I sort of wish Schiff and others hadn't emphasized Yovanovitch so much.

[LAS14]

It felt like the led with her (and I know she was the first witness) every time the were summing up something. I sure think the smear campaign was absolutely wrong, but it didn't rise to the objective level of wrongness that soliciting the announcement of investigations did. I feel like wavering people would turn off before they finished describing the harm it did to her and not listen to the more substantive crimes.

Don't spend energy trying to persuade me that what they did to her was awful. I totally agree.

[D_Master81]

1. I remember thinking

I remember thinking and even posting on here something along those lines 30 minutes into that hearing.

[Hortensis]

2. Well, I certainly don't. She's safer by far now than when Ukrainian

and Russian criminal oligarchs were plotting with Trump & Co to frame her for corruption. Those "some things" Trump said were going to happen to her?

Yovanovich, who did her best to use her testimony to do right for herself and her nation, and Ukraine, is not a victim of Schiff or any other Democrats. She's a warrior, and she is a dedicated public servant doing her job well.

[Sneederbunk]

3. +1

[LAS14]

16. ??? I didn't mean to imply she was a victim of Schiff. ????? nt

[Hortensis]

17. Oh. Right. nt

[Gothmog]

4. I disagree-She was a powerful and effective witness

[crickets]

6. Agreed. Someone had to lead off and she was a great choice.

She did a fantastic job and set the table for those to come after. Not only that, she set the tone for the hearings: it was impossible to pooh-pooh the first witness as a nothingburger when the gallery gave her a standing ovation as she left the room. Yovanovitch did us, and herself, proud.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. I dunno

Trump was obviously scared/hateful enough to tweet-intimidate ( "tweetimidate"? ) her during the hearing, which just probably adds another AOI to the list.

[cilla4progress]

7. She wasn't first,

Taylor and Kent were.

[crickets]

8. Oops! You're right. It was Taylor and Kent on day one.

[Hortensis]

10. Those men are apparently less easily seen as victims of

our senate leaders, though, at least presumably in the eyes of LAS14.

[maxsolomon]

9. they're appealing to "our" sense of fairness.

the trump cult's bubble is impenetrable, but maybe it got through to some low-information flibberdigibbets?

one hopes.

[Nitram]

11. I strongly disagree. Yovanovitch provided solid evidence that the Trump administration

had a secret agenda in Ukraine, and it was being implemented by "irregular" channels. It also helped that Trump threatened her in real time during her testimony. Her testimony certainly got Trump exercised. I would never deign to second guess Adam Schiff. He knows exactly what he is doing as he skillfully weaves his prosecutorial narrative.

[Iterate]

12. No, her removal was a key part of the plot.

I felt it wasn't explained clearly enough, but she was a key person with the status, power, and backbone to be a real problem. Removing her was necessary to allow the rest of the plot to proceed. As it turned out, there were others, but that wasn't obvious during the time of the campaign against her.

It was also a favor or payoff to Lutsenko, and was a step in making his rehabilitation and reinstatement possible (I suspect it was a goal down the line). He was needed to cook items to back or confuse the conspiracy theory.

As a third point, it showed that this wasn't a simple impulsive act or phone call, but had been planned and carried out over months.

It had little to do with how unfair it was.

[mackdaddy]

13. +1

[Hortensis]

18. Yes, but meanwhile powerful State Dept supporters

were fighting their efforts to take her out and trying to keep her in her position. That 1 a.m. call was likely triggered by something that caused them to realize they needed to give up and get her out. Fast.

New evidence indicates that very powerful groups in Ukraine/Russia and the WH planned to frame Ambassador Yovanovich herself for corruption and take her out that way. Likely the "some things are going to happen" to "the woman" that Trump discussed on the phone call.

[Iterate]

19. Oh, I hadn't seen the second part

I also wasn't complete enough on the second point above, because granting Lutsenko his revenge by having her removed also undercut Zelensky's authority, which is more to the point of Kremlin desires.

At the time I didn't quite get the belabored back-and-forth in the testimony concerning valid vs. invalid reasons for her removal, other than to mentally flag it. With another opponent taken out by cooked accusations, it fits the pattern. No wonder the R-apologists were uncharacteristically quick to claim "but she got a new job", as if that would matter to them.

Now I want to rewatch. It's like good jazz, listen for the notes that aren't played. There's yet another crime in there somewhere.

[Hortensis]

20. Yes. So amazing to realize our own Republicans in DC

are associating with very high-level criminals so closely associated with the Russian mafia that it's often hard to make out who's doing what. Our own have become really bad people also.

She said she didn't believe the threats included physical danger, but they could have. When she received the warning to get out of Ukraine, she was at that posthumous awards ceremony for the young anti-corruption activist who died in great pain almost four months after sulfuric acid was thrown in her face.

Five men who organized and carried out the attack have been convicted and sentenced to prison terms up to 6½ years. But Yovanovitch warned Friday that the people who ordered the killing had not been punished. “Those who ordered this have not yet been apprehended.”

Pompeo also "honored" Kateryna Handziuk. The evil bastard. He's ex- head of the CIA, and no doubt has a solid idea who ordered this incredibly vicious attack; and of course he knows exactly who were planning to take out the ambassador he was supposed to be protecting with the might of the U.S. And he wants to be senator from KS.

[Iterate]

21. The concept that unites all of these bad actors has a name.

It's called "strategic culture", and shouldn't be confused with business speak and PR jargon that uses the same term. A Russian website even uses that name. I think it's time that I write about it, if I can.

[obamanut2012]

14. lol

[gibraltar72]

15. It isn't one all.

It was a whole bunch of connected acts. They had to orchestrate her removal to do their corruption.