CHINA
Queen Mother Lu Ji [pre Qin and Han, lost Zhao]
Wu Zhao, Ruler of Tang Dynasty China

During Wu's life, overland trade routes brought massive entrepreneurial opportunities with the West and other parts of Eurasia, making the capital of the Tang Empire the most cosmopolitan of the world's cities.

Empress Wu Zetian 武则天 [624-705]

The only female Chinese Imperial ruler was Empress Wu Zetian of the early Tang dynasty. Only two other women nearly reached such a high[, ]Imperial position - Empress Lu of the Han dynasty and Dowager Empress Cixi of the last Qing dynasty.

anglophone translation: wu, fou, lin, shei, shei; Wu, Wuhou, Wu-hou, Wu Zhao; han, lou, lou, shou, shou, yao, yao; Wenshui now Shanxi
romanization (1912)
The [romanization] of Empress Wu (Zeitan)
--
cue christ Churchill

APsplainin | MSNBC's Maddow reaches record audience with Parnas interview, 4.5M recievers
"Parnas, who Maddow had frequently talked about on her show, spoke about his belief of Trump's knowledge about what Giuliani was doing in the Ukraine."

But did he cry?

Newly released TEXTS tie Nunes aide closer to Ukraine plot

Nunes initially denied knowing Parnas but has since been forced to admit the two had spoken. The messages released Friday show about 100 text messages traded over MONTHS between Parnas and the California Republican's staffer, Derek Harvey, a retired U.S. Army colonel. Harvey previously served at the White House on Trump's National Security Council.
[...]
Friday's document dump included dozens of texts exchanged between Parnas and Harvey last Spring over the encrypted messaging service WhatsApp. They show Parnas providing documents and helping set up meetings for Harvey with Ukrainians who have made unsubstantiated claims that as vice president Biden orchestrated the firing of a prosecutor who was investigating corruption allegations involving Burisma, a energy company where Hunter Biden served as a board member from 2014 to 2019.

BONUS!

The messages included screenshots of exchanges between Hyde and a Dutch man [!] named Anthony De Caluwe. Hyde denied he [WHO?] was actually tailing the ambassador. ...FBI agents were observed visiting Hyde's home and business on Thursday [16 Jan], while police in Ukraine have opened an investigation into whether the U.S. ambassador was illegally surveilled.

In a statement issued to The New York Times [!] on Saturday, De Caluwe denied having any contacts in Ukraine and dismissed his exchange with Hyde was just "ridiculous banter."

< wipes tears > If Trump were Wu, all them would be MIA yesterday.

MSNBC: The pens Nancy Pelosi had made for the signing of the articles of impeachment had "United" spelled wrong on them.

That just about sums up this entire thing. pic.twitter.com/mOtUerJAVs

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) January 16, 2020

deep, Deep, DEEP freud.

reference
"The disposition to obsessional neurosis, a contribution to the problem of choice neurosis" (19113) in Freud-Complete Works, pp 2623-2631

The problem of why and how a person may fall ill of a neurosis is certainly among those to which psycho-analysis should offer a solution. But it will probably be necessary to find a solution first to another and narrower problem - namely, why it is that this or that person must fall ill of a particular neurosis and of none other. This is the problem of 'choice nerurosis'. ...

Whatevs: They got ["]OMB["] by short and curly procedures

... In its response to us, OMB described the withholding as necessary to ensure that the funds were not spent "in a manner that could conflict with the President's foreign policy." OMB Response, at 9. The ICA does not permit deferrals for policy reasons. See B-237297.3, Mar. 6, 1990; B-224882, Apr. 1, 1987. OMB's justification for the withholding falls squarely within the scope of an impermissible policy deferral. Thus, the deferral of USAI funds was improper under the ICA....

Mulvaney's got some splainin to do. Better bring a few dictionaries, diagrams, possibly weed.

OMB's assertions have no basis in law.  We recognize that, even where the President does not transmit a special message pursuant to the procedures established by the ICA, it is possible that a delay in obligation may not constitute a reportable [BWAH!] impoundment. See B-329092, Dec. 12, 2017; B-222215, Mar. 28, 1986.However, programmatic delays occur when an agency is taking necessary steps to implement a program, but because of factors external to the program, funds temporarily go unobligated. B-329739, Dec. 19, 2018; B-291241, Oct. 8, 2002; B-241514.5, May 7, 1991. This presumes, of course, that the agency is making reasonable efforts to obligate. B-241514.5, May 7, 1991.  Here, there was no external factor causing an unavoidable delay. Rather, OMB on its own volition explicitly barred DOD from obligating amounts.

Always read the footnotes.

Surveillance, 16 Jan 2020

Judicial Watch [!] brought a federal complaint to obtain State Department records

- Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch

• Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent
  
• The Global Engagement Center
  
• The U.S. Embassy Kyiv
  
• The Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
  
• The Bureau of Public Affairs
  
• The Bureau of International Information Programs
  
• The Office of the Legal Advisor
  

The time frame of the request was identified as "January 1, 2019 to the present."

on its use of the CrowdTangle [!] social media monitoring program to surveil journalists and former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

Plaintiff, Judicial Watch is a well-know politically conservative NGO. Plaintiff motion to compel production of docs requested October 23, 2019 is an auspicious contribution to fog of war, rumors, and just plain bullshit surrounding DJT's administration harassment of Yovanovitch. Yovanovitch submitted her diplomatic brief to "closed door" committees' hearings and maudlin press scrutiny since October. What expectation of privacy in either her personal, public, or professional capacities, Yovanovitch claims, remains to be seen, I could not imagine. I suppose, Judicial Watch is telegraphing a frivolous, or not, interrogatory strategy to sympathetic senate interlocutors.

Inadvertently one of the most bipartisan tweets of the year. https://t.co/ii7ZIpQa2b

— Matt Glassman (@MattGlassman312) January 18, 2020