Citizen Cartwright

Note to readers

Greetings from my cellphone. For the fifth time in the past several days, there’s a power outage in the part of Capitol Hill where I live in Washington. I hope to be back with you tomorrow. 

Note to readers

It’s the 10th anniversary of this blog. Here’s what I wrote to you at the five-year mark in 2014:

 

"Five years ago this week, I launched Citizen Cartwright and invited you, fellow citizen, to join me in trying to make sense of our world and in sharing a laugh along the way.

"It's been such a pleasure being with you.

"The challenge to understand what's shaping our lives is possibly greater now than it was then. And so is the challenge to put it all in some kind of panic-attack-precluding perspective.

"So I'm game to keep going, if you are.”

 

What’s making me laugh this morning is that I thought the challenge to understand was daunting THEN!

 

And now doesn’t seem like the time to stop trying.

 

So let’s press on together, huh?

Trump impeachment inquiry: What the whistleblower says

Here’s the Associated Press' lead:

 

"White House officials took extraordinary steps to 'lock down' information about President Donald Trump’s summertime phone call with the president of Ukraine, even moving the transcript to a secret computer system, a whistleblower alleges in a politically explosive complaint that accuses the administration of a wide-ranging cover-up."

I’d encourage you to read for yourself, if you haven’t already, the 9-page complaint that was released Thursday, given all the noise.

 

(As impeachment looms, disinformation experts are bracing for a cyclone of chaos, complete with fast-twitch media manipulation, droves of false and misleading claims, and hyper-polarized audiences fiercely clinging to their side’s version of reality, says a New York Times article. 

 

And here’s another article from the Times on how pro-Trump media are constructing their version of the events about Ukraine.)

 

In the aftermath of the call, according to the whistleblower, White House lawyers were concerned that “they had witnessed the president abuse his office for personal gain,” the complaint says.

 

In addition, officials told the whistleblower that “this was ‘not the first time’ under this administration that a presidential transcript was placed into this codeword-level system solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive — rather than national security sensitive — information,” the complaint says.

 

In this case, the complaint says, the officials told the whistleblower they were “directed” by White House lawyers to remove the electronic transcript from the computer system in which such transcripts typically are stored for coordination, finalization and distribution to Cabinet-level officials.

 

The complaint has revived questions about the activities of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who it says alarmed government officials by circumventing “national security decision making processes.” Giuliani, who represented the president in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, repeatedly communicated with advisers of Ukraine’s president in the days after the phone call.

 

Here is another AP article on the government computer systems that White House and other government employees use to share and manage classified information day-to-day.

Also in the news

Mexico’s ‘broken rule of law’: What happened to the 43 students who vanished 5 years ago?

 

Senate passes, sends to Trump spending measure to keep government funded through Nov. 21

 

Trump administration proposes to cap refugees admitted to U.S. at 18,000, the lowest level since 1980

 

Trump administration takes California to task for water pollution caused by homeless, other sources

 

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott is first Republican governor to back impeachment inquiry

 

New York Times defends its decision to disclose details about whistleblower

 

Scientists find superconductivity in place they've been looking for decades

 

Researchers say bacteria can change form to avoid being detected by antibiotics

Impeachment inquiry: Trump’s Ukraine phone call

On Wednesday, we citizens first got to read what media describe as a “rough transcript” of the July 25 phone call between President Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

 

It isn’t a “verbatim transcript” but is based on “notes and recollections” of those memorializing the call, says Fox News. 

 

The president took the call from the White House residence, as officials in the Situation Room listened in and worked to keep a record of the conversation, as is standard practice, says The Associated Press.

 

There’s no explicit quid pro quo in the call but it wouldn’t have been a stretch to make a connection between Trump’s pleas for help and his mentions of U.S. assistance to Ukraine, says AP.

 

The rough transcript shows that Trump repeatedly prodded Zelenskiy to work with the U.S. attorney general and with lawyer Rudy Giuliani to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden, says AP.

 

The conversation between the two leaders is part of the intelligence community whistleblower’s complaint that's central to the formal impeachment inquiry launched Tuesday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

 

The House voted 421-0 on Wednesday for a symbolic resolution calling on Trump to release the whistleblower’s complaint to Congress.

 

Also on Wednesday, the Trump administration let lawmakers read the classified complaint at secure locations in the Capitol. The declassified document could be made public as soon as Thursday.

 

Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire is to speak publicly about the whistleblower complaint for the first time Thursday, explaining to House lawmakers why he withheld the complaint from Congress for weeks.

 

The unidentified whistleblower first submitted the complaint to Michael Atkinson, the government’s intelligence inspector general. Atkinson, who met privately with House lawmakers last week, is to talk behind closed doors to the Senate intelligence panel Thursday.

 

The whistleblower is prepared to speak privately before the Senate and House intelligence committees; but the person’s lawyers want first to ensure that they have the appropriate security clearances so they can be present, according to correspondence reviewed by AP.

Also in the news

At least 70 countries have engaged in disinformation campaigns, researchers say

 

Benjamin Netanyahu tapped by Israel's president to form new government

 

Trump, Abe announce agreement on agricultural, digital provisions of U.S.-Japan trade deal

 

Senate votes 54-41 to block Trump’s emergency declaration to build border wall

 

Senate passes bill to boost cyber assistance for federal agencies, private sector

 

House passes marijuana banking bill on 321-103 vote

 

Seventeen states sue Trump administration over weakened endangered species protections

 

Income inequality last year hit highest level in more than 50 years, Census Bureau says

 

MacArthur Foundation announces 2019 ‘genius’ grant winners

 

Reuters: Genetic tests of the elderly threaten to become next big frontier in healthcare fraud

 

Juul stops e-cigarette ads and replaces its CEO as teen vaping, illnesses increase

 

As healthcare costs rise, workers at low-wage companies may pay a larger share

 

Jacques Chirac, French president who advocated European unity, dies at 86

As House Democrats launch formal impeachment inquiry, hyperpartisans go into hyperdrive

You don’t need me for examples this morning of our profound political polarization proliferating prolifically. 

 

Let’s focus instead on the least biased reporting I know of: the work of The Associated Press.

 

Liberal constituents of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D, in San Francisco are reading the same AP article on sfgate.com as are the residents of the Trump Country town where I was born, New Castle, Pa., in the New Castle News.

 

So, to summarize that article:

 

The impeachment inquiry Pelosi announced on Tuesday, after months of House Democrats' investigations of the Trump administration, "sets up the party's most direct and consequential confrontation with the president, injects deep uncertainty into the 2020 election campaign and tests anew the nation's constitutional system of checks and balances," says AP.

 

At issue, of course, are Trump's actions with Ukraine. In a July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Trump is said to have asked for help investigating former Vice President Biden and his son Hunter. In the days before the call, Trump ordered his advisers to freeze $400 million in military aid for Ukraine — prompting speculation that he was holding out the money as leverage for information on the Bidens. Trump has denied that charge but has acknowledged he blocked the funds, which later were released.

 

Trump has authorized the release of a transcript of the phone call, and that's to be made public Wednesday.

 

The whistleblower complaint that at least partly involves Trump’s interactions with the Ukrainian leader, is being reviewed for classified material and could go to Congress by Thursday, says AP.

 

On Wednesday, the House is expected to consider a "symbolic but still notable resolution" insisting that the Trump administration turn over to Congress the whistleblower's complaint. The Senate, "in a rare bipartisan moment, approved a similar resolution on Tuesday.

Also in the news

U.N. climate report warns of severe damage to the world’s oceans

 

Reuters: EPA granted full biofuel waivers to some refineries despite Energy Department advice

 

House panel holds first of two days of hearings on vaping, as Massachusetts announces 4-month sales ban

 

Freshman GOP Rep. Lance Gooden, Texas, introduces measure to remove Jerrold Nadler as Judiciary chairman

 

Roll Call: Stressful day on the Hill? Check out these adoptable bunnies at Rayburn House Office Building

To impeach or not impeach

President Trump ordered his staff to withhold nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine days before a phone call in which he pressured the Eastern European nation’s president to investigate the son of political rival Joe Biden, The Washington Post and other media report.

 

A group of seven first-term House Democrats with military and national security backgrounds on Monday wrote in a Post op-ed that Trump should be impeached if the new allegations of his interactions with Ukraine’s leader are true.

 

Connecticut Democratic Reps. Rosa DeLauro and John Larson announced on Monday evening that they'll back the impeachment effort if the administration stonewalls Democrats’ probe of the issue.

 

DeLauro, a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Larson, a former head of the Democratic Caucus, previously backed the investigative strategy favored by Pelosi and other top Democratic leaders.

 

Two Minnesota Democrats in battleground districts — Reps. Dean Phillips and Angie Craig — also announced on Monday that they'll endorse impeachment if further investigation shows that Trump coordinated with a foreign leader to harm his political rival. 

 

More than half of the 235 House Democrats now support an impeachment inquiry against Trump, according to a New York Times survey and public statements. Here is the list.

 

Pelosi meets Tuesday afternoon with the chairs of the six committees conducting investigations into Trump, The Hill and others report. House Democrats have also scheduled a caucus meeting at 4 p.m. Tuesday in the Capitol, with aides speculating it’ll focus on a path forward on impeachment, says The Hill.

Also in the news

Britain, France, Germany blame Iran for attack on Saudi oil facilities

 

Britain’s Supreme Court rules Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament was unlawful

 

Israel’s two biggest parties begin talks on possibility of forming coalition government

 

Leaders of New Zealand, France back watchdog group to keep internet platforms from being used by extremists

 

EU's top court rules Google doesn’t have to extend EU 'right to be forgotten' rules to its search engines globally

 

At U.N. climate summit, call for action yields few commitments

New climate partnership between China, University of California to research low-carbon technology

 

Judge temporarily blocks logging in U.S.' largest national forest, Alaska’s Tongass

AP analysis: Trump’s effectiveness at dictating the terms of political interaction

 

Democratic National Committee raises qualifying thresholds for fifth presidential debate, in November

As off-label use spreads, supplies of niche drugs — and patients’ patience —  become short