General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump's Impeachment and the Era of No Accountability
By the end of this year, Donald Trump will become the third U.S. president to be impeached by the House of Representatives and not convicted by the Senate. Depending on your perspective, you may see that as a constitutional design flaw or something that ultimately puts the electorate in charge of determining the political leadership. Impeachment was always a last-resort remedy reserved for the gravest abuses of power. It worked in 1974 when the parties were not as ideologically sorted, but has been rendered ineffective today.
So why impeach? Well, that one is simple: The question has shifted from Donald Trumps conduct to the credibility and viability of Congress itself. The most recent impeachment trigger, Trumps bullying of a smaller country desperate for foreign aid to get them to assist in a political hit job on a chief rival, is certainly worthy of the threshold of high crimes or misdemeanors. But its no greater abuse than a host of other activities, from obstruction of justice to using the Justice Departments antitrust laws to attack corporate foes.
The tipping point did not happen on a phone call to the president of Ukraine in July, but in a series of town hall meetings with frontline Democratic House members (the ones most vulnerable for re-election) in August. Members like Abigail Spanberger came into the month thinking they had threaded the needle and heeded the wishes of their moderate constituents. The frontliners theory was that the threat to their futures lay with the Squad, and radicalism to their left. It turns out the people were with the radicals on what mattered mostholding lawlessness accountable. The biggest threat to the moderates, in other words, was inaction.
Heres the best way of putting it: Trump is Wells Fargo.
The big bank was among those who contributed to the near implosion of the entire U.S. economy in 2008, and despite that, none of its top executives were held accountable. And Wells Fargo, consciously or unconsciously, got the message that they could continue their practices with relative impunity. And they did. They signed up customers to fake accounts, falsified records in mortgage cases, charged people for junk auto insurance they didnt ask for, and even charged overdraft fees on accounts that were closed.
Read more: https://prospect.org/power/trump-impeachment-era-of-no-accountability/
(American Prospect)
Lock him up.
(6,927 posts)1) Conspiracy to defraud the United States (using taxpayers money as leverage to commit Electoral-Law fraud)
2) Obstruction of Justice (8 counts or more as detailed in Volume 2 of the Mueller Report)
3) Obstruction of Congress (how many counts yet?)
4) Witness tampering (many occurences on Twitter)
5) Bank-, Tax-, Insurance-related fraud (Ways and Means Committee Re: Tax Returns)
6) Money laundering (how many counts from Deutsche Bank docs?)
7) Individual 1...
Maybe they won't ignore their hypocritical Law-And-Order-Party 'campaign slogan'
meadowlander
(4,394 posts)9) Intervening in the security clearance process on behalf of family members blatantly unqualified to hold security clearances. Said family members then turning around and influence peddling with other countries (particularly the Saudis and China)
10) Tarnishing the reputation of the United States with the family separation policy; locking kids in cages with no plan for ever reuniting them with their families. Lying about it.
11) Disclosing classified information by being completely incompetent
12) Lying repeatedly to the American public (more than 12,000 counts)
I can't imagine there are a lot of Republican incumbents who are actually in a hurry to run on a platform of "let's defend this guy".
Lock him up.
(6,927 posts)Lock him up.
(6,927 posts)meadowlander
(4,394 posts)because his wife is a Democrat would be a prime example...
Threatening to turn Mike McFaul over to the Russians...
Dangling pardons for Cohen, Manafort, Flynn...
Threatened to yank NBCs broadcast licence for publishing stories unfavourable to him...
Trying to get the Justice Department to investigate Hilary Clinton and James Comey...
Using the USPS to punish Amazon.com...
Revoking John Brennan's security clearance for criticising him...
Using the DoJ to block the AT&T Time Warner merger because Time Warner owns CNN...
Threatening to withhold disaster relief funds from California unless they crack down on sanctuary cities...
Lock him up.
(6,927 posts)meadowlander
(4,394 posts)Ala "good people on both sides" and "shithole countries" and screwing up disaster relief to Puerto Rico.
meadowlander
(4,394 posts)Meeting with foreign leaders without having an interpreter present and not preserving records of the conversations. Confiscating and tearing up interpreter's notes.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Actually, I want the list to be roughly twice that long. I want something like a 25-count Articles of Impeachment to emerge, with everything you listed above, with the main obstruction charges from Mueller occupying about 5 slots & the most glaring incidents of emoluments violations to occupy numerous slots, etc.
Hell, make it 40-50 charges long ... throw the fucking BOOK at this POS ...