What Will It Take?

What will it take?
Will it actually take Donald Trump shooting  someone in public before Speaker Pelosi  allows the formal impeachment hearings to begin?
Or would she require more evidence for that crime, as well?

Trump's old running buddy, Epstein, was arrested - AGAIN! - on charges sex crimes.  There are clear implications that 'The Donald' was complicit to some degree in these crimes.
Trump has directed various members of his administration to ignore Congressional subpoenas to testify, a clear obstruction of justice and contempt of Congress.
Trump has directed his DOJ to delay the release of his tax returns and financial records  as ordered by Congress; another clear obstruction of justice in contempt of Congress.
Rob't Mueller has presented clear examples of obstruction by Trump of his investigation which include firing Comey, ordering the firing of Mueller amongst other allegations.
Trump's daughter and son-in-law and advisors have been in clear violation of the Hatch Act.
Trump's daughter and son-in-law and advisors have been in clear violation of the Logan Act, as well.
The list of alleged criminality by the President, his administration and his enterprises is a long one that includes violations of the Emoluments Clause, Bank Fraud, Tax Fraud, Money-Laundering and conspiring against the US government with a foreign adversary.

When is enough going to be enough?
What will it take?

Allegations against Nixon were a fraction of those against Trump.
Allegations against Clinton were as nothing compared to those leveled with evidence and witnesses against Trump.

Taking those two together, they were as nothing compared to the charges which could be brought against Mr Trump. Yet, Clinton was impeached. Nixon was told to resign by the GOP leadership of the day before the House voted to impeach.
Demand that Speaker Pelosi begin the formal impeachment hearings with a special counsel.
Demand it for the sake of the Republic.
Demand it for the preservation of the Rule of Law.
Demand it for the preservation of our Democracy.

Demand it for the sake of decency.

Impeach Donald J. Trump. 

NOW!

  

Trump is a Bully

Trump is a bully. We all know that.
All bullies are cowards at heart. We all know that, too.
As a bully, he truckles to other, stronger bullies.

That's why he acts the whipped dog around Putin.
That's why he fawns like an adolescent in love over Kim.
That's why he kowtows to Xi Yin-ping. That's why he considers the monster, Duterte, a swell guy.

He would have sucked up to Franco.
He would have been Mussolini's lick-spittle.
He would have groveled before Adolf.
He would have acquiesced to Stalin.
He would have.
We all know he would have.

He would have blustered a bit and puffed out his chest, thrust his chin forward. He would have demonstrated all that alpha-chimp bravado to effect a place for himself amongst the other bullies. He then would have curled up like a cur at their feet. He would have growled at their detractors much as he does to critics of Putin.

He would have been one of their enablers.

For bullies must always be backed by a coterie of enablers; thralls, minions, stooges.

Michael Cohen was one of his stooges. Enthralled by Trump's bellicose posturing, Cohen was Trump's junk-yard dog, playing the bully's factotum and consigliere.

Cohen was Trump's man.
Cohen was the bully's fixer.

Until he wasn't any more. 

That's where hope lies if there is hope to be had.
The allegiances that enable Trump's bullying are sworn not in blood but in salt water.
His allies are apprentice bullies doomed to be abandoned by the Bully-in-chief.

Cohen knows this.
Manafort knows this.
We all know this.
We know this because we know how bullies end.
We know that this is how the bully's boys end, as well.
They end in abandonment and banishment.
Poisoned in a bunker.
Hung upside down and executed.
Imprisoned.

McConnell will learn this.
Graham will learn this.
All of Trump's enablers, schmoozers, apologists, sycophants, flunkies and underlings will learn this.

It is a lesson they will learn.

We must be their teachers.

Our lesson has begun.
It must continue.
The next stage in the lesson must be impeachment.
Yes, impeachment.

Impeachment is not only a tool for removal.
It is a tool for chastisement.
It is a process of castigation and reproval.
It is a means to demonstrate the criminality of the president by offering testimony by witnesses, offering prove of wrong-doing.

Impeachment is not simply for removal.
Any argument that assumes that removal is the sole function of impeachment is one based on a fundamental error.
Impeachment is the tool by which We, the People - through Congress - can express our profound aggrievement between presidential elections. 

The four-year term should not be considered sacrosanct.
It must not be considered inviolable.
It must not be thought of as a hair-shirt which we must all wear as penance for a grievous error in judgment.  

Without the pressure that the impeachment process brings to bear, the bully will continue to swagger, lie, defraud and display a general disregard for convention, the Law, the Constitution, the social compact, civility, decency, decorum and conscience.

We must demand that the impeach process move forward officially.

We do not want to learn what travesties the Bully-in-chief will be capable of at the end of 2020.

   

It is not a panacea

It is not a panacea. It is not a cure-all. It is not meant to be. 

Refugee children must still be cared for in a humane, compassionate manner.
Women who have made allegations of rape and sexual assault must still be heard and their cases investigated.
Income inequality remains a persistent and pervasive matter that must be rectified.
The desecration and defilement of the environment is a travesty that must end.
The existential issue of global climate change must be addressed immediately.
Nuclear proliferation, world trade, the tragic case of the 9-11 First Responders, and so on and so forth are still worrisome items on a full agenda.

Impeachment and removal of Donald Trump from the White House will not solve any of the aforementioned problems.  What impeachment and removal  will do is mitigate all of the above. It is a necessary step in the preservation of our Republic.

Removal of Mr Trump will preserve the Constitution and re-establish the Rule of Law in the USA. The Rule of Law and the Constitution must be protected from lawlessness and incompetence.  

Allow me to remind all the member of the government; by your oath of office, you are sworn to defend and protect the Constitution.

Drumpf the Dove?

Good.
In his ego-sating blundering, he actually did the right thing for a change.
Even a blind pig finds a truffle now and then. Impeach the Felon-in-chief.
Now No more pussy-footing.
No more of this 'gentlemen's agreement' horse manure of false decorum.
We're dealing with a pathological liar and a lifelong criminal who takes the Cosa Nostra as his basic rule of thumb but discards any sense of 'honor or duty' which even the Mafia would adhere.

Drumpf is all that we find despicable in a human. He is the lowest of character. He makes Iago look honorable. At least Iago was conflicted in the drama. Drumpf has no conflict with his ego or his id. Grab-em-by-the-pussy is his motto. Remember how trippingly it came from his mouth? Impeach him and shred that DoJ memo about not indicting a sitting president.
Treason, fraud, obstruction of justice, child endangerment; these are not indictable offenses?

Khoshoggi

Jamal Khoshoggi.
Ring a bell?
A Washington Post reporter. US resident.
Wound up dead after an embassy visit.

The UN remembers. They investigated and found and confirmed strong evidence that Khoshoggi was murdered, dismembered and the remains of his hacked-up body were 'renditioned' to Saudi Arabia.

All of that grisly business was on the orders of the Crown Prince of Darkness, Mohammed bin Salman.

That's MBS to his friends. His friends include Donald Trump's son-in-law. Mr Trump is also very well-associated with the Crown Prince; the Prince who now stands accused of murder and dismemberment by the United Nations' investigation.

What is the White House doing about it?

Or is the would-be president too busy ginning up re-election support from his cult-members to bother? Or maybe it's the feuds he's carrying on by tweet with ...well,  just about everybody left of Joe McCarthy.

The US has no Defense Secretary. No Director of Homeland Security. No director of I.C.E. No director of F.E.M.A. And no White House Communications Director. And no permanent Chief of Staff. Which brings up the fact that there is no acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Oh, and there is no Ambassador to the U.N.

With so much to do, it's easy to see why Mr Trump's White House would be taken unawares by this latest findings that incriminates the Crown Prince, MBS.

So much to do; so little time. 

 More than enough time for golf, though; an offense of form rather than legal substance.

Impeach the president.  He is at the least demonstrably incompetent and at most criminally,  liable or complicit in the commission of numerous felonies.

Felonies. 
The President of the United States.

No one is above the law. Not the POTUS. Not a Crown Prince.
If Trump held any other job, he'd be in prison.

Impeach the president and end this travesty.