Donald Trump Impeachment

Two Impeachment Articles: Abuse Of Power And Obstruction Of Congress

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The House Judiciary Committee has decided, with the backing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to bring two articles of impeachment against Donald Trump: Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress.

While this author and blogger felt there should be more than two articles, he can agree that making the case for impeachment is easier with two succinct articles, focused on what is most evident about Donald Trump’s behavior in office.

And, ironically, or is it so, on the same day as this occurred, Trump met with the Soviet Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the White House, giving further evidence of his collusion with Russia, and his making life difficult for a nation, Ukraine, which has had its territory violated by Russia five years ago, and has led to this impeachment action.

But the Republican Party in Congress is in lockstep behind Donald Trump, having become pro Russian, which would cause a total shock to past Republicans, including Presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, and even infamous Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin!

Adam Schiff Should Be Acknowledged As Champion For Upholding Of Constitution And Rule Of Law!

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California Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, should be acknowledged as a champion for upholding the Constitution and rule of law. He also will be praised for not allowing fellow Congressman and Californian Devin Nunes, the Republican ranking member, from intimidating him in his work toward impeachment of Donald Trump.

Schiff will be long regarded in history for his courage, his principles, his dignity, and his steadfastness, in his pursuit of the truth about our 45th President.

When the time comes for Senator Dianne Feinstein to leave the Senate, Schiff would be an excellent replacement for her.

Bribery, Abuse Of Power, Obstruction Of Justice, Defiance Of Congress All Impeachment Appropriate Charges Against Donald Trump, Along With Violation Of Emoluments Clause In The Constitution

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The view of this author and blogger, especially after watching the four constitutional law professors today in the House Judiciary Committee hearing, is that Donald Trump should be brought up on impeachment charges on five counts.

Bribery or Attempted Bribery involving the President of Ukraine to do Trump’s bidding, and interfere in the Presidential campaign of 2020.

Abuse of Power, shown in innumerable circumstances and cases.

Obstruction of Justice, regularly utilized.

Defiance of Congress, including refusal to allow testimony by executive branch officials.

Violation since Day One of Trump’s Presidency of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, barring any profit while serving as President.

So there should be five counts, with only one needed as enough to impeach, but with all justification, the case against Donald Trump is many times stronger than that against Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, and at least triple what it was against Richard Nixon,

Thanksgiving Day A Day To Be Thankful For In Many Ways

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Today is Thanksgiving Day, and we have a lot to be thankful for.

We are thankful that we have a democratic system of government, where there is accountability for one’s behavior in our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

We have violations in our history much too often, but the Constitution and Bill of Rights have ability to be utilized to counteract such violations.

Thank goodness that the Democrats won the House of Representatives in 2018, and are putting Donald Trump’s feet to the fire, no matter what happens in the US Senate.

The Republican Party is sealing its long term doom if it continues to back the lawlessness and corruption of Donald Trump.

Donald Trump, no matter what happens in 2020, will have his historical reputation in tatters, as his lack of ethics, morality, common decency, and concern for those less fortunate, guarantee his condemnation in the long run of history.

While neither political party is ideal or perfect, the Democratic Party is triumphant in the long run of history for having concerned itself with the advancement of average Americans from FDR to LBJ to Barack Obama.

There is plenty of room for improvement, but the Republican Party of Lincoln, TR, and Ike is long gone, and the GOP stands condemned for its lack of concern for average Americans since the inauguration of Ronald Reagan onward.

Gordon Sondland Indicts Trump, Pence, Pompeo, Mulvaney, Perry, Bolton, Giuliani In Ukraine Scandal

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In a shocking six hours of testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, Gordon Sondland, Ambassador to the European Union, indicted President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, and former NYC Mayor and Trump legal adviser Rudy Giuliani of collusion in the Ukraine Scandal.

Nothing like this has ever happened before to this extent, although the Watergate Scandal under Richard Nixon and the Iran Contra Affair under Ronald Reagan were both massive scandals.

By all justification, all of these people should be facing prosecution, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi should be finishing up the remaining year in the Trump term, but that is highly unlikely.

If this is not enough to convince Trump loyalists on the evil represented by Donald Trump, then we can say true “brainwashing” has occurred, and nothing will convince the 40 percent of Americans who are clearly totally delusional and clueless.

The Trump White House Reaches A New Low: Condemning Marie Yovanovitch and Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman

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Donald Trump’s White House has reached a new low, employing character assassination of public servants doing their job in reporting the wrongdoings on Ukraine to the House Impeachment investigation.

Trump has blasted both former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and National Security Council member Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, questioning their loyalty and their honesty, and putting both of them in direct threat of reprisal encouraged by right wing forces, including Fox News Channel and specific hate mongers in conservative talk radio, outlined yesterday on this blog.

Also Republican House members of the Intelligence Committee, including Jim Jordan of Ohio and Devin Nunes of California, were totally demagogic and despicable in their attempt to besmirch the reputation of both Yovanovitch and Vindman, as well as other witnesses, accusing them of espionage and dual loyalties. The lack of respect for Vindman wearing his uniform was shocking, and the fact that he came to this country as a toddler being seen as an attack on immigration was condemnatory.

We have never seen such behavior by any other President, and that should be another issue for impeachment, and now, even Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the “dog house”, as Trump is reported to be blaming him for the various witnesses testifying, many of whom are connected to the State Department, although Pompeo does not personally know many of them.

The Trump White House is deteriorating ever further before our eyes, and undermining American foreign policy, as well as destroying any progress on any basic issue, as Donald Trump flails in the wind in a crazy manner, added to by the chest issue he had that led him to go to Walter Reed Medical Center this past weekend.

It is time for mass marches to demand the resignation of this crooked, immoral, unethical, disastrous President, and his indictment, trial, conviction, and incarceration in federal prison!

Demagogic Right Wing Talk Show Hosts Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt All Distorting Truth About Trump

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Damagogic right wing talk show hosts, including most notably Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Dennis Prager, and Hugh Hewitt are all distorting the truth about Donald Trump in the impeachment hearings.

This has led to the outrage that conservative talk show host Craig Silverman in Denver, Colorado, was fired in mid show last week, when he leveled some criticism of Trump, someone he had voted for in 2016, but had become disillusioned recently with the vast amount of evidence that Trump bullied Ukraine’s President, and tried to tie aid to that president against Russian intrusion, to an investigating of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

These despicable talk show hosts, and Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson, along with Hannity, and Fox Business Channel’s Lou Dobbs, have no scruples, ethics, or morals, and are willing to destroy the reputation of good public servants who have done their duty in reporting the impeachable behavior of Donald Trump.

Corrupt Mitch McConnell Determines Republican Party Reputation Long Term

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has in his hands the future long term reputation of the Republican Party as evidence against Donald Trump builds up in public hearings.

He is fatally flawed as his wife, Elaine Chao, is Secretary of Transportation for Donald Trump, so in theory, he should not be leading the Republicans as they get ready to hold the inevitable impeachment trial.

How McConnell handles that trial, and whether he will try to impose unity among his Republican colleagues is a big question yet to be answered.

The sense is that a number of Republican Senators seem likely to vote to convict, and if McConnell interferes with their freedom to decide, he will likely doom those Senators and their reelection campaigns for those who are facing election in 2020, and long term reputations of those retiring, or facing election in 2022 and 2024.

Deval Patrick Joins The Presidential Race Belatedly

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Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick entered the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination this week, further muddying up the waters at a time when we need fewer candidates.

Patrick is impressive in many ways, but being connected to Bain Capital, the company started by Mitt Romney, is not a plus, and it seems to this blogger that he has little chance to be a major factor in the race, in that sense joining former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has decided not to compete in the February 2020 contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

The concern is that by having ever more contenders, the Democrats will shoot themselves, and help Donald Trump to win the Presidency, even after he is impeached by the House of Representatives, but failing to be convicted in the US Senate.

The fact that there are still ten contenders in the MSNBC debate this coming Wednesday in Atlanta, cosponsored by the Washington Post, is not good, as clearly some of them have zero chance to be the nominee.

At the same time, other contenders, including Julian Castro and Steve Bullock, are probably now no longer to be seen as serious contenders.

But one cannot see Tom Steyer or Tulsi Gabbard as serious contenders, and they are in the upcoming debate.

Hopefully, the number of contenders will soon decline rapidly after this fourth debate.

Does The Ukraine Scandal Help Or Hurt Joe Biden’s Presidential Candidacy?

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The Ukraine Scandal, which has led finally to the impeachment move against President Donald Trump, with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi terming it “bribery”, a specific impeachment charge contained in the Constitution, may help or hurt Joe Biden’s Presidential candidacy.

It seems clear that Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s younger son, was not engaged in any corruption, and neither was his father, but of course, subject to potential revelations in the future.

If there is a real scandal, then Biden’s potential to be the Democratic Presidential nominee and have a chance to win the Presidency, will be harmed. It also becomes another burden, no matter what else is going on, for Biden to have to answer questions and deal with this for the next year if he gains the nomination.

But also, Biden could be harmed by just the image of illegality, and it could weaken the case that he is the best person to challenge Donald Trump.

The next few months will tell the story if Joe Biden is unable to overcome the attempt by Trump to damage his candidacy.

And with two more moderates suddenly entering the Presidential race belatedly–former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick–Biden will certainly have more competition in the caucuses and primaries beginning in just the next two and a half months.