How Many Others - Like Sondland Are There Out There?

[global1]

As I understand it Sondland got his Ambassador's job because he donated $1 million to Trump's campaign. Sondland looks like he operated under the radar and we know he was connected to Trump telephonically. He had access to Trump's unsecured phone. He could call Trump directly if he wanted or needed to. Seems very convenient to me if one wanted to work off the grid so to speak. Sondland was able to deliver Trump's wishes to world leaders without using proper secure channels and alerting others in our government to his criminal activities.

My question is are there others out there - Trump Ambassadors - that function like Sondland - that maybe connected to Trump similarly? Are these the people that he says he talks to from time to time? And maybe are they using the same MO of bribery and extortion with other world leaders?

Seems to me somebody might want to follow-up with this.

How many of Trump's Mar-a-Lago members were given ambassadorships?

I couldn't sleep tonight because thoughts like this were running through my brain.

He needs to be impeached out of office so I can finally get a good nights sleep.

[Rhiannon12866]

1. Just know that you're not alone feeling this way

This is why we have DU.

[Pachamama]

2. I suspect multiple such scenarios of paid-for Ambassadorships who are also operating on the side

One I am certain of - the new US Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft

Meanwhile if I could subpoena one now former Ambassador as a witness to Congress - Jon Huntsman, former Ambassador to Russia - he might not have been operating a side channel - but I bet you he knows of them and its also why he is no longer the Ambassador.

Some other Ambassadors that I would keep an eye on:

Kay Bailey Hutchinson - US Representative to NATO


Trevor Traina - US Ambassador to Austria
Ronald Gidwitz - US Ambassador to Belgium
Carla Sands - US Ambassador to Denmark
David Cornstein - US Ambassador to Hungary
Pete Hoekstra - US Ambassador to Netherlands
Ken Howery - US Ambassador to Sweden

[ToxMarz]

3. Sondland was their perfect dupe

He had no idea what he was doing and didn't care, he just wanted to be "important". He did whatever they told him to do, and his position allowed him to. Anyone with any experience or idea what was actually going on would have run as fast as they could to get away. He's not very bright, and probably didn't care, or he should have realized he was in over his head and something was fishy. When he told investigators 'When a businessman is about to sign a check to someone who owes him something, the businessman asks that person to pay up before signing the check', I think he was being absolutely sincere, that made perfect sense to him. He only understands things in a transactional sense, which may serve him well as a 'businessman' but that is why Government is not run like business (or a household). Unfortunately all the successful businessmen (small and large) and people who run their households well aren't able to wrap their heads around the bigger picture nature of Governing. It only makes sense to them that it run the same as their lives do, because obviously that has worked well for them.

[IggleDuer]

13. Don't the Repubes criticize Hunter Biden for having no qualifications?

What qualifications did Sondland have for his diplomatic role?

[Wounded Bear]

4. It's actually fairly common to appoint such people as ambassadors...

Typically, such people end up going to Lower Slobovia or Outer Shitzikstan or somewhere, not to a post like the EU. In those smaller countries, the ambassador is largely symbolic and actual state department work is handled by staff.

Major countries and orgs like the EU usually get "real" ambassadors with experience.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. And tRump dumped an air-head on Canada. Perhaps he doesn't consider us a major country.

Still no trade deal. Tepid support for Canada holding the Huawei executive on extradition request for the USA. Meanwhile, weak support for gaining the release of the two Canadians in China in retaliation for arresting her on US (tRump) request. No support for the agricultural canola ban also in retaliation.

Canada would appreciate a real President, a real friend, like the 44th one that spoke Wednesday night in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/local/meeting-obama-in-halifax-everything-provo-expected-and-more-375776/

[Wounded Bear]

7. I hear you...

I'm embarrassed that we could elect someone like Trump.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

8. Yes that would be true. But I did wonder, why the

Interest in Ukraine? Read they have immense natural resources that people (like Rick Perry's gas exec buddy) want to get their hands on. Old follow the money deal. Half these people do not care one iota about foreign relationships, spreading democracy, stopping tyrants...they just care about business and profits.

[Wounded Bear]

9. All of that, and Russia wants to re-incorporate Ukraine as a province...

in the rebirth of the Russian Empire. They still want an ice free port. They have Sevastopol since they seized Crimea, but Ukraine would give them an easier overland route to that port.

Cozying up to Turkey for access to the Dardanelles gets them access to the Mediterranean Sea, at least.

History may not repeat, but it does rhyme.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

5. Heard this or read it not sure but trump retires and

Locks his grease laden bedroom door early in the evening. He watches TV and calls people on his cell. Calls his rich buddies and yaps for hours.

I am convinced that this is where and when trump orchestrates his atrocities since we know he doesn't actually have real meetings based on his lightweight schedule.

Therefore there is no record of all that is said. We are just plain lucky that he got careless and people at dinner heard his convo with Sondland.

If we ever needed someone to bug or tap into this place, the McDonald's Room, the world would hear what this monster is truly conniving to do.

By the way, bet you a zillion this is where his buddy learned about the upcoming tariffs and sold all his stock. Will add link.

On edit from Daily Kos:
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn sold nearly one million of shares of Manitowoc stock (a company reliant on steel) -- one week before Donald Trump announced plans to impose tariffs on steel & aluminum. As a former Trump adviser, there is reason to believe that Ichan may have had advance knowledge

[bucolic_frolic]

10. Politicians and Corporations have operated this way for more than a century

There is the famous case chronicled in "Reilly Ace of Spies", an oil exec/spy securing deals from eastern Russia to the Far East.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Reilly

If Sidney Reilly had owned hotels and bugging devices, he could have added kompromat to his repertoire because he would have known who was sleeping with who and documenting trysts of all types.

See any parallels?

[Lonestarblue]

11. I doubt that Ukraine was the only extortion attempt.

It’s the only one we know about so far. Trump’s other personal lawyer, Bill Barr, was running around Europe trying to have foreign leaders give him dirt to clear Russia of election interference or dirt on our intelligence community. Italy and the UK at least seem to have told him to go suck lemons (more diplomatically I’m sure).

Trump has set himself up for blackmail with his unsecured phone calls. I would bet that at the least Israel, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China have been listening. Israel has sophisticated technology that MBS used to track dissidents and their conversations via their cell phones. All you have to do is send a message and with one click, the phone now has a bug. Trump is not smart enough to avoid doing anything with such a message. And how often does he allow national security to check his phone for bugs since he uses it constantly. So what this means is that Trump is a huge national security risk because who knows what secret intelligence he is deliberately sharing with his buddies, including Putin, and to anyone just listening. Republicans have to know this. They cannot all be so obtuse that they do not see the risks. But they’re just going along, perhaps secretly hoping that Trump loses in 2020 and they hold on to the Senate, thus having to do nothing to protect their own country.

[bigbrother05]

12. Mrs. Newt is at the Vatican, how Christiany

As noted, there are often vanity appointments, but he has weaponized them with his toxicity.