Конституционные поправки

[tijd]

Одна из поправок к Конституции РФ, за которые ныне голосуют россияне, касается запрета на однополые браки: "защита семьи, материнства, отцовства и детства" в старой редакции заменяется на "защита института брака как союза мужчины и женщины".

В Америке борьба за подобную поправку (Family Protection Amendment) имеет давнюю историю. Истерика про однополые браки помогла Бушу переизбраться в 2004. Последняя попытка пробить конституционную поправку через Конгресс была сделана летом 2006 - в то время, когда клозетный гей Кен Мелман возглавлял RNC. Близились выборы в Конгресс, и требовалась консервативная повестка дня для стимулирования избирателей.



Обращаясь с воззванием о конституционной поправке в июне 2006, Буш говорил:

"This week, the Senate begins debate on the Marriage Protection Amendment, and I call on the Congress to pass this amendment, send it to the states for ratification so we can take this issue out of the hands of over-reaching judges and put it back where it belongs -- in the hands of the American people. (Applause.)
The union of a man and woman in marriage is the most enduring and important human institution. For ages, in every culture, human beings have understood that marriage is critical to the well-being of families. And because families pass along values and shape character, marriage is also critical to the health of society. Our policies should aim to strengthen families, not undermine them. And changing the definition of marriage would undermine the family structure. <...>
An amendment to the Constitution is necessary because activist courts have left our nation with no other choice. When judges insist on imposing their arbitrary will on the people, the only alternative left to the people is an amendment to the Constitution, the only law a court cannot overturn.
The constitutional amendment that the Senate will consider this week would fully protect marriage from being redefined. It will leave state legislatures free to make their own choices in defining legal arrangements other than marriage. A constitutional amendment is the most democratic process by which our country can resolve this issue."
https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/06/20060605-2.html

Click to view

Через несколько дней после этого сатирик Люис Блэк объяснил на телеканале HBO, каким именно образом проклятые геи разрушают традиционную семью.

"Maybe there's a group of gay bandidos. They travel from village to dell. And as night falls, they travel to that cul-de-sac, where only one house stands. And in the window, you see a family, just setting down to their evening meal. And these queers... these queers... don their black hoods, and matching pumps, very tasteful. Sneak up to the house ever so slightly, open the door, and start... FUCKING EACH OTHER IN THE ASS! AND ANOTHER AMERICAN FAMILY... IS DESTROYED!"



Пока шли дебаты в Конгрессе, Буш оказался в Петербурге на встрече с Путиным. Друзья обсуждали не только насущные проблемы, но и философские вопросы.

PRESIDENT BUSH: We did have a very good discussion today. It was started -- actually, our discussion started last night over a really good dinner. And I want to thank you and Mrs. Putina for being such wonderful hosts.
You've got to admit this is a fantastic setting. It's beautiful. The cottages are very comfortable. I think that our fellow G8 leaders are going to really enjoy being here.
Anyway, we had a good discussion this morning. One thing is clear, is relations between America and Russia are good, and they're important that they be good. We've got a lot to -- we've got a lot to work on. We discussed North Korea and Iran. Those are two difficult issues, made less difficult because Russia and the United States are willing to work together to send clear messages to both governments that their nuclear weapons ambitions are not acceptable. <...>
I, of course -- we talked philosophy. One thing, what happens when you get relaxed and are friendly with each other, you're able to share philosophies and able to ask questions about decision-making. And I appreciate very much our discussion last night and this morning about why the President has made decisions he's made, what decisions he intends to make, and the decisions I made. We don't always agree with each other, but nevertheless, it's important for leaders to be able to share philosophy, whether it be the philosophy of government or the philosophy of governing.
And our relationship is good. And I want to thank the President for his hospitality. I thank you for your good food, thank you for the 60th birthday gift you gave me last night, and thanks for the meeting this morning. <...>
Q President Bush, you said that you planned to raise, in a respectful way, your concerns about Russian democracy with President Putin. How did that conversation go? And I know you've already talked a lot about the U.S.-Russian relationship, but I'm wondering if both of you could elaborate on that, and how the differences of opinion over the democracy are affecting the relationship.
PRESIDENT BUSH: I thought the discussion was a good discussion. It's not the first time that Vladimir and I discussed our governing philosophies. I have shared with him my desires for our country, and he shared with me his desires for his. And I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world like Iraq where there's a free press and free religion, and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia would do the same thing.
I fully understand, however, that there will be a Russian-style democracy. I don't expect Russia to look like the United States. As Vladimir pointedly reminded me last night, we have a different history, different traditions. And I will let him describe to you his way forward, but he shared with me some very interesting thoughts that I think would surprise some of our citizens.
https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060715-1.html

Какими "interesting thoughts" Путин поделился в частной беседе с заокеанским другом, осталось загадкой.



Голосование за конституционную поправку в Конгрессе с треском провалилось. В Палате представителей резолюция набрала 55% вместо положенных двух третей, а в Сенате не набралось и половины голосов.

The Senate on Wednesday rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, dealing a defeat to President Bush and Republicans who hope to use the measure to energize conservative voters on Election Day.
Supporters knew they wouldn't achieve the two-thirds vote needed to approve a constitutional amendment, but they had predicted a majority of votes. Instead, they fell one short, 49-48.
That was one vote more than they got last time the Senate voted on the matter, in 2004. Later that year, Republicans gained four seats in the Senate.
"We were hoping to get over 50 percent, but that didn't happen today," said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., one of the amendment's supporters. "Eventually, Congress is going to have to catch up to the wisdom of the American people or the American people will change Congress for the better."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060700929.html



Как это обычно бывает, вскоре выяснилось, что сенатор из Луизианы Дэвид Виттер,  главный борец за традиционные семейные ценности, был постоянным клиентом у вашингтонских проституток Скандал удалось замять после того, как попавшая под уголовное преследования хозяйка эскорт-сервиса по прозвищу "D.C. Madam" повесилась в 2008.

Then there's Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R), a self-styled family values conservative who in 2007 admitted to having been a client of the infamous "D.C. Madam," Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Soon after his admission and public apology, Vitter resigned from office and left politics for good.
Ha, just kidding: He hung around Congress and, less than three years later, won a resounding reelection. This week, he announced he would run for governor in Louisiana in 2015. He's widely considered the early frontrunner.
So what gives? How did Vitter, despite getting tangled in a sex scandal that undercut his social conservative image, not only hang on, but come out smelling like roses?
For one, his scandal was less visceral than most. True, he confessed to patronizing a notorious prostitution ring, and Palfrey, facing jail time for running the operation, killed herself. But Vitter's personal involvement never offered the kind of salacious details that make these stories so indelible. There were, to put it another way, no nudie pictures floating around the Internet.
Moreover, Vitter's affairs took place years before he admitted to them - his involvement only came to light when someone found his phone number in Palfrey's records - and, importantly, years before his next election. So when Vitter came clean, he said he had already "asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling." Then he refused to say any more "out of respect for my family," a nice call back to his family values cred, and a sign of his intent to snuff out the story through total silence.
https://theweek.com/articles/452538/how-david-vitter-got-sex-scandal



Одно из последствий скандала - на республиканских праймериз против Виттера на выборах в Сенат в 2010 выставилась одна из луизианских знаменитостей, порнозвезда Сторми Дэниелс.

The former pornographic film star Stormy Daniels announced today that, after learning about the Republican National Committee's recent reimbursement of an outing at a topless, bondage-themed nightclub, she could launch a bid for the Senate as a Republican.
The Baton-Rouge-born entertainer has been mulling over a bid for Sen. David Vitter (R-La.)'s Senate seat and is expected to make her candidacy official on April 15th -- a date selected to highlight her push for tax reform. Daniels' campaign began as a grassroots movement after Vitter's connections to a prostitution ring were revealed.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-porn-star-stormy-daniels-im-a-republican/

Daniels told reporters that her campaign slogan was, “Stormy Daniels: Screwing People Honestly.”
In July, the car of Daniels’ campaign manager, Brian Welsh, was fire-bombed outside of his apartment in New Orleans. To this day, a culprit has not been identified. “Clearly, if someone tried to blow up my car, it’s cause for concern; it’s not cause for me to stop doing my job, stop me from talking about the things that are important,” Welsh said the night of the bombing.
Later that week, Daniels herself was arrested in Florida on domestic violence charges. Daniels’ husband at the time told police that they got into an altercation over unpaid bills and laundry.
However, while talking about running for the Senate from Louisiana, Daniels continued to make her home in Tampa, Florida and star in adult films. Most Louisiana political observers chalked the campaign up to a publicity stunt rather than a political statement.
While it provided interesting humor for comedy writers and scorn from editorialists, Daniels’ candidacy didn’t gain much traction and she announced in April of 2010, that she would not run, citing business concerns while continuing to attack what she saw as Vitter’s hypocrisy and sexism in politics.
Most political reporters thought they wouldn’t hear her name again.
Boy, were they wrong.
https://www.bayoubrief.com/2018/01/17/the-true-story-of-stormy-daniels-versus-david-vitter/



Виттер легко выиграл перевыборы несмотря на скандал. В 2015 он стал республиканским кандидатом на выборах губернатора Луизианы, но проиграл, набрав 44% в одной из самых дорогих избирательных кампаний в истории.

Доработав свой сенаторский срок в 2017, Виттер незамедлительно стал лоббистом. Его клиент - Олег Дерипаска, а лоббистская кампания - снятие санкций. Частично удалось добиться успеха - после того, как Дерипска вложил $200 миллионов в Кентукки, штат Митча Макконнела и Рэнда Пола. За эту аферу, как и за отсутствие реакции на российскую атаку на выборы 2016 Макконнел получил от недругов прозвище Moscow Mitch.

Mr. McConnell, the Senate majority leader, helped defeat a bipartisan effort in January to block the sanctions relief deal for Rusal. His spokesman said Mr. McConnell’s support for lifting the sanctions was unrelated to the potential investment in Kentucky, which was not publicly announced until last month - months after the vote.
Lobbying filings suggest that, just before the April announcement, David Vitter, a former Republican senator who is being paid to lobby for EN+, reached out to give Mr. McConnell “a heads-up” about the announcement.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/us/politics/rusal-investment-kentucky.html

Within five weeks of Mitch McConnell getting that call from David Vitter saying, Hey I've got an aluminum plant we're going to put in your home state! Thanks from Oleg! -Wendy Vitter's nomination got pulled off the trash heap by McConnell and now she is a federal judge. For life. pic.twitter.com/RCC4W1kVCW
- Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) May 22, 2019

Поддержка Макконнела Виттеру выразилась также в утверждении жены Виттера на пожизненный пост федерального судьи. Венди Виттер была вознаграждена за поддержку мужа во время скандала с проститутками. Против ее назначения судьей протестовали правозащитные организации, которые указывали на ее отказ подтвердить конституционность Brown v. Board of Education - исторического решения Верховного суда о десегрегации.

The Southern court that famously ordered Ruby Bridges’ admission to an all-white school is the very court on which Wendy Vitter seeks to serve. Yet fifty-eight years later, Ms. Vitter refused to embrace the landmark Brown ruling. When asked at her Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in April, 2018 whether Brown v. Board of Education was correctly decided, Ms. Vitter responded: “I don’t mean to be coy but I think I get into a difficult area when I start commenting on Supreme Court decisions which are correctly decided and which I may disagree with.”
Wendy Vitter’s response was shocking then, and it is shocking now. Issued by the Supreme Court in a famously unanimous ruling, the Brown ruling is sacred. Its principle of equal justice is now a cornerstone of our democracy. Sixty-five years later, this ruling must be held inviolable. Indeed, recent Republican and Democratic nominees to the Supreme Court all have affirmed the decision’s exalted place in our nation’s jurisprudence and in our collective history. Robert Bork, who questioned the Brown ruling during the 1987 hearing on his Supreme Court nomination, was rejected by the Senate.
Since Ms. Vitter’s unacceptable response over one year ago, dozens of Donald Trump’s judicial nominees have answered the Brown question in similar fashion. While their answers may vary slightly, the impact is the same: Nominees for lifetime judicial appointments are suddenly refusing to endorse the most significant and celebrated civil rights decision ever issued by the Supreme Court. This is anathema to our system of justice and must be condemned by the Senate in the strongest terms.
https://www.naacp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Vitter-Wendy-Nominations.pdf

Trump's campaign speeches, written by Stephen Miller, mirrored the talking points from former KKK Imperial Wizard David Duke's 1992 presidential run. "America First", the slogan used by the KKK, American Nazis, and Pat Buchanan in his 2000 presidential run, has a fascist origin. pic.twitter.com/fvDsiRlxdb
- Heresy Labs (@heresysquad) June 26, 2020

В проигрыше Виттера на выборах губернатора Лиузианы в 2015 слышался отзвук проигрыша Дэвида Дюка - республиканского кандидата на выборах губернатора в 1991.

В 1998 у Дюка был новый шанс пробиться в правительство. После ухода Ньюта Гингрича из спикеров Конгресса его место должен был занять конгрессмен из Луизианы Боб Ливингстон. Но вскоре Ливингстон вслед за Гингричем с позором покинул Конгресс. На место Ливингстона в Конгрессе метил Дюк, но в итоге попал Виттер. Из других возможных кандидатов в это время рассматривался Стив Скэлис, ныне House Minority Whip, попавший на то же место в 2008. Виттер и Скэлис подчеркивали, что от Дюка их отличает не столько программа, сколько избираемость.

Eighty-five percent of the 1st district’s population is white; only 10 percent is black. The district is the most Republican and the most conservative in the state.
In the 1991 gubernatorial election, Duke took about 60 percent in the four parishes that comprise the 1st district, according to the state Department of Elections.
In the 1990 Senate race, he lost to Johnston, 54 to 44 percent, but Duke won about 54 percent in the 1st district’s parishes. <...>
Other potential Republican candidates said Duke’s political viability has waned in recent years.
“I honestly think his 15 minutes of fame have come and gone,” said state Rep. David Vitter (R), a wealthy Metairie attorney who holds Duke’s old seat in the state House and is “seriously considering” a Congressional bid. “When he’s competed in a field with real conservatives, real Republicans, Duke has not done well at all.”
Another potential candidate, state Rep. Steve Scalise (R), said he embraces many of the same “conservative” views as Duke, but is far more viable.
“The novelty of David Duke has worn off,” said Scalise. “The voters in this district are smart enough to realize that they need to get behind someone who not only believes in the issues they care about, but also can get elected. Duke has proven that he can’t get elected, and that’s the first and most important thing.”
https://www.rollcall.com/2014/12/29/what-scalise-and-vitter-told-roll-call-about-david-duke-in-1999-2/



Сторонники традиционных семейных ценностей Гингрич и Ливингстон, гневно осуждавшие Клинтона за непростительное прелюбодеяние, сами оказались не чужды этому древнему греху. Лицемерие помог вскрыть Ларри Флинт, объявивший награду за соответствующую информацию.

On the eve of the House debate to impeach President Clinton for lying about sex with Monica Lewinsky, House Speaker-elect Bob Livingston told his Republican colleagues Thursday night that he had strayed from his marriage and had adulterous affairs.
Only a few hours after Livingston decided to proceed with the impeachment debate despite U.S. forces being engaged in hostilities in Iraq, he admitted in a GOP caucus that he had "on occasion" committed infidelity and in "doing so nearly cost me my marriage and family."
The speaker-elect's announcement added a startling twist to a political scandal in which Clinton is likely to be impeached by the House for allegedly lying under oath about his affair with Lewinsky and then covering it up.
In the closed caucus, Livingston, of Louisiana, read a letter to colleagues about the matter, departing from it only once when he said at the beginning, "I guess I have been Larry Flynted."
This was a reference to Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, who had offered a reward of up to $1 million to anyone who could document adulterous affairs by members of Congress or high government officials.
Flynt issued a statement in Los Angeles on Thursday night saying that the magazine had been working on tips that Livingston had had affairs with four women.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1998-12-18-9812180366-story.html

После ухода Ливингстона спикером стал Деннис Хастерт - примерный семьянин и образец высокой республиканской морали. Он проработал в этой должности 8 лет. О сексуальных утехах Хастерта с несовершеннолетними мальчиками стало известно позже.

May 29, 2015 - Sources with knowledge of the federal investigation tell CNN Hastert was paying a former student to keep quiet about allegations of sexual misconduct from the time when Hastert was a teacher and wrestling coach in Illinois.
June 9, 2015 - Pleads not guilty to all charges related to lying to the FBI about $3.5 million he agreed to pay to an undisclosed subject.
October 28, 2015 - Hastert pleads guilty to charges of lying to federal investigators stemming from his attempts to cover up sexual misconduct with a former student in Illinois.
December 17, 2015 - A statement is released announcing that Hastert was admitted to the hospital in the first week of November 2015. He is treated for a stroke and sepsis. This is followed by two back surgeries.
April 6, 2016 - In a federal court filing, defense attorneys ask for probation for Hastert instead of prison time, saying he is "deeply sorry" for his actions, adding his remorse is emotional and heartfelt.
April 8, 2016 - Documents released by prosecutors allege Hastert sexually abused at least four boys when he coached high school wrestling in Illinois decades ago.
April 25, 2016 - Hastert is sued by a former student in Illinois Circuit Court. The former student seeks to collect $1.8 million. This is the remainder of the $3.5 million promised him for covering up Hastert's past misconduct.
April 27, 2016 - Hastert is sentenced to 15 months in prison. He is ordered to pay $250,000 to a victims' fund, must serve two years of supervised release once he finishes his prison term, and enter a sex offender treatment program.
June 22, 2016 - Hastert begins serving his 15-month sentence at a federal medical prison in Rochester, Minnesota.
July 18, 2017 - Is released from prison and is now under the supervision of a residential reentry management field office in Chicago.
November 20, 2017 - A judge in Kendall County, Illinois, throws out a lawsuit brought by a man who claims Hastert abused him when he was a child, saying the statute of limitations had passed.
December 12, 2017 - New court-ordered restrictions ban Hastert from having contact with anyone under 18 unless an adult is present who's aware that he pleaded guilty in a hush money case related to the sexual abuse of teen boys.
September 10, 2019 - A judge in Kendall County, Illinois, rules that a lawsuit over the terms of a $3.5 million hush money deal can go to trial. One of Hastert's former students filed the lawsuit in April 2016.
https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/26/us/dennis-hastert-fast-facts/index.html



После ухода из Конгресса Боб Ливингстон работает, естественно, лоббистом. Точно неизвестно, какой именно клиент оплачивал его услуги, когда он лоббировал администрацию Трампа уволить посла в Украине.

Из показаний в Конгрессе Катерины Крофт, которая в 2018 отвечала за Украину в Совете национальной безопасности:

"During my time at the NSC, I received multiple calls from lobbyist Robert Livingston who told me that Ambassador Yovanovitch should be fired. He characterized Ambassador Yovanovitch as a, quote, "Obama holdover" end quote, and associated with George Sonos. It was not clear to me at the time, or now, at whose direction on at whose expense Mr. Livingston was seeking the removal of Ambassador Yovanovitch. I documented these calls and told my boss, Fiona Hill, and George Kent, who was in Kyiv at the time, I am not aware of any action that was taken in response."
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IG/IG00/CPRT-116-IG00-D013.pdf

Robert Livingston, a Republican congressman-turned-lobbyist who’s become a figure in the impeachment inquiry for pressing for the ouster of the ambassador to Ukraine, has continued to lobby the State Department on behalf of Ukrainian interests through at least last month, according to a newly filed Justice Department disclosure.
Catherine Croft, a State Department official, told House impeachment investigators on Wednesday that Livingston had told her on multiple occasions while she was working for the National Security Council that the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine should be fired. Croft left her NSC post last year.
It’s unclear when Livingston pressed Croft about Marie Yovanovitch, who served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine before President Donald Trump recalled her in May.
It’s also unclear which of Livingston’s clients - if any - was pushing for her ouster.
But the revelation that Livingston had urged for Yovanovitch to be fired adds to the intrigue around a shadow campaign by Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, and others to allegedly push out Yovanovitch.
Livingston spoke to Croft on behalf of one of his clients - a Ukrainian association of steel companies called the Association of Enterprises UKRMETALURGPROM - on May 17, 2018, while she was still at the NSC, according to a previously filed disclosure made by his firm, the Livingston Group.
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/31/robert-livingston-lobbying-ukraine-062929



В своей книжке Джон Болтон не упоминает Ливингстона и его лоббирование в 2018, но описывает, как решался вопрос об увольнении посла Йованович в 2019. Характерно упоминание про "LGBTQ matters", как одной из претензий.

Trump had complained about our Ambassador Yovanovitch, for some time, noting to me on March 21 during a telephone call covering a number of subjects that she was “bad-mouthing us like crazy” and that her only concern was LGBTQ matters. “She is saying bad shit about me and about
you,” he added, saying he wanted her fired “today.” I said I would call Pompeo, who was in the Middle East; I tried several times to reach him but didn’t because of meeting schedules and time-zone differences. After Principals Committees later that afternoon, I pulled Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan aside to convey Trump’s direction, so he could inform Pompeo. Sullivan knew Trump wanted Yovanovitch fired, so he understood that this repetition of Trump’s instruction was serious. A few days later, on March 25, Trump called me to the Oval, but I found him in his small dining room with Rudy Giuliani and Jay Sekulow (another of his private attorneys), obviously enjoying discussing the reaction to Mueller’s report on his Russia investigation. At this meeting, I learned Giuliani was the source of the stories about Yovanovitch, who he said was being protected by a Deputy Assistant Secretary in State’s European bureau, George Kent (I don’t think Giuliani knew Kent’s job title accurately; Pompeo clarified it for me later). Trump again said Yovanovitch should be fired immediately. I reached Pompeo by phone in the late afternoon to relay this latest news, now with the update that it came from Giuliani. Pompeo said he had spoken with Giuliani before, and there were no facts supporting any of his allegations, although Pompeo didn’t doubt that, like 90 percent of
the Foreign Service, Yovanovitch probably voted for Clinton. He said she was trying to reduce corruption in Ukraine and may well have been going after some of Giuliani’s clients. Pompeo said he would call Giuliani again and then speak to Trump. The next morning, I called Trump about several matters and asked if he and Pompeo had spoken on Yovanovitch. They had not, but he repeated he was “tired of her bad-mouthing us” and her saying he would be impeached and the like. “Really bad,” said Trump. I called Pompeo about nine forty-five a.m. to report this conversation. He again protested that Giuliani’s allegations simply weren’t true and said he would call Trump. I mentioned this to Trump later in the day, just so he knew he wasn’t being ignored. <...>
A couple of days later, April 23, I was called to the Oval to find Trump and Mulvaney on the phone, discussing Yovanovitch again with Giuliani, who was still pressing for her removal. He had spun Trump up with the “news” that she had spoken to President-Elect Zelensky to tell him Trump himself wanted certain investigations by Ukrainian prosecutors stopped. In Giuliani’s mind, Yovanovitch was protecting Hillary Clinton, whose campaign was purportedly the subject of Ukrainian criminal investigations, and there was some connection with Joe Biden’s son Hunter in there as well. Giuliani was delivering what was all third-or-fourth-degree hearsay;
he offered no evidence on the call for his allegations. I said I had spoken with Pompeo on Yovanovitch and would check with him again. Trump couldn’t believe Pompeo hadn’t fired Yovanovitch yet, and that’s what he wanted, no ifs, ands, or buts. Trump said I should find out immediately from Pompeo what was happening, and I should call Zelensky to make it clear Yovanovitch did not speak for the Administration. Of course, since we didn’t really know what she had said, it was unclear what I should tell Zelensky to ignore.
I went back to my office and reached Pompeo about four p.m. He said he had already curtailed Yovanovitch from either late November or early December back to June 1, and some time before had so informed Trump, who didn’t object. Pompeo wanted to leave it at that. I told him the mood was pretty volcanic because she wasn’t gone entirely, which was met with a groan. He again mentioned his previous conversations with Giuliani, who couldn’t describe in any detail what had supposedly happened but who had raised it constantly with Trump over the past several months. But Pompeo said also that, in looking at the embassy, the State Department now had a
pile of materials they were sending over to Justice that implicated Yovanovitch and her predecessor in some unnamed and undescribed activity that might well be criminal. Pompeo closed by saying that he would order her back to Washington that night. With Yovanovitch ordered home, there was no point in calling Zelensky (which I hadn’t wanted to do anyway), so I did not.
I briefed Eisenberg on this latest Yovanovitch development. A bit later, Mulvaney came to my office with Cipollone and Emmet Flood, a White House Counsel’s office attorney handling the Mueller investigation. I raised with them something I had asked about before, with either Cipollone or Eisenberg: whether Giuliani had ethical problems under the lawyers’ Code of Professional Responsibility for using one attorney-client relationship to advance the interests of another client, a dynamic that I thought might be at work in his dealings on behalf of Trump. I said I thought it was an ethical violation to do so, but I was in the minority; the others did agree it was “slimy.” So much for legal ethics.

Joe Biden was the first national leader to support same-sex marriage, on "Meet the Press" in May of 2012. He did it without consulting anyone, despite that a majority of Americans opposed it at the time.

Controversial? Yes, but he did it because it was right. #DemocraticDebate pic.twitter.com/hTu8LrUmSV
- Charlotte Clymer 🏳️‍🌈 (@cmclymer) March 16, 2020

Что касается вопроса об однополых браках в Америке, то поворотную роль в этом вопросе сыграло интервью Джо Байдена в мае 2012.

DAVID GREGORY: You know, the president has said that his views on gay marriage, on same-sex marriage have evolved. But he's opposed to it. You're opposed to it. Have your views-- evolved?
VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: I just think that the good news is that as more and more Americans become to understand what this is all about is a simple proposition. Who do you love? Who do you love? And will you be loyal to the person you love? And that's what people are finding out is what-- what all marriages, at their root, are about. Wether they're marriages of lesbians or gay men or heterosexuals.
DAVID GREGORY:
Is that what you believe now? Are you--
VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN:
That's what I believe.
DAVID GREGORY:
And you're comfortable with same-sex marriage now?
VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN:
I am vice president of the United States of America. The president sets the policy. I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly, I don't see much of a distinction-- beyond that.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/47311900/ns/meet_the_press-transcripts/t/may-joe-biden-kelly-ayotte-diane-swonk-tom-brokaw-chuck-todd/

Слова Байдена вынудили Обаму занять однозначную позицию, чтобы не выглядеть трусом. Смелость и принципиальность Обамы и Байдена через полгода были вознаграждены их переизбранием.



Дальше последовали исторические решения Верховного суда United States v. Windsor в июне 2013 и Obergefell v. Hodges в июне 2015, после которого Белый дом окрасился цветами радуги - однополые ныне легализованы во всей стране.

Трамп со злостью писал в этот день в Твиттере "Once again the Bush appointed Supreme Court Justice John Roberts has let us down". Вчера подобное произошло опять - "Supreme Court Justice John Roberts" присоединлся к либеральному крылу Верховного суда, чтобы решением 5:4 отменить мраковесный закон Луизианы про аборты.

Stop politicizing the courts.
- Devin Nunes’ cow 🐮 (@DevinCow) June 29, 2020

В 2013 Байден отдавал должное еврейскому народу, подарившему Америке Голливуд с его телесериалом "Will and Grace", за вклад в социальную справедливость и изменение общественного мнения.

“You can’t talk about the civil rights movement in this country without talking about Jewish freedom riders and Jack Greenberg,” he said, telling a story about seeing a group of Jewish activists at a segregated movie theater in Delaware. “You can’t talk about the women’s movement without talking about Betty Friedan” or American advances in science and technology without mentioning Einstein and Carl Sagan, or music and Gershwin, Bob Dylan and “so, so, so many other people.”
“I believe what affects the movements in America, what affects our attitudes in America are as much the culture and the arts as anything else,” he said. That’s why he spoke out on gay marriage “apparently a little ahead of time.”
“It wasn’t anything we legislatively did. It was ‘Will and Grace,’ it was the social media. Literally. That’s what changed peoples’ attitudes. That’s why I was so certain that the vast majority of people would embrace and rapidly embrace” gay marriage, Biden said.
“Think behind of all that, I bet you 85 percent of those changes, whether it’s in Hollywood or social media are a consequence of Jewish leaders in the industry. The influence is immense, the influence is immense. And, I might add, it is all to the good,” he said.
Jews have also been key to the evolution of American jurisprudence, he continued, namedropping Brandeis, Fortas, Frankfurter, Cardozo, Ginsberg, Breyer, Kagan. “You literally can’t. You can’t talk about the recognition of … rights in the Constitution without looking at these incredible jurists that we’ve had.”
“Jewish heritage has shaped who we are - all of us, us, me - as much or more than any other factor in the last 223 years. And that’s a fact," he said.
https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico44/2013/05/biden-jewish-heritage-is-american-heritage-164525



В это время на другом конце планеты, подарившей миру музыку Чайковского и автомат Калашникова, готовили закон о запрете "пропаганды нетрадиционных сексуальных отношений". Россияне учились ненавидеть "Гейропу" и примкнувшую к ней Украину, а Путин тем самым приобретал друзей среди американских праворадикальных консерваторов. Готовясь ныне к "обнулению", он несет им дополнительный подарок в виде исполнения мечты о запретительной конституционной поправке.

Республиканская партия решила не обновлять в 2020 свою платформу 2016 года, в которой говорится:

"Our laws and our government's regulations should recognize marriage as the union of one man and one woman and actively promote married family life as the basis of a stable and prosperous society. For that reason, as explained elsewhere in this platform, we do not accept the Supreme Court's redefinition of marriage and we urge its reversal, whether through judicial reconsideration or a constitutional amendment returning control over marriage to the states."
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/2016-republican-party-platform