When former President Richard Nixon died in 1994, my Nixon-loving parents called me to talk about it. They were genuinely saddened at his passing. It was obvious during the call that I didn’t share their bereavement. My mother asked “Aren’t you even a little sad that he died?” I responded, “I’m sad that he didn’t die in prison.”
Continue reading “Get well, Trump. I’d much prefer to see you die in prison.”
Journalists routinely interpret Trump’s mad rants for their readers, trying to pick out tidbits of policy, announcements. Newsy stuff. But the real story is the mad ranting itself. When President Blowhard babbles, report the babbling. Kudos to Peter Baker.
In case it needs pointing out, Congress is not restricted to one impeachment per president. Nor is there any required waiting period between impeachments. It is not some sci-fi death ray that needs time to be powered up again after a discharge. Previous impeachments that failed to end in conviction are not disqualifying. And there is no “double jeopardy” if the president commits a whole new crime.
The House of Representatives should impeach Trump again. They should do it first thing Monday morning.
Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s prison sentence is blatantly corrupt, staggeringly corrupt even by Trumpian standards. He wielded his Article II powers for his personal benefit. And he didn’t even bother doing it behind closed doors on a perfect phone call. He broadcast it for all to hear.
I am well aware of strong arguments that can be made about the political dangers of going down the impeachment road again. Better to vote him out in November. I can’t really say I disagree. But I think there’s an equally distinct political danger in not trying to push back against Trump.
In the time since the Senate Republicans dealt Trump a get out of jail free card, he has fired five Inspectors General, independent government watchdogs against corruption and malfeasance. He has directed his always-happy-to-comply Attorney General to interfere in numerous Justice Department cases. Reducing Roger Stone’s now aborted jail sentence. Trying to get Mike Flynn off the hook entirely. Ousting the federal prosecutor in New York who has been homing in on Trump’s consigliere Rudy Giuliani.
But the tipping point for me — and where I see real electoral danger — comes from the various investigations that AG Bill Barr has launched to look into the “Russia hoax” — reviewing the actions of everyone from FBI agents to former president Barack Obama and … wait for it … Joe Biden. Barr is also still sniffing around the whole Ukraine, Burisma, Hunter Biden garbage dump. Sen. Lindsey Graham has the Senate Judiciary Committee formally re-investigating the same dump.
In other words Barr is pursuing Trump’s political opponents. At the very least, we should expect revelations of scandals, leaks of documents involving the Bidens in … something. There will undoubtedly be damned emails. At worst, there may be indictments. The potential political damage that Barr and a corrupt Justice Department could inflict on Joe Biden, with no time for Biden or common sense to respond, is enormous.
I don’t know if another impeachment would have any effect on these autocrats or not. I don’t know if even a handful of Republican senators would finally do the right thing in the face of blatant corruption. But to do nothing would certainly invite only more corruption. And the corruption machine is going to be aimed at Joe Biden from here on out.
Oh, and then there’s the whole protecting democracy thing. I think the House needs to impeach. Again.
P.S. – Props to Mitt Romney. And a wan smile to Pat Toomey of PA, who called Trump’s move a “mistake”. At least he was able to choke out that much. There are 53 Republican senators and this is the best they can do? If you have a Republican senator they need to hear from you. https://www.senate.gov/general/contacting.htm
“Obama has the thing that Trump has always craved but never achieved, and that’s respect. I’ve always thought that … is something that just eats Trump alive inside.” ~ Matthew Miller, former Obama Public Affairs Director, quoted in Trump’s latest attack shows endless obsession with Obama, The Guardian 5/16/20
Soaring Presidential rhetoric ala Trump … a selection of terms from his State of the Union speech: murder (used five times), brutal (twice), terrible (thrice!), catastrophic, gruesome, deadly (another triple winner), viciously, smashed (twice), hijacked, barbarians, bloodthirsty, horrifying, miserable, ruthless, butcher, evil, decay, scorned, brutalizes, failing (another triple), bankrupt, criminal (eight iterations!), destruction, tyranny (twice), fascism, assault (six times), vile, wicked, menace, poisonous.
Continue reading “Let ‘er rip! Trump’s speech deserved shredding.”
“When Saudi Arabia launched its bloody war in 2014, did they and their US allies not consider the possibility that Yemen might actually shoot back? I would think that is something that might be expected in a war.”
The barbaric Saudi regime and their bosom buddy allies in the corrupt Trump administration are outraged — outraged, I tell you! — that forces aligned with the Yemen insurgency actually caused some significant damage with the recent attack on a Saudi oilfield.
Apparently the message behind the outrage is something like, “We’ll do all the bombing around here, thank you very much.”
Continue reading “Hey, this is our war. How dare you shoot back!”
Recently, during a brief visit to my hometown — Westmont, NJ — I checked out the site of the old local office of the McCarthy for President campaign. I volunteered for this campaign in 1968 at the age of 16. It was where I got started in activism.
Although the stop by the old campaign office was short, time enough only for a couple of photos, I’ve been thinking about the 1968 campaign itself. Not the small town New Jersey campaign, which was a great experience, but the bigger picture. And I’ve come to the conclusion that it may hold a lesson for us in this presidential campaign season.
Continue reading “Revisiting where my activism began, and finding a history lesson”
