He will rot in hell

Below is the letter Stephanie Schuman 

@LeafLegal

 and I sent to Senator McConnell earlier today, (202) 224-2541, summarizing the testimony Lev Parnas would be able to provide, were he called as a witness. #LetLevSpeak #AmericansDemandWitnesses #CallTheWitnesses #LetBoltonTestify  

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no words

 From twitter from a guy who used to be a White House staffer in answer to a question on how bad this was on a scale of 1-10:

Honestly? This is so fucked it’s nowhere near a normal scale. This is exactly what the separation of powers was designed to prevent. Three coequal branches of government — not a monarch and his stooges.

Smaht Pahk | 2020 Hyundai Sonata | Hyundai

Mary Louise Kelly

Ask journalists why they do the job they do, and you’ll hear a range of answers. Here’s mine: Not every day, but on the best ones, we get to put questions to powerful people and hold them to account. This is both a privilege and a responsibility.

January has been an interesting month on this front. I’ve had the opportunity to put questions, one on one, to the top diplomats of both the United States and Iran, in their respective capitals.

Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, spoke to me on Jan. 7 in Tehran. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke to me last Friday, in Washington. Each man represents a nation in conflict with the other; speaking with them, I wondered what path either could see out of the situation. In both cases, I was allotted 10 minutes for questions.

It turns out you can cover a lot of ground in 10 minutes. When Mr. Zarif sat down with me, on the sidelines of a big think tank conference focused on security in the Persian Gulf, it was just four days after an American drone strike had killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani. We started there.

How might Iran retaliate for General Suleimani’s death? “The United States has committed a grave error,” Mr. Zarif told me. “And it will pay for that grave error.” I do not know whether, at that moment, he was aware that just hours later, Iran would unleash missiles on Iraqi military bases where American troops are housed.

We moved on to whether he would travel to New York later that week, to attend Security Council meetings at the United Nations.

“No,” he told me, “because Mike Pompeo decided I was too dangerous for the United States.” The United States had denied Mr. Zarif a visa, in what some have branded a violation of the 1947 United Nations headquarters agreement, which generally requires the United States to grant access to the United Nations for foreign diplomats.

Next I asked whether we were witnessing the death of the 2015 nuclear deal. Mr. Zarif insisted no — even as he acknowledged that Iran was suspending compliance with centrifuge limits.

The foreign minister and I ended with a tense exchange on what is an uncomfortable question for him: The status of United States citizens imprisoned in Iran, and whether future prisoner exchanges were off the table. “We had proposed a universal exchange of all prisoners and we were doing that in good faith,” Mr. Zarif said. But are those channels still open? No, he conceded, saying, “Those talks are certainly suspended now.”

My interview with Secretary Pompeo came two weeks and three days later, in the East Hall of the Treaty Room, on the seventh floor of the State Department. By then an uneasy pause had taken hold; the United States and Iran appeared, for the moment, to have stepped back from the brink of war.

I kicked off with a question on diplomacy. Is there any serious initiative underway to reopen diplomacy with Iran? “We’ve been engaged in deep diplomatic efforts since the first day of the Trump administration,” Mr. Pompeo replied, underlining American efforts to build a coalition to counter and contain Iran.

But in terms of American engagement with Iran, I went on, are there any plans for talks? “The diplomatic effort on this front has been vigorous, robust and enormously successful,” Mr. Pompeo said, changing the subject back to engaging American allies to put pressure on Iran.

Another question I was curious to hear Secretary Pompeo answer was how the Trump administration plans to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons, should it decide to do so, given that Iran is closer to a nuclear weapons capability than when President Trump took office.

Here’s the relevant portion of the interview:

KELLY: How do you stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon?

POMPEO: We’ll stop them.

KELLY: How? Sanctions?

POMPEO: We’ll stop them.

He did not offer specifics. Nor did he elaborate, when pressed on how to square his resolve with what Mr. Zarif had just told me — that all limits on Iran’s centrifuge program have been suspended.

“Yeah,” Mr. Pompeo said. “He’s blustering.”

Do you have evidence that he’s blustering? He did not directly answer. (In fairness, I could hardly expect him to telegraph what intelligence the United States may possess on the Iranian regime’s nuclear ambitions.)


I write about all this now to refocus attention on the substance of the interviews, which has been overshadowed by Mr. Pompeo’s subsequently swearing at me, calling me a liar and challenging me to find Ukraine on an unmarked map.

For the record, I did. That’s not the point. The point is that recently the risk of miscalculation — of two old adversaries misreading each other and accidentally escalating into armed confrontation — has felt very real. It occurs to me that swapping insults through interviews with journalists such as me might, terrifyingly, be as close as the top diplomats of the United States and Iran came to communicating this month.

There is a reason that freedom of the press is enshrined in the Constitution. There is a reason it matters that people in positions of power — people charged with steering the foreign policy of entire nations — be held to account. The stakes are too high for their impulses and decisions not to be examined in as thoughtful and rigorous an interview as is possible.

Journalists don’t sit down with senior government officials in the service of scoring political points. We do it in the service of asking tough questions, on behalf of our fellow citizens. And then sharing the answers — or lack thereof — with the world.

Mary Louise Kelly is co-host of NPR’s “All Things Considered” and is a former NPR national security correspondent.

Monday Morning Smile

SUNDAY POST - WWJD

Update on Pompeo

Pompeo claims
@NPRKelly
 mistakenly identified Bangladesh as Ukraine. As we evaluate what may be the most breathtakingly childish official statement ever issued by a Secretary of State in over two centuries, consider the magnitude of the mistake he implausibly claims she made:

I hate whoever voted for this turd

Pompeo the Douchebag

Mary Louise Kelly aired an interview with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday (January 24,2020).  The interview started out with her asking him questions on Iran and almost every one of his answers contained the phrase "the previous administration" in typical drumpf zombie fashion.

Further along in the interview, Kelly asked him about Marie Yovanovitch and Pompeo puffed up and carried on as if  "how dare she ask these questions".  The interview ended shortly after that with fireworks afterward.  Here is the transcript:

Britain's Take on drumpf

"Hey, trump, I wanna know why you're such a cunt"......

Adam Schiff's Closing Argument

Adam Schiff delivered an emotional closing statement on Thursday, January 23, 2020 at the Donald Trump Impeachment trial in the Senate. He called Donald Trump “dangerous” and criticized him for listening to Rudy Giuliani over US intelligence agencies. Read the full transcript right here at Rev.com.

But even now, our ally can’t get his foot in the door. Even now, our ally can’t get his foot in the door. This brings me the last point I want to make tonight, which is, when we’re done, we believe that we will have made the case overwhelmingly of the President’s guilt. That is, he’s done what he’s charged with. He withheld the money. He withheld the meeting. He used it to coerce Ukraine to do these political investigations. He covered it up. He obstructed us. He’s trying to obstruct you and he’s violated the Constitution. But I want to address one other thing tonight. Okay. He’s guilty. Okay. He’s guilty. Does he really need to be removed? Does he really need to be removed? We have an election coming up. Does he really need to be removed? He’s guilty. Is there really any doubt about this?

Do we really have any doubt about the facts here? Does anybody really question whether the President is capable of what he’s charged with? No one is really making the argument, Donald Trump would never do such a thing, because of course we know that he would, and of course we know that he did. It’s a somewhat different question though to ask, okay, it’s pretty obvious whether we can say it publicly or we can’t say it publicly. We all know what we’re dealing here with this President, but does he really need to be removed? And this is why he needs to be removed. Donald Trump chose Rudy Giuliani over his own intelligence agencies. He chose Rudy Giuliani over his own FBI Director. He chose Rudy Giuliani over his own National Security Advisors. When all of them were telling him this Ukraine 2016 stuff is kooky, crazy Russian propaganda. He chose not to believe them. He chose to believe Rudy Giuliani. That makes him dangerous to us, to our country. That was Donald Trump’s choice. Now, why would Donald Trump believe a man like Rudy Giuliani over a man like Christopher Wray? Okay. Why would anyone in their right mind believe Rudy Giuliani over Christopher Wray?

Because he wanted to and because what Rudy was offering him was something that would help him personally. And what Christopher Wray was offering him was merely the truth. What Christopher Wray was offering him was merely the information he needed to protect his country and its elections, but that’s not good enough. What’s in it for him? What’s in it for Donald Trump? This is why he needs to be removed. Now, you may be asking how much damage can he really do in the next several months until the election? A lot. A lot of damage. Now, we just saw last week, report that Russia tried to hack or maybe did hack Burisma. Okay. I don’t know if they got in. I’m trying to find out. My colleagues on the Intel committee, House and Senate, we’re trying to find out, did the Russians get in? What are the Russian plans and intentions? Well, let’s say they got in and let’s say they start dumping documents to interfere at the next election.

Let’s say they start dumping some real things they hack from Burisma. Let’s say they start dumping some fake things they didn’t hack from Burisma, but they want you to believe they did. Let’s say they start blatantly interfering in our election again to help Donald Trump. Can you have the least bit of confidence that Donald Trump will stand up to them and protect our national interest over his own personal interest? You know you can’t, which makes him dangerous to this country. You know you can’t. You know you can’t count on him. None of us can. None of us can. What happens if China got the message? Now you can say, he’s just joking of course. He didn’t really mean China should investigate the Bidens. You know that’s no joke.

Now maybe you could have argued three years ago when he said, “Hey Russia, if you’re listening, hack Hillary’s emails.” Maybe you could give him a freebie and say he was joking, but now we know better. Hours after he did that Russia did, in fact, try to hack Hillary’s emails. There’s no Mulligan here when it comes to our national security. So what if China does overtly or covertly start to help the Trump campaign? You think he’s going to call them out on it or you think he’s going to give them a better trade deal on it? Can any of us really have the confidence that Donald Trump will put his personal interests ahead of the national interests? Is there really any evidence in this presidency that should give us the ironclad confidence that he would do so?

You know you can’t count on him to do that. That’s the sad truth. You know you can’t count on him to do that. The American people deserve a President they can count on to put their interests first, to put their interests first. Colonel Vindman said, “Here, right matters. Here, right matters.” Well, let me tell you something, if right doesn’t matter, if right doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter how good the Constitution is. It doesn’t matter how brilliant the framers were. Doesn’t matter how good or bad our advocacy in this trial is. Doesn’t matter how well written the Oath of Impartiality is. If right doesn’t matter, we’re lost.

If the truth doesn’t matter, we’re lost. Framers couldn’t protect us from ourselves, if right and truth don’t matter. And you know that what he did was not right. That’s what they do in the old country, that Colonel Vindman’s father came from. Or the old country that my great grandfather came from, or the old countries that your ancestors came from, or maybe you came from. But here, right is supposed to matter. It’s what’s made us the greatest nation on earth. No constitution can protect us, right doesn’t matter any more. And you know you can’t trust this President to do what’s right for this country. You can trust he will do what’s right for Donald Trump. He’ll do it now. He’s done it before. He’ll do it for the next several months. He’ll do it in the election if he’s allowed to. This is why if you find him guilty, you must find that he should be removed. Because right matters. Because right matters and the truth matters. Otherwise, we are lost.

drumpsters

Twitter tag #coverup

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Monday Morning Smile

Hummingbirds

WHEN SHOULD IT BECOME A 911 EMERGENCY: time is of the essence.

HUMMINGBIRDS HANGING UPSIDE DOWN: could be caused by numerous things such as a drastic change in weather, extremely cold temperatures, lack of nutrition, window collisions or even being egg bound (for those who have female hummingbirds all year), things you should know and IF YOU TRULY CARE, how you can help:

In the last several years, I have seen many people posting pictures on Facebook which have found a hummingbird hanging upside down during the day, many requesting help and others assuming it's natural and it's SO CUTE for these tiny birds to be taking a nap during the day.

First off, if a hummingbird is in torpor during the day especially hanging upside down, it is far from being natural and it's FAR FROM BEING CUTE. In fact:

From the time it took you to take it's picture, post it on Social Media, replied to all the comments, that hummingbird's survival rate went from 50% down to 1%.

EDUCATED UNDERSTANDING: if the bird is suffering from (including but NOT LIMITED too):

Anemia (lack of proper nutrition) is a condition in which you lack enough healthy red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen to your body's tissues which can lead to Inflammation of the tongue, extreme fatigue and weakness as well as death.

Head Trauma (swelling or bleeding of the brain also known as subdural hematoma) is any trauma to the scalp, skull, or brain which can be caused by window collisions and is a condition which can lead to balancing issues, confusion, loss of consciousness, seizures as well as immediate death.

Egg Bound or Dystocia (mainly in smaller birds) is a reproductive problem that causes the bird to retain the egg in the reproductive tract which can be caused by lack of nutrition, lack of calcium, infection and trauma which can lead to fluffed up appearance, difficulty breathing, inability to balance on perch, paralysis of a leg, weakness, decrease in appetite as well as death.

ALL which require IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ASSISTANCE by a TRAINED (licensed or permitted) Wldlife Rehabilitator.

MIGRATION:
In mid west or east coast, they have what is called migration. This is when a hummingbird "instinctively" knows that it needs to fly south to warmer climates in order to survive because of the decline in insect and flower population.

On the west coast, they are blessed to have hummingbirds year round but many times with a price. Although they don't experience the harsh cold subzero winters, temperatures have been known to drop into the single digits which can cause a fast decline in the insect and flower population leaving hummingbirds vulnerable to illness and even death.

WHAT TO DO:
Since a hummingbirds diet is 75 to 80% insects, 15 to 20% flower nectar and ONLY 5% sugar water from a feeder (one cup pure cane sugar to four cups water), incorporate insects into your yard by adding a compost bin which will attract tiny gnats and fruit flies and place that near or around your feeders.

KEEP THOSE FEEDERS SPOTLESS:
It doesn't matter what the temperature is outside, sugar water will spoil and with the higher humidity, will create mold which is the death sentence for hummingbirds, so as a guideline, follow the chart BUT watch for cloudy nectar even if the chart tells you otherwise.

FEEDER PERCHES:
As the saying goes, a body at rest tends to stay at rest and a body in motion tends to stay in motion, another thing you can do to help keep them warm is to offer options:

If you have a hummingbird feeder where the perch is attached by a screw, consider removing the perch, so the hummingbird remains in flight while eating and works to keep the body warm. Then, add an additional feeder with a perch, so they have the option to sit at their dinner table or to eat while in flight.

MOST IMPORTANT
Treat your wildlife rehabber in the same manner you would treat your children's doctor by clicking on the link https://ahnow.org/#/ entering your zip code, clicking on Wildlife Emergencies and calling the numbers to the left of the screen to see if they have hummingbird rehabber's available. If the answer is yes, THEN store that number in your phone, so you have it available when you find one in distress.

FINDING A HUMMINGBIRD IN DISTRESS:
1). take a large Gladware container (that a clear or frosted container), line it with a PAPER towel (NO terry cloth towels).

2). place a branch inside which sits a HALF INCH from the bottom and place the hummingbird on the branch.

3). place the container in a WARM ROOM with moderate light (preferably a bathroom which doesn't have vaulted ceilings) in case the little one tries to fly.

4). using a syringe or an eye dropper (NO OPEN CONTAINER) fill it with sugar water to feed the hummingbird EVERY 20 to 30 minutes by placing the syringe or eye dropper 1/4 to 1/2 way over the beak, count 1 1,000, 2 1,000 3, 1000 and remove, so it can breath and done until you can transport it to your rehabber.

IMPORTANT NEED TO KNOW:
NEVER try and feed a hummingbird if it is cold or sleeping as you WILL aspirate and kill the hummingbird within 20 minutes.

In addition, do NOT try and drip the sugar water into the beak as that too can cause aspiration.

Next, based on the age of the hummingbird, a hummingbird can only survive 24 to 48 hours on sugar water.

Last, it is always best not to handle a hummingbird since you don't know what's wrong especially if it's egg bound, so once you have the little one all settled in the container, DO NOT continue to handle.

With the decline of hummingbirds, STOP wasting your time getting the perfect picture, so you can have your 15 minutes of fame on Social Media and do right by our hummingbirds by being better educated and most of all, prepared.

As I always say, caring is SHARING, so please feel free to share. If you're having issues sharing or this site doesn't offer that option, please share from the original link https://www.facebook.com/susie.niwa/posts/2630506553743423

THANK YOU!

Lev Parnas Gets Around

Snarky Sunday Post

Monday Morning Smile

Monday Morning Smile

Back up your data, we may be in for a bumpy ride

Whatever happens from here on out lies in the hands of drumpf and his merry band of evil do-badders:  Pompeo, Miller, Bolton, etc.   

A hackers from Iran have breached the website of a little-known US government agency and posted messages vowing revenge for Washington’s killing of top military commander Qassem Suleimani.

The website of the Federal Depository Library Program was replaced on Saturday (January 4, 2020) with a page titled “Iranian Hackers!” that displayed images of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Iranian flag.

“Martyrdom was (Suleimani’s)... reward for years of implacable efforts,” read a graphic depicting US president Donald Trump being punched by a fist emanating from Iran as missiles fly by.

“With his departure and with God’s power, his work and path will not cease and severe revenge awaits those criminals who have tainted their filthy hands with his blood and blood of the other martyrs,” it said.

Musings of a Lunatic

From my twitter feed, this man must go.  Tomorrow will hopefully be a better day than today.  He is unhinged, no one is stopping him.  He must go now.


Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
2h  (January 5, 2020)
 Untrustworthy
These Media Posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any U.S. person or target, the United States will quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner. Such legal notice is not required, but is given nevertheless!

·
18h (January 4, 2020)
 Untrustworthy<---i a="" app="" at="" determine="" font="" have="" looks="" plausibilty="" that="" their="" to="" tweets="" twitter="">
The United States just spent Two Trillion Dollars on Military Equipment. We are the biggest and by far the BEST in the World! If Iran attacks an American Base, or any American, we will be sending some of that brand new beautiful equipment their way...and without hesitation!
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
18h (January 4, 2020)
 Untrustworthy<---i a="" app="" at="" determine="" have="" looks="" plausibilty="" span="" that="" their="" to="" tweets="" twitter="">
They attacked us, & we hit back. If they attack again, which I would strongly advise them not to do, we will hit them harder than they have ever been hit before!


Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
Jan 4
 Untrustworthy
As hard as I work, & as successful as our Country has become with our Economy, our Military & everything else, it is ashame that the Democrats make us spend so much time & money on this ridiculous Impeachment Lite Hoax. I should be able to devote all of my time to the REAL USA!

IMPEACHED BASTARD MUST GO

Here’s a pic of impeached Trump at his golf course yesterday, January 2, 2020. This is after he murdered an Iranian leaver with no provocation, without notifying Congress, but after he told practically EVERYONE at Maralago. This is after he has sent for than 3,000 young men and women to Iran to fight something he started to take away attention from his impeachment and Deusch Bank nonsense. This man must IMMEDIATELY be taken out and put out of our misery.

IRANIAN-AMERICANS ILLEGALLY DETAINED

BREAKING: IRANIAN-AMERICANS ILLEGALLY DETAINED IN MASS AT

US BORDER

US Customs & Border Protection received new, nationwide notice to “report” and detain
“suspicious” Iranians entering the country regardless of citizenship or immigration status
(SEATTLE, WA, 01/05/20) - On Saturday, more than sixty Iranians and Iranian-Americans of all
ages were detained at length and questioned at the Peace Arch Border Crossing in Blaine,
Washington. Many more were turned around at the border and refused the opportunity to enter
the United States due to a lack of capacity for Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to detain them.
CBP will not respond to questions if there are still any Iranian-Americans being currently
detained.

Many more Iranian Americans are set to cross the Peace Arch Border this morning as they
return back to their homes in the United States from an Iranian pop concert that was taking
place on Saturday in Vancouver, Canada.
Those detained reported that their passports were confiscated as they were questioned about
their political views, allegiances, what courses were studied in college, and other invasive and
interrogative questions. CBP contacted at the Blaine Port of Entry provided no comment or
reasons for the detentions.

Crystal, a 24 year old American citizen and medical student, was detained and interrogated for
more than 10 hours with her family at the Peace Arch Border Crossing before being released
early this morning. “The vast majority of people being held last night were American citizens,
said Crystal. “We kept asking why we were being detained and asked questions that had
nothing to do with our reason for traveling and was told ‘I’m sorry this is just the wrong time for
you guys.’”

A source at CBP reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a
national order to CBP to “report” and detain anyone with Iranian heritage entering the
country who is deemed potentially suspicious or “adversarial,” regardless of citizenship
status. CBP at the Peace Arch Border Crossing did not confirm or deny this report.

“These reports are extremely troubling and potentially constitute illegal detentions of United
States citizens,” said Masih Fouladi, Executive Director of CAIR Washington. “We are working
to verify reports of a broad nationwide directive to detain Iranian-Americans at ports of entry, so
that we can provide community members with accurate travel guidance. We will continue to
update the community and other civil rights organizations as we obtain more information”
“This clear, gross violation of US law acts only as a further escalation of continued violence and
aggression toward Iran and Iranian people that have only escalated with Trump’s Travel Ban on

Iranian nationals, the withdrawal from the JCPOA/Iran Nuclear Deal despite Iran’s compliance,
the addition of crippling US sanctions on Iran which have taken a deep toll on the lives of
everyday Iranians, and most recently the reckless assasination of Iranian top military general
Qasem Soleimani.” said Hoda Katebi, Iranian-American writer and activist.

Time for a Change

Republican Caucus sitting on the floor during the #IMPEACHMENTVOTE a picture is worth a thous#Republican Caucus sitting on the floor during the #IMPEACHMENTVOTE a picture is worth a thousand words. This is the 2019 party of Lincoln: White. Male. Hopping mad!

words. This is the 2019 party of Lincoln: White. Male. Hopping mad!