"In the event that Trump is removed or loses the election, Bolton will be a rare Republican who served the party competently both before and during the Trump era, and who is untainted enough to serve again," @gcaw writes: https://t.co/V2TpAZoFhe
I would like to leave the nuances of Ukraine to the elected politicians on Capitol Hill -- they get paid well enough -- and at some level I recognize that the Kentuckian McConnell -- and to think I spent five and a half years in Kentucky -- will manage to repeat the partisanship exhibited by his party in the lower chamber where Nancy Pelosi single-handedly architected the process, but I still harbor the fantasy that Trump might get impeached for reasons bigger than Ukraine, and even Russia.
The president should be elected democratically, which means one person one vote. He was never elected. In the majority of countries, if you can collect three million votes, you can become president. He was way short.
The low unemployment numbers widely advertised are a sham. The actual numbers are at least twice as large. Post-2008 America has seen an epidemic of lower-paying jobs.
The stock markets are another sham. Companies are buying their own stocks. That is company money paying for the rise in share price to the benefit of the top share-owning executives. Productive investments are not being made. Buying your own stocks is eating potato chips.
Donald Trump rightly pointed out the massive loss of manufacturing jobs, but he did not have a solution then, he does not have a solution now. The losses are structural. This is more like the loss of agricultural jobs at the onset of the first and second industrial revolutions powered by steam and electricity. Universal health, universal education, and universal basic income will build the foundation for real solutions to create the knowledge and service jobs of tomorrow. Here is looking at you Bernie and Andrew Yang.
The guy is everything you feared old white men were: racist and sexist. And he lies like nobody in the public sphere. He is a post-truther who needs to be ditched.
But the number one reason in the climate. The clock is ticking. Four more years of the leading villain country behind climate change doing nothing is 12 years minus four years left to fight climate catastrophe. There is a cliff ahead. Send him to Australia for some education. He is fit to study abroad.
There is also World War III. We don't want World War III.
His getting impeached will open up the possibility of someone like Ted Cruz grabbing the Republican nomination. I have plenty of policy disagreements with Ted Cruz. But at least he is not foul-mouthed. He has basic decency. He is textbook conservative. Legitimate disagreements become possible. Genuine conservatives are not fact-free. And when you face facts, you move from climate denial to offering conservative solutions to climate change, which might rely more on tech entrepreneurs delivering faster on cleantech advances. I can live with that.
And America does not need more dynasties. America does not need to get triggered.
Quantum physics was initially rejected by eminent physicists like Einstein because it appeared subjective. What you see depends on how you are looking at it. There was no objective reality.
Is Trump guilty? Not guilty? Depends on who is looking. This is new territory. What we have is quantum politics.
The Supreme Court can legally step in if McConnell tries to push through an unfair impeachment trial: attorney “If such a sham trial comes to pass, is there any remedy? In fact, there is a stronger case than many think that the Supreme Court has the power to review impeachment trials, to ensure that Senate procedures meet a basic level of fairness.” ....... Chief Justice John Roberts has the right and duty to step in if he sees justice not being served. ...... “Since the Constitution grants the chief justice the privilege of presiding over the trial, he ought to have — and in my view does have, under proper constitutional interpretation — considerable power to steer the Senate toward reasonable standards for weighing evidence and rendering judgments. He cannot and should not be a potted plant.” ..... “If McConnell and his Republican colleagues insist on setting rules that turn the trial into a farce, then the matter would be ripe for judicial review, as outlined by the various justices in Nixon v. United States. The House — through the speaker or the impeachment managers — could take the matter to court,” he concluded.
Pack the Union: A Proposal to Admit New States for the Purpose of Amending the Constitution to Ensure Equal Representation For most of the twenty-first century, the world’s oldest surviving democracy has been led by a chief executive who received fewer votes than his opponent in an election for the position..... The first of these executives started a war based on false pretenses that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians..... The second — a serial abuser of women who hired as his campaign manager a lobbyist for violent dictatorships — authorized an immigration policy that forcibly separated migrant children from their families and indefinitely detained them in facilities described as “concentration camps.”...... federal elections in the United States are profoundly undemocratic and, thus, profoundly unfair ...... The Electoral College — when it contravenes the popular vote — is an obvious example of this unfairness. But it is just one of the mathematically undemocratic features in the Constitution. Equal representation of states in the Senate, for example, gives citizens of low-population states undue influence in Congress. Conversely, American citizens residing in U.S. territories have no meaningful representation in Congress or the Electoral College. ...... Just as it was unfair to exclude women and minorities from the franchise, so too is it unfair to weight votes differently. The 600,000 residents of Wyoming and the 40,000,000 residents of California should not be represented by the same number of senators. ....... Article V of the Constitution requires supermajorities to amend the Constitution, so pragmatists have been reduced to advocating meager solutions: perhaps Congress could admit Washington, D.C., as a state; maybe Puerto Rico too, if we’re really feeling ambitious. ......
four amendments: (1) a transfer of the Senate’s power to a body that represents citizens equally; (2) an expansion of the House so that all citizens are represented in equal-sized districts; (3) a replacement of the Electoral College with a popular vote; and (4) a modification of the Constitution’s amendment process that would ensure future amendments are ratified by states representing most Americans.
The reason many are not shocked about this is that this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration. He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud. His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused....... None of the president’s positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character. ..... That he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments. ..... Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency. If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come? ......
We have reserved judgment on Mr. Trump for years now. Some have criticized us for our reserve.
'I'm never afraid and I'm rarely surprised': Pelosi emboldened Pelosi, personally, is ending the year on a high note after successfully guiding her diverse, and at times fractured, caucus through a turbulent 12 months bookended by a record-breaking 35-day government shutdown in January and Trump's impeachment in December. ...... Pelosi has refused to commit to sending over the articles of impeachment until McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) reach an agreement on ground rules for the trial. But she has also downplayed the idea that she will delay the trial as long as possible, saying she’s merely waiting to see what kind of deal the two Senate leaders can reach before she formally transmits them across the Capitol. ......
Some GOP lawmakers compared the president’s predicament to both the crucifixion of Jesus and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
....... “Some of them don’t believe in the Constitution,” she continued. “They didn’t act upon it, they acted completely against it. They believe in Donald Trump.” ...... “Can you believe they tweeted that out?” she said Thursday. “They thought it was a thing to tweet it out. ‘There she is falling apart in a room full of white men.’ And I go out saying, ‘All roads lead to Putin.’” ....... Pelosi said she felt very confident about Democrats retaining their majority in November...... And more than 30 House Republicans have already announced their retirements or left office, a sign that the GOP is not optimistic about taking back power........ “It means that they know they’re gonna lose,” Pelosi declared. “And if you win, you’re going to serve in the minority under a Democratic president. You may want to spend more time with your family.”
Queens man impeached Former Jamaica Estates resident Donald Trump was impeached Wednesday by the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the third president to be impeached in United States history — and the first from Queens......
The entire Queens House delegation voted in favor of impeachment.
...... “No normal person would be able to get away with attempting to extort a foreign power to compromise our country,” U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “But all too often, the most corrupt and powerful people grow so accustomed to life with impunity that standard accountability feels to them like unjust persecution.” ...... Trump’s old Jamaica Estates home, where he lived as an infant until he was four years old, went back on the market after it was sold to a Chinese investor and rented on Airbnb for $725 a night ...... Trump’s parents’ graves are located at All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village. The cemetery was slapped with a lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James earlier this year for allegedly misappropriating funds. CNN Poll: US economy receives its best ranking in nearly 20 years This is the highest share to say the economy is good since February 2001, when 80% said so...... Almost all Republicans (97%) say economic conditions are good right now, as do 75% of independents and 62% of Democrats. ..... nearly 7 in 10 expect the economy to be in good shape a year from now (68%), the best outlook in CNN polling since December 2003.
An impeached Trump tries looking ahead, but uncertainty threatens Senate vindication Trump and his aides have long eyed a Senate trial as the venue for eventual vindication in the saga, viewing the Republican-led chamber as a lock to acquit the President...... Trump has hailed Van Drew's switch over the past several days, and used the unanimous Republican opposition to impeachment as evidence of the party's unity. He hopes the solidarity will extend in the Senate ..... "I think as we all know the President is a counterpuncher." ..... Trump has seriously considered bringing on at least four of his fiercest House allies to lay out a minority response to Democrats' report, which could provide the President with some of the theatrics he believes he deserves in his quest to clear his name...... Lawyers will also argue the Trump was well within his right as the head of the executive branch to withhold aid and propose a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky....... They have also discussed arguing former Vice President Joe Biden is not immune from scrutiny simply because he may face Trump in the election next year.
It is amazing how fractured and divided this country has become, how fact-free the political discourse has become. Maybe the US needs to elect itself a constituent assembly to write itself a new constitution with the written proviso that it will elect itself a new constituent assembly every 100 years.
America has become such a sham democracy. Maybe a two-party democracy is no democracy at all. The whole world is watching. The US is losing its credibility in slow motion.
Don’t let Mitch McConnell conduct a Potemkin impeachment trial now that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has announced his intention to conduct not a real trial but a whitewash, letting the president and his legal team call the shots. ....... a president is being impeached for defying his oath and the Senate is threatening to defy its oath as well. ....... Consider the case of a prosecutor armed with a grand jury indictment who learns that the fix is in and that the jury poised to consider the case is about to violate its oath to do impartial justice. In that situation, the prosecutor is under no affirmative legal obligation to go forward until the problem is cured and a fair trial possible. ........ when the majority leader has made clear that he is, for all practical purposes, a member of the defense team. ...... the media and the public have a constitutional right to attend and observe a criminal trial — despite the opposition of the accused, the defense team and even the prosecutor and the trial judge. ........ all that is threatened by a lawless president, one who treats the Constitution as no big deal, impeachment as illegitimate and the powers of the presidency as limitless.
The Conservative Case for Impeachment — and Removal ‘The most heinous act in which a democratic government can engage is to use its law enforcement machinery for political ends.’....... As bad as the dirt collection business was, perhaps even worse was the evidence that [Hoover] had allowed — even offered — the bureau to be used by presidents for nakedly political purposes. ........ proposes to use the attorney general in an attempt to investigate a political opponent for undeniably political ends........ law, morality, traditions and institutions are at least as important to the preservation of freedom as the will of the people. ...... What Republicans are now doing with their lock step opposition to impeachment — and with their indifference to the behavior that brought impeachment about — is not conservative. It is the abdication of principle to power. ....... history will judge members of this Congress harshly if they fail to state their revulsion at the president’s behavior in the strongest terms they can. Impeach and convict.
If the Fox News legal analyst has ditched Trump that is a sign the US Senate will also dump Trump. People like Ted Cruz will dump him in a hurry. Marco Rubio. I think the 10 Senators will be found.
Which is curious, because we might be looking at one Indiana man, Pete, running against another Indiana man, Pence. I know the state of Indiana like the back of my hand.
When I rooted for Howard Dean in 2004, I was in Indiana. When I moved to New York a year later and met Dean people in the city, they were like, what was an Indian guy doing in a place like Indiana rooting for a guy like Howard Dean!? Well, now you know.
I have been trying my best to avoid having to read news about the impeachment. I mean. It is such a waste of time. I'd rather read about the fourth industrial revolution. I'd rather look at pictures of Dubai, which I have done a lot of these past few days. And, mind you, I don't own a TV. I never have. So it's not like I can't avoid it, the TV is on. It shows up. I do visit YouTube. You can find many educational videos on YouTube. Like TED Talks. But then, the way things on the internet are organized, the impeachment shows up. You might be watching a video on nanotechnology, and then, when you are least suspecting, an impeachment video shows up as a suggested video somewhere on the screen. And algorithms are going to rule the world. Watching impeachment news is like watching a sewer. It's not fun.
But I like comedy. I have watched a lot of political news through comedy. But now comedy is my only good option. I don't think I have the stomach to watch (or read) regular news about the impeachment.
Donald Trump is the most serious challenge to the institutions of American democracy. The founders and their successors thought they had built it pretty good. And then comes Donald Trump.
Institutions are not easy to build. And they can take generations to build. But ultimately it is about human nature. And that is a constant struggle.
Politics is interesting to me. But the political part that is interesting is, the Senate Republicans are going to defend the indefensible, and give the Senate over to the Democrats. The thing is, Mike Pence himself might get impeached. Did not Donald Trump say he was on that same call? And that double whammy would be a first for the American democracy.
Could Nancy Pelosi really become the first woman President Of The United States? Hey, she might even seek re-election!
I don't think the Republican Senate will be able to protect Donald Trump this time. Already 55% of Americans want him out. When that number climbs to something like 70, even Mitch might have to give.
I rarely read intentionality into what Trump does -- he's mostly id -- but tying Pence to this is a pretty great way to signal to GOP Senators "If you vote to remove me, you gotta remove him. Do you WANT President Pelosi?" https://t.co/8dHHAGDZb5
There's a twisted logic here: Trump is gambling that if he shits up Pence enough, they won't dare break support with him because then the VP goes down, too.
The moral of the story is: if you and your party allow a bully to embarrass and humiliate you, then you’ll end up with a president who has the likability of a teacher who replies to "Can I go to the bathroom?" with "I don't know can you?" Enjoy President Pelosi, GOP cowards. https://t.co/SMmM7Bha5v
Honestly, a President Pelosi, who refuses to run for the job in 2020 and makes her only goal until next January starting the process of rooting out the extensive Republican corruption in government sounds pretty great to me.
Ok. So, the President breaks the law. In his press conference he implicates his VP and AG and his clown attorney implicates the State Department. If they all keep this up, it will end with President Pelosi. You cannot make this stuff up.
An entire presidency teetering because a couple of outer-borough goombahs are punching above their weight and tried to shake down a foreign leader like he's the Brooklyn land commissioner. https://t.co/yyA1aOFAKw
Dick Morris: Impeachment? Over What? Just to be sure, they are also piling on everything they can think of and have been seeking to dredge up through their congressional subpoenas, all packaged into impeachment resolutions. Trump’s tax returns, his foundation activities, his hotel rentals for public events, and everything else is now fair game and likely to be wrapped into impeachment resolutions. ...... Their actions are not the considered opinions of responsible lawmakers. They are the desperate attempts of incumbent congressmen to avoid losing primary battles against pro-impeachment insurgents. ......
The ghost of Joe Crowley, defeated for re-election by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, prowls the Democratic House cloakrooms and haunts its members.
They are pushing impeachment — on whatever grounds they can find — to avoid and win primary fights....... And I’m sorry, but if President Trump had picked up the phone and called Zelensky and said “I have some military aid that I am holding up from Ukraine and I want you to investigate the Bidens and their activity in your country. If you do that, I will release the aid,” I don’t believe an impeachable offense would have been committed...... In the phone call with Zelensky, Trump did not link aid to investigations, he hinted at it. Even had he said it explicitly, it would not be grounds for impeachment....... Voters who backed Democrats in 2018 elected a grand jury not a legislative chamber....... And, the process will doom Biden’s candidacy leaving only the un-electable Elizabeth Warren in its wake.
The numbers are rosy. The unemployment rate is officially the lowest it has been in 50 years. The stock market is riding high. The growth rate last year was approaching 4% and even now is fairly solid. What could go wrong? Those numbers hide the fragility.
The unemployment numbers are so low because a lot of people have simply stopped looking for work. The actual unemployment rate in the US might be more like 12% or 15%. Nobody really knows. The numbers for low employment are structurally cooked.
The stock market is riding high just like in 2007 the real estate market was riding high. This is the sugar high from stock buyback programs. The super rich, flush with cash, finding no productive use for the money, are simply buying back stocks. The corporate interests are in this vicious cycle. That is further exacerbating inequality.
It feels like the US and the world simply kicked the can further down the road when 2008 happened. No lasting solution was put into place.
The US deficit and debt are real problems. In the depth of 2009, Obama struggled to put together a trillion dollar stimulus package. I think he asked for more but got only 700 billion. These days the US runs a trillion dollar deficit as a matter of fact. What was thought of a big deficit in 2009 these days is simply routine. A massive budget deficit has become business as usual.
The debt is so big and getting bigger, it is not even talked about. It has been archived in the denial file.
No, I am not talking about Trump. He never was the solution. A lot of people who have stopped looking for work were people who thought Trump was it. And then they realized they have been duped. And in shame, they stopped simply looking for work. It is not a good feeling to realize you have been duped.
I am talking about economic theorists and political theorists and thinkers in general. Where are the economic theorists at? Abstract thinkers like Paul Krugman and Raghuram Rajan do show up in the mainstream media. But I don't see them offering solutions. The very paradigm needs to shift. Big thoughts are needed. The band-aid remedies are as misleading as Trump's demagoguery. There is a poverty of imagination.
Maybe it is time to delink the global economy from the dollar. Just like there was a time to delink the dollar from gold. The place of the dollar in the global economy is the very reason why the US runs such large deficits and debts. And those large deficits and debts come up with a price paid for by ordinary Americans. The current arrangement is not a healthy arrangement perhaps. For a national currency to also serve as the global currency is perhaps too much of a burden on that national currency.
Perhaps the WTO needs a new round of negotiations. Trade is a good thing. There is sound economic theory behind trade, still largely undisputed. But maybe the WTO cannot act holier than thou about the resulting inequality. People are not abstract. People are real. Trade perhaps can no longer be delinked from the inequality it creates. Rises in productivity are good. But the resulting inequality is existential. There is a need for a redesign. People are hurting for lack of jobs in the US. People are hurting for jobs in India. Neither the ruling party nor the opposition party, in either case, seem to have any real solutions. In such a scenario the very democracy will get questioned given enough time.
Trump is but the American Boris Johnson who argues for a "hard Brexit." That hard Brexit will turn Britain into the new Greece. But Boris Johnson trades in anger. He does not care. Those who trade in anger and feast on that anger simply want more people angrier. The best case scenario is self-destruction. A bad scenario is large scale destruction. The world avoided a Great Depression in 2008. This time it might be harder to do the same. Back then the leaders were at least talking. This time that "talk" is missing. Irrationality holds sway.
Elizabeth Warren is the only one with a plan. Her wealth tax is that plan. She has not yet linked that to the idea of a Universal Basic Income. Andrew Yang talks about UBI. But that UBI does not stand on sound financial footing yet. He has not linked it to some kind of a wealth tax. Not yet. But even the wealth tax is mere tinkering. It is sound tinkering. It is a start. But a real solution is a much more ambitious redesign. Where are the thinkers at?
Should there be a 2008 style meltdown, and you never know with Trump playing with fire, the US central bank has little to no option left. When the interest rate is already near zero, how do you further cut it? My thought is the Fed will be forced to do a UBI, a quantitative easing for the people. It will be forced to issue new money and simply give it to every American in the form of a direct deposit each month. The Fed will have nowhere else to go. There is no room for interest rate cuts. The banks are already flush with cash, as are the corporations. So it is not lack of cash that is hurting the economy. There is no room for quantitative easing for the banks. The only option left is a quantitative easing for the people.
But that can only go for a few years. A real UBI will have to be designed and implemented as a conscious choice made by elected leaders. The crisis might force the introduction. But there will be a need for a conscious second act.
If the trade war not only continues but escalates mindlessly to the point Huawei is further strangled, and China decides to put into play the rare earth minerals card which is a serious blow to the US high tech industry, and of course Mexico, which did not pay for Trump's wall, will not cave in to his latest threat, and already the US Chamber Of Commerce is suing Trump for the stupidity, and the stock market goes down 10% in one day, and America is officially in recession and Americans are losing jobs left and right while paying about 20% more for everything they buy, in that scenario Trump's approval rating could go down to the 35% zone. That is when he will lose support in the US Senate. It happened during the government shutdown. He ended that shutdown. He might also end the trade war. But trade is not an on-off switch.
In that 35% approval rating zone, there might be enough support for his impeachment and the House might finally go for it. In the meantime, the House is already building a case by investigations of Trump. Pelosi is passing the buck to the people. She things investigations will wear down Trump's support whereas immediate impeachment proceedings will rally Trump's base around him.
Trump could be impeached by the summer of 2020. Pence takes the seat, runs and is easily beat.
Of course, this is not painless for China. It is not painless for Mexico. But Trump really has not left much wiggle room for them. The Chinese economy, of course, will also get hurt.
Maybe it is the other way around. It is not that the trade war will drive down the US economy and Trump's popularity and then it will be the right time to impeach. He should be impeached so the worst of the trade war is not heaped on the ordinary American.
Besides, what is Pelosi investigating? Mueller already did that. And he is a professional.
Americans' support for impeaching Donald Trump rises The poll also found that 32 percent agreed that Congress treated the Mueller report fairly, while 47 percent disagreed..... The number of Americans who said President Donald Trump should be impeached rose 5 percentage points to 45 percent since mid-April ...... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi re-emphasized that the leaders of the investigative committees in the Democratic-controlled House were taking a step-by-step approach. ........ “This is very methodical, it’s very Constitution-based,” Pelosi said. "We won’t go any faster than the facts take us, or any slower than the facts take us.” ...... House Democrats are pursuing multiple inquiries into Trump's presidency, his family and his business interests. ..... Trump is stonewalling at least a half-dozen such inquiries, refusing to disclose his tax returns, invoking executive privilege to keep the unredacted Mueller report under wraps and filing unprecedented lawsuits to block House investigators. ...... “It’s becoming a circus over there” in Washington
The end of Nixon’s presidency proves Pelosi is wrong to wait on impeachment a progressive Republican congressman from Wisconsin, William Steiger. The press, he complained, “is always looking for a political or self-serving motive for our votes.” Reporters were not paying enough attention to the conscience of individual congressmen, as they approached a historic vote. ...... “This is an occasion when party loyalty demands too much,” the elder Hogan said. “To base this decision on politics would not only violate my conscience but it would be a breach of my oath to uphold the Constitution. Those who oppose impeachment say it would weaken the presidency. In my view, if we do not impeach this president after all he has done, we would be weakening the presidency even more.”..... Three days later, five more of the 17 Republican members of the Judiciary Committee followed Hogan to vote for the first of the articles of impeachment, alleging that Nixon obstructed justice in the the Watergate cover-up...... history forgets the other 11 Republicans of the committee who marched slavishly to the party line ...... Three other Republicans, Sen. Barry Goldwater, Sen. Hugh Scott and House Minority Leader John Rhodes, were critical in persuading a wavering Nixon not to drag the country through an impeachment trial in the Senate. They went to the White House on what would become the day before the president’s resignation not to demand that Nixon leave office, but simply to “assess” with him his bleak situation.......
What happened in Washington in the summer of 1974 is a template for what could and perhaps should happen in the summer of 2019.
..... Hogan and his like-minded colleagues did not step forward at the outset of the impeachment process, but only at the very end, when historic votes loomed, votes that would force upon them the most profound personal consideration about what they valued and what they stood for..... Yet today’s House leader, Nancy Pelosi, and her group are demanding that Republicans step forward now, at a preliminary stage in judging President Trump, as a condition of proceeding with impeachment. No formal process should even be initiated, she says, without significant Republican buy-in. This position is untenable...... The investigate, investigate, investigate strategy lets both Republicans and Democrats off the hook. The point of oversight should be to come to conclusions about presidential misconduct, and then do something about it. Only specific articles of impeachment allow for that. Voting, in public, with history in the balance, concentrates the mind and the conscience; investigations alone do not....... Waiting for weeks and even months for the courts to deliberate and decide questions of obstruction and abuse of power ensures that impeachment will die by October. In the fall, the nation will be turning its attention to the 2020 election with the Iowa caucuses only a few months away...... Impeachment hearings must get underway before the August recess of Congress. After that, forget about it. Trump will have won. No collusion, no obstruction will be the mantra of the land by fiat.
Donald Trump is no Richard Nixon. He’s worse Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report makes one thing clear: Donald Trump is no Richard Nixon. He is worse. And yet Trump seems almost sure to be spared Nixon’s fate. This will do severe — possibly irreparable — damage to the vital norms that sustain American democracy....... Then came Trump. After smashing through dozens of other deeply rooted norms of American politics to win the presidency, he treated the post-Watergate consensus with similar contempt. ...... “The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion” on behalf of Donald Trump. The FBI and Mueller set out to discover whether Trump’s campaign was complicit, and Trump took extraordinary measures to thwart their efforts. Nixon’s obstruction of the Watergate investigation looks almost innocent by comparison. ..... In the hyperpolarized political environment of the early 21st century, the president is a law unto himself.
I think this leaves no room for Congress to not take this matter up. Mueller basically said, I have done all the homework, but it is beyond my jurisdiction to take the next step. Impeachment proceedings will begin. Will the Senate follow through on what the House might do? It depends on how the House conducts its business. If the House makes a clear case not just to Congress, but to the people at large, and sways public opinion, the Senate might follow the lead. If more than 60% of the American public ask for impeachment, it might happen.
If the House impeaches, but the Senate, on partisan lines, does not follow, what happens politically? Does that weaken or strengthen the president? I think that depends on how strong the public support for impeachment is. If it is in the above 60% range, and the Senate still does not follow through, the Republicans might lose the Senate in 2020.
Trump counts on his base to stay with him. How big is that base? And how firm? If during the impeachment noise it is still a 49.9-50.1 nation, then the whole thing might even strengthen Trump. That would defy logic. Mueller has made it absolutely clear that Russia did interfere. It was concerted, it was relentless, state actors were involved.
As for collusion, Trump said very publicly in 2016: "Russia, are you listening!" If he had said the same thing to the Russian ambassador in a private meeting, that would have been collusion, but if he says it publicly for all world to hear then that is not collusion? Does not make sense.
There is a whole another debate about the US track record of having interfered in other countries' elections over the decades. There have been cases of sabotaging elected governments who were deemed to be against US national interests. But that is a separate topic.
Or Trump could resign. That is a distinct possibility. The good thing about resigning would be Pence would pardon him.
This constitutional crisis is much bigger than anything going on with China, or Iran.
Mueller said, it's not on me, it's not on Congress. Nancy Pelosi is saying, it is not on Congress, it is on the American people.
Trump responds to Mueller, calls him 'a true never Trumper' "The whole thing is a scam. It's a giant presidential harassment," Trump said. "Russia did not help me get elected. You know who got me elected? I got me elected. Russia didn’t help me at all,” Trump said, adding that, if anything, Russia helped “the other side” get elected.
Trump attacks Mueller as a 'true never-Trumper' after admitting for first time that Russia helped elect him Responding to Trump's earlier tweet, George Conway, a conservative attorney, frequent Trump critic and husband of top White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, made note of Trump "finally" admitting that Russia sought to boost his candidacy........ "Well, that’s what the investigation was about," Conway wrote. "The investigation found plenty of evidence that Russia did just that. It thus wasn’t a 'Witch Hunt' or 'Hoax.' So why did you repeatedly try to obstruct it?" ....... the special counsel detailed Russia's extensive efforts to boost Trump's candidacy and harm 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton through social media campaigns and by targeted email hacking and releases....... Trump also said he believed the special counsel was "certainly conflicted" because of a "business dispute" the president claimed he had with Mueller.
Russia, Russia, Russia! That’s all you heard at the beginning of this Witch Hunt Hoax...And now Russia has disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected. It was a crime that didn’t exist. So now the Dems and their partner, the Fake News Media,.....
Trump blasts Mueller as 'highly conflicted,' calls impeachment a 'dirty, filthy, disgusting word' The president, in his tweet, also seemed to acknowledge that Russia helped him "get elected" through their interference in the 2016 election, though said he "had nothing to do" with it. Mueller said Wednesday "there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election," but said there was "insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy" involving the Trump campaign....... Later Thursday morning, Trump, departing the White House, repeated his criticism that the special counsel was "totally conflicted," and claimed that Mueller, who served as FBI director under the Bush and Obama administrations, wanted to be tapped to lead the bureau again during the Trump administration........ "He wanted to be FBI director," Trump said. "Mueller should have never been chosen--he wanted the FBI job and didn't get it and then was picked as special counsel."...... Mueller stated that: “The Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse the president of wrongdoing.”...... But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., under pressure from her party, still seems cool to the idea...... “We want to do what’s right and what gets results,” Pelosi said Wednesday. “We’re legislating, we’re investigating and we’re litigating.” ...... But House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., whose committee would lead any potential impeachment proceedings, said: “all options are on the table.”
Mueller Counted on Institutions to Grapple With His Report. They Didn’t. Neither Congress nor the press did enough to tell the American people what they needed to know. ........ the statements definitively showed Attorney General William Barr’s previous comments on the matter to have been misleading. ........ The fact that this material is being treated as new when it has been available for weeks is indicative of a vast failure on the part of American institutions, which have not adequately grappled with the information conveyed in the Mueller report or presented it to the public with sufficient clarity. ........ Mueller described a “concerted attack on our political system” by the Russian government and emphasized the existence of “multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election.” He reiterated that his office had not exonerated the president. He also said that “it is important that the office’s written work”—that is, the Mueller report—“speak for itself.” ....... Some publications reported uncritically on the president’s claims of “Complete and Total EXONERATION,” though Barr’s letter stated that Mueller had not exonerated Trump. The New York Times and The Washington Post both said a “cloud” had been lifted from over the White House. ...... Mueller’s tone was that of a teacher telling his students once again that they would know the answer if only they had done the reading....... If the attorney general had chosen to release Mueller’s summaries instead of choosing to protect the president by writing his own, perhaps Mueller’s message might have been easier for the public to understand and for the press to report. ...... And then there is Congress—perhaps the main target of Mueller’s entreaty to please just read the report. ....... Two notable exceptions here are Democratic Senator (and presidential candidate) Elizabeth Warren and Republican Representative Justin Amash—both of whom have made a point of reading the entire report and publicly discussing their conclusions. Both support impeachment.
Robert Mueller’s statement makes it clear: Congress has a legal and moral obligation to begin impeachment proceedings immediately.
.@KamalaHarris to @CNN-- she's calling for impeachment proceedings after Mueller's news conference: "I think it's a fair inference from what we heard in that press conference, that Bob Mueller was essentially referring impeachment to the United States Congress."
The Wisest Remedy Is Not Impeachment Over to you, Nancy Pelosi. ..... Impeachment at this point is all but certain to end in Trump’s acquittal in the Senate, which is controlled by a Republican majority. ...... It will change only if new real-world facts materialize—either legal facts (evidence of other crimes) or political facts (a collapse in Trump’s support in the country)...... A Trump facing impeachment will rally reluctant Republicans to him, with the argument, so effective for Bill Clinton in the 1990s, Even if he did something wrong, it does not merit removal from office...... And an acquitted Trump will be an immunized Trump....... Impeachment now threatens to turn the 2020 election into a referendum on the Democrats’ methods in Congress, not Trump’s wrongdoing in the presidency, in the campaign, and in private life....... Trump outrages the sense of justice. It is understandable that many yearn for urgent and decisive action to cleanse the American system. But wise action is better than urgent action, and the best decision is one that leads to success.
