spaladoon:

trump just got impeached

trump just got impeached

trump just got impeached

trump just got impeached

trump just got impeached

trump just got impeached

trump just got impeached

trump just got impeached

• trump just got impeached

1. trump just got impeached

“The Democrats are so busy with the impeachment, they’re getting NOTHING done!!” - Conservative voters who refuse to acknowledge that the House has passed numerous bills this year, only to have them stall in the Senate because McConnell refuses to bring them to the floor.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2019/nov/14/what-congress-doing-besides-impeachment/

“They refuse to let Trump testify!” - Conservative voters who refuse to acknowledge that Trump refused to participate in the impeachment hearings.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50625550

“They won’t let Trump face his accuser!” - Conservative voters who refuse to acknowledge that whistleblower identities are kept confidential unless it’s absolutely necessary to identify them, and that this is a policy that predates Trump. The fact that whenever this whistleblower’s possible identity has been leaked, that person has received death threats, is a not insignificant reason WHY their identity is protected. Also the 6th Amendment applies to criminal proceedings, not an impeachment.

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/01/766176669/legal-experts-say-the-right-to-confront-accusers-does-not-apply-to-impeachment

“The Republicans were locked out of the behind-closed-doors hearings!” - Conservative voters who seriously don’t seem to care that 13 of the lawmakers who protested being locked out DID have access because they were on the committee, and that Republicans made the rule that in such hearings, only committee members are allowed. Also the hearings were “hidden” for the same reason grand jury hearings are not public – so that witnesses can’t line up their stories - that’s included in the rules for impeachment inquiries passed by Republicans. The Democrats literally ran the inquiry by the Republicans’ rule book.

https://www.axios.com/house-republicans-scif-impeachment-inquiry-67cf94d5-b2be-4420-ab4c-0582eb1369ef.html

https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2019/oct/28/andrew-napolitano/fox-news-analyst-correct-impeachment-inquiry-follo/

“Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are abusing their power by refusing to hand over the impeachment to the Senate!” - Conservative voters who refuse to acknowledge that McConnell has openly stated on national television that he (a juror) is working with Trump (the defendant) and Graham (also a juror) stated that he isn’t even trying to be an impartial juror, and that the impeachment articles are being withheld until the Senate is willing to hold a fair trial.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/mcconnell-work-total-coordination-white-house-impeachment-trial/story?id=67707430

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/lindsey-graham-not-trying-to-pretend-to-be-a-fair-juror-here/2019/12/14/dcaad02c-1ea8-11ea-b4c1-fd0d91b60d9e_story.html

This is why many of us don’t bother engaging with you. It’s not because “oh we’re triggered omg” or we know we’ve lost – it’s because you refuse to bring enough intellectual honesty to the table for actual discourse to be had.

If you’re just going to parrot Trump’s talking points about the “witch hunt” and not make a peep to acknowledge McConnell abusing HIS power or the Republicans misrepresenting facts, then you’re not worth the time or energy.

• They’re assuming you don’t know that there are Republicans on the committees with full access to the closed door hearings and with the ability to answer questions, and that some of those very Republicans were part of the band of door crashers.
  
• They’re assuming you don’t know that the initial hearings for Nixon and Clinton were also behind closed doors, and that this is standard operating procedure at this stage of an impeachment.
  
• They’re assuming you don’t know that prior to the Benghazi hearings, *the GOP* demanded a rule that *requires* all such committees to be bipartisan, and that that rule is still in effect.
  
• They’re assuming you’re going to take them at their word that they’re being unfairly shut out of unusual proceedings by Democrats flouting the rules and refusing to do things by the book, when in fact it’s all being done *exactly* by the book.
  
• And they’re also hoping you won’t know, understand, or care what an enormous violation of protocol and national security it is to take cell phones into a SCIF and use them.
  

The people you voted for are lying to you and gaslighting you because they believe you’re stupid, gullible, uninformed, and willing to accept anything you hear as long as it makes the Democrats look bad, even when everything they’re saying can be easily debunked and everything they’re doing is in flagrant violation of the law.

Prove them wrong. Demand better.

he’s almost certainly not going to be punished by the senate, but today, democracy prevails

ALT

Gen Z is

Creating a numbered list on why trump is the worst president to date

1. He is racist
2. He is homophobic
3. He is transphobic
4. He literally almost started a World War
5. He committed multiple cases of sexual assault on multiple women
6. He had a guide on how to handle a pandemic and he threw it out
7. He fired everyone he could that opposed him
8. He’s a pedophile
9. He’s mysogonistic
10. He paid people to lie for him in court
11. He declared an ideology a terrorist organization (which is so much dumber than you may think)
12. Anything “good” thing that happened during his presidency, Obama started
13. He blames everything on Obama
14. He blatantly told medical officials that they didn’t have to treat trans patients
15. He attempted to get rid of everything Obama did
16. He most likely has dementia
17. He is pretty much a diagnosed psychopath
18. He does all of his public announcements on Twitter
19. He told a massive population to inject themselves with bleach
20. He is trying to declare martial law (which will strip away a lot of rights)
21. He bombed a middle eastern country for almost no reason.
22. He said Obama would start a war so he could stay president, then turned around and almost did it
23. He threatened to slaughter protesters
24. He has terrible tantrums
25. He barred trans citizens to join the military
26. He told the police to tear gas and shoot the protesters with rubber bullets so he could take a picture
27. He cut funding to the WHO
28. He continues to ridicule his fellow candidates
29. He sided with white supremacists
30. He encourages police brutality
31. He has little to no regard to the democratic side of the country
32. He called Neo-natzis “very fine people”
33. He caused another economic depression
34. He had impeachment hearings
35. He committed SEVERE tax fraud
36. He encouraged violence on democrats (including the armed forces)
37. He demanded his son to have security clearance to top secret information for no reason
38. He ordered the holding children in cages in ICE
39. He literally told more lies than truths during his public announcements (not even joking)
40. He discredits every single news station except for Fox News (which is ran by far right groups)
41. He denied any money to help Puerto Rico (a US territory) any money after hurricane Maria (which killed 4,000 people)
42. He blatantly lied in court
43. He committed about 1,000 ‘obstruction of justice’ crimes that never went to trial (it was about russian interference in the 2016 election)
44. He started a trade war with China
45. He was very closely connected with the Keffery Epstein child trafficking Circle
46. The bombing in point 21 was made without congressional approval (on multiple occasions btw)
47. He backed a protest of the quarantine but completely opposed the BLM movement
48. He called millions of people thugs for no reason
49. He blames an organization for looting with no factual evidence whatsoever
50. The ideology that he said was a terrorist organization is opposing fascism, which we are very close to becoming
51. If we would compile all of the crimes he did, he would have 4,195 years of jail time (I was very lenient with that math. VERY lenient)
52. He was the indirect cause of 1.5 million deaths

Trump isn’t the Problem; ergo Impeachment is no solution

Got an email from Common Cause this morning. It was one of those fund-raising emails disguised as a “poll”. This one started off like this:

“Tara, I want to thank you for everything you’ve done to get us this far.

Back in July, when Common Cause first called for an impeachment inquiry into President Trump, the conventional wisdom was against us. House leadership didn’t want to conduct an impeachment inquiry, because they feared it would impact their 2020 election prospects.

But you didn’t give up – and your consistent, powerful advocacy paid off this week as public hearings into Trump’s impeachment began. This couldn’t have happened without you.

Now, millions of Americans are watching as multiple distinguished public servants bravely come forward to describe a dangerous pattern of wrongdoing – bribery, abuse of power, and obstruction of justice – by President Trump.

Tara, how the American people respond to this will determine what kind of democracy we leave for our children’s future.

All week, I’ve been hearing from Common Cause members like you who want to know what Common Cause plans to do next. And as one of our most active members, I wanted to get your input – because we’ll be counting on your engagement and dedication to see it through.

Based on what you know, do you think President Trump should be removed from office? Click here to instantly record your vote, and if you’d like, tell us why once you’ve voted:

YES

NO

Needless to say, I voted “No”, and replied with the following:

“First of all, I am NOT one of your most active members, let’s get that lie out of the way. I’ve done NOTHING towards getting Trump impeached, because I think it’s a fool’s errand.

I wouldn’t waste time and taxpayer money impeaching Trump in the House when we all know it will go nowhere in the Senate. It is a futile act, which will be nothing more than a distraction.

Lawmakers are paid to create and improve laws, not to throw hissy-fit sore loser tantrums because you put up such an unlikable and arrogant candidate in 2016 that she couldn’t even beat a colossal clown of an idiot like Trump.

It’s not Trump’s fault that HRC didn’t visit certain states. Nor is it Trump’ fault that 46% of registered voters were not inspired to vote.

Get over your whining. We all know Hillary is STILL trying to save face, and your organization is controlled by her and her minions.

I’m not saying Trump is blameless - I despise the man. What I’m saying is that trying to impeach Trump is a fruitless effort that will not bring the desired results. He will not be removed from office. All that will be accomplished is that a lot of time and money will be wasted, the public will be led away from being concerned about political developments that should be concerning them during that time period, and the effort won’t even help defeat Trump in 2020.

Then there’s the other elephant in the room. If Trump gets removed from office (which is completely unlikely), why in hell would you want to replace him with a bigger warmonger?

Pence is a homophobic, racist Bible stomper who wants to replace the Constitution with the Bible! Not only that, but he is more bellicose than Trump, and would never make any peaceful overtures to foreign leaders, like Trump has done from time to time.

I’m an ex-Democrat, a “peacenik” if you will. I find the new breed of Democratic policies of approving and orchestrating bloodthirsty attacks on sovereign nations that pose no threat to the safety of our people to be abhorrent and completely goes against my beliefs about what policies should matter to all politicians, be they “Democrats” OR “Republicans”.

I didn’t leave the Democratic Party - the party left me. Impeaching Trump is a massive waste of time and money, and it’s only purpose should be to protect and serve the American people, but we all know that that’s not what’s happening here.

There’s a great sticker I saw once. It shows two different identical piles of dog poo. The caption is,

‘Democrats? Republicans? Same shit, different piles.’

That’s how I see the duopoly. No matter who is in power, the United States will continue to illegally invade other countries. It will not stop if Trump is impeached.

We are a rogue nation, supplying the world with arms in order to help them kill innocents. Our terroristic foreign policy will not stop if Trump is impeached. The world will not suddenly right itself if Trump is removed from office. Laws will still be created that benefit only the 1% and screw the 99%.

Things didn’t go wrong starting with Trump. Obama dropped a bomb every 26 minutes of his entire Presidency. Trump now drops one every 12 minutes. Both are heinous acts that make me ashamed to be an American.

It was Obama, not Trump who took away our right of Habeas Corpus.

It was Obama who deported more immigrants than all previous Presidents combined.

It was Obama who tortured Chelsea Manning, and made a fool of himself downing a plane with a foreign President on board, in an effort to capture Edward Snowden, a whistleblower hero who revealed twisted truths about our government.

It was Obama who sat silent during Standing Rock while American citizens were tortured by American “officers of the peace” paid by our taxes to do the bidding of a foreign oil company, to oversee the completion of a project that does not serve or benefit the American people one iota.

It was Obama who opened up the Arctic for drilling TWICE.

It was Obama who signed over 1000 new leases for underwater drilling in the Gulf.

It was Obama who signed contracts to build 30 new nuclear plants.

It was Obama who said not a word while HRC sold 20% of our Uranium stores to Russia.

It was Obama who didn’t say peep as the Opioid crisis rose to massive proportions.

It was Obama who never admonished cops for killing unarmed black Americans.

It was Obama who signed the Monsanto act.

It was Obama who took Hillary’s advice and destroyed Libya.

It was Obama who bailed out the banks and let millions of Americans lose their homes.

It was Obama who never filed charges against the banksters who destroyed our economy.

It was Obama who orchestrated taking down all Occupy camps simultaneously.

It was Obama who refused to bring charges against the previous administration for war crimes they committed.

And it was Obama who tried to start a war in the Ukraine on his FUCKING FINAL DAY IN OFFICE!!

Trump is an extension of the problem, not the cause. Our politicians are ALL bought by big money, and that will not change if Trump is impeached.

So what’s the damn point?

Can there be any better case study of how Republicans are so effective at manipulating media and public discourse than the Barr DOJ’s handling of the Mueller report?

1. Barr’s “summary “ letter established the basic spin of “no collusion, no obstruction“, even though it’s now clear the report is more nuanced. And of course taking advantage of nuance to establish favorable spin is a classic Republican tactic.

2. The letter set off a completely predictable round of Democratic retreat, recriminations, navel-gazing etc.

3. Congressional Democrats’ fully proper demand for the full report was recast as a”tiff”, part of a “feud” between Trump and Nader. Recasting straightforward legal issues in terms of personalities- also classic.

And the future course of events is perfectly obvious:

4. When the redacted report appears, the redactions will almost certainly shade the report in Trump’s favor. Congressional Democrats who have seen the full report will angrily assert this, and Mueller’s investigators will confirm. But Barr and Republicans will deny. And the media will report the controversy.

5. Democrats will subpoena the full report, Republicans will refuse, and it will go to court. Eventually - well after Trump has (hopefully) left office, it will reach the Supreme Court, which will rule in favor of Trump. The full report might well be leaked at that point, but it will attract little notice by journalists, because it’s no longer at the forefront of the news: “the country has moved on.”

6. And, many years later, historians will review the whole sorry history of the Trump presidency and find things that are even more shocking. But that will be much, much too late to matter.

Not sure if anyone noticed, but I’ve been neglecting this blog lately. Too many fish in the barrel, not enough bullets. And others doing it much better, which is a good thing. 

But I’m surprised there isn’t much discussion (that I’ve seen) on the post-Trump reform agenda. We could need one sooner than we think - or later than we fear. In any case, here’s my two cents. This list focuses on institutional/structural changes - hopefully these are acceptable to people of all ideological stripes who are interested in strengthening democratic self-government rather than narrow partisan interests. Many will need constitutional amendments, and some are more realistic than others. But we have to start somewhere. 

 Prosecutors and judges 

1. The Attorney General becomes a non-political, non-partisan post. Yeah, you can still have a “Secretary of Justice” or whatever for policy issues, but prosecutions under federal law should be independent from political influence. Have the AG serve one, nonrenewable 10 year term, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, but cannot be removed except for gross incompetence/malfeasance. FBI reports to the AG. 

2. AG appoints US attorneys for fixed, staggered terms, say 6-8 years. Again, cannot be removed without cause. AG can choose to appoint special prosecutors for special cases. 

3.  All written and verbal communications by officials in the executive or legislative branch with the AG, other federal prosecutors or the FBI are matters of public record. 

4.  Federal district and appellate judges serve for fixed terms, say 12 years. Supreme Court justices maybe 16 years. 

 Campaign finance 

5. Sources and amounts of all donations to political candidates, causes or organizations greater than $1000 in a calendar year are matters of public record. This applies to any donation, in cash or kind, to anyone who seeks public office, and to any person or organization that communicates against others seeking public office, or advocates on an issue that is currently subject to political debate 

 The president 

6. The president becomes fully subject to executive branch ethics rules. 

7. The president must release complete financial info, including tax returns, assets and debts, and eliminate any financial conflicts of interest and all foreign sources of income by the time of his/her inauguration. If s/he fails to do so, this automatically triggers impeachment proceedings. 

8. If the president is impeached and removed from office, the vice president serves in a caretaker role until new elections are held, no later than six months after the president leaves office. 

 The Senate 

9. No more Senate filibuster. However, all matters of substance in the Senate must be approved by a majority of senators and by a majority of population represented by those senators as measured at the most recent census. A bill would become law if it passes the House by a majority, and both tallies in the Senate. Kamala Harris would have 37 million votes, Mike Rounds of South Dakota would have 814,000. Right-wingers will be happy to learn that Ted Cruz gets 25 million votes. 

10. Senate vacancies are filled by prompt special elections, not gubernatorial appointment (this always bothered me). 

 Elections 

11. No more electoral college. President chosen by nationwide popular vote.

12. No more party primaries, at any level. All elections have two rounds: if no one gets more than 50% in the first round, the top two candidates compete in the second. This would be a big culture shock at the presidential level, but I think we could make it work. 

13. Congressional and state-legislative district lines to be set by independent commissions with equal representation of both major parties and representation by minor parties. Agreement of reps of both major parties on these commissions needed for final approval, and districts must meet broad federal guidelines (contiguity, racial balance etc). 

14.  You want voter ID? OK, anyone who shows up at a polling place (which opens two weeks before election day) with a valid photo ID that proves citizenship can vote and is automatically registered for the next eight years. So no chance for voter fraud (which is virtually nonexistent anyway) and no more convoluted requirements for advance registration. You can get a special voter ID based on address-based forms of identification (birth certificate + bank statement etc) from your local DMV or elections office, without a fee, up to two weeks before the election, also valid for 8 years. 

15.  Ballots are mailed to all registered voters four weeks before the election. Completed ballots can be mailed in or dropped off at a polling place at any time thereafter. 

16. For those who wish to vote in person, voting machines must meet strict security and transparency guidelines, including published software and an auditable paper trail. 

17.  Every election will automatically be audited (ie a sample of precincts/counties will have their votes hand-counted); any irregularities will trigger a broader recount. 

18. A county where officials are found to have harassed, intimidated or otherwise restricted voters will have its elections federally administered for the next ten years. A state that has three or more such counties will have all of its elections federally administered for the next ten years. 

 Miscellaneous 

19. No more penny. WTF is worth two cents? 

20. You want to sell health insurance across state lines? OK, health insurance can be sold across state lines, but the health insurance industry is now regulated at the federal rather than the state level. Actually all insurance should be regulated at the federal level. 

21. No more debt limit. Come on, it’s a stupid idea. 

22. If the appropriations bill for an authorized federal agency or department is not passed by the end of the fiscal year, the previous year’s appropriation is automatically renewed, with an inflation adjustment. So no more government shutdowns. 

23. Members of Congress can be prosecuted for insider trading based on knowledge they acquire as part of their legislative activities.

24.  The District of Columbia gets either the senators and representatives it would be entitled to if it were a state, or statehood. 

25. Puerto Rico gets either statehood or (once its finances are straightened out) independence. 

26.  Civics classes made mandatory in all schools, public or private. These will cover how the government works, how citizenship works, how to critically read news coverage, how to judge the reliability of news sources, how to engage in public debate, and how to distinguish facts from opinions.

Anyway, that’s my agenda. What’s yours?