27 Mar, 2024 11:34

Ukraine adopts spending reforms amid corruption scandals

A new unit will set long-term plans for purchases of food, clothes, fuels, and other equipment for the military

Ukraine's Defense Ministry has announced the creation of a new logistics support planning department that will draw up long-term procurement plans for the military. The move comes after a number of high-ranking Ukrainian military officials have recently been arrested on suspicion of corruption and embezzlement.

Deputy Defense Minister Vitaly Polovenko explained that the goal of the new unit is to reduce the number of emergency purchases for the Ukrainian military, which often result in the government overpaying for sub-par goods.

According to a statement on the ministry’s website, the new procurement department will be responsible for monitoring the market, analyzing prices, and determining the approximate costs of things the army might need, such as food, clothing, fuels, lubricants, and other technical equipment.

Final purchases, however, will now be made by the State Logistics Operator, according to the statement.

Just one week before the announcement, Ukrainian authorities detained theformer head of the military’s central food supplydepartment on accusationsof illegally receiving assets worth more than $1.5 million between 2022-2023, including a new car, an apartment in Kiev, and 53 land plots across the country.

In late February, Ukraine also arrested former lawmakerSergey Pashinskyand charged him withdefrauding the government of about $25 million through a “convoluted fuel-buying scheme.”

In January,two more Defense Ministry officialsand the head of the companyLviv Arsenal were also accused of stealing $40 millionthat had been earmarked for the purchase of 100,000 mortar shells.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov earlier noted that late last year his department identified othersimilar violations to the tune of more than $254.9 millionand announced that new procurement rules would follow NATO standards.

The recent string of high-level corruption scandals in Ukraine has become a point of concern for Kiev’s Western backers, primarily the US, where Republicans lawmakers have been pushing back against President Joe Biden’s efforts to provide a new $60 billion aid package to the country.

“Just a few years ago, the only thing that we knew about Ukraine was that it was the most corrupt country that anyone had ever heard of… To even try to believe and hope that maybe the funding is being managed better now than it was previously is laughable,”argued Republican congressman Matt Rosendale from Montana.

The former commander of Poland’s ground forces, General Waldemar Skrzypczak, also suggested in January that the Ukrainian military andpolitical leaders don’t actually believe their country can winthe conflict against Russia, which he believesis why they are stealing Western aid on a massive scale.

(why didn’t they do this early like they promised? These reports have been coming out since the start of funding in early 2022)

https://www.rt.com/russia/594999-ukraine-procurement-embezzlement-corruption/

==Long research thread check it out)

🏛 Aristophanes 🏛

@Aristos_Revenge

11h • Read on X

Got put down an interestingDiddy rabbit hole by a friend who worked for Warner Music once upon a time.

Apparently Diddy's dad worked for Frank Lucas, running heroin into the US during vietnam.Familiar with the movie American Gangster? That's Frank Lucas.

Interestingly enough,Diddy was awfully close to the Bronfmans, the wealthy family that owns Seagramsand got its start bootlegging from Canada during the prohibition. Back then, Edgar Bronfman Sr. was the CEO.

How close to the family was he? Well,he hung out with Edgar Jr quite a bit.. Apparently Jeffrey Epstein got his start…

Lots of connections

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1772851457416482876.html

Some Legal Scholars Push For Justice Sonia Sotomayor To Retire

Molly Redden

Updated Wed, March 27, 2024 at 11:42 AM EDT

A presidential election is looming. Control of the Senate is uncertain. The window may be closing for the Democratic Party to replace the oldest Supreme Court justice nominated by a Democratic president.

Paul Campos, a law professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, remembers how this story went last time, and he’s begging for a different ending.

“Sotomayor has been an outstanding justice,” he said. “But the Ruth Bader Ginsburg precedent ought to be extremely sobering. … The cost of her failing to be replaced by a Democratic president with a Democratic Senate would be catastrophic.”

At 69, Sonia Sotomayor is the oldest justice on the Supreme Court to have been picked by a Democrat. And now, Democrats may be about to lose the Senate, White House or both. But on the left, there is little open debate about whether she should retire.

The relative silence recalls the almost total lack of pressure on Ginsburg to retire exactly one decade ago. Ginsburg, seemingly betting she would outlive a Republican-held Senate and then Donald Trump’s presidency, died of pancreatic cancer at age 87, just weeks before Joe Biden won the 2020 election. When Trump nominated her replacement, Amy Coney Barrett, and she was confirmed on Oct. 26, he cemented the 6-3 conservative majority that then took less than two years to fully overturn Roe v. Wade, among other seismic jurisprudential shifts.

Fearing a repeat of history, a handful of people who were critical of Ginsburg’s judgment, are wearily reprising their warnings ― including Lucas Powe Jr., a Supreme Court historian at the University of Texas at Austin.

“I would love to see Sotomayor retire,” Powe said. “I would love to trade her for a 50-year-old justice.”

Outside of a handful of commentators and journalists, though, few others are eager for Sotomayor to go. Her fierce dissents and willingness to speak sharply about her frustration with the conservative majority have made her one of the most admired voices on the left. She is also the first and only Latina on the court, a milestone Democrats are wary of sullying by pressuring her to step down.

You have the votes right now, and you’re not going to have the votes a year from now. It’s really that simple.Paul Campos, law professor at the University of Colorado Boulder

Sotomayor is still youthful by the skewed standards of the Supreme Court. The average retirement age for recent justices is in the 80s, and since 1970, the average tenure has lasted about 28 years. When proponents of court reform propose mandatory term limits, they usually suggest a maximum tenure of 18 years. Sotomayor, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009, has served on the court for only 15 years.

The current average age on the Supreme Court is 63, and working at such a relentless pace at almost 70 “isn’t what I expected,” she said at a public appearance in January. “What choice do you have but to fight the good fight? You can’t throw up your hands and walk away. …That’s an abdication. That’s giving up.”

Although she took the unusual step of traveling with a medic in 2018 ― a precaution possibly related to her Type 1 diabetes ― it’s not clear whether she was dealing with a serious health concern.

And the fact that she is younger than Justices Clarence Thomas, 75, and Samuel Alito, who is about to turn 74 ― two conservatives who, naturally, face no political pressure to retire under Biden ― breeds resentment around calls for her to step down while they remain.

“Sotomayor is probably thinking, ‘I can outlive a Trump presidency,’” Powe said.

She may also be sensitive to the perception that she is timing her retirement for partisan purposes, he added. She and Barrett are in the midst of a publicity tour to promote the concept of civility.

But there is a nightmare scenario for Democrats in which Trump would get to appoint his fourth ultraconservative justice if the Democratic Senate does not act now. Today, Democrats have a 51-49 majority in the Senate ― one more vote than they had two years ago, when they successfully confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who retired at age 83.

(Good reason for legal confirmation Joe et al stole the 2020, so all damage he’s caused can be reversed. SC must take up Kari Lake petition asap.)

https://news.yahoo.com/legal-scholars-push-justice-sonia-094524649.html

‘Assured failure’: Ex-White House lawyer provides new details of final days of Trump’s 2020 election gambit

Pat Philbin gave his first public testimony about the chaotic final days of the Trump presidency.

Donald Trump’s deputy White House counsel, Pat Philbin, was nervous.

It was just a few days until Jan. 6, 2021, when Congress was slated to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, and Trump had suddenly resuscitated a plan to replace the leadership of the Justice Department with Jeffrey Clark, a little known DOJ official who Trump expected to mount a sweeping nationwide effort to help him remain in power.

So Philbin called Clark, a colleague from their days in private practice dating back to the 1990s and tried to talk him out of it.

“I tried to explain to him that it was a bad idea for multiple reasons,” Philbin recalled Tuesday at a long-delayed disbarment hearing for Clark. “He would be starting down a path of assured failure … If by some miracle somehow, it worked, there’d be riots in every major city in the country and it was not an outcome the country would accept.”

It was Philbin’s first public testimony about the chaotic final days of the Trump presidency since he left the White House. Though Philbin has spoken to both the Jan. 6 select committee and the federal grand jury that indicted Trump for his effort to seize a second term, no transcript or recording of his remarks has even been released.

Philbin’s description of his interactions with Clark shed new light on the frenzied effort by Trump to remake the Justice Department into a tool of his bid to cling to power despite losing the election — a remarkable new account more than three years after a mob of pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol in his name. His testimony followed Richard Donoghue, a former acting deputy attorney general.

Together, the two men described a White House that had let down all guardrails, with conspiracy theories about election fraud reaching Trump, who was an eager recipient of even implausible claims of fraud. Clark, too, embraced some of those claims, they said.

Philbin described feeling relief in the first days of January 2021 when he heard that Trump had ditched plans to appoint Clark as acting attorney general. But he quickly learned in discussions with his boss, Pat Cipollone, and two top DOJ officials — acting attorney general Jeff Rosen and his deputy Richard Donoghue — that the effort had been revived. The men agreed that Philbin should speak to Clark, owing to their decadeslong relationship, and attempt to discern what was happening.

Philbin, who testified for about two hours on Tuesday,described Clark as wildly misinformed about claims of election fraud— countenancing a theory about “smart thermostats” being used to manipulate voting machines — and not sufficiently cognizant of the havoc it would wreak on the country if his plan succeeded. But he said Clark seemed “100 percent sincere” in his beliefs. (Clark is a world renowned Legal Scholars with double majors, insinuating he was misinformed is bullshit. These attys are trying to keep their law license, so they throwing under the bus.)

“I believe that he felt that he essentially had a duty,” Philbin said. “I think Jeff’s view was that there was a real crisis in the country and that he was being given an opportunity to do something about it.”

When Philbin warned Clark that there would be riots in every major American city if Trump reversed the outcome of the election, Clark responded, “Well, Pat, that’s what the Insurrection Act is for,” Philbin recalled.

Clark, in Philbin’s telling, was referring to a 19th-century federal law that permits the president to use the military to quell civil unrest, an indication that he recognized the grave implications of his efforts. Though it was Philbin’s first time publicly discussing the exchange, the conversation was captured in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump — without naming either Philbin or Clark, though the identities of both speakers were easily discerned. On Tuesday, Philbin was asked to elaborate on this discussion.

“I don’t think I said anything on the phone. I just thought that that showed a lack of judgment,” he said. “Triggering riots in every major city in America, you’ve got to be really sure about what you’re doing and have no alternatives … In my estimation, that was not the sort of situation we were talking about.”

Philbin was the second witness to testify in a disciplinary proceeding that could result in the loss of Clark’s license to practice law. D.C.

Nearly every top DOJ official indicated they would resign, a significant factor in causing Trump to back off his plan.(Faggots!)…

(PS the letter was never sent, so why disbar him? He’s brilliant and still supports Trump)

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/26/white-house-trump-2020-00149195

Mike Davis Breaks Down Colangelo's Key Role In Resurrecting The Phony Case Against President Trump

25:35

(Starts with short cold open)

https://rumble.com/embed/v4ja4w9/?pub=4

This is a 30 front war. "This Is An All Out Fight": Steve Bannon On The Battle For 2024He gives the left’s plan to prevent Trump from winning. Trump needs to win, specific 25 counties to win!

7:51

https://rumble.com/embed/v4ja4x2/?pub=4

Steve Bannon Reacts To Obama Fearing Trump 2024, MAGA's Rejecting The Old GOP. Cold open with the crazies at MSDMC gloating about firing RonnaMadcow is so creepy

14:53

https://rumble.com/embed/v4ja343/?pub=4

>>20636825

First 8 minutes is MSM losing their minds with severe and dangerous TDS

"We Have A Giant Housing Crisis": Louis Murray On Illegal Immigrants Effect On BostonMA wants to spend $2 billion to house illegals, they have 288,000 illegals. The people are getting fed up

4:01

https://rumble.com/embed/v4ja4x9/?pub=4

Steve Bannon: Now We Understand You Can't Beat Trump In A Fair And Square Matchup On Ideas". MSM reporting Trump hatred 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I’m surprised they don’t dead from anxiety and fear.

11:56

https://rumble.com/embed/v4ja602/?pub=4

Guess what leftist of EU Council are trying to introduce to Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, change election laws and introduce digital voting machines. The EU needs more friendly country leaders, so they will cheat and mess with their elections. Vucic certainly knows the damage that be done with digital voting machines, since his countries hacked 2020 and many others working for Dominion. Serbia never allowed machines for the reason

27 Mar, 2024 10:10

‘Difficult days ahead for Serbia’ – Vucic

The country’s president is expected to meet Western diplomats to discuss Kosovo’s bid to join the Council of Europe

Serbia is facing several extremely difficult days, President Aleksandar Vucic has said, adding that the country’s national interests are at stake. The Balkan nation has consistently opposed efforts by its breakaway province of Kosovo to join international bodies, but the region has recently made headway in this respect.

The Serbian leader posted a cryptic message on Instagram on Wednesday, warning that “difficult days are ahead for Serbia,” and that “at this moment, it is not easy to say what kind of news we have received in the last 48 hours.”

The developments “directly threaten the vital national interests of both Serbia and [Republika] Srpska,” Vucic noted, without providing further details, saying only that he would introduce his fellow citizens to the challenges ahead in the coming days.

Republika Srpska is a partially autonomous Serb-dominated region within Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“It will be hard… We will fight, Serbia will win,”Vucic added.

While it’s unclear what Vucic was referring to, he is poised to meet withsenior diplomats from the US, UK, Germany, France and Italyon Wednesday, according to Pink.rs website. The agenda for the meeting is expected to revolve around Kosovo’s application to join the Council of Europe, an international human rights watchdog.

According to Pink, Vucic “will not miss the opportunity to repeat… that it was a perfidious move that also has symbolic weight since it was made on the very day that was written in black letters in the collective memory of Serbs.”

The outlet was referring to the 25th anniversary of the start of NATO’s bombing campaign against the former Yugoslavia over what the bloc called “disproportionate use of force” against an ethnic Albanian insurgency in Kosovo.

Also up for discussion will reportedly be the decision of the Permanent Commission of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to elevate the breakaway region of Kosovo to the status of associate member. A final decision on the matter is expected in late May.

Meanwhile, Radio Sarajevo has suggested that the Serbian president was reacting to the decision of the high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina,Christian Schmidt, to change the country’s election law. The Office of the High Representative is an international organization that oversees the 1995 Dayton Agreement, which put an end to a bloody war in the Balkan nation.

Schmidt said on Tuesday thathe would use his authority to introduce digital voting reformsas part of a pilot project in the country.

The move was met withpushback from Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, who said Schmidt had nothing to do with the electoral process=, adding that it “belongs to the people living in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

https://www.rt.com/news/594995-vucic-serbia-difficult-days/