The report states that Yevgeny also reported on Trump’s blackmail of Zelenskyy. I guess Yevgeny just did it more quietly.
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I think a possible complication is it’s easy for bad actors to game the system. Based on how administrations work, with the political appointees shifting with the new admin, none of the direct perpetrators of this kind of chicanery are still employed by the DoD and the DoD doesn’t have authority to sanction them anymore.
So if they retaliate against career employees close enough to a transition, there isn’t really any concrete penalty that can be applied to someone who isn’t going to be part of the government by the time the penny drops.
We don’t seem to have the laws on the books (and they themselves could be abused if they did exist) to pursue people after they leave their posts.
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There can’t be more than a few MAGATS left that don’t understand by now that the Don is Capone in a red tie. And…they like that vibe.A short projection into the future will yield dozens of detailed accounts of similar sordid episodes…they will be startling and heinous…stretching credulity but true. Therein lies the horror.
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Note that Mark Esper was then the Secretary of DoD and allowed this to happen.
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Sure, he could have resigned in protest some months before the election, ensure that a total trump sychophant was well in place. Might not even have had to bother with a pesky election at all had trump had the right people to support him in ordering up martial law just in time for election day.
Everyone knew that this was happening, in real time. The Vindmans were publicly fired from their NSC roles immediately after trump was acquitted by the Senate.
Want to blame someone, blame the spineless Senators who rolled over for whatever trump wanted and refused to do their constitutional duties to remove the traitor from office.
Esper wasn’t perfect, absolutely, but he was doing his best to keep trump from doing his worst, and that kinda requires remaining in your position or you can’t do anything at all.
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Rachel Vindman is correct there is nothing that can be done and it is a shame because he lost out on a promotion, plus he would have had the time he needed in that promotion to retire at a higher pay grade, so he lost out on retirement money.
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Everything about Trump is unlawful and criminal and vindictive. We knew that, we know that!
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Unfortunately, that makes sense and could only lead to more outrageous outcomes.
OTOH, the Vindmans must have known that their desire to tell the truth might hurt their careers, and they did it anyway, because it was the right thing to do.
They would not have been able to do otherwise and live with that decision. Yes, it was a betrayal of sorts, but I think that they’ll be just fine.
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I’ll be happy to do it: Lock them up!
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And they fail to realize that they are thereby actually harming the institution.
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As I watched person after person take action and come forward, get praised effusively for their integrity and then dumped quietly by the roadside, with apparently no recourse against persecution from Trump, I quickly realized the only surprising thing was that anyone stuck their neck out at all.
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Isn’t Rhodes married?
IOKIY… Oh, fuck it.
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It takes courage, and apparently, a too-well-developed sense of right and wrong.
I look at the cowards and the excuse-makers and the other side of grifters and religious hypocrites and the outright greedy, selfish, self-important Scrooges that exist.
The Vindmans did well. I applaud them and will remember them as heroes.
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This will adversely affect the GOP in these November elections.
So here’s my new thought about November. Putin saw the US electorate leaning anti GOP, trump is gone and probably not coming back. He’s got to do something to help out his buds Mitch and Kev. So he starts a war, screw his population he’ll be fine, tanks the world economy, drives up prices at the pump and Walmart and voila! Biden’s numbers are for shit and November is all about how bad the democrats are at the economy
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It’s worth pointing out that, as an officer, Alexander Vindman could be recalled to active duty at any time — and then promoted to full colonel.
It’s also worth pointing out that, as an officer, Michael Flynn could be recalled to active duty at any time — and then court-martialed, jailed and stripped of his pension.
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As do I - but they should have been protected from retaliation.
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Still voting for democrats.
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Yeah, well, even I’ve heard stories about military “justice.” Not that not-military justice is any better.
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Of course
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Kinda suggests some unpleasant moral tendencies in their superiors…who chose not to stand up for them. “Duty”. “Honor”…and what’s that other one? “Chickenshit”? Yeah, yeah, that’s the ticket.
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