War in Ukraine

Someone replied that Russian response after that other depot fire was basically "no big deal we have another one". Well...this is the other one

 

I’m glad to see we are sending a career diplomat and not a just a high-donating partisan hack. Both parties seem to be guilty of sending “ambassadors” who have no idea what they are doing as a reward for party loyalty.

 

Marie Yovanovich, who worked for the Foreign Service since 1986, the State Department since 2001, and served as ambassador to three Eastern European nations was a partisan hack?

 

Don’t know who that is. I wasn’t calling anyone in particular a partisan hack. I was saying Bridget Brink is a career diplomat.

 

This nominee replaces Marie Yovanovitch, the Ambassador to Ukraine who was removed by the last Administration for the reasons noted in the tweet above.

Marie Yovanovitch - Wikipedia

 

Political appointments are mostly to easy posts like Western Europe. Hard assignments like Ukriane or Africa generally get career FSOs.

 

I think he's referring to in general versus calling who she's replacing a hack

 

That’s why I asked. It wasn’t a gotcha question.

 

That was not my point.

 

They should all get career FSOs, and it should be law.

 

I'm not sure a law like that would be constitutional, since the appointments clause vests the president and senate with the discretion to nominate/confirm. Restricting that authority via statute probably wouldn't work, much like laws that have tried to add qualifications to other constitutional officers have failed.

Policy wise though, I agree pure political appointments are unsavory and should stop. Especially where a nominee's only qualification is campaign bundling.

On the other hand, there are a few political appointees that seem competent. E.g., the ambassador to Russia is a former Supreme Court clerk with a long history in government service, including as the deputy secretary of state under Trump. Biden has kept him on, so he must be pretty good at his job.

 

Interesting take...

 

Hmm...gotta wonder if Russia was fed information including Zelensky announcing the visit & made plans to shoot the railways to either kill them or keep them from coming, then the visit happened earlier than expected.

 

Interesting. Given all the shady figures around Trump. I would have assumed the Biden admin would automatically clean house on anything the last admin did with Russia/Ukraine, starting with the political appointments in day 1. Guess this guy convinced them he was a serious person, still… it makes one wonder.

 

Remember they're just peaceful liberators who were threatened by NATO & Ukranians are the Nazis.

 

Russia warns United States against sending more arms to Ukraine

So in other words if the west would just stop arming Ukraine and the Ukrainians would just submit to mother Russia there would be peace? I'm sure the Snake Island response is applicable here.

 

Kick them all out everywhere. Not like Russia is interested in diplomacy anyway.

 

Seriously, though, when are we going to start being just a touch menacing ourselves by throwing some threatening, contemptuous language back at Russia? I’m about sick of their threats.