release of transcripts of much of the testimony that has taken place to date and provide for public hearings. The new rules which will be put up for a floor vote on Thursday, will allow Trump’s lawyers to put up a defense, will allow Republicans to propose witnesses and will allow for questioning by committee lawyers.  However, as expected Republicans are already complaining primarily because that’s what they do about everything especially all things related to impeachment and because, to the extent that he thinks that their witness requests are ridiculous, Committee Chair Schiff will be able to call a committee vote to squash them.  Also, Trump’s lawyers will only get to defend him if the White House starts cooperating on things like requests for documents and witness testimony.  Though a number of officials are still expected to testify before closed doors this week, if all goes according to plan public hearings will begin after Veteran’s Day.      

Golden State:  While impeachment stuff is hot, California is really burning.  Parts of the State are now under a rare “extreme red flag” warning due to the combination of lethal fires and strong Santa Ana winds, conditions that "have not been seen in recent memory." To all of those affected by the fires, hope you are safe and as far away from danger as possible.