[Washington Examiner] Hillary Clinton used Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s own words to condemn President Trump for reportedly planning to remove the Army lieutenant colonel who testified during impeachment from the National Security Council.
Vindman, 44, could be removed from his position as a Ukrainian expert who leads European affairs at the National Security Council as early as Friday. Although the reassignment has not been finalized, several people have criticized Trump for planning to remove Vindman. Clinton, 72, used Vindman’s opening remarks from his impeachment testimony to blast Trump.
"During his testimony about Trump’s crimes, Lt. Col. Vindman had a message for his father: 'You made the right decision 40 years ago to leave the Soviet Union. Do not worry, I will be fine for telling the truth.' It’s appalling that this administration may prove him wrong," Clinton wrote.
Vindman, whose family immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union, was asked to testify in the House impeachment hearings because he had reported Trump’s July 25 phone call to his superiors in the National Security Council. He testified that the White House had pressured him to stay quiet about the phone call, which he felt was "improper."
In his public House testimony, Vindman described the fear his father had when he explained that he would be speaking out against Trump. He said, "In Russia, my act of expressing concern to the chain of command in an official and private channel would have severe personal and professional repercussions, and offering public testimony involving the president would surely cost me my life."
He continued, "I’m grateful to my father for his brave act of hope 40 years ago and for the privilege of being an American citizen and public servant where I can live free of fear for mine and my family’s safety. Dad, I’m sitting here today in the U.S. Capitol talking to our elected professionals. Talking to our elected professionals is proof that you made the right decision to leave the Soviet Union."
#3
Leonid has had a few problems in the investment community:
A third brother Leonid Vindman, who reportedly was fined $1.3 billion when he worked for Unicredit for violating trading sanctions by trafficking nuclear energy materials to Libya and Iran, runs Tungsten Capital an investment firm with ties to former Soviet satellite countries.
The long-running investigation by US authorities has hung over the bank since 2012. The criminal and regulatory penalties announced on Monday related to alleged violations of US sanctions targeting Iran, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Cuba and Burma.
UniCredit Bank AG, the German subsidiary operating as HypoVereinsbank, “knowingly and willfully” routed illegal payments that violated Iran sanctions from 2002 to 2011, according to the Department of Justice.
The entity went to “great lengths” to help Iran’s national shipping company, Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, evade sanctions, said Brian Benczkowski, chief of the criminal division at the justice department.
“The integrity of our financial system requires financial institutions to comply with our laws, and [HypoVereinsbank] willfully failed to do so,” he said in a statement.
The $1.3bn payment will resolve investigations by the justice department, the US Treasury, Federal Reserve, Manhattan district attorney’s office and the New York Department of Financial Services.
Emphasis added in first para. Yes, the Obama years. Nothing concluded until well into the Orange Man's tour of duty. Yes, something to do with violations of Iranian sanctions.
#5
Read the elder Vindman’s bio for the first time. I’d read a few weeks ago that he was a banker. I thought it would be some low to midlife Eastern European background. Wrong! He’s a Dartmouth grad Bankers Trust alum working a sketchy neighborhood. The CIA is strong in this one. Could explain how the twins could hold down NSC jobs while having a family member who could directly trade on inside and classified information.
#6
/\ Yes, all was moving along splendidly until the Orange Man arrived at the Oval Office. Probably just a coincidence, but yes, there is a link btwn Burisma and UniCredit.
Whether UniCredit was the particular vehicle that enabled John Kerry's Iranian pals (including his Foreign Minister counterpart and his circle) to evade US sanctions is not yet known.
But it would have been a superb vehicle for doing so: plausible deniability, multiple non-US hops for the money, and best of all, the near-total opacity of Ukrainian financial vehicles operating with the help of the most corrupt government and business elite north of the equator.
#9
Three thoughts
Pelousy called that little fat ass in dress blues a war hero. Looking at pictures of that clown I didn’t see anything but those REMF ribbons given to staffers horse holders and brief case carriers
I certainly home he gets passed over for full bird colonel and he remains a telephone colonel the rest of his pencil sharpening career
Lastly how many of these holdovers were detailed to the White House shortly before the Trumpster took office?
#10
Lt.Col. Vindman may not like his new assignment, but I'm pretty sure he's not going to commit suicide. It's much safer to be an enemy of OrangeManBad than to be an enemy of one former secretary of state I can think of.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/09/2020 9:56 Comments ||
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#11
I mean, a world where every other apparatchik isn't the Manchurian F'n Candidate. Who the Hell wants to live in a world like that?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/09/2020 10:52 Comments ||
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#12
You mean Vindman's last OER didn't say "promote to O6 immediately"?
#14
LTC Sausage hasn't had an actual 'Army' assignment in years. As I have opined previously he was likely Sheep Dipped a long time ago.
Ref #12: I'm sure Sausage's OER's were classified, recommended he be 'promoted' and are resting comfortably in Special Management Branch vaults in dasr status. Getting promoted and serving the requisite 3 years time in grade (TIG) to retire as an O6... might be a bridge too far. Not impossible however.
[PJMedia] Article subsequently updated with the name and charges of the arrested miscreant. Added at 2:15 pm ET for future searches:
Gregory William Loel Timm
...more briefly Gregory Timm...
White/Male
27 years old
The suspect has been charged with two counts of Aggravated Assault on a Person 65 Years of Age or Older, one count of Criminal Mischief, and Driving While Driver’s License Suspended.
#3
From the mugshot he looks like another (younger) Hodgkinson type. I.e. Not your average tattoed, facial-jewelry Antifa-Manson moonbat; more like a Buttfug booster than a Bernie bro....
If so I wonder whether it means the anti-Trumpers are moving from tweets to violence... Is the violence starting to go mainstream?
#4
Think about it. All you need to do to get a license is say you are undocumented. This guy wasn't trying very hard.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/09/2020 11:40 Comments ||
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#5
"Justice must be seen to be done, if not then the populace will start doing their own. " "Also if law enforcement is seen to side with the criminal class then they will be treated as criminals sans jury trial."
2. Timm Had Lived in Jacksonville for About 2 Years & Was Working With a Local Theatre Union Training to Be a Sound Engineer, According to First Coast News
Susan Phillips, president of I.A.T.S.E. Local 115, told First Coast News that they were “just horrified” to learn about Timm’s arrest and said he has been suspended from the union and will not be granted membership in the future.
#8
more disturbing than the mistake in naming is the rest of AOC's lecture with its assumption of the obviously false labor theory of value and ignorant claims about living standards
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/09/2020 12:31 Comments ||
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#9
/\ Making the assumption that you can make a long term assumption of linear growth of anything. Priceless.
#10
Back in 1930 regular folk didn’t expect walk-in closets stuffed full of clothes, a separate family room for the big screen tv and a computer for gaming, smart phones for everyone in the family, cars for all the adults, and granite countertops, an island, and stainless steel appliances in the kitchen of their 2,000 square foot house in the suburbs. Most nowadays could pay for the 1930 lifestyle working 15 hours/week — the remaining 25 hours/week is needed to live as we do now.
I realize it is hard for her to imagine anything different than modernity, immured as she has been until recently in hipster Brooklyn, but there are plenty of children’s storybooks set in the period that she must have read as a child.
#14
What #19 TW said...
I bought an electronic rice cooker and bought bulk beans and dried rice. Cutting way back of fast food and frozen TV dinners as well. The food part of my budget imploded.
[FOX News via Weasel Zippers] MSNBC host Rick
Rachel Maddow grilled Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez over the low turnout at Monday’s Iowa caucuses, pointing out how Democrats "didn’t turn out in droves" like in previous election cycles.
Whiles technical errors with the voting system have plagued the Democrat Party over the past several days, some on the left are sounding the alarms after early results from the Iowa caucuses draw a parallel to the 2016 turnout, which was roughly 170,000 voters.
In 2008, there were nearly 240,000 voters.
During a sit-down on Thursday night, Maddow asked about the low turnout and whether it’s a sign about the eventual general election outcome in November.
[The Hill] A pledge to investigate the Bidens and Ukraine once the impeachment trial wraps is sparking divisions among Senate Republicans.
President Trump and top allies have homed in on former Vice President Joe Biden’s push to oust a top Ukrainian prosecutor and Hunter Biden’s work for Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian gas company, as they’ve sought to counterprogram on the sidelines of the months-long impeachment drama.
Now, with the trial in the rearview mirror, that chatter is set to move to center stage as Republicans strategize over their next steps. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a vocal ally of Trump’s, is pledging "oversight."
Other GOP senators are warning that it’s time for the Senate to move on after a weeks-long divisive fight that left scars on the chamber’s normally clubby atmosphere.
"I know there’s been some discussion about the Judiciary Committee taking a look at that. I think what I would like to see happen around here is a return to normalcy," said Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Republican senator, in response to a question from The Hill about talk within the caucus about investigating the Bidens.
"People just kind of put their spears down and let’s get back to work and focus on I think what most people in the country think we ought to be doing," he added.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/09/2020 2:36 Comments ||
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#4
Heard him somewhere last night bemoaning his tough life and personal losses. He'll likely be dropping out of the race soon and coming down with the Corona, Asperger's or some other terrible malady to garner sympathy and escape justice.
#5
Look Pubs. We know Dems are stuck on crazy and some Pubs are still stuck on stupid and both are crooks.
However, this shit has got to stop before the USA has a French Revolution.
Are you pubs too stupid to understand that?
#6
Yeah, Joe does like to maunder about how he hasn't gotten rich in the politics game. Story in there somewhere.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/09/2020 2:51 Comments ||
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#7
It would be better if the Justice Department did their job, instead of leaving it to the Senate to prosecute what too many of them see as one of their own.
#8
These investigations can't go to deep, to many Repubs are elbow deep in the foreign aid cookie jar as well. Graham talks a good game, that's all. Who here honestly thinks all this bullshit was unknown to everyone in the Senate until the investigations ''uncovered '' it? No one that deserves jail will go.
#12
Just read this unbelievable bullshit from former Amb. Bill Taylor about how Ukraine is somehiw the new Fulda Gap, the "front line" for Defending Democracy, how Russia is "attacking us"....
Note the source above. This isn't Brennan ranting in cable, or Schiff the Mad Hatter, or Flounder the Fabulist or some other loon, ululating on Twitter.
No: this is a sober, senior diplomat, our former ambassador, speaking to a reporter from long-form quality media, about how we are at war with Russia. Over f---ing Ukraine, the Northern Shithole. Zimbabwe with white faces.
Unbelievable.
Bill Taylor, Robin Wright and the New Yorker editors cannot seriously believe this madness. Either they've gone insane or they're in on the Big Grift.
#15
The feral govt is unwilling and unable to reform itself. It will be changed by circumstances of its own making. Welcome to the 4th turning, kids.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/09/2020 12:35 Comments ||
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#16
The 4th Turning is a cyclical view of history submitted by Strauss and Howe. I think instead of cyclical it should be psycho view of history.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/09/2020 15:09 Comments ||
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#17
Just read this unbelievable bullshit from former Amb. Bill Taylor about how Ukraine is somehiw the new Fulda Gap, the "front line" for Defending Democracy, how Russia is "attacking us"....
That's why he's a former ambassador.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/09/2020 15:09 Comments ||
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#3
I do understand that, G. I also know most people are utterly ignorant of what happened in Europe during the Holocaust and they hide inside their ignorance every day.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/09/2020 3:33 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Washington Examiner] Hillary Clinton used Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s own words to condemn President Trump for reportedly planning to remove the Army lieutenant colonel who testified during impeachment from the National Security Council.
[The Hill] A pledge to investigate the Bidens and Ukraine once the impeachment trial wraps is sparking divisions among Senate Republicans. 
