Okay, folks, I’ve had enough. All day, there has been a slow burn building up and it’s just about to ‘splode, so hold on to your hats.
Today will be the first official day of the Impeachment Trial of one Donald F. Trump. This is a serious affair, for Mr. Trump has abused the power of his office, has utterly failed to uphold the Constitution he took an oath to uphold, has used the office of president for his own personal gain, and in so doing has put the entire nation at risk. He has already, and will remain throughout history, a dishonoured, impeached president, but now it is up to the U.S. Senate to decide whether the evidence is sufficient to convict him, thereby removing him from office and protecting the nation from further atrocities.
Now, if the Senate carefully reviews the evidence, listens to witness testimony, and then decides to acquit Trump, I will be disappointed, but I will not scream from the rooftops. But, as of this writing, it appears that there will be no such thing as a fair and honest trial, as impartial judges, and We the People will not be served. First, as I reported previously, Senator Mitch McConnell said he would conduct the trial according to the wishes of the White House, and Senator Lindsey Graham blatantly said he had no intention of being fair and impartial, but that he had already decided to acquit Trump.
The “White House” sent its first ‘legal brief’1 yesterday, all 171 pages, signed by twelve of the attorneys representing Trump. 171 pages! Twelve lawyers! I found it highly interesting to note the name of Jordan Sekulow as one of the signers of the document. Jordan Sekulow is the son of Jay Sekulow, Trump’s personal lawyer. Both Jay and Jordan are talk radio show hosts, as well as lawyers. The document begins with the Executive Summary that starts …
The Articles of Impeachment now before the Senate are an affront to the Constitution and to our democratic institutions. The Articles themselves—and the rigged process that brought them here—are a brazenly political act by House Democrats that must be rejected.
Rigged??? Sounds just like something coming out of Trump’s mouth, doesn’t it? A dozen lawyers and this is how they start a 171-page legal brief? But more importantly are those last three words, “must be rejected”. The document goes on to urge senators to “immediately” acquit the president of the charges that will be formally presented at his trial that starts in earnest this week, even before hearing evidence or testimony! Trump’s legal team, led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone, wrote that Trump “did absolutely nothing wrong” as it accused the House Democrats who impeached the president of attempting to overturn the results of the 2016 election and “to interfere in the 2020 election.” SAY WHAT???
“The only threat to the Constitution that House Democrats have brought to light is their own degradation of the impeachment process and trampling of the separation of powers.”
Trampling of the separation of powers. Now, isn’t that funny, coming from the lawyers representing the ‘man’ who has refused to allow congressional oversight time and time and time again. This from the ‘man’ who ordered an assassination of a high-ranking foreign general without cause and without bothering to mention it to Congress. This from a ‘man’ who forbade people both within and outside the administration from answering congressional subpoenas.
I am not a lawyer … I took a few Constitutional Law classes during my post-graduate studies, but I am in no way an expert. Still, I know bullshit when I hear it, I know that these guys, under other circumstances, in a fair and honest trial, wouldn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of getting their client off. But, these are not other circumstances, and this is not at all likely to be either a fair or honest trial.
The seven House members who will be prosecuting this case submitted a 9-page response2 … nine pages to respond to 171 pages. Tells you that a) most of the 171 pages were just what I said, bullshit, and b) the House members have better things to do with their time. The response begins …
The American people entrusted President Trump with the extraordinary powers vested in his Office by the Constitution, powers which he swore a sacred Oath to use for the Nation’s benefit. President Trump broke that promise. He used Presidential powers to pressure a vulnerable foreign partner to interfere in our elections for his own benefit. In doing so, he jeopardized our national security and our democratic self-governance. He then used his Presidential powers to orchestrate a cover-up unprecedented in the history of our Republic: a complete and relentless blockade of the House’s constitutional power to investigate high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
President Trump maintains that the Senate cannot remove him even if the House proves every claim in the Articles of impeachment. That is a chilling assertion.
It is, indeed, a chilling assertion. Any other president in the history of this nation would have been tried, convicted, and escorted out of the White House, probably in handcuffs by now for the many abuses of power Trump has committed, both before his election and since taking office. Any other president would have been impeached and removed from office after the release of Robert Mueller’s report last year. But, no other president in the past 233 years, not even Richard M. Nixon, has abused the office of the president in the many ways Trump has. Since he has gotten by with it thus far, he seems to believe that he is invincible.
And maybe he is, since he has rid the government of those with morals and integrity, surrounding himself with characters who have little experience to qualify them for their jobs, but are slavishly dedicated and loyal to Donald F. Trump.
One more thing …
In the event that at least four republican senators vote to hear witness testimony, Trump’s lawyers and sycophants in the Senate are preparing a “Plan B” to ensure that John Bolton will not be allowed to testify, or that if he does, his testimony will be kept from the public. Another abuse of the power of the office, another denigration of the separation of powers. I hope … I sincerely hope that John Bolton has the cojones to give an interview to the New York Times or another credible media outlet and tells all.
If you have any remaining illusions that this is still, as Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people”, you’d be wrong. This is a government of, by, and for the wealthiest few people in this nation, including Donald F. Trump. We the People are NOT being served, but rather are being royally screwed.
Many have criticized my comparisons of the U.S. today to Germany of the 1930s, but in many ways, this is even worse. Technology and the age of electronic spying have led to a complete loss of privacy. Remember Orwell’s 1984 when he wrote of the ‘thought police’? That is exactly what today’s world is, at least here in the U.S. So far, I have been arrested four times for my writing that was critical of the government. The last time, what I wrote was in a private email to a friend, and within 30 minutes of sending that letter, the police were pounding on my door.
Gallagher was found guilty of posing for a grisly trophy photo with the dead captive’s body. He was initially charged with other war crimes, including charges that he shot at civilians and killed a wounded captive with a knife while serving as a platoon leader in Iraq. I strongly suspect, based on what has been said by those who served with Gallagher, that he was at least complicit in the other charges that he was not convicted on. Either way, Eddie Gallagher is a nasty piece of work.
Yes, folks, Trump invited Eddie and his wife to his Florida resort to be wined and dined, and invited Gallagher and the other two war criminals he pardoned to join him on the campaign trail this year! But wait … there’s more.
Robert Reich
Singer wants AT&T to save up to $10 billion a year by outsourcing jobs, closing corporate retail stores and outsourcing to dealers, selling off assets (such as its Puerto Rican network).
So, why is she raising my hackles today? Well … last Friday she was being interviewed in a podcast on conservative Glenn Beck’s radio program. One segment of the podcast was about Dylan Roof who, in June 2015, opened fire in an African-American church, killing nine people. Roof was an avowed white supremacist who had posted pictures of himself posing with the Confederate flag prior to his attack.
Ms. Haley said …
Now, Ms. Verma came into the job with some conflicts of interest, and had the Senate done its job, she likely would not have passed muster. She is the founder and previous CEO of SVC Inc., a health policy consulting firm, which was acquired by Health Management Associates (HMA) just prior to Verma’s nomination to head CMS.
Owen Shroyer … ever heard of him before? Neither had I. He’s a host on Alex Jones’ Infowars program, which I thought had long since met its timely demise since being banned from Apple, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Apparently, they still exist somewhere on the fringes.
Police quickly removed him from the room, during which time he was livestreaming to his personal Twitter account and yelling at the top of his lungs …
In March, he filed a lawsuit for $250 million against Twitter, claiming that two parody Twitter accounts (one called “Devin Nunes’ Cow”) and a Republican political consultant defamed him with mean tweets. Awwww … pobrecito! In August, he sued McClatchy news organization for another $250 million, alleging defamation. And in October he sued Ryan Lizza and Hearst Magazines for $77 million, claiming that a story in Esquire about the Nunes family farm in Iowa defamed him.
It seems to me that Mr. Nunes has very thin skin. As I was writing this post, the thought occurred to me that perhaps it would be fun to mail him a box of tissues to dry his tears. Hey, maybe he would then sue me! That could be fun, for as the old saying goes, “you can’t get blood out of a turnip”!
