Report: State Dept Quietly Released Ukraine Aid At Bolton’s Orders

Look a couple of rungs down the ladder for more likely suspects.

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Death knell for the Trump project right there.

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Exactly. Paranoia is a bitch, tears relationships and regimes apart.

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According to The Hill: Hoyt Hutchinson, 32, was charged with felony first degree criminal mischief in the incident, The Tuscaloosa News reported.

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It’s possible that, like most of us, you’ve never worked in a bureaucracy as completely dysfunctional as the Trump Administration!

Even after staff attorneys in two Cabinet departments had signed off on the release of these funds, even after those attorneys had told everyone around them that OMB and even the president had no authority to withhold these fundsno one at lower levels dared defy Trump.

Whether Bolton’s “order” made the difference or not is a fair question – but I can assure you that he did feel a need to push – and in this sense I don’t think it’s fair to say he’s just taking the credit from someone else.

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Most likely. There are dozens of potential suspects and there’s probably some misdirection going on. But, most of us only know the names of the most visible ones. How many people had heard of Mark Felt in 1973 who weren’t beltway insiders?

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The Danish Vikings, particularly in the 9th century, had a field day in Ireland, and hence spread a lot of the ginger genes that today give us those freckled, fair-skinned red-heads. Ireland had a very devolved feudal system that did a really poor job of mutual defense (unlike Scotland, which even today use the prickly thistle as its national symbol). Ukraine’s oligarchs, basically gifted the national assets of Ukraine after its weak and incompetent Soviet management collapsed (remember this was the country that brought you Chernobyl) realized after a decade or so that the oligarchy had to be defended for all of them to prosper (i.e. Scotland feudalism over the Irish model). That meant taking over the mechanisms of government and controlling access.

The desire to prevent competition coming from the outside explains the reluctance to allow access of foreign investors to the country. After allowing a foreign investor to enter, the group has to immediately accept the risk that the new investor will be more intelligent, more cunning and more far-sighted than a homegrown feudal lord. A foreign investor did not earn his capital by simply taking it away from his own population. The money was earned in fair and fierce competition in the market economy. Objectively this investor will be competitive and therefore able to violate the decade-long oligarchic pact.

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As it becomes increasingly untenable for serious people to associate themselves with Trump

Some Trumpsters’ tenable is huge, perhaps even infinite.

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Unknown

Yep, we all agree.

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Didn’t the Vikings also make a lasting genetic, cultural and political contribution to Russian history, giving them their reddish hair and pale skin, as well as their historic delusions of excessive greatness, among other things? I mean, I just don’t get Russian arrogance. Based on what, other than culture, of course, and the conquering and subjection of weaker peoples (some of whom were my ancestors)?

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3b32461fcc27d9dd87d8e4050e2cd349

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That’s fair.

But then I wonder if those folks at the lower levels were aware that Bolton’s go-ahead did not come with Trump’s approval, and if so, why they didn’t bother to check.

Conversely, if they were aware Trump hadn’t signed off, it was pretty ballsy of them considering how vindictive Trump is. Especially considering the legal opinions, presumably giving them cover, still weren’t enough to get them to move.

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Or: “What’s that horrible smell?”, and “Haha, you pulled my finger”.

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Kirstjen Nielsen = Anonymous

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Even Moscow Mitch was calling the White House asking where in hell the funds were.

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Cute, but who’s Jesus in this scenario, hipster Mulvaney?

Sure but it requires a degree of unseriousness those folks would never have dreamed of before. Lindsey Graham comes to mind. He’ll never again be able to pretend to be a moderate, judicious person. They won’t be the pariahs we imagine when Trump is gone. But the larger community of people who didn’t fall for the craziness will never see them the same way.

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Junior?